PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Team of scientists predicts continued death of forests in southwestern US due to climate change

2010-12-14
(Press-News.org) (Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– If current climate projections hold true, the forests of the Southwestern United States face a bleak future, with more severe –– and more frequent –– forest fires, higher tree death rates, more insect infestation, and weaker trees. The findings by university and government scientists are published in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

"Our study shows that regardless of rainfall going up or down, forests in the Southwest U.S. are very sensitive to temperature –– in fact, more sensitive than any forests in the country," said first author Park Williams, postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Geography at UC Santa Barbara. "Forests in the Southwest are most sensitive to higher temperatures in the spring and summer, and those are the months that have been warming the fastest in this area."

Past forest studies have shown that warmer temperatures are associated with wildfires and bark beetle outbreaks. "We found that up to 18 percent of forest area in the Southwest –– millions of acres –– has experienced mortality due to severe wildfires and bark beetle outbreaks in the last 20 years," said Williams.

Co-author Joel Michaelsen, a professor of geography at UCSB, said: "In order to carry out this research project, Park Williams assembled a very comprehensive data set of over 1,000 tree ring chronologies from all across the United States." Michaelsen is a dendroclimatologist –– a scientist who studies climate using analysis of tree rings.

"Instead of using the chronologies to reconstruct past climate patterns, as is usually done in dendroclimatic work, the relationships between growth and climate were used to study possible impacts of future climate change on forest health," said Michaelsen. "One noteworthy finding was that tree growth throughout the Southwestern U.S., while quite sensitive to precipitation variations, is also negatively impacted by warmer temperatures. This is an important result, because predictions of future warming in the region are considerably more certain than any predictions of precipitation change."

Researchers found that historic patterns of vegetation change, insect outbreaks, fire activity, runoff, and erosion dynamics show that landscapes often respond gradually to incremental changes in climate and land-use stressors until a threshold is reached, at which time there may be dramatic landscape changes, such as tree die-offs or episodes of broad-scale fire or erosion. They also found that the stressors that contribute to tree mortality tipping points can develop over landscape and even sub-continental scales.

Co-author Christopher Still, an associate professor of geography at UCSB, said: "These predicted large-scale changes in forest cover and composition (i.e., types of tree species present) will have large implications for everything from snowpack and the river flows that our society depends on, to the intensity and frequency of fires, to the visual appearance of these landscapes that drives much of the tourism in this region."

Added co-author Craig D. Allen of the U.S. Geological Survey: "Such big, fast changes in Southwest forest vegetation could have significant effects on a wide range of ecosystem goods and services, from watershed protection and timber supplies to biodiversity and recreation. These emerging vulnerabilities present increasingly clear challenges for managers of southwestern forests to develop strategies to mitigate or adapt to the coming changes, in order to sustain these forested ecosystems and their benefits into the future."

Forests help retain rainwater and keep it from flowing down mountains immediately, noted Williams in explaining the importance of forests to landscapes and rivers. "When forests disappear," he said, "water runs downhill more quickly and takes the upper layers of soil with it."

According to Williams, the erosion makes it harder for future generations of trees to establish themselves and makes it more difficult for people to capture storm water as it flows from the mountains. In addition, erosion increases the amount of sediment flowing in rivers and settling in lakes, and causes water to remain in the forest long after the rain.

The paper also points to the many implications of these changes for future management and use of Southwest forests.

### The scientific article is part of a special PNAS feature edition called "Climate Change and Water in Southwestern North America."

Note to editors: Park Williams is available by e-mail at williams@geog.ucsb.edu. Christopher Still is available at (805) 450-3070, or by e-mail at cstill@geog.ucsb.edu. For downloadable images see: http://www.ia.ucsb.edu/pa/display.aspx?pkey=2387

The American Geophysical Union (AGU) will hold a press conference on these findings at 5 p.m. today at the Moscone West Building, room 300, in San Francisco. Park Williams and other scientists will present results. To register for the press conference, please contact The AGU at agupressconfs@gmail.com.

END



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Human networking theory gives picture of infectious disease spread

2010-12-14
It's colds and flu season, and as any parent knows, colds and flu spread like wildfire, especially through schools. New research using human-networking theory may give a clearer picture of just how, exactly, infectious diseases such as the common cold, influenza, whooping cough and SARS can spread through a closed group of people, and even through populations at large. With the help of 788 volunteers at a high school, Marcel Salathé, a biologist at Penn State University, developed a new technique to count the number of possible disease-spreading events that occur in ...

New report provides women's perspectives on medical male circumcision for HIV prevention

2010-12-14
New York, 13 December 2010—A new report from the Women's HIV Prevention Tracking Project (WHiPT), a collaborative initiative of AVAC and the ATHENA Network, features an unprecedented collection of voices from Kenya, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland and Uganda reflecting on what male circumcision for HIV prevention means for women. It highlights women's perspectives, advocacy priorities and recommendations on this new prevention strategy. Making Medical Male Circumcision Work for Women is the first report from WHiPT, which was launched in 2009 to bring community perspectives, ...

Biracial and passing -- as black

2010-12-14
WASHINGTON, DC, December 8, 2010 — In a country with Jim Crow segregation laws and the "one-drop rule" determining who was black and therefore where and what a person was permitted to be, it's easy to see why those who plausibly could, might pass as white. But new research published in the December issue of Social Psychology Quarterly shows that black-white biracial adults now exercise considerable control over how they identify and the authors find "a striking reverse pattern of passing today," with a majority of survey respondents reporting that they pass as black. Today's ...

