In 1971, motivated by their vision of a green and peaceful world, a small team of activists set sail from Vancouver, Canada, in an old fishing boat. These activists, the founders of Greenpeace, believed a few individuals could make a difference.
Their mission was to "bear witness" to US underground nuclear testing at Amchitka, a tiny island off the West Coast of Alaska, which is one of the world's most earthquake-prone regions.
Amchitka was the last refuge for 3000 endangered sea otters, and home to bald eagles, peregrine falcons and other wildlife.
Even though their old boat, the Phyllis Cormack, was intercepted before it got to Amchitka, the journey sparked a flurry of public interest.
The US still detonated the bomb, but the voice of reason had been heard. Nuclear testing on Amchitka ended that same year, and the island was later declared a bird sanctuary.
Today, Greenpeace is an international organisation that prioritises global environmental campaigns.
Based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Greenpeace has 2.8 million supporters worldwide, and national as well as regional offices in 41 countries.
Who we are
Greenpeace is a global campaigning organisation that acts to change attitudes and behaviour, to protect and conserve the environment and to promote peace by:
Catalysing an energy revolution to address the number one threat facing our planet: climate change.
Defending our oceans by challenging wasteful and destructive fishing, and creating a global network of marine reserves.
Protecting the world’s remaining ancient forests and the animal, plants and people that depend on them.
Working for disarmament and peace by reducing dependence on finite resources and calling for the elimination of all nuclear weapons.
Creating a toxic free future with safer alternatives to hazardous chemicals in today's products and manufacturing.
Supporting sustainable agriculture by encouraging socially and ecologically responsible farming practices.
Greenpeace does not solicit or accept funding from governments, corporations or political parties. Greenpeace neither seeks nor accepts donations that could compromise its independence, aims, objectives or integrity.
Greenpeace relies on the voluntary donations of individual supporters, and on grant support from foundations.
Greenpeace is committed to the principles of non-violence, political independence and internationalism. In exposing threats to the environment and in working to find solutions, Greenpeace has no permanent allies or enemies.
Greenpeace has been campaigning against environmental degradation since 1971 and has played a pivotal role in, among other things, the adoption of:
- A ban on toxic waste exports to less developed countries.
- A moratorium on commercial whaling.
- A United Nations convention providing for better management of world fisheries.
- A Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary;
- A 50-year moratorium on mineral exploitation in Antarctica.
- Bans on the dumping at sea of radioactive and industrial waste and disused oil installations.
- An end to high-sea, large-scale driftnet fishing.
- A ban on all nuclear weapons testing - our first ever campaign.
Greenpeace victories
September 2008: Six Greenpeace UK volunteers are acquitted of criminal damage by a Crown Court jury in a case that centred on the contribution made to climate change by burning coal. The charges arose after the six attempted to shut down the Kingsnorth coal-fired power station in Kent in 2007 by scaling the chimney and painting the Prime Minister's name down the side. The defendants pleaded 'not guilty' and relied in court on the defence of 'lawful excuse' - claiming they shut the power station in order to defend property of a greater value from the global impact of climate change. The landmark case marks the first victory of the 'lawful excuse' defense in a climate-change case in Britain. More...
From: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/
The history of Greenpeace
Marsupials
Marsupials: Kangaroo, Koala and Wombat
Marsupials are best known for the Australian members of the family, the kangaroo and the koala.
Marsupials are members of the mammal family. However, they are different from other mammals because they have an abdominal pouch to carry their young.
At birth, marsupial babies are not fully developed. The baby's hind legs are just nubs. The baby lives and continues to develop in the mother's pouch. The pouch, or marsupium, also has the mother's mammary glands for feeding the baby. A baby kangaroo may live in its mother's pouch for 6 months.
Koalas and wombats are a little different from Kangaroos. The kangaroo's pouch is on the front, while the koala and wombat pouches are on the back.
From: http://www.kidport.com/RefLIB/Science/Animals/Marsupials.htm
Fish
Almost three-forths of the world's surface is covered in water. This water is home to over 20,000 different species of fish. The earliest fossils of fish date back over 400 million years.
