The 21st century has emerged as a time of rapid changes in climate and increases in the frequency and severity of extreme and often destabilizing weather events. The need for information to understand and respond to these changes has never been greater. During this same time, increasingly sophisticated technological tools have been developed to i) access and archive large collections of climatic, ecological and silvicultural data, and ii) promptly – in real time –analyze and visualize these data in simple, understandable and novel ways. The USDA Forest Service operates a network of 81 Experimental Forests and Ranges (EFRs) that together span broad gradients of climate, environmental variables and social drivers. These EFRs have an expansive portfolio of ongoing research and a long history of environmental monitoring, including climate drivers, that provides critical science to help manage and sustain the Nation’s forests and ranges. A recent survey identified all EFR sites with historical and ongoing climate data. These data have been standardized and analyzed to reveal long-term climate trends, novel climate drivers and occurrence of extreme events across this network of sites.
Results/Conclusions
Here we present results from the EFR data survey on long-term trends in climate. Air temperature will be highlighted as it is a major driver of ecosystem processes and the EFRs have a consistent and rich history of air temperature monitoring. We also present insights derived from a new generation of high frequency sensor measurements which are increasingly available at EFR Smart Forest sites. Specific examples include the spring soil temperature ‘trigger’ in snow covered landscapes and high frequency data on precipitation intensity. Rapid public access to our historical and current EFR data will accelerate the pace of scientific discovery and provide mechanisms to make informed management decisions at the ‘speed of need’ about a wide range of climate and extreme weather-driven environmental threats as well as ecological, silvicultural and economic opportunities.