Regrowing Latin American Forests Could Significantly Help With Global Warming

Forests re-grown on lands that had been cleared for agriculture in Latin America could play a key role in trapping carbon from the atmosphere and mitigating climate change if they are managed properly, researchers said in a study published on Friday.

Over the next 40 years, such second-growth forests have the potential to sequester greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to all fossil fuel and industrial emissions from Latin America in the past two decades, said the study by scientists at the University of Connecticut.

While preventing deforestation is the best protection against releasing climate-changing gases, the study published in the journal Science Advances shows that re-grown forests have a bigger impact in combating global warming than previously thought.

"Avoiding deforestation and supporting forest regeneration are complementary and mutually reinforcing activities," said Robin Chazdon, a professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Connecticut and lead author of the study.

For re-growing forests to live up to their potential in sucking carbon out of the atmosphere in the tropics, governments across Latin America need to work with local communities to ensure the land is protected, Chazdon said.

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2nd link.

The First Report of a Forest From Mid to Late Permian China

First report of a phytogeographically mixed (transitional) Middle–Late Permian fossil wood assemblage from the Hami area, northwest China, and implications for Permian phytogeographical, paleogeographical and paleoclimatic evolution in central Asia

Authors:

Wei et al

Abstract:

A diverse and well-preserved fossil wood assemblage is described, for the first time, from the Middle Permian Taerlang Formation and the Upper Permian Quanzijie Formation in the vicinity of the Tianshan Town, Hami City of northwestern China. On the basis of wood microstructure, the fossil woods are classified into three genera and five species, including one new genus: Prototianshanoxylon gen. nov. and two new species: Prototianshanoxylon erdaogouense sp. nov., Prototianshanoxylon hamiense sp. nov. The new genus is characterized by window-like cross-field pitting and mixed tracheid radial wall pitting that suggest a transitional type between araucarioid-type and protopinoid-type pittings.

Phytogeographically, the fossil wood assemblage is characterized by an admixture of elements of both temperate Angaran (represented by wood specimens with moderately to well defined growth rings in their secondary xylem) and tropical–subtropical north subregion of the Cathaysian floras (with wood specimens lacking well-defined growth rings). Such a phytogeographically mixed fossil wood assemblage is interpreted to represent a transitional and complex climate condition between a cool temperate and tropical to subtropical zones, showing both seasonal variation and unstable climate conditions. Previously, similarly mixed floras have already been found to exist widely in northern China ranging in age from Early to Late Permian, but the mechanisms thought to be responsible for their formation were varied and remain controversial. In this study, the formation of these mixed Permian floras of North China is linked to the closure of the Tianshan–Hingan seaway coupled with the collision and amalgamation of Siberia with North China and the Tarim block, in a manner much like closing a pair of scissors with the closure of the seaway proceeding gradually and progressively from west to the east.

The Loss of Megafauna From Tropical Forests Will Worsen Climate Change

The extinction of large animals from tropical forests could make climate change worse -- according to researchers at the University of East Anglia.

New research published today in Science Advances reveals that a decline in fruit-eating animals such as large primates, tapirs and toucans could have a knock-on effect for tree species.

This is because large animals disperse large seeded plant species often associated with large trees and high wood density -- which are more effective at capturing and storing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than smaller trees.

Seed dispersal by large-bodied vertebrates is via the ingestion of viable seeds that pass through the digestive tract intact.

Removing large animals from the ecosystem upsets the natural balance and leads to a loss of heavy-wooded large trees, which means that less CO2 can be locked away.

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Planting Giant Cypress Root Clippings in Hopes of Regrowing a Forest

An experiment in regrowing forests of the world's oldest trees led environmentalists this week to climb a nine-story tall, 2,000-year-old cypress in central Florida known as Lady Liberty.

After plucking cuttings from her crown, climbers packed them on ice and shipped the specimens overnight to the nonprofit Archangel Ancient Tree Archive's nursery in northern Michigan.

Organizers hope to root the clippings to grow genetically identical trees that will be replanted elsewhere in Florida in an effort to grow a new forest of giant cypresses.

