Land-use change is the main cause of deforestation in the Amazon, but the risk of abrupt forest decline, along with its potentially devastating consequences, increases as the planet warms, with a strong nonlinear trend beyond 2.3° C of warming. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/6Prr50XKAN1

Global Forest Watch has launched a new AI-powered alert system that identifies what’s driving deforestation — from agriculture and mining to wildfires. The data currently cover the Amazon, Congo Basin and Indonesia, with plans to expand to other forests and ecosystems.

Please contribute! We neex broad input, different forest types, and an array of natural disturbances to see how disturbance regimes are changing.

Comment article: Matthew Fagan, Naomi Schwartz and Ruth DeFries offer three considerations on uncertainties and potential misapplications of global datasets to ensure responsible use of remote-sensing datasets in ecology and environmental science. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Amazon forest faces severe decline under the dual pressures of anthropogenic climate change and land-use change | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1...

Calling on all forest disturbance experts: Please consider contributing to our study on global forest disturbance change, and help resolve the nuances of changing forest disturbance regimes. More details and survey here: www.lss.ls.tum.de/edfm/disturb...

More diverse forests have greater productivity, but do they use more water? A new meta-analysis by Shovon et al. in @journalofecology.bsky.social suggests not. 🌐🌏🧪 besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Spatially detailed tree-ring analysis exposes widespread forest growth decline throughout Canada Girardin et al. 🔗 https://ow.ly/UhXN50Xz1Fe #OpenAccess

"Overlooked and extensive ghost forest formation across the US Atlantic coast" -- wow what a comprehensive analysis by Yeung, @xiyang.bsky.social et al. 🎉 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The most precious commodity you have is your attention. You don’t have to waste it on poor-faith debates or arguments with strangers if you don’t think they’ll be productive. You can prioritize the things that matter to you and make your life richer.

Extreme Heatwave Causes Immediate, Widespread Mortality of Forest Canopy Foliage, Highlighting Modes of Forest Sensitivity to Extreme Heat 🔗 buff.ly/CfdgwRy

QUESTION: @evilanova.bsky.social and I were discussing resources for finding root:shoot ratios (belowground biomass, root biomass, etc) for global forests / ecoregions And really doesn't feel like there has been much progress in this Any suggestions for where to look!?? 🧪🌎🌳🍁

‘Drug trafficking, extortion, kidnapping’: the lawless rush for rare earth minerals in Venezuela www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

Carbon emissions are helping make older trees in the Amazon bigger. But “it doesn’t mean carbon dioxide is good for the forest," says Adriane Esquivel-Muelbert @camplantsci.bsky.social. "What we’re seeing is resilience, not relief.” eos.org/articles/as-...

The world’s carbon emissions continue to rise. But 35 countries show progress in cutting carbon theconversation.com/the-worlds-c...

Last week we had the pleasure of having Emilio @evilanova.bsky.social give a guest lecture in our forest ecology class to speak about forest carbon offsets. Thank you for sharing your amazing expertise with the class!

Extreme warming of Amazon waters in a changing climate | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... I still remember my early days teaching forest management, ~ 20 years ago, using some of F.E. "Jack" Putz's early work to illustrate the need for improved management, especially in the tropics. While I enjoyed reading this new sort of "reflection" piece (1/3)

Many congratulations to Adriane Esquivel, Rebecca Morgan and to all our colleagues supporting Amazon forest monitoring with RAINFOR and ForestPlots.net! Our analysis of 30 years of Amazon forest change is highlighted on the cover of @natplants.nature.com. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

How do we define #forestdegradation in different ecosystems? We are looking for papers that tackle the complexity of measuring degradation in temperate and boreal forests. Details ▶️ buff.ly/1aULXb4 #EnvironmentalScience #CallForPapers

Great to see our paper (led by @nanimuelbert) about the increase in tree size in Amazonia featured on the cover!

According to this paper, there could be c. 55.5 million tall trees (> 60 m height) across the Brazilian Amazon, with the highest density in the northeast portion. These trees have a disproportionate contribution to the carbon stored in these forests! nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Global deforestation hasn’t slowed in any significant way in the four years since 127 countries pledged to halt and reverse forest loss and degradation by 2030. The newly published 2025 Forest Declaration Assessment shows that nations are 63% off track from meeting their zero-deforestation target.

