#Fungi disarm #BarkBeetle chemical shields by converting their plant-derived toxins https://phys.org/news/2025-12-fungus-bark-beetle-chemical-shields.html https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2525513122

"a bark beetle can co-opt a tree's defensive compounds to make defenses against its own enemies. However, since one of the enemies, the #fungus Beauveria bassiana, has developed the ability to detoxify these antimicrobial defenses, it can successfully infect the #BarkBeetles and thus actually help the tree in its battle against bark #beetles"

#Fungi #Symbiosis

Greece. Another carbon sink one bites the dust. After Germany, Finland, and ...? Yet EU policy is still to use national carbon sinks to balance insufficient or absent sectoral CO2 reduction. Which is allowed practice according to the UNFCCC as well. Stupid, isn't it. It's called the pyrocene for a reason.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/dec/19/survived-wildfires-drought-killing-greece-fir-forests-aoe

#Forest #BarkBeetle #WildFire #CarbonSink #Greece #Pyrocene #Anthropocene #EconObscene

#Germany is losing its #forests, FAST. In the central Harz region, over 90 percent of spruce trees are dead or dying because of #climatechange and insect damage. But this isn’t necessarily bad news. Instead of the former #monoculture #forest, a more resilient, wild forest is springing up, with a more abundant ecosystem. #barkbeetle #amazingnature #deforestation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9UprJXSVSg

The end of the great northern forests? The tiny tree-killing beetle wreaking havoc on our ancient giants

“This is a global phenomenon but it is also a complicated story,” says Prof Diana Six, a forest entomologist at the University of Montana.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/jun/05/collapse-northern-boreal-forests-drought-fire-beetles-climate-crisis-ancient-trees-carbon-sink?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

#forests #climate #BarkBeetle