Study finds prayer can help handle harmful emotions

2010-12-14
WASHINGTON, DC, December 13, 2010 — Those who choose to pray find personalized comfort during hard times, according to a University of Wisconsin-Madison sociologist. The 75 percent of Americans who pray on a weekly basis do so to manage a range of negative situations and emotions — illness, sadness, trauma and anger — but just how they find relief has gone unconsidered by researchers. Through the course of in-depth interviews with dozens of victims of violent relationships with intimate partners, Shane Sharp, a graduate student studying sociology at UW-Madison, gathered ...

18.3 million baby boomers could benefit from the Affordable Care Act

2010-12-14
December 14, 2010, New York, NY—18.3 million men and women ages 50 to 64 stand to benefit from provisions in the Affordable Care Act that expand access to affordable health insurance, assure that all health insurance provides a standard comprehensive benefit, prevent insurers from denying coverage or charging higher premiums to people with pre-existing conditions, and eliminate lifetime and annual limits in health insurance policies, according to a new Commonwealth Fund report released today. Adults ages 50-64 are currently suffering the highest rates of longtime unemployment ...

Mad Hatter Hat Sales Continue to Climb

2010-12-14
Mad Hatter hat sales have remained strong despite Halloween having taken place over a month ago. This is the conclusion of a recent study completed by an online merchant of Halloween costumes. While more hats were sold in October than in any other month, people have continued to purchase top hats worn by the famous Mad Hatter from the Alice in Wonderland movie. Due in large part to the box office success of Tim Burton's recent version of the film, the Mad Hatter hat ( http://madhatterhats.net/ ) is becoming a popular item of clothing. "People are recognizing that the ...

One Author's Personal Shot at World Peace by Changing the Way We Think - What an Incredible Legacy to Bestow on Mankind

2010-12-14
James Prieto is the author of The Joy of Compassionate Connecting - The Way of Christ through Nonviolent Communication. His mission is to facilitate communication and contribute to deepening relationships between people, within groups and organizations, through the practice of Nonviolent Communication (NVC). Nonviolent Communication, also known as Compassionate Communication, was created by famed American psychologist Marshall Rosenberg. It is a conversational framework that invites listening from the heart, encouraging a letting-go of outcomes and judgments for the ...

URENCO Selects Simulator Tech Specialist Lanner Group

2010-12-14
Lanner Group, the business process improvement specialist, today announces a new contract with URENCO Limited, the international uranium enrichment firm, to provide an integrated custom designed system, enabling the energy and technology group to plan decades ahead and deliver on long-term commitments. URENCO is in the process of upgrading its entire SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems and technology. The company turned to Lanner Group when it found that it required a more specialist long-term operational and management system that would allow it to model ...

Find Unique, Affordable Holiday Gifts at Sketch Maven

2010-12-14
If it seems too difficult to find a personal and unique holiday gift for that special person, you will be surprised how easy it is to find that perfect gift for someone when you visit Sketch Maven. Sketch Maven is a marketplace where artists and collectors could buy and sell one-of-a-kind published original comic art, color guides and sketches. Original comic art are the original, one of a kind, pieces that were hand drawn by the comic book artist to create the final comic book. The audience for original comic art extends beyond comic collectors as it offers distinctive ...

Merrill DataSite Poll: Regional Players Take on Predominant Role in Regional Lending

2010-12-14
In a recent survey of nearly 200 global financial consultants, almost 47.7 percent of respondents indicated that regional players are the predominant lender in their respective region. The poll was conducted during a webinar presented by Merrill DataSite, in association with mergermarket, called, "Driving the Comeback of M&A: A report examining the current and future M&A landscape." "An in-depth look at the original survey results reveals that respondents' answers vary by region," said Richard Martin, senior director of Merrill DataSite. "For example, a majority of respondents ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Brain neurons are responsible for day-to-day control of blood sugar

Moffitt study uncovers new mechanism of immunotherapy resistance

Brain area 46 is at the center of a network for emotion regulation in marmosets

Self-morphing, wing-like feet enhance surface maneuverability of water striders and robots

Zooming in reveals a world of detail: breakthrough method unveils the inner workings of our cells

DNA from extinct hominin may have helped ancient peoples survive in the Americas

UC Irvine-led research team uncovers global wildfire paradox

Extinct human relatives left a genetic gift that helped people thrive in the Americas

Overinflated balloons: study reveals how cellular waste disposal system deals with stress

The rise of plant life changed how rivers move, Stanford study shows

What traits matter when predicting disease emergence in new populations?

Overcoming disordered energy in light-matter interactions

Zoo populations hold key to saving Pacific pocket mouse

Astronomers detect the brightest fast radio burst of all time

OET inaugural cover | 30 years of nanoimprint lithography: Leading the new era of nanomanufacturing

Metalens evolution: From individual devices to integrated arrays

Advancing disaster response with the EBD dataset

Putting solar panels in space could aid Europe’s net-zero transition

Ambient documentation technologies reduce physician burnout and restore ‘joy’ in medicine

Solar panels in space could cut Europe’s renewable energy needs by 80%

Computational approach meets biology to connect neural progenitor cells with human disorders

GLP-1 receptor agonists and cancer risk in adults with obesity

Impact of a weight loss intervention on 1-year weight change in women with stage II/III breast cancer

Novel tool helps identify key targets to strengthen CAR NK cell therapies

New RP-HPLC method for orlistat analysis validated

How AI will transform mental health support for patients with breast cancer

First observations by the Total Anthropogenic and Natural emissions mapping SpectrOmeter-3 (TANSO-3) onboard the Global Observing SATellite for Greenhouse gases and Water cycle “IBUKI GW” (GOSAT-GW)

Optimizing how cells self-organize

Impact of cancer on forensic DNA methylation age estimation

Researchers use photonic origami to fold glass into microscopic 3D optical devices

[Press-News.org] Team of scientists predicts continued death of forests in southwestern US due to climate change