Forest Ecology and Management最新文献

{"title":"Post-fire vegetation regeneration during abnormally dry years following severe montane fire: Southern Alberta, Canada","authors":"J. Aspinall,&nbsp;L. Chasmer,&nbsp;C.A. Coburn,&nbsp;C. Hopkinson","doi":"10.1016/j.foreco.2025.122750","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.foreco.2025.122750","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Fire regimes across montane regions of western Canada are changing resulting in longer fire seasons, higher intensity fires, and shortening fire return intervals. The implications of high severity fire and warmer, drier early post-fire conditions on herbaceous understory vegetation regeneration and seedling recruitment in the southern Canadian Rockies are not well known. The overall objective of this study is to quantify trajectories of vegetation recovery (species, structural characteristics, and biomass) during early years of abnormally warm, dry conditions following a high severity fire in two moisture endmember sites Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta, Canada. Here, we compare the within and between year spatial and temporal variability of vegetation growth and species density and how these change over time and across the broader area as an indicator of ecosystem resilience within these endmember sites. Moderate to extreme drought occurred during the years following fire at Waterton, where 2021 was ranked as the 2nd driest year in 26 years. Despite this, the moist site was characterised by greater herbaceous vegetation recovery with few lodgepole pine seedlings (average biomass = 335 g m⁻²), while a drier site had greater seedling recruitment over a period of 5 years. Variations in site environmental conditions were more impactful than differences between years (drought) on post-fire vegetation recovery. Use of remotely piloted aircraft system (RPAS) remotely sensed data provided an effective means for quantifying variability in regenerating vegetation height (structure from motion), cover (green chromatic coordinate), and biomass when compared at plot level (R² = 0.53, 0.53, and 0.30 respectively) using optical photogrammetric methods. The research presented has implications for forest and fuel management in Canada as national parks and forest agencies consider historic use of heterogeneous species patches. High density of lodgepole pine seedling recruitment in mineral soils and under very dry conditions indicate resilience to drought. This will require continued and expanded monitoring as other tree species recruits populate the post-fire environment.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12350,"journal":{"name":"Forest Ecology and Management","volume":"587 ","pages":"Article 122750"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143870085","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Enhancing GEDI above ground biomass density estimates in contrasting forests of Pakistan","authors":"Abid Nazir,&nbsp;Niall P. Hanan,&nbsp;Qiuyan Yu,&nbsp;Hammad Gilani","doi":"10.1016/j.foreco.2025.122747","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.foreco.2025.122747","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Forests are considered a critical resource for climate change mitigation because they capture and store carbon dioxide in forest biomass. Large-scale assessments of forest biomass have benefited recently from the increasing availability of ground-based forest inventory data and detailed vegetation structural data from airborne and terrestrial light detection and ranging (LiDAR). However, both terrestrial and airborne LiDAR data are costly, and not feasible for many nations. In contrast, since 2019, the spaceborne Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) laser instrument has collected publicly available data for global temperate and tropical forests. GEDI waveforms in conjunction with models calibrated using a worldwide network of field data to produce biomass products. However, relatively few field plots are available in the forests of South Asia in GEDI's current calibration dataset. We show here that GEDI's statistical estimators of Above Ground Biomass Density (AGBD) can be enhanced using local models calibrated strategically with GEDI data and field plots (594) in two contrasting forest ecosystems (i.e., mountain forests with evergreen broadleaf and needle-leaf trees, and coastal mangroves) in Pakistan. On-orbit GEDI AGBD estimations in mountainous areas have an RMSE of 95 Mg/ha / 87 % whereas estimates in mangrove areas have an RMSE of 8.4 Mg/ha / 89 %. GEDI AGBD estimates in mountain regions consistently underestimate field measurements in regions with higher AGBD (&gt;300 Mg/ha), and overestimate in regions with low AGBD (&lt;50 Mg/ha). In contrast, the locally recalibrated biomass models using the field measured data return RMSE of 39.6 Mg/ha / 36 % in mountain regions and 4.1 Mg/ha / 39 % in mangroves. GEDI is a valuable auxiliary resource for AGBD estimates in the absence of updated NFI measurements or over jurisdictions lacking enough reference data. However, local calibration using field data can increase accuracy and precision, particularly in areas where the base models have sparse local calibration data. Improved estimates from GEDI could then be used with active and passive satellite data for regional AGBD mapping and to lower uncertainties in regions with low NFI sampling coverage.