The International Forest List Weekly News Digest - July 13, 2024

[IFL Owner]

“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.” - John Lubbock

Scientists release new research on planted mangroves' ability to store carbon
U.S. Forest Service ecologists and partners have published new findings, in the journal Science Advances, on how planted mangroves can store up to 70% of carbon stock to that found in intact stands after only 20 years…
https://phys.org/news/2024-07-scientists-mangroves-ability-carbon.html

40 years of forest dynamics and tree demography in an intact tropical forest at M’Baïki in central Africa
A vast silvicultural experiment was set up in 1982 nearby the town of M’Baïki in the Central African Republic to monitor the recovery of tropical forests after disturbance. The M’Baïki experiment consists of ten 4-ha Permanent Sample Plots (PSPs) that were assigned to…
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-024-03577-6

Harnessing the power of forests for resilient agriculture
Science is revealing the many benefits that forests and trees bring to the agricultural sector. It is time for policymakers to take steps to catalyse these benefits. The upcoming meeting of the Committee on Forestry (COFO27) offers an opportunity to begin…
https://www.sei.org/perspectives/harnessing-the-power-of-forests-for-resilient-agriculture/

Digital forestry can help mitigate and prevent wildfires
The National Interagency Fire Center reports that, as of this writing, 19,444 fires have burned 2,161,787 acres in the United States alone. Land managers and governments are waging a high-stakes battle against decades-long wildfire increases. Technology can play…
https://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2024/Q3/digital-forestry-can-help-mitigate-and-prevent-wildfires.html

High elevation regions may become wildlife refuges through climate change
As climate change advances, its impacts are not universally equal, with temperature rising differently by latitude and elevation. Climate heterogeneity is the study of this diversity in Earth's climate patterns, and the focus of recent research published in Geophysical…
https://phys.org/news/2024-07-high-elevation-regions-wildlife-refuges.html

Forest Structure Matters for Fishers: Specialized Resting, Generalized Movement
Understanding the habitat needs of wildlife is crucial for effective conservation efforts. A recent study by the United States Forest Service sheds light on the habitat selection of Fishers (Pekania pennanti), a species known for its reliance on large, mature trees for…
https://naturalsciencenews.com/article/4990

What are the Amazon's 'flying rivers’ – and how does deforestation affect them?
The Amazon – the world’s largest tropical rainforest, covering an area roughly two-thirds the size of the US – is well-known for its immense carbon storage and biodiversity. But what about its “flying rivers” that scientists say are vital in tackling climate change and…
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2024/07/amazon-water-flying-rivers-latin-america/

Chinese national park transacts tropical rainforest carbon-sink trading
China's first-ever carbon-sink trading project in a national park's tropical rainforest has been transacted in the tropical island province of Hainan, marking another move to achieve the country's dual carbon goals…
https://english.news.cn/20240712/f5a4462b66da427cb60d7cb89cb7e726/c.html

Climate change will disrupt inland wetlands in North America, study finds
Earth system models (ESMs) are essential tools to understand climate change impacts on wetlands. However, current ESMs usually represent wetland hydrology in oversimplified ways, resulting in low confidence of their projection of wetland evolution…
https://phys.org/news/2024-07-climate-disrupt-inland-wetlands-north.html

Devastation as world’s biggest wetland burns: ‘those that cannot run don’t stand a chance’
Perched atop blackened trees, howler monkeys survey the ashes around them. A flock of rheas treads, disoriented, in search of water. The skeletons of alligators lie lifeless and charred…
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/jul/09/devastation-as-worlds-biggest-wetland-burns-those-that-cannot-run-dont-stand-a-chance-brazil-pantanal

Empowering women and restoring wetlands go hand in hand
Environmentalist and Women Changemaker in the World of Wetlands Cécile Ndjebet says women are crucial for sustainable environmental conservation. “Women are driving conservation efforts on the ground; they are restoring degraded ecosystems that bring…
https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/empowering-women-and-restoring-wetlands-go-hand-hand

Rising seas could cross thresholds for initiating coastal wetland drowning within decades across much of the United States
Accelerated sea-level rise is an existential threat to coastal wetlands, but the timing and extent of wetland drowning are debated. Recent data syntheses have clarified future relative sea-level rise exposure and sensitivity thresholds for drowning. Here, we…
https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-024-01537-x

