October 3, 2012
The Future of the Colorado Plateau Lecture Series continues with a talk on Friday, October 19 at 7 p.m. by Dr. Park Williams from Los Alamos National Laboratory titled “Climate Change and the Rising Cost of Living for Southwestern Forests.” The lecture will be at the Museum of Northern Arizona and is free.
Dr. Robert Breunig, director of the Museum of Northern Arizona, states, “This talk by Park Williams is the second lecture in a new series at MNA titled The Future of the Colorado Plateau, an initiative designed to bring to the northern Arizona community the latest science on climate changes and related topics. The Museum seeks to foster a meaningful community dialogue on the challenges posed by a changing environment.”
Dr. Williams writes, “In the Southwest, two main factors dictate where trees can and cannot live: the amount of water provided to trees via snow and rain, and the amount of water taken away from trees via evapotranspiration. As the Southwest warms, increasingly more water is removed via evapotranspiration, making less water available for use by forests.”
In this talk, Dr. Williams will answer these questions: How have recent reductions in moisture affected Southwestern forests so far? How do effects compare to the effects of 1950s drought and mega-droughts of the 1200s and 1500s? What types of climate changes are expected to occur in the Southwest in the coming decades? And how will changes influence future forest growth and survival?
Park Williams is a postdoctoral researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. His research interests are in climatology and how large ecosystems interact with climate. He began studying Southwestern U.S. forests while doing his dissertation work in the Geography Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is lead author of a new study to be published in early October evaluating past, present, and future forest stress from drought in the Southwest.
Dr. Thomas D. Sisk, director of Northern Arizona University’s Lab of Landscape Ecology and Conservation Biology, says “Williams and his co-authors do an excellent job of analyzing extensive tree ring data reflecting the impacts of climate stress over the past millennium. By establishing tight relationships between climate variability and tree mortality, they provide compelling evidence that drought stress under recent and projected future climate change is likely pushing Southwestern forests to unprecedented levels of drought-induced stress. The science is strong and clearly presented. Its thoughtful consideration demands revision of our understanding of drought, as well as our approach to forest conservation.”
William deBuys, conservationist and author of seven books on the changing Southwestern environment writes, “It is exciting to witness the release of the scientific equivalent of a best-seller. Park Williams’ work incorporates the kind of innovation and power that only comes along once in a great while. Its implications for the future of Southwestern forests deserve the attention of every thinking person in the region.”
Dr. Williams’ presentation will be preceded by a social hour with a cash bar.