Treestwo Kansas State university biologists are studying streams to prevent tallgrass prairies from turning into shrublands and forests.
and converting grasslands into forest ecosystems. This change in environment can affect stream hydrology and biogeochemistry said Dodds who has studied streams
if you don't burn at all these grassland streams basically are going to switch to forests and will not be grassland streams anymore Dodds said.
Biochar can be produced from waste wood manure or leaves and its popularity among do-it-yourselfers
which was derived from Texas mesquite wood was prepared to exacting standards in the lab of Rice geochemist Caroline Masiello a study co-author to ensure comparable results across soil types.
and mixed conifer forest from Teller County west of Colorado springs through Larimer County west and north of Fort Collins reconstructed the timing
and more severe as a result of fire suppression that allowed forest fuels to build up in the past century is still prevalent among some said CU-Boulder geography Professor Thomas Veblen a study co-author.
The key point here is that modern fires in these Front Range forests are not radically different from the fire severity of the region prior to any effects of fire suppression he said.
Our results show that this is not the case on the Front Range except for the lowest elevation forests and woodlands.
and nearly 8000 samples of tree ages at 232 forest sample sites from Teller County to Larimer County.
But our study results showed that about 70 percent of the forest study area experienced a combination of moderate and high-severity fires in
on a mission as he surveys the vast urban jungle sprawled around him. In his trunk a luggage-sized air-sampling instrument sniffs the outside air through a small tube to measure the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane.
and those resulting from biological influences such as urban green spaces and adjacent forest and croplands
The research led by U s. Forest Service Research Ecologist Dr. Christian Giardina with the agency's Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry Pacific Southwest Research Station with co-authors Drs.
Celsius gradient of mean annual temperature in tropical montane wet forest in Hawai `i. The scientists also showed an increase in productivity across the gradient both above and belowground and an increase in the decomposition rate of fresh litter and a decline in coarse woody debris with warming.
From these results they concluded that long-term warming in tropical montane forests will accelerate carbon cycling
While soil carbon storage and turnover was insensitive to warming the decomposition of coarse wood
The above story is provided based on materials by USDA Forest Service-Pacific Southwest Research Station. Note:
biomass production of a forest plantation without altering its growth composition or the wood anatomy. These results have an important market value for the bioenergy sector
and observations from Harvard Forest a 3500-acre research property managed by Harvard university. The species examined were American beech aspen black oak northern red oak paper birch red maple sugar maple and sweet birch.
This understanding will help us make better forecasts for climate as well as for the basic dynamics of forests.
#Tropical rabbitfish a threat to Mediterranean sea ecosystemsthe tropical rabbitfish which have devastated algal forests in the eastern Mediterranean sea pose a major threat to the entire Mediterranean basin
Algal forests or seaweeds provide food and shelter to hundreds of species and fulfil a role similar to trees in terrestrial forests.
To find out why algal forests were disappearing in the eastern Mediterranean the researchers filmed a series of experiments
and recorded the feeding rates of rabbitfish and other species. They found it was not necessarily a case of the tropical fish eating more algae than the native fish.
and another species that removes the youngest algal recruits preventing them from making a forest says Dr Vergã s. This research highlights the need to work out how the interactions between different species will change in a warming ocean.
This was the outcome of a study carried out by scientists from Technische Universitã¤t Mà nchen (TUM) based on long-term data from experimental forest plots that have been observed continuously since 1870.
Three decades ago forest dieback was a hot topic with the very survival of large forest ecosystems seemingly in doubt.
But instead of a collapse the latest studies indicate that forests have actually been growing at a faster rate
Whether how and why forest stands have changed their growth patterns over the last century are disputed still hotly questions.
It was based on data from experimental forest plots that have been observed systematically since 1870. This makes them among the oldest forest study sites in the world.
The forested areas are also representative of the typical climate and environmental conditions found in Central europe.
Hans Pretzsch from TUM's Chair for Forest Growth and Yield who headed up the study.
and age faster the appearance of the forest does not change as a result. But the same tree and stand sizes are achieved significantly earlier than in the past.
This could benefit the forestry industry in that target diameters and the optimal harvest rotation age will be reached sooner.
Besides more wood can be harvested without compromising the principle of sustainability. At the same time the altered timescale has not yet been incorporated into traditional forestry yield models which monitor growth merely as a function of age.
