Tag Archives: Forestry

Increasingly severe disturbances weaken world’s temperate forests

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Longer, more severe, and hotter droughts and a myriad of other threats, including diseases and more extensive and severe wildfires, are threatening to transform some of the world’s temperate forests, a new study published in Science has found. Without informed management, some forests could convert to shrublands or grasslands within the coming decades.

“While we have been trying to manage for resilience of 20th century conditions, we realize now that we must prepare for transformations and attempt to ease these conversions,” said Constance Millar, lead author and forest ecologist with the USDA Forest Service’s Pacific Southwest Research Station.

Many forests are remarkably resilient, re-growing after years of logging. Yet, the researchers note from review of the enormous body of work on the subject, climate change and rising global temperatures are giving rise to “hotter” droughts—droughts that exhibit a level of severity beyond that witnessed in the past century. During a hotter drought, high air temperatures overheat leaves and also increase the stress on trees by drawing the moisture from their tissues at faster rates than normal. Snow that would normally act as emergency water storage for trees during the dry season instead falls as rain.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: phys.org

GR:  And there go the forests.  This is the third analysis this week that concludes forests will not do well as climate changes.

Study says some forests may not recover from mega-disturbances in the global warming era

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“Giant fires, insect outbreaks could be ‘game-changer’ for some forests

“FRISCO —Forest Service researchers say “mega-disturbances” like giant wildfires and insect outbreaks are likely to hasten the slow demise of temperate forest ecosystems in the coming decades.

“Even without those large-scale events, some forests appear to be transitioning to shrublands and steppe, and big disturbances could speed that process, according to a new study published this month in Science.“While we have been trying to manage for resilience of 20th century conditions, we realize now that we must prepare for transformations and attempt to ease these conversions,” said Constance Millar, lead author and forest ecologist with the USFS Pacific Southwest Research Station.

“Many forests are remarkably resilient, re-growing after years of logging. But after reviewing numerous forest studies, they concluded that rising global temperatures are resulting in hotter droughts — droughts that exhibit a level of severity beyond that witnessed in the past century.”  Sourced through Scoop.it from: summitcountyvoice.com

GR:  Normal recovery processes can be blocked by drought and eventually by added warmth that increases stress.

Global Warming

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Boreal forests cover the northernmost regions of Canada, Russia, Alaska, and Scandinavia, and make up about 30 percent of the planet’s total forest area.  Sourced through Scoop.it from: elispiritweaver.wordpress.com

Ecological succession can follow climate change, but not at anthropogenic rates.

Drought-Fueled Wildfires Burn 7 Million Acres in U.S.

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Bobby Magill:  “Sap a forest of rain — say, for three or four years — toss in seemingly endless sunshine and high temperatures, and you’ve got just the right recipe for some catastrophic wildfires.

“Such is the story playing out in the West, where, thanks in part to climate change, drought-fueled infernos are incinerating forests at a record pace from Alaska to California, claiming the lives of 13 firefighters, destroying more than 900 structures and requiring firefighting agencies to call in help from the U.S. Army and as far away as Australia and New Zealand.

Photo:  The Aggie Creek fire burns along the Trans-Alaska Pipeline in June.  Credit: USDA/flickr

“Here’s the breakdown: As of Aug. 20, more than 41,300 wildfires have scorched more than 7.2 million acres in 2015, mostly in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. That’s nearly three times the 2.6 million acres that burned nationwide in 2014 and more land area than has burned in any other year over the last decade.”  Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.climatecentral.org

GR:  The global-warming caused shift from forest to arid woodland and shrubland could be quite sudden if continuing drought prevents forest recovery after fire.  Such shifts can be permanent if future fires occur before trees can grow to reproductive age.  This will happen if drought and temperature continue to favor fires.  It can also happen if grasses and herbs increase in abundance and provide fine fuel that enhances fire spread.

Resilient Federal Forest Act will diminish resilience of forests

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George Wuerthner:  “Oregon Congressman’s Greg Walden’s (other western legislators also are sponsors) support of the so-called Resilient Federal Forests Act is based on faulty assumptions. The Resilient Federal Forests Act will actually decrease forest resilient. Here’s a link to Walden’s position on the Act.

“Here’s just a few of the problems:

“Walden asserts that if beetles, and disease along with lack of management are creating fuels that are contributing to large wildfires.
Large fires are driven by weather/climate not fuels. You cannot put them out until the weather changes. Thus additional fire fighting funds will do little to actually stop these blazes.
“Furthermore, from an ecological perspective you would not want to stop them. They are one of the most important ways that forests get an input of dead trees.
“In reality, dead trees are less likely to burn than live trees under severe fire weather conditions.”  Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.thewildlifenews.com

GR:  Mixing land management with politics is one of the great forces behind our mass extinction.

 

Boreal forests challenged by global change

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Management of boreal forests needs greater attention from international policy, argued forestry experts from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Natural Resources Canada, and the University of Helsinki in Finland in a new article published this week in the journal Science. The article, which reviews recent research in the field, is part of a special issue on forests released in advance of the World Forestry Congress in September.

“Boreal forests have the potential to hit a tipping point this century,” says IIASA Ecosystems Services and Management Program researcher Anatoly Shvidenko. “It is urgent that we place more focus on climate mitigation and adaptation with respect to these forests, and also take a more integrated and balanced view of forests around the world.”  Sourced through Scoop.it from: phys.org

Northern California National Forests on Fire

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Last month’s storms in the North Coast resulted in hundreds of lightning strikes igniting forest fires across the region and throughout the Pacific Northwest. Now a combined total of approximately 102,755 acres are burning on the Shasta-Trinity and Six Rivers National Forests. Thousands of fire fighters are on the ground, some in an effort to protect life and property and others are in the wilderness and backcountry. Fire suppression and the military style of firefighting can be more environmentally destructive than wildfire itself. Crews typically construct ridge top fire lines with bulldozers, dump fire retardant, ignite high severity back burns, fell trees and open up decommissioned roads to access and suppress the fires. These damaging efforts are often ineffective, for example yesterday a burning tree fell across a containment line on the Route complex, causing the fire to escape.  Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.wildcalifornia.org

GR:  The human damage fighting fires and logging burned areas may be more destructive than the fires.

Here’s where over 90% of the extra heat from global warming is going

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Forests and Global Warming

It’s no surprise that climate change is raising summer temperatures in many parts of the globe, but what you might not know is where most of that extra heat is going.

Scientists estimate that as much as 90% of it is heading straight into our oceans, and that has major consequences not only for marine wildlife but for the world’s economy.  Sourced through Scoop.it from: uk.businessinsider.com

One of the last hopes to defeat climate change just got debunked

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Forests eat a lot of carbon dioxide — roughly a quarter of humanity’s total yearly output. So when it comes to the future trajectory of climate change, the behavior of forests is one of the largest potential variables. If forests grow and thrive as the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide increases (thus providing them more potential food), then climate change could be strongly mitigated.

On the other hand, if changing weather patterns fueled by global warming kill them off instead, they could release much of the carbon contained in their wood, as they die and rot.  Sourced through Scoop.it from: theweek.com

Forests are more likely to die than thrive with climate change.  More work is needed, but the research reported here supports this idea.  And when trees die, they release their stored Carbon.