Plant Stress in a Changing Climate.
The World Bank issued a report called Turn down the heat pointing out the grave danger of temperature increases on nature and food production if the temperature increases into the 3C area
There is good evidence from around the World that plants and animals are adversely effected by changing climate.
The problem is not so much observing that some species of plants are having problems but in linking it to a changing climate. There are frequently several steps between cause and effect,
if we take the Boreal spruce forests of the USA, Canada and Siberia as an example, we can examine a well researched problem.
The problem is not so much observing that some species of plants are having problems but in linking it to a changing climate. There are frequently several steps between cause and effect,
if we take the Boreal spruce forests of the USA, Canada and Siberia as an example, we can examine a well researched problem.
Forest die back.
Steve Running, Professor at the University of Montana gave a very good lecture on the problems of the spruce forests in Montana for the Scrips Annual lecture UCA.
The spruce forests are accustomed to long very cold winters, where the mountains are covered in snow, the snow lingers without melting until August, and the trees roots are constantly sitting in water.
The Mountain Pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins) that lives on spruce is normally killed by temperatures that drop to - 40 C several times during the winter.
With a warmer climate the snow melts earlier, and the snow could be gone by early July and the new snow may not arrive until late September. This leaves the roots very dry and the tree is stressed by drought. Simultaneously, with the warmer winters, the Pine beetles are not killed by very low temperatures and are therefore free to breed and multiply.
The combined effect of drought stress and a mass invasion of Pine beetles is enough to overwhelm the tree and it dies, In this way whole mountainsides are dying. With so many dead trees and a dry forest the whole area is now increasingly susceptible to fire. This scenario applies to Canada and Siberia and all the Boreal forests which hold 29% of the worlds forest cover.
To compound this disaster, Jason Box a scientist who specialises in Greenland, believes that the soot from these fire is speeding the melting of Greenland's ice cap.
The spruce forests are accustomed to long very cold winters, where the mountains are covered in snow, the snow lingers without melting until August, and the trees roots are constantly sitting in water.
The Mountain Pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins) that lives on spruce is normally killed by temperatures that drop to - 40 C several times during the winter.
With a warmer climate the snow melts earlier, and the snow could be gone by early July and the new snow may not arrive until late September. This leaves the roots very dry and the tree is stressed by drought. Simultaneously, with the warmer winters, the Pine beetles are not killed by very low temperatures and are therefore free to breed and multiply.
The combined effect of drought stress and a mass invasion of Pine beetles is enough to overwhelm the tree and it dies, In this way whole mountainsides are dying. With so many dead trees and a dry forest the whole area is now increasingly susceptible to fire. This scenario applies to Canada and Siberia and all the Boreal forests which hold 29% of the worlds forest cover.
To compound this disaster, Jason Box a scientist who specialises in Greenland, believes that the soot from these fire is speeding the melting of Greenland's ice cap.
The effect of climate change.
The last time the world had today's level of 400 part per million of CO2 was four million years ago and the trees and plants at that time were adapted to the climate that went with it. Those trees had taken thousands or years to evolve to match those conditions. The trees we have today are adapted to a CO2 level of 280 PPM and a climate 0.8C cooler than today and are rapidly going into conditions 2C warmer and with dramatical changed rainfall conditions of either drought or flood.
We can expect to see much larger numbers of trees and other plant life dying in the coming years.
We can expect to see much larger numbers of trees and other plant life dying in the coming years.