There are a wide variety of fish — from the goby which is less than one half an inch long, to the whale shark which can be over 60 feet long.
Most fish breathe through gills. Gills perform the gas exchange between the water and the fish's blood. They allow the fish to breathe oxygen in the water.
Fishes are vertebrates that have a skeleton made of either bone or cartilage. About 95% of fishes have skeletons made of bone. These bony fishes have a swim bladder, a gas-filled sac, that they can inflate or deflate allowing them to float in the water even when not swimming. Fishes with a cartilage skeleton tend to be heavier than water and sink. They must swim to keep afloat. Cartilaginous (cartilage) fish include the ray and the shark.
Most fish swim using a tail fin. Muscles in the tail fin move it from side to side, forcing water backward, and propeling the fish forward. Other fins help the fish change direction and stop. Pectoral fins on their side help them swim up and down. Dorsal and anal fins on the top and bottom keep the fish upright. Pelvic fins on the underside help steer left and right.
Many fish eat plants, while others such as the shark, eat other fish.
From: http://www.kidport.com/RefLIB/Science/Animals/Fish.htm
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
NASA stands for National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA was started in 1958 as a part of the United States government. NASA is in charge of U.S. science and technology that has to do with airplanes or space.
What Does NASA Do?
NASA does a lot of different things. NASA makes satellites. The satellites help scientists learn more about Earth. NASA sends probes out into space. NASA scientists study things in the solar system, and even farther away. A new program will send humans to the moon, Mars and beyond. People at NASA work on ways to make air travel better for everyone on Earth, too. People at NASA also share the things they learn with others. This can help make life on Earth better.
Do you like science, math and learning new things? Would you like to be an adventurer? Would you like to plan future missions to other planets and outer space? People in NASA's Education Office work hard to share news about NASA's missions to learn about Earth and space with teachers. Then teachers work with students to get them ready to be engineers, scientists and astronauts. Learn more about what NASA has for students in grades K-4 on NASA's education Web pages.
Where Is NASA?
NASA Headquarters is in Washington, D.C. There are ten NASA centers all over the United States. There are also seven test and research facilities. More than 18,000 people work for NASA! Being an astronaut is probably the best-known job at NASA, but astronauts make up just a small part of the workforce. A lot of engineers and scientists work at NASA. People are doing other jobs, too, such as secretaries, writers, lawyers and even teachers.
What Has NASA Done?
From its start, NASA began to plan for human spaceflight. The Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs helped NASA learn about flying in space. This led to the first human landing on the moon in 1969. Right now, NASA is working to finish the International Space Station. Space probes have visited every planet in the solar system. Scientists have looked far into space using telescopes. NASA satellites help people better understand weather patterns on Earth. NASA also helps develop and test new aircraft. Some of the airplanes have set new records. NASA works to make air travel faster and safer.
What Are NASA's Future Plans?
NASA is beginning a new program. Engineers are planning new rockets and a new spacecraft. That new spacecraft is called Orion. At first, Orion will take astronauts to the International Space Station. Later, it will be used to send astronauts back to the moon. By 2020, NASA plans for astronauts to have landed on the moon. They will set up an outpost there. That outpost will help NASA learn about living on other worlds. NASA will use what is learned on the moon to send humans to Mars. In the future, astronauts will travel even farther into the solar system.
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/stories/what-is-nasa-k4.html
"Noah's Flood" Not Rooted in Reality, After All?
"Noah's Flood" Not Rooted in Reality, After All?
Bruce Dorminey, for National Geographic News
February 6, 2009
The ancient flood that some scientists think gave rise to the Noah story may not have been quite so biblical in proportion, a new study says.
Researchers generally agree that, during a warming period about 9,400 years ago, an onrush of seawater from the Mediterranean spurred a connection with the Black Sea, then a largely freshwater lake. That flood turned the lake into a rapidly rising sea. (See a map of the region).
A previous theory said the Black Sea rose up to 195 feet (60 meters), possibly burying villages and spawning the tale of Noah's flood and other inundation folklore.
