SERDP - Modeling the Carbon Implications of Ecologically-Based Forest Management
Research Team: Matthew Hurteau, Bruce Hungate, George Koch, Malcolm North, Katie Martin, Danelle Laflower
Background: Forest carbon sequestration can be used to mitigate changing climatic conditions. However, sequestering carbon in forests carries a risk that disturbance will revert this carbon back to the atmosphere. In fire-prone forests, reversal risk can be mitigated using ecologically-based silvicultural prescriptions.
Objectives: Our objective is to simulate forest carbon dynamics on Department of Defense lands that can be to quantify the carbon impacts of different forest management regimes, including those directed toward reducing fire emissions. We are developing management scenarios to examine the impacts of these different management objectives on forest carbon over a wide range of forest types. The management scenarios include the provision of species-of-concern habitat, wildfire risk reduction, and carbon maximization.
Research Products:
Papers
Martin, KL, MD Hurteau, BA Hungate, GW Koch, MP North. 2015. Carbon tradeoffs of restoration and provision of endangered species
habitat in a fire-maintained forest. Ecosystems 18:76-88.
Laflower, DM, MD Hurteau, GW Koch, MP North, BA Hungate. Climate-driven changes in forest succession and the influence of
management on forest carbon dynamics in the Puget Lowlands of Washington State, USA. Forest Ecology and Management 362:194-
204.
Hurteau, M.D., S. Liang, K.L. Martin, M.P. North, G.W. Koch, B.A. Hungate. 2016. Restoring forest structure and process stabilizes forest
carbon in wildfire-prone southwestern ponderosa pine forests. Ecological Applications 26:382-391.
Hurteau M.D. 2017. Quantifying the carbon balance of forest restoration and wildfire under projected climate in the fire-prone
southwestern US. PLoS ONE 12(1):e0169275.
Swanteson-Franz, R.J.*, D.J. Krocheck*, M.D. Hurteau. In press. Quantifying forest carbon dynamics as a function of tree species
composition and management under projected climate. Ecosphere 9(4):e02191.
Presentations
Swanteson-Franz, R.*, D.J. Krofcheck, M.D. Hurteau. Quantifying forest carbon dynamics as a function of tree species composition under
projected climate. 2017 meeting of the Ecological Society of America.
Hurteau, M.D. (Invited) The influence of projected climate on post-fire vegetation dynamics. 2016. 3rd Southwest Fire Ecology
Conference, Tucson, AZ.Hurteau, M.D. (Invited) Simulating climate, fire, and management influences on forest carbon dynamics in single- and multi-species forests
of the Southwestern and Southeastern US. 2014 American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting.
Laflower, D., M.D. Hurteau. Simulating carbon dynamics and species composition under projected changes in climate in the Puget Sound,
Washington, USA. 2014 American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting.
Martin, KL, BA Hungate, GW Koch, MP North, MD Hurteau. Tradeoffs in forest carbon dynamics, fire management, and red-cockaded
woodpecker habitat in longleaf pine ecosystems. 2013 meeting of the Ecological Society of America.
Colbert, CT, KL Martin, MD Hurteau. Fire management impacts on carbon storage in southwest ponderosa pine forests. 2013 meeting of
the Ecological Society of America.
Martin, KL, MD Hurteau, GW Koch, BA Hungate, MP North. Modeling the carbon implications of fire management in frequent-fire
forests. RCN FORECAST New Investigators Conference, 2012.
Research Briefs
Longleaf pine restoration and carbon
Ponderosa pine restoration and carbon
Climate change, management, and carbon