News tagged with tropical trees

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

Ancient 'monster' insect offers Halloween inspiration

Just in time for Halloween, researchers have announced the discovery of a new, real-world "monster" - what they are calling a "unicorn" fly that lived about 100 million years ago and is being described as ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Oct 26, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (11) | comments 0

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

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

The secret jungles of ancient France

(PhysOrg.com) -- Ah, Paris. Land of the Eiffel Tower, delicious French bread and... tropical rainforests? Sacrebleu! It seems unlikely, but scientists have discovered evidence that France may have been a hot, wet tropical ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Jul 16, 2009 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (8) | comments 2

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

One-fifth of fossil-fuel emissions absorbed by threatened forests

An international team of scientists have discovered that rainforest trees are getting bigger. They are storing more carbon from the atmosphere in their trunks, which has significantly reduced the rate of climate change.

Space & Earth / Environment

created Feb 18, 2009 | popularity 2.8 / 5 (9) | comments 10

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

Australia's climate: Drought and flooding in annual rings of tropical trees

Annual rings are acclaimed in representing natural climate archives. For the temperate latitudes it is known that the growth of these annual rings depend mainly on temperature and precipitation. In the tropics, however, ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Jun 11, 2009 | popularity 3.5 / 5 (6) | comments 0

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

Amazon carbon sink threatened by drought

The Amazon is surprisingly sensitive to drought, according to new research conducted throughout the world's largest tropical forest. The 30-year study, published today in Science, provides the first solid evidence that d ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Mar 05, 2009 | popularity 3 / 5 (6) | comments 2

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

Amazonian amphibian diversity traced to Andes

Colorful poison frogs in the Amazon owe their great diversity to ancestors that leapt into the region from the Andes Mountains several times during the last 10 million years, a new study from The University ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Mar 10, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | 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

How ants tame the wilderness: Rainforest species use chemicals to identify which plants to prune

Survival in the depths of the tropical rainforest not only depends on a species' ability to defend itself, but can be reliant on the type of cooperation researchers discovered between ants and tropical trees. ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created May 12, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 1 | with audio podcast