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Sigmetnow

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Forests: An Endangered Resource
« on: October 11, 2015, 07:40:25 PM »
Forests
Climate change is increasing the vulnerability of many U.S. forests through fire, insect infestations, drought, and disease outbreaks. Forests play an important role in absorbing and storing carbon dioxide, but the rate of uptake is projected to decline.

Explore interactions between climate change and forests. 

From:  the National Climate Assessment
http://nca2014.globalchange.gov/report/sectors/forests

« Last Edit: October 11, 2015, 07:57:42 PM by Sigmetnow »
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #1 on: October 13, 2015, 04:15:43 PM »
The Rapid and Startling Decline Of World’s Vast Boreal Forests

Scientists are becoming increasingly concerned about the fate of the huge boreal forest that spans from Scandinavia to northern Canada. Unprecedented warming in the region is jeopardizing the future of a critical ecosystem that makes up nearly a third of the earth’s forest cover.

http://e360.yale.edu/feature/the_rapid_and_startling_decline_of_worlds_vast_boreal_forests/2919/
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #2 on: December 10, 2015, 03:00:50 PM »
Quote
In a surprising new study, scientists say they’ve pinned down the climate factor most strongly tied to variations in terrestrial carbon storage — that is, the ability of plants and other features of the Earth’s surface to take up carbon, thus preventing it from going into the atmosphere. They’re arguing that the biggest driver is tropical nighttime temperatures, which are expected to warm at a faster rate than average temperatures otherwise will.
...
The idea here is that on warm nights, plants — and other parts of the ecosystem as well, potentially — are consuming and using up more of their sugars and losing that carbon to the atmosphere more than they do on cooler nights,” Anderegg said.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/12/09/the-surprising-factor-affecting-carbon-storage-in-the-worlds-forests/
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #3 on: December 31, 2015, 02:15:31 PM »
California Drought Puts Tens of Millions of Big Trees at Risk: Study
Quote
As many as 58 million of California's large trees are at risk due to the ongoing drought, according to a new study — and researchers say that means big changes may be ahead for the state's forests even if El Nino does drive increased rainfall in the coming year.

Using imaging tools on board the Carnegie Airborne Observatory, ecologist Greg Asner and a team from the Carnegie Institution for Science surveyed forests affected by the drought that's been ongoing since 2012. Their research, which shows how California's forest canopies have lost water over time, was published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/california-drought/california-drought-puts-tens-millions-big-trees-risk-study-n486861
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #4 on: January 27, 2016, 02:04:22 PM »
Nine-year-old boy plants seed that yields 3 trillion trees
Quote
Felix challenged his classmates—and ultimately, children throughout the world—to plant a million trees in each country, an idea that grew into an international youth organization called “Plant-for-the-Planet.” In 2011, the UNEP turned its Billion Tree Campaign over to the organization Felix had started. By that time, the UN program had celebrated the planting of 12 billion trees.
Quote
The team also found that on average, some 15 billion trees are lost each year while only 5 billion new trees are gained, a net loss of 10 billion trees per year. So if we want to maintain the current total of 3 trillion, we need to achieve some combination of planting a lot more trees and reducing the number that are lost.
http://climate.nasa.gov/news/2393/
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #5 on: January 29, 2016, 01:53:34 PM »
Forest Loss Pushes Far Beyond Plantation Boundaries in South America, Africa
Quote
Which of the world’s forests are natural, and which have been planted by humans?

It seems like a simple question, but researchers have been struggling to answer it for years. Satellites can’t easily distinguish between primary and secondary forests, which occur naturally, and planted forests, which are created and managed by people to supply timber, rubber and other commodities. And few countries provide accurate maps of plantation locations.

