Pub Date : 2026-01-17DOI: 10.1016/j.foreco.2026.123529
Sarah L. Hettema , Camille Stevens-Rumann , Hannah Van Dusen , Mike A. Battaglia , Anthony G. Vorster , Jens Stevens
As extreme wildfire events become more frequent, understanding how forest treatments interact with wildfire is increasingly critical. However, assessing wildfire-treatment outcomes is challenging due to interactions among treatments, weather, topography, and fuels. We investigated wildfires from southern Wyoming to northern New Mexico to evaluate under what conditions treatments reduce the ecological impacts of fire, as measured by remotely sensed burn severity. We determined (1) factors influencing the relationship between treatments and burn severity, (2) how burn severity differed across forest and treatment types, and (3) how extreme burning conditions influenced outcomes. Treatment effects varied by forest types, with generally lower burn severity outcomes in lower elevation, frequent fire forest types compared to spruce - fir and lodgepole pine (higher elevation, infrequent fire) forests. Areas that previously burned at low to moderate severity or with prescribed fire had the lowest burn severity outcomes across forest types and even during extreme burning conditions. In contrast, treatments without fire (tree removal and/or surface fuels reduction) had mixed effects across forest types and had equivalent burn severity to untreated areas in infrequent fire forests during extreme burning conditions.
{"title":"Burn severity across forest types and burning conditions for forest treatments on the southern rockies Front Range","authors":"Sarah L. Hettema , Camille Stevens-Rumann , Hannah Van Dusen , Mike A. Battaglia , Anthony G. Vorster , Jens Stevens","doi":"10.1016/j.foreco.2026.123529","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.foreco.2026.123529","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>As extreme wildfire events become more frequent, understanding how forest treatments interact with wildfire is increasingly critical. However, assessing wildfire-treatment outcomes is challenging due to interactions among treatments, weather, topography, and fuels. We investigated wildfires from southern Wyoming to northern New Mexico to evaluate under what conditions treatments reduce the ecological impacts of fire, as measured by remotely sensed burn severity. We determined (1) factors influencing the relationship between treatments and burn severity, (2) how burn severity differed across forest and treatment types, and (3) how extreme burning conditions influenced outcomes. Treatment effects varied by forest types, with generally lower burn severity outcomes in lower elevation, frequent fire forest types compared to spruce - fir and lodgepole pine (higher elevation, infrequent fire) forests. Areas that previously burned at low to moderate severity or with prescribed fire had the lowest burn severity outcomes across forest types and even during extreme burning conditions. In contrast, treatments without fire (tree removal and/or surface fuels reduction) had mixed effects across forest types and had equivalent burn severity to untreated areas in infrequent fire forests during extreme burning conditions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12350,"journal":{"name":"Forest Ecology and Management","volume":"606 ","pages":"Article 123529"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-01-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145986699","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}
Pub Date : 2026-01-17DOI: 10.1016/j.foreco.2026.123536
Marsh Hlavka, Marlyse Duguid, Mark Ashton
The characteristic shrubland of regenerating temperate mixed hardwood forests provide habitat for many early successional specialist species. The irregular shelterwood is a silvicultural method for regenerating a forest that promotes young complex shrubland landscapes for a period of 15–25 years. In this study, we surveyed bird diversity across an irregular shelterwood chronosequence of a southern New England oak-mixed hardwood forest. We measured the variation in diversity across a chronosequence comprising 31 stands and 30 years of growth as of 2022, with particular focus on nesting guilds. Secondly, we conducted a longitudinal analysis of bird diversity in each stand over a period of 16 years to assess the reliability of the shelterwood chronosequence as a within-year proxy for long-term study. Similar to many prior studies, we found that overall diversity and bird abundance decrease as the regenerating shelterwood ages. Over a 30-year period after harvest, Shannon diversity decreased by over 10 %, species richness decreased by over 20 %, and relative abundance decreased by 50 %. Shrub-nesting birds are particularly sensitive to the loss of young regenerating and shrubland habitat and decrease sharply in abundance as a forest ages, from 51 % of the population to 12 % after 30 years. Ground-nesting birds increase in abundance with young regenerating forests and tree-nesting birds are unaffected by stand age, from 8 % to 40 % over 30 years. However, most importantly, we show these trends occurred both longitudinally and within a single year, indicating that the use of a chronosequence is an effective method of measuring trends in bird abundance and diversity over a period of forest regeneration. This is the first study demonstrating the validity of this method for estimating breeding birds in temperate forests and allows for a more widespread application of its use, particularly where long-term monitoring has not been done.
