Research Projects - Climate Change (Track 1)

Ecological Change

Ecological changes of the landscape scale forced by climate change occur at timescales spanning several orders of magnitude, ranging from severe storms and wildfires to prolonged droughts. Nevada currently lacks capability to detect and analyze climate change effects at a landscape scale. Major observational efforts are already underway in the Sierra Nevada and in the eastern Great Basin to understand how mountain ecosystems and landscapes respond to change in frequency and magnitude of hydroclimatic events, complementing already existing observational networks maintained by federal agencies. The Ecological Change project will enhance Nevada’s capability to measure, analyze, model key ecosystems, and ecohydrologic processes at the landscape scale and understand interactions among climate change, landscape disturbance, and biophysical indicators of ecosystem response, with particular emphasis on how these changes may affect ecosystems including water resources.

Enhanced capabilities will facilitate studies to determine impacts of regional climate change for:

1) Tree growth and regeneration

2) Distribution and composition of native perennial vegetation and invasive species

3) Evapotranspiration in upper elevations

4) Large-scale shifts in types, abundances, and distribution of key species, accompanied by changes in biodiversity and interactions

5) Generation and persistence of aerosols and assessments of their effects on optical properties and ecohydrology

Annual Report Highlights

Title: Community College Faculty Fellows Collect Critical Vegetation Data for Climate Change Research in the Great Basin

Authors: D. Charlet and P. Leary (College of Southern Nevada), and F. Biondi (University of Nevada Reno), David.Charlet@csn.edu, fbiondi@unr.edu

Outcome: Professors Charlet and Leary of the College of Southern Nevada collected 2,774 vegetation samples spanning all elevations and vegetation communities in the Snake and Sheep Ranges of Nevada, spectacularly beautiful areas of North America.

Impact: Their dataset will be the baseline for detecting biotic responses to changes in climate as detected by Nevada’s Climate Change environmental monitoring stations installed along transects. This information is also used to teach students at the College of Southern Nevada concepts of climate change.

Dr. Charlet and two of his students taking ponderosa pine samples (photo by Connie Millar, USDA)

This work was supported by NSF Cooperative Agreement EPS-‐0814372 to the Nevada System of Higher Education.

2009 Annual Highlight

Presentations

Ecological Change
Biotic Responses to Climate Change in Great Basin and Mojave	Design and Status of Elevational Transect and Monitoring Sys
Water Source Partitioning for Shrubland Transpiration Using	Waterfall Fire Interpretive Trail Fellowship