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Climate Adaptation in Northeastern Forests to Support Birds of Conservation Concern and Ecosystem Services

Project Leader:
Project Investigators:
Maria Janowiak
Allan Strong
Caitlin Littlefield
Toni Lyn Morelli
Alexej Siren
Adrienne Keller
+1 more
States:
Maine
Massachusetts
New Hampshire
New York
Vermont
+2 more

Overview

Climate change and related threats like invasive species and diseases are impacting forests and birds of the Northeast. Across the region, managers at Tribal, federal, and state natural resource agencies are grappling with how to protect habitat for forest-dependent birds and how to sustain other key ecosystem services like forest carbon storage in the face of these ongoing threats.
 
Previously, this research team, in collaboration with others, devised climate change adaptation recommendations for forest and wildlife managers. Currently, on-the-ground experiments are testing those recommendations to see how well they support habitat for priority species like songbirds and grouse. The team will use existing and new data from these experiments to evaluate the effectiveness of the different strategies. They will also compare these results with carbon storage metrics for each site, derived from a forest growth model, to evaluate potential trade-offs and win-wins between stewarding bird habitat and maximizing carbon storage.
 
The project team will synthesize findings from these analyses to refine their adaptation recommendations for managers, which will be shared through site-specific guidance, a regional guidebook, and an in-person learning exchange. Finally, the team will broaden their scope and explore how much adaptation is necessary to maintain forest bird habitat.