Forest News

April 19, 2024

Top Headlines

Unique Field Study Shows How Climate Change Affects Fire-Impacted Forests

Apr. 17, 2024 — During the unusually dry year of 2018, Sweden was hit by numerous forest fires. A research team has investigated how climate change affects recently burnt boreal forests and their ability to absorb carbon ...

Researchers Shine Light on Rapid Changes in Arctic and Boreal Ecosystems

Apr. 16, 2024 — Arctic and boreal latitudes are warming faster than any other region on ...

Tropical Forests Can't Recover Naturally Without Fruit-Eating Birds

Apr. 15, 2024 — Natural forest regeneration is hailed as a cost-effective way to restore biodiversity and sequester carbon. However, the fragmentation of tropical forests has restricted the movement of large birds limiting their capacity to disperse seeds and ...

New Report 'Braids' Indigenous and Western Knowledge for Forest Adaptation Strategies Against Climate Change

Apr. 10, 2024 — Forests could also be potential bulwarks against climate change. But, increasingly severe droughts and wildfires, invasive species, and large insect outbreaks -- all intensified by climate change -- ...

Latest Headlines

updated 10:53pm EDT

Boreal Forest and Tundra Regions Worst Hit Over Next 500 Years of Climate Change, Study Shows

Apr. 8, 2024 — Modelling climate change over a 500 year period shows that much of the boreal forest, the Earth's northernmost forests and most significant provider ...

Older Trees Help to Protect an Endangered Species

Apr. 2, 2024 — The oldest trees in the forest help to prevent the disappearance of endangered species in the natural environment, according to a new study. This is the case of the wolf lichen -- threatened ...

Manganese Plays a Surprising Role in Soil Carbon Sequestration

Mar. 28, 2024 — A recent study reveals an unexpected link between manganese -- a naturally occurring mineral -- and increased carbon emissions from high-latitude boreal forests. The study uncovers how manganese ...

New Maps Help Decision-Makers Factor Albedo Into Tree-Planting Decisions

Mar. 26, 2024 — A new study provides a global analysis of where restoration of tree cover is most effective at cooling the global climate system, considering not just the cooling from carbon storage but also the ...

Unintended Consequences of Fire Suppression

Mar. 25, 2024 — A new study reveals how fire suppression ensures that wildfires will burn under extreme conditions at high severity, exacerbating the impacts of climate change and fuel ...

Forest, Stream Habitats Keep Energy Exchanges in Balance, Global Team Finds

Mar. 21, 2024 — Forests and streams are separate but linked ecosystems, existing side by side, with energy and nutrients crossing their porous borders and flowing back and forth between them. For example, leaves ...

Giant Sequoias Are a Rapidly Growing Feature of the UK Landscape

Mar. 12, 2024 — Imported giant sequoia trees are well adapted to the UK, growing at rates close to their native ranges and capturing large amounts of carbon during their long lives, finds a new ...

Tropical Birds Could Tolerate Warming Better Than Expected, Study Suggests

Mar. 14, 2024 — We expect tropical animals to handle a certain degree of heat, but not wild swings in temperature. That seems to be true for tropical ectotherms, or 'cold-blooded' animals such as amphibians, ...

Drought, Soil Desiccation Cracking, and Carbon Dioxide Emissions: An Overlooked Feedback Loop Exacerbating Climate Change

Mar. 13, 2024 — Soil stores 80 percent of carbon on earth, yet with increasing cycles of drought, that crucial reservoir is cracking and breaking down, releasing ...

Unique Way to Track Carbon Emissions in Bodies of Water

Mar. 13, 2024 — Carbon dioxide emissions are not typically associated with water ways, like streams and rivers, but emerging research shows that water bodies play an important role in storing and releasing carbon ...

Seeing the Forest for the Trees: Species Diversity Is Directly Correlated With Productivity in Eastern U.S. Forests

Mar. 25, 2024 — When officials make tough calls on which areas to prioritize for conservation, biodiversity is often their top consideration. But there are several types of diversity, and not all of them overlap ...

Rainforest's Next Generation of Trees Threatened 30 Years After Logging

Mar. 12, 2024 — Rainforest seedlings are more likely to survive in natural forests than in places where logging has happened -- even if tree restoration projects have taken place, new research ...

