什么碳税,什么绿色能源,净扯淡。怎么就没听说加拿大能够投入力量去一直甲虫,整日收碳税,不知所谓。
松甲虫将
卵产在成熟的黑松树的皮下,并以野生的黑松的韧皮作为食物,将
松树钻得千疮百孔的。因此,甲虫一旦钻入了树木,树木就会在一年内死亡。当树木死亡之后,松甲虫释放大量的二氧化碳到大气中,让少数的活树来吸收。研究表示,北部森林先前的
气候变化模式没有考虑这种甲虫的群袭行为。
这些甲虫释放了9.90亿吨的二氧化碳,相当于加拿大交通部5年的排放总和。科学家估计从现在到2020年,松树甲虫将会喷射2.70亿吨的二氧化碳。而在《
京都议定书》的约定下,加拿大到在2012年之前要减少2.70亿吨的温室气体的排放,这将会导致加拿大的
减排努力难以获得成功。
由加拿大林业部沃纳·库兹领导的研究小组测量了森林火灾、伐木和树木因甲虫死亡的累积和单个碳循环的效应。结果发现,仅甲虫的影响就能将森林从小型的净碳源变成大型的净碳源。雪上加霜的是,科学家已经发现北
大西洋已经失去部分吸碳的能力。科学家担心同样的情况会发生在整个
地球的全部海洋中。
海洋每年吸收四分之一的人为排放的二氧化碳。
Mountain pine beetle
The mountain pine beetle (
Dendroctonus ponderosae) is a wood-boring insect native to western North America and attacks a wide range of pine trees including lodgepole, ponderosa, western white, whitebark, limber and jack. It does not attack Jeffrey pine.
The mountain pine beetle (MPB) has many natural predators including insects, parasitoids and woodpeckers. However, these enemies do not have sufficient impact to effectively control new or outbreak populations.
Quick facts
- An ongoing outbreak of mountain pine beetle that started in British Columbia in the early 1990s has affected more than 18 million hectares of forest.
- As of 2017, the beetle has migrated well beyond its historic range into northern British Columbia and eastward into the boreal forest of north-central Alberta.
- When beetle populations are low, healthy trees are able to defend and suppress an attack by producing a toxic resin. As more beetles come to a healthy tree, its natural defenses are overwhelmed.
- Epidemic population levels decline only when all large pine trees are weakened or dead.
- Beetle populations grow when summers are warm/dry and winters are mild.
Mountain pine beetle (adult).
Larger image [246 kb JPG]
Impacts
- Since the early 1990s, the beetle has attacked 50% of the total volume of commercial lodgepole pine in British Columbia.
- By 2017, the total cumulative loss of pine that could have been sold was estimated at 752 million cubic metres (58% of sellable pine volume).
- Efforts to control beetle outbreaks have been successful in reducing populations and slowing spread.
- As the beetle spreads into new areas of the boreal forest, there are many new questions such as how quickly populations spread and what the impact on forest ecology, as well as economic and social values will occur.