SCIENCE IN THE NEWS
from Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society
Today's Headlines - September 15, 2006
Scientists Baffled by Death of Aspen Trees in the Rockies
From The Chicago Tribune (Registration Required)
DENVER -- Something is killing the aspen trees of the Rocky Mountain West.
Or so it seems to some scientists, who say the slender, white-bark trees
that paint the hills gold every autumn are dying, leaving bald patches
across the Rockies. The scientists are scrambling to figure out what's
happening.
"As soon as we understand what's going on, then maybe we can do something
about it," said Dale Bartos, a U.S. Forest Service ecologist based in Utah.
Bartos thinks a fungus may be to blame, while others suggest such
possibilities as hungry caterpillars, drought, human interference with the
natural cycle of forest fires and resurgent herds of hungry elk nibbling
saplings to death.
