Forests

In Retreat

An example from US Forest Service of projected US range loss - for sugar maple - with high emissions.

1 of MANY species, from http://www.fs.fed.us/nrs/atlas/tree/.

Habitat in 2100, but actual distribution will lag, as trees are long-lived.

2021-2024 Articles

A Collapse of the Amazon Could Be Coming 0224

Can Forests Be More Profitable than Beef? 0524 - a question for the Amazon region

Are Rainforests Doomed? Not Necessarily. 0424

Amazon Rainforest, after 65 Million Years of Climate Changes, Faces Collapse 0224

‘Biodiversity Catastrophe’ - How Earth Could Look in 2050, unless We Act Now 1123

Amazon Deforestation Linked to West Antarctic Melt and Less Snowfall in Tibet 1023

Local Temperatures Reach Tipping Point where Plants Will No Longer Produce Building Block for Life on Earth 0823

Rising Temperatures Are Wreaking Havoc Year-Round 0823 - Bark beetles are wreaking havoc in US forests, as their larva surive not-as-cold winter temperatures, now in large numbers as far as New Jersey.

Bark Beetles Are Eating Germany’s Harz Forest. Climate Change Makes It Worse. 0823

Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon Falls in 1st Month under Lula 0223

Why California’s Trees Are Dying by the Millions 0223

Why Western US Wildfires Destroyed 246% More Homes & Buildings This Decade 0223

Drought, Plague and Fire - What One Colorado Forest Is Up Against 0223

In a Warming World, California’s Trees Keep Dying 0123

How Seriously Climate Change Is Threatening Madagascar’s Famous Forests 0123

Has the Amazon Reached Its ‘Tipping Point(s)’? Savannah? Scrubland? 0123

How the Amazon Rainforest Dies 1122 - If somewhere between 20 and 25% of the forest were lost, models suggested, much of the Amazon would perish. About 18% of the rainforest is now gone, and the evidence increasingly supports the warnings. Whether or not the tipping point has arrived — and some scientists think it has — the Amazon is beginning to collapse. More than 3/4 of the rainforest, research indicates, is showing signs of lost resilience. In fire-scorched areas of the Rio Negro floodplains, one research group noted a “drastic ecosystem shift” that has reduced jungle to savanna. In the southeastern Amazon, which has been assaulted by rapacious cattle ranching, trees are dying off and being pushed aside by species better acclimated to drier climes. In the southwestern Amazon, fast-growing bamboo is overtaking lands ravaged by fire and drought.

Deforestation Is Pushing Amazon Rainforest to ‘Point of No Return’ 1122

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Oregon Conifers Suffer Record Die-Off as Climate Crisis Hits Hard 1222

EU’S New Climate Change Plan Will Cause Biodiversity Loss, Deforestation 1222

How Does Forest Restoration in the U.S. Southwest Look with Climate Change? 1022

Climate Change Threatens Health and Survival of Urban Trees 0922

Mass Death of Sequoias Is the Harbinger of Earth Systems Collapse 0822

Wildfires Are Destroying California's Forest Carbon Credit Reserves 0822

'Staggering' Rate of Global Tree Losses from Fires 0822

How Deforestation Is Pushing the Amazon toward a Tipping Point 0722

Global Heating Has Caused Shocking Changes in Forests across the Americas 0822

Climate Change’s Impact Intensifies, Led by Arctic 0822 - Boreal forests are moving north, retreating from the south and advancing into the tundra.

Climate Change Is Warming Canada's Great Expanse of Boreal Forest, Bringing Greater Risk of Fire and Disease 0822 - ditto

‘In 10 Years, We Might Not Have Forests’ - DRC Struggles to Halt Charcoal Trade 0722

World’s Largest Trees Are Struggling to Survive Climate Change 0622 in Sequoia National Park

In an Increasingly Warmer World, Trees Are Not a Climate Change Cure-All 0522

Experts Fear These Forests Could Shift from Absorbing CO2 to Emitting It 0422

Massive Wildfires Helped Fuel Global Forest Losses in 2021 - 0422

The World Has Been Losing 10 Soccer Fields of Tropical Forest Per Minute 0422

Tropical Trees’ Growth and CO2 Intake Hit by More Extreme Dry Seasons 0422

Lumber Prices Rose, in Part, due to Warmer Weather, Pine Beetles 0222

Unnatural Disasters Plague Canada's Forests, Half Our Tree Species May Disappear 0222

Tipping Points Passed? (4) Forests and the Amazon - a Faltering Carbon Sink 0122

Lumber Prices Are off the Rails Again. Blame Climate Change. 0122

Tropical Forests Can Recover from Deforestation Remarkably Fast, if Near Forests 1221

Germany's Forest Fight 1221

Wildfires Are Erasing Western Forests. Climate Change Is Making It Permanent. 1121

Sleeping Beauty's Forest Is Dying, Climate Crisis Faces Next German Chancellor 0921

Bolsonaro’s 1,000 km Amazon Railway Will Cause Climate Chaos. We Must Stop It 0721

Hotter and Drier - Deforestation and Wildfires Take a Toll on the Amazon 0721

As Frozen Land Burns, Siberia Fears that without the Forest, We Don’t Have Life 0721

The Brazilian Amazon Is Burning, Again 0621

Trees Fell Faster since Companies, Governments Promised to Stop Felling Them 0521

Settlers Invade, Deforest Colombian National Parks at ‘Unstoppable Speed’ 0521

Latest Warning of Rainforest Turning into Savanna as Climate Warms 0321

Tropical Forest Destruction Accelerated in 2020 - 0321

Is This the End of Forests as We’ve Known Them? 0321

2/3 of Tropical Rainforest Destroyed or Degraded Globally 0321

As Amazon Forest-to-Savanna Tipping Point Looms, Solutions Remain Elusive 0221

Large Wild Herbivores May Help Slow Climate Change 1222 - By removing living and dead plants, large animals dispose of material that may fuel wildfires. By consuming vegetation and excreting dung, they may improve availability of nutrients to plants and support the storage of carbon in vegetation and soil. By creating gaps in the vegetation and dispersing seeds, they create diverse ecosystems with plenty of opportunities for a variety of plants to grow, making ecosystems more resilient and better able to deal with climate change. By nibbling down polar region shrubs and trampling snow, large animals help maintain permafrost, helping prevent the release of carbon to the atmosphere.

