Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 112, Issue 5, Pages 1458-1463Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1410186112
Keywords
global change; forest; historical ecology; climatic water deficit
Categories
Funding
- Berkeley Holos Ecoinformatics Engine (ecoengine.berkeley.edu) project
- W. M. Keck Foundation [032510]
- Gordon and BettyMoore Foundation [2983, 2984]
- California Energy Commission [CEC PIR-08-006]
- National Science Foundation [0819493]
- US Forest Service
- Berkeley Initiative for Global Change Biology (via the office of the Vice-Chancellor for Research)
- Direct For Social, Behav & Economic Scie
- Division Of Behavioral and Cognitive Sci [0819493] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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We document changes in forest structure between historical (1930s) and contemporary (2000s) surveys of California vegetation through comparisons of tree abundance and size across the state and within several ecoregions. Across California, tree density in forested regions increased by 30% between the two time periods, whereas forest biomass in the same regions declined, as indicated by a 19% reduction in basal area. These changes reflect a demographic shift in forest structure: larger trees (>61 cm diameter at breast height) have declined, whereas smaller trees (<30 cm) have increased. Large tree declines were found in all surveyed regions of California, whereas small tree increases were found in every region except the south and central coast. Large tree declines were more severe in areas experiencing greater increases in climaticwater deficit since the 1930s, based on a hydrologic model of water balance for historical climates through the 20th century. Forest composition in California in the last century has also shifted toward increased dominance by oaks relative to pines, a pattern consistent with warming and increased water stress, and also with paleohistoric shifts in vegetation in California over the last 150,000 y.
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