The risk here is that the newly discovered benefits will not be exploited. Meanwhile the accelerated growth and aging of trees is also significant for the forest ecosystem as a whole as Pretzsch explains:
The plant and animal species that will be affected most are those living in habitats which depend on special phases and structures of forest development.
These species may have to become more mobile to survive. Long-term observation provides unique pool of datathe study was based on 600000 individual tree surveys conducted since 1870.
The growth trends at stand level are relevant for the forestry industry in terms of productivity carbon sequestration
#Impact that doomed the dinosaurs helped the forests bloomsome 66 million years ago a 10-km diameter chunk of rock hit the Yukatan peninsula near the site of the small town of Chicxulub with the force of 100 teratons
When you look at forests around the world today you don't see many forests dominated by evergreen flowering plants said the study's lead author Benjamin Blonder.
And potentially this also tells us why we find that modern forests are generally deciduous and not evergreen.
Dr Daniel Greenwood from QUT's Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation with support from the Queensland Academy of Sport Centre of Excellence for Applied Sport Science Research has studied the run-ups of elite
Dr Greenwood said this was a breakthrough finding and was being used to better train Queensland Academy of Sport athletes prior to competition.
and also Olympic long jump medalist Mitchel Watt and Olympic champion hurdler Sally Pearson since 2010 as well as a host of world junior track and field athletes Dr Greenwood said.
Dr Greenwood used specialised analysis methods to show when there was no vertical reference point in view athletes made about 80 per cent of their adjustments to running behaviour in the final stages of their run-up compared to just 40 per cent
Dr Greenwood said athletes were also being trained to embrace a changing environment where movement is part of the competition.
For the research--published this week in the online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences--researchers gathered bacterial samples from 57 of the more than 450 tree species growing in a lowland tropical forest
Some bacteria were very abundant and present on every leaf in the forest while others were rare and only found on the leaves of a single host species Kembel said.
Ultimately we hope that understanding the factors that explain variation in bacterial abundances across host species will help us better manage biological diversity in forests and the health and function of forest ecosystems.
Fungi of dizzying variety erupt from wood and soil luring intrepid collectors to woodlands in search of elusive but delectable wild mushrooms.
Part of their appeal lies in the allure of the treasure hunt and their mysterious not quite-meat not quite-vegetable qualities that belie an almost otherworldly existence.
Despite the fact that tropical forests are the most biodiverse terrestrial ecosystems on the planet more is known about bellybutton bacteria than bacteria on trees in the tropics.
Bacteria in tropical forests may also play a vital role protecting leaves against pathogens and even affecting the ability of forests to respond to climate change.
Just as people are realizing that microbes carried by humans can have an influence on a person's health--positive
or negative--we hope to discover what bacteria on tree leaves can tell us about the health of a forest said S. Joseph Wright a Smithsonian scientist
In contrast to a previous study of bacteria on leaves in a temperate forest where different leaves had different bacteria there was a core group of species of common bacteria present on leaves of nearly all of the species sampled in Panama.
Our ability to use molecular techniques like 16s RIBOSOMAL RNA gene sequencing to characterize nearly all of the bacteria on a leaf is going to make it possible to see how very different members of forest communities interact said Wright.
The Smithsonian forest ecologist and his colleagues hope to collaborate with researchers at the 60 Forest Global Earth Observatory sites coordinated by the Smithsonian's Center for Tropical forest Science to compare interactions at different sites and under different environmental conditions.
what the U s. Department of agriculture Forest Service claims to be the most destructive forest pest ever seen in North america said Michael Domingue postdoctoral fellow in entomology Penn State.
According to the Forest Service the emerald ash borer was introduced to the United states from China in 2002.
and engineers at Penn State the Hungarian Academy of Sciences the Forest Research Institute in Matrafured Hungary and the USDA--created the decoys using a bioreplication process with nanoscale fidelity.
and 3d printed decoys as well as dead female emerald ash borers onto leaves in forests in Hungary to see which of them best attracted wild males.
In the same forests the team also placed traps configured with decoys bearing a 4000-volt charge to electrocute
and also can pose a threat to the people who walk through the woods. At the framework's core is an understanding of how conservation efforts
and manage a forest track is significant. Nepal took the lead in experimenting with ways to have people manage their forest.
