Extensive areas of native vegetation have been cleared to establish commercial exotic tree plantations in south-central Chile, a region known as a world biodiversity hotspot. Despite increasing societal demands to restore native forests in parts of the landscape, documented experiences for this form of restoration are lacking. We conducted a landscape-replicated experiment to test the influence of

Global change represents the greatest challenge facing forest managers today. The uncertainty and variability of potential future impacts of shifting climatic and disturbance regimes has led resource managers to seek out alternative approaches to sustain the long-term delivery of forest ecosystem services. We use a spatially explicit forest landscape simulation model, LANDIS-II, to examine and evaluate

In even-aged clear-cutting forestry, the biodiversity effects of treatments must be well understood for proper forest management and conservation. While biodiversity on clear-cuts has been much studied, other common forestry stages such as thinning have received less attention. We studied saproxylic beetles, a highly diverse group with many red-listed species, in young spruce stands 2–5 years after

Food-chain length, or the trophic level of an apex predator, is among the most important properties of food-webs with implications for community structure, ecosystem processes and pollutant accumulation in forests. Three main hypotheses (ecosystem-size, productivity, and disturbance) have been erected to explain variation in food-chain length in freshwater ecosystems, yet the support for these hypotheses

California’s high density, fire-excluded forests experienced an extreme drought accompanied by warmer than normal temperatures from 2012 to 2015, resulting in the deaths of millions of trees. We examined tree mortality and growth of mixed-conifer stands that had been experimentally treated between 2011 and 2013 with two different thinning treatments, one with more structural variability (HighV) and

Under changing climate, temporal and spatial stability (stationarity) of growth responses of trees to weather and climate, which has often been presumed without explicit testing, is crucial for prediction of productivity and sustainability of forests. However, considering evolutionary adaptation of tree populations to wide spatiotemporal ecological gradients, extrapolation of linear responses, which

Site productivity indices have been widely used to describe age normalised height and volume for a range of forest species. In this study we used a wide range of modelling methods to predict Site Index and 300 Index for Pinus radiata D. Don. Site Index normalises height to a standardised age, while the 300 Index normalises volume measurements to a standardised age, stand density and set of silvicultural

Sierra Nevada mixed-conifer forests have undergone significant changes in structure and composition and are increasingly vulnerable to altered disturbance regimes and climate-related extreme events. Fuel reduction treatments, including thinning and follow-up surface fuel treatments, can reduce this vulnerability by creating forest structural and woody fuel conditions that not only allow forest stands

In the Southeastern United States, the function and stability of pine ecosystems depends on frequent low intensity fires. One of the critical effects of frequent fire is the inhibition of hardwood competition by removing above-ground stems (top-kill). Previous long-term studies have correlated early growing season burns with higher understory mortality when compared to dormant season burns. Seasonal

Polygraphus proximus Blandford (Coleoptera: Scolytidae), a non-aggressive phloephagous bark beetle that feeds on Far Eastern fir species, is the main species responsible for the rapid and widespread destruction of natural Abies sibirica forests, and has caused the mass mortality of planted Abies veitchii trees in Japan. It is unclear how long the attacks continue or whether the beetles progress to

Environmental filters affect species diversity. Understanding their influence on plant communities is one of the main challenges of ecology in the search for solutions to the management and conservation of floodable savannas. To shed more light on this challenge, the present work asked if the interactions between flood and fire influence the richness of community and favor the abundance and basal area

The substitution of biomass for fossil fuels in energy consumption is a measure to decrease the emissions of greenhouse gases and thereby mitigate global warming. During recent years, this has led to an increasing interest to use tree harvest residues as feedstock for bioenergy. An important concern related to the removal of harvesting residues is, however, the potential adverse effects on soil fertility

The firs (genus Abies, Pinaceae) species are a diverse and ecologically and economically important forest trees. In the Mediterranean and Central Europe, the genus Abies comprises twelve taxa with only partially resolved systematic statuses, and it has been classically divided into the sections Piceaster (fir-type ‘ancestral’ group) and Abies (fir-type ‘modern’ group). We expected that the simultaneous

Radial and height growth rates are suitable indicators of impending tree mortality risk of adult trees, but their applicability to saplings remains unknown. We compared radial growth of living and dead saplings of different heights and quantified the effects of light availability, growth and tree size on mortality. We sampled an equal number of living and dead saplings of four coniferous tree species

We compared the relative frequencies of witness trees in historical deeds to the relative frequencies of tree species found in the present forests. Changes in relative frequencies of the five dominant tree species were noted in all ecological subsections, although all species found in the past forests are represented in the present. The greatest changes across the study area were a decrease in the

