Two University professors received grants totaling $3.2 million in July to fund research on how climate change might affect vegetation in Oregon, with an emphasis on the Willamette Valley.
Scott Bridgham, professor of biology and environmental studies, and Bart Johnson, associate professor of landscape architecture, received two grants, for $1.8 million and $1.4 million, respectively.
The U.S. Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation issued the grants, which fund two separate studies Bridgham and Johnson will collaborate on.
Bridgham will lead the DOE study in which researchers will manipulate climate conditions in small plots of land located near Olympia, Wash., the Willamette Valley and southern Oregon to simulate the effects of climate change on prairie ecosystems, which Bridgham said are imperiled.
Scientists will plant 12 species of native flora that grow between Washington and southern Oregon in each of the three plots. Each site will contain 20 different plots. The species are “indicator” species, according to Brigdham, which means their response to climate change should show how other plants will react. The 12 plants are grass and small shrub varieties.
Bridgham and his team will use infrared light, the same used to heat chicken coops, to raise plot temperatures by 5.4 F, and will increase precipitation by 25 percent during the rainy months. One-fourth of the plots will have no climate factors changed, one-fourth will be made warmer, one-fourth wetter, and the remaining fourth will be both warmer and wetter.
Brigdham said they will spend one year setting up the plots and three years observing. He expects data to show how fragile prairie ecosystems will respond to climate change.
Johnson will lead the NSF study, which will primarily use computer modeling tools. University graduate student Gabriel Yospin will work with Johnson and Bridgham on the project. They will use computers to show how climate change and human population growth in the Willamette Valley may affect vegetation, specifically prairies and oak savannas, and wildfire behavior.
Yospin will focus on the vegetation aspect of the modeling. He said previous studies have shown how climate change affects plant life, as well as how population increases affect plant life. His goal is to develop a computer model that can indicate how climate change will affect the decisions people make about land use, a combination that will significantly affect vegetation.
Brigdham said the study is “trying to find robust policy solutions” to the problem presented by climate change and the fact the population of the Willamette Valley is expected to double its current number in 50 years, at most.
Bridgham, Johnson and Yospin said the studies should offer insight into how climate change, people and ecosystems will interact in the future.
“We know that climate is going to change,” Bridgham said, “but what do you do to adapt to it?”
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