«In context of climate change, you see increases
of both insect outbreaks and fires, which has sparked concerns about their interactions,» said Garrett Meigs, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Vermont and lead author of the study.
«Recent climate changes in this region may have had substantial impact on the carbon balance of Canadian boreal forests as a result of increased fire frequency, an unprecedented expansion
of insect outbreaks, and widespread drought - induced tree mortality,» the authors write, but focused their study on drought.
Not exact matches
The significant increase in the
insect - borne diseases was due in part to the
outbreak of Zika, the mosquito - borne disease that can cause severe birth defects.
In a global level, those centres are coordinated by the FAO in Rome, which has an information service in charge
of monitoring the situation throughout the
insect's distribution area and forecasting the risks
of outbreaks and invasions.
Although current drought worries have been focused in the West — Western states have experienced
insect outbreaks; mass tree die - offs; loss
of water and carbon; bigger and more costly wildfires; and economic impacts to timber stands due to severe, multiyear drought — in the wake
of a changing climate, the report notes that «all U.S. forests are vulnerable to drought.»
Built by Precision Hawk
of Indianapolis, the craft's thermal camera is meant to find
outbreaks of insects and crop disease, which show up as hotspots when stressed plants lose their ability to regulate heat.
During
outbreaks, millions
of the
insects descend at nearly the same time, gnawing tunnels en masse.
In central British Columbia, the
insects have destroyed more than 14 million hectares
of trees — an area the size
of Connecticut — in the single largest
outbreak the world has ever seen.
The forests in the Coweeta Basin reflect the disturbance history
of the region, which in addition to climate change has experienced early 20th century logging, drought, hurricanes, and
insect and disease
outbreaks, these last including the extirpation
of the American chestnut, once the most important species in southern Appalachian forests.
However, it may not always be obvious whether human activity or a forest's natural dynamics are at play in, for example, the dieback
of a stand or the
outbreak of an
insect herbivore.
This extreme «hygienic behavior,» as it's technically called, is an effective way
of containing disease
outbreaks in crowded
insect colonies.
In the case
of the western spruce budworm, a cream - colored
insect that especially enjoys munching on conifers, the analysis showed in the first few years after an
outbreak fire severity is low, but over the course
of decades it increases.
Researchers from the University
of Vermont and Oregon State University used spatial models and statistical analyses to map 81 fires as well as
insect outbreaks over a 25 - year period in Oregon and Washington state.
Insect outbreaks — increasingly responsible for creating post-apocalyptic swaths
of forest in the West — do not add fuel to forest fires.
«We will likely always be faced with the threat
of novel
outbreak viruses originating in animals or
insects.
«Ecologists generally assume that plants high in nitrogen will facilitate
insect outbreaks,» says Fiona Clissold, a nutritional physiological ecologist at the University
of Sydney in Australia.
The study, published online Aug. 17 in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology, describes a new method for tracking the geographic range
of this airborne
insect pathogenic fungus from areas
of a disease
outbreak.
A number
of factors, including
insect outbreaks and late frost damage, are known to affect sugar maple.
In this section, we will consider the impact
of changes in fire,
insect, and pathogen
outbreaks on forests, as well as on soil and carbon storage, for which we have better capacity for forecasting (Table 4 - 4).
Program fellows from the 2009 — 2014 grant tackled problems
of interest to Kansans such as the expansion
of woody vegetation in rangelands, disease
outbreaks in small mammal populations, or how
insects respond to temperature change.
Be it the horseshoe crab whose eggs feed millions
of migrating shorebirds; bats that suppress
insect outbreaks in a warming climate; or corals that shelter and feed oceans
of fish, while protecting our shorelines from storms — there are no technological alternatives, nor is there enough money on the planet, to replace these free services.
The mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins, Coleoptera: Curculionidae, Scolytinae) is a native
insect of the pine forests
of western North America, and its populations periodically erupt into large - scale
outbreaks.
Insect outbreaks such as this represent an important mechanism by which climate change may undermine the ability
of northern forests to take up and store atmospheric carbon, and such impacts should be accounted for in large - scale modelling analyses.
According to Stevens, the effect that rising temperatures have had on
insects could be the subject
of a film all its own, especially in light
of the Zika virus
outbreak.
This team is the first to account for large scale
insect outbreaks in an analysis
of forest carbon balances - and to show the positive feedback loop between climate change and warmth loving
insect pests.
Are there
outbreaks of insect populations creating adverse consequences?
Climate Reality: Native, Ustream.TV: 24 Events... 24 Time Zones... 24 Hours
of Reality Droughts, floods, heat waves,
insect outbreaks, wildfires, sea leve.
He uses tree - ring records in combination with other natural archives and documentary sources to reconstruct the histories
of fire,
insect outbreaks, human land uses, and climate.
Although global forests currently capture and store more carbon each year than they emit, 46 the ability
of forests to act as large, global carbon absorbers («sinks») may be reduced by projected increased disturbances from
insect outbreaks, 47 forest fire, 48 and drought, 49 leading to increases in tree mortality and carbon emissions.
Climate change has very likely increased the size and number
of wildfires,
insect outbreaks, pathogens, disease
outbreaks, and tree mortality in the interior West, the Southwest, and Alaska.
Outbreaks of native
insects and diseases are expected to occur in response to future warming temperatures and a drier environment, but tree mortality is not likely to be uniformly distributed across the landscape.
The length
of the growing season in interior Alaska has increased 45 % over the last century7 and that trend is projected to continue.8 This could improve conditions for agriculture where moisture is adequate, but will reduce water storage and increase the risks
of more extensive wildfire and
insect outbreaks across much
of Alaska.9, 10 Changes in dates
of snowmelt and freeze - up would influence seasonal migration
of birds and other animals, increase the likelihood and rate
of northerly range expansion
of native and non-native species, alter the habitats
of both ecologically important and endangered species, and affect ocean currents.11
Because
of its cold - adapted features and rapid warming, climate change impacts on Alaska are already pronounced, including earlier spring snowmelt, reduced sea ice, widespread glacier retreat, warmer permafrost, drier landscapes, and more extensive
insect outbreaks and wildfire, as described below.
Which means that all the other regional changes in the Northwest noted in the NCA — wildfires,
insect outbreaks, changes in the timing
of stream flow, etc. — are also largely a result
of influences other than human - caused climate change.
There are certainly many documented cases
of major
insect outbreaks before AGW became an issue.
Some massive
outbreaks of destructive
insects are controlled because the population
of their predators increases (due to an abundant supply
of food).
Are there any other periods
of climate change that have been associated with
outbreaks of insect borne disease?