Treesearch

The distribution of urban ecosystem services (UES) is often uneven across socioeconomic groups, leading to environmental justice issues. Understanding the distribution of UES across a landscape can help managers ensure an equitable distribution of services. While many past studies have focused on the distribution of green spaces in relation to socioeconomic variables, this research analyzes the distribution of UES provided by these green spaces. This research quantified air pollution removal, atmospheric carbon reduction, and surface runoff mitigation provided by urban trees in Strasbourg...

Aims: Quantify changes in taxonomic and functional diversity (FD) and identity to determine if responses to a disturbance severity gradient follow a “colonization/competition” hypothesis: diversity will (a) increase with disturbance severity as more open conditions favor species with traits linked to colonization; and (b) become more similar between regeneration and overstorey layers as environmental filtering favors species with traits linked to increasing competition for light

An examination of changes in growth, mortality, and removals of hardwood sawtimber in the eastern United States within the first two decades of the 21st century found large variations among regions and species groups. Changes in growth ranged from a 17% increase in the Lake States region to a statistically insignificant 1% in the Southern region. Most regions had relatively large increases in mortality. High levels of ash (Fraxinus spp.) mortality in the Northeast, Lake States, and Central regions likely were a result of the emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis). Hardwood sawtimber...

After natural forest disturbances such as wildfires, windstorms and insect outbreaks, salvage logging is commonly applied to reduce economic losses and mitigate subsequent disturbance risk. However, this practice is controversial due to its potential ecological impacts, and its capacity to mitigate or increase the risk of subsequent disturbances remains unclear. Salvage logging removes and alters the legacies remaining after natural disturbances, and it produces additional management legacies. Consequently, salvage logging has the potential to alter the functional connection between...

Framing environmental issues in a sustainability context requires that we highlight the interdependencies between ecological, social and economic factors. Accordingly, the socio-ecological system (SES), which emphasizes the interplay between environmental and social dynamics, seems to be the appropriate framework for analysis. We applied this view to explore issues concerning the conservation of the remnant forests of the peri‑urban area of Bogota (Colombia). Specifically, we characterized this territory as a SES through a parsimonious set of fundamental, across-domain variables. Using...

The soil is an important resource for several ecosystem and biosphere processes. Yet, soil biology is challenged with the identification of many and diverse species and to understand the specific role organisms play, how they are organized, and how they respond to changing environmental conditions. Within this context, there is no universal tool or method that can be applied to a comprehensive study of all the soil and litter fauna that can be found across all soil types and environmental conditions around the globe. Thus, the type of sampling system used for any soil investigation must be...

Although the use of nonhost plants intercropped among host crops has been a standard agricultural practice for reducing insect herbivory for millennia, the use of nonhost signals to deter forest pests is much more recent, having been developed over the past several decades. Early exploratory studies with synthetic nonhost volatile semiochemicals led to targeted electrophysiological and trapping experiments on a variety of bark and ambrosia beetles (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) across three continents. This work disclosed a suite of antennally and behaviourally active nonhost...

Mangrove forests have adapted to sea level rise (SLR) increases by maintaining their forest floor elevation via belowground root growth and surface sediment deposits. Researchers use surface elevation tables (SETs) to monitor surface elevation change (SEC) in mangrove forests, after which this information is used to assess SLR resiliency or to dictate active forest management for vulnerable systems. This method requires significant investments in terms of time and human resources and is limited in the number of points it can measure per plot. We use a low‐cost, portable terrestrial laser...

1. In mixed stands, species complementarity (e.g. facilitation and competition reduction) may enhance forest tree productivity. Although positive mixture effects have been identified in forests world‐wide, the majority of studies have focused on two‐species interactions in managed systems with high functional diversity. We extended this line of research to examine mixture effects on tree productivity across landscape‐scale compositional and environmental gradients in the low functional diversity, fire‐suppressed, mixed‐conifer forests of the U.S. Interior West. 2. We investigated mixture...

Open forests of savanna and woodlands span the spectrum between closed canopy forests and treeless grasslands, and therefore contain structure, composition, and function distinctive from either endpoint. In this special issue, researchers provide examples from different open forest ecosystems to examine the underlying ecological principles and specific management challenges affecting successful restoration of these systems. Emergent themes include the role of open forest systems for biodiversity, fire as an underlying process, and the similarities and differences in ecosystem restoration...