Philippines: Park expansion creates nation's largest contiguous protected area
...some of the Philippines' last-remaining old-growth forests and dozens of globally threatened species, the gov...million-hectare mountain range. The Sierra Madre's forests are home to about 45 percent of all the country's plant species and more than half of its Threatened...Liberia announces protection of 155,000-acres of forest
...ns." With the expansion, four percent of Liberia's forests now fall within protected areas. These areas will help to defend against major threats to the Liberia's biodiversity such as unsustainable logging and poaching. Extreme habitat fragmentation and degradation continue to threaten much of the remainder ...Study predicts loss of monarch winter refuges
...on. Monarchs currently spend winters in oyamel fir forests in mountainous areas of central Mexico. Winters th...er, said Oberhauser. When the already cool Mexican forests become wetter during the overwintering period, the increased moisture will result in more frequent s...Red sea urchins found to live up to 200 years
...real menace," Ebert said. "They ate plants in kelp forests and people believed they were at least partly responsible for the decline of that marine ecosystem, so they tried to poison them, get rid of them however possible." But in the 1970s a commercial fishery developed in the U.S. based on sea urchins, wh...Bad Mileage: 98 tons of plants per gallon
...r our power using crop residues and quick-growing forests as fuel sources would force us to dedicate a huge...equences. We would have to choose between our rain forests and our vehicles and appliances. Biomass burning can be part of the solution if we use agricultural ...Down and dirty: Airborne ozone can alter forest soil
...findings could have implications for the health of forests in areas with high levels of ozone, says Dr. Wendy...e scientists and policymakers have speculated that forests could become "carbon sinks," absorbing carbon dioxide and mitigating its greenhouse effects. However...A realistic way to save rainforests
...a, "and therefore should be applicable to tropical forests worldwide," they wrote....Field Museum gives prestigious Parker Gentry Award to Tanzanian anti-poaching activist
...nist, died on August 3, 1991, while surveying hill forests of western Ecuador. The pair worked closely with Field Museum scientists on several joint efforts, including the Rapid Assessment Program, a collaboration between The Field Museum and Conservation International....Using GPR to estimate tree root biomass
...cle with John Butnor and Lance Kress. "Many of the forests in the Southeast grow on land where the soil carbon has been depleted by former farming practices. In these forests, tree roots are the most dynamic pool for carbon accumulation below the ground." For the carbon flux experiments that Johnsen and fell...Collapse of seals, sea lions & sea otters in North Pacific triggered by overfishing of great whales
...r WWII, and the end, with drastic declines of kelp forests today, Springer, Estes and their six co-authors pr...xplosion of sea urchins and decimation of the kelp forests due to the sea urchins' over grazing. "The point of this story is not to vilify whaling and exonera...Madagascar to triple areas under protection
..."We can no longer afford to sit back and watch our forests go up in flames, " President Ravalomanana said. "This is not just Madagascar's biodiversity, it is the world's biodiversity. We have the firm political will to stop this degradation." The world's fourth largest island, Madagascar has only been inhab...Tourism to Earth's most threatened areas surges by over 100 percent in last decade
...negative impacts. These include removing pristine forests for infrastructure development, pollution, introduction of invasive species, water shortages and degradation of water supplies. In addition, tourism development is increasingly linked to the economies of the world's developing countries, which are o...State of Amazonas safeguards world's richest biodiversity with six new protected areas
... six types of distinct vegetation, including dense forests and seasonally-flooded wetlands. According to preliminary data, the region holds 450 species of birds, 180 mammals (including 14 species of primates), along with dozens of turtle, lizard and amphibian species. "We've known Cujubim is an extremely im...Forest preservation work turns to Carolina hemlock
...c stock of Mexican and Central American coniferous forests by collecting seeds from stands of trees, and pres...id. The tiny Asian insect, which decimated hemlock forests in the northeastern United States, is now attacking forests in western North Carolina. The battle ha...In tropics, forests are cool but croplands are hotter
...omputer models, reports that cutting down tropical forests and converting grasslands to crops may inadvertent...enheit in the last 25 years, solely because native forests and grasslands in Santa Cruz were replaced with crops. Co-authors in this interdisciplinary study of...Threatened juvenile salmon get scientific assistance
...ulverts that obstruct salmon migration on national forests and other federal lands. He said better science is required, however, and that the culvert test bed is needed for a more thorough understanding of the dynamics of stream flow and how adjustments based on credible data-gathering will help improve cul...Predators: an overlooked player in plant-pollinator relationships
...trees through predation on moose, otters keep kelp forests thriving by preying on sea urchins, etc. Yet we have seldom considered the consequences of predation on animals that help plants reproduce. Predation on pollinators is widespread, from humans feeding on pollinating bats in parts of Asia to spiders t...Science picks: Leads, feeds and story seeds for August 2003
...th's surface, coral reefs are considered the "rain forests of the sea" by being home to more than 25 percent of all marine species. Yet it is estimated that many of the world's reefs will be destroyed or significantly damaged in the next 20 years. For more information, including reproducible photos, see htt...Envisat focuses on carbon-rich peat swamp forest fires
...East Asian island of Borneo, but it isn't only the forests that burn. Lowland tropical peat swamps are formed from layers of woody debris too waterlogged to fully decompose. Slowly deposited over thousands of years, the carbon-rich peat strata have been known to reach a thickness of up to 20 metres. By righ......at includes several states and federal and private forests across the eastern United States. Jose said the research will help the efforts of natural resource agencies in adding prescribed burning as a powerful tool in their arsenal to fight anthracnose....