The growth of trees in these areas is mostly due to global warming. When the winters were longer, the trees didn't have enough time to grow before the cold settled in again. Now the winters are shorter and the trees have plenty of time to grow. Researchers believe that there is still hope for places that have deep depressions from glaciers. The snow is always deeper in those areas, so the trees do not have enough time to grow. The scientists think that these places will remain unaffected by the growing temperatures. The scientists now worry if they spent too much time conserving forests that they did not pay attention to the declining of meadows.
NOS Themes:
-Science is collaborative
-Science is based on evidence
-Science is subject to debate and tentative
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-scientists-study-effects-pollution-on-climate
Lexi Reed, Gabel Hour 1
The link before shows a lot of similar information that you had in your article. The link also goes more in depth about the possible future problems if our meadow's population goes down and what types of rare species we could lose. It also talks about the possible effects on other larger animals and humans.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montane_ecology
I did some searching on declining mountain meadows and found several references to Jefferson Park, an area affected by invading trees,at the base of Jefferson Mountian in Oregon. This link tells more about the reasons behind the declining meadows, as Sarah's link talks about the effects and what is to come. It says that tempereture and climate change is indirectly a factor. Global warming leads to the snow melting sooner, thus making a longer growing season for the trees to invade.
ReplyDeletehttp://planetsave.com/2012/11/04/mountain-meadows-in-the-pacific-northwest-are-disappearing-because-of-climate-change-study-says/
Rachel Nelson - Hour 1