Tree Deaths in California’s Sierra Nevada Increase as Temperatures Rise

Life is increasingly uncertain for trees in California’s Sierra Nevada. A new study by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reports a rising death rate for trees in this mountain range, paralleling increasing summer drought due to warming temperatures.

“Our findings suggest Sierran forests, and potentially other forests of dry climates, may be sensitive to temperature—driven increases in drought, making them vulnerable to extensive die—back during otherwise normal periods of reduced precipitation,” said USGS scientist Dr. Phil van Mantgem, in Three Rivers, Calif., lead author of the study.

The tree death rate in the Sierra Nevada has been rising over the past two decades, a trend USGS scientists found across a wide spectrum of forest types. The study appears in the online early edition of Ecology Letters.

See Also: Images from the Report

Source: USGS

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 9th, 2007 at 1:39 pm and is filed under Environment, Science, Weather and climate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.