A REGIONAL MODELING APPROACH TO ESTIMATING NATIONAL FOREST PRODUCTIVITY UNDER CLIMATE CHANGE

Climate change has the potential to influence the productivity of forest in the United States. Knowing information about the yield of forests can help managers and the wood product industries estimate the availability of timber for a management period and optimize management practices. Through a regional approach, we will model the potential productivity of forest in the U.S. under climate change and three management scenarios. Dominant species will be considered for each region, and a series of cellular automata models will be generated to estimate timber production at several time stamps until 2100. U.S. Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data will be used to determine species dominance and will provide information about the stocking characteristics of each stand.