{"id":71427,"date":"2024-02-28T15:08:10","date_gmt":"2024-02-28T22:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=71427"},"modified":"2024-02-28T15:08:10","modified_gmt":"2024-02-28T22:08:10","slug":"dymond-redwood-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/dymond-redwood-research\/","title":{"rendered":"How monitoring moisture in redwood forests can help us manage them better"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the heels of a coast redwood study published in <\/span>Nature: Plants<\/span><\/i><\/a> by researchers in NAU\u2019s Center for Ecosystem Science and Society, another group of researchers\u2014this one from NAU\u2019s School of Forestry and the USDA Forest Service\u2014has received a grant of nearly $500,000 to study how management practices in coast redwood forests affect the resilience of these trees when faced with disturbances like drought and fire.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Salli<\/a>The way we manage forests has evolved over the centuries as our societal needs and cultural attitudes have changed. <\/span>Salli Dymond<\/span><\/b>, associate professor of forestry and principal investigator for the project \u201cForest Management to Promote Resilient Coast Redwood Forests,\u201d said forest management continues to evolve today: \u201cFollowing European settlement in the west, forest management was almost exclusively centered around timber production and\/or the establishment of agricultural lands,\u201d but now, \u201cforests are managed with the larger ecosystem and often multiple objectives in mind.\u201d This study aims to gather knowledge about different methods of forest management that have been used in coast redwood forests and quantify their effects on the trees\u2019 resilience.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Dymond is trained as a forest hydrologist\u2014her work focuses on ways in which the hydrologic cycle and ecosystems interact. For this study, her team will spend the next four years gathering data on climate, soil moisture, groundwater, fuels and water within the trees themselves to better understand the moisture dynamics at play in various stands of coast redwood. The larger goal of this work and the related research Dymond has been involved in over the past eight years is \u201cto provide forest managers with scientific knowledge about watershed processes so that they can make informed decisions in the face of rapidly changing conditions including climate, fire frequency and fire intensity.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When it comes to fire specifically, management attitudes have shifted dramatically over time. According to Dymond, historically, the coast redwood region\u2019s management was characterized by fire exclusion. But the trouble is, fire is a key element that most western forest ecosystems evolved around. In this environment, a long period of no fire, plus a warmer and drier climate, adds up to the perfect conditions for the type of severe fires that we\u2019ve seen in the western United States in recent years.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s forest managers are interested in how to change the equation. Implementing smaller burns and controlling forest structure to inhibit flash drought or a build-up of ladder fuels are among the mitigation techniques Dymond said managers want to know more about. She hopes her team\u2019s study can contribute more to this body of knowledge.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Why so much focus on coast redwood forests? <\/span>Mairead Brogan<\/span><\/b>, a Ph.D. student working on the project for her dissertation said, \u201cCoast redwood is a classic example of what biologists call \u2018charismatic macrofauna\u2019 (or flora in this case).\u201d She thinks people are drawn to the trees\u2019 incredible stature and age. Some coast redwood trees grow to be more than 300 feet tall and the oldest is estimated to be more than 2,200 years old. The trees are also known to be particularly resilient to drought, Brogan said. \u201cThey can actually take in water from fog through their bark!\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"redwood<\/a>The risks of not taking increasing temperatures and drought into account are substantial: Ignoring these factors could lead not only to severe wildfire, but also to declines in biodiversity, forest health and productivity, according to Dymond. Fortunately for these trees and the people who are drawn to them, research and monitoring will continue in the area for years to come even after Dymond\u2019s project concludes, providing information that forest managers can use to make informed decisions.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis will ultimately lead to healthy and resilient coast redwood forests,\u201d Dymond said.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Northern<\/p>\n

Jessica Clark | NAU Communications
\njessica.clark@nau.edu\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the heels of a coast redwood study published in Nature: Plants by researchers in NAU\u2019s Center for Ecosystem Science and Society, another group of researchers\u2014this one from NAU\u2019s School of Forestry and the USDA Forest Service\u2014has received a grant of nearly $500,000 to study how management practices in coast redwood forests affect the resilience…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":71429,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-academics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}