Amazon basin tree rings hold a record of the region's rainfall

The Amazon basin contains the world's largest rain forest, famous for its rich biodiversity and importance in the world's oxygen and carbon cycles. It also has an outsized influence on water cycles in South America and beyond. ...

New York City's hidden old-growth forests

In the popular imagination, New York City is a mass of soaring steel-frame skyscrapers. But many of the city's 1 million buildings are not that modern. Behind their brick-and-mortar facades, its numerous 19th- and early 20th-century ...

To save giant sequoia trees, maybe it's time to plant backups

Last month, unusually high winds knocked down 15 giant sequoias in Yosemite. If you haven't had a chance to see them in person, giant sequoias are big—like, warp-your-sense-of-scale and melt-your-brain big. Then, once you've ...

As sea ice disappears, a greener and browner Arctic emerges

Arctic sea ice has been in steep decline over the past two decades. A study of tundra shrubs published today in the journal PNAS shows that as sea ice disappears, the Arctic is becoming both greener and browner.

Floodplain forests under threat

A team from the Institute of Forest Sciences at the University of Freiburg shows that the extraction of ground water for industry and households is increasingly damaging floodplain forests in Europe given the increasing intensity ...

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