Now that's being tried in other places. You won't get one answer. You get different points of view--and that's important.
Later the culture regressed as the ecosystem in the area shifted towards old-growth spruce-dominated forests
which employed timber housing flint and amber--as is typical of the Pit-Comb Ware culture.
and regressed as the ecosystem became dominated by old-growth spruce forests which provided a less ideal elk habitat than the recently-emerged land.
Co-authors are Rice graduate student Colin Young alumnus Daniel Paul Hashim former visiting researcher Carolyn Ramirez and Pulickel Ajayan the Benjamin M. and Mary Greenwood Anderson
In particular the transformation of forests into agricultural lands has reduced dramatically biodiversity around the world. A new study by scientists at Stanford and the University of California Berkeley in this week's issue of Science shows that evolutionarily distinct species suffer most heavily in intensively farmed areas.
Calculating evolutionary historythe findings arise from a 12-year research project conducted by Stanford scientists at the intersections of farms and jungles in Costa rica.
untouched forest reserves; farmlands with multiple crops and small patches of forest; and intensive farmlands consisting of single crops such as sugar cane or pineapple with no adjoining forest areas.
They then analyzed the species spread across those types of places and calculated phylogenetic diversity in each.
The findings were bad and good. Not surprisingly the diversified farmlands supported on average 300 million years of evolutionary history fewer than forests.
But they retained an astonishing 600 million more years of evolutionary history than the single crop farms.
We found that forests outperform agriculture when it comes to supporting a larger range of species that are related more distantly.
and other evolutionarily distinct species are highly dependent on jungle habitats and have very specific needs such as diet that can only be met in those environments.
This work really highlights the need to preserve native tropical forest and whenever possible to make agricultural systems as wildlife friendly as possible.
and translocating exotic strains for ecological restoration and forestry that will be adapted better to near-future conditions.
In addition to devastating impacts on forest-dependent people and biodiversity the illegal conversion of tropical forests for commercial agriculture is estimated to produce 1. 47 gigatonnes of carbon each year--equivalent to 25%of the EU's annual fossil fuel
and CEO of Forest Trends a Washington-based NGO that published the report. Increased agricultural production will be necessary for food security
An Analysis of the Extent and Nature of Illegality in Forest Conversion for Agriculture 90%of the deforestation in Brazil from 2000 to 2012 was illegal primarily due to the failure to conserve a percentage of natural forests in large-scale cattle
And in the forests of Indonesia 80%of deforestation was illegal--mostly for large-scale plantations producing palm oil and timber 75
Illegal deforestation is also rampant in most other countries across Asia Latin america and Africa losing large areas of tropical forest.
In most cases the companies that illegally razed forests to grow these crops had some form of government permit in hand.
and the rights of local people who have lived in these forests for generations and who depend on them for their food and incomes.
or customary rights of Indigenous Peoples and other forest-dwelling communities clearing more forest than they are allowed
and wood products including paper) produced on land illegally converted from tropical forest is estimated worth an US$61 billion per year.
Overall exports of agricultural commodities produced on land where forests were cleared illegally drove 25%of all tropical deforestation between 2000 and 2012.
The study estimates that almost 40%of all palm oil 20%of all soy nearly 33%of tropical timber
Nearly one-fifth (17%)of Brazilian beef 75%of Brazilian soy and 70-80%of the palm oil and plantation wood and pulp from Indonesia were destined for foreign markets.
Five football fields of tropical forest are being destroyed every minute to supply these export commodities said Lawson noting that the report's figures were obtained using conservative estimates based on documented violations of significant impact.
A Growing Problemwhile the study highlights Brazil's recent success in reducing illegal forest clearance the report also cautions that the problem of illegal deforestation for the production of commodities intended for export is now expanding to new areas of the tropics
and timber plantations can ultimately only be addressed fully by governments and efforts to go further than legality will be held back by the need to compete with products that were produced illegally.
Without investing in governance our collective investments in halting deforestation and promoting forest stewardship will fail concluded Jenkins.
and regulations that currently govern the forest and agricultural sectors. This is a critical step alongside improving the enforcement and compliance of national and international laws.
The report notes that important lessons can be learned from previous successful initiatives to combat the trade in illegally sourced timber.
and regulations including the development of importing trade legislation (such as the EU Timber Regulation public procurement policies and investment standards.