The organization is engaged in similar projects in the U.S. Pacific Northwest, Ireland and England to preserve the offspring of the best surviving specimens of ancient trees.

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A bleak side of this, for me, is I wonder if this is even worth doing given the sea level rise that is coming for Florida.  :(

Indonesian Wild Fires, Palm Oil Trade Linked to El Nino?

A fire with global connections

Author:

Gross

Abstract:

The 2015 wildfires in Indonesia are possibly the largest environmental disaster of the century so far. They connect and highlight important global issues including climate change, El Niño, and deforestation driven by the booming global trade with palm oil.

A new Late Campanian/Early Maastrichtian Forest Flora From Patagonia

A new Late Cretaceous (late Campanian to early Maastrichtian) wood flora from southern Patagonia

Authors:

Egerton et al

Abstract:

The Cerro Fortaleza Formation, in southernmost Patagonia (Argentina), contains a unique Late Cretaceous (Campanian) flora and fauna. This formation is characterized by lithified fluvial sands, overbank mud deposits, and paleosols deposited in fluvial, fluvial–palustrine, and coastal plain environments from the northeastern margin of the Austral (Magellanes) Basin. The overlying and underlying formations have been dated as Campanian and Maastrichtian, respectively. Therefore, the Cerro Fortaleza Formation putatively falls within the late Campanian–Maastrichtian. This formation is known for its diverse fauna including dinosaurs, fishes, and turtles. Furthermore, poorly preserved leaf impressions from indeterminate conifers and cycads have also been discovered but not yet described.

Fossil wood taxa from the Cerro Fortaleza Formation yields a diverse flora of gymnosperm wood but only two genera of angiosperm wood. Gymnosperm genera identified in this study include Agathoxylon, Planoxylon, Taxodioxylon, Cupressinoxylon, and Podocarpoxylon; and angiosperm genera identified include Hedycaryoxylon and Nothofagoxylon. This is the first record of Planoxylon, Taxodioxylon, Cupressinoxylon, and Hedycaryoxylon from Argentina. Additionally, this is the oldest occurrence of Nothofagoxylon in Argentina. Both the angiosperm and gymnosperm wood samples possess distinct growth rings, providing strong evidence for seasonal growth regimes in the region. All of the wood genera from the Cerro Fortaleza Formation, except Planoxylon, have also been described from Late Cretaceous sediments of the Antarctic Peninsula. Thus, the presence of these taxa in both regions supports Late Cretaceous plant dispersal between them. Despite sharing the same taxa, the floras from the Cerro Fortaleza Formation and the Antarctic Peninsula exhibit strikingly different relative abundances. The ratio of gymnosperm to angiosperm wood in the Cerro Fortaleza Formation is 75:25; whereas coeval floras from the Antarctic Peninsula are ~ 25:75. The floral differences between these locations may be a relict from a widespread older flora that included Antarctica, regional floristic variations or a result of different depositional and/or taphonomic controls in discrete paleoenvironments.

Carbon Sequestered in American Temperate Forests Overestimated

Digital measurements of millions of trees indicate that previous studies likely overestimate the amount of carbon stored by temperate U.S. forests, according to a new NASA study.

The findings could help scientists better understand the impact that trees have on the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. Although it is a well-established fact that trees absorb carbon and store it long-term, researchers are unsure how much is stored in global forests.

"Estimates of the carbon content of living trees typically rely on a method that is based on cutting down trees," said Laura Duncanson, a postdoctoral fellow at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "It takes a lot of effort to cut down trees, particularly the biggest ones, so this just isn't practical to do in large numbers."

Because of this limitation, field studies aim to strategically sample trees. When looking at U.S. forests, for example, on average about 30 trees of each species would be cut down and measured. Researchers would then use basic mathematical models to scale up those measurements to many thousands, or even millions, of trees, resulting in an estimate of the biomass - the amount of carbon stored - for an entire forest.