But we’re getting closer. Researchers from Global Forest Watch and Transparent World recently mapped tree plantations in seven heavily forested nations, and found that in most of the countries, more than 90 percent of tree cover loss is occurring within natural forests. That’s a problem since natural forests, especially those in the tropics, provide much greater climate, water and biodiversity benefits over planted landscapes.
http://www.wri.org/blog/2016/01/forest-loss-pushes-far-beyond-plantation-boundaries-south-america-africa
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #6 on: January 29, 2016, 04:41:01 PM »
World heritage forests burn as global tragedy unfolds in Tasmania
‘Devastating’ long-term prognosis for ancient Gondwana ecosystem as bushfires turn trees more than 1,000 years old to tinder
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jan/27/world-heritage-forests-burn-as-global-tragedy-unfolds-in-tasmania
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #7 on: January 31, 2016, 12:48:42 AM »
Chinese Oil Companies to Buy One-Third of Ecuador's Rainforests
Quote
In a move that has angered local tribes and environmental activists, Ecuador plans to sell more than a third of its rainforests to Chinese oil companies.

The country's Amazonian rainforest measures 8.1 million hectares (20 million acres) in size – slightly larger than the total area of South Carolina – according to a 2008 study published in PLOS ONE. The reason for this sale is twofold: Ecuador owes China billions of dollars in debt, and the country's rainforests are rich in oil reserves, the report added.

As of last summer, Ecuador was at least $7 billion in debt to China, Reuters said. That's more than 10 percent of the country's GDP, and it gave Chinese oil companies the ability to bargain their way into those useful rainforests.
https://weather.com/science/environment/news/ecuador-rainforests-sold-to-china
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #8 on: March 07, 2016, 03:57:18 AM »
Risk level rises for North American forests
Quote
“Our analysis shows virtually all US forests are now experiencing change and are vulnerable to future declines. Given the uncertainty in our understanding of how forest species and stands adapt to rapid change, it’s going to be difficult to anticipate the type of forests that will be here in 20 to 40 years.”
Quote
“When you chop down trees, you create hotspots in the landscape that are just scorched by the sun. These hotspots can change the way that heat moves through a landscape,” says the report’s lead author, Kika Tuff, a PhD student at the university’s department of ecology and evolutionary biology.

Low air pressure in the cleared spots pulls the cool moist air from the shade of the trees, to be replaced by hot, dry air. The cleared areas then get the rainfall, while the nearby forest dries.

The warming effect is most pronounced within between 20 and 100 metres of the forest’s edge, where temperatures can be as much as 8°C higher than deep in the forest interior.

Since 20% of the world’s remaining forests lie within 100 metres of an edge, and more than 70% lie within a kilometre of an edge, the discovery suggests that the warming effect could be happening anywhere, or everywhere.
http://climatenewsnetwork.net/risk-level-rises-for-north-american-forests/
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #9 on: March 10, 2016, 01:42:37 PM »
Forest restoration: from Stone Age to drone age
Forest restoration still relies on back-breaking manual labor with basic tools like spades, machetes, and hoes. But now researchers are developing techniques for automated forest restoration — or AFR — using drones to survey forests, gather and disperse seeds, and control weeds, among other possibilities.
http://news.mongabay.com/2016/03/forest-restoration-from-stone-age-to-drone-age/
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #10 on: March 14, 2016, 12:29:49 AM »
World’s largest sovereign wealth fund just dropped 11 companies over deforestation
Quote
Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG), the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, dropped 11 companies in 2015 over their connections to forest destruction.

The GPFG, which manages $828 billion worth of funds, released its annual report for 2015 today, revealing that six palm oil companies, four pulp and paper companies, and one coal company were dropped from its investment portfolio.
http://news.mongabay.com/2016/03/worlds-largest-sovereign-wealth-fund-just-dropped-11-companies-over-deforestation/
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #11 on: March 20, 2016, 03:56:10 PM »
China's forest conservation programs show a decade of improvement in tree cover. 
Quote
But that didn't mean China's thriving manufacturing industry was just going without timber. The nation now sees significant timber imports from places like Vietnam, Madagascar, and Russia, Dr. Viña says. "We think that success in reducing deforestation in China is basically being transferred into deforestation in other regions," he says.
Globally, deforestation continues, but at a slowing pace.
Quote
Although global deforestation has yet to reverse course, reports do suggest it is slowing. In fact, global deforestation rates have been cut in half since 1990, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA). In the 1990s, an average of 0.18 percent of the world's forests were lost each year, but from 2010 to 2015, that average loss dropped to 0.08 percent.

