Experts Puzzled as Finland Pine Trees Die Off (www.muser.press) 62
Staggering numbers of dead pine trees have been reported in southern Finland this summer, with researchers linking the phenomenon to climate change. From a report: Over 1,350 patches of dead pine trees have been reported in southwestern Finland since April, when researchers started collecting observations from the public. "Every day we receive more in our mapping service," Turku University geography professor Risto Kalliola told AFP. He described the phenomenon as a "local mass-death of patches of pine trees." Most affected were rocky coastal areas with barren soil easily exposed to drought, he said.
Browned groups of dead pines suddenly started to appear along Finland's southern coast a few years ago, and researchers are now trying to find out the cause of the phenomenon. "Something is happening in our nature and we have to take it seriously," Kalliola said. Similar deaths of pine trees have also occurred in other northern European countries, including neighbouring Sweden. "What is new in Finland is that this phenomenon has quite recently begun to be common," he said. He believed several factors could be causing the local die-offs, such as insect pests and fungal diseases -- all exacerbated by global warming.
Browned groups of dead pines suddenly started to appear along Finland's southern coast a few years ago, and researchers are now trying to find out the cause of the phenomenon. "Something is happening in our nature and we have to take it seriously," Kalliola said. Similar deaths of pine trees have also occurred in other northern European countries, including neighbouring Sweden. "What is new in Finland is that this phenomenon has quite recently begun to be common," he said. He believed several factors could be causing the local die-offs, such as insect pests and fungal diseases -- all exacerbated by global warming.
Missed opportunity (Score:5, Funny)
Finnish experts not finished with pining for pine patches in peril.
This could have been our headline but you just let is slip away.
Re:Missed opportunity (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Missed opportunity (Score:5, Funny)
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Your mountains so lofty! Your treetops so
I don't think I want to go to Finland any more.
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Pardon me for intruding, but I have an old story, and the word 'Peril' caught my eye too.
Firstly, on 'Peril' - One of my all-time favorite movies is Death In a French Garden, which I saw once or twice in the '80s. It is apparently also known as 'Peril', and some years ago I bought a copy of 'Peril' online on a Blu Ray disc. Unfortunately my efforts to view this have so far been thwarted by technology and circumstances, and I have not yet found an online streaming service that has it. Long ago I rented a c
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I previously wrote:
> ...some text... ...
>
> What if the patches of dead forest in Finland's West are Putin's test
> of some bio-weapon intended for eventual, or possibly imminent,
> threat to attack along Finland's Eastern border?
>
> Finally: Has anyone ever heard Putin pronounce the word 'Lebensraum'?
> Does he do it with a proper German accent?
Grammar error in previous: remove "threat to".
Tesseractic.
California for years (Score:4, Informative)
We've seen this in California for years. I think its mainly drought related in California.
https://www.nature.com/article... [nature.com]
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We've always had trouble with the western bark beetle and our pine forest in California. Drought tends to weakened the trees and spur the population of beetles. We also have a canker fungus that impacts a broad range of evergreen species. But trees have spontaneously developed resistance from the fungus in the past that slows or stops the progression of the disease.
We also have Sudden Oak Death because Phytophthora ramorum is hosted and transported by the California bay laurel. Where I live we cut down bay
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This is why the "Just plant trees" push in CO2 sequestration is so misguided.
Trees are only temporary storage...and vulnerable while it's stored.
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Nope. The pine are up in the mountains (and firs, etc), above the "snow line". Reservoirs are down lower. Most water in the Sierras is from snow pack or rain. Nobody is putting that snow in trucks and sending it down to central valley almond orchards. Instead the snow has to melt, which goes to the trees first, then to ground water or the rivers, then the rivers go down to reservoirs or to the orchards.
Re:California for years (Score:4, Funny)
No, it was all that nibbling by Euell Gibbons that killed the pines.
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Personally, I prefer Bugs & Twigs breakfast cereal, scrapped fresh from the forest floor and right into the box.
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Personally, I prefer Bugs & Twigs breakfast cereal, scrapped fresh from the forest floor and right into the box.
... NOW with 50% more guano!
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Maybe they just need more raking.
A very stable genius made this suggestion.
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Bug & Twigs Cereal Co. would like to provide free boxes for you to collect your rakings. We'll even take the full boxes away for you.
Surface of Sun Unlivable, Report Heliolsolarians (Score:2)
Re:Surface of Sun Unlivable, Report Heliolsolarian (Score:4, Funny)
As long as birch trees survive, the Finnish lifestyle can continue.
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Or are (coincidentally) warmer temperatures simply revealing the intrinsic deficiencies of Finnish tree genetics?
... and what would be causing those 'warmer temperatures'?
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Thus the religious opposition to anthropomorphic climate change - it literally is impossible because the scriptures say so, if you buy their arguments. Forget the parable of the good steward, that's just a story not to be taken seriously... But let's check in on other religions which ones have the most fervent of climate change deniers?
