Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere, Dead Tree Edition

That was a pun. It’s a story about dead trees (ad/sub req.). Printed on paper, which is made of dead trees.

The dead piñon trees stretching across northern New Mexico’s Pajarito Plateau stand out, stubborn clumps of gray still standing six years after they died.

They were not alone. Craig Allen, the scientist who chronicled their demise, ticked off a list of the things he watched die with them during the drought of 2002-03: juniper, blue gramma grass, ponderosa pine, Douglas fir, even cottonwoods.

Warming temperatures played a role here, and new evidence suggests the same thing may be happening around the world.

An international scientific team headed by Allen reports that similar forest dieback might be on the rise globally.

More on the paper from USGS.