Standing dead trees—or snags—shelter animals, store carbon, and cycle nutrients. A long-term monitoring study found that lopping off a tree’s top branches is a good way to turn it into a snag within about 20 years.
Oregon
Posted inNews
Spring Heat Waves Pack a Punch for Snowpacks in the Pacific Northwest
New research shows how the snowpack loss due to moderate springtime heat waves outweighed that of a record-shattering summer heat dome.
Posted inNews
Climate Change Narrows the Window for Prescribed Fires
Longer, drier summers may mean fewer opportunities for firefighters to safely burn would-be wildfire fuel in the western United States.
Posted inNews
Revolucionando la ciencia de los terremotos en Cascadia
Un nuevo centro reunirá a científicos de sismos para estudiar la zona de subducción de Cascadia y aclarar los peligros sísmicos.
Posted inNews
Shaking Up Earthquake Science in Cascadia
A new center will bring together earthquake scientists to study the Cascadia Subduction Zone and clarify seismic hazards.
Posted inNews
Dating the World’s Tallest Trees
Scientists analyzed more than 1.2 million trees to assemble chronologies of annually dated rings, which will inform fields ranging from climate science to seismology.
Posted inFeatures
Baked Contacts Focus a Lens on Ancient Lava Flows
Two studies, conducted 40 years apart, show how combining field observations and thermal modeling can reconstruct the history of massive lava flows and how they altered the surrounding landscape.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Far-Flung Forces Caused the 2021 Pacific Northwest Heat Wave
Air from thousands of kilometers away spiraled down to drape the Pacific Northwest in blistering heat.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Continuity is the Father of Success
Geodetic measurements indicate that Three Sisters Volcano uplifted by almost 300 millimeters in the past 25 years without significant anomalies at the surface.
Posted inScience Updates
Cormorants Are Helping Characterize Coastal Ocean Environments
The Cormorant Oceanography Project is using sensors deployed on diving marine birds to collect broadly distributed oceanographic data in coastal regions around the world.