Natural Resource Condition Assessment for Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. Appendix 9: Five-Needle Pines.

摘要

Five-needle (white) pines are an important component of the upland forest and alpine woodland communities in Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks (SEKI, Table 1). Five species occur in SEKI: foxtail pine (Pinus balfouriana), limber pine (Pinus flexilis), sugar pine (Pinus lambertiana), western white pine (Pinus monticola), and whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis). These trees occur throughout the Parks (Map 1) and in aggregate are constituents of more than 200,000 ha of vegetation (Table 1). Five-needle pines are often considered foundational species due to their role in promoting biodiversity, creating locally stable conditions for other species, and stabilizing fundamental ecosystem processes (Tomback et al. 2001, Ellison et al. 2005). Five-needle pines across North America are currently threatened by a combination of factors including outbreaks of native and exotic insects and diseases, altered fire regimes, air pollution, and climate change (van Mantgem et al. 2004, Tomback and Achuff 2010). For this analysis, we evaluate the current status and future vulnerability of these five tree population in SEKI. While these trees occur in communities, our focus here is on the population dynamics of these five species.