{"title":"Testing the validity of a chronosequence: Breeding bird diversity and abundance in regenerating oak-hardwood shelterwoods","authors":"Marsh Hlavka, Marlyse Duguid, Mark Ashton","doi":"10.1016/j.foreco.2026.123536","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.foreco.2026.123536","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The characteristic shrubland of regenerating temperate mixed hardwood forests provide habitat for many early successional specialist species. The irregular shelterwood is a silvicultural method for regenerating a forest that promotes young complex shrubland landscapes for a period of 15–25 years. In this study, we surveyed bird diversity across an irregular shelterwood chronosequence of a southern New England oak-mixed hardwood forest. We measured the variation in diversity across a chronosequence comprising 31 stands and 30 years of growth as of 2022, with particular focus on nesting guilds. Secondly, we conducted a longitudinal analysis of bird diversity in each stand over a period of 16 years to assess the reliability of the shelterwood chronosequence as a within-year proxy for long-term study. Similar to many prior studies, we found that overall diversity and bird abundance decrease as the regenerating shelterwood ages. Over a 30-year period after harvest, Shannon diversity decreased by over 10 %, species richness decreased by over 20 %, and relative abundance decreased by 50 %. Shrub-nesting birds are particularly sensitive to the loss of young regenerating and shrubland habitat and decrease sharply in abundance as a forest ages, from 51 % of the population to 12 % after 30 years. Ground-nesting birds increase in abundance with young regenerating forests and tree-nesting birds are unaffected by stand age, from 8 % to 40 % over 30 years. However, most importantly, we show these trends occurred both longitudinally and within a single year, indicating that the use of a chronosequence is an effective method of measuring trends in bird abundance and diversity over a period of forest regeneration. This is the first study demonstrating the validity of this method for estimating breeding birds in temperate forests and allows for a more widespread application of its use, particularly where long-term monitoring has not been done.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12350,"journal":{"name":"Forest Ecology and Management","volume":"606 ","pages":"Article 123536"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-01-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145986698","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}
Pub Date : 2026-01-16DOI: 10.1016/j.foreco.2026.123523
Sabina M. Aitken , Pieter A. Arnold , Matthew T. Brookhouse , Alicia M. Cook , Lisa M. Danzey , Rosalie J. Harris , Andy Leigh , Adrienne B. Nicotra
Warming and drying climate trends have been linked to tree-dieback phenomena worldwide with broad-reaching impacts on ecosystem services. Studying tree decline is unavoidably a retrospective exercise in which a challenge lies in determining whether trait values contribute to, or are consequences of, decline. Here we used sub-alpine snow gum (Eucalyptus pauciflora ssp. niphophila) to test whether plant traits explain vulnerability of individual trees to decline, assess how progression of dieback symptoms affect traits and physiological tolerance, and ask whether those responses could exacerbate decline. Snow gum woodlands are in widespread decline reflecting the compounding effects of climate warming and drought, and infestation by the wood-boring cerambycid, Phoracantha mastersi. While the impact of drought on tree mortality is well documented, we considered the potential role of heat stress, given exposure of high-elevation forests to increasing temperature. We measured changes in leaf and stem morphology, and stomatal anatomy across orthogonal dieback severity and elevation gradients. Trees showing severe dieback exhibited trait values indicating water stress, while less severely- and un-affected trees did not differ. This suggests observed differences are responses to stress caused by the impacts of wood-borer infestation and provide no evidence of underlying differences in vulnerability. We also modelled the viability of photosynthetic machinery in leaves under current and future climate scenarios; models indicated that leaves on severely-affected trees were likely to accumulate lethal damage to photosystems within a growing season. Even under the current thermal regime, dieback affected trees have lower capacity to tolerate compounded extreme events, contributing to a feedback cycle of decline.
