Trees News

December 1, 2023

Top Headlines

600 Years of Tree Rings Reveal Climate Risks in California

Nov. 29, 2023 — The San Joaquin Valley in California has experienced vast variability in climate extremes, with droughts and floods that were more severe and lasted longer than what has been seen in the modern record, according to a new study of 600 years of tree ...

The Fens of Eastern England Once Held Vast Woodlands

Nov. 26, 2023 — The Fens of eastern England, a low-lying, extremely flat landscape dominated by agricultural fields, was once a vast woodland filled with huge yew trees, according to new research. Scientists have studied hundreds of tree trunks, dug up by Fenland ...

Forest Modeling Shows Which Harvest Rotations Lead to Maximum Carbon Sequestration

Nov. 21, 2023 — Forest modeling shows that a site's productivity -- an indicator of how fast trees grow and how much biomass they accumulate -- is the main factor that determines which time period between timber ...

Looking for 'LUCA' and the Timing of Cellular Evolution

Nov. 21, 2023 — LUCA, the 'last universal common ancestor' of all living organisms, lived 4.32 to at most 4.52 billion years ago. What LUCA looked like is unknown, but it must have been a cell with among others ribosomal proteins and an ATP ...

Latest Headlines

updated 11:08pm EST

Diverse Forests Hold Huge Carbon Potential, as Long as We Cut Emissions

Nov. 13, 2023 — New study estimates that natural forest recovery could capture approximately 226 Gigatonnes (Gt) of carbon, but only if we also reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Achieving these results requires ...

A Database Unifies the Information on Damage to European Forests Over the Last 60 Years

Nov. 7, 2023 — Researchers are creating a database that harmonizes the recording of disturbances caused by insects and diseases in forests in 8 European countries ...

Experts Predict 'Catastrophic Ecosystem Collapse' of UK Forests Within the Next 50 Years If Action Not Taken

Nov. 8, 2023 — Experts predict 'catastrophic ecosystem collapse' of UK forests within the next 50 years if action not taken. Other threats to UK forests include ...

The Fascinating Relationship Between Mice and a Plant That Flowers Once a Century in Terms of Seed Dispersal

Nov. 6, 2023 — Researchers have discovered several factors that affect field mouse behavior using seeds from dwarf bamboo plants, a plant that flowers once in a ...

The Kids Aren't Alright: Saplings Reveal How Changing Climate May Undermine Forests

Nov. 3, 2023 — Researchers studied how young trees respond to a hotter, drier climate. Their findings can help shape forest management policy and our understanding ...

Large Herbivores Such as Elephants, Bison and Moose Contribute to Tree Diversity

Nov. 3, 2023 — Using global satellite data, a research team has mapped the tree cover of the world's protected areas. The study shows that regions with abundant ...

Even Treated Wood Prevents Bacterial Transmission by Hand

Oct. 26, 2023 — According to a new study, surface treatment and moisture affect the antibacterial properties of wood. Based on the findings, treated wood should be increasingly used as surface ...

New Study Finds Hidden Trees Across Europe: A Billion Tons of Biomass Is Overlooked Today

Oct. 25, 2023 — Through satellite imaging a new AI driven mapping of biomass and CO2 storage shows that a huge number of trees are overlooked in Europe's urban, ...

New Study Shows Surprising Effects of Fire in North America's Boreal Forests

Oct. 23, 2023 — Using satellite images, researchers found that fires in North America's boreal forest may be changing the environment in ways that researchers didn't ...

Unearthing the Ecological Impacts of Cicada Emergences on North American Forests

Oct. 19, 2023 — New research unveils the cascading effects of periodical cicada emergence events on forest ecosystems ahead of an historic convergence of broods set ...

Earlier Headlines

Summaries
Headlines

Yeast Speeds Discovery of Medicinal Compounds in Plants

Oct. 18, 2023 — Researchers have harnessed the power of baker's yeast to create a cost-effective and highly efficient approach for unraveling how plants synthesize medicinal compounds, and used the new method ...

Study Elucidates Evolution of Mosquitoes and Their Hosts

Oct. 18, 2023 — Study creates a mosquito family tree to better understand disease transmission and host ...

Subalpine Forests in the Northern Rockies Are Fire Resilient--for Now

Oct. 17, 2023 — Using lake sediment cores, scientists determined how these subalpine ecosystems recovered after 4,800 years of ...

