Forests are a key part of the climate equation. They capture and store carbon, create rain clouds, shade the land, filter our water, make fresh air and provide critical homes for our wildlife.
Forests are a key part of the climate equation. They capture and store carbon, create rain clouds, shade the land, filter our water, make fresh air and provide critical homes for our wildlife.
Forests are major components of the global carbon cycle, providing substantial feedback to atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations1. Our ability to understand and predict changes in the forest carbon cycle—particularly net primary productivity and carbon storage—increasingly relies on models that represent biological processes across several scales of biological organization, from tree leaves to forest stands2, 3. …
There’s no better recipe for long term assurance of fire storms into the future. By logging intact forests, government agencies are releasing hundreds or thousands of years of stored carbon into the atmosphere (adding to climate warming), as well as drying out and altering the structure of a natural forest. This makes them extremely fire …
In debates about climate change and the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions, there is a widely-held belief that market mechanisms, like the Labor government’s carbon pricing scheme, will reduce emissions in the cheapest possible way. As a matter of pure theory, this is correct but, in practice, it depends on what is included and excluded …
It makes better financial sense for the native forests of southern NSW to remain un-logged and left to generate carbon credits, a new report suggests. NSW taxpayers would be able to generate carbon abatement, conservatively valued at about $222 million over the next 2¬Ω decades, and use some of the money to fully compensate timber …
You are walking through the bush when you see an enormous tree trunk, tens of metres long, lying across the forest floor. Imagine you and several dozen friends lifting it by hand. Now you’ve literally grasped the significance of trees and forests when it comes to carbon sequestration – trees are heavy, and carbon accounts …
For several decades, the alternative commercial and economic uses and management of Australia’s native forests have generated considerable debate. In the past five years, this debate has sharpened as the native forest sector has contracted in response to increased competition in international and domestic wood product markets. New carbon markets are also emerging that could …
Destruction of the planet’s above ground carbon stocks (as in forests) is a significant source of atmospheric CO2. The report below summarize current understanding about human influences on the global carbon cycle. It shows we need to protect and regrow these land-based carbon storage ‘stocks’ to help mitigate climate change AS WELL AS reduce our …
A new study undertaken by a diverse group of scientists in Sweden has found that contrary to popular belief, most of the carbon that is sequestered in northern boreal forests comes about due to fungi that live on and in tree roots, rather than via dead needles, moss and leaf matter. In their paper published …
This is fascinating new research. The idea that forests bring the rain, and cutting them down can affect local weather patterns, is not new. But Russian physicists Makarieva and Gorshkov argue forests also create winds that sweep rain inland, allowing forests to grow far from the coast.The theory runs that Australia is so dry in …
Worldwide, forest fires and forest harvesting are recognized as major sources of the carbon dioxide (CO2) that is warming the climate, causing drought, and melting ice caps. Yet, paradoxically, most state, regional, and federal efforts to reduce emissions treat biomass power plants that burn wood for fuel as “carbon neutral,” with zero net emissions. Massachusetts …
