Urban Heat Boosts Some Pest Populations 200-Fold, Killing Red Maples

Urban 'heat islands' are slowly killing red maples in the southeastern United States, research shows. One factor that researchers have found that impacts the situation is that warmer temperatures increase the number of young produced by the gloomy scale insect -- a significant tree pest -- by 300 percent, which in turn leads to 200 times more adult gloomy scales on urban trees.

"We'd been seeing higher numbers of plant-eating insects like the gloomy scale in cities, and now we know why," says Adam Dale, a Ph.D. student at NC State and lead author of two papers describing the work.  "These findings also raise concerns about potential pest outbreaks as temperatures increase due to global climate change."

Urban Heat Boosts Some Pest Populations 200-Fold, Killing Red Maples