Blue Trees

American beech is easily recognized by its smooth gray bark.

Within the range of beech, annual precipitation usually is from 760 mm to 1270 mm (30 to 50 in) (39); however, some beech is found in Michigan where precipitation is about 580 mm (23 in), and in Canada where about 640 mm (25 in) fall annually. Precipitation during the growing season varies from 250 mm to 460 min (10 to 18 in). Beech is a mesophytic species; it uses twice as much water for transpiration and growth processes annually, compared to some drought resistant oaks and even lesser amounts by some pines.

The growing season for beech varies from 100 to 280 days; the species is found in one county in Michigan where the growing season is only 92 days.

Mean annual temperatures range from 4° to 21° C (40° to 70° F). Beech can exist under temperature extremes lower than -42° C (-44° F) and 38° C (100° F). Higher than average summer temperatures may be unfavorable for beech growth.

– http://www.na.fs.fed.us/pubs/silvics_manual/volume_2/fagus/grandifolia.htm

Because of global warming, American beech like me may not be here in 150 years.

Prasad, A. M., L. R. Iverson., S. Matthews., M. Peters. 2007-ongoing. A Climate Change Atlas for 134 Forest Tree Species of the Eastern United States [database]. http://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/atlas/tree, Northern Research Station, USDA Forest Service, Delaware, Ohio.

Sugar Maples (Acer saccharum), one of the dominant species in the Ithaca area, will become less prevalent in the future due to climate change.

Iverson, L., A. Prasad, and S. Matthews. 2008. Potential changes in suitable habitat for 134 tree species in the northeastern United States. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change. In press.

As long as the total movement of isotherms toward the poles is much smaller than the size of the habitat, or the ranges in which the animals live, the effect on species is limited. But now the movement is inexorably toward the poles and totals more than a hundred miles over the past several decades. If emissions of greenhouse gases continue to increase at the current rate–”business as usual”–then the rate of isotherm movement will double in this century to at least seventy miles per decade. If we continue on this path, a large fraction of the species on Earth, as many as 50 percent or more, may become extinct.

NASA Climatologist Jim Hansen, writing in the New York Review of Books (http://www.nybooks.com/articles/19131)