"It is encouraging to see that net deforestation is decreasing and that some countries in all regions are showing impressive progress. Among others, they include Brazil, Chile, China, Cape Verde, Costa Rica, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Turkey, Uruguay, and Viet Nam," FAO Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva said in a press release in 2015.

And with decreasing deforestation, that means more carbon storage. The FAO also reported that carbon emissions from forests decreased by 25 percent from 2001 to 2015.
http://m.csmonitor.com/Science/2016/0319/China-s-forest-conservation-program-shows-proof-of-success
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #12 on: March 23, 2016, 04:03:14 PM »
Ash dieback and beetle attack likely to 'wipe out' ash trees in UK and Europe
Quote
Almost all the ash trees in the UK and across Europe are likely to be wiped out by a “double whammy” of a bright green borer beetle and the fungus that causes ash dieback, according to a comprehensive new academic analysis.

The loss of the ash, one of the most abundant tree species in the UK, would mean losing even more trees than the 15 million elms killed by Dutch elm disease in the 1970s. Ash is the most common hedgerow tree, with 60,000 miles of tree lines. It is the second most common tree in woodland, after the oak, and there are many ash trees in towns and cities.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/mar/23/ash-dieback-and-beetle-attack-likely-to-wipe-out-all-ash-trees-in-uk-and-europe

Image:   Dead branches in the crown of an ash tree (Fraxinus excelsior) in Frankfurt Oder, Germany. Photograph: Patrick Pleul/dpa/Corbis
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #13 on: March 27, 2016, 01:25:36 AM »
Poland approves large-scale logging in Europe's last primeval forest
Greenpeace accuses government of ignoring scientists over fate of Białowieża woodland, home to 20,000 animal species and Europe’s tallest trees
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/mar/26/poland-approves-large-scale-logging-in-europes-last-primeval-forest
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sidd

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Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #14 on: March 27, 2016, 05:12:31 AM »
Re: Poland old forest logging

Amazing. Market value of 180K cu. m of wood even discounted and amortized over a decade is worth all that old forest.

There is a quote from Aldo Leopold to the effect that a trade presented as getting something for giving nothing turns into getting nothing for losing everything. You can't bargain with Nature in terms of human values, She sets the terms, and exacts a hard bargain.


wili

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Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #15 on: March 27, 2016, 05:50:38 PM »
Are you thinking of Wendell Berry's:

“We thought we were getting something for nothing,

But we were getting nothing

for everything.”
"A force de chercher de bonnes raisons, on en trouve; on les dit; et après on y tient, non pas tant parce qu'elles sont bonnes que pour ne pas se démentir." Choderlos de Laclos "You struggle to come up with some valid reasons, then cling to them, not because they're good, but just to not back down."

sidd

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Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #16 on: March 27, 2016, 06:31:50 PM »
Yes, of course it was Berry ...

Sigmetnow

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Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #17 on: May 11, 2016, 06:46:47 PM »
Invasive insects are ravaging U.S. forests, and it’s costing us billions
Quote
Last week, a group of researchers published saddening news about “sudden oak death,” spread by an invasive water mold, that has killed over a million trees in coastal California. The pathogen, they found, simply cannot be stopped — though it can still be contained, and the harm mitigated. But it is too extensively established now in California to eradicate.

Unfortunately, it’s a familiar story. The U.S. is subject to the introduction of 2.5 new invasive insects into its forests ever year, according to a comprehensive new analysis of this problem, in the journal Ecological Applications, by Gary Lovett of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies and a group of 15 colleagues from Harvard, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and numerous other institutions. And that number is just for insects — it doesn’t count diseases, like sudden oak death.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/05/10/the-slow-motion-crisis-thats-facing-u-s-forests/
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #18 on: May 15, 2016, 03:26:11 PM »
Even without replanting efforts!

