• Geographer Goodchild Selected to National Academy
  • Arts, Sciences Academy Elects 2 UCSB Faculty
  • Campus, County Combine Efforts Against Parasite
  • Parking Panel Suggests Maintaining $35 Permit Fee
  • U.N. Racism Conference Made Human Progress
  • Audit: 4 EVC Office Phones Had 'Barge-in' Feature; Use Unknown
  • Crime-Stopping Volunteers Sought
  • Autism Center Lauded by National Council
  • UCSB Prepays $100,000 in Use Fees to Help Goleta's Girsh Park
  • Study Shows Climate Has Altered Forests
  • Bike to Work Festivities on May 22 Are Open to All
  • Campus Notes
  • Credits
    •

    Study Shows Climate Has Altered Forests

    By GAIL GALLESSICH BROWN

    The forests of today may not exist in the future, if the past is any guide. Composition of forests likely will change in the future, as it has in the past, according to research into the fossil record, published by UCSB post-doctoral fellow John W. Williams and co-authors in the journal Ecology.
    Research shows that climate change over the past 25,000 years was responsible for vastly different and constantly changing assemblages of types of trees, said lead author Williams, who is based at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis.
    The authors note that vegetation composition has changed rapidly in the past 100 to 200 years (the life span of a single tree) and may change rapidly in the future. "There is the potential for very rapid changes in forest composition," said Williams.
    "A lot of trees are dying right now--oaks in California, chestnut, elm and spruce in the East--and while the direct causes are pests and fungal attacks, the indirect cause could be climate change, making the trees more stressed out," he said. "It becomes harder for them to defend against other causes of mortality."
    The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projects a rise in temperature of 2.7 to 9.9 degrees Fahrenheit over the next century. "The implications of change are large," said Williams. "They include things like water availability, habitat for endangered species, and use of recreational areas."
    In developing this report, Williams and his co-authors analyzed data from computerized data accessible by the Internet. Using the North American Pollen Database, a collection of fossil pollen records collected from lake sediments over the past 30 years, and climate model simulations, the authors were able to track vegetation change and climate change independently in eastern North America during the past 25,000 years.