Scientists Confirm Massive Heat-Caused Pinyon Pine Dieoffs In UT, AZ

[hatrack]

Newswise — The high heat that accompanied the recent drought was the underlying cause of death for millions of pinyon pines throughout the Southwest, according to new research. The resulting landscape change will affect the ecosystem for decades. Hotter temperatures coupled with drought are the type of event predicted by global climate change models. The new finding suggests big, fast changes in ecosystems may result from global climate change.

“We documented a massive forest die-off – and it’s a concern because it’s the type of thing we can expect more of with global warming,” said research team leader David D. Breshears, a professor of natural resources in The University of Arizona’s School of Natural Resources in Tucson and a member of UA's Institute for the Study of Planet Earth.

At study sites in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah, the team found that from 40 to 80 percent of the pinyon trees died between 2002 and 2003. The researchers confirmed the massive regional dieback of vegetation through both aerial surveys and analysis of satellite images of those states’ pinyon-juniper woodlands.

“Scientists are concerned about how fast vegetation will respond to climate change, but we don’t have many examples to test our ideas,” Breshears said. “Here we’ve clearly documented a case that shows how big and fast the die-off can be.” The drought coupled with particularly high temperatures set the trees up to be susceptible to insect infestations. Bark beetles delivered the knock-out punch. “It was the drought – beetles don’t get trees unless the trees are really water-stressed,” Breshears said.

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http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/515098/?sc=rssn

[mike_c]

1. next up: fire....

All that standing fuel.

[skids]

5. Are two year old dead trees still viable lumber?

They should get in there and sequester that carbon in some particle board.

[mike_c]

8. not much value after the beetle-vectored fungi get them....

It's the fungi that actually finish off the trees, not the bark beetles. Most of the developing beetle brood's nutrition comes from the fungus, not the wood itself. Adult beetles innoculate the trees they attack with spores carried in tiny indentations on their body. The beetles rely on the fungi rapidly proliferating within the wood, blocking trachieds to put the tree into terminal water stress and shutting down resin flow. Girdling by beetle larval feeding would take weeks or months to kill the trees, and the beetles have to overcome their defenses within a few days at most. Anyway, the fungal growth seriously degrades wood quality. Beetle killed trees can sometimes be reasonably harvested real quickly after the infestation, but not for very long afterwards. Maybe chipped for particle board. Maybe. But not after this long-- those trees will be losing their bark by now, and they'll be riddled by fungi.

[Poppyseedman]

2. Cool,

We will have plenty of firewood to burn this winter when we can't afford fuel to heat our homes :sarcasm:

[jody]

4. We can watch the flames flicker while we starve. n/t

[jwirr]

7. Pine soot is the main reason for chimney fires.

[jody]

3. How many decades before the midwest becomes a desert? n/t

[jwirr]

6. Deforestation is one of the leading causes of the drop in water

levels and this in turn speeds up the changes to desert climates. When Iowa farmers in our area began taking all the small groves and trees along the rivers out so they could farm the land it led to two things: a drop in the level of water in the wells and river banks washing down the river in floods. The deforestation in the southwest is even worse because they are a much more vulnerable area.

[amandabeech]

12. Do you think that low grain prices and another look at cutting subsidies

might cause some farmers to use whatever conservation or other set asides to revegetate the most vulnerable land?

Paying farmers to engage in anti-erosion set-asides may be one way to funnel money to farmers though methods immune from attack under the WTO rules.

[jwirr]

13. I think that they were paid to use conservation methods

during the Eisenhower years. It was a good program. Many farmers used terracing and rotation/fallow fields etc. We do need to keep small farmers functional because local agriculture is going to be very important in the coming oil peak/climate change era.

[texpatriot2004]

9. Hmm, didn't mention Pinon Forests in NM? nm

[freethought]

10. I was in NM not long ago.

Acres upon acres of dead Pinon pines. To say these dry, dead trees are a fire hazard is an understatement. As a few locals told me the die off was from an Asian species of beatle. As I travelled North to Colorado the die off seemed less severe. The beatle didn't seem to reach that far. I could be wrong.

[texpatriot2004]

11. We make an annual trip to Ruidoso and the drought/heat/beetle

problem is evident. What part of NM were you in?