Young Forests Can Store ‘Enormous’ Amounts of Carbon
Quote
Woodland areas that regrow after forest fires, logging operations or other disturbances can sequester huge amounts of carbon dioxide and they play an unexpectedly valuable role in mitigating climate change, according to a study by 60 scientists from across the globe.

The research, published Friday in the journal Science Advances, is the first to quantify how much carbon these so-called second-growth forests can sequester, and it turns out it’s huge. The scientists found that over the span of 40 years, Latin American second-growth forests can stash away the equivalent of 21 years worth of the region’s human carbon dioxide emissions.
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/young-forests-store-enormous-amounts-carbon-20348
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #19 on: June 22, 2016, 09:52:32 PM »
Officials announce over 66 million trees dead in California
Coordinated effort continues to remove dead trees
Quote
Sacramento - As wildfires burn across California, new estimates on the number of dead trees in California were announced, prompting continued concern for California’s forest health and wildfire danger. Today the US Forest Service released the outcome of its latest aerial surveys over California forestland, finding that over 66 million trees have now died due to drought and bark beetles since 2010. That number is up from 29 million dead trees in 2015 and 3.3 million in 2014.
http://calfire.ca.gov/communications/downloads/newsreleases/2016/2016_TreeMortality.pdf
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DoomInTheUK

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Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #20 on: June 23, 2016, 11:00:43 AM »
...over 66 million trees have now died due to drought and bark beetles since 2010. That number is up from 29 million dead trees in 2015 and 3.3 million in 2014.

A 2000% increase in just a couple of years. If that's not a sign that it's out of control, then I don't know what its!

AbruptSLR

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Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #21 on: June 30, 2016, 05:25:51 PM »
Addressing deforestation alone will be insufficient to maintain biodiversity in the future:

http://phys.org/news/2016-06-deforestation-tropical-biodiversity.html

See also:

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-36656443

Extract: "Human disturbances are making the Amazon rainforest more flammable, according to researchers."
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Paladiea

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Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #22 on: July 11, 2016, 03:10:56 AM »
The most enjoyable way to think about heat transfer through radiation is to picture a Star Wars laser battle, where every atom and molecule is constantly firing at every other atom and molecule.

Paladiea

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Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #23 on: July 11, 2016, 09:29:31 PM »
Amazon no longer a carbon sink thanks to drought. Should I also crosspost this in the drought section?

https://www.exeter.ac.uk/news/research/title_527669_en.html
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AbruptSLR

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Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #24 on: July 17, 2016, 12:20:04 PM »
Bad news about Australian mangroves from Queensland to the Northern Territory:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-10/unprecedented-10000-hectares-of-mangroves-die/7552968

Extract: "Close to 10,000 hectares of mangroves have died across a stretch of coastline reaching from Queensland to the Northern Territory.

International mangroves expert Dr Norm Duke said he had no doubt the "dieback" was related to climate change.

"It's a world-first in terms of the scale of mangrove that have died," he told the ABC."
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #25 on: July 19, 2016, 09:41:19 PM »
Quote
Eric Holthaus:  What a tree looks like ~10 years after being hit by a EF-5 tornado. Huge trunk, tiny branches. #greensburg
https://mobile.twitter.com/EricHolthaus/status/755195895956766720
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #26 on: July 20, 2016, 09:33:50 PM »
Cattle Grazing Is Now Causing Massive Deforestation Hotspots In The Peruvian Amazon
Quote
Deforestation in the Amazon has been a growing problem over the past five decades, with ranchers leading the way in clearing rainforest for cattle and cultivation. But while Brazil, the largest country in South America, seems on track to reduce deforestation, other major Amazonian countries like Peru are increasingly struggling to protect their share of the world’s largest rainforest.

