Forest ecosystems are complex, multiscale ecological systems dominated by tree communities and structured by vertical stratification (canopy, understory, forest floor) that regulate energy flow, biogeochemical cycles, and habitat availability. They integrate interactions among primary producers, heterotrophs, decomposers, and abiotic factors such as climate, soils, and hydrology, resulting in distinct successional dynamics and disturbance regimes (e.g., fire, windthrow, pest outbreaks). Forest ecosystems play central roles in carbon sequestration, nutrient cycling, and water regulation, exhibit high spatial heterogeneity and biodiversity, and are key model systems for studying resilience, feedbacks between vegetation and climate, and anthropogenic impacts such as fragmentation, land-use change, and altered disturbance frequencies.
Researchers have uncovered rainforest communities previously hidden within the rugged gullies of the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area that are protecting vegetation not known to grow anywhere else.
Ecology
Aug 17, 2026
0
133
Over 4 million hectares (9.9 million acres) of protected tropical forest—an area double the size of Wales—have been lost to wildfires since 2001.
Earth Sciences
Aug 14, 2026
0
16
Newly published research offers some of the clearest evidence yet of why the invasive barred owl has become one of the greatest threats to the northern spotted owl and delivers encouraging evidence that managing barred owl ...
Ecology
Aug 13, 2026
0
62
Satellite images can be used to estimate how much carbon forests store as aboveground biomass (AGB) and how biomass varies in different forests. In a study published in the journal Nature, a team of researchers affiliated ...
Earth Sciences
Aug 13, 2026
0
16
The severe, drought-fueled fires now burning across much of the American West and Canada may be scorching forests so thoroughly that they cannot recover to the forests they once were, new research shows. A study by Colorado ...
Ecology
Aug 12, 2026
0
16
As global temperatures rise, scientists have largely assumed that mountain tree species will move uphill in search of cooler conditions. A new study published in Nature Climate Change reveals a more complex reality: Some ...
Environment
Aug 7, 2026
0
16
Using satellite data, researchers at TUM have identified an unprecedented loss of aboveground biomass in Europe's forests since 2018. Unlike previous studies that focused solely on changes in tree cover, this study provides ...
Environment
Aug 5, 2026
0
16
Seed dispersal through wind, water or animals is a crucial process for forest renewal and biodiversity preservation. In the Atlantic Forest, a new study showed that the amount of forest in the landscape surrounding an area ...
Ecology
Aug 4, 2026
0
53
YCNCC Science Communications Fellow Samantha Tracy recently sat down with Wong to discuss the influence of soil fertility on tropical forests and their responses to global change. The study is published in the journal New ...
Ecology
Aug 4, 2026
0
14
Deep in the forests of North Sumatra, Indonesia, lives the Tapanuli orangutan (Pongo tapanuliensis), the world's rarest great ape. Fewer than 800 individuals remain, confined to the Batang Toru ecosystem, a landscape that ...
Plants & Animals
Aug 4, 2026
0
5
