BookDonald McKenzie.
Summary: This book is written for general readers with an interest in science, and offers the tools and ideas for understanding how climate change will affect mountains of the American West. A major goal of the book is to provide material that will not become quickly outdated, and it does so by conveying its topics through constants in ecological science that will remain unchanged and scientifically sound. The book is timely in its potential to be a long-term contribution, and is designed to inform the public about climate change in mountains accessibly and intelligibly. The major themes of the book include: 1) mountains of the American West as natural experiments that can distinguish the effects of climate change because they have been relatively free from human-caused changes, 2) mountains as regions with unique sensitivities that may change more rapidly than the Earth as a whole and foreshadow the nature and magnitude of change elsewhere, and 3) different interacting components of ecosystems in the face of a changing climate, including forest growth and mortality, ecological disturbance, and mountain hydrology. Readers will learn how these changes and interactions in mountains illuminate the complexity of ecological changes in other contexts around the world.
Contents:
Intro
Preface
Acknowledgments
Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction: What Persists, What Changes
Why These Mountains?
Where Are We Going?
What Doesn't Change in What Changes
Ice or Water, Snow or Rain
Evolution
Movement
Interactions
Concepts and Terms You Should Know
Variable
Parameter
Correlation
Feedback
Gradient
Succession
Disturbance
Treeline
Rain Shadow
Climatic Envelope
Connectivity
Limiting Factor
Scale
Uncertainty
Stationarity
Detection and Attribution
Chapter 2: The Mountains How Will It Affect the Western Mountains?
The Cascade Range and the Pacific Coast Ranges (to the Klamath and Trinity Mountains)
The Northern Rocky Mountains
The Sierra Nevada
The Pacific Coast Ranges (South of the Klamath and Trinity Mountains)
The Southern and Central Rocky Mountains
The Sky Islands and the Basin Ranges
Chapter 4: Water Towers of the West
The Magic Line: Snow or Rain, Frozen or Melted
Glaciers: A Pure Signal of a Warming Climate?
Changes in Mountain Hydrology
Eco-hydrological Models: How Can We Use Them for Climate-Change Projections? The Cascade Range: America's Alps
The Sierra Nevada: The Range of Light
The Rocky Mountains: The Continental Divide
The Pacific Coast Ranges
The Olympic Mountains
Siskiyou-Klamath-Trinity Mountains
Transverse and Peninsular Ranges
The Basin Ranges
The Sky Islands
Western Mountain Vulnerabilities
Vegetation
Glaciers, Snowpack, and Hydrology
Biogeochemistry
Wildlife
Wilderness Character
Chapter 3: It's Getting Warm Down Here
What Do We Know About Climate Change?
How Do We Know It?
How Well Do We Know It? The Pacific Coast Ranges (South of the Klamath and Trinity Mountains)
The Southern and Central Rocky Mountains
The Sky Islands and the Basin Ranges
Chapter 6: Ecological Disturbance
What Is a Disturbance?
Fire Regimes in the Western Mountains
Gradients of Fire Frequency and Severity at Different Scales
Smoke and Regional Haze
Wildfire and Climate: How We Know What We Know
Sediment Charcoal
Fire-Scarred Trees and Stand Reconstructions
Native American Burning: Confounding the Inference?
The Observational Record What Do We Expect for the Western Mountains?
Chapter 5: Trees, Forests, and Carbon
Forest Biology and Ecology: What Persists and What Changes
Forest Succession
Dispersal: Keeping Up?
Carbon: Source or Sink?
Feedbacks to Climate Change
Forests on the Brink? An Example of Detection and Attribution
Forest Models: How Can We Use Them for Climate-Change Projections?
What Do We Expect for the Western Mountains?
The Cascade Range and the Pacific Coast Ranges (to the Klamath and Trinity Mountains)
The Northern Rocky Mountains
The Sierra Nevada