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Extinction of Pleistocene Megafauna Allowed Forests to Expand

Combining paleo-data and modern exclosure experiments to assess the impact of megafauna extinctions on woody vegetation

Authors:

Bakker et al

Abstract:

Until recently in Earth history, very large herbivores (mammoths, ground sloths, diprotodons, and many others) occurred in most of the World’s terrestrial ecosystems, but the majority have gone extinct as part of the late-Quaternary extinctions. How has this large-scale removal of large herbivores affected landscape structure and ecosystem functioning? In this review, we combine paleo-data with information from modern exclosure experiments to assess the impact of large herbivores (and their disappearance) on woody species, landscape structure, and ecosystem functions. In modern landscapes characterized by intense herbivory, woody plants can persist by defending themselves or by association with defended species, can persist by growing in places that are physically inaccessible to herbivores, or can persist where high predator activity limits foraging by herbivores. At the landscape scale, different herbivore densities and assemblages may result in dynamic gradients in woody cover. The late-Quaternary extinctions were natural experiments in large-herbivore removal; the paleoecological record shows evidence of widespread changes in community composition and ecosystem structure and function, consistent with modern exclosure experiments. We propose a conceptual framework that describes the impact of large herbivores on woody plant abundance mediated by herbivore diversity and density, predicting that herbivore suppression of woody plants is strongest where herbivore diversity is high. We conclude that the decline of large herbivores induces major alterations in landscape structure and ecosystem functions.

pop sci write up. 2nd one.

Redwoods Will be Forced to Migrate North due to Global Warming

In a study published in the research journal Global Change Biology, climate scientists from the University of California, NatureServe and the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) conclude that a warmer future with normal rainfall on California's coast will leave coast redwoods south of San Francisco Bay with significantly different climate than they have experienced for decades.

Fourteen redwood parks are located in this area, including Big Basin Redwoods in the Santa Cruz Mountains, Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park south of Carmel, and Garrapata State Park between Carmel and Big Sur on the Monterey coast.

Scientists also predict that redwood forest bioclimate, marked by fog, ample winter rain and moderate year-round temperatures, will expand by 34 percent northward from the coast of California into southern Oregon.

"With warmer climate forecast for more than half the coast redwood range in the next 10-15 years, we are eager for research that helps identify those areas that are most sensitive to climate change," says Paul Ringgold, Chief Program Officer for San Francisco-based Save the Redwoods League, the land trust which catalyzed the study under its Redwoods and Climate Change Initiative (RCCI). "These key findings help us better understand the future impacts of climate change and how to manage for these impacts on our redwood forests."

"Redwoods will still exist in the most vulnerable areas, while continued research on changing redwood bioclimate will help us identify and address redwood forest regeneration challenges. Moreover, locally unique weather patterns such as fog may influence projected climate trends in the future," he says.

"Coast redwoods have endured climatic changes over thousands of years. We are encouraged by our RCCI research, which shows that redwood trees continue to grow, even under warmer conditions, and will thrive further north into Oregon."

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A Conifer Woodland From Aptian/Albanian Cretaceous Patagonia

Aptian–Albian Cupressaceae (sensu stricto) woods from Cañadón Asfalto Basin, Patagonia Argentina

Authors:

Brea et al

Abstract:

This paper describes the first macrofloristic record from Los Adobes Formation (Chubut Group) in Cañadón Asfalto Basin (Patagonia, Chubut Province, Argentina). The studied fossils were recovered from the Aptian–Albian Bardas Coloradas Member, and consist of silicified woods preserved in fluvial channel deposits. One wood shows homocellular rays with smooth radial and tangential walls, diffuse axial parenchyma, tracheid pitting of the abietinoid type and cross-field pitting cupressoid usually ordered in rows and columns indicating placement within Cupressinoxylon hallei Kräusel. This fossil tree resembles some members of the extant Cupressaceae s.s., as Austrocedrus chilensis (D. Don) Pic. Serm. & Bizzarri, Pilgerodendron uviferum (D. Don) Florin, Fitzroya cupressoide (Molina) I. M. Johnst. and Libocedrus plumosa (D. Don) Druce. Due to poor preservation the other fossil wood specimen was assigned to cf. Cupressinoxylon Göppert 1850 nom. cons. prop. This is the first unequivocal record of C. hallei from the Cretaceous of South America and the oldest reliable record of the Callitroideae, indicating that this subfamily was well established since the mid-Cretaceous in the Southern Hemisphere.