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12350,"journal":{"name":"Forest Ecology and Management","volume":"587 ","pages":"Article 122747"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143870086","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Thinning and tending could enhance the understory regeneration potential of seed bank during the subtropical pine forest restoration","authors":"Chao Luo ,&nbsp;Sheng Li ,&nbsp;Jiejie Jiao ,&nbsp;Jia Wang ,&nbsp;Zixi Chen ,&nbsp;Yufei Zhou","doi":"10.1016/j.foreco.2025.122746","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.foreco.2025.122746","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Forest restoration is a global priority and the challenge of how to promote the restoration of secondary forests has become a prominent research focus. Compared to active restoration, promoting natural regeneration of dominant species contribute both in sustainability and biodiversity. In the context of coniferous forest conversion, the effect of forest assisted regeneration approaches on natural regeneration potential, especially the role of seed bank, is worth further investigation. We conducted a field study to investigate the difference and influence factor of understory vegetation and seed bank between different <em>Pinus massoniana</em> forest stands formed after thinning and tending measures (shrub cutting and weeding). Furthermore, we explored the effect mechanism of thinning and tending on their density and richness. The results showed that soil (moisture, bulk density and pH), litter (thickness and production) and canopy closure were the crucial factors affecting understory species composition. Thinning increased the understory plant density by increasing litter thickness and moisture, but decreased plant density by reducing soil organic matter and moisture. Similarly, thinning indirectly promoted the seedling density of woody species by reducing canopy closure. Soil (moisture, pH, total potassium and phosphorus) and light variables affected soil seed bank species composition significantly, whereas light and litter variables had significant impacts on litter seed bank species composition. Although thinning had no direct effect on the soil seed bank density, it facilitated the litter seed bank accumulation. Moderate-heavy thinning intensity could enhance seed bank regeneration potential greatly, and understory tending measures further amplified this potential. In summary, thinning and tending measures could enhance the understory regeneration potential of seed bank during the forest restoration.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12350,"journal":{"name":"Forest Ecology and Management","volume":"587 ","pages":"Article 122746"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143870088","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Thirty-year responses of ecosystem components to stand thinning in lodgepole pine forest: Old-forest attributes, stand structure, and forest-floor small mammals","authors":"Thomas P. Sullivan ,&nbsp;Druscilla S. Sullivan ,&nbsp;Pontus M.F. Lindgren ,&nbsp;Douglas B. Ransome ,&nbsp;J. Hazel-rah Sullivan","doi":"10.1016/j.foreco.2025.122733","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.foreco.2025.122733","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Biomass production via higher yields of wood fibre in boreal and temperate forests may be enhanced by silvicultural treatments such as stand thinning. Restoration of old-forest structural attributes in second-growth forests is also much needed for conservation of wildlife species and biodiversity. We ask if pre-commercial thinning over a wide range of densities could enhance forest productivity while concurrently developing old-forest structures? We tested the hypotheses (H) that, compared with unmanaged (unthinned and old-growth) stands, large-scale pre-commercial thinning (heavy thinning to ≤ 500 trees/ha) over a 30-year period, would enhance (H&lt;sub&gt;1&lt;/sub&gt;) structural features (increase diameter and height growth and tree crown volume) of crop trees; (H&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;) productivity based on merchantable volume and carbon storage of crop trees; (H&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt;) development of old-forest structural attributes; and (H&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt;) total abundance, species richness, and species diversity of forest-floor small mammals. Four replicate blocks of pre-commercially thinned target densities of 250 (very low), 500 (low), 1000 (medium), and 2000 (high) trees/ha, unthinned, and old-growth stands of lodgepole pine (&lt;em&gt;Pinus contorta&lt;/em&gt; var. &lt;em&gt;latifolia&lt;/em&gt;) were located at three study areas in south-central British Columbia, Canada. Tree and stand measurements were conducted at 30 years post-thinning when stands were 43–47 years old. Small mammals were live-trapped in stands during 2023 and 2024. Mean diameter of crop trees followed the pattern of density with the highest growth in the very low-density stands and lowest in the unthinned stands. Mean tree heights were tallest in the old-growth stands and lowest in the unthinned stands. Very large tree crowns were