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Climate change increases risks of tree death

Date:
May 12, 2022
Source:
University of Utah
Summary:
All of that carbon in trees and forests worldwide could be thrown back into the atmosphere if the trees burn up in a forest fire. Trees also stop scrubbing carbon dioxide from the air if they die due to drought or insect damage. The likelihood of those threats impacting forests is increasing nationwide, making relying on forests to soak up carbon emissions a much riskier prospect.
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Planting a tree seems like a generally good thing to do for the environment. Trees, after all, take in carbon dioxide, offsetting some of the emissions that contribute to climate change.

But all of that carbon in trees and forests worldwide could be thrown back into the atmosphere again if the trees burn up in a forest fire. Trees also stop scrubbing carbon dioxide from the air if they die due to drought or insect damage.

The likelihood of those threats impacting forests is increasing nationwide, according to new research in Ecology Letters, making relying on forests to soak up carbon emissions a much riskier prospect.

"U.S. forests could look dramatically different by the end of the century," says William Anderegg, study lead author and associate professor in the University of Utah School of Biological Sciences. "More severe and frequent fires and disturbances have huge impacts on our landscapes. We are likely to lose forests from some areas in the Western U.S. due to these disturbances, but much of this depends on how quickly we tackle climate change."

Wildfire, drought and insects

The researchers modeled the risk of tree death from fire, climate stress (heat and/or drought) and insect damage for forests throughout the United States, projecting how those risks might increase over the course of the 21st century.

By 2099, the models found, that United States forest fire risks may increase by between four and 14 times, depending on different carbon emissions scenarios. The risks of climate stress-related tree death and insect mortality may roughly double over the same time.

But in those same models, human actions to tackle climate change mattered enormously -- reducing the severity of climate change dramatically reduced the fire, drought and insect-driven forest die-off.

"Climate change is going to supercharge these three big disturbances in the U.S.," Anderegg says. "We've seen devastating fire seasons with increasing severity in the past several years. Generally, we expect the western U.S. to be hit hardest by all three of these. And they're somewhat interconnected too. Really hot and dry years, driven by climate change, tend to drive lots of fires, climate-driven tree mortality and insect outbreaks. But we have an opportunity here too. Addressing climate change quickly can help keep our forests and landscapes healthy."

The study is published in Ecology Letters and was supported by the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Agriculture, David and Lucille Packard Foundation and Microsoft's AI for Earth.


Story Source:

Materials provided by University of Utah. Original written by Paul Gabrielsen. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Journal Reference:

  1. William R. L. Anderegg, Oriana S. Chegwidden, Grayson Badgley, Anna T. Trugman, Danny Cullenward, John T. Abatzoglou, Jeffrey A. Hicke, Jeremy Freeman, Joseph J. Hamman. Future climate risks from stress, insects and fire across US forests. Ecology Letters, 2022; DOI: 10.1111/ele.14018

Cite This Page:

University of Utah. "Climate change increases risks of tree death." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 12 May 2022. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/05/220512092636.htm>.
University of Utah. (2022, May 12). Climate change increases risks of tree death. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 27, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/05/220512092636.htm
University of Utah. "Climate change increases risks of tree death." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/05/220512092636.htm (accessed March 27, 2024).

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