Did Climate Change or People do in the Mediterranean Forests?

Extinct Mediterranean forests of biblical times could return and thrive in warmer, drier future.

The Mediterranean has cradled humanity and our cities, farms, domesticated animals, and logging habits for many thousands of years. During the last 5 to 8 millennia, as people developed farming and settled in cities, the landscape has gradually changed from a thick canopy of trees to open grass and shrubs. The ghosts of Sicily's extinct evergreen forests of holm oak (Quercus ilex) and olive trees (Olea europaea) remain in the record of pollen left in the lakebed sediments. On the slightly cooler and wetter coast of Italy's Tuscany region, European silver fir (Abies alba) once mixed with holm oak and deciduous oaks (Quercus cerris and Quercus pubescens).

Many researchers believe that progressively drier conditions in the Mediterranean brought about these changes in vegetation over the past 5-8,000 years. With the accelerating warming and drying brought to the region by anthropogenic climate change, the native trees might be expected to be pushed beyond the edge of their drought and heat tolerance, never to return. Some researchers have even suggested restoring forests with non-native Eucalyptus species from Australia or Douglas fir from North America.

In the September 2015 issue of ESA Frontiers, Paul Henne and colleagues dispute the idea that a drying climate was responsible for the disappearance of Mediterranean forests. They think that frequent wildfires, logging, agriculture, and the browsing of cattle, sheep, goats and unchecked deer over the long history of human occupation have wrought the changes to the landscape.

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Upper Maastrichtian Cretaceous Riparian Forest was Surprisingly Modern

A riparian plant community from the upper Maastrichtian of the Pyrenees (Catalonia, NE Spain)

Authors:

Marmi et al

Abstract:

Angiosperms began to colonise riparian habitats very soon in their evolutionary history, probably already in the Aptian, but it is still poorly known when flowering plants finally dominated entirely these kind of communities as they do in the present. A new fossil plant locality (Molí del Baró-1) from the upper Maastrichtian of the Southern Pyrenees is described in which meandering river facies represent one of the first riparian communities formed only by angiosperms. The fossil assemblage consists of abundant leaves, seeds, logs and sporomorphs. Angiosperms remains dominate in all these cases and the leaf sample is mostly composed of a new eudicot willow-like species, Saliciphyllum gaetei sp. nov., the palm Sabalites longirhachis and an helophytic monocot. Pollen remains suggest that the later belonged to Typhaceae. Most of these plant remains were parautochthonous and deposited in a pond formed in the accretional part of a meander loop. The locality of Molí del Baró-1 represents an unique plant fossil assemblage in the uppermost Cretaceous of southern Europe. It clearly differs from those reported in other Maastrichtian localities of the Pyrenees (Fumanya and South Isona) and from the Campanian-Maastrichtian of Austria and Romania. In addition, it reflects a surprisingly modern physiognomy for a Late Cretaceous riverine plant assemblage that was built up with willow-like plants, palms and reeds.

Highly Productive Polar Forests in Permian Antarctica Before Siberian Traps Eruptions

Highly Productive Polar Forests from the Permian of Antarctica

Authors:

Miller et al

Abstract:

Two stratigraphically closely spaced bedding planes exposed at Lamping Peak in the Upper Buckley Formation, Beardmore Glacier area, Antarctica contain abundant in situ stumps (n=53, n=21) and other plant fossils that allow reconstruction of forest structure and biomass of Glossopteris forests that thrived at ~ 75o S paleolatitude in the Permian. Mean trunk diameter is 14 and 25 cm, corresponding to estimated mean maximum heights of 12 and 19 m. Basal areas are 65 and 80 m2ha- 1. The above ground biomass was calculated using allometric equations for Ginkgo biloba, yielding biomasses of 147 and 178 Mg ha- 1. Biomass estimates based on comparison with biomass of modern forests with equivalent basal areas are higher (225 – 400 Mg ha- 1). The amount of above ground biomass added each year (Annual Net Primary Productivity), based on biomass estimates and growth rings in silicified plant material from the Buckley Formation nearby, is poorly constrained, ranging from ~ 100 – 2000 g m- 2 yr- 1.

