#Kangaroos win when aborigines hunt with fire: Co-evolution benefits Australias martu people and wildlifeaustralia's Aboriginal Martu people hunt kangaroos and set small grass fires to catch lizards as they have for at least 2000 years.
The report Quantifying Greenhouse Gas Fluxes in Agriculture and Forestry: Methods for Entity-Scale Inventory will help the USDA evaluate greenhouse gas mitigation programs
and forest landowners participate in emerging carbon markets. This report provides science-based methods for quantifying greenhouse gas emissions
and carbon storage on local farms ranches and forests allowing managers of these entities to calculate reductions in greenhouse gas emissions
and the wetlands working group two of the four groups convened by the USDA for the methods development which also included forestry and livestock.
and agroforestry) enter information about their management practices and then generate a report on their current baseline emissions
The USDA report is the work of 38 experts in GHG estimation in the cropland grazing land livestock and forest management sectors across academia the USDA and other agencies of the federal government.
It has long been known that biomass burning--burning forests to create agricultural lands burning savannah as a ritual slash
Jacobson the director of Stanford's Atmosphere/Energy Program and a senior fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment and the Precourt Institute for Energy said almost 8. 5 billion tons of atmospheric carbon dioxide
amphibiansthe selective logging of trees in otherwise intact tropical forests can take a serious toll on the number of animal species living there.
and it will continue to be a common use of the forest says Zuzana Burivalova of ETH Zurich Switzerland.
and sometimes conflicting picture of the consequences of the selective removal of trees from tropical forests the researchers say.
The new findings indicate that the number of mammal species drops in half at a logging intensity of 38 m3 ha1 equivalent to the extraction of about three or four trees per hectare of forest.
She and her colleagues say that even forests that are currently under sustainable management may be logged at intensities that are far too high for amphibian or mammalian diversity.
The current logging quotas are designed predominantly to manage the forest for sustainable timber production such that a forest will eventually regenerate its timber stock Burivalova says They are managed typically not for maintaining faunal biodiversity.
what point exactly diversity in logged forests starts decreasing. She suggests that consumers can help by paying greater attention to the sources of the wood in furniture musical instruments
and other products they buy although she notes that this information is often difficult to come by.
What an important find said Maggie Sporck State Botanist for Hawaii's Division of Forestry and Wildlife.
and it provides the critical input to studies of deforestation and forest degradation for conservation land use and enforcement purposes.
The mapping project is a joint effort among the Carnegie Airborne Observatory (CAO) led by Carnegie's Greg Asner the Ministry of Environment of Perã and Wake Forest University.
Some 15%of global carbon emissions result from deforestation and forest degradation which releases carbon dioxide to the atmosphere as trees are destroyed.
By combining the CAO laser information with satellite maps of forest cover deforestation and other environmental variables generated by the Peruvian Environment Ministry's Directorate of Land Management a cost-effective means to monitor the country into the future has been established.
The team also assessed 174 protected areas finding that for every hectare of forest put into protection an average 95 metric tons of carbon are stored on land with even more carbon sequestered below the soil surface.
Miles Silman report coauthor from Wake Forest University added: The Carnegie map is a monumental effort--from field to remote sensing to computation--that honestly lays out the methods predictions and their reliability for each hectare in Perã.
#Re-distribution of major tree species in British forests should begin soonscientists at the University of Twente
and at Forest Research the research agency of The british Forestry Commission used the UK Climate Projections 2009 data in models to show reduction in forest production by up to 42%by the 2080s due to
spruce pine and oak which together make up 59%of The british public forest area. Thanks to this new information the forestry industry can anticipate by redistributing tree species
when restocking existing woodland or planting new woodland. For the first time the study provides a probability-based risk assessment of drought impacts on forests.
Michal Petr assessed these impacts during his doctoral studies at the University of Twente's Faculty of ITC.
Petr discovered that tree species currently planted will no longer be a viable choice for production forestry in lowlands across Great britain over the next sixty years due to sharp growth reduction.
