forests

Syndicate content

Pine bark beetles affecting more than forests

Pine bark beetles appear to be doing more than killing large swaths of forests in the Rocky Mountains. Scientists suspect they are also altering local weather patterns and air quality.

Get the full story...

Photo reveals rare okapi survived poaching onslaught

A set of stripy legs in a camera trap photo snapped in an African forest indicates something to cheer about, say researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society. The legs belong to an okapi—a rare forest giraffe—which apparently has survived in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Virunga National Park, despite over a decade of civil war and increased poaching.

Get the full story...

Paying to save tropical forests could be a way to reduce global carbon emissions

Wealthy nations willing to collectively spend about $1 billion annually could prevent the emission of roughly half a billion metric tons of carbon dioxide per year for the next 25 years, new research suggests.

Get the full story...

Measuring the stress of forested areas

Plants undergo stress because of lack of water, due to the heat or the cold or to excess of light. A research team from the University of the Basque Country have analysed the substances that are triggered in plants to protect themselves, with the goal of choosing the species that is best suited to the environment during reforestation under adverse environmental conditions.

Get the full story...

Wisconsin's woodland could complicate forests' response to climate change

If a warmer Wisconsin climate causes some northern tree species to disappear in the future, it's easy to imagine that southern species will just expand their range northward as soon as the conditions suit them.

Get the full story...

Complex dynamics underlie bark beetle eruptions

Climate change and biological processes at large and small scales drive outbreaks now killing forests in the American West

Get the full story...

Forest canopies help determine natural fertilization rates

In this week’s issue of Science, a team of researchers from the United States and Sweden report on a newly identified factor that controls the natural input of new nitrogen into boreal forest ecosystems. Nitrogen is the primary nutrient that dictates productivity (and thus carbon consumption) in boreal forests.

Get the full story...

Scientists remove thousands of aspens to glimpse forest's future

Armed with chainsaws and pry bars, University of Michigan researchers and their colleagues recently hastened the end for nearly 7,000 mature aspen and birch trees in a large-scale, long-term experiment to glimpse the Great Lakes region's future forests.

Get the full story...

Amazon under threat from cleaner air

The Amazon rainforest, so crucial to the Earth’s climate system, is coming under threat from cleaner air say prominent UK and Brazilian climate scientists in the leading scientific journal Nature.

Get the full story...

Additional evidence of wolverine found in the Tahoe National Forest

During ongoing investigations by an Oregon State University graduate student, the Forest Service, and California Department of Fish and Game (DFG), two additional wolverine photographs were captured this past week. A variety of hair, track and scat samples were also sent for analysis to determine if these were from a wolverine.

Get the full story...

Rwanda conservation effort to link isolated chimps to distant forest

A group of some 15 chimpanzees isolated in a pocket of Rwandan rain forest will have a greater range – and, thus, greater chances for survival – thanks to one of Africa’s most ambitious forest restoration and ecological research efforts ever.

Get the full story...

Destruction of Sumatra forests driving global climate change, species extinction

Turning just one Sumatran province's forests and peat swamps into pulpwood and palm oil plantations is generating more annual greenhouse gas emissions than the Netherlands and rapidly driving the province's elephants into extinction, a new study by WWF and partners has found.

Get the full story...