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Potential impact of climate change on the risk of windthrow in eastern Canada’s forests

Climatic Change volume 143, pages 487–501 (2017)Cite this article

Abstract

Climate change is likely to affect windthrow risks at northern latitudes by potentially changing high wind probabilities and soil frost duration. Here, we evaluated the effect of climate change on windthrow risk in eastern Canada’s balsam fir (Abies balsamea [L.] Mill.) forests using a methodology that accounted for changes in both wind speed and soil frost duration. We used wind speed and soil temperature projections at the regional scale from the CRCM5 regional climate model (RCM) driven by the CanESM2 global climate model (GCM) under two representative concentration pathways (RCP4.5, RCP8.5), for a baseline (1976–2005) and two future periods (2041–2070, 2071–2100). A hybrid mechanistic model (ForestGALES) that considers species resistance to uprooting and wind speed distribution was used to calculate windthrow risk. An increased risk of windthrow (3 to 30%) was predicted for the future mainly due to an increased duration of unfrozen soil conditions (by up to 2 to 3 months by the end of the twenty-first century under RCP8.5). In contrast, wind speed did not vary markedly with a changing climate. Strong regional variations in wind speeds translated into regional differences in windthrow risk, with the easternmost region (Atlantic provinces) having the strongest winds and the highest windthrow risk. Because of the inherent uncertainties associated with climate change projections, especially regarding wind climate, further research is required to assess windthrow risk from the optimum combination of RCM/GCM ensemble simulations.

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Notes

  1. From ensemble mean values of all CMIP5 GCMs.

  2. Because the return interval is the inverse of the probability of windthrow, we used the inverse of h/87840.

  3. See Online Resource 3 in which CWS values are reported for a range of balsam fir stands varying in their characteristics and vulnerability to windthrow.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Centre pour l’étude et la simulation du climat à l’échelle régionale (ESCER) of the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) for providing the outputs of all the simulations and climate databases used in our study, with special thanks to Katja Winger for the information provided regarding CRCM5 and to Guillaume Dueymes for helping with the preparation of NARR and CRCM5 data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre pour l’étude et la simulation du climat à l’échelle régionale (ESCER), Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada

    Christian Saad

  2. Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service, Laurentian Forestry Centre, Québec, QC, Canada

    Yan Boulanger, Marilou Beaudet, Philippe Gachon & Sylvie Gauthier

  3. Département des sciences du bois et de la forêt, Université Laval, Québec, QC, Canada

    Jean-Claude Ruel

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  1. Christian Saad
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  2. Yan Boulanger
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Correspondence to Yan Boulanger.

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Saad, C., Boulanger, Y., Beaudet, M. et al. Potential impact of climate change on the risk of windthrow in eastern Canada’s forests. Climatic Change 143, 487–501 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-017-1995-z

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