USDA Increases Funding for Partnerships to Safeguard, Restore Wetland Ecosystems
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is investing up to $50 million in fiscal 2024 to help conservation partners nationwide protect and restore critical wetlands through the Wetland Reserve Enhancement Partnership (WREP). USDA’s Natural Resources…
https://www.morningagclips.com/usda-increases-funding-for-partnerships-to-safeguard-restore-wetland-ecosystems-2/

Battle of the bogs: Farmers and EU face off over Ireland’s largest carbon store
On Ireland’s wet and windy Achill Island, local sheep farmer Stephen Gavin, 64, has been harvesting peat from the wetlands near his home since April. The unmistakable smell of the bog’s sweet earthiness hangs in the air as Gavin cuts rectangular sods of peat from…
https://grist.org/international/ireland-bogs-carbon-store-farmers-european-union/

Costa Rica Court Orders SINAC to Address Mangrove Destruction in Sámara Beach
The Constitutional Chamber has mandated the National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC) to intervene in ongoing works affecting mangroves and wetlands in the Lagarto River estuary at Sámara Beach, Guanacaste. This directive was issued in the court’s…
https://ticotimes.net/2024/07/06/costa-rica-court-orders-sinac-to-address-mangrove-destruction-in-samara-beach

Exotic plants introduction changed soil nutrient cycle and symbiotic relationship with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in wetland ecological projects
In the process of applying exotic plants to wetland ecological restoration, insufficiently evaluated alien species may exhibit strong competitiveness and fecundity. Once introduced, they can displace native flora, disrupt the original ecological balance…
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2024.1410009/full

Maine landowners to test climate smart forestry
Six commercial woodland owners have been selected to pilot climate smart forestry that advocates hope could help store millions more tons of fossil fuel emissions in the north Maine woods. The New England Forestry Foundation on Thursday said the landowners…
https://www.mainepublic.org/climate/2024-07-11/maine-landowners-to-test-climate-smart-forestry

This University of Idaho research could change how we manage our forests
Just as the microorganisms in the human gut play a crucial role to our well-being, microorganisms in forests are essential to forest stability. Researchers at the University of Idaho are working to understand exactly how those microorganisms respond when…
https://idahocapitalsun.com/2024/07/12/this-university-of-idaho-research-could-change-how-we-manage-our-forests/

Study examines urban forests across the United States
In recent years, tree-planting campaigns have been underway in the United States, especially in cities, as part of climate mitigation efforts. Urban forests can help improve air quality, generate cooling effects, and provide green spaces for outdoor recreation while…
https://phys.org/news/2024-07-urban-forests-states.html

Paris Uses Wood for Olympic Aquatics Center: What Does This Mean for the Forestry Industry?
The 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris are about to make a significant statement about sustainable architecture. Instead of constructing grand monuments as previously done by host cities, Paris has chosen to focus on sustainable timber structures. The city is…
https://www.resourcewise.com/forest-products-blog/paris-uses-wood-to-build-olympic-aquatics-center-what-does-this-mean-for-future-opportunities

New Agroforestry Project Studies Integration of Farming and Forests
How can New England, one of the nation’s most forested regions, produce more local, sustainable food while maintaining those forests’ many benefits? That’s the question UNH researchers aim to answer with a new project that studies integrating crop and animal…
https://www.unh.edu/unhtoday/2024/07/new-agroforestry-project-studies-integration-farming-and-forests

Evidence of thermophilization in Afromontane forests
Thermophilization is the directional change in species community composition towards greater relative abundances of species associated with warmer environments. This process is well-documented in temperate and Neotropical plant communities, but it…
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-48520-w

The Forest Service just took an inventory of the Tongass, wants suggestions about what to protect
A draft inventory of what’s in the Tongass National Forest was released Wednesday by officials who are giving the public until Sept. 14 to offer suggestions about what areas should get federal wilderness protection…
https://www.juneauempire.com/news/the-forest-service-just-took-an-inventory-of-the-tongass-wants-suggestions-about-what-to-protect/

Selection processes play dominant role in shaping coexisting assemblages of trees and soil fungi: Study
Community assembly is shaped by four main processes: selection—fitness differences between organisms; dispersal—organisms' movement across space; drift—unpredictable variation in abundance; and diversification—new genetic variants. However, whether the…
https://phys.org/news/2024-07-play-dominant-role-coexisting-assemblages.html

