Warming is altering anatomy of forests

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_17428133

denver and the west

Warming is altering anatomy of forests

By David Frey
Special to The Denver Post
Posted: 02/19/2011 01:00:00 AM MST

ASPEN — Global warming is reshaping forests throughout Colorado and across the West, scientists and public-land managers agreed at a symposium Friday, leaving foresters at pains to deal with a landscape that could look very different in the future.

While some still debate whether the changing climate is due to human-caused pollution, they said climate scientists agree the Earth is heating up, and dying aspen, spruce, piñon and other trees are fingerprints of a warmup.

"The climate is changing," said Forest Service ecologist Linda Joyce, speaking at "Forests at Risk: Climate Change & the Future of the American West."

…

Aspen, the iconic trees of the West, will probably vanish from mountainsides where they once thrived, Joyce said. Pine trees will retreat to cooler climes, and animals that depend on them will follow.

…

[crypto666]

1. Old news

Not sure why this should be such a shocker. The Earth has been in a warming cycle for the past 14,000 years. Fire suppression has done more to alter North American forests than anything.

[XemaSab]

2. Welcome to DU!

Enjoy your stay!

:evilgrin:

[bhikkhu]

3. The pine bark beetle has done more than fire suppression

...at least in my neck of the woods there are hundreds of square miles of dead pine, as the winters haven't been cold enough to keep the larvae in check. I don't think that any recorded fire has ever killed so many trees. Elsewhere I hear the spruce beetles are the problem, but in both cases there are no direct causes except warm winters. You can say the forest is dead, but it'll get cold again so it will be back, but its still dead because of warming.

[NickB79]

5. The planet should have been entering a new Ice Age by now

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/09/090903-arctic-warming-ice-age.html

If natural climate cycles were responsible, we should be seeing an expansion of spruce, pine and aspen forests, not a contraction.

[jimlup]

4. Colorado will soon look more like the Andes in Peru

Many fewer trees and much drier and more dessert like.