Disturbance (wildfire, storms)

Climate-driven forest disturbances, particularly drought-induced tree mortality and large high-severity fires from increasingly warm and dry conditions, are altering forest ecosystems and the ecosystem services society depends on (e.g., water supplies) in the Southern Rockies and across the Western U.S. We will combine unique, long-term place-based ecological data, diverse methods (e.g., paleo...

USGS researchers are studying how forests respond to disturbance and drought and evaluating how forests may respond to future climate variability.