As the climate changes, it is likely that heatwaves will occur more frequently and with more intensity. While heat accelerates drought and fire, extreme heat can also affect trees in many other ways including damage to leaves and buds. This damage can impact photosynthesis, respiration, growth and mortality. Thus, it’s critical that we understand both vulnerability and resilience of different tree species and forest landscapes to extreme heat events.

Chris’s project synthesizes available data on the various effects that temperature extremes have on tree species and forest types in the Pacific Northwest. For this, Chris will focus on a particular extreme heat event, the record-shattering June 2021 Heat Dome, and its impacts on trees and forests across the region. He will combine multiple, distinct tree- and forest-level datasets across Oregon and Washington and synthesize the findings for climate-resilient management applications.

Chris will share the synthesis of this information by producing an accessible technical report. Information in this report will include current understanding of how different tree species (and if available, sub-species or genotypes) commonly found in the Pacific Northwest differ in their heat tolerance, as well as which forest landscapes were most affected by the Heat Dome or other heatwaves. Chris will also host a regional symposium with managers and scientists. This symposium is meant to be useful to land managers by sharing knowledge about heat sensitivity at scales from individual trees to whole forests.Findings will be explained in the context of on-the-ground decision making by public and private land managers endeavoring to increase climate resiliency in Pacific Northwest forests.