Compared to modern forests at all latitudes, the Permian forests have high basal areas and high biomass, exceeded in both only by forests of the U.S. Pacific northwest and Sequoia forests. The estimated range of productivity (ANPP) is within that of many very productive modern forests. The Lamping Peak forests’ basal areas and calculated biomass are also larger than younger high paleolatitude fossil forests except for Arctic Cenozoic forests.

Presence of these highly productive fossil forests at high paleolatitude is consistent with hothouse conditions during the Late Permian, prior to the eruption of the Siberian flood basalts.

PreColumbian Native Americans Significantly Modified Upstate New York Forests

A new study by University at Buffalo geographers explores how humans altered the arboreal make-up of Western New York forests before European settlers arrived in large numbers.

The research looked at land survey data from around 1799-1814, and used this information to model which tree species were present in different areas of Chautauqua County, New York, at that time.

The analysis placed hickory, chestnut and oak trees in larger-than-expected numbers near the historical sites of Native American villages, said co-author Steve Tulowiecki, who conducted the research as a geography PhD candidate at the University at Buffalo and is now an adjunct lecturer of geography at SUNY Geneseo. This finding is important because these species produce edible nuts, and are also more likely than many other trees to survive fires.

"Our results contribute to the conversation about how natural or humanized the landscape of America was when Europeans first arrived," Tulowiecki said. "Our society has competing views about this: On one hand, there is the argument that it was a wilderness relatively untouched by man. Recently, we've had this perspective challenged, with some saying that the landscape was dramatically altered, particularly through burning and other clearance practices."

The findings of the new research -- more fire-tolerant, large-nut-bearing trees than expected within about 15 kilometers of village sites -- suggest that Native American communities in the study area modified the forest in ways that favored those species, Tulowiecki said. He noted that flame-sensitive beech and sugar maples, which burn readily in forest fires, appeared in smaller numbers than expected near village sites.

Forest modifications may have impacted upwards of 20 percent of total land area in modern-day Chautauqua County, according to Tulowiecki's analysis.

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European Trees Use Water More Efficiently With Elevated Carbon Dioxide

Increased atmospheric CO2 concentrations have already caused large-scale physiological responses of European forests. In particular, the efficiency of water-use of trees, which is coupled to the uptake of CO2 during photosynthesis of leaves and needles has changed significantly. According to the study of a large, interdisciplinary team of researchers, European broadleaf and coniferous trees have increased their water-use efficiency since the beginning of the 20th century by 14% and 22%, respectively.

During photosynthesis trees take up carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air. In return they loose water vapor (H2O) through tiny pores of their leaves or needles, so-called stomata. This gas exchange between trees and the atmosphere is regulated through the opening widths (aperture) of their stomata. Wider apertures of the stomata allow the uptake of higher numbers of CO2 molecules, but promote an increased loss of water vapor (transpiration) into the atmosphere. The opposite holds for narrowed stomatal apertures.

"Assuming that the trees demand for CO2 does not change, they can reduce the aperture of the stomates of their leaves and needles under increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations. This should lower the rates of transpiration and minimize the tree's water loss", says Gerhard Helle at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, co-author of the study. "Nevertheless, a 5% increase in European forest transpiration was calculated over the twentieth century. This can likely be attributed to a lengthened growing season, increased transpiration due to a warmer environment, and an enhanced leaf area."

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China's Old Growth Forest Disappearing

China's anti-logging, conservation and ecotourism policies are accelerating the loss of old-growth forests in one of the world's most ecologically fragile places, according to studies led by a Dartmouth College scientist.