{"title":"Morphological and heat-tolerance traits are associated with progression and impact of, but not vulnerability to, tree decline","authors":"Sabina M. Aitken , Pieter A. Arnold , Matthew T. Brookhouse , Alicia M. Cook , Lisa M. Danzey , Rosalie J. Harris , Andy Leigh , Adrienne B. Nicotra","doi":"10.1016/j.foreco.2026.123523","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.foreco.2026.123523","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Warming and drying climate trends have been linked to tree-dieback phenomena worldwide with broad-reaching impacts on ecosystem services. Studying tree decline is unavoidably a retrospective exercise in which a challenge lies in determining whether trait values contribute to, or are consequences of, decline. Here we used sub-alpine snow gum (<em>Eucalyptus pauciflora</em> ssp. <em>niphophila</em>) to test whether plant traits explain vulnerability of individual trees to decline, assess how progression of dieback symptoms affect traits and physiological tolerance, and ask whether those responses could exacerbate decline. Snow gum woodlands are in widespread decline reflecting the compounding effects of climate warming and drought, and infestation by the wood-boring cerambycid, <em>Phoracantha mastersi</em>. While the impact of drought on tree mortality is well documented, we considered the potential role of heat stress, given exposure of high-elevation forests to increasing temperature. We measured changes in leaf and stem morphology, and stomatal anatomy across orthogonal dieback severity and elevation gradients. Trees showing severe dieback exhibited trait values indicating water stress, while less severely- and un-affected trees did not differ. This suggests observed differences are responses to stress caused by the impacts of wood-borer infestation and provide no evidence of underlying differences in vulnerability. We also modelled the viability of photosynthetic machinery in leaves under current and future climate scenarios; models indicated that leaves on severely-affected trees were likely to accumulate lethal damage to photosystems within a growing season. Even under the current thermal regime, dieback affected trees have lower capacity to tolerate compounded extreme events, contributing to a feedback cycle of decline.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12350,"journal":{"name":"Forest Ecology and Management","volume":"605 ","pages":"Article 123523"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-01-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145974840","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}
Pub Date : 2026-01-16DOI: 10.1016/j.foreco.2025.123461
Saba J. Saberi , Phillip J. van Mantgem , Micah C. Wright , Christopher Y.S. Wong , Andrew M. Latimer , Derek J.N. Young
Accurate mapping of post-fire surviving trees is important for tracking forest recovery and prioritizing land management decisions. Satellite-based remote sensing is an effective method to assess post-fire forest conditions. Traditionally, differenced satellite-derived burn severity indices are computed by differencing one year pre- and post-fire spectral reflectance values. Differenced burn severity indices are useful for quantifying and mapping the magnitude of ecological change, but their application to detecting and mapping post-fire live trees may not be as appropriate, particularly for delayed tree mortality. Delayed tree mortality (“delayed mortality”) is a phenomenon where trees that initially survive fire then die over an extended period (between one and five years), and it can be challenging to measure and predict. In this study, we demonstrate the potential of mapping delayed mortality using readily available remotely sensed imagery alone. We used random forest models to detect post-fire live trees using 10-m resolution Sentinel-2 data at one-, three-, and five-years post-fire for four fires in the southern Sierra Nevada, California, USA. Using imagery from the National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP; 60-cm resolution), we manually classified live tree presence in 6000 Sentinel-2 pixels (500 pixels for each fire-year combination) to calibrate and validate models. Sentinel-2 based model accuracies ranged from 65 % to 86 % with F-scores ranging from 0.52 to 0.86, and their predictions of live pixel area were on average 44 % lower than inferred from more traditional indices such as relative differenced normalized burn ratio (RdNBR). This work represents a promising first step in using freely available post-fire spectral reflectance imagery to detect live trees over an extended period to support post-fire management.
