Unprecedented modern rates of warming are expected to advance alpine treelines to higher elevations, but global evidence suggests that current treeline dynamics are influenced by a variety of factors. Seasonal snow cover has an essential impact on tree recruitment and growth in alpine regions, which may in turn influence current treeline elevation; however, little research has been conducted on its

Background Chinese pine (Pinus tabuliformis Carr.) is one of the major afforestation species in northern China and plays a key role in restoring forest ecosystems and preserving soil and water. However, most Chinese pine plantations are experiencing ecological problems such as the low diversity of understory plants and difficulty in natural regeneration. Thinning has been widely used to maintain and

Understanding the mechanisms and risks of forest fires by building a spatial prediction model is an important means of controlling forest fires. Non-fire point data are important training data for constructing a model, and their quality significantly impacts the prediction performance of the model. However, non-fire point data obtained using existing sampling methods generally suffer from low representativeness

The underlying mechanisms of the relationships between tree species and the soil micro-food web in forest ecosystems remain uncertain, primarily ascribed to an insufficient understanding on how tree functional traits drive soil nematode communities, including in subtropical forests. We investigated the impacts of seven subtropical tree species (evergreen: Pinus massoniana, Mytilaria laosensis, Ilex

Forest soil carbon is a major carbon pool of terrestrial ecosystems, and accurate estimation of soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks in forest ecosystems is rather challenging. This study compared the prediction performance of three empirical model approaches namely, regression kriging (RK), multiple stepwise regression (MSR), random forest (RF), and boosted regression trees (BRT) to predict SOC stocks

The resorption of nutrients by plants before litter fall and the mineralization of nutrients from plant litter by soil processes are both important pathways supporting primary productivity. While the positive relationship between plant biodiversity and primary productivity is widely accepted for natural ecosystems, the roles of nutrient resorption and mineralization in mediating that relationship remains

Mangrove distribution along shorelines shows distinct zonation patterns; thus, different communities may face various influences from sea level rise (SLR) and land use. However, long-term change predictions are usually based only on the total extent of mangroves. Few studies have revealed how SLR and land development such as agriculture, aquaculture, and urbanization jointly affect different intertidal

Laurel forests are quite relevant for biodiversity conservation and are among the island ecosystems most severely damaged by human activities. In the past, Canary laurel forests have been greatly altered by logging, livestock and agriculture. The remains of laurel forests are currently protected in the Canary Islands (Spain). However, we miss basic information needed for their restoration and adaptive

Estimating amounts of change in forest resources over time is a key function of most national forest inventories (NFI). As this information is used broadly for many management and policy purposes, it is imperative that accurate estimations are made from the survey sample. Robust sampling designs are often used to help ensure representation of the population, but often the full sample is unrealized

Background The Iberian Peninsula comprises one of the largest boundaries between Mediterranean and Eurosiberian vegetation, known as sub-Mediterranean zone. This ecotone hosts many unique plant species and communities and constitutes the low-latitude (warm) margin of numerous central European species which co-occur with Mediterranean vegetation. Two of the main species found in this region are the

The main species composition drivers in temperate deciduous forests are environmental conditions, a stand's age and the site history, e.g., the succession stage and past land use, as well as disturbance regime and current management. We compared plant species diversity and composition in late successional and ancient forests, co-occurring on the same small river island applying species accumulation

Tree mortality plays a fundamental role in the dynamics of forest ecosystems, yet it is one of the most difficult phenomena to accurately predict. Various modeling strategies have been developed to improve individual tree mortality predictions. One less explored strategy is the use of a multistage modeling approach. Potential improvements from this approach have remained largely unknown. In this study

Background Tree demography is an essential indicator of various forest ecosystem services, and understanding its changes is critical for the sustainable management of forests. During the past four decades, China implemented unprecedented forest restoration projects, which altered tree demography by increasing the number of trees and introducing new species. However, it remains unclear how species composition

Tree species diversity is assumed to be an important component in managing forest ecosystems because of effects on multiple functions or ecosystem multifunctionality. However, the importance of tree diversity in determining multifunctionality in structurally complex subtropical forests relative to other regulators (e.g., soil microbial diversity, stand structure, and environmental conditions) remains

The diameter at breast height (DBH) of trees and stands is not only a widely used plant functional trait in ecology and biodiversity but also one of the most fundamental measurements in managing forests. However, systematically measuring the DBH of individual trees over large areas using conventional ground-based approaches is labour-intensive and costly. Here, we present an improved area-based approach

Background Gradients in local environmental characteristics may favour the abundance of species with particular traits, while other species decline, or favour species with different traits at the same time, without an increase in average species abundances. Therefore, we asked: do variations in species and traits differ along gradients of deadwood variables? Do species abundance and trait occurrence

Single-tree detection is one of the main research topics in quantifying the structural properties of forests. Drone LiDAR systems and terrestrial laser scanning systems produce high-density point clouds that offer great promise for forest inventories in limited areas. However, most studies have focused on the upper canopy layer and neglected the lower forest structure. This paper describes an innovative

Hydroclimate affects the radial growth responses of trees, but the drivers of their spatial and population variability are not sufficiently understood. We addressed this issue by sampling several conifer populations located at the same latitude, but at different longitude and elevation in western (W) and eastern (E) Mexican regions. We used dendroecology to disentangle how earlywood width (EW), latewood

Background Light is an important environmental factor affecting the growth and survival of plants in forest communities. The competition for light resources and divergent responses to light may affect plant species co-existence in natural forests through niche partitioning and environmental filtering, respectively. Methods In the present study, sequences of light-response-related functional genes were