The findings shed new light on the complex interactions between China's development and conservation policies and their impact on the most diverse temperate forests in the world, in "Shangri-La" in northwest Yunnan Province. Shangri-La, until recently an isolated Himalayan hinterland, is now the epicenter of China's struggle to wed sustainable economic development with environmental protection. The province is known for its scenic, ecological and ethnic diversity, but it also is one of the poorest regions in China, populated by indigenous subsistence cultures that rely on forests for their livelihoods. The province was largely undisturbed until the 1950s when state logging companies started clear-cutting old-growth forests to fuel China's national economic boom. But catastrophic flooding along the Yangtze River in the 1990s prompted the Chinese government to implement multiple forest protection policies, including nature reserves, a commercial logging ban, reforestation programs and ecotourism, as a sustainable development strategy. The logging ban prohibits commercial timber harvesting, but allows logging by local people on a quota basis.

In a new study in the journal Biological Conservation, researchers used satellite imagery and statistical analysis to evaluate three overlapping forest conservation strategies -- protected areas, a commercial logging ban and Tibetan sacred forests - in northwest Yunnan Province. The results show that protected-area status conserved old-growth forests, while the logging ban increased total forest cover but accelerated old-growth logging in sacred forests. The sacred forests have effectively protected old-growth trees from clear-cutting for centuries despite major upheavals in the region's history, including the logging era and the Cultural Revolution. But recent official environmental protection policies have displaced these ancient community-managed protections. In a related 2012 study in the journal Remote Sensing of Environment, researchers used three decades of satellite imagery to measure rates and patterns of old-growth deforestation in response to the environmental protection and sustainable development policies. The results, surprisingly, showed that old-growth logging accelerated: old-growth forests covered 26 percent of the area in 1990 but only 20 percent in 2009. And, paradoxically, old-growth forest loss occurred most rapidly where ecotourism was most prominent. "Our results show that the negative impacts of ecotourism-based economic development on the environment outweighed conservation efforts," says lead author Jodi Brandt, a postdoctoral researcher at Dartmouth and formerly at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Michigan.

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The Dark Snow of Greenland

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Chicxulub Impact Forced Plant Ecological Strategies Shift

Plant Ecological Strategies Shift Across the Cretaceous–Paleogene Boundary

Authors:

Blonder et al

Abstract:

The Chicxulub bolide impact caused the end-Cretaceous mass extinction of plants, but the associated selectivity and ecological effects are poorly known. Using a unique set of North Dakota leaf fossil assemblages spanning 2.2 Myr across the event, we show among angiosperms a reduction of ecological strategies and selection for fast-growth strategies consistent with a hypothesized recovery from an impact winter. Leaf mass per area (carbon investment) decreased in both mean and variance, while vein density (carbon assimilation rate) increased in mean, consistent with a shift towards “fast” growth strategies. Plant extinction from the bolide impact resulted in a shift in functional trait space that likely had broad consequences for ecosystem functioning.

Mass Production of Forests

Forest Carbon Cycle Effected by Habitat Fragmentation

Drier conditions at the edges of forest patches slow down the decay of dead wood and significantly alter the cycling of carbon and nutrients in woodland ecosystems, according to a new study.

Forests around the world have become increasingly fragmented, and in the UK three quarters of woodland area lie within 100 metres of the forest edge. It has long been known that so-called 'edge effects' influence temperature and moisture (the 'microclimate') in woodlands, but the influence on the carbon cycle is largely unknown.

Researchers from the University of Exeter and Earthwatch in the UK combined experiments with mathematical modelling to fill this knowledge gap. Wood blocks were placed in Wytham Woods near Oxford at various distances from the forest edge, and left to decay over two years. The measured decay rates were applied to a model of the surrounding landscape, to allow comparison between the current fragmented woodland cover and decay rates in continuous forest.

The research, published today in the journal Global Change Biology, shows that wood decay rates in the southern UK are reduced by around one quarter due to fragmentation. This effect is much larger than expected due to variation in temperatures and rainfall among years.

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