Here, we present one of the first attempts to use a machine learning model for the prediction and interpretation of tree basal area increment (BAI) based on data from the National Forest Inventory (NFI). The developed model is based on the random forest (RF) algorithm, trained with 18 independent variables and 15,580 data points (trees from the Slovenian NFI). The RF model was trained for four individual

Short rotation plantations of willows (Salix spp.) have high biomass production potential in many parts of the world, and may frequently support ecosystem services related to nutrient cycling. A plantation management enhancing favorable environmental impacts that are conducive to maintaining ecosystem services is a main challenge in establishing sustainable biomass production systems. There is evidence

Jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata) forest is one of the most widespread native forest types of south west Western Australia (SWWA) and provides timber, firewood, wildlife habitat, water production, catchment protection and recreation. To inform management aimed at optimizing these values, a thinning trial in even aged regrowth forest was commenced in 1965. A second thinning and N and P fertilizer treatment

Intraspecific variations in leaf traits and tree growth along environmental gradients are crucial for survival and distribution of the tree species, but they are substantially less quantified than interspecific counterparts. Here, we examined the intraspecific variations in leaf hydraulics and economics traits and growth of Larix gmelinii Rupr. – the predominant tree species in the Eurasian boreal

Site-index models based on dominant height and age are commonly accepted measures of site productivity in forest plantations. Therefore, reliable estimates of dominant height over time are critical, as they provide the foundations for site productivity estimates used in growth and yield models. Forest site productivity depends on the combination of many environmental factors, whereas tree height is

Site quality evaluation is a fundamental component of forest management and is also vitally important towards improved understanding of forest growth processes and optimizing silviculture practices. However, most site quality studies have focused on site index which cannot predict potential site productivity. In this study, a methodology that incorporates volume-related potential increment which accounts

Bamboo-chicken farming (BCF) is a traditional model of forestry in China that increases the rate of utilization of forest resources and the economic benefits associated with forestland use. However, little is known about the effects of BCF on soil carbon sequestration and sustainable forestland use. In this study, BCF effects on soil nutrient content, organic carbon fractions, and fungal communities

Regenerating oak seedlings by different methods impacts taproot architecture, root-to-shoot allometry and, potentially, soil water use and plant growth under water limitations. In the present study, Quercus robur (L.) seedlings regenerated by four different methods – sowing (acorn-sown seedlings), sowing followed by shoot clipping (coppiced), sowing followed by root-pruning (root-pruned), and container

Recent investigations on the mechanistic underpinnings for nutrient regulated organic matter decomposition suggest that micronutrients may limit microbial activity in nitrogen (N) enriched forest ecosystems. However, these nutrient limitations could be complex for managed pine plantations in the US South that received macro- and micronutrient fertilization and weed control treatments. Soils and pine

In Europe, production forests with conifers widely replace native broadleaf trees. In the Pleistocene lowlands of northern Germany, > 1.7 million hectares of pine forests (Pinus spp., mostly P. sylvestris) have replaced natural broadleaf forests. We compared aboveground biomass carbon (C) pools and net primary productivity (ANPP) of broadleaf forests with natural development (ND; mostly Fagus sylvatica

Prescribed fire and other forest management practices aimed at restoring longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) communities often focus on the reduction, or removal, of upland hardwoods with the goal of providing habitat for threatened and endangered plant and animal species, including the federally endangered red-cockaded woodpecker (Leuconotopicus borealis), and restoring forests to pre-settlement conditions

Population sizes and species distributions of wild ungulates in Europe have increased during the past decades, and continue to do so. As a result, browsing pressure in forests is increasing and concerns about the effects of increasingly common multi-species deer communities on forestry are rising. However, we currently lack an understanding of how the composition of deer communities affects browsing

The frequency of high-intensity hurricanes has increased in past decades, making it necessary to understand their impacts on biological diversity. The disturbance by cyclones adds to the anthropic disturbance and generates important effects on ecosystems. Bats are ideal bioindicators that show several responses to impacts of hurricanes in insular systems. However, little is known about their usefulness

Spruce-fir-beech mixed forests cover a large area in European mountain regions, with high ecological and socio-economic importance. As elevation-zone systems they are highly affected by climate change, which is modifying species growth patterns and productivity shifts among species. The extent to which associated tree species can access resources and grow asynchronously may affect their resistance

Non-native insects and pathogens can alter the composition and successional trajectories of forests and, in exceptional cases, drive their host trees functionally extinct. Emerald ash borer has killed millions of ash trees in its invaded range across eastern North America. Predicting the future ecological role of ash requires information on the extent of ash regeneration and recruitment in the wake

