Rainforests News

April 18, 2024

Top Headlines

Unique Field Study Shows How Climate Change Affects Fire-Impacted Forests

Apr. 17, 2024 — During the unusually dry year of 2018, Sweden was hit by numerous forest fires. A research team has investigated how climate change affects recently burnt boreal forests and their ability to absorb carbon ...

Tropical Forests Can't Recover Naturally Without Fruit-Eating Birds

Apr. 15, 2024 — Natural forest regeneration is hailed as a cost-effective way to restore biodiversity and sequester carbon. However, the fragmentation of tropical forests has restricted the movement of large birds limiting their capacity to disperse seeds and ...

New Report 'Braids' Indigenous and Western Knowledge for Forest Adaptation Strategies Against Climate Change

Apr. 10, 2024 — Forests could also be potential bulwarks against climate change. But, increasingly severe droughts and wildfires, invasive species, and large insect outbreaks -- all intensified by climate change -- ...

Boreal Forest and Tundra Regions Worst Hit Over Next 500 Years of Climate Change, Study Shows

Apr. 8, 2024 — Modelling climate change over a 500 year period shows that much of the boreal forest, the Earth's northernmost forests and most significant provider of carbon storage and clean water, could be ...

Latest Headlines

updated 10:53pm EDT

Deforestation Harms Biodiversity of the Amazon's Perfume-Loving Orchid Bees

Apr. 10, 2024 — A survey of orchid bees in the Brazilian Amazon, carried out in the 1990s, is shedding new light the impact of deforestation on the scent-collecting pollinators, which some view as bellwethers of ...

Four in Five Bird Species Cannot Tolerate Intense Human Pressures

Apr. 5, 2024 — In a recent study, researchers found that 78% of the world's bird species do not thrive in the most modified human-dominated environments. These species are also most likely to have declining ...

Older Trees Help to Protect an Endangered Species

Apr. 2, 2024 — The oldest trees in the forest help to prevent the disappearance of endangered species in the natural environment, according to a new study. This is the case of the wolf lichen -- threatened ...

Manganese Plays a Surprising Role in Soil Carbon Sequestration

Mar. 28, 2024 — A recent study reveals an unexpected link between manganese -- a naturally occurring mineral -- and increased carbon emissions from high-latitude boreal forests. The study uncovers how manganese ...

Tropical Birds Could Tolerate Warming Better Than Expected, Study Suggests

Mar. 14, 2024 — We expect tropical animals to handle a certain degree of heat, but not wild swings in temperature. That seems to be true for tropical ectotherms, or 'cold-blooded' animals such as amphibians, ...

Rainforest's Next Generation of Trees Threatened 30 Years After Logging

Mar. 12, 2024 — Rainforest seedlings are more likely to survive in natural forests than in places where logging has happened -- even if tree restoration projects have taken place, new research ...

Herbivores, Displaced by Ocean Warming, Threaten Subtropical Seagrass Meadows

Mar. 6, 2024 — The findings suggest that subtropical seagrasses are less resilient to heavy grazing from marine herbivores, in part because they receive less ...

Birds and Bee Lessons as Pacific Field Trips Also Solve 'Michener's Mystery'

Feb. 26, 2024 — Eight new Pacific bee species and new insights into Fijian bird behaviour on Viti Levu Island have been described in new scientific studies. The ...

Reforestation Schemes Are Not Enough to Recover the Carbon Created by Harvesting Wood

Feb. 26, 2024 — Forests have a critical role to play in capturing and storing carbon from the Earth's atmosphere -- but some models exaggerate their carbon removal ...

Carbon Emissions from the Destruction of Mangrove Forests Predicted to Increase by 50,000% by the End of the Century

Feb. 22, 2024 — The annual rate of carbon emissions due to the degradation of carbon stocks in mangrove forests is predicted to rise by nearly 50,000% by the end of ...

Seeing the Forest for the Trees: Species Diversity Is Directly Correlated With Productivity in Eastern U.S. Forests

Mar. 25, 2024 — When officials make tough calls on which areas to prioritize for conservation, biodiversity is often their top consideration. But there are several types of diversity, and not all of them overlap ...

Converting Rainforest to Plantation Impacts Food Webs and Biodiversity

Feb. 21, 2024 — Every day, new areas of rainforests are converted into plantations, drastically changing tropical biodiversity and the way the ecosystem functions. Yet, the current understanding of the consequences ...

How Is Deforested Land in Africa Used?

