Ginkgo leaves in autumn GETTY IMAGES Scientists have discovered the secret of how the ginkgo tree can live for more than 1,000 years. A study found the tree makes protective chemicals that fend off diseases and drought. And, unlike many other plants, its genes are not programmed to trigger inexorable […]
An Archaeopteris root system at the Cairo fossil forest site CHARLES VER STRAETEN The earliest fossilised trees, dating back 386 million years, have been found at an abandoned quarry in New York. Scientists believe the forest they belonged to was so vast it originally stretched beyond Pennsylvania. This discovery in […]
Representative potted Abies fraseri and inoculated apples used to test Koch’s Postulates. Credit: De-Wei Li, Neil P. Schultes, James A. LaMondia, and Richard S. Cowles Grown as Christmas trees, Fraser firs are highly prized for their rich color and pleasant scent as well as their ability to hold their needles. […]
The mighty elm once dominated the skyline KAREN RUSSELL The elm tree can return to the British countryside, given a helping hand, according to a new report. More than 20 million trees died during the 1960s and 1970s from Dutch elm disease. In the aftermath, the elm was largely forgotten, […]
Ash dieback has devastated trees across Europe SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY Scientists say there is new hope in the fight against a disease that is devastating ash trees. A study has identified the genes that give trees resistance to ash dieback, which arrived in the UK in 2012 and has now spread […]
The chambers attached to trees were used to measure the greenhouse gas N2O emissions in this study. Credit: Mari Pihlatie A recently published study, completed by researchers from the University of Helsinki together with Dr Katerina Machacova, a visiting scholar, demonstrates that boreal forests of the Northern Hemisphere are sources […]
Indonesia’s huge palm oil industry bears the brunt of the blame for the out-of-control blazes, critics say Forest fires raging across Indonesia have sent air quality levels across Southeast Asia plummeting as they belch out emissions that aggravate global warming. The country’s palm oilindustry bears much of the blame for the […]
Forests face threats from logging and clearance for agriculture RAICO ROSENBERG The conker tree has been put on the official extinction list. Ravaged by moths and disease, the horse chestnut is now classified as vulnerable to extinction. The tree is among more than 400 native European tree species assessed for […]
Large-scale ‘disturbances’, including fires, harvesting, windstorms and insect outbreaks, which kill large patches of forest, are responsible for more than a tenth of tree death worldwide, according to new research at the University of Birmingham. The research, published in Nature Geoscience, also showed wide regional variation, with parts of Scandinavia, the USA, […]
Allowing trees to regenerate naturally is a more effective, immediate and low-cost method of removing and storing atmospheric carbon than planting new trees. Credit: Shutterstock Tomorrow a special report on how land use affects climate change will be released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Land degradation, deforestation, and the expansion […]