In the Scottish uplands the estimations are more positive because moist conditions will remain more favourable for major planted species
He combined the likelihood of drought with production curves to assess the overall potential risk for forest production.
which policy makers and foresters should act. Dr Mark Broadmeadow principal climate change adviser for Forestry Commission England commented We welcome this valuable contribution to our well-developed programme of research into and understanding of the likely effects of climate change on British forests.
It will add significant value to the guidance we can give to forest managers to ensure that their forests will be resilient and productive over the coming decades.
The british forestry sector is financially important for rural communities and it depends on healthy forest ecosystems.
Boerboom: The timing of this study is actually very good because it takes about fifty sixty years for foresters to change those forests that need changing.
Hence we can still be in time. Boerboom: The results of this study cannot be extrapolated to the rest of the world.
However similar effects have been estimated by other studies and these results enable us to estimate more reliably the impacts of drought on spruce pine and oak.
In The netherlands we have much less forest production than Great britain. However we too can expect change:
Frank Lake an ecologist with the U s. Forest Service's Pacific Southwest Station will lead a field trip to the Stone Lake National Wildlife Refuge during the Ecological Society of America's 99th Annual
California native cultures burned patches of forest in deliberate sequence to diversify the resources available within their region.
so they staggered burns by 5 to 10 years to create mosaics of forest in different stages
which added a lot of diversity for a short proximity area of the same forest type Lake said.
In oak woodlands burning killed mold and pests like the filbert weevil and filbert moth harbored by the duff and litter on the ground.
Lake thinks that understanding tribal use of these forest environments has context for and relevance to contemporary management and restoration of endangered ecosystems and tribal cultures.
#Trees save lives, reduce respiratory problemsin the first broad-scale estimate of air pollution removal by trees nationwide U s. Forest Service scientists
The study by Dave Nowak and Eric Greenfield of the U s. Forest Service's Northern Research Station and Satoshi Hirabayashi and Allison Bodine of the Davey Institute is unique in that it directly links the removal
With more than 80 percent of Americans living in urban area this research underscores how truly essential urban forests are to people across the nation said Michael T. Rains Director of the Forest Service's Northern Research Station and the Forest
Information and tools developed by Forest Service research are contributing to communities valuing and managing the 138 million acres of trees and forests that grace the nation's cities towns and communities.
The study considered four pollutants for which the U s. EPA has established air quality standards: nitrogen dioxide ozone sulfur dioxide and particulate matter less than 2. 5 microns (PM2. 5) in aerodynamic diameter.
Tree and Forest Effects on Air Quality and Human Health in the United states is available online at:
The above story is provided based on materials by USDA Forest Service-Northern Research Station. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length h
In an ongoing research project behavioral biologists at Vetmeduni Vienna are investigating how blue tits in the Viennese Forests react to light pollution.
The team is interested particularly in the reproductive behavior of blue tits in the Viennese Forests. Blue tits seem to be good model species for this study
Research using LED lights in the forestover a period of about three weeks LED lights illuminated various areas of the Viennese Forests for two additional hours in the morning before sunrise and in the evening after sunset.
Light possibly has impact on the entire ecological system of the woodsmore light may also affect other living beings in the Viennese Forests.
They are an important source of food for many inhabitants of the woods and their presence is
The research project Does Light Pollution affect the Breeding Performance of wild Blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) in the Viennese Forest?
Co-author Dr. David Weise research forester from the U s. Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station at Riverside Calif. designed
because the wood was very dry which encouraged good burning. The scientists added up to 25 times the amount of agricultural plastic found in normal piles
This research provides a key piece of information for wildland managers using on site burning to dispose of accumulated forest debris in a safe manner under favorable conditions with limited impact on air quality visibility
The above story is provided based on materials by USDA Forest Service-Pacific Southwest Research Station. Note:
#Strengthening community forest rights is critical tool to fight climate changestrengthening community forest rights is an essential strategy to reduce billions of tonnes of carbon emissions making it an effective way
How Strengthening Community Forest Rights Mitigates Climate Change is being published jointly by World Resources Institute (WRI) and Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI.
The paper provides the most comprehensive analysis to date linking legal recognition and government protection of community forest rights with reductions in carbon pollution.
