Forest News

March 20, 2025

Top Headlines

How a Hummingbird Chick Acts Like a Caterpillar to Survive

Mar. 17, 2025 — For the first time, scientists described a hummingbird chick potentially mimicking a poisonous caterpillar to avoid getting ...

Want to Preserve Biodiversity? Go Big

Mar. 12, 2025 — Large, undisturbed forests are better for harboring biodiversity than fragmented landscapes, according to recent research. Ecologists agree that habitat loss and the fragmentation of forests reduces biodiversity in the remaining fragments. But ...

Acoustic Monitoring Network for Birds Enhances Forest Management

Mar. 11, 2025 — A new study using the largest network of microphones to track birds in the United States is providing crucial insights for managing and restoring fire-prone forests across California's Sierra Nevada ...

Boreal Forest: Taking Taiga's Temperature

Mar. 11, 2025 — A new study has introduced a powerful tool for analyzing satellite imagery of boreal forests (also known as 'Taiga' in North America), offering unprecedented insights into the health and dynamics of these crucial ...

Latest Headlines

updated 7:19pm EDT

Scientists Develop Advanced Forest Monitoring Systems: Will Forests Monitor Themselves in the Future?

Mar. 7, 2025 — 'Forests are among the most important ecosystems in nature, constantly evolving, yet their monitoring is often delayed,' says an expert. Climate ...

Tropical Forests in the Americas Are Struggling to Keep Pace With Climate Change

Mar. 6, 2025 — Tropical rainforests play a vital role in global climate regulation and biodiversity conservation. However, a major new study reveals that forests ...

Plants Struggled for Millions of Years After the World's Worst Climate Catastrophe

Mar. 6, 2025 — Scientists have uncovered how plants responded to catastrophic climate changes 250 million years ago. Their findings reveal the long, drawn-out ...

Sea Otters Help Kelp Forests Recover -- But How Fast Depends on Where They Are

Mar. 3, 2025 — New modeling method helped researchers understand why kelp forests returned more slowly in Southern California than in British ...

Tree Diversity Increases Carbon Sequestration

Feb. 25, 2025 — Forests planted with many different tree species have substantially higher aboveground carbon stocks and greater carbon fluxes than monocultures, shows a study. For the study, researchers analyzed ...

Climate Change Increases the Risk of Tree Mortality in Urban Boreal Forests

Feb. 27, 2025 — Climate change poses a particular risk to pine trees growing in dry areas, a new study conducted in an urban recreational forest in Helsinki ...

Researchers Make Recommendations for Promoting Sustainable Development in Mangrove Forest Areas

Feb. 26, 2025 — Although preventing all the consequences of climate change is now impossible, we can adopt policies to mitigate its impact. In a set of policy ...

Beyond the Burn: Harvesting Dead Wood to Reduce Wildfires and Store Carbon

Feb. 26, 2025 — A century of fire suppression, climate change, and drought has worsened wildfires in the Western U.S. While prescribed burns help reduce fuel, a 'fire deficit' increases wildfire risks, with ...

New Spatial Mechanism for the Coexistence of Tree Species

Feb. 26, 2025 — The reason why so many tree species can coexist in species-rich forests has long been a subject of debate in ecology. This question is key to understanding the mechanisms governing the dynamics and ...

UK Peatland Fires Are Supercharging Carbon Emissions as Climate Change Causes Hotter, Drier Summers

Feb. 21, 2025 — Experts say a focus on re-wetting our parched peat would significantly dampen down the UK's fire-driven carbon emissions and help mitigate against ...

Scientists Decode DNA of White Oak Tree

Feb. 20, 2025 — Highly valued economically, ecologically and culturally, the white oak (Quercus alba) is a keystone forest species and is one of the most abundant trees across much of eastern North America. It also ...

Protected Habitats Aren't Enough to Save Endangered Species, Study Finds

Feb. 13, 2025 — In tropical forests, endangered species inside protected habitats are still in danger from threats from beyond their sanctuaries, according to a new ...

Restoring Wildlife Habitats in Wealthy Nations Could Drive Extinctions in Species-Rich Regions, Experts Warn

Feb. 13, 2025 — Researchers call on the international community to recognize and start tackling the 'biodiversity ...

