In late March, northern Michigan experienced a once-in-a-generation ice storm that caused numerous problems, including widespread and long-lasting power outages, loss of cell service, and severe damage to forests, among other things. The scale of damage to trees was massive—millions of trees in miles of forest across 12 counties— and has highlighted the importance of biodiversity in species as extreme events become more common. 

“When you have an extreme weather event such as this one, you find areas with one species of tree that can be completely decimated, but the areas that have a diversity of species tend to fare a lot better,” says Inés Ibáñez, a professor at the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) who focuses on Ecosystem Science and Management. 

Ibáñez's research focuses primarily on how human activities, including climate change, impact forest ecosystems. In particular, she’s interested in understanding how forest ecosystems respond to climate and other environmental factors, and says it’s important to be able to identify any deviations, or not, in recovery patterns after the disturbance to assess the future productivity of those forests.

Such disturbances, or stress events, as Ibáñez refers to them, can include warming temperatures, drought, disease, invasive species and wildfires. As they become more common due to global changes, she says it’s critical to understand how forest ecosystems and the services they provide, such as clean air and water, are shifting or adapting. 

Over the next few years, Ibáñez, who will start this fall as associate dean for academic affairs at SEAS, says she will be working to understand the consequences of this particular storm by carefully assessing and monitoring the situation at the U-M Biological Station, where she and her students conduct much of their research on plots of land that Ibáñez has managed since 2008. 

“We don’t know yet how things will shift. Forests are usually resilient, but typically, we see major shifts after a major disturbance such as this one,” says Ibáñez. “For example, we know from some of our previous studies that global warming increases seed production, but as we track the seeds, we find that there’s reduced success in the establishment of trees,” says Ibáñez. 

Ibáñez says that this is due to harsher conditions that make it harder for seeds to germinate and grow, such as access to water. 

“Warmer summers mean less water will be available for plants because increased temperatures mean increased evaporation. In general, forest ecosystems can cope with that because they create shade and have their own microclimate, but a major disturbance such as this ice storm means the forest canopy won’t be there to generate an optimal microclimate and make seed establishment possible.” 

Using ecological modeling, the data that she and her students collect from the Biostation will be used to learn more about the potential long-term effects of the most recent ice storm. 

“By using this data to develop statistical models of forest dynamics and performance, we can run simulations under a variety of environmental scenarios, which in turn helps us predict how forests might change,” says Ibáñez.  

As environmental conditions change, Ibáñez says promoting and maintaining biodiversity is our best bet to ensure that forests can continue to provide essential functions for a healthy planet, and to fighting climate change, such as carbon sequestration. 

"Forests cover approximately 25% of Earth's terrestrial surface, providing valuable goods and ecosystem services to society. Their contributions include carbon sequestration, improvements in air and water quality, climate regulation, soil formation, biodiversity maintenance, and economic, cultural, spiritual and recreational opportunities. Provisioning of ecosystem services is directly linked to the maintenance of the ecosystem’s diversity as well; studies suggest that forests with higher species richness, higher structural diversity and more balanced species composition have a greater capacity to uptake carbon and are also better equipped to resist and recover from disturbances."