Forest's death brings higher temps, researchers suspect

But there might be a more consequential impact to the carnage: The beetle kill could be accelerating regional climate change by increasing temperatures and decreasing rainfalls in Colorado, Wyoming and northern New Mexico. "The local impacts where the forest has been destroyed will be fairly dramatic," said Peter Harley, an associate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. "The big question is how much of an impact will this have?" NCAR researchers are about a year into a four-year study to gauge and assess such effects. The research centers in large part on the ability of living trees to cool the air when they evaporate moisture through their leaves – a process called transpiration – and what happens to climate conditions when large numbers of trees die. Trees also help control surface temperatures by absorbing and reflecting heat from the sun. Disrupting these basic functions by destroying wide swaths of trees across the West appears to spike surface temperatures. Already the researchers have completed computer modeling studies indicating that if the millions of acres of pine trees in Colorado were to die, that could raise temperatures statewide nearly 4 degrees Fahrenheit, said Christine Wiedinmyer, a NCAR scientist in Boulder and, with Harley, one of the principal investigators on the project...read more