Consumer countries have a responsibility to help halt this trade. http://www. forest-trends. org/illegal-deforestation. phpstory Source:
grasslands forests wetlands ocean aridlands islands and coasts. This year's report is also a five-year check in on the indicators presented in the inaugural 2009 State of the Birds report.
The creation and preservation of large swaths of forests through public-private partnerships in the Appalachian mountains and the Northwest has helped declining forest-dependent species such as the golden-winged warbler and the oak titmouse.
Efforts like this are essential as forest-dependent birds have declined nearly 20 percent in the western U s. since 1968 and 32 percent in the east.
and the Forest Service have improved habitat for bird species and other wildlife as well as promoting more outdoor recreation opportunities
and foresters to do more together than we ever could have separately. One of the more dire groups on the Watch List is made up of the 33 Hawaiian forest species 23
of which are listed as federally endangered by the U s. Fish and Wildlife Service. The report's authors have deemed Hawaii the bird extinction capital of the world--no place has had more extinctions since human settlement.
A positive precedent however lies with the cerulean warbler a species that breeds in forests of the eastern U s. and winters in the tropics.
of which were published recently in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. For their study the scientists evaluated data from six forest censuses conducted over the past decades on Barro Colorado Island in the Panama canal.
because seed dispersal in this tropical forest is limited usually very so we would expect the offspring to grow close to the parent trees explains Dr Stephan Getzin of the UFZ.
In species-rich forests every tree has random neighbours. According to Hubbell species have become generalists
A forest census is carried out every five years so it is likely that no other forest in the world is documented as well as these two.
They represent unique opportunities for biodiversity researchers to explore the interactions between different plant species. UFZ researchers use rainforest models like FORMIND and FORMIX3 for this purpose.
#Milestone reached in work to build replacement kidneys in the labregenerative medicine researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical center have addressed a major challenge in the quest to build replacement kidneys in the lab. Working
or two hours after transplantation because blood clots developed said Anthony Atala M d. director and professor at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine and a senior author on the study.
The Wake Forest Baptist scientists took a two-pronged approach to address this problem. First they evaluated four different methods of introducing new cells into the main vessels of the kidney scaffold.
when blood flow is initiated said In Kap Ko Ph d. lead author and instructor in regenerative medicine at Wake Forest Baptist.
Giuseppe Orlando M d. John D. Jackson Ph d. Tamer Aboushwareb M d. Shay Soker Ph d. and Anthony Atala M d. all with Wake Forest Baptist.
The above story is provided based on materials by Wake Forest Baptist Medical center. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
#How conversion of forests to cropland affects climatethe conversion of forests into cropland worldwide has triggered an atmospheric change that
Writing in the journal Nature Climate Change Professor Nadine Unger of the Yale School of Forestry
& Environmental Studies (F&es) reports that large-scale forest losses during the last 150 years have reduced global emissions of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCS)
Using sophisticated climate modeling Unger calculated that a 30-percent decline in BVOC emissions between 1850 and 2000 largely through the conversion of forests to cropland produced a net global cooling of about 0. 1 degrees Celsius.
The lost carbon storage capacity caused by forest conversion has exacerbated global warming. Meanwhile the disappearance of dark-colored forests has helped also offset temperature increases through the so-called albedo effect.
The albedo effect refers to the amount of radiation reflected by the surface of the planet.
and heat back into space than darker forests.)Unger says the combined effects of reduced BVOC emissions
and increased albedo may have entirely offset the warming caused by the loss of forest-based carbon storage capacity.
since the industrial and agricultural revolutions have removed natural forests and grasslands and replaced them with croplands said Unger an assistant professor of atmospheric chemistry at F&es.
Unger said the findings do not suggest that increased forest loss provides climate change benefits
which parts of the world would benefit from greater forest conservation. Since the mid-19th century the percentage of the planet covered by cropland has doubled more than from 14 percent to 37 percent.
Since forests are far greater contributors of BVOC emissions than crops and grasslands this shift in land use has removed about 30 percent of Earth's BVOC sources Unger said.
Therefore a 50 percent reduction in forest aerosols has spurred actually greater warming since the pre-industrial era.
The above story is provided based on materials by Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. The original article was written by Kevin Dennehy.
