Active: Southern Appalachians Disturbance and Change

People:  Robert Scheller, Zachary Robbins, Andrew Shannon, Samuel Flake, Louise Loudermilk (USFS)

Funding:  USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI); Joint Fire Science Program; USGS Southeast Climate Adaptation Science Center; Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE); The Nature Conservancy; US Forest Service

Collaborators: USFS Bent Creek Experimental Forest; Appalachian Mountains Joint Venture; Appalachian Regional Commission

GitHub: https://github.com/LANDIS-II-Foundation/Project-Southern-Appalachians

Overview

The Southern Appalachians landscape is expected to undergo enormous change over the coming century due to management and climate change.  We are assembling the tools and data necessary to forecast how this landscape will evolve in the coming decades and how management can direct this change.  

Key questions we are addressing include:

How do past land uses influence the state of contemporary forests?

What will be the role of drought into the future?

How will the fire regime change?

How can fire managers deploy prescribed fire improve forest health?

What forest management techniques best improve oak regeneration?

How will climate change and forest management alter bird habitat?

How vulnerable are these forests?