In the footsteps of tigers: the all-women patrol team protecting Sumatra’s rainforest
Guess what I found?” Darma Budi Pinem asks the women who have gathered round to see what he has in his hands. “My instincts tell me this is Opung’s faeces,” says Nayla Azmi as she studies the clump of hair, broken egg shells and bones. “Opung,” in Batak – Azmi’s…
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/jul/11/all-women-indigenous-patrol-team-protecting-sumatra-rainforest-tigers-orangutans

Scientists Have Launched a Living Seed Bank to Defend Against Extinction
Some 38 to 40 million years ago, Australia became the last modern continent to separate from Gondwana, a massive supercontinent that once comprised two-thirds of Earth’s landmass, including the Land Down Under as well as Antarctica, South America, Africa…
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/a61574799/australian-rainforest-living-seed-bank/

Resurrected plant research reveals how coastal wetlands adapt to environmental change
A researcher at Utah State University and her team discovered that old seeds from a coastal marsh plant can be brought back to life. The resurrected plants can offer clues about how quickly coastal wetlands are adapting to environmental changes…
https://www.upr.org/science/2024-07-12/resurrected-plant-research-reveals-how-coastal-wetlands-adapt-to-environmental-change

Revolutionizing Sustainable Tourism with AI in Mangrove Forests
A study led by researchers Huynh Ngoc Thai Anh and Trang Thanh Tri from the Western Construction University won first prize at a national scientific conference on “Green Tourism for Sustainable Development in the Globalization Context.” The workshop…
https://elblog.pl/2024/07/12/revolutionizing-sustainable-tourism-with-ai-in-mangrove-forests/

Protecting Paradise – an innovative approach to mangrove conservation in the Caribbean
As the global community strives to meet the targets set by the Paris Agreement and limit global temperature increases to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, the importance of preserving and promoting natural capital2 has never been more…
https://caymanfinance.ky/2024/07/08/protecting-paradise-an-innovative-approach-to-mangrove-conservation-in-the-caribbean/

Exploring The Ecological Gem Of Surigao: Day-asan Mangrove Forest
Nestled within the heart of Surigao City lies a natural wonder waiting to be visited and explored by eco-tourists and nature enthusiasts alike. Barangay Day-asan’s century-old mangroves have long been a well-kept secret. Still, thanks to the visionary efforts of…
https://pageone.ph/exploring-the-ecological-gem-of-surigao-day-asan-mangrove-forest/

Braiding community values with science is key to ecosystem restoration
Up on the “roof of the world”, one of the world’s largest ecosystem restoration projects is taking place. The Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) in western China is the world’s highest plateau and covers a land area roughly five times the size of France. Home to thousands…
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1049320

Dataset of soil hydraulic parameters in the Yellow River Basin based on in situ deep sampling
Soil hydraulic parameters are vital for precisely characterizing soil hydrological processes, which are critical indicators for regulating climate change effects on terrestrial ecosystems and governing feedbacks between water, energy, and carbon–nitrogen cycles. Although…
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-024-03576-7

Experts discuss strategies to address soil health challenges and the fertilizer crisis in Africa
Improving soil health is critical to sustainable agriculture, and for addressing climate change, tackling environmental challenges, and enhancing food security. Through projects by CIMMYT and partners, potential scalable solutions are under development, but…
https://www.cimmyt.org/blogs/experts-discuss-strategies-to-address-soil-health-challenges-and-the-fertilizer-crisis-in-africa/

Growth Energy: Top Scientists Defend Biofuels In RFS Court Filing
Eight of the nation’s top agricultural, biomass, and greenhouse gas (GHG) lifecycle scientists filed an amicus brief on July 3rd that challenged the faulty assumptions underpinning a number of attacks on the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). The brief…
https://ethanolproducer.com/articles/growth-energy-top-scientists-defend-biofuels-in-rfs-court-filing

Variation in the permafrost active layer over the Tibetan Plateau since 1980
The Tibetan Plateau hosts the world’s largest permafrost region in the middle and low latitudes. Compared to the high-latitude Arctic permafrost, the permafrost here is thinner, warmer, and more sensitive to global warming. The active layer is a crucial zone for…
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1051181