Reforestation in the boreal forest is challenging; trees must survive to large daily temperature variations and to the cold environment. Even if local tree species are adapted to withstand these harsh environmental conditions, spruce plantation failure after artificial regeneration occurs frequently, with important impacts on sustainable forest management. We hypothesized that this regeneration problem

The concentration of oxygen dissolved in water affects aquatic organisms. Unrestrained logging and site preparation can depress dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations in adjacent streams by elevating temperatures (with removal of riparian shade), impounding channels (reduced reaeration rates), and introducing fresh, oxygen-depleting slash. One of the first paired watershed studies investigating the use

Plantations of Mediterranean pines will face warmer and drier climate conditions during the 21st century. However, we lack field assessments of how severe droughts could threaten the viability of many of these plantations, often located at xeric sites and lacking adaptive management measures such as thinning. In this work, we related radial-growth variability to recent defoliation, to evaluate the

Secondary forests are a huge carbon sink in terrestrial ecosystems, but it remains unclear whether growth of secondary forests has accelerated or decelerated due to global environmental changes, especially in East Asia. In this study, we analysed 30 years of data at 26 permanent plots along a secondary succession of temperate forest in central Japan to test whether the aboveground biomass (AGB) growth

Distribution of absorbable N forms (NH4+ and NO3−) in soil is subject to high spatial heterogeneity, and NH4+ and NO3− deficiency is one of the major factors limiting the productivity of forest plantations. Tree species may have developed different N preferences during their evolution. Here, we investigated the N uptake preference and root growth characteristics in three major tree species (Cunninghamia

Tree-ring patterns are indicators of a tree's responses to various stressors and may be employed to predict forest decline. The primary aim of this study was to analyse and model tree-ring growth in Abies alba Mill. trees from older (OG; A. alba trees aged 136–300 years) and younger (YG; A. alba trees aged 45–135 years) generations in Central Europe in Poland, with particular attention paid to growth

Despite recent improvements in understanding the composition of microbial communities in forest soils, fundamental questions regarding how their dynamics and function vary with forest management strategies, such as stand density, and the factors that affect them are still unclear. In this study, the spectrophotometry and high-throughput sequencing technology were used to determine enzyme activities

Bark beetles are keystone species that can alter the structure and function of forested ecosystems, yet the mechanisms underlying host selection and successful colonization remain poorly understood for most species. Comparison of closely related tree species that vary in their susceptibility to bark beetles could provide insights into such mechanisms. Here, we compare physical and chemical characteristics

Tropical secondary forests comprise about half of the world’s tropical forests and are important as carbon sinks and to conserve biodiversity. Their rate of recovery varies widely; however, particularly older secondary forests are difficult to date so that the recovery rate is uncertain. As a consequence, factors affecting recovery are difficult to analyse. We used aerial surveys going back to 1968

Climate change brings about more frequent short-term waterlogging leading to unfavorable conditions for tree growth. Poplar is a preferred tree species for fast-growing plantations. Although limited short-term comparative studies exist with poplars that examine clonal variation in growth and physiological responses to waterlogging, a comprehensive assessment on growth performance, crown structure and

In the Pacific Northwest of the United States, 20th century timber harvesting resulted in major declines in area of forests supporting large live and dead trees (i.e., snags), that are not only key habitat elements for many wildlife species but also critical components of ecosystem function. Regional forest management guidance, such as the Northwest Forest Plan (1994) and Eastside Screens (1995), may

Wildland fire is a disturbance that shapes frequent-fire forest ecosystems and the life-histories of wildlife species that inhabit them. The California spotted owl (Strix occidentalis occidentalis) is an iconic old-forest species that evolved under a frequent-fire regime in western North America. While recent studies have focused on owl response to large, severe fire events, relatively little is known

Volcanic eruptions affect ecosystems drastically, and ectomycorrhizal fungi (EM) may play a critical role in forest regeneration. Nothofagus species are usually ectomycorrhizal. The 2011 Puyehue Cordón-Caulle volcanic complex (PCCVC) eruption covered vast areas of N. pumilio forests with thick tephra deposits. The main objectives of this work were to characterize the forest environment following tephra

Aims To determine whether species that contribute most to a plot’s biomass are the most abundant (high local abundance at plot scale) or the most frequent (occur the most across plots at landscape scale), or both. In the tropical Andes, these patterns may change with elevation. This study assesses the contribution to plot’s above-ground biomass (AGB) of the plant community abundance pattern –the prevalence