With at least 37 billion tonnes of carbon safely stored in community forests around the world strengthening community rights is good for the climate
and indigenous peoples across the world have recognized government rights to forests containing 37.7 billion tonnes of carbon--equivalent to 29 times the annual emissions from all passenger vehicles in the world.
when governments enhanced and enforced forest rights communities were more successful at stopping loggers extractive companies
and settlers from illegally destroying the forests and releasing carbon pollution into the atmosphere. In Brazil alone the report finds strong legal rights could contribute to preventing 27.2 million hectares of deforestation by 2050 translating to 12 billion tonnes of avoided carbon dioxide emissions--the same as about three years'worth of carbon dioxide
Indeed the study reveals that deforestation rates inside community forests are dramatically lower than in forests outside those areas.
No one has a stronger interest in the health of forests than the communities that depend on them for their livelihoods
and local communities have boosted greatly the capacity of countries to achieve national-level forest protection and restoration.
The analysis finds that governments can implement five key recommendations to maximize the climate mitigation potential from community forests:
1. Provide communities with legal recognition of rights to their forest; 2. Enforce community forest rights such as mapping boundaries and expelling trespassers;
3. Provide technical assistance and training to forest communities to improve sustainable forest use and market access;
4. Engage forest communities in decision-making on investments affecting their forest; and5. Compensate communities for the climate
and other benefits provided by their forest. The bottom line is clear: Strengthening community forest rights is a critical policy approach to mitigate global climate change through reduced deforestation
and carbon sequestration said Jennifer Morgan Director Climate and Energy Program WRI. When it comes to tackling climate change land rights must be on the list of tools we use.
The report notes that some countries have made significant progress in recognizing the rights of local communities
But in addition to pointing to countries that have enjoyed the climate benefits from enforcing community forest rights the report offers a cautionary note to governments that undermine those rights.
Indonesia for example the world's second largest emitter of carbon pollution from deforestation and other land uses legally recognizes only one of approximately 42 million hectares of forests held by communities.
Stronger community forest rights could stem the tide of the country's rampant forest loss mostly due to palm oil expansion.
and foresters may need to change the way they decide which trees to plant and select trees that are suited better to hotter conditions Dale says.
and Christian Giardina of the U s. Forest Service used an expansive whole-ecosystem study the first of its kind on tropical montane wet forests in Hawaii to sort through the many processes that control soil
Surprisingly long-term warming had little effect on the overall storage of carbon in the tropical forest soil or the rate at
This means the observed increase in the rate of soil respiration accompanying rising temperatures is released due to carbon dioxide by the an uptick in the amount of litter falling on the forest floor and an increase in carbon from underground sources.
or eliminated due to the maturing of forests or land development. Habitats also can become fragmented by roads
which progress from old fields to young forests. Once you have a more mature forest the cottontail habitat is reduced.
A lot of other species rely on these thicket habitats including bobcats birds and reptiles. Many thicket-dependent species are on decline
and work on creating a landscape that has a mosaic of different habitats including mature forests
and young forests we know that it is going to help a lot of species Kovach said. This research which was funded in part by the NH Agricultural Experiment Station is presented in the article A multistate analysis of gene flow for the New england cottontail an imperiled habitat specialist in a fragmented landscape in the journal Ecology and Evolution.
Nowak organized the survey and rescue mission to Oak Creek last month alongside the U s. Fish and Wildlife Service and U s. Forest Service.
The team included NAU graduate students and undergraduate interns from the Watershed Research and Education Program as well as members of the Arizona Game and Fish Department U s. Forest Service Oak Creek Ambassadors
Measurements of three of these parameters came from the Princeton university Global Meteorological Forcing Dataset (PGF) previously developed by two of the study's authors Research Scholar Justin Sheffield and Eric F. Wood the Susan Dod
and Wood showed that diminished wind speeds have helped to offset the effects of rising temperatures that would
and forest removal and comprises the greatest portion of greenhouse gas totals. But methane and nitrous oxide are also greenhouse gasses
Nesting on lowland heath such as parts of Sherwood forest and Thames Basin Heath it can be affected by development such as housing
ONE by David Gaveau from the Center for International Forestry Research Indonesia and colleagues. The native forests of Borneo have been impacted increasingly by logging fire and conversion to plantations since the early 1970s.
