Wildlife flee Kenyan forest fires

Hundreds of thousands of flamingos and other wildlife are at risk after five forest fires erupted in Kenya on Saturday, say wildlife officials.
The BBC News website reports that police say they suspect some of the still-raging blazes were started by communities to make space for farmland.
The fires have had an adverse effect on [...]

Twiglet: Trees and roots

First thing to emerge from a seed is the embryonic root – the radicle.

In most plants, this primary root will develop secondary or lateral roots that grow out away from the main root as the plant grows.

The growth of any root is dependent on a small ball of dividing cells just behind the [...]

Teak trees offer clues to drought history

A group of scientists are developing more accurate drought and harvest forecasts for Indonesia using tree rings, historic rice production figures and sea surface temperature data, the Reuters news agency reports.

Indonesia is one of the world’s most populous nations and a major producer of rice, cocoa, coffee and tobacco.
But the country is regularly at risk [...]

Forests face fiery future, warn UK’s Met Office

Climate change is putting further pressure on forests, with less rain and increased drought leading to increased risk from fire, the UK Met Office’s Hadley Centre has warned.
Deforestation is already a major cause of carbon emissions, it warns, and is currently estimated to exceed those from the global transport sector.
Hadley Centre scientists attending the UN [...]

Lebanon’s forests fires ‘product of climate change’

Devastating fires caused by climate change are threatening forests in Lebanon, in turn accelerating the pace of global warming, an environmental activist has warned.
“We are witnessing a rise in temperature which leads to the dryness of forest soil and pushes it towards desertification,” Sawsan Bou Fakhreddine, director-general of the Association for Forests, Development and [...]

Drought threatens Jordan’s olive trees

Persistent drought in southern Jordan could lead to the decimation of thousands of olive trees in the city of Karak, 120km south of Amman, reports the UN’s IRIN news service.
“We witness in summer a dramatic increase in temperatures and in winter a lack of rain,” said Ahmed Koufahi, executive director of the Jordan Environment Society.
“Our [...]

UK’s famous maples ‘must adapt to climate change’

The collection of Japanese maples at the UK National Arboretum need to adapt in order to survive the impacts of future climate change, a researcher has told a conference examining the problem.
Speaking at PlantNetwork’s “Climate Change and Planting for the Future” gathering, Dr Richard Jinks of Forest Research outlined how the UK Forestry Commission was [...]