GT (Huge) Carbon Net Loss in Forests of Canada, Amazon & Australia + Permafrost 0922

Forest Loss in East Brazil Changes How Close the Amazon Is to a Tipping Point 0922

Amazon Rainforest Hurtles toward a Tipping Point, Can't Recover from Droughts, Logging 0322

Amazon near Tipping Point of Switch from Rainforest to Savannah 1020

2019-2020 Articles

Tropical Forests Can Take the Heat. But Dryness? Not So Much 1220

Brazil's Amazon - Deforestation Surges to 12-Year High 1120

Warming Planet Makes Northeastern Forests More Susceptible to Western-Style Wildfires 1120

Forest Degradation Outpaces Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon 1020

Climate Doesn’t Just Worsen Wildfires, It Hobbles Forests’ Ability to Recover 0920

Germany’s Forests Decimated by Insects, Drought 0720

‘Going in the Wrong Direction’ - More Tropical Forest Loss in 2019 - 0620

Amazon Deforestation Increases for 13th Straight Month in Brazil 0520

Climate Change, Deforestation Harm Old-Growth Forests 0520

Forests Are Vanishing More Slowly, but Not Slowly Enough 0520

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Amazon Deforestation 'at Highest Level in a Decade' 1119

Climate Emissions from Tropical Forest Damage Underestimated by a Factor of 6 - 1019

Biggest Tropical Wetlands Ravaged by Fires in Brazil 1119

What Happens to Soil Microbes after Wildfire? 1019

Amazon Rainforest ‘Close to Irreversible Tipping Point' 1019

What Happens When the Amazon Forest Disappears? 1019 - savannah, fires more often, cerrado trees

Deforestation Is Worsening, 5 Years after Nations & Companies Vowed to Stop It 0919

What Would Happen if All the World’s Trees Disappeared? 0919 - Earth would become a vastly warmer planet (more than +12°C since industrial revolution began), whose mass extinctions may include humans.

Bolivian Wildfires Destroy 2 Million Hectares (8,000 Square Miles) of Forest 0919

‘It’s Really Close’ - How the Amazon Rainforest Could Self-Destruct 0819 - 20-25% deforestation would drive runaway dieback, fueld by ever less rainfall due to less forest. 19.3% is Brazil’s government’s estimate of deforestation.

Northern Ecuadorian Region Has Lost 61% of Forests 0919

The Amazon, Siberia, Indonesia - A World of Fire 0819

Stability of Earth's Climate Depends on Amazonia 0819

Amazon Fires Could Accelerate Global Warming, Harm Biodiversity for Centuries 0819

Tree-Damaging Pests Pose ‘Devastating’ Threat to 40% of US Forests 0819

Charred Forests Not Growing Back as Expected in Pacific Northwest 0719

California’s Drought Killed Almost 150 Million Trees 0719

Climate Change Causes Growth Spurt Among Old Trees 0619

Some of Pennsylvania’s Iconic Tree Species Might Not Survive Climate Change 0619

Climate Change May Make trees Live Fast and Die Young 0519

Iconic Forests Reaching Climate Tipping Points in American West 0319 - take 1 on study

Climate Change Will Make a Walk in the Woods a Much Rarer Pleasure 0319 - take 2

Amazon Rainforest Reaches Point of No Return 0320

Record-High Global Tree Cover Loss Driven by Agriculture 0320

Brazil’s Political Storm Driving Amazon Deforestation Higher 0718

2016-2018 Articles

Adapt to a Changing Amazon Now, or Pay Far Higher Price Later, Experts Say 1218

Haiti May Lose All Primary Forest by 2035, Mass Extinction Underway 1118

Grasslands May Be More Reliable Carbon Sinks than Forests in California 0718

Tracking the Shift of Tropical Forests from Carbon Sink to Source 0718

Tropical Forests Suffered Near-Record Tree Losses in 2017 - 0618

Could El Niño and Climate Change Spell the End for Tropical Forests? 0618

Tree Killing Fungi and Insects Increasingly Contribute to Climate Change 0518

Dwindling Desert Dust Spells Danger for the Amazon 0518

Climate Change, Wildfire, and the Future of Forests 0418 - Forests now often don’t regenertate after fires. They need more heat-tolerant species or become savannahs and grasslands. Forestys retreat upslope.

Half of Alberta's Boreal Forest Could Disappear from Fires and Climate Change 0318

12,000 Square Miles of Australian Forest to Be Lost in 15 Years 0318

Vermont Forests Vulnerable to Climate Change 0218

Beech Booming as Climate Changes. That’s Bad for Forests. 0218

Carbon Pricing Could Save Millions of Hectares of Tropical Forest 0218

Australian Trees ‘Sweat' (without Photosynthesis) to Survive Extreme Heat Waves 0118

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Some Forests Are Not Growing Back after Wildfires, Research Finds 1217

With Climate Change, Tree Die-Offs May Spread in the West 1217

How Climate Change Is Impacting the American West Right Now 1217

Mangroves Lack the Genetic Diversity to Adapt to Climate Change 1217

Why the Forest Carbon Sink Is Disappearing - Death by 1,000 Cuts 0917