In fact, a new wave of deforestation is underway in the Huanuco region of central Peru, which now has the highest concentration of the deforestation in the country, according to an Amazon Conservation Association (ACA) report published this month. The report is based on algorithms of satellite data from 2013 through 2015 and points to cattle grazing as the main culprit, Matt Finer, senior research specialist at the ACA told ThinkProgress. “We just hadn’t really dealt with that driver before. You hear that more in the context of Brazil.”
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/07/19/3796321/peruvian-amazon-shows-new-deforestation-hotspots/
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #27 on: August 01, 2016, 06:04:11 PM »
From the TV show, "House."
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #28 on: November 19, 2016, 11:05:38 PM »
102 million dead California trees 'unprecedented in our modern history,' officials say
Quote
The number of dead trees in California’s drought-stricken forests has risen dramatically to more than 102 million in what officials described as an unparalleled ecological disaster that heightens the danger of massive wildfires and damaging erosion.

Officials said they were alarmed by the increase in dead trees, which they estimated to have risen by 36 million since the government’s last survey in May. The U.S. Forest Service, which performs such surveys of forest land, said Friday that 62 million trees have died this year alone.

“The scale of die-off in California is unprecedented in our modern history,” said Randy Moore, the forester for the region of the U.S. Forest Service that includes California. Trees are dying “at a rate much quicker than we thought.”

Scientists say five years of drought are to blame for much of the destruction. The lack of rain has put California’s trees under considerable stress, making them more susceptible to the organisms, such as beetles, that can kill them.  Unusually high temperatures have added to the trees’ demand for water, exacerbating an already grim situation.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-dead-trees-20161118-story.html
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Shared Humanity

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Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #29 on: November 20, 2016, 05:10:39 PM »
This story is playing out all over the planet and is almost always related to AGW.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/whats-killing-the-aspen-93130832/

Sigmetnow

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Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #30 on: December 10, 2016, 04:57:10 PM »
Unhealthy forests affect distant ecosystems
Quote
Ecologists have demonstrated, once again, the global importance of healthy forests. Fell enough woodland in North America, and the consequences make themselves felt in the forests of Siberia.

And clear the tropical rainforest in the Amazon, and the Siberian conifers experience even greater cold and drought. This “teleconnection” confirms that activities in one region can disturb the climate equilibrium in another.
http://climatenewsnetwork.net/unhealthy-forests-affect-distant-ecosystems/
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #31 on: December 27, 2016, 04:18:30 AM »
California Forests Failing to Regrow After Intense Wildfires
Huge, destructive fires are more common with climate change, and the loss of regeneration threatens to exacerbate global warming.
Quote
There are warning signs that some forests in the western U.S. may have a hard time recovering from the large and intense wildfires that have become more common as the climate warms.

After studying 14 burned areas across 10 national forests in California, scientists from UC Davis and the U.S. Forest Service said recent fires have killed so many mature, seed-producing trees across such large areas that the forests can't re-seed themselves. And because of increasingly warm temperatures, burned areas are quickly overgrown by shrubs, which can prevent trees from taking root.

"With high-severity fires, the seed source drops off," said study co-author Kevin Lynch, a forest researcher at UC Davis. "We aren't seeing the conditions that are likely to promote natural regeneration."

Historically, severe fires were uncommon in the forests covered by the study, largely made up of yellow pines and mixed conifers, but extended drought and heatwaves have exacerbated fire conditions across the West. The changing climate is also seen as a factor in recent wildfires in the Southeast, which is also mired in drought.

For the study, published Wednesday in the journal Ecosphere, the researchers surveyed 1,500 plots in burned areas at different elevations in the Sierra Nevadas, Klamath Mountains, and North Coast regions. There was no natural conifer regeneration at all in 43 percent of the plots, they reported.
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/21122016/california-forests-wildfires-climate-change
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #32 on: February 18, 2017, 05:57:22 PM »
It’s not your imagination. More trees than ever are standing dead in Colorado forests
Annual survey estimates there are 834 million standing-dead trees, threatening watersheds and worsening risk of ruinous fires
http://www.denverpost.com/2017/02/15/dead-trees-colorado-forests/
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #33 on: April 08, 2017, 05:10:11 PM »
Brazil halves environment budget amid rising Amazon deforestation
Quote
In a bid to contain a growing budget deficit, the government has slashed the funding to enforce forest protection laws

The Brazilian government is cutting its environment ministry budget by 51% as part of a bid to limit the country’s spiralling deficit.

