Forests across the world dying off as climate warms

[cal04]

Scientists say the future habitability of the Earth may be at stake
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44740060/ns/technology_and_science-the_new_york_times/

The trees spanning many of the mountainsides of western Montana glow an earthy red, like a broadleaf forest at the beginning of autumn.

But these trees are not supposed to turn red. They are evergreens, falling victim to beetles that used to be controlled in part by bitterly cold winters. As the climate warms, scientists say, that control is no longer happening.

(snip)
Scientists say the future habitability of the Earth might well depend on the answer. For, while a majority of the world’s people now live in cities, they depend more than ever on forests, in a way that few of them understand.

(snip)
Scientists have figured out — with the precise numbers deduced only recently — that forests have been absorbing more than a quarter of the carbon dioxide that people are putting into the air by burning fossil fuels and other activities. It is an amount so large that trees are effectively absorbing the emissions from all the world’s cars and trucks.

[OKIsItJustMe]

1. See also…

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=312553&mesg_id=312553

[corkhead]

2. I wonder how many trees I would need to plant to offset my carbon footprint

[OKIsItJustMe]

3. Try this calculator

http://www.carbonify.com/carbon-calculator.htm

[fascisthunter]

4. oh man.... people really should try this out!

[corkhead]

5. That's awsome. You should post that as its own thread.

[izquierdista]

6. Not exactly dying, but moving

I'm sure that there are places in northern Alberta and Nunavut where it's now getting warm enough for these trees to thrive. What we can do is help them get started and established, rather than wait for nature's seed dispersal methods to take their course.

Trees are being planted in Greenland and with the warmer climate, they are thriving: http://www.stamps.gl/en-US/news/newslist/Sider/05012011.aspx

Part of adapting to climate change is going to be planting species of trees that will thrive in the new climate, not trying to save the old ones.

[txlibdem]

8. I guess the key would be to plant trees that the beetles do not like, and a wide variety as well

Chalk up another failure for monoculture. I'm not sure if those are virgin forests but something tells me they aren't.

[izquierdista]

9. Nature's monoculture

Could be natural forests. Sometimes one plant species gets an advantage and puts up a pretty thick stand of just that one. You've seen hillsides covered with aspens? Often, that is just one plant, since new trees sprout up from the extended roots of others. That way, the aspens can crowd out anything else. Maybe one of them will be the next in succession after the death of all the evergreens.

A lot of diversity can be as rare in nature as a monoculture stand. It takes either a lot of luck or a lot of planning to get a diverse plant community where symbiotic interactions reinforce all the members of the community. However, once they get established, they are pretty resilient to attack by insects, fungi and plant diseases. You're right that a wide variety should be planted and then see what does well. Unfortunately, a logging company will probably replant this patch of land, and what makes them the most profit is not going to be a diverse plant community.

[txlibdem]

10. Logging companies do 100% more than Coal, Oil, or Nat Gas to replant after they've harvested

Both my dad and my older brother were loggers many years ago so I do get an inside perspective on a lot of the efforts. But there has to be a better way than mile after mile of exactly the same species of tree. There are many species of evergreens that grow equally straight and tall. It would add minimally to their costs, however, to have multiple nurseries...

Oh, and thanks for the tidbit about Aspens; I hope I can remember that.

[cilla4progress]

7. I rode my horse through one of these forests yesterday

Striking; terrifying; sad.