Deaths of Old-Growth Trees Double as Western U.S.
Warms
ARCATA, California, January 22, 2009 (ENS)
Death rates of old-growth trees in western U.S. forests have more than
doubled over the past few decades, and the most likely cause of the trend is
regional warming, finds new research to be published Friday in the journal
"Science."
Led by scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey, the research team found
that the increase in dying trees has been pervasive. Tree death rates have
increased across a wide variety of forest types, at all elevations, in trees
of all sizes, and in pines, firs, hemlocks, and other kinds of trees.
Increasing tree mortality rates mean that western forests could become net
sources of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, further speeding up the pace of
global warming, the scientists indicate.
Regardless of the cause, higher tree death rates could lead to substantial
changes in western forests, said Phil van Mantgem, a USGS scientist and
co-leader of the research team.
"The same way that in any group of people a small number will die each year,
in any forest a small number of trees die each year," said van Mantgem. "But
our long-term monitoring shows that tree mortality has been climbing, while
the establishment of replacement trees has not."
The result is that forests have begun to lose trees faster than they are
gaining them, said van Mantgem, a research ecologist with the USGS Redwood
Field Station in Arcata, California.
Dead tree in Sequoia National Park, California (Photo by Nate Stephenson
courtesy USGS)
These changes could change the suitability of forests for wildlife species,
the scientists suggest.
They ruled out a number of possible sources of the increasing tree deaths,
including air pollution, long-term effects of fire suppression, and normal
forest dynamics.
Instead, increasing regional temperature was correlated with tree deaths.
"Average temperature in the West rose by more than 1° F over the last few
decades," said van Mantgem. "While this may not sound like much, it has been
enough to reduce winter snowpack, cause earlier snowmelt, and lengthen the
summer drought."
The lengthening summer drought could be stressing trees, leading to higher
death rates, he said. Warmer temperatures also might favor insects and
diseases that attack trees. Some recent outbreaks of tree-killing bark
beetles in the West have already been linked to warming temperatures.
"Tree death rates are like interest on a bank account - the effects compound
over time," said Nate Stephenson, also with the U.S. Geological Survey and
research team co-leader.
"A doubling of death rates eventually could reduce average tree age in a
forest by half, thus reducing average tree size," said Stephenson, director
of the USGS Sierra Nevada Global Change Research Program.
In some cases, increasing tree deaths could indicate forests vulnerable to
sudden, extensive die-back, similar to forest die-back seen over the last
few years in parts of the southwestern states, Colorado, and British
Columbia.
"That may be our biggest concern," said Stephenson. He worries that the
trend observed by the research team is a prelude to bigger, more abrupt
forest changes.
Complete findings appear in the article, "Widespread increase of tree
mortality rates in the western United States." Scientists with the U.S.
Forest Service, University of Colorado, University of Washington, Oregon
State University, Pennsylvania State University, Northern Arizona
University, and the University of British Columbia contributed to this
research.
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