News about PaperPanda, Open Access, and Research
The Amazon rainforest is teetering on the precipice of a dangerous tipping point, new research warns. It’s gradually losing its ability to bounce back after disturbances like droughts or other extreme weather events. With enough time and forest losses, scientists say, large swaths of the Amazon could fall into an unstoppable spiral that would transform … Read more
In May 2020, as the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic chewed through Texas, I went to an Austin nature store and bought several bird feeders. The birds, drawn by seed and suet slabs, came soon afterward. They flitted down from the pecan trees and telephone wires: bold Tufted Titmice, bouncing Northern Cardinals and bullying … Read more
For a couple of hundred years, Cahokia was the place to be in what is now the US state of Illinois. The bustling, vibrant city was at one time home to some 15,000 people, but by the end of the 14th century it was deserted – and researchers still aren’t sure why. A study … Read more
Small-scale gold mining has been going on in the Amazon for decades, with huge expansion of this activity since the early 2000s. It is often done via river dredging, in which miners excavate sediments in search of small pieces of gold. To separate the gold, miners mix liquid mercury into the sediment, which forms a … Read more
A devastating mudslide ripped through Sierra Leone’s capital of Freetown in August 2017, burying homes and killing at least 1,100 people. Triggered by weeks of unusually heavy rain, it was one of the worst environmental disasters the region had experienced in years. More than four years later, scientists are concerned that it could happen again. … Read more
Your Christmas tree is dead or dying. But some conifers and other trees theoretically could live forever, according to a recent essay that reviews accumulating evidence on extremely long-lived trees—and calls for more scientifically rigorous methods to determine their age and study their longevity. Across the board, trees do not die so much as they … Read more
Forests have a localised cooling effect, and in tropical areas where deforestation has occurred, outdoor workers are now feeling the heat more Environment 17 December 2021 By Carissa Wong Areas of forest that have been cleared for oil palm plantations in Indonesia HOTLI SIMANJUNTAK/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock Deforestation in tropical regions of Asia, Africa and the Americas has … Read more
When Neanderthals lived at a site called Neumark-Nord in Germany, the region had far fewer trees than surrounding areas, suggesting they may have cleared the forest on purpose Humans 15 December 2021 A lakeside archaeological site at Neumark-Nord in Germany Wil Roebroeks, Leiden University Neanderthals may have reshaped part of the European landscape 125,000 years … Read more
In the tropics, trees are cleared to make way for farmland that is abandoned once the soil is no longer productive – but these sites can become forest again surprisingly quickly Environment 9 December 2021 By Chen Ly Pasture and young secondary forest in Anhembi, Brazil Rens Brouwer Tropical forests can re-establish themselves quickly on … Read more