New research identifies temperature, moisture, and soil fungi as important factors in influencing how biogenic volatile organic compounds cycle between plants and the atmosphere.
forests
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Reforestation as a Local Cooling Mechanism
Reforestation has been shown to cool surface temperatures, and a novel study suggests it may also reduce air temperature up to several stories above the ground.
Posted inNews
Tropical Forests Are Losing Their Ability to Soak Up Carbon
The forests could switch from a carbon sink to a carbon source by the mid-2030s.
Posted inNews
New England Forests Were Historically Shaped by Climate, Not People
A first-of-its-kind study combining paleoecology and archeology indicates that the New England landscape was not actively managed with fire prior to European arrival.
Posted inFeatures
The Future of the Carbon Cycle in a Changing Climate
Surface and space-based observations, field experiments, and models all contribute to our evolving understanding of the ways that Earth’s many systems absorb and release carbon.
Posted inNews
Forests Respond to Volcanic Emissions
Researchers propose using volcanoes to study forests and forests to study volcanoes.
Posted inNews
Hurricanes Hit Puerto Rico’s Mangroves Harder Than Florida’s
The scale and pattern of damage to the Puerto Rican forests suggest a complex interplay between wind, land, and sea.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Satellite Measurements of Stratospheric Forest Fire Smoke
Intense boreal forest fires in August 2017 caused smoke plumes that reached record levels in the stratosphere; satellite measurements show that the effects rivaled a moderate volcanic eruption.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
How Forest Structure Influences the Water Cycle
New research looks at how changes in the arrangement of trees and canopy thickness influence the transport of water from the land surface to the atmosphere.
Posted inNews
Resilient Peatlands Keep Carbon Bogged Down
Boreal peatlands contain some of the world’s largest reservoirs of soil carbon, and new research suggests some peatlands may hold on to that carbon even as the climate changes.