Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Rocky Mountain CESU

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The USGS Alaska Science Center is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU partner to provide research to evaluate climate-driven changes in habitat and the resulting impacts to avian abundance and distribution across the boreal-arctic transition zone of western Alaska. Habitats selected by birds for breeding are strongly influenced by both the structure and composition of vegetation. The transition zone between the boreal and arctic biomes is expected to be one of the most dynamically altered zones in response to climate change. Climatic warming is predicted to cause an increase in wildland fires at the same time that the range limits of tree species are shifting in response to changes in temperature and effective moisture. This combination of more frequent fires and altered growing season conditions may cause unprecedented shifts in forest biogeography throughout the boreal region over the next century. Increases in the distribution, densities, and vertical structure of shrubs within this transition zone are expected to be even more rapid than changes in the extent and structure of forests. Shrub growth and expansion is accelerating due to changes in temperature and precipitation, increases in frequency and intensity of tundra fires, melting of permafrost, changes in snow conditions, and associated feedbacks.

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