Love Fall Foliage? Get Ready For Disappointing Colors

[asu66]

Love Fall Foliage? Get Ready For Disappointing Colors This Year

by ThinkProgress
September 24, 2013

Written by Kiley Kroh

First sweaters, now leaves? It’s the beginning of fall, which traditionally signifies the coming of brilliant fall colors. But as climate change drives major shifts — such as higher temperatures and severe drought — experts predict it could spell trouble for that annual burst of color.

Howie Neufeld, a professor of plant physiology at Appalachian State University, told LiveScience that “climate change could dampen fall foliage by delaying the season, bleaching out red tones and ushering in invasive species.”

As Neufeld writes on his blog, there are several factors contributing to the risk of duller fall foliage. In addition to day length, trees use temperature as one of their main cues for changing their colors in fall — if fall temperatures are cool, they speed the production of their fall color; if temperatures are warm, they delay. As climate change drives higher temperatures, it could delay the season and potentially mute the colors, especially if the disconnect between day length and temperature becomes too great for trees to keep up.

According to Neufeld, a more dramatic change could stem from a rise in invasive species due to global warming. He explains that the hemlock woolly adelgid, an exotic aphid-like pest, is already devastating hemlock trees in the East. In the upper Midwest, the Asian longhorn beetle is killing hardwood trees. And in the West, climate change has fueled the explosion of the pine bark beetle, which has destroyed forests and worsened the damage caused by wildfires.

A 2012 U.S. Forest Service report found that these invasive species are changing the composition of entire forest ecosystems. Further, “climate change is exacerbating these changes by altering the amount and seasonal distribution of precipitation seasonal temperature patterns in ways that often favor the invasive species.”

Fall foliage, and trees in general, are also threatened by drought. As Climate Central explains, “drought puts enormous stress on trees, and while it’s much harder to kill a tree than it is, say, a corn or soybean field, arid conditions will make leaves turn brown and drop to the ground before they can flare into yellow or red for the tourists.”

With much of the U.S. still gripped in drought conditions, tree health and fall foliage are already changing. In Minnesota, the Lacrosse Tribune warned, “fall colors are showing up early again this year, and could be muted as a moderate drought in Houston and Winona counties continues on.”

As AccuWeather.com notes in its fall foliage forecast, “extreme drought can thwart fall colors … impacting the leaf size, vigor and physiology,” a fact that does not bode well for the western half of the U.S., “particularly along the Rocky Mountains, the primary color-producing area of the West.”

Diminished fall colors are not just an aesthetic change — they are a significant economic driver from the Midwest to New England. Last year, fall tourism brought over $1.5 billion to Maine alone, according to LiveScience. And Climate Central points out that “national statistics are hard to come by, but officials in New Hampshire estimate that leaf-peeping tourists pump up the state economy by about $1 billion each year” with the estimate being about the same for North Carolina.

While diminished fall colors are far from the most pressing impacts of global climate change, Neufeld explains they may be a sign of more severe changes to come: “Although less brilliant fall foliage displays may not rank high on the list of concerns about global change, those muted colors could be the canary in the mine shaft telling us that these shifts could be markers for more subtle, and potentially more consequential changes in our world.”

This post was originally published in ThinkProgress

Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/love-fall-f ... z2fqQAEP00

[fjblair]

There is no drought, much less severe drought , anywhere on the east coast this year. So we'll see.

[CVAPP]

There is no drought, much less severe drought , anywhere on the east coast this year. So we'll see.

Agreed.

[AppinVA]

I swear. The Prius posse is so damn pot-committed on this climate change thing, that they're now trying to convince everyone we've been suffering through a drought. Up here, we've been dry for the last three, or so, weeks, but that was quenched with Saturday's rain. This has been the most "normal" summer in terms of average precipitation and temperature I can remember. Maybe actually getting rain and a lack of record heat is climate change, as well. Can't win with these people.

[asu66]

I swear. The Prius posse is so damn pot-committed on this climate change thing, that they're now trying to convince everyone we've been suffering through a drought. Up here, we've been dry for the last three, or so, weeks, but that was quenched with Saturday's rain. This has been the most "normal" summer in terms of average precipitation and temperature I can remember. Maybe actually getting rain and a lack of record heat is climate change, as well. Can't win with these people.

Get ready; that posse is coming for you. Not much doubt about it. And now, they'll be after me. See below!


Tech / SciScience
Fall Foliage Forecast Looks Good For Parts Of East Coast; Weather Conditions Ripe For Autumnal Display
By Roxanne Palmer
on September 17 2013 2:03 PM



As the chlorophyll pigment inside leaves degrades, it reveals the rich palette of autumn.