The cuts come as deforestation rates are rising, driven by demand for timber, soy and beef. The Amazon region saw a 29% increase in forest clearance last year, according to preliminary data from Brazil’s National Space Research Institute.

It is an even steeper drop in spending than the 31% Donald Trump’s administration is proposing for the US Environmental Protection Agency.

The environment ministry oversees Ibama, the agency responsible for enforcing laws to protect the forest. Sharp spending cuts risk weakening its capacity to carry out inspections, warned NGO Observatorio do Clima.
...
http://www.climatechangenews.com/2017/04/03/brazil-halves-environment-budget-amid-rising-amazon-deforestation/
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AbruptSLR

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Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #34 on: April 18, 2017, 08:26:04 PM »
The linked article is entitled: "Business as Usual: A Resurgence of Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon", and it details the continuing sad story for tropical forest deforestation:

http://e360.yale.edu/features/business-as-usual-a-resurgence-of-deforestation-in-the-brazilian-amazon

Extract: "After years of positive signs, deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon is on the rise, with a sharp increase in 2016. As powerful economic forces push for development …"
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sidd

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Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #35 on: June 30, 2017, 07:36:01 AM »
Pine bark beetle is killing east yellowstone and spreading, huge swaths dying. Looks like fall, except pine don't change color in fall and it ain't fall. I hear the wood gets color too, but of course, no logging in yellowstone ... West yellowstone is better, but i saw it occasionally as far west as Gallatin. And as far north as three forks, montana where the jefferson, madison and galltin come together to make the missouri.  Nothing is replacing as a succession species that i saw. That whole area is monoculture pine, too much for the beetle to eat, and winters not cold enuf to kill them. One of the people i talked to is trying to plant spruce, but it's hard. Pheromone packets help a little. Saw it as far east as nebraska, but more varied trees there.

NatGeo article here:

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2015/04/pine-beetles/rosner-text

Incidentally, the trout fishing is superlative this year on the madison and the shoshone.

sidd
« Last Edit: July 02, 2017, 05:21:12 AM by sidd »

sidd

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Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #36 on: August 24, 2017, 09:53:31 PM »
Another 50K sq. km. of the Amazon opened to mining. Temer and his corrupt gang busy at work. Read and weep.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/aug/24/brazil-abolishes-huge-amazon-reserve-in-biggest-attack-in-50-years

sidd

sidd

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Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #37 on: February 27, 2018, 12:12:16 AM »
Hre is paper about carbon sequestration potential of forest topsoils in the USA. The authors estimate 2 Petagram C by 2100 .

DOI: 10.1126/science.aal4369

discussion at

https://phys.org/news/2018-02-reforesting-topsoils-massive-amounts-carbon.html

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Sigmetnow

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Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #38 on: July 11, 2018, 04:20:59 PM »
TOP CLIMATE SCIENTIST JOINS COALITION IN CALLING FOR AN END TO CLEARCUTS AND TIMBER PLANTATIONS
July 10, 2018
Quote
One of the world’s leading climate scientists joined a coalition of 18 conservation, scientific, and community organizations calling on Oregon’s new Carbon Policy Office (CPO) and the Department of Forestry (ODF) to do an about-face on the state’s evolving forest carbon policy and to immediately implement measures to curb the harmful climate impacts of clearcutting and tree plantations. In a thirteen-page letter sent to CPO Director Kristen Sheeran and State Forester Peter Daugherty, the coalition urges the state to abandon the timber industry’s preferred ‘hands off’ approach to forests and climate change in favor of a forest carbon policy based on science and principles of environmental justice. The letter was also sent to forest policy makers in Washington state since that state is on a similar track with respect to forests and climate. ...
https://sustainable-economy.org/top-climate-scientist-joins-coalition-in-calling-for-an-end-to-clearcuts-and-timber-plantations/
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Csnavywx

