In New York, a new study shows the southern pine beetle – one of the world’s most aggressive tree-killing insects – could spread through much of the northern United States and southern Canada due to climate change. The beetle’s range is sharply limited by annual extreme temperature lows, but these lows are rising much faster than average temperatures – a trend that will probably drive the beetles’ spread.
The study points to a “huge vulnerability across a vast ecosystem,” said lead author Corey Lesk, a researcher at Columbia University’s Center for Climate Systems Research. “We could see loss of biodiversity and iconic regional forests. There would be damage to tourism and forestry industries in already struggling rural areas.”
Until recently, the southern pine beetle lived from Central America up into the southeastern United States, but in the past decade or so they have begun appearing in parts of the Northeast and New England.