#New NASA probe will study Earths forests in 3-DA laser-based instrument being developed for the International Space station will provide a unique 3-D view of Earth's forests helping to fill in missing
Called the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) lidar the instrument will be the first to systematically probe the depths of the forests from space.
GEDI lidar will have a tremendous impact on our ability to monitor forest degradation adding to the critical data needed to mitigate the effects of climate change.
In particular the GEDI data will provide us with global-scale insights into how much carbon is being stored in the forest biomass.
By revealing the 3-D architecture of forests in unprecedented detail GEDI will provide crucial information about the impact that trees have on the amount of carbon in the atmosphere.
if a forest were destroyed nor how well emissions could be countered by planting new trees. One of the most poorly quantified components of the carbon cycle is the net balance between forest disturbance
and regrowth said Ralph Dubayah the GEDI principal investigator at the University of Maryland. GEDI will help scientists fill in this missing piece by revealing the vertical structure of the forest
which is information we really can't get with sufficient accuracy any other way. GEDI can do this
biomass in forests. Its immediate predecessors are Goddard's Ice Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESAT) and airborne Land Vegetation and Ice Sensor known as LVIS
which is flown on high-altitude aircraft to measure forests land topography ice sheets glaciers and sea ice.
and internal structure of the forest at the fine scale required to accurately estimate their carbon content said Bryan Blair the deputy principal investigator for GEDI at Goddard.
and 50 degrees south latitude this way covering nearly all tropical and temperate forests. The lasers will illuminate the surface with brief pulses of light that are optimized to pass through the canopy of even very dense forests without causing harm.
The lasers are eye-safe. The team estimates that the instrument will send out 16 billion pulses in one year.
or with studies that reveal the composition of forests scientists will have a more powerful tool set for addressing questions about land use habitat diversity and climate effects.
For example researchers will be able to relate forest architecture with habitat quality and the biodiversity of certain birds.
They also may be able to estimate the age of trees in specific forests. The ultimate goal Dubayah said is to be able to monitor these and other changes in forests over time.
GEDI is scheduled to be completed in 2018. NASA's Earth Venture Instrument program is part of the Earth System Science Pathfinder program managed by NASA's Langley Research center in Hampton Virginia for NASA's Science Mission Directorate.
Woods Hole Research center Woods Hole Massachusetts; the U s. Forest Service Ogden Utah; and Brown University Providence Rhode island.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by NASA. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length h
and longer droughts--conditions that will make forests more susceptible to fires. By 2090 the area burned by forest fires in the European union could increase by 200%because of climate change according to a new study published in the journal Regional Environmental Change.
IIASA researchers together with colleagues from the Joint Research Centre (JRC) worked with national forest representatives in EU countries
Fire is a natural part of the ecology of many forests but when fires get out of control they can burn huge areas and spread to neighboring homes and settlements.
Prescribed burns help prevent these major fires by removing dead wood from forests. The study also examined the potential of better firefighting to additionally help decrease burned areas.
European forests are vital reservoirs for wildlife for biodiversity and for our own enjoyment and well-being says Khabarov We need to find ways to protect them.
#Climate change and European forestsa recent study in the Journal of Environmental Management carried out by researchers at the European Forest Institute
and their partners in the FP7 funded MOTIVE project (Models for Adaptive Forest Management) discusses how forest managers
The authors review general trends in climate with particular emphasis on biologically meaningful parameters such as continuous dry days and changes in climate extremes and forest disturbance patterns.
and impacts on forest ecosystems has already been carried out for over two decades. However there is a still a knowledge
what they really mean for European forests. Many uncertainties and unknowns remain and it is difficult to communicate these to non-scientists while retaining emphasis on the importance of planning for adaptation.
A recent study in the Journal of Environmental Management carried out by researchers at the European Forest Institute
and their partners in the FP7 funded MOTIVE project (Models for Adaptive Forest Management) examines these issues
The authors review general trends in climate with particular emphasis on biologically meaningful parameters such as continuous dry days and changes in climate extremes and forest disturbance patterns.
Marcus Lindner the lead author of the study points out that forest decision makers are no strangers to evaluating alternatives in the long term
The study recommends that forest managers look for strategies that enhance forest ecosystem resilience and increase flexibility to make future management changes as required by realized climate change trends.
The above story is provided based on materials by European Forest Institute. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
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