Forest News

April 16, 2025

Top Headlines

Experiment in Floodplain Forest: Using Tree Mortality to Support Oak Regeneration

Apr. 16, 2025 — The pedunculate oaks typical of Leipzig's floodplain forest and other German oak forests are struggling to regenerate in the understorey due to a lack of light. One reason for this is the absence of ...

Declining Insect Biodiversity in the Tropics

Apr. 8, 2025 — Ecologists are investigating the decline of insect populations in the world's tropical forests. Insects, the most abundant and diverse group of animals on Earth, are experiencing alarming declines, prompting this research ...

Losing Forest Carbon Stocks Could Put Climate Goals out of Reach

Mar. 27, 2025 — In the past, intact forests absorbed 7.8 billion tons of CO2 annually -- about a fifth of all human emissions -- but their carbon storage is increasingly at risk from climate change and human activities such as deforestation. A new study shows that ...

Getting Hit by Lightning Is Good for Some Tropical Trees

Mar. 26, 2025 — Getting zapped with millions of volts of electricity may not sound like a healthy activity, but for some trees, it is. A new study reports that some tropical tree species are not only able to tolerate lightning strikes, but benefit from them. The ...

Latest Headlines

updated 11:18pm EDT

Refining Siberia's Land Cover Data: A Leap Forward for Climate Science

Mar. 25, 2025 — Researchers have developed a highly accurate land cover map for Siberia, providing insights into climate change and predictions. Using advanced machine learning techniques and existing multiple land ...

How Extreme Weather Threatens Nature's Essential Services

Mar. 24, 2025 — A new model suggests that timber production in Minnesota could decrease by half as windstorms intensify with climate ...

Time Is Not the Driving Influence of Forest Carbon Storage

Mar. 18, 2025 — It is commonly assumed that as forest ecosystems age, they accumulate and store, or 'sequester,' more ...

Satellite Image Analysis Delivers New Insight Into the Functional Diversity of Tropical Forests

Mar. 5, 2025 — Satellite images from space are allowing scientists to delve deeper into the individual functions of different tropical forest canopies with new and ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 process of ecosystem recovery following one of the most ...

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 ...

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 recommendations, researchers examine the development of ...

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, ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 climate ...

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 ...