Emilio Vilanova

emiliovilanova.com/2020/07/30/m...

A reminder, because it is almost that time of year: More children are killed by cars on Halloween than any other day of the year, by far. www.vox.com/future-perfe... If you're a parent, I hope you'll do what you can to keep kids safe. If you're driving on Saturday, PLEASE exercise extra caution.

🌍 “This is no longer a warning for the future; it is a diagnosis of the present.” Our 2026 State of the Climate report finds 7 of 16 planetary vital signs at record extremes. The planetary emergency is already here. doi.org/10.1093/bios...

No net carbon recovery in logged tropical forests in central Vietnam iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...

Does El Niño offer a sneak preview of future climate for tropical forests? Well, yes. Our new study shows that heat & drought during 23-24 El Niño will likely be new normal for many tropical forests. A worrisome preview. #tropicalforests #elnino 🍁🌐 agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...

How did Rosalind Franklin miss the helix in her iconic DNA image? She didn’t | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

USDA approves blight resistant chestnut trees. www.newyorkupstate.com/outdoors/202...

Our new paper led by Leo Miranda in @science.org - Comparing #Amazon protection strategies reveals that avoiding deforestation is most cost-effective for carbon storage, while avoiding forest disturbance yields the highest benefits for #biodiversity 🌎🪶🌴🧪 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Protecting tropical forests is more cost-effective for biodiversity and climate than restoration | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Just out. We show that climate impacts the above-ground biomass through effects on forest structure that differ among regions. I enjoyed contributing and would like to congratulate lead author Pauline Depoortere for keeping a huge team of authors engaged in the process. doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Our new paper led by @josbarlow.bsky.social shows extreme heatwaves and heat-driven droughts are intensifying much faster than overall averages in #Amazonia and often severe far from deforestation frontiers www.nature.com/articles/s43... 🌎 🧪☀️@ras-network.bsky.social #ClimateChange

RESEARCH ARTICLE Aboveground Biomass Accumulation Over Two Decades Across a Gradient of Tropical Forest Restoration Interventions 🔗 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

One of the most-viewed PNAS articles in the last week is “Recent high-severity wildfires in a dry-conifer landscape are unprecedented over five centuries and foretell future forest loss.” Read now: https://ow.ly/v1oR50ZM4BE For more trending articles, visit https://ow.ly/pH5050ZM4Aj.

The National Geographic report on our research in Tambopata, Perú, using 40 years of RAINFOR and historic collections by Al Gentry. Since 1983 Amazon trees are producing more fragile leaves, and are exposed to increasing thermal risk decade-on-decade www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/...

Earth will breach a long-standing target before the end of the decade, according to a new UN report. go.nature.com/4xAY4Sh

www.nature.com/articles/s41... Beyond the scientific findings, what stands out to me about this study is the value of long-term data, research networks, and cross-regional collaboration. Very happy to have contributed, in a small way, to this truly collaborative effort!

fesummaries.wordpress.com/2026/07/30/p...

Surprising uniqueness of Puerto Rico’s trees could make them more resistant to drought | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

Global Change Biology | Environmental Change Journal | Wiley Online Library onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Big new @adriftlab.bsky.social paper - we show for the first time that plastics affects seabirds at the POPULATION level. Plastic ingested as a chick reduces recruitment of birds to the breeding population. And the story is pretty grim. 🧵 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Nature research paper: Heterogeneous climatic controls on tropical-forest biomass go.nature.com/4hxHlKm

Fossils show huge carbon emissions harm forests, not ‘green the planet’

A ‘super’ El Niño could transform the Amazon. Is the world’s biggest rainforest doomed? www.nature.com/articles/d41...

corrected post This is our climate change reality. BC is at the sharp end of the climate change spear in terms of fire in Canada. Graph below shows annual area burned in BC 1950-2026. Top 6 years have been since 2017 and BC has experienced more area burned during 2017-2026(red) than 1950-2016(green)

