Showing 20 articles starting at article 241
< Previous 20 articles Next 20 articles >
Categories: Ecology: Trees, Environmental: Wildfires
Published Methane from megafires: More spew than we knew
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Using a new detection method, scientists found a massive amount of methane, a super-potent greenhouse gas, coming from wildfires -- a source not currently being accounted for by California state air quality managers.
Published Wildfires and animal biodiversity
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Wildfires. Many see them as purely destructive forces, disasters that blaze through a landscape, charring everything in their paths. But a new study reminds us that wildfires are also generative forces, spurring biodiversity in their wakes.
Published Trees in areas prone to hurricanes have strong ability to survive even after severe damage
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The island of Dominica took a direct hit from Category 5 Hurricane Maria. Nine months afterward, researchers found that while 89% percent of trees located in nine previously documented forest stands were damaged, but only 10 percent had immediately died. The most common damage was stem snapping and major branch damage. The damage with the highest rates of mortality were uprooting and being crushed by a neighboring tree. Large individual trees and species with lower wood density were susceptible to snapping, uprooting and mortality. Those on steeper slopes were more prone to being crushed by neighboring trees.
Published US forests face an unclear future with climate change
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Climate change might compromise how permanently forests are able to store carbon and keep it out of the air. In a new study, researchers found that the regions most at risk to lose forest carbon through fire, climate stress or insect damage are those regions where many forest carbon offset projects have been set up. The authors assert that there's an urgent need to update these carbon offsets protocols and policies.
Published Gone for good? California's beetle-killed, carbon-storing pine forests may not come back
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Ponderosa pine forests in the Sierra Nevada that were wiped out by western pine beetles during the 2012-2015 megadrought won't recover to pre-drought densities, reducing an important storehouse for atmospheric carbon.
Published Insect decline also occurs in forests
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The number of insects has been declining for years. This has already been well documented for agricultural areas. In forests, however, temporal trends are mostly studied for insect species that are considered pests. Now, a research team has studied the trends of very many insect species in German forests. Contrary to what the researchers had suspected, the results showed that the majority of the studied species are declining.
Published Researchers assemble pathogen 'tree of life'
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers provide open-access tool to capture new data on a global plant destroyer, Phytophthora.
Published Can insights from the soapbark tree change the way we make vaccines?
(via sciencedaily.com) The medicinal secrets of the Chilean soapbark tree have been laid bare, unlocking a future of more potent, affordable, and sustainably sought vaccines. Researchers have taken a major step forward in addressing this problem, by using a combination of genome mining and bioengineering techniques to produce saponin-based vaccine adjuvants in the laboratory without harvesting material directly from trees.
Published Forest growing season in eastern U.S. has increased by a month
(via sciencedaily.com) The growing period of hardwood forests in eastern North America has increased by an average of one month over the past century as temperatures have steadily risen, a new study has found.
Published Bushfire safe rooms may save lives
(via sciencedaily.com) Researchers have built and tested a bushfire safe room that exceeds current Australian standards and could keep people alive or protect valuables when evacuation is no longer an option.
Published Douglas-fir in Klamath Mountains are in 'decline spiral'
(via sciencedaily.com) Increases in mortality among Douglas-fir in the Klamath Mountains are the result of multiple factors that have the iconic tree in a 'decline spiral' in parts of the region.
Published Mountain forests are being lost at an accelerating rate, putting biodiversity at risk
(via sciencedaily.com) More than 85% of the world's bird, mammal, and amphibian species live in mountains, particularly in forest habitats, but researchers report that these forests are disappearing at an accelerating rate. Globally, we have lost 78.1 million hectares (7.1%) of mountain forest since 2000 -- an area larger than the size of Texas. Much of the loss occurred in tropical biodiversity hotspots, putting increasing pressure on threatened species.
Published New model provides improved air-quality predictions in fire-prone areas
(via sciencedaily.com) Globally, wildfires are becoming more frequent and destructive, generating a significant amount of smoke that can be transported thousands of miles, driving the need for more accurate air pollution forecasts. Researchers have now developed a deep learning model that provides improved predictions of air quality in wildfire-prone areas and can differentiate between wildfires and non-wildfires.
Published A mechanistic and probabilistic method for predicting wildfires
(via sciencedaily.com) In the event of dry weather and high winds, power system-ignited incidents are more likely to develop into wildfires. The risk is greater if vegetation is nearby. A new study provides the methodology for predicting at what point during a high wind storm, powerline ignition is likely.
Published Smoke particles from wildfires can erode the ozone layer
(via sciencedaily.com) A new study finds that smoke particles in the stratosphere can trigger chemical reactions that erode the ozone layer -- and that smoke particles from Australian wildfires widened the ozone hole by 10 percent in 2020.
Published To help dry forests, fire needs to be just the right intensity, and happen more than once
(via sciencedaily.com) Research into the ability of a wildfire to improve the health of a forest uncovered a Goldilocks effect -- unless a blaze falls in a narrow severity range, neither too hot nor too cold, it isn't very good at helping forest landscapes return to their historical, more fire-tolerant conditions.
Published A mixture of trees purifies urban air best
(via sciencedaily.com) Conifers are generally better than broad-leafed trees at purifying air from pollutants. A new study shows that the best trees for air purification depend on the type of pollutant involved.
Published Phone-based measurements provide fast, accurate information about the health of forests
(via sciencedaily.com) Researchers have developed an algorithm that uses computer vision techniques to accurately measure trees almost five times faster than traditional, manual methods.
Published Wildfires in 2021 emitted a record-breaking amount of carbon dioxide
(via sciencedaily.com) Carbon dioxide emissions from wildfires, which have been gradually increasing since 2000, spiked drastically to a record high in 2021, according to an international team of researchers.
Published Deforestation in the tropics linked to a reduction in rainfall
(via sciencedaily.com) Deforestation is resulting in reduced rainfall across large parts of the tropics, according to new research. People living in tropical forest communities have often complained that the climate gets hotter and drier once trees are cleared but until now, scientists have not been able to identify a clear link between the loss of tree cover and a decline in rainfall.