evident in the three heavily thinned (≤ 1000 trees/ha) stands. These results partly supported H&lt;sub&gt;1&lt;/sub&gt;. Mean merchantable volume of pine crop trees was highest in the old-growth stands and secondarily in the unthinned and ≥ 1000 trees/ha thinned stands, and hence did not support this part of H&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;. Mean carbon storage was similar among stands owing to the very large tree crowns in the heavily thinned stands and provided partial support for H&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;. Owing to ingress, total crop tree densities were similar among the four thinned stand densities ranging from 1199 to 1479 trees/ha. Heavily thinned stands had some old forest attributes including large dominant trees with substantial crowns, multi-layered canopies of coniferous trees, canopy gaps, and understory patchiness, and hence supported H&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt;. Mean total abundance of small mammals was similar among stands in 2023 but higher in the very low-density, unthinned, and old-growth stands than other stands in 2024, and hence partly supported H&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt;. To our knowledge, this is the first detailed reporting of the 30-year responses of tree growth metrics and stand development in thinned stands of lodgepole pine at a","PeriodicalId":12350,"journal":{"name":"Forest Ecology and Management","volume":"587 ","pages":"Article 122733"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143870091","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Site-specific growth-climate relationships of a widespread coniferous species across mountain areas","authors":"Dele Hou,&nbsp;Yihui Qin,&nbsp;Ziqing Zhang,&nbsp;Yongle Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.foreco.2025.122731","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.foreco.2025.122731","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The prevailing framework for evaluating the ecological responses of a species to climate change assumes the future conditions can be predicted based on spatial variations of this species' performance along climatic gradients. However, such growth-climate relationships for trees may be complicated in high-elevation mountain regions with rugged terrain, especially in semi-arid areas. Here, we investigated the climate sensitivity of a keystone subalpine coniferous species, Qinghai spruce (<em>Picea crassifolia</em> Kom.), using ten standard tree-ring width chronologies (STD) along the temperature and precipitation gradients of the Qilian Mountains. Based on their hydrothermal conditions, the ten sampling sites were classified into two climatic clusters. In warmer and drier conditions (<em>Cluster 1</em>), STD correlated with summer mean temperature negatively, but showed a significant positive correlation with summer precipitation, suggesting trees experienced significant drought stress. The relationships were the opposite at the sites with cooler and moister conditions (<em>Cluster 2</em>) that temperature acted as a limiting factor for tree growth. As the distribution of sites from the two clusters overlapped, the climate sensitivity of Qinghai spruce did not align with the northwest-southeast temperature and meridional precipitation gradients that were widely employed in previous studies. Our results highlight the importance of local climate effects on trees’ responses to climate changes, offering an alternative approach to assess the growth-climate response pattern in mountain forests and warranting the use of the space-for-time substitution in studies of climate change ecology.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12350,"journal":{"name":"Forest Ecology and Management","volume":"587 ","pages":"Article 122731"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143870087","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Linking individual- and species-level leaf traits with ontogenetic size to explain tree performance within competitive and environmental contexts","authors":"Keda Cui ,&nbsp;Wei Xu ,&nbsp;Minhui Hao ,&nbsp;Chunyu Fan ,&nbsp;Huaijiang He ,&nbsp;Juan Wang ,&nbsp;Xiuhai Zhao ,&nbsp;Klaus von Gadow ,&nbsp;Chunyu Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.foreco.2025.122730","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.foreco.2025.122730","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Establishing the relationship between functional traits and tree performance is critical to understanding forest ecosystem dynamics. However, how individual and species traits work together to influence tree growth and survival under complex environmental conditions remains a topic of debate. To clarify this issue, we analyzed leaf traits from 1320 individual trees of 17 species within a stem-mapped temperate natural forest to develop growth and survival models at both individual and species levels from 2010 to 2020. These traits were linked to ontogenetic size, competition, topography and soil properties to elucidate the drivers of tree performance. Our results showed that species-level traits moderated the influence of size and environment factors on growth., while individual-level traits mediated the effects of size, competition, and environmental conditions on tree performance. Providing new insights for trait-based studies in temperate forest ecosystems, this study uses mature natural forests to identify mechanisms by which species and individual traits interact with ontogenetic size, competition and environmental variables to explain tree performance.