Northward expansion of insect herbivores such as the winter moth in northernmost Fennoscandia (intact mountain birch forest is shown in green, severely defoliated forest during the most recent outbreak in 2005 to 2008 is in dark brown, and tundra beyond the tree line is in white; reports of local winter moth outbreaks before the last […]
An army of deadly Chinese hornets is heading north through France towards Britain after attempts to trap and poison them failed. By Ian JohnstonPublished: 10:59AM BST 26 Sep 2009 The hornets, Vespa velutina, are thought to have arrived in Bordeaux on a container ship from China in 2004 and have been rapidly expanding their population […]
Global warming. Dwindling water. Massive wildfires. All are implications of the invasion. By Shauna Stephenson, sstephenson@wyomingnews.com Slash piles surround the parking area on Pelton Creek Road in the Medicine Bow National Forest, southwest of Laramie near the Colorado border. Grant Frost, a terrestrial habitat biologist for Wyoming Game and Fish, inspects a tree, looking for […]
ScienceDaily (Sep. 18, 2009) — In the late 1920s, people intentionally introduced birds known as Japanese white-eyes into Hawaiian agricultural lands and gardens for purposes of bug control. Now, that decision has come back to bite us. A recent increase in the numbers of white-eyes that live in old-growth forests is leaving native bird species […]
AMES, Iowa, September 15, 2009 (ENS) – The emerald ash borer is eating its way through all of the native ash trees across the United States, but Iowa horticulturalist Mark Widrlechner is locked in a battle with the devastating insect. He is collecting and storing ash tree seeds as fast as he can – seeds […]
By Madeleine Baran, Minnesota Public RadioSeptember 15, 2009 St. Paul, Minn. — A new article by University of Minnesota ecologists says Minnesota’s forests could shrink more rapidly than expected, as droughts, fires, and growth of native and exotic species accelerate the changes caused by global warming. The authors argue that prairie lands could expand by […]
First it was Burmese pythons (remember those photos of one eating an alligator), now another giant snake is setting up shop in Florida. National Geographic News reports that Africa’s largest snake, the 20 foot long African rock python appears to have begun establishing itself in a suburban area west of Miami: Since 2002 six have […]
SAN FRANCISCO, California, September 13, 2009 (ENS) – Samples of sand and water from five beaches around the Puget Sound have tested positive for a multidrug resistant form of the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus. This potentially fatal strain of staph is resistant to the broad-spectrum antibiotics commonly used to treat it. Dr. Marilyn Roberts, a professor […]
(Penn State) “The Arctic as we know it may soon be a thing of the past,” says Eric Post, associate professor of biology at Penn State University. Post leads a large, international team that carried out ecosystem-wide studies of the biological response to Arctic warming during the fourth International Polar Year, which ended in 2008. […]
Figure 3.6. Graph of the acreage of piñon pine (Pinus edulis) and ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) dieback from 1997–2004 in the Four Corners States of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah. Based upon annual aerial forest insect and disease activity inventories by the U.S. Forest Service. Thresholds of Climate Change in Ecosystems [pdf], U.S. […]
