Long-term changes in dead wood reveal new forest dynamics

Healthy forest ecosystems need dead wood to provide important habitat for birds and mammals, but there can be too much of a good thing when dead wood fuels severe wildfires. A scientist with the U.S. Forest Service's Pacific ...

Tropical forests not as untouched as often thought

Tropical forests may not be the ancient, unspoilt ecosystems we have always assumed them to be. This notion needs to be revised, write Wageningen University researchers in the January issue of the scientific journal Forest ...

Why are aspen dying?

(Phys.org) —If Utah's quaking aspen appear to be quaking more than usual this summer, the trees have reason to tremble, says a Brigham Young University biologist. In dappled forests across the West, aspen trees are battling ...

Climate change and wildfire: Synthesis of recent findings

Concerns continue to grow about the effects of climate change on fire. Wildfires are expected to increase 50 percent across the United States under a changing climate, over 100 percent in areas of the West by 2050 as projected ...

Logging debris gives newly planted Douglas-fir forests a leg-up

The downed limbs and other woody debris that are inevitable byproducts of timber harvest could be among the most important components of post-harvest landscapes, according to a new study led by the U.S. Forest Service's Pacific ...

Refining fire behavior modeling

Research by USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station biometrician Bernie Parresol takes center stage in a special issue of the journal Forest Ecology and Management due out in June. Parresol is lead author of two of ...

Southern pine beetle impacts on forest ecosystems

Research by USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station (SRS) scientists shows that the impacts of recent outbreaks of southern pine beetle further degraded shortleaf pine-hardwood forest ecosystems in the southern Appalachian ...

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