News tagged with tropical trees

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

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

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

Analysis reveals malaria, other diseases as ancient, adaptive and persistent foes

One of the most comprehensive analyses yet done of the ancient history of insect-borne disease concludes for the first time that malaria is not only native to the New World, but it has been present long before ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Nov 02, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | 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

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

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

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

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

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

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