{"title":"Quantifying post-fire live tree presence and spatial variation using Sentinel-2 time series","authors":"Saba J. Saberi , Phillip J. van Mantgem , Micah C. Wright , Christopher Y.S. Wong , Andrew M. Latimer , Derek J.N. Young","doi":"10.1016/j.foreco.2025.123461","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.foreco.2025.123461","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Accurate mapping of post-fire surviving trees is important for tracking forest recovery and prioritizing land management decisions. Satellite-based remote sensing is an effective method to assess post-fire forest conditions. Traditionally, differenced satellite-derived burn severity indices are computed by differencing one year pre- and post-fire spectral reflectance values. Differenced burn severity indices are useful for quantifying and mapping the magnitude of ecological change, but their application to detecting and mapping post-fire live trees may not be as appropriate, particularly for delayed tree mortality. Delayed tree mortality (“delayed mortality”) is a phenomenon where trees that initially survive fire then die over an extended period (between one and five years), and it can be challenging to measure and predict. In this study, we demonstrate the potential of mapping delayed mortality using readily available remotely sensed imagery alone. We used random forest models to detect post-fire live trees using 10-m resolution Sentinel-2 data at one-, three-, and five-years post-fire for four fires in the southern Sierra Nevada, California, USA. Using imagery from the National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP; 60-cm resolution), we manually classified live tree presence in 6000 Sentinel-2 pixels (500 pixels for each fire-year combination) to calibrate and validate models. Sentinel-2 based model accuracies ranged from 65 % to 86 % with F-scores ranging from 0.52 to 0.86, and their predictions of live pixel area were on average 44 % lower than inferred from more traditional indices such as relative differenced normalized burn ratio (RdNBR). This work represents a promising first step in using freely available post-fire spectral reflectance imagery to detect live trees over an extended period to support post-fire management.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12350,"journal":{"name":"Forest Ecology and Management","volume":"605 ","pages":"Article 123461"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-01-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145974870","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}
Pub Date : 2026-01-15DOI: 10.1016/j.foreco.2026.123506
Alexandra Koller , Alina Azekenova , Karl-Heinz Feger , Karsten Kalbitz , Goddert von Oheimb
Climate change is deteriorating the health, growth and thus functioning and services of forests through ongoing droughts and an increase in the severity of these effects is predicted. Although fine roots can serve as an early indicator of drought stress, we still lack a basic understanding of how tree fine root vitality is reflected in aboveground tree morphology. Our study uses multitemporal fine root data obtained by sequential coring, as well as high-resolution tree crown data obtained by terrestrial laser scanning in mature European beech (Fagus sylvatica) stands. First, we assessed which fine root vitality traits are affected by drought, and second, evaluated the relationship between fine root vitality and crown vitality including trees within three different radial distances (5, 8 or 10 m) from the fine root sampling point. We found that fine root necromass, fine root biomass to necromass ratio and turnover were correlated with drought. Mainly fine roots in the upper 10 cm of soil affected the crown vitality of beech trees within a 5-m radius of the fine root sampling point, highlighting the tree-centred horizontal distribution of fine roots and shallow rooting pattern of beech. A decreased fine root vitality in the upper soil in the previous growing seasons led to decreased crown vitality. Including fine root inventories in forest monitoring protocols could substantially improve our understanding of the status and trends of forests and enable forest management to deal more effectively with the growing pressure on forests.