Fall foliage is a bittersweet phenomenon. The reds, oranges and yellows that tourists peep at from their car windows are broken remnants going out in a blaze of decay.

The leaves of a tree are like little solar panels. Though they’re useful in the sunny summer, when the days get shorter, the energy cost of keeping those leaves in shape becomes less and less justified. So, most deciduous, or leaf-shedding, trees, such as maples and oaks, have a system for getting rid of the leaves. The internal chemistry of the dying leaves can result in vivid colors, the plant’s swan song for the year.

Before a leaf falls off, the tree makes a seam between it and the branch called an abscission layer. The abscission layer dries up, and forms a cork-like barrier that prevents nutrients and other substances from being shuttled to the leaf and wasted on it. Chlorophyll, the green pigment that’s essential for photosynthesis, starts to break down in the sun with no fresh supplies coming in. The decay of the green reveals other pigments in the leaf: orange carotenoids, yellow xanthophylls, and red and purple anthocyanins.

But for the trees to really put on a show, the weather has to cooperate, explains Tom Kines, a senior meteorologist at Accuweather.
Related

Harvest Moon Lights Up Sky Before Autumn Equinox
Turn, Turn, Turn: The Science Of Fall Foliage

“During the month of September, maybe early October, you want adequate rainfall,” Kines said in a phone interview. “When it gets [too] dry, the trees get stressed out a little bit.”

And if the mercury dips too low, that can stress the trees out even more. An occasional frost, on the level of say, 32 or 29 degrees Fahrenheit, probably won’t dull the colors; but go too low, and the leaves won’t be as enticing.

“A hard frost early in the season tends to turn the leaves brown,” Kines says. “On the other hand, [you don’t want it to be] too warm; you want a bit of frost that tends to bring out the brighter colors.”

The Mid-Atlantic area of the East Coast, including states like Pennsylvania and West Virginia, currently looks like a place ripe for a good leaf-peeping season. September’s weather will be the primary factor now -- one wrinkle is that many areas of the East Coast are experiencing temperatures slightly above average in the first half of the month. New England in particular has been seeing some higher temperatures, which could mean a slightly less spectacular display.

Still, “the trees are very full and healthy with lots of green foliage, so that’s a good thing,” Western Carolina University botany professor Kathy Matthews told The Weather Channel recently. “They haven’t started dropping their leaves early."

About the only thing that could really dampen the autumnal colors this year would be a late-season tropical storm or hurricane, or any other violent weather. A barrage of wind and rain would strip the leaves from the trees before they had a chance to mature into their full palette. Luckily, according to Kines, it doesn’t look like there are any big storms headed towards the Northeast – for now.

[WVAPPeer]

well guys, according to my neighbor's bumper sticker - "GLOBAL WARMING IS A HOAX" - YEP, it is right there in plain sight just next to "OBAMA IS A MUSLIM" and "WHERE'S THE FENCE?" ---

[ASUMountaineer]

well guys, according to my neighbor's bumper sticker - "GLOBAL WARMING IS A HOAX" - YEP, it is right there in plain sight just next to "OBAMA IS A MUSLIM" and "WHERE'S THE FENCE?" ---

How do you refrain from laughing every time you see your neighbor?

[WVAPPeer]

well guys, according to my neighbor's bumper sticker - "GLOBAL WARMING IS A HOAX" - YEP, it is right there in plain sight just next to "OBAMA IS A MUSLIM" and "WHERE'S THE FENCE?" ---

How do you refrain from laughing every time you see your neighbor?

No real problem there - especially after he showed me his cabinet full of AK-47s ---
I am not kidd ing ---

[ASUMountaineer]

well guys, according to my neighbor's bumper sticker - "GLOBAL WARMING IS A HOAX" - YEP, it is right there in plain sight just next to "OBAMA IS A MUSLIM" and "WHERE'S THE FENCE?" ---

How do you refrain from laughing every time you see your neighbor?

No real problem there - especially after he showed me his cabinet full of AK-47s ---
I am not kidd ing ---

Whoa! Well, then...I doubt I would laugh either!

[Appsolutely]

For any of you who might have served on the I-A Feasibility Study Committee: isn't Neufeld the tool who told us all that we should just become UNC fans? If so, he can take his expertise and shove it up his tar hole.

[appst89]

For any of you who might have served on the I-A Feasibility Study Committee: isn't Neufeld the tool who told us all that we should just become UNC fans? If so, he can take his expertise and shove it up his tar hole.

Believe that guy was Schoenfeldt.

[Appsolutely]

For any of you who might have served on the I-A Feasibility Study Committee: isn't Neufeld the tool who told us all that we should just become UNC fans? If so, he can take his expertise and shove it up his tar hole.

You are right. So, it's Schoenfeldt who can take the UNC suppository.