Fragmentation rapidly erodes Amazonian biodiversity
...on contains the planet’s most biologically diverse tree communities, with up to three hundred species occu... say the authors, is the remarkable speed at which tree communities are changing in forest fragments. “Rainforest trees can live for centuries, even mi...Winning by a neck -- Giraffes avoid competing with shorter browsers
...nusual height, and they generally feed high in the tree canopy, above the height other herbivores can reach. Giraffes receive more leaves per bite by foraging high in the tree, but it's unclear whether this is caused by competition -- smaller browsers eating some of the leaves at lower heights -- or if m...Disappearing nest egg: Researcher studying declining numbers of macaws
...mes up to 15 tons of the fruit per day. But the tree is also a frequent home to macaws, who nest in it and who also enjoy eating the fruit. "Unfortunately, the locals have discovered that the best way to get the fruit is to chop down the whole tree, and these can grow up to 100 feet high," Brightsmi...Soil nutrition affects carbon sequestration in forests
...gen to study the effect of added soil nutrients on tree growth under elevated CO2. The researchers further tested their hypotheses using data from FACE sites in Wisconsin, Colorado, and Italy. In the articles, the scientists identify critical areas needing further study, but the overall consistency the...The first tree genome is published: Poplar holds promise as renewable bioenergy resource
Wood from a common tree may one day factor prominently in meeting transpor...ientists whose research on the fast-growing poplar tree is featured on the cover of tomorrow's edition of the journal Science. The article, highlighting t...End of deforestation in view? Experts advance new way to size up global forest resources
...ea expanded in nations right of the vertical line; tree density expanded in nations above the horizontal l...s are re-growing. Studies in Central America show tree cover in El Salvador grew by about one-fifth from 1992 to 2001. Forests are also recovering fast in...Two studies on bee evolution reveal surprises
...at the earliest branches of the bee's evolutionary tree originate from the family Melittidae. That would mean that bees have an African origin and are almost as old as flowering plants, which would help explain a lot about the evolutionary diversification of these plants. ...A buffet for early human relatives
...oth's crown and represent tooth growth, similar to tree rings. Perikymata are produced under the gums during the animal's juvenile years, when teeth are growing. Each laser sampling vaporized enamel that formed during several months and thus represented what Paranthropus ate during that period. By tak...A sweet step toward new cancer therapies
...cut off a branch, you don't know which part of the tree it came from." The trick is to make breaks that cut across the ring structures, rather lopping off branches. By using metals as charge carriers, the researchers were able to do just that, yielding valuable structural information. In a project that...Biologists call for better choice of model organisms in 'evo-devo'
...osing new models to plug holes in the phylogenetic tree is the best option for further progress in evo-dev...anism has sprung from the base of the evolutionary tree does not make it more primitive and representative. "Equally, those that became separate species...Fungal factories may save hemlock forests
...olding the clear plastic up to her face. Inside, a tree branch is speckled with white fluff. "It's growing...industry is over, there continues to be use of the tree for fiber and construction, and commercial forest owners have something to lose with the demise of t...Dinosaur extinction didn't cause the rise of present-day mammals, claim researchers
... has been working for over a decade to compile the tree of life from existing fossil records and new molec...ving in ecosystems dominated by dinosaurs. The tree of life shows that after the MEE, certain mammals did experience a rapid period of diversification a...Immunization rates hit record high in poor countries
...olding the clear plastic up to her face. Inside, a tree branch is speckled with white fluff. "It's growing...industry is over, there continues to be use of the tree for fiber and construction, and commercial forest owners have something to lose with the demise of t...Scientists discover new species of distinctive cloud-forest rodent
...e Amazon Basin to open grasslands above the Andean tree line, Manu is home to more species of mammals and ... especially its closest relatives, the bush-tailed tree rats found in South America's lowlands. As a result of the recent discovery, the authors have used T...Lizards 'shout' against a noisy background
...al ownership of their territory by sitting up on a tree trunk, bobbing their heads up and down and extending a colorful throat pouch. They can spot a rival lizard up to 25 meters away, said Terry Ord, a postdoctoral researcher at UC Davis who is working with Judy Stamps, professor of evolution and ecology...Chimpanzees found to use tools to hunt mammalian prey
... senegalensis) from cavities in hollow branches or tree trunks. Bushbabies are nocturnal prosimians that retire to such hidden cavities during the day. Although there was only one successful attempt in 22 recorded instances of the chimpanzees using the spear-like tools to find and obtain prey, the rese...'Ancestral eve' was mother of all tooth decay
... said, "We have constructed an evolutionary family tree with its roots in Africa and its main branch extending to Asia. A second branch, extending from Asia back to Europe, traces the migration of a small group of Asians who founded at least one group of modern-day Caucasians." Additional branches, t...How to manage forests in hurricane impact zones
...breakage potential suggests that stand spacing and tree height can be manipulated to reduce risk, and provides a start for managing forests for hurricane risk," says Stanturf. "Additional research is needed on the effects on vulnerability of fragmentation, harvest systems, and other aspects of stand struc......y of Cardiff University, an expert who has studied tree fossils around the world for the last 17 years. Dr...ntify the trunks as being of the genus Wattieza, a tree fern-like plant. Small fragments of Wattieza have been found in the past, but there was no direct......cruited. Despite extreme aridity the main cause of tree mortality seems not to be climate, but commercial charcoal production. This indicates that the traditional and sustainable indigenous resource management, which desert people have developed through millennia, is changing. Desertification has been r...