Spruce beetle outbreaks on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska, and Kluane National Park and Reserve, Yukon Territory: Relationship to summer temperatures and regional differences in disturbance regimes

Berg, Edward E.; Henry, Jason; Fastie, Christopher L.; Volder, Andrew D. De; Matsuoka, Steven M.

doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2006.02.038

Cited by 352 publications

(288 citation statements)

References 31 publications

(44 reference statements)

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“…Most notable are the spruce bark beetle (Ips typographus) outbreaks that have reached epidemic levels and caused widespread spruce mortality on the Kenai Peninsula in south-central Alaska (Berg et al, 2006). There is currently little indication of spruce bark beetles in interior Alaska.…”

Section: Human and Biological Disturbancementioning

confidence: 99%

Sources and sinks of carbon in boreal ecosystems of interior Alaska: A review

Douglas

Jones

Hiemstra

et al. 2014

Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene

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Boreal ecosystems store large quantities of carbon but are increasingly vulnerable to carbon loss due to disturbance and climate warming. The boreal region in Alaska and Canada, largely underlain by discontinuous permafrost, presents a challenging landscape for itemizing carbon sources and sinks in soil and vegetation. The roles of fire, forest succession, and the presence (or absence) of permafrost on carbon cycle, vegetation, and hydrologic processes have been the focus of multidisciplinary research in boreal ecosystems for the past 20 years. However, projections of a warming future climate, an increase in fire severity and extent, and the potential degradation of permafrost could lead to major landscape and carbon cycle changes over the next 20 to 50 years. To assist land managers in interior Alaska in adapting and managing for potential changes in the carbon cycle we developed this review paper by incorporating an overview of the climate, ecosystem processes, vegetation, and soil regimes. Our objective is to provide a synthesis of the most current carbon storage estimates and measurements to guide policy and land management decisions on how to best manage carbon sources and sinks. We surveyed estimates of aboveground and belowground carbon stocks for interior Alaska boreal ecosystems and summarized methane and carbon dioxide f luxes. These data have been converted into similar units to facilitate comparison across ecosystem compartments. We identify potential changes in the carbon cycle with climate change and human disturbance. A novel research question is how compounding disturbances affect carbon sources and sinks associated with boreal ecosystem processes. Finally, we provide recommendations to address the challenges facing land managers in efforts to manage carbon cycle processes. The results of this study can be used for carbon cycle management in other locations within the boreal biome which encompasses a broad distribution from 45° to 83° north.

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Section: Human and Biological Disturbancementioning

confidence: 99%

Sources and sinks of carbon in boreal ecosystems of interior Alaska: A review

Douglas

Jones

Hiemstra

et al. 2014

Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene

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“…Warmer temperatures have contributed to recent spruce beetle (Dendroctonus rufipennis Kirby) outbreaks in this region by reducing the beetle life cycle from 2 years to 1 year (Berg et al 2006, Werner et al 2006). Higher fuel loads resulting from beetle-caused tree mortality are expected to increase the frequency and severity of wildfires (Berg et al 2006), which raises societal concerns of increased risks to life and property (Flint 2006).…”

Section: South-central Alaskamentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of climatic variability and change on forest ecosystems: a comprehensive science synthesis for the U.S

Vose¹,

Peterson²,

Patel-Weynand³

2012

103

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“…As climate warms, increased evapotranspiration, combined with a modest increase in precipitation, has lowered regional water tables, causing soil drying (30), reductions in tree growth (31), increases in severity and extent of wildland fire (32), and bark beetle outbreaks, in part because warming reduced the length of the beetle's life cycle from two years to one, causing a threshold shift in the balance between the tree and the insect (33). Warming and disturbance foster other disturbances.…”

Section: Social-ecological Response To Warming In Interior Alaskamentioning

confidence: 99%

Policy strategies to address sustainability of Alaskan boreal forests in response to a directionally changing climate

Chapin¹,

Lovecraft

Zavaleta

et al. 2006

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

147

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Human activities are altering many factors that determine the fundamental properties of ecological and social systems. Is sustainability a realistic goal in a world in which many key process controls are directionally changing? To address this issue, we integrate several disparate sources of theory to address sustainability in directionally changing social-ecological systems, apply this framework to climate-warming impacts in Interior Alaska, and describe a suite of policy strategies that emerge from these analyses. Climate warming in Interior Alaska has profoundly affected factors that influence landscape processes (climate regulation and disturbance spread) and natural hazards, but has only indirectly influenced ecosystem goods such as food, water, and wood that receive most management attention. Warming has reduced cultural services provided by ecosystems, leading to some of the few institutional responses that directly address the causes of climate warming, e.g., indigenous initiatives to the Arctic Council. Four broad policy strategies emerge: (i) enhancing human adaptability through learning and innovation in the context of changes occurring at multiple scales; (ii) increasing resilience by strengthening negative (stabilizing) feedbacks that buffer the system from change and increasing options for adaptation through biological, cultural, and economic diversity; (iii) reducing vulnerability by strengthening institutions that link the high-latitude impacts of climate warming to their low-latitude causes; and (iv) facilitating transformation to new, potentially more beneficial states by taking advantage of opportunities created by crisis. Each strategy provides societal benefits, and we suggest that all of them be pursued simultaneously.adaptability ͉ Alaska ͉ climate change ͉ resilience ͉ vulnerability T he world is undergoing rapid change in many of the factors that control the properties of ecosystems. In the last 50 years, humans have changed ecosystems more rapidly and extensively than during any comparable period of human history, with even more rapid and extensive changes projected for the next half century and beyond (1, 2). For example, human activities have substantially altered climate, the hydrologic cycle, biodiversity, land cover, the use of biological productivity, and the cycling of nitrogen at global scales (3). People have always profoundly influenced their environment (4). However, the recent increase in the magnitude and extent of these impacts raises serious challenges to sustaining earth's life support systems, the services that ecosystems provide to society (5). These ecosystem services contribute fundamentally to human well-being, i.e., the basic material needs for a good life, freedom and choice, good social relations, and personal security (6).Given the importance and difficulty of fostering sustainability in a world with an uncertain future, many approaches are being explored (7-10). In this article, we integrate several of these approaches. We argue that, by understanding the linka...

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Spruce beetle outbreaks on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska, and Kluane National Park and Reserve, Yukon Territory: Relationship to summer temperatures and regional differences in disturbance regimes

Cited by 352 publications

References 31 publications

Sources and sinks of carbon in boreal ecosystems of interior Alaska: A review

Sources and sinks of carbon in boreal ecosystems of interior Alaska: A review

Effects of climatic variability and change on forest ecosystems: a comprehensive science synthesis for the U.S

Policy strategies to address sustainability of Alaskan boreal forests in response to a directionally changing climate

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