Forests
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With all the active weather this growing season, it’s no wonder there are a lot of stories about the impacts of the weather and climate conditions on crops. Here is a sampling of some of the stories I have seen lately. Heavy rains in the Midwest have caused problems for corn and soybean farmers. In […]
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Scientific American posted a story this month describing a new study by researchers at Harvard and Macquarie University in Australia on the onset of fall colors in trees. Surprisingly, they linked the onset of fall colors to the onset of spring, showing that when trees experience an earlier spring, the tree also changes color earlier […]
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The National Interagency Fire Center has issued their May outlook for wildfire possibilities across the United States this week. The report shows that the Southeast has a lower than normal chance for wildfires this year due to the current wet conditions coupled with the presence of the El Nino, which is expected to last for […]
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I’ve seen several interesting stories about changes in forests over time and how climate is impacted by those changes. Here are a few that I thought were particularly interesting. Nature posted a long news article back in 2014 that I just ran across about how deforestation of the tropical rainforests is changing the local climate […]
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The extended and severe drought in the southwestern United States has had many impacts on agriculture as well as water supply and ecosystems across the region. Some of them have been discussed previously in this blog. This week, Rolling Stone magazine published an extensive article which discussed the impacts of the record-setting Western heat on […]
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Climate Central published an article last week describing the devastating 2011 wildfire season in the Southwest. The widespread fires can be attributed in part to warmer temperatures but are also related to lower humidities, since warmer air has the potential to hold more moisture than cooler air. In the article the author points out that the […]