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12350,"journal":{"name":"Forest Ecology and Management","volume":"586 ","pages":"Article 122730"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143860535","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Removal of organic biomass in Eucalyptus plantations has a greater impact on fungal than on bacterial networks","authors":"Tanay Bose ,&nbsp;María Vivas ,&nbsp;Bernard Slippers ,&nbsp;Jolanda Roux ,&nbsp;Steven Dovey ,&nbsp;Martin Kemler ,&nbsp;Dominik Begerow ,&nbsp;Frederick Witfeld ,&nbsp;Andreas Brachmann ,&nbsp;Michael J. Wingfield ,&nbsp;Almuth Hammerbacher","doi":"10.1016/j.foreco.2025.122734","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.foreco.2025.122734","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Complex and stable soil microbial networks are essential for productivity in plantation forestry, but their response to disturbances from harvesting and replanting is not well understood. This study assessed the impact of treatments designed to mitigate these disturbances on microbial biodiversity and networks in <em>Eucalyptus</em> plantation soils at three South African sites. We used high-throughput sequencing to catalogue fungal and bacterial biodiversity from 108 soil samples across three treatments: (i) retention of harvest residues (retained), (ii) removal of residues (removed), and (iii) removal of residues with added fertilizer (fertilized). Bioinformatic and statistical analyses of the sequence data revealed treatment-specific variations in microbial OTU richness, network structure and taxon associations at order-level. Microbiome richness was highest in ‘retained’ plots, and treatment-specific microbial diversity was evident in both fungal and bacterial communities. Network comparisons revealed that treatments to mitigate disturbances caused by harvesting significantly affected fungal networks but not bacterial networks. Fungal networks in ‘retained’ plots exhibited the highest complexity and stability compared to plots where the entire crop was removed. However, bacterial networks did not show significant differences in network structure among treatments. The associations between fungal and bacterial nodes were consistent in the three treatments, as indicated by similar Jaccard indices. However, distinct fungal hub nodes were found when comparing the 'retained' and 'removed' treatments. These findings highlight that retaining harvest residues enhances microbial richness and stabilizes fungal networks, making it a better strategy for managing soil disturbances than residue removal or fertilization.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12350,"journal":{"name":"Forest Ecology and Management","volume":"586 ","pages":"Article 122734"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143860536","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Phosphorus stress disrupts leaf-root trait relationships and reduces biomass in a tropical cloud forest: Evidence from a two-year phosphorus addition experiment","authors":"Ewuketu Linger ,&nbsp;Mengesha Asefa ,&nbsp;Tao Zhang ,&nbsp;Linlin Lin ,&nbsp;Wenxing Long","doi":"10.1016/j.foreco.2025.122726","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.foreco.2025.122726","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Soil phosphorus, a crucial limiting nutrient in tropical forests, shapes plant morphology and functional strategies, thereby affecting overall forest productivity. However, most research to date on plant responses to phosphorus fertilization has focused only on aboveground traits, and little is known as to how trade-offs between above- and below-ground functional strategies may be affected. To address this research gap, we conducted a two-year (2022–2023) <em>in-situ</em> phosphorus fertilization experiment, situated in the tropical cloud forest within Bawangling, Hainan Island, South China. We tested how fertilization affected both above- and below-ground functional traits in saplings (1 cm ≤ DBH &lt; 5 cm) belonging to five dominant tree species. The experiment included 24 fixed 10 × 10 m plots, with treatments including an unfertilized control and five phosphorus application rates (1, 2, 4, 8, and 16 g/m² yr⁻¹); low (4 g/m² yr⁻¹), medium (8 g/m² yr⁻¹), and high (16 g/m² yr⁻¹) phosphorus treatments were individually compared. When phosphorus was limiting, we found negative correlations between above- and below-ground resource-use traits (e.g., leaf dry mass and root dry mass, leaf surface area and root surface area, leaf thickness and specific root length, and specific leaf area and specific root length), suggesting that phosphorus stress leads to trade-offs between above- and below-ground traits. Increasing phosphorus significantly increased the leaf chlorophyll content and total biomass, highlighting that phosphorus limitation constrains carbon assimilation and biomass production in tropical cloud forests. In contrast, traits such as leaf thickness, root dry mass, root surface area, root volume, and specific root length generally decreased as phosphorus