Karla Jarecke’s dissertation defense: “Spatial Patterns of Soil Moisture and the Relative Importance of Atmospheric Water Demand Versus Soil Moisture Availability in Limiting Late-summer Growth of Douglas-fir Under a Changing Climate.” Karla is earning her PHD in Forest Ecosystems and Society with Dr. Steve Wondzell and Dr. Kevin Bladon. December 2nd at 2pm in Richardson 107 and over Zoom. Please contact the FES Department at Juliet.Sutton@oregonstate.edu for zoom link.
Climate change is projected to create more intense and frequent hot droughts in the Pacific Northwest. However, the triple threat of heat, aridity, and soil drought is not well understood, making it difficult to assess the effectiveness of forest management strategies aimed at drought resilience. Karla's work examined the relationships between soils, hydrology, and vegetation at the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest in the western Cascades of Oregon. She will discuss the spatial patterns of soil moisture in steep, complex terrain, and how interannual climate variability affects seasonal growth of Douglas-fir water stress in the Pacfic Nortwest's seasonally dry climate. Her work highlights that forest management practices aimed at improving drought resilience in forests need to be evaluated for their impact both to increased atmospheric aridity and to soil moisture availability.