Deforestation is the large-scale, often permanent removal of forest cover, typically through logging, burning, or land conversion for agriculture, infrastructure, or resource extraction, resulting in the reduction or fragmentation of forest ecosystems. As a research topic, it encompasses quantifying forest loss using remote sensing and geospatial analysis, assessing impacts on carbon stocks, greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity, hydrological cycles, and soil integrity, and examining social-ecological drivers such as governance, commodity markets, and land-use policies. Deforestation studies also investigate feedbacks to climate systems, resilience thresholds, and the effectiveness of interventions including protected areas, certification schemes, and zero-deforestation supply-chain commitments.
Deep in the Amazon, sound designer Eric Terena has been capturing the sounds of the rainforest while sitting silently beneath the dense, towering treetops with his recording equipment. He has noticed some huge changes.
Environment
Sep 11, 2025
0
27
Protecting Indigenous territories in areas of the Amazon rainforest with high levels of forest cover may help reduce the number of cases of several diseases (including malaria and respiratory conditions) in the surrounding ...
Environment
Sep 11, 2025
0
27
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is responsible for approximately 74.5% of the reduction in rainfall and 16.5% of the temperature increase in the biome during the dry season. For the first time, researchers have quantified ...
Earth Sciences
Sep 2, 2025
0
121
The climate benefits of planting trees may have been greatly overestimated, but swift action could ensure reforestation meets its potential to curb dangerous emissions, new research has found.
Earth Sciences
Aug 31, 2025
1
51
Deforestation in tropical countries could contribute to increased deaths from heat exposure in nearby populations, new research has shown.
Environment
Aug 27, 2025
0
44
Agriculture is the largest cause of deforestation. So, it follows that forest expansion efforts would displace agriculture—but new research from Georgia Tech's School of Economics reports that that's not necessarily the case. ...
Ecology
Aug 25, 2025
0
22
As deforestation and climate change threaten to transform the Amazon, there is growing concern that the ecosystem may be reaching an irreversible tipping point, beyond which self-reinforcing feedback loops would lock the ...
Environment
Aug 23, 2025
0
41
The Amazon is the world's largest rainforest. It harbors immense biodiversity and plays a crucial role in the global climate system by storing vast amounts of carbon in its vegetation.
Earth Sciences
Aug 20, 2025
2
44
Human activities, such as deforestation and the expansion of agricultural areas, have a massive impact on the natural state of ecosystems. As a result, large amounts of carbon are released into the atmosphere, contributing ...
Earth Sciences
Aug 18, 2025
0
61
The inhabitants of the "Lost City of the Amazon" in Ecuador's Upano River Valley grew corn and planted alder trees for over 1,200 years, but a later occupation that lasted just 300 years was the one that changed the ecology ...
Ecology
Aug 14, 2025
0
112
