1 research outputs found
Disturbance distance: quantifying forests' vulnerability to disturbance under current and future conditions
Disturbances, both natural and anthropogenic, are critical determinants of forest structure, function,
and distribution. The vulnerability of forests to potential changes in disturbance rates remains largely
unknown. Here, we developed a framework for quantifying and mapping the vulnerability of forests
to changes in disturbance rates. By comparing recent estimates of observed forest disturbance rates
over a sample of contiguous US forests to modeled rates of disturbance resulting in forest loss, a novel
index of vulnerability, Disturbance Distance, was produced. Sample results indicate that 20% of
current US forestland could be lost if disturbance rates were to double, with southwestern forests
showing highest vulnerability. Under a future climate scenario, the majority of US forests showed
capabilities of withstanding higher rates of disturbance then under the current climate scenario,
which may buffer some impacts of intensified forest disturbanceinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio