DRY CALIFORNIA FORESTS AND CLIMATE CHANGE
Dying California forests offer a glimpse into climate change; Experts say effects could be worse in Canada
Kim Brunhaber, August 13, 2015 (CBC News)
“…Every year over the last decade and a half, the U.S. Geological Survey has descended on Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks in California to give 17,000 trees a physical. But in a growing number of cases, what's starting off as a check-up is turning into an autopsy…The cause of death is usually insects or fungus, but researchers suspect it's almost always because of one culprit: lack of water…Normally, only about two per cent of the trees in their study areas die. But this year, that number has grown to 13 per cent…For the past four years, California has been going through a record-setting drought…[A recent study of California’s forests] found that 12 million trees died due to drought this year alone…[No tree, including Giant Sequoias, seems] immune…[A] significant number of older trees that had shrugged off the Dust Bowl in the 1930s were losing as much as half of their leaves…” click here for more
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home