Expert says northern forests affected by warming
Increased wildfire and infestation from pests like the spruce beetle are taking a toll on the forests of the far north, known as boreal forests. Computer models run back in the 1980s predicted these forest changes. Amber Soja of the National Institute of Aerospace told Earth & Sky about a study which compared how the computer predictions matched up to reality. "The models are unbelievably true." said Soja. "Climate drives weather and weather drives fire," she added. "And it makes sense, because a dry forest that has plenty of fuel is going to burn."
JB: Earth’s warming climate is noticeably changing the forests of the far north.
DB: That’s according to Amber Soja, a research scientist with the National Institute of Aerospace. Soja is part of an international team that went to the forests of Alaska, Siberia, and Canada. They were looking for evidence of climate–driven change. What Soja found surprised her.
Amber Soja: I think that what’s significant is that it’s happening so fast. I don’t think that anyone predicted that we would see clear indications of change this early, as large as they are. And examples of that are the white spruce die–back that’s happening in Alaska. That was predicted by some models that were run in the 1980s. And now it’s happening.
JB: Trees such as white spruce become stressed and vulnerable to pests from lack of moisture as temperatures rise. Soja told Earth & Sky that these changes, and others, are now being observed.
Amber Soja: Fires increased, both in terms of area burned and the number of severe fire seasons. It’s just phenomenal that you have so many extreme fire seasons in the last decade.
DB: What’s more, Soja said that increased warming could release massive pools of carbon stored in the cold forests of the north and cause even more warming. Thanks today to NASA. Tell us your thoughts at earthsky.org. We’re Block and Byrd for Earth & Sky.
Our thanks to:
Amber Soja
Research Scientist
National Institute of Aerospace
NASA Langely
‘Forests in flames: Scientists see warming ties,’ an article by the associated press describing the research findings of Amber Soja’s scientific team. The work will be featured in an upcoming issue of the journal Global and Planetary Change, “Predictions of Climate–induced Boreal Forest Change and the Current State of Change,” authored by Amber J. Soja, Nadezda M. Tchebakova, Nancy H. F. French, Michael D. Flannigan, Herman. H. Shugart, Brian J. Stocks, Anatoly I. Sukhinin, E.I. Parfenova, and F. Stuart Chapin III.
fire
It’s really not all that extraordinary that the number and severity of wildfires has increased. Because of the large amount of time, money, and effort spent by the U.S. government to prevent forest fires, when one does happen the amount of burnable material and the density of forests is so large that it produces the ability of fires to burn faster and hotter causing them to spread faster. There was a large amount of time in the 70s and 80s when fires were down. This also causes problems with the species that rely on fires to reproduce like several species of pines in the west or with oak/hemlock forests that are quickly being taken over by the faster growing maples, whose populations decrease during natural forest fires