{"title":"Fine root vitality decline results in reduced branch formation in mature beech stands after drought","authors":"Alexandra Koller , Alina Azekenova , Karl-Heinz Feger , Karsten Kalbitz , Goddert von Oheimb","doi":"10.1016/j.foreco.2026.123506","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.foreco.2026.123506","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Climate change is deteriorating the health, growth and thus functioning and services of forests through ongoing droughts and an increase in the severity of these effects is predicted. Although fine roots can serve as an early indicator of drought stress, we still lack a basic understanding of how tree fine root vitality is reflected in aboveground tree morphology. Our study uses multitemporal fine root data obtained by sequential coring, as well as high-resolution tree crown data obtained by terrestrial laser scanning in mature European beech (<em>Fagus sylvatica</em>) stands. First, we assessed which fine root vitality traits are affected by drought, and second, evaluated the relationship between fine root vitality and crown vitality including trees within three different radial distances (5, 8 or 10 m) from the fine root sampling point. We found that fine root necromass, fine root biomass to necromass ratio and turnover were correlated with drought. Mainly fine roots in the upper 10 cm of soil affected the crown vitality of beech trees within a 5-m radius of the fine root sampling point, highlighting the tree-centred horizontal distribution of fine roots and shallow rooting pattern of beech. A decreased fine root vitality in the upper soil in the previous growing seasons led to decreased crown vitality. Including fine root inventories in forest monitoring protocols could substantially improve our understanding of the status and trends of forests and enable forest management to deal more effectively with the growing pressure on forests.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12350,"journal":{"name":"Forest Ecology and Management","volume":"605 ","pages":"Article 123506"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145974875","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}
Pub Date : 2026-01-15DOI: 10.1016/j.foreco.2026.123527
Lorenzo Orzan , Antonio Tomao , Gabriele Antoniella , Gianmaria Bonari , Valentino Casolo , Tommaso Chiti , Paolo Cingano , Alessandro Foscari , Guido Incerti , Speranza Claudia Panico , Natalie Piazza , Giacomo Trotta , Giorgio Alberti
Spontaneous forest expansion following land abandonment can play a key role in achieving European targets for climate-change mitigation and biodiversity conservation. Understanding how biodiversity relates to carbon (C) stocks across successional stages can inform management strategies that simultaneously promote species diversity and C sequestration, thereby optimizing land use for ecosystem multifunctionality. We analysed 16 chronosequences spanning five successional stages, from meadows and pastures to mature forests (up to ∼75 years since abandonment), organized into four clusters along a latitudinal gradient in Italy, encompassing the Alpine, Continental, and Mediterranean biogeographical regions. We quantified vegetation, deadwood, and soil C pools and calculated diversity indices for herbaceous plant species. Linear and generalized linear mixed models were used to assess successional stage and site effects on C stocks and diversity indices. Total ecosystem C increased along succession, driven primarily by tree biomass, reaching 195–289 Mg C ha−1 in late-successional forests. Soil C showed no clear successional trend, with weak or site-specific patterns. Herbaceous species richness and diversity peaked in managed meadows/pastures and early encroachment stages but declined towards closed-canopy forests in three sites. By contrast, a U-shaped pattern emerged in the southernmost site. Consequently, the C–diversity relationship was predominantly negative, except for the non-linear response observed in the Mediterranean site. Overall, spontaneous reforestation promotes C storage but often reduce herbaceous plant diversity, revealing potential trade-offs between climate mitigation and plant diversity. However, under favourable environmental conditions, partial recovery of plant diversity in late-successional forests may occur, suggesting for win-win management policies.
