Climate & Fire & Adaptation

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Climate Change Quarterly – Fall 2015

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Abstracts of Recent Papers on Climate Change and Land Management in the West, Prepared by Louisa Evers, Science Liaison and Climate Change Coordinator, BLM, OR-WA State Office.

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Climate Change Quarterly – Summer 2015

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Abstracts of recent papers on climate change and land management in the West. Prepared by Louisa Evers, Science Liaison and Climate Change Coordinator, Bureau of Land Management, Oregon-Washington State Office.

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Stress gradient hypothesis explains susceptibility to Bromus tectorum invasion and community stability in North America’s semi-arid Artemisia tridentata wyomingensis ecosystems

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This study tested the stress-gradient hypothesis (SGH) in observations of 75 sites along overlapping water and heat stress and disturbance gradients. As stress-disturbance levels increase, sagebrush-herbaceous plant facilitation levels increase, the landscape will become increasingly aggregated as a product of necessary facilitation between sagebrush and herbaceous plants. This aggregation decreases the individual resilience of the native herbaceous plants, increases the competition from invasive plants, and decreases the overall stability and resilience of the sagebrush steppe ecosystem.

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Climate Change Quarterly – Spring 2015

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Abstracts of recent papers on climate change and land management in the West. Prepared by Louisa Evers, Science Liaison and Climate Change Coordinator, Bureau of Land Management, Oregon-Washington State Office.

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Climate Change Quarterly – Fall 2014

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Abstracts of recent papers on climate change and land management in the West. Prepared by Louisa Evers, Science Liaison and Climate Change Coordinator, Bureau of Land Management, Oregon-Washington State Office.

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Warming, soil moisture, and loss of snow increase Bromus tectorum's population growth rate

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This study found that growth rate of cheatgrass increased in both warming and snowmelt treatments. Largest increases occurred in warming plots during the wettest year, indicating that the magnitude of response to warming depends on moisture availability. Results indicate that increasing temperature will exacerbate cheatgrass impacts, especially where warming causes large reductions in the depth and duration of snow cover.

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Managing forests and fire in changing climates

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This research brief from the California Fire Science Consortium discusses that detrimental  consequences  from  future fires  under changing climates could be reduced by recognizing diverse adaptions to fire in different forest types and by preparing forests and people for larger and more frequent fires.

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Resilience to stress and disturbance, and resistance to Bromus tectorum L. invasion in cold desert shrublands of western North America

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This review examines the effects of disturbances, such as grazing, and changes in climate on resilience and resistance of cold desert shrublands that span temperature and precipitation gradients across the western United States. It demonstrates how to use information about cold desert resilience and resistance to help manage this ecosystem and describes the benefits of using protection, prevention, restoration, and monitoring strategies to determine priority management areas and appropriate management actions.

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Do carbon offsets work? The role of forest management in greenhouse gas mitigation

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In this synthesis of the latest available science, authors challenge the underlying assumptions used to establish most carbon-trading mechanisms, including the notion that lightly managed or unmanaged forests will be more effective at sequestering carbon over long periods than would a combination of managed forests and efficiently produced wood products. They take issue with the measurement systems used to determine trading parameters and find validity in the concerns that many market experts have expressed about additionality and leakage. This report details reasons to look for other solutions to greenhouse gas emission challenges.

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Great Basin Weather and Climate Dashboard

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The Great Basin Weather and Climate Dashboard came about from a need to help stakeholders locate the weather and climate information they need to make decisions related to the current drought in the Great Basin. The Dashboard is a joint effort by the Western Regional Climate Center, California and Nevada Applications Program,the USDA Farm Service Agency and the Great Basin LCC.

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