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Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #39 on: July 12, 2018, 03:30:09 PM »
Pine bark beetle is killing east yellowstone and spreading, huge swaths dying. Looks like fall, except pine don't change color in fall and it ain't fall. I hear the wood gets color too, but of course, no logging in yellowstone ... West yellowstone is better, but i saw it occasionally as far west as Gallatin. And as far north as three forks, montana where the jefferson, madison and galltin come together to make the missouri.  Nothing is replacing as a succession species that i saw. That whole area is monoculture pine, too much for the beetle to eat, and winters not cold enuf to kill them. One of the people i talked to is trying to plant spruce, but it's hard. Pheromone packets help a little. Saw it as far east as nebraska, but more varied trees there.

NatGeo article here:

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2015/04/pine-beetles/rosner-text

Incidentally, the trout fishing is superlative this year on the madison and the shoshone.

sidd

I was up in Shoshone and Yellowstone back in 2016 and was shocked at how bad it was. I have photographs from the 80s and early 90s when I used to go up there as a kid and it had totally changed. The snow patches and ice had visibly retreated way up and in some spots beetle kill went all the way up to the tree line.

I thought I had seen the worst, but that came when we trekked up to the Yoho National Forest in Canada. Huge swaths of that forest were dead or dying when we went through. It hadn't yet gotten to Banff, but it was knocking on the door. I feel fortunate I got to see Banff before it hit. What a beautiful place.


sidd

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Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #41 on: July 12, 2018, 10:06:16 PM »
This year i am seeing bark beetle damage in PA. Been a hard winter, so mebbe it will abate a little.

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Sigmetnow

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Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #42 on: July 14, 2018, 09:37:52 PM »
Nine of the 13 oldest baobabs, aged between 1,000 and 2,500 years, have died over the past dozen years.  The sudden collapse is "an event of unprecedented magnitude."

Africa's oldest baobab trees are dying from a mysterious threat
Rising temperatures, increasing drought due to climate change is a suspected factor
https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.4745548
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Alexander555

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Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #43 on: July 14, 2018, 09:55:17 PM »
I have seen several of them, in Zimbabwe and in the Kruger National Park in South-Africa. And the most Southern Baobab is half way the Kruger Park. So they prefer hotter and drier regions.

jacksmith4tx

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Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #44 on: July 17, 2018, 09:34:07 PM »
Wildfires In The U.S. Are Getting Bigger
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/wildfires-in-the-u-s-are-getting-bigger/
"That dichotomy — fewer fires, more land ablaze — is in keeping with long-standing trends. Since 1985, the trend in the number of wildfires hasn’t changed much, but the trend for total acreage burned has gone up and up and up. So what gives? Experts say there’s no single cause in the midst of all that smoke. Instead, the trend is probably related to the interaction of changing climate, short-term weather patterns and a philosophical shift in how we manage both forests and fires."
...
"Fire managers began to change their philosophy and allow some fires to burn in a more natural way in the 1970s.... Over the last 15 or 20 years, that’s become more of the norm. In the past, every little fire that started got put out before it burned much land. Today, one fire might be allowed to eat up much more built-up kindling... It’s better to let the fire burn more acreage than risk lives unnecessarily.

But transitioning to a more natural sort of fire management isn’t necessarily going to return the forests to a past state of balance with the blaze, Collins warned. Decades of extreme fire prevention have altered forest adaptation. Areas that burn severely today might never grow back the same way. “You can’t just turn the switch back on,” he said. “We might be turning [some forests] into shrublands.”
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sidd

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Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #45 on: August 15, 2018, 07:15:43 PM »

Alexander555

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Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #46 on: August 15, 2018, 09:28:48 PM »
To scale up European forests there has to be water in the top soil. This year some trees started to drop their leaves in July. If they stop growing in July because of a lack of water. And they stop growing when the winter arrives. There is not much time left to grow.

vox_mundi

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Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #47 on: December 02, 2018, 04:37:48 PM »
Hot Weather Killed 'Up to Half' of Young Christmas Trees
https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/uk-wales-46301490

Quote
The British Christmas Tree Growers Association (BCTGA) said some of its members had lost up to half of what they had planted in the spring.

