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CAMBRIDGE, UK – 12 June, 2008 — Forests contain two thirds of Earth’s biodiversity, and as much carbon is stored in trees as is present in the atmosphere. Such facts are critical to understanding the ramifications of climate change—and how we can best respond.
But unlike other key factors such as ocean dynamics, the effects of forest dynamics—how tree populations interact and impact the environment—remain a mystery.
That is changing, though. A recent influx of data from far-flung nations, together with recent advances in modeling and data-analysis techniques, is enabling Drew Purves and his collaborators to shed light on what occurs to forests over time—and what the implications are for other terrestrial life forms, including humans.
On June 13, Purves, a scientist in the Computational Ecology and Environmental Sciences group, part of the Computational Science group at Microsoft Research Cambridge, had the rare honor of having two papers published in the renowned journal Science.
One, entitled Predictive Models of Forest Dynamics, authored by Purves and Stephen Pacala, of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University, is an excellent treatment of the state of the art in modeling forest dynamics and its impact on climate prediction.
The second, Animal Versus Wind Dispersal and the Robustness of Tree Species to Deforestation, examines the response by tree species to the destruction of forests. That paper was based on work conducted at Microsoft Research Cambridge by Daniel Montoya, of the Departamento de Ecología of Spain’s Universidad de Alcalá, under Purves’ supervision, and written with Miguel A. Rodriguez, of the Universidad de Alcalá, and Miguel A. Zavala, of the Centro de Investigación Forestal at Spain’s Institito Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología.
Both papers appear in a special issue of Science focused on forest dynamics. Read more...
Papers
View the paper abstracts on the
Science website (subscription to Science required to view papers in full) or request a copy
of the papers here.
Videos
Watch Drew Purves talking about the papers.
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