January 17th: Dr. Brian Harvey

Forest resilience to fire and interacting disturbances in the northwest US in a period of rapid change
Wildfire activity is increasing as the climate warms, raising concerns about resilience of forest ecosystems to changing fire regimes and interactions among multiple disturbances. These concerns are particularly heightened in regions where forests are prominent ecosystems and support myriad ecosystem services. In this talk, I will present an overview of collaborative research in the northwest US where we are co-producing insights about forest resilience to wildfire that are both advancing ecological theory and informing on-the-ground management of forest landscapes. In several related projects, we are testing how disturbance regimes and post-disturbance trajectories are changing with warming climate. For example, through a network of field plots characterizing fire severity across gradients of forest structure and fire regimes and combining field data with satellite remote sensing, we are building a better understanding of how fires are producing severe effects in ways previously not widely documented. In other projects, we are testing how disturbances interact via mechanistic links or by producing compound cumulative effects on forested landscapes. For example, when two fires overlap spatially, they can produce cumulative spatial patterns that can alter heterogeneity in forest landscapes, and outcomes can either promote or erode forest resilience depending on ecosystem context. Finally, across all of these projects, we are testing how management actions can foster resilience to single or multiple disturbances, through the use of several long-term experimental studies and broad spatial datasets. For example, we are testing the efficacy and longevity of silvicultural treatments in fostering forest resilience to fire, as well as interactions between fire and other disturbances such as bark beetle outbreaks. Findings highlight tradeoffs associated with a range of management goals among and within a diversity of land management perspectives. Collectively, this work highlights the challenges and opportunities of understanding and managing forest resilience to fire and other disturbances as the context within which these processes are unfolding is rapidly changing.

January 24: UW – Kobe University Joint Symposium

Ecosystem Management for Climate Change Adaptation and Societal Resilience
Opening Remarks: Yasuhito Shirai (Dean., Grad School of Agric Sci, Kobe Univ)
Speakers
1) Forest fires and climate change in the Western US (Maureen C. Kennedy, U. Washington)
2) Tree breeding and silviculture in a hotter world (H. Roaki Ishii, Kobe U)
3) Inclusive urban ecosystem management: towards socio-ecological resilience and preparedness under uncertain futures (Yuta Uchiyama, Kobe U)

Grad student Posters:
1) Response of Cryptomeria japonica cultivars to experimental warming (Chris Uchiyama , Kobe U)
2) Lichen litterfall and nutrient cycling in a cool-temperate forest canopy (Ren Sugimoto, Kobe U)

Maureen C. Kennedy (Associate Professor in Sciences and Mathematics, UW Tacoma)

Forest fires and climate change in the Western US

The maxim that hotter and drier conditions will result in worsening wildfire seasons seems self-evident, yet the complexity of interactions among vegetation, fuels, management practices, and climate change can result in varying futures for fire regimes. Integrated simulation modeling for an example watershed in the Sierra Nevada, CA, predicts that climate change and repeat wildfire may shift dry forests into a more fuel-limited state, eventually decreasing wildfire activity. We will use these simulations to motivate a discussion of how the variations in the contemporary climate (e.g., energy and climate-limited forests of Western Washington v. water and fuel-limited forests of Eastern Washington) may predict differences in regional wildfire responses to climate change.

Roaki Ishii (Graduate School of Agricultural Science, Kobe University, Japan)