It could hit supplies in eight to 10 years' time, while availability of smaller trees could be lower this year.
Quote
... "The fierce sun of the summer baked the roots, and they dried out. It's cost me around £7,000," said Mr Morgan, who supplied the tree for 10 Downing Street last year.   
Concerned that climate change will cause ongoing issues, he is now considering changing the types of trees he plants. 
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #48 on: March 19, 2019, 05:38:19 PM »
Iconic Forests Reaching Climate Tipping Points in American West, Study Finds
Quote
Climate change in the American West may be crossing an ominous threshold, making parts of the region inhospitable for some native pine and fir forests to regrow after wildfires, new research suggests.

As temperatures rise, the hotter, drier air and drier soil conditions are increasingly unsuitable for young Douglas firs and ponderosa pines to take root and thrive in some of the region's low-elevation forests, scientists write in a study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Wildfires in these areas could lead to abrupt ecosystem changes, from forest to non-forest, that would otherwise take decades to centuries, the study says.

"Once a certain threshold was crossed, then the probability of tree establishment decreased rapidly," said Kimberley Davis, a researcher at the University of Montana and lead author of the study. "The climate conditions are just a lot less suitable for regeneration." ...
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/11032019/forest-wildfire-climate-change-tipping-point-study-douglas-fir-ponderosa-pines-west
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Forests: An Endangered Resource
« Reply #49 on: March 26, 2019, 05:00:36 PM »
Hurricane Maria Devastated Puerto Rico’s Forests at an Unprecedented Rate
The tropical storm snapped and uprooted trees long thought to be the hardiest—and some of the most important for keeping carbon out of the atmosphere.
Quote
As Hurricane Maria raged across the island with rampaging rains and winds gusting at up to 155 miles per hour, it inflicted serious damage on 20 to 40 million trees. Some species were hit harder than others, and in the aftermath of the onslaught, the makeup of Puerto Rico’s lush ecosystems has likely been permanently altered. And Maria’s destructive powers might well be a harbinger of far worse times to come: With global temperatures on the rise, the researchers forecast that similar storms will follow.

“These hurricanes are going to kill more trees...the factors that protected many trees in the past will no longer apply,” study author María Uriarte, an environmental biologist at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, said in a statement.
...
But not all species were affected in the same way. “There were winners and losers,” Uriarte told Mark Tutton at CNN. Uriarte was surprised to find that large, old hardwoods like tabonucos (candlewoods) and ausubos (bulletwoods)—thick, dense, slow-growing breeds that have traditionally showed resilience in the face of natural disasters—were among the fallen. The loss of these staple species further endangers the birds and other wildlife that typically make their homes in their branches, trunks, and leaves. Others, like the common sierra palm, which have the flexibility to sway and buckle in the gales and easily resprout after damage, fared far better.

Ultimately, these long-term shifts in composition could make for “lower saturated and less diverse forests,” Uriarte said in a statement. And that could have some serious long-term consequences.


With their lower density, palms can’t store as much carbon as hardwoods. If these forests morph into glens of short, skinny, light-bodied trees, they might not do as good a job keeping carbon out of the atmosphere. Additionally, every bout of forest destruction takes trees out of commission, compromising the ability of Earth’s ecosystems to stave off climatic changes, Yadvinder Malhi, an ecosystem scientist at the University of Oxford who was not involved in the study, told Tutton at CNN.

Emissions from the decay of felled trees could even begin to outweigh the carbon taken in by replacements, turning these forests into net carbon emitters. In other words, the landscapes of the future might end up feeding the very changes that put them at risk. ...
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/hurricane-maria-devastated-puerto-ricos-forests-at-an-unprecedented-rate/
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