Amazon deforestation is close to tipping point
Deforestation of the Amazon is about to reach a threshold beyond which the region's tropical rainforest may undergo irreversible changes that transform the landscape into degraded savanna with sp…
Showing posts with the label Rainforests
Rainforest regeneration rescues bat communities in aftermath of fragmentation
Rainforest loss is fuelling a tsunami of tropical species extinctions. However, not all is doom and gloom. A new study, conducted in the Brazilian Amazon, suggests that ecological cataclysms prompted…
Humans changed the ecosystems of Central Africa more than 2,600 years ago
Fields, streets and cities, but also forests planted in rank and file, and dead straight rivers: humans shape nature to better suit their purposes, and not only since the onset of industrialization. …
Geological change confirmed as a factor behind the extensive diversity in tropical rainforests
The tropical rainforests of Central and South America are home to the largest diversity of plants on this planet. Nowhere else are there quite so many different plant species in one place. However, t…
Hunting is changing forests, but not as expected
When it comes to spreading their seeds, many trees in the rainforest rely on animals, clinging to their fur or hitching a ride within their digestive tract. As the seeds are spread around, the plants…
A theory of physics explains the fragmentation of tropical forests
Tropical forests around the world play a key role in the global carbon cycle and harbour more than half of the species worldwide. However, increases in land use during the past decades caused unprece…
Mapping the first family tree for tropical forests
More than 100 researchers have collaborated to classify the world's tropical forests according to their evolutionary history, a process that will help researchers predict the resilience or suscep…
Ecuador: Deforestation destroys more dry forest than climate change
Tropical forests all over the world are at risk. Two of the main threats are the deforestation for arable land and climate change. Scientists from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the Thü…
Ninety-six scientists co-author paper on rainforest mammals
Imagine your hometown or city's entire population had to live on just one tenth of the land it used to—essentials like food and shelter would quickly go scarce, and it'd be just about impossi…
Researchers find human impact on forest still evident after 500 years
Tropical forests span a huge area, harbor a wide diversity of species, and are important to water and nutrient cycling on a planet scale. But in ancient Amazonia, over 500 years ago, clearing tropica…
Amazon biodiversity hotspot to suffer even more losses after contentious law passed
In August 2017, the Bolivian government passed a contentious law that paved the way for construction of a new 190-mile road cutting through one of the country's most iconic and biodiverse protect…
Action needed now to save forest area the size of India
An area of forest the size of India will be lost by 2050 unless carbon pricing and anti-deforestation policies are put in place. Credit: Institute of Physics That is the primary finding of a new stud…
Untouched forests fight climate change, but face threats
The world's rainforests take up extra carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but their ability to do so is threatened by drought and fragmentation. The Bornean forest [Credit: Lan Qie] Human activitie…
Scientists solve mystery of missing methane source in Amazon Rainforest
Environmental scientists from The Open University (OU) have discovered that trees growing in the Amazon floodplains surrounding the Amazon River emit as much methane (CH4) into the atmosphere as all …