In 2024, the Amazon Rainforest underwent its most devastating forest fire season in more than 20 years. According to a new study, the fire-driven forest degradation released an estimated 791 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2024, a sevenfold increase compared with the previous two years.

🌳 Small elevation differences in an Amazonian forest affect tree growth and survival, partially explaining species' habitat preferences @danielfzuleta.bsky.social #AmacayacuFDP @ForestGEO 🏔️ Read more:https://buff.ly/kYEp7N4

Join Verra & Perennial for a webinar on the new DSM tool in the Verified Carbon Standard Program. Learn how it helps quantify greenhouse gas reductions in ALM projects. 📅 Oct 16, 11am ET. Register: bit.ly/4mRnftJ #ClimateAction #SoilCarbon verra.org/webinar-new-...

Excited to share that the second paper of my PhD is out in @currentbiology.bsky.social 🍈🦜🍒🐒🍊🐿️ We show that the functional diversity of seed-dispersal interactions in tropical forests takes circa 20 years to recover after deforestation. You can read it here: www.cell.com/current-biol...

Climate change is reshaping forests around the globe go.nature.com/4mHKeXW

apnews.com/article/flyi... Amazon's 'flying rivers' weaken with tree loss, scientists warn of worsening droughts

The world has lost its most powerful advocate for nature and hope. Yet many remain who will continue her legacy and I know she will continue to inspire generations more.

💥BREAKING: Birds in a tropical pluvial rainforest of the Chocó have been quietly changing in morphology for 109 years. Some have shrunk, others grown. Tails grew longer, bills grew deeper. Even in forests with continuous cover, climate change may be rewriting evolution in real time.

Perhaps the first formal paper on tropical forests ecology I read in college was one from Arturo Gomez Pompa a long time ago 😞

Big trees are on the rise. 30 years of Amazon forest measurements by RAINFOR partners show that, so far, any impact of #climatechange on forests and large trees have been more than mitigated by the positive effects of increased resources. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Sequoia sempervirens (redwood; world's tallest tree) is well adapted to high-intensity crown fires (eg 2020), but Sequoiadendron giganteum (giant sequoia; world's most massive tree) is adapted to surface fires only! bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... 🧪🌍🔥🌿🌳🔥🪴 @botsocamerica.bsky.social

The future of forests is being shaped in today’s classrooms. But are we teaching the right things? A global study finds major gaps — from lack of Indigenous knowledge to gender bias. Read why forest education must evolve:🔗 https://bit.ly/3EEghrZ #Trees4Resilience

A year-long experiment in a wet tropical #forest found that 4°C of warming boosted soil CO2 emissions by 42-204%. These high rates suggest tropical #soils may release more #carbon under future warming than #climate models predict. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

NEW – Growing trees for shade has ‘enormous’ potential for cutting cocoa emissions | @yaninequiroz.bsky.social Read here ⬇️

www.nature.com/articles/s41... "...Our analysis reveals a widespread decline in human-directed disturbances alongside a countervailing surge in less controllable, undirected ‘wild’ disturbances (fire, wind/geohazard and vegetation stress), which account for 24% of the total disturbed area..."

Across 97% of forest area from eight million sampled forested locations, the density of aboveground biomass is lower near forest edges than in forest interiors. This edge effect is estimated to be responsible for 9% reduction in forest aboveground biomass.🧪🌲🌴🌳 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🚨 NEW: Climate change is already causing 30,000 deaths per year - a global annual economic loss of $100-350B USD - but the true damage is probably 10x higher. Out TODAY in Nature Climate Change: the first systematic look at the science of "health impact attribution" 🔓 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Between 2002 and 2015, forest loss in Brazil’s southern Amazon reduced the amount of rainfall during the dry season by more than 5%, a recent study found. Researchers found that a reduction in forest cover reduced evapotranspiration and disrupted regional atmospheric systems.

🌳🦟Indigenous territory extent in the Amazon biome can reduce the incidence of fire-related and zoonotic/vector-borne diseases in humans. 👉Read more here: www.nature.com/articles/s43...

Deforestation is responsible for nearly 75% of dry season rainfall reduction in the Amazon rainforest since 1985, according to a study in Nature Communications. go.nature.com/3I2xPzr ⚒️ 🧪

Good news for a change: Background mortality in unmanaged forests of Europe has not increased over past decades. Great work from the European Forest Reserve Initiative EuFoRIa, out in @journalofecology.bsky.social doi.org/10.1111/1365...