AI model harnesses physics to autocorrect remote sensing data
Turbulence, temperature changes, water vapor, carbon dioxide, ozone, methane, and other gases absorb, reflect, and scatter sunlight as it passes through the atmosphere, bounces off the Earth's surface, and is collected by a sensor on a remote sensing…
https://phys.org/news/2024-07-ai-harnesses-physics-autocorrect-remote.html

Water body extraction from high spatial resolution remote sensing images based on enhanced U-Net and multi-scale information fusion
Employing deep learning techniques for the semantic segmentation of remote sensing images has emerged as a prevalent approach for acquiring information about water bodies. Yet, current models frequently fall short in accurately extracting water bodies…
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-67113-7

3 surprising ways technologies are being deployed to tackle the climate crisis
The path to net zero is complex and unpredictable. It's also on the most serious deadline humankind has ever faced, with more than half of the world's population already feeling the impacts of climate change. Technology provides the essential tools for managing…
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2024/07/how-three-innovators-are-addressing-climate-challenges/

What is Earth observation data – and how can it help protect our environment?
“Earthrise” is one of the most iconic images ever taken. Snapped in 1968 by Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders, who died this month, it changed how we perceive our planet. Its depiction of Earth as small and vulnerable in space, rising above the moon's surface, is…
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2024/07/earth-observation-helps-protect-natural-ecosystems/

European beech spring phenological phase prediction with UAV-derived multispectral indices and machine learning regression
Acquiring phenological event data is crucial for studying the impacts of climate change on forest dynamics and assessing the risks associated with the early onset of young leaves. Large-scale mapping of forest phenological timing using Earth observation (EO) data…
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-66338-w

‘It’s like looking at ghosts’: inside the Australian Museum’s extinction cabinets
At the far end of one of the mammal rooms in the maze of offices and labs behind the Australian Museum in Sydney stand two anonymous grey metal cabinets. Although there is nothing to distinguish them from the storage units elsewhere in the room, they are…
https://www.theguardian.com/science/article/2024/jul/13/australian-museum-extinction-cabinets-endangered-species

Why saline lakes are the canary in the coalmine for the world’s water resources
When it comes to inland surface water bodies, saline lakes are unique. They make up 44% of all lakes worldwide and are found on every continent including Antarctica. These lakes’ existence depends on a delicate balance between a river basin’s water input…
https://theconversation.com/why-saline-lakes-are-the-canary-in-the-coalmine-for-the-worlds-water-resources-232477

Southern Africa is seen as a leader in wildlife conservation, but its market-driven approach is deeply flawed
Southern Africa’s wildlife economy is often hailed as a successful model. The idea behind this model is that biodiversity and wildlife are used as the basis of sustainable economic growth, through an increase in wildlife numbers and in a country’s revenue…
https://theconversation.com/southern-africa-is-seen-as-a-leader-in-wildlife-conservation-but-its-market-driven-approach-is-deeply-flawed-232728

Euroviews. Uniting Europe through rail is the key to a greener, more passenger-focused future
For decades, Europe has mooted a more competitive rail sector that could seamlessly cross national borders and carry more passengers and freight. There have been huge strides forward with shared climate targets and more interoperability of train…
https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2024/07/12/uniting-europe-through-rail-is-the-key-to-a-greener-more-passenger-focused-future

Can wild animals handle the heat?
Dehydrated howler monkeys fall from trees in Mexico. Billions of mussels, oysters and barnacles boil on the shorelines of Canada. Hundreds of Magellanic Penguins drop dead in Argentina in a single day. These recent cases may have affected different animal species…
https://www.dw.com/en/can-wild-animals-handle-the-heat/a-69507985

Analysis: A strong start, but Starmer government's clean-energy plan faces stiff headwinds
Any new government faces a big inbox, but in the UK Keir Starmer’s ministers will need to overcome major challenges if they are to get their green policies over the line, and to meet international climate commitments, experts say…
https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/analysis-strong-start-starmer-governments-clean-energy-plan-faces-stiff-2024-07-11/

Wind power expansion meets grassroots resistance in Brazil’s Northeast
Cousins Nilson José dos Santos and Geremias da Cruz dos Anjos grew up together in neighboring rural communities in Brazil’s impoverished Northeast. The ruggedness of the land here and recurring drought make it unsuitable for the commercial farming that has…
https://apnews.com/article/brazil-wind-power-renewable-energy-renewables-afrobrazilian-communities-5ea875150a4d813e29bae8fd6d7e13a7

Compiled by Nelson Wong

IFL Owner