But the new study—largely focused on relatively undisturbed underwater fossils—suggests a rise of no more than 30 feet (10 meters).
New Flood Evidence
Marine geologist Liviu Giosan and colleagues carbon-dated the shells of pristine mollusk fossils, which the researchers say bear no evidence of epic flooding.
Found in sediment samples taken from where the Black Sea meets the Danube River, the shells "weren't eroded, agitated, or moved," said Giosan, of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts. "We know the mud is exactly the same age as the shells and so can determine what the sea level was about 9,400 years ago."
The results suggest the Black Sea rose 15 to 30 feet (5 to 10 meters), rather than the 150 to 195 feet (50 to 60 meters) first suggested 13 years ago by Columbia University geologist William Ryan and colleagues. Ryan declined to be interviewed for this story.
Dueling Theories of Noah's Flood
In 1993 a Black Sea expedition found evidence of former shorelines and coastal dunes at depths of up to 390 feet (120 meters).
Researchers said these areas had been flooded when the Mediterranean and the Sea of Marmara—which lies between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea—breached a rocky barrier across the Bosporus, the Turkish strait that links the Maramara with the Black Sea.
Before such a flood, Ryan and colleagues said the flooded regions may have been rife with agricultural settlements. His research supports the notion that the flood submerged some 62,000 square miles (100,000 square kilometers), driving out farmers in droves, thereby supercharging the agricultural development of Europe, to the west.
However, Giosan's new study, which appears in the January issue of the journal Quaternary Science Reviews, indicates a less catastrophic influx, submerging only about 1,240 square miles (2,000 square kilometers).
That's because, according to the new study, the Black Sea's pre-flood water levels were significantly higher than Ryan's study suggested. As a result, there may have been much less water cascading through the Bosporus and onto the exposed continental shelf surrounding the Black Sea.
The ages of the shell fossils detailed in Giosan's report hint that the pre-flood sea surface was only 95 feet (30 meters) lower than it is today. Columbia's Ryan, by contrast, suggests the Black Sea's rise has been at least 150 feet (50 meters) since reconnecting with the Mediterranean some 9,400 years ago.
Nail in Noah's-Flood Coffin?
Giosan's analysis points to a reconnection that was "quite mild," said Mark Siddall, an oceanographer at the University of Bristol in the U.K. who was not involved with the study.
"It looks like the connection may have involved an overspill from the Sea of Marmara of just a few meters," Siddall added.
Tony Brown, a paleo-environmentalist at the University of Southampton in the U.K., said he fully supports Giosan and colleagues' new findings.
"This seems to be a further nail in the coffin of the Ryan hypothesis," Brown said.
"I hope this will counter some recent catastrophist and misguided accounts of the spread of farming across Europe by what is likely a mythical flood."
New Swarm Theory: The Weak Can Lead the Strong
New Swarm Theory: The Weak Can Lead the Strong
Ker Than, for National Geographic News
February 11, 2009
They might not win many presidential elections, but mavericks are often leaders among flocks of birds, herds of beasts, and other creatures, a new swarm theory says.
A new computer model suggests animals don't need to be fast or strong to lead their swarms, only willing—or desperate enough—to break from their neighbors and go their own way.
Swarm "leaders are not necessarily the weakest and most vulnerable, but they can be," said study team member Larissa Conradt of University of Sussex in the United Kingdom.
The model suggests that a few very hungry birds in a well-fed flock of thousands can alter the flight path of their entire group simply by veering off to search for food.
Creatures that fly, swim, and run together are hardwired to stay together, Conradt explained.
Swarm living provides protection against predators and a convenient supply of potential mates, so members rarely perform actions that could tear the group apart.
"If some group members are desperate to reach their optimal destination, while others care relatively less whether they reach theirs or not, the desperate ones will lead," said Conradt, whose new research will be detailed in an upcoming issue of the journal American Naturalist.
Biologist David Sumpter studies collective animal behavior at Uppsala University in Sweden and did not participate in the research.
The new study is interesting, Sumpter said, because it shows how "a small number of highly motivated leaders can manipulate the group dynamics significantly for their own purposes but without destroying the cohesive motion of the flock."
