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Remote Assessment of Forest Ecosystem Stress (RAFES): Development of a real time decision support system for the eastern U.S.
PARTNERS: USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS) Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory
SUMMARY: The southern U.S. has experienced significant droughts over the past several years that have increased the susceptibility of southern forest ecosystems to insect outbreaks, disease, and wildfire. Weather data collected with traditional approaches provide an indirect measure of drought or temperature stress; however, the significance of short-term or prolonged climate-related stress varies considerably across the landscape as topography, elevations, edaphic (soil) conditions, and antecedent conditions vary. This limits the capacity of land managers to anticipate and initiate ecosystem specific management activities that could offset the impacts of climate-related forest stress. In addition, drier and warmer conditions predicted with climate change models are likely to significantly impact forest ecosystems over the next several decades.
Decision support tools are needed that allow fine scale monitoring of stress conditions in forest ecosystems in real time to help land managers evaluate ecosystem specific response strategies. Researchers are developing a stress monitoring and decision support system across multiple sites and ecosystems in the eastern U.S. that: (1) provides remote data capture of environmental parameters that quantify climate-related forest stress across the network of sites, (2) links remotely captured data with physiologically-based indices of tree water stress, and (3) provides a PC-based analytical tool that allows land managers to monitor and assess the severity of climate-related stress in specific ecosystems.
EFETAC'S ROLE: This project is supported with EFETAC funding.
STATUS: New
PROGRESS: Six of the nine cooperating sites are currently transmitting data every hour, the most recent of which are two sites on the Blackwoods Division of the Duke Forest near Durham, NC. Another site, the USDA Forest Service SRS Crossett Experimental Forest in southern Arkansas, will be operational by late July. The two remaining cooperating sites will be installed and brought online by the end of 2010.
LINKS: USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory
CONTACT: Barton Clinton, Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory Research Ecologist, bclinton@fs.fed.us or (828) 524-2128
Updated July 2010
