Australian researchers say more that investment in tree planting is needed after they’ve discovered inequality in shade-coverage across certain Brisbane suburbs. A recent University of Queensland study counted trees in three Brisbane suburbs of varying average income levels: from low (Deagon), to middle (Riverhills) and higher-income suburbs (Parkinson). A Senior lecturer in Urban Planning at […]
Secret Behind Amazonian Dark Earth Could Help Speed Up Forest Restoration Across the Globe
Between approximately 450 BCE and 950 CE, millions of Amerindian people living in today’s Amazonia transformed poor soil through various processes. Over many generations, soils were enriched with charcoal from their low-intensity fires for cooking and burning refuse, animal bones, broken pottery, compost, and manure. The result is the Amazon’s dark earth (ADE) or terra […]
Lightning Strikes Shape Tropical Forests
It’s easy to see how droughts, fires and other features of the environment alter and determine the shape of a forest, from the trees that make it up, to where and which trees grow and live together. Yet there’s another happenstance of nature that plays an under-appreciated role in the overall make-up and health of […]
Israeli Trees Need to Find Space to Grow in Japanese Style Forest
If you like the idea of forest-bathing in a mini-urban forest that can sprout in a couple of decades, then Miyawaki just may be your thing. The Miyawaki method takes its name from the late Akira Miyawaki, a Japanese botanist who studied how specific plants form communities and how natural, native forests develop. Spurred on by […]
Monument Trees Must Be Protected in Alaska
Despite heavy-duty rain gear and Xtratuf Boots, Audrey Clavijo is soaked to the bone. She’s okay with it because you can’t put money on a sunny day in the world’s largest temperate rainforest – the Tongass National Forest, located in Kake, which is considered to be the sunniest town in Southeast Alaska. She trudges onwards, […]
New Report Shows that US Trees Face Dire Environmental Threats
President Franklin D. Roosevelt once said that, “Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people.” Sadly, a new study paints a frightening picture. Our nation’s trees are in dire straits. Why? Well, they face threats from invasive species, deadly disease, and climate change, among other things. […]
Thousands of Trees Await Scientific Description
According to a new estimate of tree biodiversity published on January 31 of this year, researchers estimate that there are about 73,300 species of trees on the planet, thousands of which have yet to be described scientifically. According to the study, the majority of these elusive species are likely rare endemics hidden in dense tropical […]
Which Trees are Best at Purifying the Air?
In urban areas, trees and other greenery have been proven to provide many benefits. For instance, their leaves and needles play a fundamental role in filtering air pollutants and reducing exposure to dangerous airborne substances that can increase the risk of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. However, it is not yet clear which species of trees purify the […]
New App Makes Sense for the Study of Forests
Rice researchers did a clever thing recently. They set up a Microsoft HoloLens as a mixed-reality sensor to feed VegSense. What is VegSense? It’s the application they created that measures understory vegetation, plant life that grows between the forest canopy and floor. A proof-of-concept study by graduate student Daniel Gorczynski and bioscientist Lydia Beaudrot shows […]
Olive Trees Were First Domesticated More Than 7,000 Years Ago
A joint study by researchers from Tel Aviv University and the Hebrew University unraveled the earliest evidence for domestication of a fruit tree. The researchers analyzed remnants of charcoal from the Chalcolithic site of Tel Zaf in the Jordan Valley. They determined that these remnants came from olive trees. Since the olive did not grow […]