Fewer Forest Fires Burn in North America Today Than in the Past--and That's a Bad Thing

Feb. 11, 2025 — Research analyzed tree rings and fire scars to compare modern fires to those in the ...

Colorado Forests Are Releasing More Carbon Than They Capture Each Year

Feb. 11, 2025 — Colorado's forests store a massive amount of carbon, but dying trees -- mostly due to insects and disease -- have caused the state's forests to emit more carbon than they absorbed in recent ...

Climate Warming Leads to More Frequent Beech Tree Reproduction, at the Expense of Growth

Feb. 6, 2025 — A new long-term study reveals alarming insights into the impact of climate change on European beech (Fagus sylvatica), one of Europe's most widespread and ecologically important tree ...

Forest Landowner Motivation to Control Invasive Species Depends on Land Use, Study Shows

Feb. 4, 2025 — Many U.S. forests are privately owned, particularly in the Eastern and North Central part of the country. This makes control of invasive plants and pests challenging because efforts must be ...

Future of UK Peatlands Under Threat Due to Climate Change

Jan. 30, 2025 — The UK's peatlands face an uncertain future amid the escalating impacts of climate change. Peatlands are critical ecosystems for carbon storage and biodiversity, containing more carbon than all ...

Promoting Cacao Production Without Sacrificing Biodiversity

Jan. 30, 2025 — The productivity of cacao trees decreases with time, forcing farmers to renew their plantations by either cutting down the old trees or establishing a new crop elsewhere. Frequently, new plantations ...

A Window Into the Future of Amazonia

Jan. 29, 2025 — New research from a team of tropical biologists forecasts some of the changes that may occur in the Amazon rainforest as temperatures rise due to climate ...

Complexity of Tree-Planting Schemes

Jan. 28, 2025 — Research with smallholder farmers in Kenya shows that tree-planting schemes must account for complex local issues and ...

Scientists Discover Unique Microbes in Amazonian Peatlands That Could Influence Climate Change

Jan. 24, 2025 — Researchers have identified an unknown family of microbes uniquely adapted to the waterlogged, low-oxygen conditions of tropical peatlands in Peru's northwestern Amazonian rainforest. The new ...

How Human Activity Has Shaped Brazil Nut Forests' Past and Future

Jan. 24, 2025 — Researchers use genomic data to study the decline in genetic diversity in the Amazon Basin, particularly in Brazil Nut trees. The research uses genomic data to understand this keystone species' ...

Wildlife Camera Surveys Reveal the Conservation Importance of Habitat Transition Zones

Jan. 22, 2025 — Globally, tropical rain forests are among the most species-rich habitats and are therefore often prioritized in conservation efforts. A team of scientists now show that the diversity of ...

The Megadroughts Are Upon Us

Jan. 16, 2025 — Increasingly common since 1980, persistent multi-year droughts will continue to advance with the warming climate, warns a new study. This publicly available forty-year global quantitative inventory ...

Don't Write Off Logged Tropical Forests -- Converting to Oil Palm Plantations Has Even Wider Effects on Ecosystems

Jan. 9, 2025 — A research team has carried out the most comprehensive assessment to date of how logging and conversion to oil palm plantations affect tropical forest ecosystems. The results demonstrate that logging ...

Study Identifies Coastal Black Pine Trees Resistant to Tsunamis and Strong Winds

Jan. 8, 2025 — Researchers have found that the taller the Japanese black pine trees (Pinus thunbergii) along the coast, the deeper their roots penetrate the ground. Deeper roots make trees more resistant to damage ...

Ice Patches on Beartooth Plateau Reveal How Ancient Landscape Differed from Today's

Jan. 6, 2025 — Scientists say the frozen remnants of an ancient forest discovered 600 feet above the modern tree line on the Beartooth Plateau may portend possible changes for the alpine ecosystem if the climate ...

Climate Change Is Accelerating Forest Defoliation by Helping Invasive Species Spread

Jan. 6, 2025 — Computer models predict that hotter, drier conditions in North America will limit the growth of a fungus that normally curbs the spread of the spongy moth, an invasive species that has caused ...

Dogs Trained to Sniff out Spotted Lanternflies Could Help Reduce Spread

Jan. 2, 2025 — Growers and conservationists have a new weapon to detect invasive spotted lanternflies early and limit their spread: dogs trained to sniff out egg masses that overwinter in vineyards and ...