Feb. 15, 2024 — Africa's forested areas -- an estimated 14 % of the global forest area -- are continuing to decline at an increasing rate -- mostly because of human activities to convert forest land for ...

Reforestation Programs Could Threaten Vast Area of Tropical Grasslands

Feb. 15, 2024 — New research reveals the scale of inappropriate reforestation projects across Africa. A new study reveals that an area the size of France is threatened by forest restoration initiatives, such as the ...

Is the Amazon Forest Approaching a Tipping Point?

Feb. 14, 2024 — Global warming may be interacting with regional rainfall and deforestation to accelerate forest loss in the Amazon, pushing it towards partial or total collapse. New research has identified the ...

A Century of Reforestation Helped Keep the Eastern US Cool

Feb. 13, 2024 — Widespread 20th-century reforestation in the eastern United States helped counter rising temperatures due to climate change, according to new research. The authors highlight the potential of forests ...

Global Deforestation Leads to More Mercury Pollution

Feb. 12, 2024 — Researchers find deforestation accounts for about 10 percent of global human-made mercury emissions. While it cannot be the only solution, they suggest reforestation could increase global mercury ...

New Study Sheds New Light on Forests' Role in Climate and Water Cycle

Feb. 7, 2024 — Forests, which cover a third of Earth's land surface, are pivotal in carbon storage and the water cycle, though the full scope of their impact remains to be fully understood. In a new study, ...

Complex Tree Canopies Help Forests Recover from Moderate-Severity Disturbances

Feb. 6, 2024 — Extreme events wipe out entire forests, dramatically eliminating complex ecosystems as well as local communities. Researchers have become quite familiar with such attention-grabbing events over the ...

Tidal Landscapes a Greater Carbon Sink Than Previously Thought

Feb. 1, 2024 — Mangroves and saltmarshes sequester large amounts of carbon, mitigating the greenhouse effect. New research shows that these environments are perhaps twice as effective as previously ...

Scientists Develop Novel Method to Estimate Biodiversity Loss in Singapore Over the Past Two Centuries

Jan. 29, 2024 — Scientists have employed novel statistical methods to reveal the extent of biodiversity loss in Singapore over the past two centuries. The study paints the most accurate picture to date of the ...

Diverse Forests Are Best at Standing Up to Storms

Jan. 25, 2024 — European forests with a greater diversity of tree species are more resilient to storms, according to new ...

Researchers Advocate for Sustainable Logging to Safeguard Against Global Flood Risks

Jan. 24, 2024 — It's time to recognize the power of healthy forests in managing global growing flood risk, and to shift towards more sustainable forestry practices and ...

A New Perspective on the Temperature Inside Tropical Forests

Jan. 23, 2024 — New worldwide maps of temperatures inside tropical forests show that global warming affect different way in different parts of the forests. Undergrowth level temperature of the tropical forests can ...

Sea Otters Helped Prevent Widespread California Kelp Forest Declines Over the Past Century

Jan. 18, 2024 — The study reveals dramatic regional kelp canopy changes along the California coast over a 100-year period. During this time there was a significant increase in kelp forest canopy along the central ...

Climate Change Threatens Global Forest Carbon Sequestration, Study Finds

Jan. 16, 2024 — Climate change is causing Western U.S. forests to be less effective carbon sinks, even as it boosts the productivity of forests in the Eastern U.S., according to new ...

More Aerosol Particles Than Thought Are Forming Over Siberia, Study Finds

Jan. 13, 2024 — A new study finds that, contrary to previous beliefs, large amounts of aerosol particles can form over vast areas of the West Siberian taiga in the spring. When temperatures rise, this can have a ...

Scientists Name the Most Common Tropical Tree Species

Jan. 10, 2024 — Researchers have found almost identical patterns of tree diversity across the world's tropical forests. The study of over one million trees across 1,568 locations found that just 2.2% of tree ...

Nine New Snail Species Discovered in Papua New Guinea, a Biodiversity Hot Spot at Risk

Jan. 9, 2024 — A new study describes nine new species of carnivorous land snails, all of which are so small they could fit together on a U.S. nickel. They present a rare opportunity to study a group that in many ...

Preventing the Destruction of Eucalyptus Forest Plantations: Naturally Occurring Pathogenic Fungi to Control the Eucalyptus Snout Beetle

Jan. 8, 2024 — Scientists have found naturally occurring pathogenic fungi infecting the Eucalyptus snout beetle in Eucalyptus forest plantations, and characterized them to develop a bio-pesticide for controlling ...