The Forest-Fungi Loop
The ground under our feet might have more say in the landscape than we realize– researchers are studying the feedback loops between fungi and trees.
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forests
Indigenous Fire Practices Work
“Fire exclusion policies forced California Indian communities and forest managers to curtail their routine cultural and prescribed burning practices. Despite these policies, Karuk and Yurok basketweavers retained their knowledge, maintained their practices and, most importantly, developed several innovative techniques to replicate fire’s effects on hazelnut to produce essential basketry materials.” (Marks-Block 2019)
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Friend or foe? Invasive earthworms can benefit agriculture but harm forests
Earthworms are welcome guests in the garden, but it’s a different story in the forest. By consuming and removing leaf litter too fast they set in motion complex cascades of ecological changes, with long-term negative effects on soil fertility and biodiversity.
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Avoiding A Problem: Spineless Critters Signalling Trouble For Plants?
Spineless creatures are fleeing, alerting scientists to an unseen problem. The avoidance behavior of soil worms and insects could provide a fast and easy method for scientists to screen chemicals for plant toxicity.
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Seeking Ferns, Finding Worms
In the midst of an earthworm invasion, researchers created models to find a rare fern. This helps us to better understand how to protect threatened, endangered, and sensitive plants in a changing world.
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How Pre-Industrial Charcoal Changed the Soils Under Our Feet
Tragically, when some people look at the soil beneath our feet, they only see ‘dirt’. They are missing the fact that soils contribute so much to nature and our lives. But, what happens when humans alter soils from their natural state? Researchers from Cottbus, Germany, aimed to find out how charcoal production in the Northeastern US during the mid 1800s impacted the soils and ecology of the forests that we see today. Surprisingly, the answer is a little bit below the surface.
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Seeing the Forest for the Trees
Satellites have changed our ability to see the globe. We can now use satellite data is to monitor change in the amount of land covered by forests, and determine the reasons for that change. In this article, we discuss recent findings global forest monitoring and the impact of supply chain decisions by corporate actors.
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We’re all in this together: Climate-forest connections mean local tree deaths have widespread impacts
We know that forests can have a big local impact, but can they also have an impact on the climate on the other side of the continent? With climate change becoming a growing threat to our forests, a team of scientists looks to investigate what cross-continental connections exist between our forests and what they could mean for our future climate.
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“Pollen-ology”: what microfossils can tell us about sea level rise
Ever wonder how scientists reconstruct environments from the earth’s history? For those studying mangroves in South Florida, the answer is a little smaller than you would think. Palynology, or the study of fossilized pollen, can tell researchers about what plants were present in an area in the past, aiding in understanding how things have changed in the last few thousand years. With the help of this reconstruction, pollen fossils can also help us predict how mangrove systems will change in the future.
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What’s a Forest Without Trees?
Trees are one of the most important natural resources: they consume carbon dioxide and provide us with oxygen, building materials, and fuel. However, global forest degradation exceeds the total CO2 emissions in the US for both highway vehicles (1.7 Gt CO2e/year) and power generation (1.9 Gt CO2e/year)! A new study discusses the difference between deforestation and forest degradation and why it’s essential to account for both in greenhouse gas emissions management.
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