Research stories: How to (almost) double woodland carbon overnight

How much carbon is stored in the aboveground biomass (AGB) of Wytham Woods aka the ‘most studied forest in the world’? Professors Mat Disney and Kim Calders thought this would be very well-known but were surprised to find this perhaps wasn’t the case after all. They discuss how their team approached their latest research. Over the years, a number of studies have estimated the carbon … Continue reading Research stories: How to (almost) double woodland carbon overnight

Spotlight: new insights into forest management

What are some surprising new approaches to restoration in forest landscapes? What are the ecosystem services provided by deer? Can we use salvage logging to prevent future bark beetle outbreaks? These questions and more are answered in our new Spotlight collection, sharing new insights and innovations in forest management. Associate Editor, Julio Louzada brings together the featured articles. The modern tradeoff between the maintenance of … Continue reading Spotlight: new insights into forest management

How important is seagrass for blue carbon?

Seagrass is key for carbon storage but shading from man-made structures is putting seagrass meadows at risk. Associate Editor Nathalie Butt discusses the recent article, Effects of small-scale, shading-induced seagrass loss on blue carbon storage: Implications for management of degraded seagrass ecosystems by Stacey Trevathan-Tackett et al. Carbon storage in the sea Given ever-increasing global emissions, natural systems and organisms that can absorb and store … Continue reading How important is seagrass for blue carbon?

Bark beetle impacts on ecosystems and society

In this post Jesse Morris discusses his research, published today in Journal of Applied Ecology ‘Managing bark beetle impacts on ecosystems and society: priority questions to motivate future research‘ Forests provide many goods and services that have ecological, economic, and social value. Management agencies and scientists often refer to these benefits as ecosystem services. Some examples of ecosystem services include purifying air, controlling water runoff … Continue reading Bark beetle impacts on ecosystems and society

Beyond the Haze: Implications of the recent fires in Indonesia for tropical peatland research

This post was written by members of C-PEAT (Lydia Cole, Ian Lawson, Dave Beilman, Dan Charman and Zicheng Yu) to voice the group’s concern over the consequences of the recent extensive burning of Indonesia’s peatlands for science. C-PEAT (Carbon in Peat on Earth through Time) is a thematic group of PAGES (Past Global Changes), and had its inaugural meeting at Columbia University in New York, … Continue reading Beyond the Haze: Implications of the recent fires in Indonesia for tropical peatland research

What is the future of soil carbon stocks?

In this post Peter Manning discusses his recent paper ‘Simple measures of climate, soil properties and plant traits predict national-scale grassland soil carbon stocks‘ Soils contain more carbon than the atmosphere and vegetation combined, but the future of this reserve is uncertain – will it remain in the ground or be released into the atmosphere, potentially amplifying climate warming by several degrees in a worst … Continue reading What is the future of soil carbon stocks?