From: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/02/090211-swarm-theory-leaders.html
The Secrets of World's Oldest Forest
Newfound Fossils Reveal Secrets of World's Oldest Forest
John Roach, for National Geographic News
April 18, 2007
The world's earliest forest may have been filled with slender trees that were three stories tall and capped with branches that resembled bottlebrushes.
That's the picture painted by two newfound fossils that are providing unprecedented insight into the appearance and ecology of the first known forest, according to a new study.
"What it looks like is a palm tree, or perhaps a tree fern," said the study's lead author, paleobotanist William Stein at Binghamton University in New York.
"It's a kind of morphology that's instantly recognizable among some modern groups [of trees]," he added.
The bottlebrush-like branches likely used photosynthesis, as most modern plants do, and produced spores, Stein said.
The trunk, found in southeastern New York State, is identical to 385-million-year-old fossilized stumps discovered in the nearby town of Gilboa about a century ago. The stumps represent the earliest known forest.
Until now, however, scientists could only speculate what type of tree the Gilboa stumps, designated Eospermatopteris, represented.
"What we found in the last couple of years was evidence of what the top of these things looked like," Stein said.
The new fossils are described in tomorrow's issue of the journal Nature.
They indicate the fossil trees belong to a previously known plant group called cladoxylopsids, Stein said.
Scientists suspected the fernlike cladoxylopsids were large, but experts never had more than the branches to work with, Stein added.
"What we got here is like a double whammy," he said. "On the one hand, we know Eospermatopteris is these great stumps. On the other hand we have real evidence for how big the cladoxylopsids actually were."
First Forest
Brigitte Meyer-Berthaud is a paleobotanist with the National Center for Scientific Research in Montpellier, France. She said the new fossils are surprising because they indicate Earth's first trees evolved without the aid of leaves and horizontal branches.
"It was probably so advantageous to be bigger than the others that they achieved [height] even if they didn't have the proper organs," she said.
Meyer-Berthaud, who co-authored an accompanying article on the new research, identified in 1999 a different type of tree called Archaeopteris as the earliest modern tree.
These trees, which date to around 385 million to 359 million years ago, had horizontal branches, leaves, and an extensive root system.
Such structures are considered important to achieve treelike stature and are common to most trees in temperate and tropical areas today.
The Gilboa forest dates to 385 million years ago, and the group of cladoxylopsids that includes the Gilboa trees was widespread around the world from about 385 million to 400 million years ago.
Stein noted that these early trees played a major role in establishing Earth's first terrestrial ecosystems.
"Trees really dominate those kinds of environments they're found in. They really are the entire fabric in which an entire ecology fits in a terrestrial realm," he said.
How Ancient Forests Looked
Understanding the full appearance of the Gilboa trees allows scientists to infer what the entire forest ecosystem was like.
For example, since the Gilboa trees lacked leaves, sunlight would have filtered down to the forest floor.
And the trees, like modern palms, likely dropped their branches on a yearly or seasonal cycle, filling the forest floor with woody litter suitable for arthropods such as spiders and insects.
The trees also would have removed carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, causing global temperatures to drop, Stein added.
The traits of the Gilboa trees are found in many tree types throughout history, he noted.
"[The traits] cannot all be traced back to the same common ancestor, so it's clearly a recurrent evolved form," he said.
"The reason for that is probably ecology, probably something to do with a way of being a large tree or a large plant. It's one way to do it, and it is now clearly the oldest way," he added.
From: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/04/070418-oldest-trees.html
Ancient Forest Type
Alerce (Fitzroya cupressoides)
The alerce is unique to the coastal temperate rainforests of southern Chile and the mountains of western Argentina. Sometimes called “the redwood of South America,” it is more accurately described as a relative of the cypress. The alerce reaches more than 150 feet in height and 13 feet in diameter. It is also longer lived than either the coast redwood or the giant sequoia of California, living 3,600 years or more (the bristlecone pine can reach 4,800 years). The alerce has a huge trunk, and its rough pyramidal canopy provides cover for the southern beech, laurel, and myrtle. It produces small, scale-like leaves and little round cones.
