Question

Using data from the New York Times Changing Forest website, explain how forests are impacted by climate change and how forests themselves may offset aspects of climate change. Be specific in your examples.

Your response should be at least 100 words in length.

Answer 1

# Forest are one of the victims of the changing climate and have huge impacts on them which can be seen in many terms as follwed:-

* It alters the intensity and frequency of forest cover due to various factors like wildfires, storms, droughts, human development insect outbreaks, occurrence of invasive species etc.

for ex-

Evergreen Trees on the mountainsides of western Montana glow an earthy red at the beginning of autumn, beacuse of the beetles. Population of these beetles used to be controlled in part by bitterly cold winters but as the the temperature rises, it is no longer controlled.

In Colorado, at least 15 percent of spectacular aspen forests have gone into decline because of a lack of water.

* It alters the productivity of the forests. The productivity and distribution of forests is affected by changes in temperature, precipitation and the amount of carbon dioxide in the air.

waming temperature generally increase the length of the growing season & shifts the geographic ranges of some tree species. Ex- species currently existing only on mountaintops in some regions may die out as the climate warms since they cannot shift to a higher altitude.

Drought increases the risk of wildfires putting the life of many plants and wildlife in dnager. It also reduces trees' ability to produce sap making them vulnerable to destructive insects such as pine beetles.

* It can wipe out many species of plants and animals and sometimes can lead to shift in their distribution. Ex-  many of the white spruce trees of Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula were wiped out by beetles in 1990s.

# The forests can itself offset these effects of climate change to some extent as they perform the following activities:-

* They absorb the million tons of carbon dioxide emissions.i.e. more than a quarter of the carbon dioxide that people put into the air by burning fossil fuels and other activities.

* The forest can bring rain therby preventing the drought.

* It can counteract the flooding and erosional effect of the water.

* It can absorb various harmful chemicals and can pirofy the air.

overall, the offseting effect is but limited and forest cant cant rejuvenate above its capacity level