An Inside Look at Beech Tree Disease

Mar. 4, 2024 — A new study found differences at the cellular level of leaves from infected Beech trees -- variations that may account for tree ...

In Wake of Powerful Cyclone, Remarkable Recovery of Pacific Island's Forests

Mar. 2, 2024 — After one of the most intense cyclones in world history tore through the Pacific island of Tanna in Vanuatu, new research showed the resilience of the island's ...

Birds and Bee Lessons as Pacific Field Trips Also Solve 'Michener's Mystery'

Feb. 29, 2024 — Eight new Pacific bee species and new insights into Fijian bird behaviour on Viti Levu Island have been described in new scientific studies. The research highlights the potential for species ...

Study Reveals Accelerated Soil Priming Under Climate Warming

Feb. 28, 2024 — A new study highlights a crucial biosphere feedback mechanism and its effects on releasing soil carbon into the ...

Reforestation Schemes Are Not Enough to Recover the Carbon Created by Harvesting Wood

Feb. 26, 2024 — Forests have a critical role to play in capturing and storing carbon from the Earth's atmosphere -- but some models exaggerate their carbon removal potential by almost three-fold, according to a ...

Side Effects of Wide Scale Forestation Could Reduce Carbon Removal Benefits by Up to a Third

Feb. 22, 2024 — The side effects of large-scale forestation initiatives could reduce the CO2 removal benefits by up to a third, a pioneering study has ...

Cooler, Wetter Parts of Pacific Northwest Likely to See More Fires, New Simulations Predict

Feb. 22, 2024 — Forests in the coolest, wettest parts of the western Pacific Northwest are likely to see the biggest increases in burn probability, fire size and number of blazes as the climate continues to get ...

Carbon Emissions from the Destruction of Mangrove Forests Predicted to Increase by 50,000% by the End of the Century

Feb. 22, 2024 — The annual rate of carbon emissions due to the degradation of carbon stocks in mangrove forests is predicted to rise by nearly 50,000% by the end of the century, according to a new study. Mangroves ...

Modeling Tree Masting

Feb. 21, 2024 — The effects of a phenomenon called tree masting on ecosystems and food webs can be better understood thanks to new theoretical models validated by real world ...

'The Future Is Fungal': New Research Finds That Fungi That Live in Healthy Plants Are Sensitive to Climate Change

Feb. 20, 2024 — Findings more than a decade in the making reveal a rich diversity of beneficial fungi living in boreal forest trees, with implications for the health of ...

How Is Deforested Land in Africa Used?

Feb. 15, 2024 — Africa's forested areas -- an estimated 14 % of the global forest area -- are continuing to decline at an increasing rate -- mostly because of human activities to convert forest land for ...

Reforestation Programs Could Threaten Vast Area of Tropical Grasslands

Feb. 15, 2024 — New research reveals the scale of inappropriate reforestation projects across Africa. A new study reveals that an area the size of France is threatened by forest restoration initiatives, such as the ...

Is the Amazon Forest Approaching a Tipping Point?

Feb. 14, 2024 — Global warming may be interacting with regional rainfall and deforestation to accelerate forest loss in the Amazon, pushing it towards partial or total collapse. New research has identified the ...

A Century of Reforestation Helped Keep the Eastern US Cool

Feb. 13, 2024 — Widespread 20th-century reforestation in the eastern United States helped counter rising temperatures due to climate change, according to new research. The authors highlight the potential of forests ...

Global Deforestation Leads to More Mercury Pollution

Feb. 12, 2024 — Researchers find deforestation accounts for about 10 percent of global human-made mercury emissions. While it cannot be the only solution, they suggest reforestation could increase global mercury ...

New Study Sheds New Light on Forests' Role in Climate and Water Cycle

Feb. 7, 2024 — Forests, which cover a third of Earth's land surface, are pivotal in carbon storage and the water cycle, though the full scope of their impact remains to be fully understood. In a new study, ...

How Kelp Forests Persisted Through the Large 2014-2016 Pacific Marine Heatwave

Feb. 6, 2024 — New research reveals that denser, and more sheltered, kelp forests can withstand serious stressors amid warming ocean ...

Complex Tree Canopies Help Forests Recover from Moderate-Severity Disturbances

Feb. 6, 2024 — Extreme events wipe out entire forests, dramatically eliminating complex ecosystems as well as local communities. Researchers have become quite familiar with such attention-grabbing events over the ...