Features

Some 55% of tropical forests are negatively affected by land use practices and deforestation worldwide. But the ability to penetrate the canopy to see what’s going on has been lacking until now. Global Ecology's Greg Asner's group has developed new airborne methods to peer through the canopy to measure and map, in beautiful 3-D, the underlying vegetation, degradation and deforestation, and the amount of carbon stored and emitted in these forests. The ability to reliably measure carbon locked up in tropical forests and emitted by land-use practices is a prerequisite for accurately monitoring carbon storage and emissions for the newly passed United Nations initiative on Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD). Watch the stunning video about this global project that will help conservationists and land-use managers to make better decisions for saving these vital resources. Watch the team at work in the Colombian Amazon on YouTube

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An unprecedented study of bald eagle diet, from about 20,000 to 30,000 years ago to the present, will provide wildlife managers with unique information for reintroducing Bald Eagles to the Channel Islands off California. The scientists, including researchers from the Carnegie Institution’s Geophysical Laboratory, found that eagles fed mainly on seabirds from about 20,000 to 30,000 years ago to the 1840s and 50s, when humans introduced sheep.
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Astronomers, including Carnegie's Ivo Labbe, used NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to break the distance limit for galaxies by uncovering a primordial population of compact and ultra-blue galaxies that have never been seen before. They are from 13 billion years ago, just 600 to 800 million years after the Big Bang.

In a recent interview, scientist and director of Carnegie's Department of Global Ecology, Chris Field, describes the historic shift taking place in the production of greenhouse gases. As their economies industrialize, developing nations are overtaking the industrialized world in production of CO₂ and other greenhouse gases. Developing nations don't, however, have the resources to invest in pollution-reducing technologies. Dr. Field discusses the challenges involved and the avenues of cooperation that are possible. The interview was given to EarthSky,  "A Clear Voice for Science."