Drought-induced vegetation change and fire in Amazonian forests: past, present, and future

Michael Palace, ESRC-University of New Hampshire, michael.palace@unh.edu (Presenter)
Steve Frolking, University of New Hampshire, steve.frolking@unh.edu
Crystal McMichael, Florida Institute of Technology, cmcmicha@my.fit.edu
Bobby Braswell1, Applied GeoSolutions, rbraswell@appliedgeosolutions.com
Dar Alexander Roberts, UC Santa Barbara, dar@geog.ucsb.edu
Mark Bush, Florida Institute of Technology, mbush@fit.edu
Douglas Morton, NASA GSFC, douglas.morton@nasa.gov
Michael Keller, USDA Forest Service, mkeller.co2@gmail.com
Heidi Asbjornsen, University of New Hampshire, heidi.asbjornsen@unh.edu
Luiz Aragao, CPTEC, l.aragao@exeter.ac.uk
Laerte Ferreria, LAPIG-UFG, lapig.ufg@gmail.com
Matt Vadenboncoeur, University of New Hampshire, matt.v0123@gmail.com
Mark Ducey, University of New Hampshire, mjducey@cisunix.unh.edu
Stephen Hagen, Applied GeoSolutions, shagen@appliedgeosolutions.com
Tom Milliman, University of New Hampshire, thomas.milliman@unh.edu
Christina Herrick, University of New Hampshire, c.herrick@unh.edu

Tropical forests are critical drivers of atmospheric and terrestrial energy, carbon, water, and nutrient dynamics on a global scale and large-scale changes to tropical forests will have cascading effects on global circulation models. We are using interdisciplinary methodologies and the integration of multi-scale remotely sensed, physiological, and paleoecological measurements to provide a comprehensive assessment of drought response, and predictions of forest response under future climate scenarios. We are utilizing previously developed models and remote sensing techniques and products for several sensors, and an established macro-scale hydrological model to compare distributed and watershed-aggregated hydrological variables with remote sensing data at scales up to those of a major drought. A novel aspect of our study is the integration of multi-sensor remote sensing, contemporary physiological measurements, and the analysis of an extensive paleoecological dataset. We are examining the role that water use efficiency and stem flow of trees plays in responding to seasonal and annual water depletion through the analysis of leaf isotopes. We are comparing field-based WUE measurements with hyperspectral and high resolution optical and lidar remotely sensed data to examine mortality based on estimates of drought severity, and compare this with moderate resolution satellite image data (non-photosynthetic vegetation [NPV]) and canopy thermal stress). We are also analyzing the paleoecological data that reconstruct precipitation changes, megadroughts, forest response, and fire occurrence at sub-decadal resolution for the last 5000 years. These data will provide an indication of variability in past drought frequency and intensity and the vegetation and fire responses to those episodes.

Presentation Type:  Poster

Session:  General Contributions   (Tue 4:35 PM)

Associated Project(s): 

• Palace, Michael: Drought-induced vegetation change and fire in Amazonian forests: past, present, and future ...details

Poster Location ID: 213