Reporting carbon losses from tropical deforestation with Pan-tropical biomass maps

The ‘Reduction of Emissions from deforestation and forest degradation’ (REDD+) activities under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are expected to offer results-based payments to developing countries for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from forested lands. It is necessary to determine reference data on forest Carbon losses against which future rates of change can be evaluated, and to have reliable methods for monitoring, reporting and verification of such changes. Advances in satellite remote sensing approaches and techniques for measuring purposes are therefore of tremendous interest. A robust example advancing such approaches, applied on the full tropical belt, is provided in the recent paper of Tyukavina et al (2015 Environ. Res. Lett. 10 074002).JRC.H.3-Forest Resources and Climat

Une intériorité sans psychologie ? Étude sur trois romans de la vie intérieure (Kerangal, Lenoir, NDiaye)

Si la prose romanesque contemporaine marque un retour à la question de l’intériorité, il semble en revanche que cet intérêt renouvelé pour la vie intérieure ne s’accompagne pas d’une résurgence du roman d’analyse psychologique. Cet article étudie les formes que peut prendre cette vie psychique sans psychologie chez trois romancières qui manifestent un « souci de la vie intérieure » : Marie NDiaye, Maylis de Kerangal et Hélène Lenoir. L’abandon du réalisme et de l’analyse psychologique coïncide avec l’abandon des pouvoirs et du surplomb cognitif de la voix narrative. Ainsi sont donnés à voir par le biais de phénomènes de brouillage énonciatif et de point de vue, l’intériorité opaque de personnages absents au monde, aux motivations obscures chez NDiaye et Lenoir, et un vécu infraverbal, une kinesthésie des émotions chez Kerangal. Au final, c’est une intériorité sans secret enfoui que mettent en scène ces romans

Voix de faits : vers une « dénarrativisation » du fait divers chez François Bon et Laurent Mauvignier

Parmi les nombreuses fictions narratives d’expression française qui s’inspirent ou s’emparent d’un fait divers, les deux textes sur lesquels portera cette étude, Un fait divers(1990) de François Bon et Ce que j’appelle oubli(2011) de Laurent Mauvignier, ont la particularité de reléguer immédiatement la référence au fait divers à leur seuil, en quatrième de couverture : chez François Bon, un article du Courrier de l’Ouest qui annonce la tenue du procès en assise et reprend le récit du crime y..

Preparation of chiral ruthenium(IV) complexes and applications in regio- and enantioselective allylation of phenols.

International audienceFacile preparations of chiral [Ru(Cp*)]- and [Ru(Cp')]-based allyl complexes featuring N,O chelate derived from (+)-nopinone are described. Single crystal X-ray structural analysis of one complex revealed the preferential configuration of the ruthenium centre and the orientation of the unsymmetrical allylic substituent. Applications of these complexes in catalysis for nucleophilic allylic substitution allowed regio- and enantioselective formation of branched allyl ethers from phenols

Dynamics of global forest area: Results from the FAO Global Forest Resources Assessment 2015

The area of land covered by forest and trees is an important indicator of environmental condition. This study presents and analyses results from the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2015 (FRA 2015) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. FRA 2015 was based on responses to surveys by individual countries using a common reporting framework, agreed definitions and reporting standards. Results indicated that total forest area declined by 3%, from 4128 M ha in 1990 to 3999 M ha in 2015. The annual rate of net forest loss halved from 7.3 M ha y−1 in the 1990s to 3.3 M ha y−1 between 2010 and 2015. Natural forest area declined from 3961 M ha to 3721 M ha between 1990 and 2015, while planted forest (including rubber plantations) increased from 168 M ha to 278 M ha. From 2010 to 2015, tropical forest area declined at a rate of 5.5 M ha y−1 – only 58% of the rate in the 1990s – while temperate forest area expanded at a rate of 2.2 M ha y−1. Boreal and sub-tropical forest areas showed little net change. Forest area expanded in Europe, North America, the Caribbean, East Asia, and Western-Central Asia, but declined in Central America, South America, South and Southeast Asia and all three regions in Africa. Analysis indicates that, between 1990 and 2015, 13 tropical countries may have either passed through their forest transitions from net forest loss to net forest expansion, or continued along the path of forest expansion that follows these transitions. Comparing FRA 2015 statistics with the findings of global and pan-tropical remote-sensing forest area surveys was challenging, due to differences in assessment periods, the definitions of forest and remote sensing methods. More investment in national and global forest monitoring is needed to provide better support for international initiatives to increase sustainable forest management and reduce forest loss, particularly in tropical countries