Abstract
In the Blue Mountains, climate change is likely to have significant, long-term implications for freshwater resources, including riparian areas, wetlands (box 7.1), and groundwater-dependent ecosystems (GDEs, box 7.2). Climate change is expected to cause a transition from snow to rain, resulting in diminished snowpack and shifts in streamflow to earlier in the season (Leibowitz et al. 2014, Luce et al. 2012; see chapter 3). Additional effects include changes in extreme high- and low-flow events; alteration of groundwater recharge rates; changes in the fate and transport of nutrients; sediments, and contaminants, and temporal and spatial shifts in critical ecosystem processes and functions (Johnson et al. 2012, Raymondi et al. 2013). Another consequence of climate change is higher frequency and severity of droughts (Seager et al. 2007), which will influence distribution of plant species, and likely increase susceptibility to insect attacks, as well as increase the frequency and severity of wildfires (see chapter 6).
Parent Publication
Keywords
climate change,
habitats,
riparian areas,
wetlands,
freshwater,
groundwater,
streamflow,
ecosystems
Citation
Dwire, Kathleen A.; Mellmann-Brown, Sabine. 2017. Climate change and special habitats in the Blue Mountains: Riparian areas, wetlands, and groundwater-dependent ecosystems [Chapter 7]. In: Halofsky, Jessica E.; Peterson, David L., eds. Climate change vulnerability and adaptation in the Blue Mountains. Gen. Tech. Rep. PNW-GTR-939. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. p. 251-323.