在放弃土地后自发扩大森林，可在实现欧洲减缓气候变化和保护生物多样性的目标方面发挥关键作用。了解生物多样性与不同演替阶段碳(C)储量之间的关系，可以为同时促进物种多样性和碳封存的管理策略提供信息，从而优化土地利用，实现生态系统的多功能。我们分析了16个时间序列，跨越5个演替阶段，从草甸和牧场到成熟森林（遗弃后长达75年），沿着意大利的纬度梯度组织成4个集群，包括高山、大陆和地中海生物地理区域。我们量化了植被、枯木和土壤C库，并计算了草本植物物种的多样性指数。采用线性和广义线性混合模型评价演替阶段和场址效应对C种群和多样性指数的影响。生态系统总碳随演替而增加，主要受树木生物量的驱动，在演替后期森林达到195 ~ 289 Mg C ha - 1。土壤C的演替趋势不明显，表现出微弱的演替格局或特定的演替格局。3个样地草本物种丰富度和多样性在有管理的草甸/牧场和早期入侵阶段达到峰值，而在闭林阶段有所下降。相比之下，在最南端出现了u形图案。因此，c -多样性关系主要是负的，除了在地中海遗址观察到的非线性响应。总体而言，自发再造林促进了碳储存，但往往减少了草本植物多样性，揭示了减缓气候变化与植物多样性之间的潜在权衡。然而，在有利的环境条件下，晚演替林的植物多样性可能会出现部分恢复，建议采取双赢的管理政策。
{"title":"As forests reclaim the land: Latitudinal variations in carbon-biodiversity trade-offs under natural forest expansion in Italy","authors":"Lorenzo Orzan , Antonio Tomao , Gabriele Antoniella , Gianmaria Bonari , Valentino Casolo , Tommaso Chiti , Paolo Cingano , Alessandro Foscari , Guido Incerti , Speranza Claudia Panico , Natalie Piazza , Giacomo Trotta , Giorgio Alberti","doi":"10.1016/j.foreco.2026.123527","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.foreco.2026.123527","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Spontaneous forest expansion following land abandonment can play a key role in achieving European targets for climate-change mitigation and biodiversity conservation. Understanding how biodiversity relates to carbon (C) stocks across successional stages can inform management strategies that simultaneously promote species diversity and C sequestration, thereby optimizing land use for ecosystem multifunctionality. We analysed 16 chronosequences spanning five successional stages, from meadows and pastures to mature forests (up to ∼75 years since abandonment), organized into four clusters along a latitudinal gradient in Italy, encompassing the Alpine, Continental, and Mediterranean biogeographical regions. We quantified vegetation, deadwood, and soil C pools and calculated diversity indices for herbaceous plant species. Linear and generalized linear mixed models were used to assess successional stage and site effects on C stocks and diversity indices. Total ecosystem C increased along succession, driven primarily by tree biomass, reaching 195–289 Mg C ha<sup>−1</sup> in late-successional forests. Soil C showed no clear successional trend, with weak or site-specific patterns. Herbaceous species richness and diversity peaked in managed meadows/pastures and early encroachment stages but declined towards closed-canopy forests in three sites. By contrast, a U-shaped pattern emerged in the southernmost site. Consequently, the C–diversity relationship was predominantly negative, except for the non-linear response observed in the Mediterranean site. Overall, spontaneous reforestation promotes C storage but often reduce herbaceous plant diversity, revealing potential trade-offs between climate mitigation and plant diversity. However, under favourable environmental conditions, partial recovery of plant diversity in late-successional forests may occur, suggesting for win-win management policies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12350,"journal":{"name":"Forest Ecology and Management","volume":"605 ","pages":"Article 123527"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145974877","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}
Integrating biodiversity objectives into production forestry requires management practices that maintain structural and functional diversity over time. In hemiboreal regions, historical favouring of conifers has simplified forest composition, reducing broadleaved components crucial to understorey diversity. Selective canopy release through halo thinning has been proposed as a multifunctional approach to enhance habitat heterogeneity, yet its long-term ecological outcomes remain insufficiently quantified. This study retrospectively assessed canopy light conditions and forest ground-cover vegetation around halo-thinned pedunculate oak (Quercus robur L.) trees twenty years after the intervention in mixed hemiboreal forests of Latvia. Vegetation surveys and hemispherical canopy photography were conducted in the vicinity of 22 halo-thinned and 21 control oak trees across eight forest stands. Ground-cover vegetation structure beneath remnant oak trees was broadly comparable between managed and control plots, with no persistent differences in cover, richness, or diversity. Species associated with oak-dominated habitats likewise showed limited responses, indicating that targeted oak release alone was insufficient to recreate conditions characteristic of broadleaved forests. Notably, herb-layer richness showed no consistent relationship with stand basal area or gap fraction but was strongly associated with fine-scale canopy architecture, emphasising that foliage distribution, rather than overall stand openness, shaped long-term understorey responses. Overall, the findings suggest that small-scale halo thinning alone is unlikely to induce persistent shifts in understorey composition, but it may help maintain structural heterogeneity around remnant oaks. When integrated with broader or repeated interventions, halo thinning may contribute to multipurpose forestry strategies that reconcile oak conservation with production-oriented forest management.
