Are you interested in how to adapt our natural systems to climate change? Debate of the article titled Facilitating adaptive forest management under climate change: A spatially specific synthesis of 125 species for habitat changes and assisted migration over the eastern United States from 2019, by Louis R. Iverson, Anantha M. Prasad, Matthew P. Peters, and Stephen N. Matthews, published in the MDPI Forests journal. This is a great preparation to our next interview with Jasen Johns in episode 448 talking about urban and community forestry. Since we are investigating the future of cities, I thought it would be interesting to see how our natural systems, specifically forests in this case, can be prepared for climate change. This article synthesises two decades of research to provide a comprehensive framework for managing species under the changing climate. Find the article through this link. Abstract: We modeled and combined outputs for 125 tree species for the eastern United States, using habitat suitability and colonization potential models along with an evaluation of adaptation traits. These outputs allowed, for the first time, the compilation of tree species’ current and future potential for each unit of 55 national forests and grasslands and 469 1 × 1 degree grids across the eastern United States. A habitat suitability model, a migration simulation model, and an assessment based on biological and disturbance factors were used with United States Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis data to evaluate species potential to migrate or infill naturally into suitable habitats over the next 100 years. We describe a suite of variables, by species, for each unique geographic unit, packaged as summary tables describing current abundance, potential future change in suitable habitat, adaptability, and capability to cope with the changing climate, and colonization likelihood over 100 years. This resulting synthesis and summation effort, culminating over two decades of work, provides a detailed data set that incorporates habitat quality, land cover, and dispersal potential, spatially constrained, for nearly all the tree species of the eastern United States. These tables and maps provide an estimate of potential species trends out 100 years, intended to deliver managers and publics with practical tools to reduce the vast set of decisions before them as they proactively manage tree species in the face of climate change. Connected episodes you might be interested in: No.392 - Interview with Sebastian Pfautsch about being climate smartNo.411R - Is coastal climate adaptation infrastructure worth public investment? No.412 - Interview with Louis de Jaeger about climate mitigation strategies and urban food forests
