Rainforests News

January 25, 2025

Top Headlines

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' genetic health and adaptability, help reconstruct its ...

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 seeks to inform policy regarding the environmental ...

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 ...

Latest Headlines

updated 11:22pm EST

Conserving High-Elevation Grasslands in Peru Is Key to Protect Andean Bears

Dec. 18, 2024 — Andean bears carefully select the best foraging locations and plants to maximize nutrition and avoid livestock, according to a new ...

Botanists Name Beautiful New Species of 'Lipstick Vine' from the Philippine Rainforest

Dec. 12, 2024 — Scientists have today announced the discovery of a species of lipstick vine completely new to science, from the depths of the Philippine rainforest. ...

Water and Forests in Southern US

Dec. 12, 2024 — Climate and land use change have and will continue to alter streamflow regimes and water quality through the 21st century, with consequences for drinking water treatment costs, flood protection, and ...

Human Disruption Is Driving 'Winner' and 'Loser' Tree Species Shifts Across Brazilian Forests

Dec. 10, 2024 — Fast-growing and small-seeded tree species are dominating Brazilian forests in regions with high levels of deforestation and degradation, a new study ...

Biodiversity at Risk in Most Rainforests

Dec. 9, 2024 — New research has revealed less than a quarter of the remaining tropical rainforests around the globe can safeguard thousands of threatened species from ...

Deforestation Reduces Malaria Bed Nets' Effectiveness

Dec. 5, 2024 — When a forest is lost to development, some effects are obvious. Stumps and mud puddles across the landscape, a plowed field or houses a year after that. But deforestation isn't just a loss of trees; ...

Conservation Paradox: Invasive Species Are Often Threatened in Their Native Range

Dec. 6, 2024 — Non-native species introduced by humans are among the main causes of global species decline -- they were partly responsible for 60 percent of the ...

After Decades of Plantation Agriculture, Coconut Palms Dominate Over Half of Pacific Atoll Forests

Dec. 4, 2024 — Coconut palms are king throughout the tropics, serving as the foundation for human lives and cultures across the Pacific Ocean for centuries. ...

The Amazon Rainforest as a Cloud Machine: How Thunderstorms and Plant Transpiration Produce Condensation Nuclei

Dec. 4, 2024 — The rainforest in the Amazon basin transpires vast amounts of gaseous isoprene. Until now, it was assumed that this molecule is not transported far ...

In 'World's Bonobo Stronghold' Rangers and Pristine Forest Sustain a Stable Population

Dec. 2, 2024 — Scientists now know how many bonobos live in one of the largest pristine tropical forests, a place believed to be the world's stronghold for the ...

Managing Forests With Smart Technologies

Nov. 25, 2024 — Deforestation has remained a significant issue globally, with primary forests contributing to 16 per cent of the total tree cover loss in the last two decades, driven by climate change and intensive ...

Mixed Forests Reduce the Risk of Forest Damage in a Warmer Climate

Nov. 20, 2024 — Forests with few tree species pose considerably higher risk of being damaged and especially vulnerable is the introduced lodgepole ...

Diverse Diets of Civets in Borneo Rainforest Allow Them to Live in Same Geographical Area

Nov. 20, 2024 — Typically, closely related animal species have difficulty coexisting because they are competing for similar resources. Despite eating the same figs, binturong, small-toothed palm, masked palm, and ...

Climate Change Threatens Rare Temperate Rainforests

Nov. 19, 2024 — Up to two thirds of the world's temperate rainforests could fall victim to climate change by the year 2100 according to a new ...

Tree Islands Restore Nature in Oil Palm Plantations

Nov. 18, 2024 — Southeast Asia's tropical forests are renowned for their biodiversity, but at the same time face significant threats from the expansion of oil palm plantations. With global demand for palm oil ...

Rainforest Protection Reduces the Number of Respiratory Diseases

Nov. 15, 2024 — Rainforest protection is not only good for biodiversity and the climate -- it also noticeably improves the health of humans who live in the corresponding regions. Researchers show that measures to ...

Diverse and Diverging Demands on Forests in Germany

Nov. 14, 2024 — Forests provide biodiversity, ecosystem functions, income and much more. How can these diverse and seemingly diverging demands be met? An international research team addressed this question by ...

More Evidence That Europe's Ancient Landscapes Were Open Woodlands: Oak, Hazel and Yew Were Abundant

Nov. 13, 2024 — A new study finds that the disturbance-demanding plant species oak, hazel and yew were abundant in Europe's forests before modern humans arrived, strengthening the argument that ancient ...

Facing the Wind: How Trees Behave Across Various Forest Settings and Weather Events

Nov. 12, 2024 — A recent study on Cryptomeria japonica plots shows that trees dissipate wind energy by switching between two swaying behaviors at specific wind speeds, offering insights that may help in improved ...

50 Years of Survey Data Confirm African Elephant Decline

Nov. 11, 2024 — A study found large-scale declines of African elephants in the first continent-wide analysis of population survey data. Over 53 years of surveys, forest elephant populations decreased on average by ...

Nanoparticle Bursts Over the Amazon Rainforest

Nov. 8, 2024 — Atmospheric aerosol particles are essential for the formation of clouds and precipitation, thereby influencing the Earth's energy budget, water cycle, and climate. However, the origin of aerosol ...

How Gophers Brought Mount St. Helens Back to Life in One Day

Nov. 6, 2024 — When Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980, lava incinerated anything living for miles around. As an experiment, scientists dropped gophers onto parts of the scorched mountain for only 24 hours. The ...

Study Shows Natural Regrowth of Tropical Forests Has Immense Potential to Address Environmental Concerns

Oct. 30, 2024 — A new study finds that up to 215 million hectares of land (an area larger than Mexico) in humid tropical regions around the world has the potential to naturally regrow. That much forest could store ...

Human Actions Likely Cause Insect Color Change

Oct. 24, 2024 — New Zealand's native stoneflies have changed colour in response to human-driven environmental changes, new research shows. The study provides arguably the world's most clear-cut case of ...

New Mapping Techniques Empower Bird Conservation in Colombia

Oct. 24, 2024 — Researchers have introduced a transformative approach to mapping bird species distribution across Colombia, harnessing community science data and innovative modeling ...

Global Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Forest Fires Increase by 60 Percent

Oct. 17, 2024 — A major new study reveals that carbon dioxide emissions from forest fires have surged by 60 percent globally since 2001, and almost tripled in some of the most climate-sensitive northern boreal ...

New Temperatures in Two Thirds of Key Tropical Forest

Oct. 15, 2024 — Two thirds of Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) in tropical forests are experiencing new temperature conditions as our climate changes, research ...

Modern Mass Extinction in an Ecuadorean Cloud Forest Found to Be a Mirage

Oct. 15, 2024 — An international team of botanists finds no proof of extinctions in Centinela, but abundant evidence that Centinela's flora lives on in the scattered remaining fragments of coastal ...

Declines in Plant Resilience Threaten Carbon Storage in the Arctic

Oct. 10, 2024 — Rapid warming has impacted the northern ecosystem so significantly that scientists are concerned the region's vegetation is losing the ability to recover from climate shocks, suggests a new ...

Forest Loss Forces Langur Species to Interbreed

Sep. 27, 2024 — Research shows a threatening development for two endangered primate species in Bangladesh: Phayre's langurs (Trachypithecus phayrei) and capped langurs (Trachypithecus pileatus). In mixed groups ...