"Forest dieback" refers to the process where trees in a forest start to die or decline in large numbers. This can happen due to various factors like pollution, climate change, or diseases. It is a concerning phenomenon as it reduces the health and sustainability of the forest ecosystem.
Full definition
A dangerous mix of human - caused devastation and cyclic drought could start a vicious circle
of forest dieback in the Amazon.
This paper describes the phenomenon of Amazonian
forest dieback under elevated CO2 in the Hadley Centre climate - carbon cycle model.
Studies suggest a threshold for
boreal forest dieback of ≈ 3 °C global warming (77, 86), but limitations in existing models and physiological understanding make this highly uncertain.
Taking into account the puzzlements of the vegetation - atmosphere - feedback, self -
amplified forest dieback could amount up to 38 percent of the Amazon basin.
The material on
Amazon forest dieback was in the IPCC assessment as were the numbers on recent sea level (thought the IPCC did not use the information on recent contributions from land ice in their estimate for 21st century warming.)
Ozone doesn't get as much attention, but atmospheric ozone is blamed
for forest dieback, which in turn reduces carbon sequestration.
Other influences — such as climate warming that causes tree species to shift geographically and anthropogenic drought that
causes forest dieback — take effect more slowly and may occur far from their source.
Second, they respond to the CO2 - induced warming, with processes
like forest dieback and increased respiration.
It will also be offset by an increase in
forest dieback elsewhere, caused by rising aridity, drought, pests and fires — all symptoms of global warming.
We note that we focus only on biogeophysical impacts, whereas biogeochemical impacts of CO2 associated
with forest dieback could have distinct, large climatic effects [41].
«But the emergence of mega-disturbances,
forest diebacks beyond the range of what we've normally seen over the last century, could be a game - changer for how we plan for the future.»
and the examples that he thinks have the potential to be large scale tipping elements are: Arctic sea - ice, a reorganisation of the Atlantic thermohaline circulation, melt of the Greenland or West Antarctic Ice Sheets, dieback of the Amazon rainforest, a greening of the Sahara, Indian summer monsoon collapse,
boreal forest dieback and ocean methane hydrates.
«We already know that on the one hand, reduced rainfall increases the risk
of forest dieback, and on the other hand, forest loss can intensify regional droughts.
30 years ago Waldsterben (
forest dieback) was probably Germany's first post-war environmental hysteria to grip the country.
Forest dieback is a possibility that should not be ignored, and the probability increases with increasing air temperatures; but it is not inevitable.
Do these papers include the soil,
forest dieback, Arctic methane and methane hydrate positive feedbacks?
«Forest trees can be long - lived organisms, and it is possible that «demographic inertia» (inertia caused by long lifespans and slow community turnover) in the forest system may delay
any forest dieback.
We won't have to worry about some of the big - ticket items like sea level rise, but droughts and
forest dieback will remain a major threat.
The role of ecosystem - atmosphere interactions in simulated Amazonian precipitation decrease and
forest dieback under global climate warming.
and the examples that he thinks have the potential to be large scale tipping elements are: Arctic sea - ice, a reorganisation of the Atlantic thermohaline circulation, melt of the Greenland or West Antarctic Ice Sheets, dieback of the Amazon rainforest, a greening of the Sahara, Indian summer monsoon collapse, boreal
forest dieback and ocean methane hydrates.
They report that a dangerous mix of human - induced devastation and cyclic drought in the Amazon could launch a vicious circle of
forest dieback.
«We already know that, on the one hand, reduced rainfall increases the risk of
forest dieback, and, on the other hand, forest loss can intensify regional droughts.