Older forests with just the right fungi may be secret to saving vulnerable plantsWhen it comes to conserving the world's orchids, not all forests are equal. In a paper to be published Jan. 25 in the journal Molecular Ecology, Smithsonian ecologists revealed that an orchid's fate hinges on two factors: ...

When it comes to conserving the world's orchids, not all forests are equal. Ecologists revealed that an orchid's fate hinges on two factors: A forest's age and its fungi.

Many tropical forests are extremely rich in nitrogen even when there are no farms or industries nearby, says Montana State University researcher Jack Brookshire.It's because of biological interactions that occur naturally in the forests, Brookshire and four colleagues said in a paper they published Jan. 15 in the online version ...

The forests of the world supply a significant amount of moisture that creates rain. A new study reveals how this important contribution of forests to the hydrologic cycle is often overlooked in water resource policy, such as that of the EU.

From trash to pesticides, experts say marijuana operations wreak havoc on parks.

Too Many Dead Leaves a Bad Sign for Sugar MaplesScientists have discovered that nitrogen that falls from the atmosphere in acid rain can influence large tracts of sugar maples in North America.The atmospheric nitrogen in acid rain can affect forest ecosystems by acidifying soils and causing nutrient imbalances.Sugar maples in ...

Kirtland’s warblers are an endangered species of lightweight little birds with bright yellow-bellies that summer in North America and winter in the Bahamas. But be it their winter or their summer home, a new study using data from NASA-built Landsat satellites shows that these warblers like to live in young ...

Scientists braved ticks and a tiger to discover how human activities have perturbed the nitrogen cycle in tropical forests. Studies at two remote Smithsonian Institution Global Earth Observatory sites in Panama and Thailand show the first evidence of long-term effects of nitrogen pollution in tropical trees."Air pollution is fertilizing tropical ...

Climate change, land use and other human-driven factors could pit savannas and forests against each other by altering the elements found by Princeton University researchers to stabilize the two. Without this harmony, the habitats, or biomes, could increasingly encroach on one other to the detriment of the people and animals ...

More than half of eastern U.S. tree species examined in a massive new Duke University-led study aren't adapting to climate change as quickly or consistently as predicted."Many models have suggested that trees will migrate rapidly to higher latitudes and elevations in response to warming temperatures, but evidence for a consistent, ...

Climate change, land use and other human-driven factors could pit savannas and forests against each other by altering the elements found by researchers to stabilize the two. Without this harmony, the habitats, or biomes, could increasingly encroach on one other to the detriment of the people and animals that rely ...

Wildfire, insect outbreaks and hurricanes destroy huge amounts of forest every year and increase the amount of carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere, but scientists are now learning more about another force that can significantly affect their climate impact.Researchers conclude in a new study that the albedo effect, which controls the ...