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Why Ancient Forests are Important to the Ecosystem and Why We Need to Protect Them
Planet Green Articles Feed — Old growth forests are essential to biodiversity and absorbing human carbon emissions, yet "Rare is the forest untouched by man," writes David Biello in Scientific American . "Whether logging or clearing land for agriculture, the bulk of the world's forests have fallen to crops, cattle or younger trees. According to some estimates, less than 10 percent of forests worldwide can be considered old growth, or undisturbed for more than a century." ...

Will tree plantations spur the release of carbon locked in soil?
Ecoearth.info Blog — ... ." Since 2005 140 million hectares of land have been converted to forest globally, and an average of two million new hectares of forests are added each year. Such afforested areas account for only 4 percent of Earth's forests , but they already supply 35 percent of the world's wood products, according to the United Nations's Food and Agriculture Organization. Berthrong's team analyzed data from 153 tree plantations mostly eucalyptus and pine to understand how they influenced ...

The Climate's Warm Future Is Now in the Arctic
Ecoearth.info Blog — ... . "If it were to get to three degrees [Celsius] warmer on average, the Arctic would be a thing of the past," Post says. "Polar bears, long winters of snow, sea ice cover it wouldn't be the case anymore." Instead the Arctic might become more like the boreal forests of Alaska, Canada, Scandinavia and Siberia vast stands of spruce trees that do not support the unique Arctic flora and fauna. The problem confronting Arctic species is not the warming itself, of course; there have been similar episodes in Earth's history, such as the ...

Sinking Global Warming: Is There a Reliable Way to Track Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Levels?
Ecoearth.info Blog — ... a measure of acidity has dropped to 8.1 from roughly 8.2 in the 19th century. That is balanced, in some part, by an apparent rise of roughly four billion metric tons of CO 2 absorbed by land-based sinks, possibly due to CO 2 being used by growing plants. Then again, the researchers' estimate for land uptake of carbon is suspect, given that it is based on what has not been absorbed by the oceans or remains in the atmosphere. This kind of estimate is endemic to climate research and is perhaps best exemplified by the ...