Climate Change and Its Effects on Trees and Their Relationship to Insects

National Park Service Photo

After slowly cooling throughout the past millennium, Earth has substantially warmed over the last 40 years, and effects on trees and insects are already apparent. There is a strong scientific consensus that this warming is caused by human emission of greenhouse gases. There also is a substantial discrepancy between this scientific consensus and perceptions of the public regarding climate change.

Dr. Herms will examine the evidence for anthropogenic climate change, including changes in patterns of precipitation; consider current and future impacts; and look at the implications for trees in urban and natural forests, especially their interactions with insects. He will also address the potential for trees to sequester carbon in urban forests as a climate change mitigation strategy.

Dr. Dan Herms is Vice President of Research and Development at The Davey Tree Expert Company. Prior to joining Davey in January 2018, Dr. Herms was a professor in the Department of Entomology at The Ohio State University, where he served on the faculty for 21 years. His research has focused on interactions between trees and insects, including effects of climate change, and he was a member of The Ohio State University Climate Change Outreach Team. Dr. Herms received his BS in landscape horticulture from The Ohio State University, his MS in horticulture and entomology from The Ohio State University, and his PhD in forest entomology from Michigan State University. In 2014, he was inducted as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Log in to your Membership account to watch the replay or become a member to gain access