Tree breeding and silviculture in a hotter world
As we face uncertain future environmental conditions due to global climate change, long-term management of plantation forests is imperative to realize climate change adaptation of timber production, as well as land protection. Suggested future directions for plantation forest management include planting of local species with high acclimation potential to environmental perturbation (resilience-oriented management), and/or species suited to predicted future climatic conditions (adaptation-oriented management). Under both management scenarios, we must select/breed tree cultivars which are resistant and resilient to disturbances and disastrous weather events to sustain plantation forests. Because it is difficult to measure acclimation responses of trees to environmental perturbation over long timeframes, phenotypic trait plasticity has been proposed as a surrogate measure for acclimation potential of trees to future conditions. Here, we compared phenotypic plasticity of leaf traits and stem growth among clonal cultivars of Cryptomeria japonica (Thunb. ex L. f.) D. Don, the most major plantation species in Japan. Productivity of clonal plantations is influenced by the ability of the genotype to acclimate to edaphic- and geographic-scale variation in environmental conditions and disturbance regimes and because all individuals are genetically identical, trait differences among individuals in a clonal plantation represents phenotypic plasticity. We found that fast- and slow-growing cultivars express traits reflecting exploitive and persistent growth strategies, respectively. Trait plasticity

in response to regional variation was greatest for the intermediate-growth cultivars, which also showed greater growth resilience following disturbance. Our results provide guidelines for selecting cultivars with high acclimation potential and resilience to environmental perturbation, which is important for sustaining plantation forests in uncertain environmental conditions expected by future climate change.

Yuta Uchiyama, Kobe University

Inclusive urban ecosystem management: towards socio-ecological resilience and preparedness under uncertain futures
Urban ecosystem such as urban forest plays an important role to mitigate impacts of climate change and enhance human well-being. Green and blue spaces including forestlands, grasslands, parks, and water bodies can decrease the risk of heat stroke. Our analysis of Kobe City ambulance data shows that the percentage of people who were sent to hospitals due to heat stroke was negatively correlated with the percentage of green and blue space in their residential areas. Future research needs to identify the effective spatial patterns of green and blues spaces and important species in urban forest in order to support urban planning for climate adaptation. Access inequality to various ecosystem services provided by green and blue spaces is another urgent issue. We also identified the influence of personal and psychological

factors such as childhood nature experience and nature relatedness on nature visitation in urban settings. In terms of environmental factors, various land use categories including agricultural lands near residential areas, grasslands near shopping areas, broadleaf forests near commuting destinations tended to facilitate access to blue and green spaces. Inclusive environmental management should consider those factors to address the issue of access inequality. Enhancing preparedness of cities to uncertain future can be achieved by developing contextualized policies that contribute to climate adaptation and paves way for equal access to ecosystem services.

January 31: Dr. Meade Krosby

Mobilizing actionable science (and scientists!) to support societal responses to climate change

As the impacts of climate change accelerate so does the need for actionable science to inform decisions aimed at reducing climate risks. Actionable science – that is, science that is useful to and used by decision-makers to address real world challenges – is most reliably generated through co-production, the collaborative co-creation of knowledge by scientists and decision-makers with the intention of making that knowledge useable in practice. And yet, most science training does not foster the skills, attitudes and behaviors required to work effectively with decision-makers. We will share lessons learned from the Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center’s efforts to build the capacity of scientists to co-produce actionable science with Northwest resource managers as they respond to climate risks, and suggest transformations in how scientists are trained and supported by universities to help mobilize the engaged science workforce the climate crisis demands.

February 7th: Dr. Britt Johnson

From fire recovery to food production: Unearthing the foundational role of soils in ecosystem function

Soil is a crucial component of our ecosystems. It provides habitat for biota, controls water, drives nutrient cycling, and alters climate. As disturbances occur, such as those caused by climate change, food production, pollution, or fire, soil responses exert significant influence on ecosystem resilience, recovery, and sustainability. Soils are beautifully and sometimes infuriatingly complex, a fascinating subject to study from many angles. The research questions my collaborators and I work to address focus on community-identified needs and practical application. Current projects include the impact of fire on soil-water relationships, the importance of what your food ate, the influence of contamination on local communities, interactions between soil properties and plant success, and the role of soil in carbon storage. This seminar will introduce the contribution of soil to ecosystem services, provide an overview of ongoing projects, and (hopefully) inspire you to think more deeply about how you interact with soils every day.

February 21st: Dr. Heidi Gough 

Details TBA

February 28th: Dr. Gregory Bratman 

Details TBA

March 6th: Dr. Sameer Shah 

Details TBA