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Remote Surveillance May Increase Chance of Survival for ‘Uncontacted’ Tribes, MU Study Finds

By Guest PostMay 14, 2014General, Mediaamazon basin, amazonia, cattle ranching, christopher ruehl, cloud droplet formation, deforestation, extortion, free lance journalist, garment worker, gehirn information, google earth, how droplets form, kawran bazar, kayes sohel, natuerliches sehen, neuronale schaltkreise, satellite imagery, university of missouri, wholesale market

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Lowland South America, including the Amazon Basin, harbors most of the last indigenous societies that have limited contact with the outside world. Studying these tribes, located deep within Amazonian rainforests, gives scientists a glimpse at what tribal cultures may have been like before the arrival of Europeans. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have used satellite images to assess the demographic health of one particular village of isolated people on the border between Brazil and Peru. Remote surveillance is the only method to safely track uncontacted indigenous societies and may offer information that can improve their chances for long-term survival. (more…)

Study Finds Severe Climate Jeopardizing Amazon Forest

By Guest PostJanuary 20, 2013Environment, Natureamazon basin, Amazon rainforest, amazonia, amazonian droughts, amazonian trees, atmospheric condition, california, carbon cycle, carbon dioxide, climate change, climate phenomenon, cloud, decaying wood, degradation, double whammy, drought, earth, ecosystem, effect, forest, forest canopy, forest recovery, global data, katrina, large scale, megadrought, NASA, quikscat spacecraft, radar data, rainfall measuring mission, rainforest, rainforest ecosystem, rita, sassan saatchi, satellite, satellite microwave, scatterometer radar, sea surface temperature, seawinds scatterometer, size of california, southern, steady decline, tropical, tropical atlantic, united kingdom, university of oxford, vegetation, water availability, western amazonia, wildfire, yadvinder malhi

PASADENA, Calif. – An area of the Amazon rainforest twice the size of California continues to suffer from the effects of a megadrought that began in 2005, finds a new NASA-led study. These results, together with observed recurrences of droughts every few years and associated damage to the forests in southern and western Amazonia in the past decade, suggest these rainforests may be showing the first signs of potential large-scale degradation due to climate change.

An international research team led by Sassan Saatchi of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., analyzed more than a decade of satellite microwave radar data collected between 2000 and 2009 over Amazonia. The observations included measurements of rainfall from NASA’s Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission and measurements of the moisture content and structure of the forest canopy (top layer) from the Seawinds scatterometer on NASA’s QuikScat spacecraft. (more…)

Climate Warming Unlikely to Cause Near-Term Extinction of Ancient Amazon Trees, Study Says

By Guest PostDecember 16, 2012Environment, Natureair temperature, amazon basin, amazon mahogany tree, amazon river, amazon tree species, amazonia, amazonian ecuador, ancient geographic variation, Bolivia, brazil, carbon emission scenarios, ceiba pentandra, Central Panama, christopher dick, climate change, climate warming, coming century, deforestation, drought, early pliocene epoch, ecology, eldredge bermingham, evolution, evolutionary biologist, forest fire, fossil records, french guiana, genetic analysis, genetic mutations, genetic study, global warming, greenhouse gas emission, herbarium specimens, human caused, ipcc projections, kapok tree, late miocene epoch, mark maslin, mature amazon forest, molecular clock, niche modeling scenarios, peru, plant samples, population genetic models, quaternary period, rain forest tree, scarlet flower, scenario forecast, sequenced dna, simon lewis, species extinctions, symphonia globulifera, temperature increase, temperatures rise, university college london, university of michigan, western ecuador

ANN ARBOR — A new genetic analysis has revealed that many Amazon tree species are likely to survive human-caused climate warming in the coming century, contrary to previous findings that temperature increases would cause them to die out.

However, the authors of the new study warn that extreme drought and forest fires will impact Amazonia as temperatures rise, and the over-exploitation of the region’s resources continues to be a major threat to its future. Conservation policy for the Amazon should remain focused on reducing global greenhouse-gas emissions and preventing deforestation, they said. (more…)

NASA Maps How Nutrients Affect Plant Productivity

By Guest PostNovember 3, 2012Environmentamazonia, biogeochemical cycles, boreal, boreal forest, carbon cycle, carbon dioxide, data, earth, ecosystem, eleanor blyth, eurasian forest, fertile earth, fertilization, global, grasslands, grayson badgley, greenhouse gas, growth, hawaii, jet propulsion, josh fisher, laboratory, level, maps, migration, model, NASA, nitrogen, North America, north american, nutrient, ozone mapping, palo alto, pasadena, phosphorus, plant, satellite, savannas, shrublands, soil, spectrometer, stanford university, terra spacecraft, terrestrial biosphere, total, trees, tropical forest, validation site, vegetation, vegetation productivity

PASADENA, Calif. – A new analysis led by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., has estimated how much the growth of plants worldwide is limited by the amount of nutrients available in their soil. The maps produced from the research will be particularly useful in evaluating how much carbon dioxide Earth’s ecosystems may be able to soak up as greenhouse gas levels increase.

A research team led by JPL research scientist Josh Fisher used 19 years of data from NASA, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and international satellites to assess the maximum possible growth of vegetation all over the world based upon available water and light conditions. The scientists then cross-compared that potential maximum with observed vegetation productivity as measured by satellites. This is the first time such an analysis has been conducted. (more…)

Aerosols Control Rainfall in the Rainforest

By Guest PostSeptember 19, 20106 commentsEnvironmentaerosol particle, aerosols, Amazon rainforest, amazonia, amazonian basin, anne-marie schmoltner, anthropogenic, archeologists of the air, brazil, delphine farmer, ecosystem, environmental engineers, forest, global atmosphere, influence, joel kimmel, manaus, precipitation, qi chen, rainforest ecosystem, scot martin, secondary organic aerosol droplets, stephanie king, ulrich pöschl

*Precipitation-controlling aerosols over the Amazon rainforest originate from the forest ecosystem*

A team of environmental engineers, who might better be called “archeologists of the air,” have, for the first time, isolated aerosol particles in near pristine pre-industrial conditions.

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Carbon Mapping Breakthrough

By Guest PostSeptember 8, 2010Environmentairborne-laser technology, amazon forest, amazonia, carbon stocks, carbon storage, carnegie institution, emissions, forest degradation, geology, global ecology, greg asner, lidar system, madre de dios, minam, peru, peruvian amazon, peruvian ministry of the environment, red, reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation, satellite mapping, vegetation types, world wildlife fund

Palo Alto, CA — By integrating satellite mapping, airborne-laser technology, and ground-based plot surveys, scientists from the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology, with colleagues from the World Wildlife Fund and in coordination with the Peruvian Ministry of the Environment (MINAM), have revealed the first high-resolution maps of carbon locked up in tropical forest vegetation and emitted by land-use practices.