Conservation / Tree Health

On a windswept plateau high above the Arabian Sea, Sena Keybani cradles a sapling that barely reaches her ankle.

The young plant, protected by a makeshift fence of wood and wire, is a kind of dragon’s blood tree – a species found only on the Yemeni island of Socotra that is now struggling to survive intensifying threats from climate change.

“Seeing the trees die, it’s like losing one of your babies,” said Keybani, whose family runs a nursery dedicated to preserving the species.

ByJordan Joseph

Beneath the sandstone cliffs of Wollemi National Park, an unassuming evergreen has stirred curiosity among plant lovers and conservationists alike. It looks like any other conifer from a distance, but it carries a backstory that stretches to the age of dinosaurs.

Scientists only realized its significance in 1994, when a group trekking along a narrow canyon stumbled upon it. Among them was David Noble, a field officer from the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service.

by Zeina Mohammed, University of Virginia        

If you're wondering why squirrels seem to vastly outnumber raccoons—or why certain car brands dominate city streets—a team of University of Virginia researchers may be able to help.

by University of Exeter

The arrival of new plant pests and diseases is likely to severely damage UK trees and woodlands in the coming decades, new research shows.

The ash dieback epidemic prompted the government to assess all pests and diseases that could potentially enter the UK and affect our trees and agricultural crops.

by Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies

Getting zapped with millions of volts of electricity may not sound like a healthy activity, but for some trees, it is. A new study, published in New Phytologist, reports that some tropical tree species are not only able to tolerate lightning strikes, but benefit from them. The trees may have even evolved to act as lightning rods.

The research was led by Evan Gora, a forest ecologist at Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies. Gora studies how lightning impacts biodiversity and carbon storage in Panama's tropical forests.

by Bob Yirka , Phys.org

A team of botanists with members from Muse–Museo delle Scienze, Udzungwa Corridor LTD, Via Grazia Deledda and the National Museum of Kenya has discovered a new species of tree growing in the mountainous rain forests of Tanzania. In their paper published in the journal Phytotaxa, the group describes how and where the tree was found and its characteristics.

by INRAE - National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment

Forests provide many ecosystem services, including microclimate regulation, biodiversity preservation, air and water purification, and soil protection. Together with the oceans, they are one of the two most important carbon sinks, due to their capacity to store carbon in the soil and in tree biomass.

As such, promoting fast-growing trees could strengthen efforts to mitigate climate change. This raises a key question for forest managers: which tree species have the greatest mitigation potential?

by Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres

The reason why so many tree species can coexist in species-rich forests has long been a subject of debate in ecology. This question is key to understanding the mechanisms governing the dynamics and stability of forests. An international team of scientists led by the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) has now discovered unexpected patterns in the spatial distribution of tree species, as reported in the journal Nature.

In the most comprehensive global analysis of genetic diversity ever undertaken, an international team of scientists has found that the genetic diversity is being lost across the globe but that conservation efforts are helping to safeguard species.

The landmark study, published in the pre-eminent scientific journal Nature, was led by Associate Professor Catherine Grueber from the School of Life and Environmental Sciences and a team of researchers from countries including the UK, Sweden, Poland, Spain, Greece and China.

by University of Cambridge

A major study of botanic gardens around the world has revealed their struggles with one fundamental aim: to safeguard the world's most threatened plants from extinction.

Researchers analyzed a century's worth of records—from 1921 to 2021—from fifty botanic gardens and arboreta currently growing half a million plants, to see how the world's living plant collections have changed over time.