Religion isn't the problem (Score:2)
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Your god wiped out all of humanity except for one family and a friend or two, thus ensuring inbreeding. Which explains a lot about humans.
Re: mystery (Score:1)
Not my god! I think yhwh is kind of an incompetent dick (to say nothing of his liberal sjw son!), but heâ(TM)s got "protection" and for this one we need to check others anyway.
Personally I think it might be Loki, or some other indigenous trickster god. This does not rule out yhwh, of course; he is well-known for placing dinosaur bones to pwn libtards into hell! Classic.
But it is what it is; we have to keep tabs on a lot of minor deities these days.
Re: mystery (Score:2)
Yes, we should get around to creating an ionoshield of reflective material. Not that we need to, but because we can and also it would be a quadrillion-dollar industry and give us practice with geo-engineering!
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That's a huge project. But individually we can all do our part by wearing reflective tin foil hats!
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Don't worry, we have plenty of virgins here on Slashdot to sacrifice.
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Aztec gods aren't fond of shut-ins. They prefer muscle tone on their sacrifices.
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... and what would be causing those 'warmer temperatures'?
Al Gore's private jet and nothing else.
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Re: mystery (Score:2)
Exactly!! Life finds a way!
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Death takes a detour but gets there in the end.
not a mystery (Score:4, Insightful)
No. It's not a manufactured crisis.
There isn't piles of grant money that climate scientist can pocket. George Soros isn't giving journalists free yacht trips if they participate in an elaborate climate hoax.
Gravity is real too. And the Earth is (somewhat) a sphere.
Or are (coincidentally) warmer temperatures simply revealing the intrinsic deficiencies of Finnish tree genetics?
For evolution to do its thing well enough to avoid mass extinctions. The environment needs to change slowly. Rather than shifting rapidly over 200 years.
Regardless of how well other species are doing. My species' economic system is based on the assumption that we can grow plants for timber and food.
Disrupt that system with bad long-term planning of CO2 output, and the results can be an economic collapse. If you want a crisis to excite you, there's one.
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Gravity is real too.
No it's not; the Earth just sucks.
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There's no dark matter, whole Universe sucks!
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Is this another fake manufactured "crisis"
No, it's currently a curiosity since nobody knows why it happened. We have similar problems in Canada but the cause there is known, it is mountin pine beetle that has moved north since the winters now generally do not get cold enough to kill it off so it is global warming related. However, previous new diseaes that have killed trees are dutch elm disease and ash dieback. Both seem to be due to fungi that attack and kill the tree and have nothing to do with global warming.
Re: mystery (Score:3)
The World knows well, it's just dumnuts who never admit it.
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Look at this story. Without one shred of evidence, cited or otherwise, the claim is "climate change" is causing only one species of trees to die. Doesn't climate affect all the trees? What about the pine trees that do just fine in other places? Why aren't they all dead?
This is kind of the problem with these willy-nilly attributions to climate change nobody bothers to do the work necessary to discern the difference and credibly apportion blame. There is always an unfalsifiable sentiment akin to oh well it must be making it worse in some way that is too easy to fall back on in the absence of supporting evidence regardless of the underlying connection to reality.
The other problem is "whatever you do, don't but the blame on you" .. "gotta blame it on something" where people
Facepalm: it is not cold enough in winter (Score:1)
If it is not cold enough, the dormant trees are just rotting away.
No idea what the "mystery" is about.
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In the Balkans as well (Score:5, Interesting)
I blame the hostile neighbor! (Score:2)
Of course I can't mention that hostile neighbor's name. They are known to be very aggressive and vengeful. But anyone not living in a cave knows who I mean.
And even some living in a cave have internet, thus know current events. Like ME! Have not seen sunshine in years! (Well,
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I don't think Sweden would to this.
Where have I seen this before? (Score:1)
"Experts are puzzled!"
But know the reason and it's climate change.
*facepalm*
I think it's high time y'all stop trying to use the 'follow the science' line.
Satellite Photo Analysis (Score:2)
Why depend on the unreliable public? Buy some multispectral satellite imagery and count the dead spots with a computer. Texas A&M used to do this in the late 80's for the U.S. forest service. The tech has improved significantly, the imagery is better and less expensive.
Experts Not Puzzled (Score:2)
The person at Muser Press who wrote the title did not RTFA. It even says:
All of which shouldn't sound very mysterious even to climate change deniers.
whatever is causing it.... (Score:2)
Whatever is causing it, its not global warming. Its something specific to the region where the dying is happening.
The thing that is missing from the article (as usual) is an account of what is happening to temperatures in Finland. Are they rising, and if so how? Is it minimums, is it warmer winter temps, is it higher summer temps? And what is the causal link between temps and pine death?
It could be warmer winters (if they are warmer) allowing predator insects to over-winter. What coldness is needed to
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