North America Regional Climate Center
Earthwatch is undertaking a comprehensive forest research programme looking at the impacts of climate change on forests. This Climate Center is one of five global research centers.
From the evergreens in Alaska to the scrub pines in Florida, forests across North America are many things to many people: a source of solace and recreation, a source of income, a powerful call to action in a changing climate, and so much more.
But the diverse forests that cover roughly 36 per cent of the land area of North America have been heavily impacted by humans.
The North America Regional Climate Center is based in Edgewater, Maryland, east of the US capital in the Chesapeake Bay region. More than 40 per cent of Maryland is currently covered by forest, which serve many functions, from providing drinking water and jobs, to recreation, timber and hunting.
The Climate Center is located within a 2800-acre swath of the Eastern Deciduous Forest, which has been greatly influenced by human activity. The trees vary greatly in age, many having only recently regenerated from agricultural land that was poorly managed. Research indicates that the forest has been cut down at least once and maybe twice.
Earthwatch is collaborating with two research arms within the internationally renowned Smithsonian Institution: the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), which already holds more than 40 years of forest research data, and the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC), one of the leading research and education centers in the US.
The study aims to reveal which tree species are becoming more common in changing conditions, which trees are being lost, how much carbon is storfed by the trees, and how neighboring trees interact with each other over time. Earthwatch and partners will use this information to make recommendations to forest managers in North America.
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Stakeholder Workshop and Application