forests

Live fast, die young true for forests too

Trees in the world¹s most productive forests -- forests that add the most new growth each year -- also tend to die young, according to a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) study published in a recent issue of the journal Ecology Letters. This discovery could help scientists predict how forests will respond to ongoing and future environmental changes. "One implication of this fast turnover rate...

U.N. mulls the protection of Earth's forests

The final meeting of the United Nations Forum on Forests, now under way, could result in firm commitments to protect the world's forests or, some environmentalists worry, merely an agreement to continue negotiations. One member of the U.S. delegation to the U.N. forum is international environmental policy expert Matthew Auer, who remains guardedly optimistic that the two-week negotiation...

Expanding forests darken the outlook for butterflies, study shows

Changing environmental conditions in the Canadian Rockies are stifling the mating choices of butterflies in the region, say University of Alberta researchers. Smaller and less abundant alpine meadows--largely the result of human activities--are diminishing the alpine butterfly gene pool, creating a pattern that could lead to the butterflies being less able to survive, said Dr. Jens Roland,...

Emerald Spectre haunts Ontario's ash forests

A new study shows that while we're winning isolated battles, we could well lose the war to prevent the devastating spread of the emerald ash borer in eastern Canada and the United States. It's a failure that would cost billions of dollars in lost timber and ornamental trees, and dramatically change the forest and neighbourhood landscape in eastern North America - with even more impact than Dutch...

Tropical dry forests receive international recognition

When most people think of tropical forests, rainforests immediately come to mind. But they are not the only kind under threat--the tropical dry forest is in as much danger as its popular cousin yet its grave situation continues to be ignored. Dr. Arturo Sanchez-Azofeifa is hoping to change that. Sanchez-Azofeifa is the director of the newly formed TROPI-DRY, a research network on tropica...

Scientists must offer solutions for conserving tropical forests in a rapidly changing world

As the future of the tropics unfolds, scientists must explain the dimensions and mechanisms of forest responses to rapid human-population increase and environmental changesAs human populations and their impacts on the world increase, tropical forests are changing in many different ways. Forests are being cleared, burned, logged, fragmented, and overhunted and an unprecedented pace, and they are...

New book on rain forests, slash-and-burn agriculture

UC Davis economist Stephen Vosti is co-editor and co-author of a new book assessing the environmental, economic and social impacts of farming in tropical rain forests. "Slash-and-Burn Agriculture: The Search for Alternatives" details the causes and consequences of the annual destruction of 80,000 square miles of rain forest. The forests are cleared by rural farmers to feed their families a...

Diverse tropical forests defy metabolic ecology models

As global change accelerates, quantifying the role of forests in the carbon cycle becomes ever more urgent. Modelers seek simple predictors of forest biomass and carbon flux. Over the last decade, the theory of metabolic ecology generated testable explanations, derived from physical and biochemical principles, for a wide range of ecological patterns. However, in two Ecology Letters articles, Hele...

Himalayan forests disappearing

Studies in which monkeys were asked to manipulate computer cursors for fruit juice rewards have revealed that the brain's "executive" center plans behaviors not by specifying movements required for given actions, but rather the events that will result from those actions. The distinction is significant, said the researchers, because it yields new basic insight into a central function of beh...

Report highlights change in Canada's forests

Challenge and change are central to our forest sector, according to The State of Canada's Forests 2005?006 report. The Honourable Gary Lunn, Minister of Natural Resources Canada, presented the report today at the National Forest Congress. "The report's theme of industry competitiveness is well chosen," said Minister Lunn. "Canada's forest industry has reacted decisively to improve its eff...

Soil nutrition affects carbon sequestration in forests

On December 11, USDA Forest Service (FS) scientists from the FS Southern Research Station (SRS) unit in Research Triangle Park, NC, along with colleagues from Duke University, published two papers in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS) that provide a more precise understanding of how forests respond to increasing atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2), the major...

Fungal factories may save hemlock forests

Reaching into a box glowing with fluorescent light, Stacie Grassano pulls out a tube. "This is a great one," she says, holding the clear plastic up to her face. Inside, a tree branch is speckled with white fluff. "It's growing really well," she says, handing it to Scott Costa. Costa brings the branch close to his eye. "Yes," he says, with a boyish grin, "this is a fungus success story." <...

How to manage forests in hurricane impact zones

Forest Service researchers have developed an adaptive strategy to help natural resource managers in the southeastern United States both prepare for and respond to disturbance from major hurricanes. In an article published in the journal Forest Ecology and Management, John Stanturf, Scott Goodrick, and Ken Outcalt from the Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS) unit in Athens, GA, report t...

Tropical forests -- Earth's air conditioner

Planting and protecting trees—which trap and absorb carbon dioxide as they grow—can help to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But a new study suggests that, as a way to fight global warming, the effectiveness of this strategy depends heavily on where these trees are planted. In particular, tropical forests are very efficient at keeping the Earth at a happy, healthy temperature. Th...

MIT's ocean model captures diversity of underwater forests

Scientists at MIT have created an ocean model so realistic that the virtual forests of diverse microscopic plants they "sowed" have grown in population patterns that precisely mimic their real-world counterparts. This model of the ocean is the first to reflect the vast diversity of the invisible forests living in our oceans-tiny, single-celled green plants that dominate the ocean and produ...

Madagascan tropical forests return thanks to better management and well-defined ownership

A study published in the May 2nd issue of the online, open-access journal PLoS ONE, shows that although loss of tropical dry forests occurs in southern Madagascar, there are also large areas of forests regenerating. The return of forest cover was found to be substantial in the study area, with an overall net increase of 4 % during the period 1993-2000. These dry forests have the highest level of...