⚒️ Analysis: Accelerating biomass loss from forest disturbances across Europe @katjakowalski.bsky.social @eoem-tum.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Newly found earthworks suggest that about 3 million people might have lived in just about 3% of the Amazon rainforest’s entire area. https://scim.ag/45BE4Cx

Satellite-based analyses systematically underestimate carbon accumulation in mature forests. This study illustrates the importance of independent lines of evidence and suggests that terrestrial carbon budgets need to account for forest structure. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I'm not sure folks have realized just how crazy the second half of 2026 and 2027 will be for global temperatures – on the back of a record-smashing El Niño event. Here is my latest estimate of where both years will end up compared to global temperatures since 1850.

July 2026 #Arctic sea ice extent was the 6th lowest on record for the month... This was 1,760,000 km² below the 1981-2010 average. July ice extent is decreasing at about 6.80% per decade. Data: @nsidc.bsky.social at nsidc.org/data/seaice_...

I use AI in my writing, and I'm not going to stop open.substack.com/pub/aionpurp...

New publication in Ambio Stakeholders’ perspectives on barriers and pathways toward the diversification of planted forests Open access link: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Fires in Europe are breaking records: here’s what the future holds www.nature.com/articles/d41...

RESEARCH ARTICLE Rapid and Intense Declines of Forest Connectivity in the Amazon Arc of Deforestation Over Four Decades 🔗 buff.ly/6W7JrgZ

RESEARCH ARTICLE Canada's Forests Are Shifting From a Recovery‐Driven Carbon Sink to a Disturbance‐Driven Carbon Source 🔗 buff.ly/Ukv3ii2

Over 250,000 hectares of land has burnt across European Union, with 1254 fires detected since start of the year. As wildfires become more frequent, intense & complex, reliable monitoring, forecasting, cross-border data sharing & #EarlyWarnings are critical to protect lives, livelihoods & ecosystems.

Tropical forests can recover rapidly after disturbance, but certain old-growth specialist trees will be missing. A study in Costa Rica shows that low abundance and low seed production hold back these trees, suggesting targeted plantings could help. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/Shla50ZtWMN

Happy to have been involved in this work. How a rush for minerals is causing deforestation in tropical regions www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Research co-led by postdoc Amelia Holcomb synthesized data from 146 tropical forests to improve carbon accounting & climate reporting. The findings show degraded forests can recover carbon faster than forests regrowing after complete clearing. 🌎🌿 🔗 geog.umd.edu/featured-con...

Climate change projected to increase background mortality rates in eastern North America onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

“So next time someone tells you Canada’s fires can be solved by raking the forests, you can point out that the thing filling their sky with smoke is a lightning-struck, drought-primed boreal forest doing what a warming climate is making it do more and more often.”

TreeMig framework ver. 1.0: an R package with GUI to simulate spatio-temporal forest dynamics vist.ly/5bsm6 #Rpackage #Modelling #VegetationDynamics

news.mongabay.com/2026/07/cutt...

ICYMI: New online! Remote sensing delivers tropical forest resilience monitoring for the Global Biodiversity Framework

Warm, wet springs may raise tree death risk, not just drought. French forest data indicate favorable early growth can leave some trees, especially tall ones, more vulnerable when later dry conditions arrive. doi.org/hb9nzf

Nature research paper: The forest of knowledge under global change go.nature.com/4paKpO9

Why doesn't tropical forest biomass track increasing productivity with higher soil fertility? Wong et al. @michellewongca.bsky.social @jane-lucas-phd.bsky.social @kaaze7.bsky.social @cushmankc.bsky.social @dallingjim.bsky.social nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

I was interviewed by @science.org for this piece on giant trees and drought resilience. An impressive study, but it doesn't overturn previous work: drought responses depend on the forest, the type of drought, and tree traits www.science.org/content/arti...

Accelerated tree mortality after a half-century of stability in an old-growth forest: Insights from a 72-year study www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...