Carter Terranova
Oct. 21, 2013
Published by: Dartmouth College
Published on: Oct. 15, 2013
URL: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131015103953.htm
Summary:
Climate change has been affecting North American forests in many ways, such as allowing insect outbreaks, plant diseases, and even wildfires. Though, after recent studies Dartmouth College researchers say the increase in temperatures are making some forests grow faster and be less affected by harmful organisms. This can increase forest health, timber production, carbon storage, and water recycling. Tree and plant-killing insects and diseases are natural for forests ecosystems, but with climate change, the "distribution and magnitude of forest pestilence" is being altered very quickly. Also, climate change is altering the biodiversity of the ecosystems, too. One example of this is the pine bark beetle, which has killed trees over more area in the U.S. than wildfires have, this is due the climate change. Over the last 50 years, the coldest winter night temperature averages have increased by 7 degrees, which has caused population explosions in bark beetles because the forests were protected by the coldness of the forests a night, though now they aren't because of the climate change. Also, invasive species are able to become established because of this.
Connection:
The connection to our Ecology unit is the biodiversity in the forests and what happens if a population becomes too big or too small. In the ecosystems unit we learned that biodiversity is very important because it means that if there is a change in the environment, more species will be able to survive and adapt to the changes. In the forests, this is key to the situation because the beetles were able to adapt to the climate change. The biodiversity in the forest lead to the increase in the pine bark beetle because of their ability to adapt to the increase in temperatures. This lead to them killing more trees over more area then ever before. Also, in the ecosystems unit we learned that the way species interact with one another is very important in the respect of the sizes of the populations. The connection is that the beetle's population became too big because of the increase in the temperature and then since the tree's population didn't increase also, the beetles killed off many of the trees. The beetle's population became too large and since they all still needed to eat, they ate the trees, and ended up killing many trees because the populations were not balanced.
Is there a specific type of tree that these beetles are threatening, or is it a wide variety of trees? Are these trees at threat of becoming endangered at the rate the beetles are eating them if it is a singular species?
ReplyDeleteIn the future, how quickly would this problem continue to grow with the increase in climate change? How soon will these trees die off and would it be possible for the beetles to attack other types of trees?
ReplyDeleteThe beetles are only a threat to pine trees and are not doing enough damage to the species of trees to make them become endangered anytime soon, though they have killed the equivalent area of trees to fill Washington state. This is because the growth of the pine trees is increasing in many regions from the atmospheric change which may be increasing the trees' resilience to the beetles. Also, the beetles population in some regions may be declining, leading to the forests environmental and economic benefits to grow. It is not possible for the beetles to attack other species of trees because they only feed on the bark of various pine tree species.
ReplyDelete