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Categories: Ecology: Trees, Offbeat: Earth and Climate

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Reforestation projects should include a variety of tree species and ensure genetic diversity within each species to maximize new forests' health and productivity.

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Researchers have devised a method to transform post-consumer mixed plastics that wash up on beaches into a variety of valuable products.

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Researchers have discovered and characterized a DNA sequence found in jawed vertebrates, such as sharks and humans, but absent in jawless vertebrates, such as lampreys. This DNA is important for the shaping of the joint surfaces during embryo development.

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By dispersing seeds, animals can rapidly reestablish plant diversity in degraded forests.

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Whatcheeria, a six-foot-long salamander-like creature that lived 340 million years ago, was the T. rex of its time: the biggest, baddest predator in its habitat. A new study reveals how they grew to their 'giant' size: instead of growing slow and steady throughout their lives like many modern reptiles and amphibians, they did most of their growing when they were young.

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About 600 seemingly disparate fungi that had resisted categorization have been shown to have a common ancestor, according to a a research team that used genome sequencing to give these peculiar creatures a new classification home.

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The European robin's closest relatives are found in tropical Africa. The European robin is therefore not closely related to the Japanese robin, despite their close similarity in appearance. This is confirmed by a new study of the Old World flycatcher family, to which these birds belong. The study comprises 92 per cent of the more than 300 species in this family.

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Differences among the collection of bacteria and other microorganisms that live within birds' digestive tracts -- their gut microbiomes -- are not primarily driven by diet diversity, contrary to a recently proposed hypothesis. Instead, a team of researchers found that evolution may play a larger role in explaining these differences, which could potentially have implications for how these species adapt to new habitats.

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A 30-year tree planting campaign in Portland, Oregon, allowed researchers to show that the number of trees planted in the street is associated with reductions in mortality, and that the association grows stronger as the trees age and grow.

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For millennia, caves have served as shelters for prehistoric humans. Caves have also intrigued scholars from early Chinese naturalists to Charles Darwin. A cave ecologist has been in and out of these subterranean ecosystems, examining the unique life forms -- and unique living conditions -- that exist in Earth's many caves. But what does that suggest about caves on other planetary bodies? In two connected studies, engineers, astrophysicists, astrobiologists and astronauts lay out the research that needs to be done to get us closer to answering the old-age question about life beyond Earth.

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On average, about half of trees planted in tropical and sub-tropical forest restoration efforts do not survive more than five years, but there is enormous variation in outcomes, new research has found.

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A study has found evidence that the evolution of tree roots over 300 million years ago triggered mass extinction events through the same chemical processes created by pollution in modern oceans and lakes.

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Woody climbing plants, known as lianas, are more likely to infest smaller trees in Malaysian forests and therefore stop them growing to their full potential, which may have implications for climate change.

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A recent experiment provides evidence of a bark beetle species' agricultural capability. The fruit-tree pinhole borer can suppress the growth of weed fungi and promote food fungi.

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Scientists conducted a 7-year study on seedling recruitment and mortality in a national park in Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand. During the study period, an extremely strong El Niño event occurred, leading to a stronger and longer drought than normal. Seasonally dry tropical forests (SDTFs), which experience an annual dry season, are considered drought-tolerant. Nevertheless, the study found that seedling mortality increased in SDTFs when severe and prolonged drought occurred.

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Scientists have developed a method for the direct observation of fine roots, which control the uptake of nutrients and water by trees. This provides a valuable addition to the existing knowledge of carbon and nutrient cycling in the forest floor, leading to further understanding of the carbon cycle from the view point of initial carbon input into the soil and aiding forest management and soil conservation.

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Plastic sheets coated with an Eu3+ film that converts UV light to red light were able to accelerate growth of vegetal plants and trees.

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A new study has shed new light on a mysterious, unpredictable and potentially devastating kind of astrophysical event.

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Danes shuttle nearly a million tons of garden waste from their gardens every year. But we would be doing the climate a great service if we just left it alone, according to the new calculations. At the same time, leaves and other garden waste are a boon for backyard biodiversity and soil.

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Researchers found thousands of seedlings growing after recent fires in Montana, especially at sites with cooler, damper conditions -- often found in the shade of the dead trees and upper canopy, as well as on the north side of mountains with higher elevations and more undergrowth. Researchers found fewer seedlings at sites with less shade and drier, hotter conditions.