Borneo lacks island-wide forest clearance and logging documentation making forest conservation planning difficult especially for selectively logged forests that have high conservation potential
but are vulnerable to being converted to plantations. To better understand long-term forest cover and logging patterns the researchers in this study analyzed LANDSAT satellite images from 1973 to 2010.
The authors found that in the early 1970s 75%of Borneo was forested and from 1973 to 2010 the forest area declined by 30
%which is nearly twice as fast as a rate compared to the rest of the world's humid tropical forests.
The authors also analyzed images of over 270000 km of logging roads built from 1973 to 2010 and estimated that over 266000 km2 of forest cover has been logged with logging reaching increasingly more remote and high-elevation forests over time.
Over 389000 km2 of Borneo remains either completely or partially forested and the authors hope that understanding forest change patterns may aid in future conservation planning particularly in selectively logged forests.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by PLOS. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
since its adoption in 2009 because we knew their introduction into our state poses a huge threat to the future of our forests says Bernie Williams invasive species specialist in forest health at the Wisconsin Department of Natural resources.
When numbers spike to the point of infestation Amynthas can eat all the organic matter at the soil surface--exposing the forest floor to erosion and making it more vulnerable to invasives.
That bottomless appetite leaves a characteristic wake in the woods. They change the soil structure leaving behind a balled-up granular soil according to Herrick.
The growing demand for vegetable oil has led already to the conversion of Southeast Asian forest into oil palm plantations bringing trouble for orangutans in particular.
which large areas of forest have been cleared he says. Now that companies are looking to Africa we wanted to determine how large the potential threat to African ape species is.
#Invasion of yellow crazy ant in a Seychelles UNESCO palm forest: Threats and solutionsthe yellow crazy ant Anoplolepis gracilipes is ranked amongst the top 100 worst global invasive species
The palm forest of Vallã e de Mai is a unique ecosystem containing many endemic species including the iconic coco de mer palm Lodoicea maldivica.
Although the impacts and ecology of A. gracilipes have been documented well in degraded habitats in the Seychelles little is known about this ant's invasion potential in endemic palm forest ecosystems.
Praslin the second largest granitic island of the archipelago is home to Seychelles'native mature palm forest.
According to the new study in the palm forest Anoplolepis gracilipes was confined to the north-east of the Vallã e de Mai
and remained almost stationary between April 2010 and December 2012 with isolated outbreaks into the forest.
and researching resistance of the palm forest by creating and maintaining conditions which restrict A. gracilipes populations such as the removal of introduced broadleaf trees
and visual landmarks (trees hedges forest boundaries) that they have memorised during their past foraging experiences.
#Hunting gives deer-damaged forests in state parks a shot at recoveryregulated deer hunts in Indiana state parks have helped restore the health of forests suffering from decades of damage caused by overabundant populations of white-tailed deer
A research team led by Michael Jenkins associate professor of forest ecology found that a 17-yearlong Indiana Department of Natural resources policy of organizing hunts in state parks has spurred successfully the regrowth of native tree seedlings herbs
In those situations the forest could lose its ability to reproduce itself and eventually cease to be healthy.
and diversity of the forest understory in state parks compared with conditions before the hunting program she said.
#New recreational travel model to help states stop firewood assisted insect travelthe spread of damaging invasive forest pests is powered only partially by the insects'own wings.
and widen the insects'spread and resulting forest destruction. A new U s. Forest Service study gives state planners a tool for anticipating the most likely route of human-assisted spread they can use to enhance survey and public education efforts.
The study Using a Network Model to Assess Risk of Forest Pest Spread via Recreational Travel was published July 9 in the journal PLOS ONE
and is designed to help agencies enforcing or considering firewood bans determine how to deploy resources for surveillance firewood inspections or other activities.
 The role of humans in the spread of invasive insects such as the emerald ash borer and Asian longhorned beetle is established well according to the study's lead author Frank Koch a research ecologist with the Forest Service
's Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center a part of the Southern Research Station (SRS. Although more than 65 percent of campers carry firewood from home and that wood often comes from dead
or dying trees that may be infested the dispersal of invasive insects via recreational travel has not been studied well.