{"title":"Retrospective long-term effects of halo thinning: Ground-cover vegetation diversity 20 years after remnant oak release","authors":"Agnese Anta Liepiņa, Diāna Jansone, Didzis Elferts, Jānis Donis, Zane Lībiete","doi":"10.1016/j.foreco.2026.123522","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.foreco.2026.123522","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Integrating biodiversity objectives into production forestry requires management practices that maintain structural and functional diversity over time. In hemiboreal regions, historical favouring of conifers has simplified forest composition, reducing broadleaved components crucial to understorey diversity. Selective canopy release through halo thinning has been proposed as a multifunctional approach to enhance habitat heterogeneity, yet its long-term ecological outcomes remain insufficiently quantified. This study retrospectively assessed canopy light conditions and forest ground-cover vegetation around halo-thinned pedunculate oak (<em>Quercus robur</em> L.) trees twenty years after the intervention in mixed hemiboreal forests of Latvia. Vegetation surveys and hemispherical canopy photography were conducted in the vicinity of 22 halo-thinned and 21 control oak trees across eight forest stands. Ground-cover vegetation structure beneath remnant oak trees was broadly comparable between managed and control plots, with no persistent differences in cover, richness, or diversity. Species associated with oak-dominated habitats likewise showed limited responses, indicating that targeted oak release alone was insufficient to recreate conditions characteristic of broadleaved forests. Notably, herb-layer richness showed no consistent relationship with stand basal area or gap fraction but was strongly associated with fine-scale canopy architecture, emphasising that foliage distribution, rather than overall stand openness, shaped long-term understorey responses. Overall, the findings suggest that small-scale halo thinning alone is unlikely to induce persistent shifts in understorey composition, but it may help maintain structural heterogeneity around remnant oaks. When integrated with broader or repeated interventions, halo thinning may contribute to multipurpose forestry strategies that reconcile oak conservation with production-oriented forest management.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12350,"journal":{"name":"Forest Ecology and Management","volume":"605 ","pages":"Article 123522"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145974839","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}
Pub Date : 2026-01-14DOI: 10.1016/j.foreco.2026.123503
Otávio Miranda Verly , Pedro Manuel Villa , Marcelo Vitor Gualberto Santos Chaves , Samuel José Silva Soares da Rocha , Luiz Claudio Medeiros Cabral-da-Silva , Klisman Oliveira , Maria Paula Miranda Xavier Rufino , Samuel Braz Vieira , D’lano Figueiredo Teixeira Sathler , Jacinto Moreira de Lana , Carlos Moreira Miquelino Eleto Torres
In the fragmented landscape, such as Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest, anthropogenic and environmental factors shape tree diversity. These factors modulate the dynamics among species with different population proportions. We explored how anthropogenic and environmental conditions, as well as diversity, influence forest dynamics in the Atlantic Rainforest. We used 20 years of forest inventory data from 53 plots in four fragments with different land-use histories. Environmental variables and taxonomic and functional diversity indices were obtained at the plot level. We also calculated net values of abundance (NDA) and biomass (NDB) dynamics for different species abundance classes (SAC): common, intermediate, and rare. We explored the relationships between the variables sets and NDB and NDA of each SAC by building linear mixed-effects models (LMM), in which land-use history (LUH) was included as a random effect, while the other variables were grouped as fixed effects. Over 20 years, we conducted 24,379 measurements on 6838 stems, with continuous increases in biomass, basal area, and diversity in most areas, despite local fluctuations in stem density. A total of 514 