Tropical Environments and Society-Rutgers course

10/05/2020

https://news.mongabay.com/2020/10/hotter-tropics-may-worsen-climate-change-reforestation-could-lessen-it-studies/

One recent study shows how hotter tropical forests may add significantly to climate change woes. But another suggests how active restoration of degraded tropical forests could help avoid climate disaster.

09/18/2020

https://eos.org/articles/ethiopias-coffee-growing-areas-may-be-headed-for-the-hills?utm_source=eos&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=EosBuzz091820

New research suggests climate change may radically redefine the regions best suited to grow one of Ethiopia’s most valuable crops.

09/01/2020

Looking for some inspiring reading about a pioneer in the field of tropical meteorology? Consider checking out this recommendation from Professor Alan Robock: "I just finished reading an amazing book, and I recommend it to all. It is First Woman, by James Fleming, and is a biography of Joanne Simpson, the first woman to get a Ph.D. in Meteorology in the U.S., which opened the doors for many other women. She was also a great scientist, and was a pioneer of cloud modeling and observations. Her story, and the story of how the science developed, are brilliantly told. Don't miss it."

08/13/2020

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/12/climate/tropical-soils-climate-change.html

Warming soils in the tropics could cause microbes to release carbon dioxide from storage. One scientist called the finding “another example of why we need to worry more.”

07/15/2020

https://phys.org/news/2020-07-certified-sustainable-palm-oil-fields.html

Global concern has risen around the "sustainability" of palm oil in terms of global exportation and the impact on the environment in recent years. Therefore, in 2004, stakeholders from palm oil industry sectors including oil palm producers, retailers, banks, investors, nature conservation and develo...

07/06/2020

Palm trees are synonymous with the tropics. Did you know, however, that there are over 2500 species of palms? New research sheds like on palm abundance in tropical forests:

Characteristics of palm trees differ from those of other tropical trees in many ways. In a major new study led by scientists at Uppsala University, Sweden, and University of Campinas, Brazil, they have surveyed the actual numbers of palms in tropical rainforests around the globe. The proportion of p...

07/04/2020

A warming climate may prevent tropical seeds from germinating:

It may become too hot for plants to germinate.

06/29/2020

Happy International Day of the Tropics!

The tropics, as a region, account for 40 per cent of the world’s total surface area and are host to approximately 80 per cent of the world’s biodiversity.

06/26/2020

What is climate determinism, and how does it negatively influence attitudes and the fight for climate justice, especially in the Tropics? Learn more about it here:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-ugly-history-of-climate-determinism-is-still-evident-today/

06/22/2020

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/06/pocket-tropical-rainforest-north-america-threat-200621144223376.html

About 90 percent of the Lacandon rainforest is believed to be already lost to deforestation.

06/19/2020

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200615184148.htm

The cultivation of coffee, cocoa and vanilla secures the income of many small-holder farmers and also drives land-use change. In particular, cultivation in agroforestry, in which these crops are combined with trees that provide shade, is considered to have great potential for ecologically sustainabl...

06/09/2020

What will species diversity in tropical forests look like in the future?

New method enables predictions for the development of species-rich forests. Tropical forests are a hotspot of biodiversity. Against the backdrop of climate change, their protection plays a special role and it is important to predict how such diverse forests may change over decades and even centur