Adapting Bottomland Hardwood Forests to a Changing Climate.

Bottomland hardwood forests will face challenges in a changing climate from altered hydrology and shifting habitat suitability for key species. Scientist-manager partnerships have been developed across the Upper Mississippi River to assess the vulnerability of bottomland hardwood forests to climate change and to develop and implement adaptation strategies using the Climate Change Response Framework developed by the Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science. Strategies include planning for more frequent and severe flooding by planting more flood-tolerant species, and planning for increases in temperature by planting species and genotypes from more southern areas. We describe two projects that are implementing these strategies: (1) A network of demonstration projects in southern Illinois and Indiana, and (2) A replicated experiment to assess alternative adaptation strategies is currently underway as part of the Adaptive Silviculture for Climate Change Network.