Hotter Droughts.
Hotter Droughts — Yep, it's getting hotter and drier out there. California's hotter drought has already killed millions of trees, particularly in low-elevation forests. “Hotter droughts,” which are severe droughts associated with human-caused climate change, are an emerging but poorly understood threat to forests worldwide. As climate change drives much of the nation into hotter, drier conditions, forest managers and scientists are not able to rely on historical patterns of temperature and precipitation for planning and decision making. Yet it is critical to identify forests and tree species most at risk.
Thus, USGS scientists and their collaborators are using California’s recent hotter drought (2012-2015) as a preview of the future, gaining the information needed to help forest managers adapt to a warming world.
Photo credit: Nathan Stephenson, USGS. Original public domain image from Flickr