News tagged with tropical forest trees

Forest diversity from Canada to the sub-tropics influenced by family proximity

How species diversity is maintained is a fundamental question in biology. In a new study, a team of Indiana University biologists has shown for the first time that diversity is influenced on a spatial scale ...

Biology / Ecology

created May 17, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Northern forests may be losing their ability to trap carbon

The northern forests of western Canada are likely absorbing less carbon dioxide because of climate change, and the decline may be making a bad situation worse, researchers from Quebec and China have concluded.

Space & Earth / Environment

created Feb 02, 2012 | popularity 3.4 / 5 (11) | comments 17 | with audio podcast

Competition is at the root of diversity in rainforests: study

Another attractive theory falls foul of the facts. A census of trees in rainforests on three continents has confirmed that competition plays a central role in structuring communities. This contradicts the so-called neutral ...

Biology / Ecology

created Jan 26, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 8 | with audio podcast

Sunlight in tropical forest driving force behind ecological niches of tree species

Not water, but sunlight is the main factor in determining the growth of the hundreds of tree species in tropical forests. The variation in physiological characteristics between tree species explains how the various species ...

Biology / Ecology

created Nov 29, 2011 | popularity 3.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

New method can aid rainforest, help loggers

(PhysOrg.com) -- Reduced-impact logging (RIL) in an Amazon rainforest generated profits while emitting a small fraction of carbon compared with total forest clearing, a University at Albany study concludes.

Space & Earth / Environment

created Nov 18, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Tropical forests are fertilized by air pollution

Scientists braved ticks and a tiger to discover how human activities have perturbed the nitrogen cycle in tropical forests. Studies at two remote Smithsonian Institution Global Earth Observatory sites in Panama ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Nov 03, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Increased tropical forest growth could release carbon from the soil

A new study shows that as climate change enhances tree growth in tropical forests, the resulting increase in litterfall could stimulate soil micro-organisms leading to a release of stored soil carbon.

Space & Earth / Environment

created Aug 14, 2011 | popularity 3.8 / 5 (10) | comments 55 | with audio podcast

Stranglers of the tropics -- and beyond

Kudzu, the plant scourge of the U.S. Southeast. The long tendrils of this woody vine, or liana, are on the move north with a warming climate.

Space & Earth / Environment

created Mar 25, 2011 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (5) | comments 6 | with audio podcast

Can we get more social benefits from forests and have higher biodiversity?

When local residents are allowed to make rules about managing nearby forests, the forests are more likely to provide greater economic benefits to households and contain more biodiversity, two University of Michigan researchers ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Mar 24, 2011 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Rainforest conservation needs a new direction to address climate change

Conservation and international aid groups may be on the wrong course to address the havoc wreaked by climate change on tropical rainforests, according to a commentary appearing in the journal Nature on 2 D ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Dec 01, 2010 | popularity 3 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Tropical biodiversity is about the neighbors

Home to jaguars, harpy eagles and red-eyed tree frogs, tropical forests support some of the rarest species on the planet and are the most biodiverse ecosystems on land. Understanding why some species are common ...

Biology / Ecology

created Jun 25, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Trees tell of shifting world

(PhysOrg.com) -- Trees from the Harvard Forest to the Amazon rainforest are experiencing changing climactic conditions, with rising temperatures potentially making tropical trees a significant source of carbon dioxide.

Space & Earth / Environment

created May 04, 2010 | popularity 3.4 / 5 (5) | comments 1

Ferns took to the trees and thrived

(PhysOrg.com) -- As flowering plants like giant trees quickly rose to dominate plant communities during the Cretaceous period, the ferns that had preceded them hardly saw it as a disappointment.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Jul 02, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (5) | comments 0

Reserves found to be 'effective tool' for reducing fires in Brazilian rainforests

Rainforest reserves - even those disturbed by roads - provide an important buffer against fires that are devastating parts of the Brazilian Amazon, according to a new study by a trio of researchers at Duke University published ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Apr 08, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Study reveals potential to amass more carbon in eastern North American forests

With climate change looming, the hunt for places that can soak up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is on.

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Apr 06, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (39) | comments 2