The alerce, like the western red cedar and redwood, contains resins that resist decomposition, making it especially valuable in exterior construction (for such materials as shingles, decks, and so forth). As a result of this and other attractions, such as its straight grain, the alerce has suffered from overcutting, which spirals into even more devastation because of the tree's low reproductive rate.
The last remnants of ancient alerce forest are hidden in the Andean cordillera. Some appear in the remote valleys, slopes, and terraces of the higher elevations of southern Chile as well as in a small extension in Argentina (normally above 2,100 feet). The alerce's range at one time extended from the coastal mountains south of the city of Valdivia east to the wetter valleys on the Argentine side of the Andes and south to the slopes of the Michinmahido Volcano—a range only about 150 miles long and 50 miles wide. Alerce thrives in the cool, rainy environment from 39 degrees to 43 degrees south. Chilean conservationists estimate that only 15% of the original alerce forests remain. Lowland tracts were totally eliminated by logging.
In 1976, the Chilean government designated the alerce a Natural Monument and outlawed the cutting of live trees (although it is legal to harvest them when fallen). In the same year, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES, Appendix 1) prohibited the international sale of alerce products. The species remains threatened by habitat loss from extensive hardwoods logging. Illegal poaching and burning of alerce are also problems, but not as great as that of legal, unrestricted logging of associated species. Large-scale clearing activity in the past, combined with the alerce's very slow growth, poor regeneration, and illegal cutting, seriously impedes any notable increase in the species' natural distribution.
Araucaria (Araucaria araucana)
Chile is home to one of the world's most fantastic araucaria forests. The araucaria's tall spindly trunk and unusual evergreen foliage give it a distinct form that can be recognized from miles away. An araucaria tree can live for 1,800 years and grow more than 8 feet wide and 185 feet tall. The ever-shrinking range of A. araucana is limited to a small region in the southern Andes. (Fossilized and living specimens of the genus are found in South Africa, Australia, some Pacific islands, Antarctica, Europe, Brazil, and North America). This species is unique for its genus in thriving in the temperate climate's warm, dry summers and cold, snowy winters. About 800,000 acres of forest lands contain A. araucana; only 125,000 are pure stands.
This araucaria species is also known as "Pehuen" (in the native Mapuche language) and the Monkey Puzzle Tree (because an Englishman remarked in the 1800s that it would be a puzzle for a monkey to climb). Botanists now recognize the araucaria as an “archetypal” tree, among the earliest families of seed-bearing plants. Araucaria forests were widespread on the Earth alongside dinosaurs in the Jurassic (carbon records date back at least 180 million years); the tree's armor of daggerlike leaves was designed to thwart the appetite of 80-ton herbivores. The araucaria yields large nuts in the fall.
The araucaria's Natural Monument status makes it illegal to cut; but this protection has been lifted before. Illegal logging occurs, and the large timber companies covet the last araucaria forests. Three-fourths of those that remain are on private lands. The publicly protected lands fall well short of what is needed to ensure the species' health and the long-term viability of the ecosystem. The Santuario Cañi is one of the araucaria's last refuges.
Cloud Forest
Cloud forests are known to be the most diverse terrestrial plant communities on Earth. They are easy to recognize by the misty forms that hover over them almost all year long. At altitudinal bands where air cools as it is forced over a mountainous region, a phenomenon known as adiabatic cooling causes clouds to form. The clouds deposit tiny drops of water on trees and plants, beginning a process called horizontal precipitation.
An abundance of moss, orchids, and bromeliads covers both the tree trunks and the forest floor; occasionally “moss forest” is used as a synonym. Ecuador is home to critical expanses of this forest type on both the west and east sides of the Andes. Some cloud forests have pine and fir trees, giving them the appearance of temperate forests. The steep slopes of the cloud forests provide an almost continuous canopy of tree cover, offering occasional spectacular views. In general, cloud forests are found in headwaters areas and contribute significant precipitation to watersheds. Despite their importance, cloud forests are threatened by ranches, deforestation, and coffee plantations, among other factors.
Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii)
Old-growth Douglas-fir averages 250 feet in height and 4 to 8 feet in diameter (one reaching 385 feet tall and 15 feet wide was reported). Highly adaptable, Douglas-fir can prosper under a wide range of climatic conditions and is the dominant species in Pacific Northwest forests. It grows from central British Columbia southward in the coastal states to central California and extends down the Rockies through Arizona and New Mexico into the high mountains of subtropical Mexico. In California, it flourishes in the wet, North Coastal forests, yet it also thrives in the Sierra Nevada mixed-conifer forests with their intense summer drought. Although Douglas-fir has one of the widest ranges of any North American conifer, low-elevation fir and mixed evergreen forests have been exploited heavily.
Douglas-fir species are found in China, Japan, and Taiwan. The tree was introduced from the Pacific Northwest to Chile, where it's known familiarly as Pino Oregono, or Oregon Pine—which is a misnomer, just as “fir” is in its English name. Douglas-fir is not a true fir. This name game is confused even further by Pseudotsuga, which means false hemlock. The tree is not a fir, a hemlock, or a pine, but rather its own distinct genus. Like pines and spruces, Douglas-firs have resinous wood, which is used in laminates, lumber, plywood, furniture, and shipbuilding—leading to its desirability and overcutting.
Mangrove
Mangrove forests live in the harsh and unpredictable interface between land and sea. They are composed of taxonomically diverse, salt-tolerant tree and other plant species and they provide critical habitat for marine and terrestial life. Mangroves have specially adapted aerial and salt-filtering roots and salt-excreting leaves that enable them to occupy the saline wetlands where other plant life cannot survive; they thrive in inter-tidal zones of sheltered tropical shores, "overwash" islands, and estuaries.
The mangrove forest litter, consisting mainly of fallen leaves and branches, provides nutrients for the marine environment and supports immense varieties of sea life in intricate food webs. Their shallow intertidal reaches offer refuge and nursery grounds for juvenile fish, crabs, shrimps, and mollusks.
Mangrove forests are also prime nesting and migratory sites for hundreds of bird species. In Belize, more than 500 species of birds have been recorded in mangrove areas. Additionally, manatees, crab-eating monkeys, fishing cats, monitor lizards, sea turtles, and mud-skipper fish utilize mangrove wetlands. Mangroves are also useful in treating effluent, as the plants absorb excess nitrates and phosphates, thereby preventing contamination of nearshore waters.
These complex ecosystems are found between the latitudes of 32 degrees north and 38 degrees south, along the tropical coasts of Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Australia. Mangroves vary in height according to species and environment, from mere shrubs to 120-foot trees. (The newly founded Majagual reserve in Ecuador's Esmeraldas province contains the tallest known mangrove tree in the world).
Mangrove ecosystems have been exploited heavily by local populations for the production of tannins, fuel wood, and construction materials. But most of the damage has occurred since the advent of shrimp farming; this highly volatile enterprise has grown exponentially over the last 15 years. As much as 50% of mangrove destruction in recent years is attributed to clearcutting for shrimp farms. Industrial shrimp farmers remove mangroves and divert freshwater sources to create ponds where saltwater is pumped onto the land, permanently altering the soil's composition, PH, and salinity. In regions where these coastal fringe forests have been cleared, erosion and siltation occur. The exposed portions of mangrove roots are highly susceptible to clogging by crude oil and other pollutants, attacks by parasites, and prolonged flooding from artificial dikes or causeways.
Redwood (Sequoia Sempervirens)
California's coast redwood tree continues to inspire admiration in all who behold its splendor. This conifer flourishes along the Pacific coast in a fog-belt about 450 miles long and 5 to 25 miles wide, almost entirely in California (from southwestern Oregon to Monterey County). It is not nearly as adaptable as Douglas-fir—it is unable to withstand frost when young or to survive without fog and heavy rainfall. Only a small portion of the few remaining redwood expanses are protected. Sequoia sempervirens is related to the massive Sequoiadendron giganteum, or giant sequioa, which inhabits the Sierra Nevada and reaches diameters of 30 feet but doesn't grow as tall as the coast redwood.
