Vulnerability of tree species to climate change in the appalachian landscape conservation cooperative

Forests of the Appalachian Landscape Conservation Cooperative provide critical ecological and management functions. The moist climate of the eastern United States fosters productive stands that store relatively high amounts of carbon; for example, the Appalachian Landscape Conservation Cooperative (Appalachian LCC) accounts for only 7.6 percent of the contiguous United States but contains 18.8 percent of its aboveground forest biomass (derived from Kellndorfer et al. 2012). The Appalachian Mountains create substantial topographic and microclimatic diversity, and forests in the southern Appalachian LCC have some of the highest levels of endemic mammal, bird, amphibian, reptile, freshwater fish, and tree species biodiversity in the conterminous United States (Jenkins et al. 2015). Forest types vary from commercial pine plantations in the south to temperate hardwoods in the central Appalachians to high-elevation spruce-fir forests in the north.