Category: Climate Change
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Mapping How Climate Change Affects Tree Species’ Range
The maps in this atlas forecast future suitable habitat for North American forest tree species under two climate change models, and predict the parts of tree ranges that will be under the greatest climate change pressure.
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The Amazon Rainforest Shall Be No More
The “vegetation-climate equilibrium is teetering on the brink of the abyss.” If it tips, the Amazon will start to become a much drier savanna, which calamitous consequences.
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Can We Re-Design Forests For Climate Change? And If We Can, Should We?
“My general feeling is we just don’t know enough about the consequences of genetic mixing to go full force into widespread assisted migration, so I’ve been working with the Nature Conservancy in the design of experiments that we might do”
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Hunting May Be Greatest Threat To Survival Of Forests
Hunting – driven by increasing human population, greater demand for wild meat and expanding wildlife trade networks – is the greatest threat to mammals and birds in tropical forests. Because it tends to target large species like primates and hoofed animals, particularly those that disperse tree seeds, hunting can prevent seed dispersal and the growth of new saplings. As large trees are lost, they are often replaced by plants like lianas (woody vines) whose seeds are dispersed by wind rather than animals. This changes forest composition over time, reducing the forest’s ability to sequester and store large quantities of carbon.
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To Translocate Or Not? Biologists Saving Trees From Global Warming
But what if the climate warms too quickly for the trees to respond? Even as the species creeps northward a few miles, it may lose huge swaths of suitable territory to the south. The solution, some conservationists say, may be to help the trees claim new territory more quickly.
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Will Climate Change Turn Rain Forests Into Impoverished Savannas?
We are in a good moment in terms of transforming land-use change in the tropics … but in the present there are areas in the Amazon in which a repeated cycle of deforestation, regrowth and fire has led to a landscape that is highly degraded,
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Tree Rings Reveal Marine Ecosystem History
By comparing the tree-ring data to the fish and seabird statistics, the researchers found that years with weak upwelling and lots of tree growth correlated with years when fish and seabird populations suffered.
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Seagrass Protect Shellfish From Climate Change
Results from a new study suggest that marine ecosystems, such as seagrass meadows, may help shell-forming organisms overcome the effects of future ocean acidification.
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Biochar: Good For The Climate But Bad For Plants?
The positive impacts of biochar were coupled with negative findings for a suite of genes that are known to determine the ability of a plant to withstand attack from pests and pathogens. These defence genes were consistently reduced following biochar application to the soil,
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Peru Maps Its Forest Carbon Sinks: Where Conservation Meets Economics
Asner believes that the high-resolution carbon maps he is producing can play a crucial role in changing the economic dynamic in tropical countries. If you know how much carbon is locked up in your forests and vegetation — in Peru’s case, his report estimates the amount at 6.92 billion metric tons — you can better place a value on it. And choose conservation over development.