The redwood, the world's tallest confirmed tree, has been reported at 368 feet in height (commonly reaching 300 feet) and 16 feet in diameter. It is renowned for longevity—the oldest recorded age is 2,200 years. The younger trees have a rich, reddish brown bark (derived from a high amount of tannin), while the older are more gray/brown; this bark protects the tree against fires and pests. The trunk can be a column with no limbs for the first 100 feet or more. The redwood tree can regenerate itself through cloning as well as by seed; “fairy rings” sprout around the parent tree when it dies.
In addition to being so impressive in its size, beauty, and ecological importance, the redwood is useful as a building material, like the alerce, and therefore attractive to the logging industry. Moreover, the coast redwood's proximity to rivers and the ocean has made it desirable since heavy logging began, and the prodigious yield from a single forest acre—125,000 to 150,000 board feet on the low end—has ensured that its constant attack.
Southern Beech (Nothofagus spp.)
This common hardwood tree covers vast territories in the world's southern regions. The Nothofagus species found in Chile and Argentina include the endangered ruil (N. alessandri), roble (N. obliqua), raul’ (N. alpina), lenga (N. pumilio), hualo (N. glauca), coihue (N. dombeyi), Magellanic coihue (N. betuloides), and nirre (N. antarctica).
One widespread southern beech tree, the lenga, often grows in heavy snowpack areas above the true forest. It ranges from the high Andes at 37 degrees south to sea level near Tierra del Fuego at 56 degrees south. The lenga's fast-growing, cherry-colored wood is naturally resistant to decay, is a high enough quality for exterior and interior use, and is targeted as a major new source for wood chips -these are all serious threats to its survival, especially in southern Chile, where its growth is slower and the rate of exploitation most out of control. On the best sites, lenga trees grow 120 feet in height and 3 feet in diameter.
The coihue is the dominant southern beech in much of the Bosque Valdiviano (Valdivian Forest). It is much larger than the lenga, and because it is a good lumber species, it too is severely threatened. Other threatened hardwoods include the ulmo (a great honey tree) and the laurel (a large hardwood with sassafras-scented leaves).
Tropical and Temperate Rainforests
Rainforests are old-growth forests located in tropical regions near the equator and a few temperate regions that receive comparable rainfall. They are central to the ecological integrity of the planet and the equilibrium of its climate. Rainforests cover 6% of its land mass, yet they house more than half the plant and animal species.
They originally covered at least twice that area. Rainforests are being destroyed at a staggering rate. According to the National Academy of Science, at least 50 million acres a year are lost, an area the size of England, Wales, and Scotland combined.
Tropical rainforests, characteristic of the Ecuadorian Amazon, are defined primarily by two factors: location (in the tropics) and amount of rainfall (from 13 to 26 feet a year). The heavy vegetation in tropical rainforests blocks rainfall, and water reaches the forest floor by rolling down branches and trunks or falling in a fine spray. Another distinctive characteristic is that they have no 'seasonality' - no dry or cold season of slower growth. Tropical rainforests are the Earth's oldest living ecosystems - surviving 70 to 100 million years in more or less their present form. The Amazon is the world's largest, containing some 40% of the remaining tropical forest and a fifth or sixth of the world's fresh water.
Characterized by heavy rainfall, few fires, and a mild climate, coastal temperate rainforests connect the mountains with the sea. These forest ecosystems have developed in the cool, wet climate stirred by marine influences and the Humboldt currents of the Pacific Ocean. At 40 degrees latitude north and south, trees don't expend all their energy in heat loss (as they do in the tropical rainforest), so they can reach greater size and far more biomass per acre than do tropical rainforests. Temperate rainforests stretch 1,200 miles from Oregon to Alaska. Smaller temperate rainforests can be found on the southeast coast of Chile, Southern Australia, southern New Zealand, Norway, the United Kingdom, and Japan.
From: http://www.ancientforests.org/forest_types.html
