Deforested areas bleed heat to nearby forests, drive local extinctions

Deforested areas bleed heat to nearby forests, drive local extinctions

Areas cleared of forests bleed heat to neighboring forests, and this fuels increases in temperatures there, new research has found. Average temperatures in forests around the world are already rising because of climate change; this leaked heat exacerbates the problem and accelerates local extinctions of forest-dwelling species. “The warming is happening from global climate change […]

Read More

When forests aren’t really forests: the high cost of Chile’s tree plantations

When forests aren’t really forests: the high cost of Chile’s tree plantations

At first glance, the statistics tell a hopeful story: Chile’s forests are expanding. According to Global Forest Watch, overall forest cover changes show approximately 300,000 hectares were gained between 2000 and 2013 in Chile’s central and southern regions. Specifically, 1.4 million hectares of forest cover were gained, while about 1.1 million hectares were lost. On […]

Read More

Bloodsucking flies help scientists identify rare, hard-to-find mammals

Bloodsucking flies help scientists identify rare, hard-to-find mammals

Last year scientists released a study that is likely to revolutionize how conservationists track elusive species. Researchers extracted the recently sucked blood of terrestrial leeches in Vietnam’s remote Annamite Mountains and looked at the DNA of what they’d been feeding on: remarkably researchers were able to identify a number of endangered and rarely-seen mammals. In […]

Read More