Environmental Research Letters<\/em><\/a>. It is the first to combine satellite observations with groundwater, soil and geophysical data to map how forests across the South West responded to last summer\u2019s extreme climate stress.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWang said the findings revealed that forests growing on shallow soils, rocky terrain, and areas with limited groundwater access were far more vulnerable to heat and moisture stress: \u201cWe found these areas showed much stronger declines in forest health than areas with deeper soils and better subsurface water availability,\u201d she said. \u201cThe results suggest forest vulnerability depends not only on extreme climate conditions, but also on what lies beneath the surface.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By integrating multiple data sources, the researchers uncovered spatial patterns of vulnerability that would have been invisible from climate data alone \u2014 insights that could reshape how land managers prepare for a hotter, drier future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Co-author Professor Sally Thompson, also from UWA\u2019s Centre for Water and Spatial Science, said the study provided real\u2011world evidence for a recently published framework describing how ecosystems adapt to drying climates. \u201cThe jarrah forest study showed how the framework can be applied in practice, helping forest managers decide where to act \u2014 such as by thinning \u2014 and where to prioritise protection of areas that cope better with heat and drought,\u201d Professor Thompson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The research also highlights the growing value of pairing remote sensing with hydrological science to understand how forests respond to climate extremes: \u201cBy integrating satellite data with subsurface process knowledge, the study improves our ability to understand ecosystem vulnerability and support more targeted forest management strategies,\u201d Wang said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The findings come as Western Australia faces intensifying climate pressures, with scientists warning that rising temperatures and declining rainfall will continue to challenge the resilience of native forests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Western Australia\u2019s jarrah forests were not uniformly affected by the record\u2011breaking 2023\u201324 heatwave and drought, with new research showing that subsurface conditions \u2014 not just extreme temperatures \u2014 determined which areas declined and which remained resilient. The study, led by PhD researcher Huanhuan Wang from The University of Western Australia\u2019s Centre for Water and Spatial […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32781,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"default","_twitter_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type":"default","_pinterest_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type_page":"default","_instagram_share_type":"default","_medium_share_type":"default","_threads_share_type":"default","_google_business_share_type":"default","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[50,45,44,82],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[69],"class_list":{"0":"post-32780","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"category-sustainability","9":"category-sustainable-forest-management","10":"category-western-australia"},"authors":[{"term_id":69,"user_id":1,"is_guest":0,"slug":"woodcentral","display_name":"Wood Central","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/MASTER-BRAND-MARK_POS_RGB-e1676449549955.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/MASTER-BRAND-MARK_POS_RGB-e1676449549955.jpg"},"0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32780"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32783,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32780\/revisions\/32783"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32780"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodcentral.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=32780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}