Ash trees at dawn in Cumbria

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In: ash, disease, ecology, environment, plants, science, silvology, tree health

One of my more recent co-authored research articles has been selected as ‘Editor’s Choice’ in The Applied Ecologist’s Blog . The paper, Maintaining ecosystem properties after loss of ash in Great Britain by Louise Hill et al, focusses on the importance of using plant functional traits to predict potential changes to an ecosystem, following the loss of a key species.Continue Reading

silvology defined

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In: ecology, environment, science, silviculture, silvology

Silvology: redefining the biological science for the study of forests With co-author Jens Peter Skovsgaard I propose a formal definition for a term that describes the scientific study of forests and woods: silvology.   In contrast to other disciplines no terminology has developed to distinguish the practice of silviculture fromContinue Reading

Tree Fractals video

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In: art, film, nature, plants, science, trees

My writing about art and math in nature are always among my most popular posts, and I’ve meant to write about fractals for a while because they fascinate me. This time of year the bare branches of deciduous trees display their full beauty and fascinating growth patterns. Did you knowContinue Reading

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In: science, silvology, trees

I’ve recently co-authored this scientific paper which reveals the history of common walnut in Europe. Abstract Common walnut (Juglans regia L) is an economically important species cultivated worldwide for its high-quality wood and nuts. It is generally accepted that after the last glaciation J. regia survived and grew in almost completelyContinue Reading

Hemery, In retrospect: Sylva. Nature, 507, 166–167, (13 March 2014), doi:10.1038/507166a

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In: people, science

My article celebrating the 350th anniversary of John Evelyn’s 1664 Sylva has been published in the international weekly journal of science Nature. Read the article here Hemery, G (2014) In retrospect: Sylva. Nature, 507, 166–167, (13 March 2014), doi:10.1038/507166aContinue Reading

Global Forest change Earth view

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In: environment, feature, science

Scientists used Earth observation satellite data to map global forest cover discovering that while there had been a gain of 0.8 million square kilometers over twelve recent years (2000-12), almost three times as much forest cover had been lost (2.3 million square kilometers) in the same period.Continue Reading