Secondary succession involves dynamic feedback among vegetation, environmental conditions and biota. Nevertheless, the recovery of tropical forests after anthropic management is often evaluated based solely on vegetation cover, which is easier to measure and requires less equipment and expertise than the assessment of soil and microclimate, but does not always reflect synchronic and integrative recovery

Nearly a century of fire suppression in most forested land of the United States has limited researchers’ ability to construct and rigorously test conceptual models of forest structural development in mixed-conifer ecosystems. As a result, land managers must rely on conceptual models of forest development that may overemphasize idealized stand structures and developmental pathways, which ultimately

Truffles are ectomycorrhizal fungi of which several species can be commercially produced in man-made plantations using trees inoculated with their mycelia. The production in tree plantations is meant to increase the availability of economically valued ascocarps on the market and, in the same time preserve natural habitats from an excessive pressure of truffle hunters, as well as limit the damage that

If combined with anthropogenic disturbances and global climatic change, hurricanes may lead to major effects on animal populations and assemblages. The combined effects of cumulative natural and human disturbances on vertebrates have been little studied. There is evidence that herpetofaunal assemblages are sensitive in species richness, abundance, and diversity to anthropogenic and natural disturbances

Under future climate regimes, the risk of typhoons accompanied by heavy rains is expected to increase. Although the risk of disturbance to forest stands by strong winds has long been of interest, we have little knowledge of how the process is mediated by storms and precipitation. Using machine learning, we assess the disturbance risk to cool-temperate forests by typhoons that landed in northern Japan

Vascular epiphytes are mainly associated with tropical and subtropical forest ecosystems. However, the frequent occurrence of accidental epiphytes in temperate forests proves that epiphytic growth of vascular plants is possible in tree crowns at these latitudes. Comparing the abiotic conditions of epiphytic and terrestrial microhabitats in conjunction with intraspecific differences in functional traits

Austrocedrus chilensis and Nothofagus dombeyi, are endemic forest species of ecological and productive importance in the Andean-Patagonian region of Argentina. Both species grow in pure or mixed stands. In the last decades, several A. chilensis stands have been degraded by different disturbances that have compromised their natural regeneration. Plantation of seedlings of both species may be an alternative

Comparisons among methods are essential to validate plant traits measured across studies. However, a rigorous analysis is a complex task that needs to take into account not only the principle of the method and its correct use, but also inherent intraspecific trait variability, something we feel is not fully considered by Sergent et al. (2020). They compared the Bench dehydration, MicroCT, and Pneumatic

Tree species-mixing has been suggested as one option to counteract the adverse effects of global change on tree mineral nutrition, yet the effect of mixing on nutrient availability remains poorly documented. We therefore analyzed the current foliar nutrient (N, P, K, Ca, Mg) quantities and ilr balances (isometric log transformed ratios between elements or groups of elements) for 261 European beech

Mangroves fringe the coastlines of 54% of the world’s nations but convey ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration, that span administrative boundaries. Despite their high carbon sequestration efficiency and long-term storage capacity, few countries have assembled detailed mangrove carbon inventories. For example, Brazil, which detains the second largest mangrove area in the world, still lacks

In 2011–2017, we examined the ecology of bat assemblages in the commercially used stands of the Białowieża Forest, Poland. The species composition was analyzed, as well as the relationship between bat activity and distance to buildings and to open waters. The relationship between bat activity and stand age, type of stand (coniferous vs. deciduous), and tree canopy closure (open vs. dense) was also

Forest management aims to better understand effects of natural disturbance regimes on forest dynamics and use this knowledge to formulate guidelines in forest planning, thereby narrowing gaps between managed and unmanaged forest landscapes. Using forest simulators to reconstruct forest dynamics in relation to ecosystem processes, including disturbances, could help forest managers to better understand

Quaking aspen, Populus tremuloides, has experienced severe declines in recent years in part due to the effects of changing climate and extreme drought. This study set out to investigate these effects by assessing associations of climatic, edaphic and topographic variables with physiological drought stress in aspen. The study took place on the Zumwalt Prairie in northeastern Oregon, a semi-arid bunchgrass

Single-tree selection silviculture management of northern hardwood forests relies on natural tree regeneration for long-term sustainability, yet current trends in tree regeneration and recruitment elicit concern. Low densities of economically valuable sugar maple (Acer saccharum Marsh.) in understories are often common, likely driven by many factors, including deer browsing, management-dictated stand

Understanding traditional livestock management is essential in the design of more sustainable systems, given the forest loss associated to the growing demand for meat. In Latin America, where extensive livestock production is increasing, along with tropical dry forest (TDF) transformation, the role of small holders is critical for designing more sustainable management practices. This study is an integrated