Drought and rising temperatures weaken southwest forests

Forests in the southwestern United States are changing and will face reduced growth if temperatures continue to rise and precipitation declines during this century, according to a study conducted by a team of scientists from the U.S. Forest Service; University of California, Santa Barbara; U.S. Geological Survey; and University of Arizona. Their findings were released today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) special issue on climate change. Using tree-ring data and climate models, the team determined that rising temperatures and declining precipitation has led to an overall lower fitness of forests in the Southwest. Scientists analyzed annual tree-ring width data from 853 tree populations located throughout the continental United States. Of those, 235 samples represented trees located in Arizona and New Mexico. These samples were compared to each other in order to identify trends on how certain climatic conditions affect tree growth. These findings may be useful in helping forest managers make key decisions about how to adapt to climate change...more

I had no idea that declining precipitation and increased temps over time would result in changes in forest ecology. Thank goodness for this research.

There is no mention of how much of today's problems are caused by mismanagement by the Forest Service and the courts.

Speaking of climate change, let's hope the coming climate change in DC puts a stop to this nonsense.