Study links forest fires to climate shift

A warming climate will fuel larger, more frequent wildfires in the Sierra Nevada and other parts of the West, and the fires will contribute to climate change, according to a new study reported in Insurance Journal.
More than 20 international scientists, in the report published in the journal Science, said fire is not only a consequence [...]

Key role of forests ‘may be lost’

Forests’ role as massive carbon sinks is “at risk of being lost entirely”, the BBC’s Mark Kinver has reported top forestry scientists as warning.
The International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) says forests are under increasing degrees of stress as a result of climate change.
Forests could release vast amounts of carbon if temperatures rise 2.5C [...]

UK firm barcodes trees to save the world’s forests

Barcoding every tree in an African rainforest sounds as plausible as counting grains of sand on a beach, but this is exactly what one British company has set out to do, reports Kate Walsh for the Times.
Helveta, a technology firm based in Oxford, is developing a system for tracking timber that will help prevent illegal [...]

Africa’s tropical forests ‘absorbing more carbon’

Trees across the tropics are getting bigger and offering unexpected help in the fight against climate change, scientists have discovered.
A report in the Guardian newspaper described how a study of the girth of 70,000 trees across Africa has shown that tropical forests are soaking up more carbon dioxide pollution that anybody realised.
Almost one-fifth of our [...]

Brazil announces 70% cut in deforestation

Brazil has announced a plan to reduce deforestation rates in the Amazon region by 70% over the next 10 years, the BBC News website reports.
The plan follows a call for international funding to prevent further loss of the Amazon rainforest.
This year, the rate of Amazon deforestation increased after falling for the past four years.
The new [...]

Trees ‘grow faster, store more carbon’

In a press release, issued via Newswise, Mitchigan Technological University researcher Dr Andrew Burton suggested that moderate climate change was beneficial for northern hardwood trees.
In a very brief notice of the findings, reproduced in its entirety below, it offers a very basic explanation of how a slight warming changes the growth dynamics of the trees:
More [...]

Old forests ‘continue to capture plenty of carbon’

Planting a new tree may be a less effective way to sequester carbon than saving an old tree from the axe, writes nature.com’s Emma Marris.
A study in the journal Nature shows that old forests continue to accumulate carbon at a much greater rate than researchers had previously thought, making them more important as carbon sinks [...]

CO2 ‘delays autumnal leaf fall’

Increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is extending trees’ growing season, say scientists.
However, as reported in the blog Science Centric, the news had been welcomed by the forestry sector.
Writing in the journal Global Change Biology, Professor David Karnosky from Michigan Technological University, US, led an international team of researchers that suggested that the [...]

Statistic: Forest carbon storage

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has used the figure of 217 tonnes of carbon per hectare stored in forests.
But, says Australia’s North Coast Environment Council, this is a serious underestimate with older forests providing from 640-2000 tonnes of carbon stored per hectare.