Research has demonstrated that firewood harbors many bark-and wood-boring insects. In 2008 co-author Robert Haack of the Forest Service's Northern Research Station found that nearly 25 percent of firewood intercepted at the Mackinac bridge between Michigan's Upper
and Lower peninsulas carried live bark -and wood-boring insects and an additional 41 percent displayed evidence of prior borer infestation.
Damaging nonnative forest insects are a serious issue for public and private land managers said SRS Director Rob Doudrick Forest Service research is providing tools
The above story is provided based on materials by USDA Forest Service â#Southern Research Station. Note:
It is named Silvacola acares which means tiny forest dweller since this minute hedgehog likely had a body length of only 2 to 2. 5 inches.
and their extinct kin are good indicators of dense forests and high precipitation said Eberle.
and Australian species. Discovering mammals allows us to paint a more complete picture of this lost world said Dr. David Greenwood of Brandon University a co-author of the study.
In combination these factors could be removing nearly 54 million tons of carbon from the forest each year introduced into the atmosphere as greenhouse gases.
The impacts of timber extraction burning and fragmentation have received little notice because all the efforts have been focused on preventing further deforestation.
However our study has shown that this other type of degradation is having a severe impact on the forest with enormous quantities of previously stored carbon being lost into the atmosphere said Erika Berenguer researcher from the Lancaster Environment Centre at Lancaster University in the United kingdom
The satellite images compared every two years have enabled researchers to put together an extensive overview of the degradation of the forest along a 20-year timeline.
The field research assessed scarring from burning timber extraction and other disturbances. The combination of the two investigations resulted in the estimate of carbon stock available today.
It was the largest study conducted to date regarding carbon loss from tropical forests due to selective logging
For comparative purposes five categories of forest were considered: primary (totally intact) forest; forest affected by logging;
forest affected by fires; forest affected by selective logging and fires; and secondary forests (regenerating after complete clearance.
The forests that were disturbed by logging or fire had from 18%to 57%less carbon than primary forests.
One area of primary forest ended up having more than 300 tons of carbon per hectare
while areas of forest that had been burned or subjected to timber extraction had at most 200 tons per hectare and on average less than 100 tons of carbon per hectare.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Fundaã§Ã£o de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de SãO Paulo.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference J
#Shining light on the 100-year mystery of birds sensing spring for offspringprofessor Takashi Yoshimura
and forest degradation good intentions can lead to bad outcomes. Thatâ##s the take-away from a new study by two University of Florida researchers who say efforts to restore damaged and destroyed tropical forests can go awry
if the people making the plans of action donâ##t choose wisely. â#oewe need to be careful about
Similarly escaped agricultural fires and uncontrolled logging harm huge areas of tropical forest around the world.
Options include letting the forests recover naturally assisting natural regeneration or planting new trees so as to make the areas more wildlife-friendly
So when developing forest access and use policies people need to consider several factors including short-and long-term financial profits biodiversity and local needs for timber and non-timber forest products such as medicinal plants.
The authors say itâ##s possible to minimize environmental impacts if decision-makers pay attention to ecosystem structure composition and dynamics.
They shouldnâ##t base everything on a single statistic such as the total land area occupied by forest especially
if the state of that forest is specified not. The authors point out that even when thereâ##s technically no net deforestation tropical forests can still suffer.
For example if degraded natural forests are replaced by plantations of invasive exotic trees or low water-use efficiency trees biodiversity will diminish wildlife could suffer
and soil erosion could render streams unusable by local villagers. â#oewhen you save a forest from deforestation itâ##s great
but you might not have gotten the full package of what you wantedâ#he said. The discussion Putz said needs to center on the definition of â#oeforest. â#The Food
Using that definition could obscure great losses of forest values he said. In general the benefits of a forest are jeopardized
when land-use decisions are based on that overly loose classification according to the paper. Under that designation for example tree plantations qualify as forests.
Although plantations can supply services to society such as slope stabilization firewood and carbon they can also result in avoidable losses of biodiversity.
But once people differentiate among types of forests alternatives to environmentally destructive management will become real options.
Then decision-makers can fully examine the local regional and global benefits of natural forests versus their economic priorities. â#oewe need to demand clarity about whatâ##s meant by â#forestâ
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