availability increased, suggesting a shift toward greater photosynthetic efficiency and aboveground biomass production. Comparing study years, we found evidence that root traits responded faster to fertilization, with belowground traits responding more strongly in 2022 than 2023, while aboveground traits showed the opposite pattern. Although most community-weighted mean traits showed little variation among phosphorus treatments, species-specific responses were observed, suggesting that fertilization had a greater impact at the species versus community level. Our findings highlight that phosphorus plays a fundamental role in shaping sapling development in the tropical cloud forest, underlining the need for targeted management schemes to enhance carbon storage and ecosystem stability, thereby supporting climate change mitigation efforts.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12350,"journal":{"name":"Forest Ecology and Management","volume":"586 ","pages":"Article 122726"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143854743","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Mixed plantations promote carbon accumulation in plants and soil in arid and semi-arid regions: Evidence from the Loess Plateau of China","authors":"Chen Gong ,&nbsp;Wanting Zhu ,&nbsp;Guobin Liu ,&nbsp;Mingxiang Xu ,&nbsp;Qingyue Tan","doi":"10.1016/j.foreco.2025.122717","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.foreco.2025.122717","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>As effective close-to-nature management measures for artificial forests, mixed plantations play a crucial role in enhancing resilience to natural perturbations and maintaining environmental conditions. However, the impacts of mixed plantations on plant and soil carbon (C) stocks and their drivers in arid and semi-arid regions are unclear. Therefore, we conducted a meta-analysis based on 126 studies to evaluate the effects of mixed plantations on plants and soil C stocks in the Loess Plateau. Our results showed that, on average, the C stocks of plants and soil in mixed plantations were 11.39 % and 14.33 % higher than those in monocultures, respectively. The mixture effect on plant and soil C stocks increased with stand age, with more notable increases occurring in the tree-shrub mixture and deeper soils (100–200 cm). However, the mixture effect of soil C stocks decreased significantly with soil depth and mean annual precipitation (MAP). Furthermore, mixed plantations increased the soil C stocks while enhancing the C sequestration capacity of plants, and the positive effect of mixed plantations on the C sequestration capacity was significantly positively correlated with the dynamics of soil water and nitrogen content. Our findings indicate that maintaining high levels of plant diversity can increase soil C sequestration and promote the benefits of plant C accumulation in arid and semi-arid regions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12350,"journal":{"name":"Forest Ecology and Management","volume":"586 ","pages":"Article 122717"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143854742","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Elevational gradients and species similarities of climate responses for conifers in the southeastern Tibetan Plateau","authors":"Guofu Deng ,&nbsp;Mingqi Li ,&nbsp;Zhixin Hao ,&nbsp;Xuemei Shao ,&nbsp;Elena Xoplaki","doi":"10.1016/j.foreco.2025.122723","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.foreco.2025.122723","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Understanding the growth-climate relationships of trees across different elevations and selecting suitable species for regional climate reconstructions can optimize sampling and analysis efforts. This study developed 17 new tree-ring width chronologies along an elevation gradient from 3100 to 4400 m above sea level (m a.s.l.) on the southeastern Tibetan Plateau. We examined these growth-climate relationships using correlation and response function analyses to identify key growth-limiting factors at different elevations. The radial growth of Smith fir (<em>Abies georgei</em> var. <em>smithii</em>) at 3600–4400 m a.s.l. exhibited positive responses to prior November and July temperatures, but negative responses to May temperatures and June precipitation. For trees below 3600 m a.s.l., <em>Larix griffithii</em>, <em>Pinus densata</em>, and <em>Picea likiangensis</em> showed positive responses to April and June precipitation. The Vaganov-Shashkin model further revealed that June-July temperatures limited the growth of Smith fir above 3600 m a.s.l., whereas early-summer soil moisture was the primary limiting factor below 3500 m a.s.l. This indicates that lower-elevation conifers are more vulnerable to spring-summer droughts. Mixed forests exhibited similar drought responses, with 50–70 % of narrow rings forming during drought years and 20–30 % in the following year. Among those species, <em>P. likiangensis</em> was identified as the most suitable for long-term climate reconstruction due to its greater longevity.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12350,"journal":{"name":"Forest Ecology and Management","volume":"586 ","pages":"Article 122723"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143854741","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}