Survival of the Newest: The Mammals That Survive Mass Extinctions Aren't as 'Boring' as Scientists Thought

Oct. 5, 2023 — For decades, scientists have assumed that mammals and their relatives that survived challenging times (like those during mass extinctions) made it because they were generalists that were able to eat ...

Carbon-Capture Tree Plantations Threaten Tropical Biodiversity for Little Gain, Ecologists Say

Oct. 3, 2023 — The increasingly urgent climate crisis has led to a boom in commercial tree plantations in an attempt to offset excess carbon emissions. However, authors argue that these carbon-offset plantations ...

Timing Plant Evolution With a Fast-Ticking Epigenetic Clock

Sep. 29, 2023 — Recent discoveries in the field of epigenetics, the study of inheritance of traits that occur without changing the DNA sequence, have shown that chronological age in mammals correlates with ...

New Research Reveals Dynamic Factors Shaping Biodiversity at Small Scales

Sep. 27, 2023 — Researchers studying arboreal ants in a Florida forest explore the fundamental question of how resource availability and competition shape ...

New Insect Genus Discovered in One of the Most Biodiverse Rain Forest Regions in the World

Sep. 27, 2023 — The Allpahuayo-Mishana National Reserve in Peru has often been described as the most biodiverse rainforest in the world. For example, in recent decades, scientist have discovered several new bird ...

Scientists Reveal What Fuels Wildfires in Sierra Nevada Mountains

Sep. 25, 2023 — Wildfires in California, exacerbated by human-driven climate change, are getting more severe. To better manage them, there's a growing need to know exactly what fuels the blazes after they ...

How Climate Warming Could Disrupt a Deep-Rooted Relationship

Sep. 21, 2023 — Trees depend on fungi for their well-being. As climate change and global warming cause higher temperatures and amplified drought, little is known about how these important fungi will respond. To ...

Plant and Forest Researchers Do Not 'Anthropomorphize' Plants

Sep. 20, 2023 — Plants are often attributed with abilities similar to those known in the animal or human world. Trees are said to have feelings and can therefore care for their offspring, like mothers. Researchers ...

Canopy Gaps Help Eastern Hemlock Outlast Invasive Insect

Sep. 18, 2023 — Creating physical gaps in the forest canopy give eastern hemlocks more access to resources and help those trees withstand infestation by an invasive ...

Almost Half of Koala Habitats Will Be Under High Bushfire Threat by 2070

Sep. 18, 2023 — The research team generated a series of fire susceptibility maps. These show the proportion of Australia experiencing 'high' or 'very high' fire susceptibility increasing from ...

Study Shows Replanting Logged Forests With Diverse Mixtures of Seedlings Accelerates Restoration

Sep. 15, 2023 — • Twenty-year experiment finds that active replanting beats natural recovery for restoring logged tropical forests. • The higher the diversity of replanted tree species, the more quickly canopy ...

Pollination by More Than One Bee Species Improves Cherry Harvest

Sep. 14, 2023 — To obtain the biggest cherry harvest, trees should be pollinated by both honey bees and mason bees. This new study shows yet another benefit of ...

Capturing Carbon in Savannas: New Research Examines Role of Grasses for Controlling Climate Change

Sep. 7, 2023 — New research shows that, in addition to trees, humble grasses also play an essential role in capturing ...

New Research Highlights Opportunities to Protect Carbon and Communities from Forest Fires

Sep. 6, 2023 — As the climate and wildfire crises have intensified, so too have concerns regarding the loss of carbon captured and stored in forests from decades to centuries of tree growth. A new study describes ...

Human Shoulders and Elbows First Evolved as Brakes for Climbing Apes

Sep. 5, 2023 — Researchers report that the flexible shoulders and elbows that allow us to throw a football or reach a high shelf may have evolved as a natural braking system that let our primate ancestors get out ...

Wood Modification Boosts Biomass Conversion

Sep. 5, 2023 — By adding a naturally-occurring polymer that makes wood more porous, scientists have engineered trees easier to disassemble into simpler building ...

Extreme El Niño Weather Saw South America's Forest Carbon Sink Switch Off

Sep. 4, 2023 — Tropical forests in South America lose their ability to absorb carbon from the atmosphere when conditions become exceptionally hot and dry, according to new research. For a long time, tropical ...

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