More than 1,350 pine trees have been reported dead in southwestern Finland since April, when researchers began collecting observations from residents.
“Every day we receive new observations in the university’s cartography department,” Risto Kalliola, a geography professor at the University of Turku, told AFP.
According to the researcher, this phenomenon is a “massive local death of pine trees.”
The most affected areas are the rocky coastal areas whose arid soil is exposed to drought.
Clumps of brown pine trees have suddenly started appearing along the southern coast of Finland for a few years, a phenomenon that researchers are now trying to find the cause of.
“There is something going on in our nature that we have to take seriously,” Kalliola said.
Similar deaths of pine trees have been recorded in other northern European countries, including neighbouring Sweden.
But what is new in Finland, according to the professor, is that “this phenomenon has recently begun to spread.”
The researcher pointed out several factors that may be the reason behind these deaths of local trees, such as harmful insects and fungal diseases that have increased due to climate change.
“During hot summers with heat waves and weeks without rain, trees growing in vulnerable areas begin to suffer and their ability to defend themselves against pathogens is weakened,” Kalliola said.
He pointed out that the exceptionally hot summer that Finland experienced this year caused stress on the trees.
“The less water there is in the soil that trees can absorb through their roots, the less able they are to withstand heat waves and drought,” he lamented.
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