The Saw Tooth Forest
Trees in 188 Amazon forest plots have been getting bigger. Two senior ecologists argue that the plots are too small, and watched too briefly, to catch the rare fall of a forest giant. The original authors answered them in the same issue of Nature Plants. Scroll through both sides and the one question they leave open.
Greener, and Slower to Recover
For twenty-four years, satellites have watched vegetation over permafrost, ground that stays frozen all year, grow greener. A study published this month finds that since 2008 the same vegetation has been recovering more slowly from the knocks it takes. Only two of fifteen models tested reproduced the turn. Scroll to watch a green map and a slowing recovery come apart.