The hordes of bark beetles that have bored their way through more than six billion trees in the western US and British Columbia since the 1990s do more than damage and kill pine, spruce and other trees. A new study finds that these pests can make trees release up to ...

Seagrasses are a vital part of the solution to climate change and, per unit area, seagrass meadows can store up to twice as much carbon as the world's temperate and tropical forests.

The amount of carbon stored in seagrass beds could be as much as 19.9 billion metric tons, researchers say.

The progressive disappearance of seed-dispersing animals like elephants and rhinoceroses puts the structural integrity and biodiversity of the tropical forest of South-East Asia at risk. Experts have confirmed that not even herbivores like tapirs can replace them. Megaherbivores act as the 'gardeners' of humid tropical forests: They are vital to ...

Harvesting tropical forests for timber may not be the arch-enemy of conservation that it was once assumed to be, according to a new study.

New research suggests that preventative measures are most effective in minimizing losses to bark beetles, and several factors should be considered in planning bark beetle management programs.

More than 600 million people could be fed each year by halting the spread of fungal diseases in the world's five most important crops, according to new research.

As part of an ongoing study, scientists are now forecasting potential forest carbon loss. Working with the Harvard Forest, Smithsonian Institution and LTER Network, scientists have been closely monitoring carbon levels in Massachusetts for more than 30 years. Based on trends in these forests, the scientists are predicting a carbon ...

Past disturbances, such as logging, can obscure the effects of climate change on forest ecosystems. So reports a new study. The article, exploring nitrogen dynamics, found that untangling climate impacts from other factors can be difficult, even when scientists have access to decades of data on a forest's environmental conditions.

Past disturbances, such as logging, can obscure the effects of climate change on forest ecosystems. So reports a study just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The paper, exploring nitrogen dynamics, found that untangling climate impacts from other factors can be difficult, even when scientists have ...

How invasive beetles are causing climate change

They have an affinity for lush plant cover too, which helps them hunt.