Understanding and mitigating the impact of an ever-increasing population and global economic activity on tropical forests is one of the great challenges currently facing biologists, conservationists and policy makers. Tropical forests currently face obvious regional changes, both negative and positive, and uncertain global changes. Although deforestation rates have increased to unprecedented le...

Baker, Patrick J.; Scowcroft, Paul G.; Ewel, John J. 2009. Koa (Acacia koa) ecology and silviculture. Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-211. Albany, CA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station. 129 p. Koa (Acacia koa) is a tree species endemic to Hawaii that is of immense ecological and economic importance. This species has been mined from local forests for its ...

In the face of climate change, policy makers are increasingly interested in utilizing forests for their ability to sequester carbon. Retaining carbon in forests is the objective of various programs that aim to combat climate change. With the growing role of forests in a mitigation strategy, and in order to create effective policies, there is much need for research and two of these research area...

A significant challenge in the assessment of forest management outcomes is the limited ability to compare forest conditions quantitatively across ecological zones. We propose an approach for comparing different forest types through the use of reference forests. We tested our idea by drawing a sample of 42 forests from the Midwest USA, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Brazil, Bolivia, Uganda, and Ne...

Tibet's forests, in contrast to China's other forests, are characterized by primary forests, high carbon (C) density and less anthropogenic disturbance, and they function as an important carbon pool in China. Using the biomass C density data from 413 forest inventory sites and a spatial forest age map, we developed an allometric equation for the forest biomass C density and forest age to assess...