species were recorded, rotating between 423 (2002) and 440 (2022), with Myrtaceae, Fabaceae, and Lauraceae standing out. The SAC contributed distinctly to abundance and biomass. The richest forests had dominance distributed among a greater number of species, and poorer forests concentrated it in fewer species, a pattern maintained over 20 years. The abundance of common species decreased, but their biomass increased; rare species increased in both. The LMMs varied in performance across variable groups and dynamic components. For the NDB and dynamics of intermediate species, the models were not very accurate. Diversity and landscape models were the most explanatory variables, dominated by the random effect of LUH. At the fixed effects level, in general, common species responded to temperature, dry-season precipitation, and diversity; and rare species to anthropogenic landscape and soil variables. We revealed that different tree abundance classes respond differently to environmental and historical factors and highlight the importance of conserving rare species and maintaining diversity to ensure forest biomass stability and growth in the face of climate change and anthropogenic pressures.
{"title":"Decoupling abundance and biomass in secondary Atlantic Rainforest: Differential responses of rare and common tree species to environmental drivers","authors":"Otávio Miranda Verly , Pedro Manuel Villa , Marcelo Vitor Gualberto Santos Chaves , Samuel José Silva Soares da Rocha , Luiz Claudio Medeiros Cabral-da-Silva , Klisman Oliveira , Maria Paula Miranda Xavier Rufino , Samuel Braz Vieira , D’lano Figueiredo Teixeira Sathler , Jacinto Moreira de Lana , Carlos Moreira Miquelino Eleto Torres","doi":"10.1016/j.foreco.2026.123503","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.foreco.2026.123503","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In the fragmented landscape, such as Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest, anthropogenic and environmental factors shape tree diversity. These factors modulate the dynamics among species with different population proportions. We explored how anthropogenic and environmental conditions, as well as diversity, influence forest dynamics in the Atlantic Rainforest. We used 20 years of forest inventory data from 53 plots in four fragments with different land-use histories. Environmental variables and taxonomic and functional diversity indices were obtained at the plot level. We also calculated net values of abundance (NDA) and biomass (NDB) dynamics for different species abundance classes (SAC): common, intermediate, and rare. We explored the relationships between the variables sets and NDB and NDA of each SAC by building linear mixed-effects models (LMM), in which land-use history (LUH) was included as a random effect, while the other variables were grouped as fixed effects. Over 20 years, we conducted 24,379 measurements on 6838 stems, with continuous increases in biomass, basal area, and diversity in most areas, despite local fluctuations in stem density. A total of 514 species were recorded, rotating between 423 (2002) and 440 (2022), with Myrtaceae, Fabaceae, and Lauraceae standing out. The SAC contributed distinctly to abundance and biomass. The richest forests had dominance distributed among a greater number of species, and poorer forests concentrated it in fewer species, a pattern maintained over 20 years. The abundance of common species decreased, but their biomass increased; rare species increased in both. The LMMs varied in performance across variable groups and dynamic components. For the NDB and dynamics of intermediate species, the models were not very accurate. Diversity and landscape models were the most explanatory variables, dominated by the random effect of LUH. At the fixed effects level, in general, common species responded to temperature, dry-season precipitation, and diversity; and rare species to anthropogenic landscape and soil variables. We revealed that different tree abundance classes respond differently to environmental and historical factors and highlight the importance of conserving rare species and maintaining diversity to ensure forest biomass stability and growth in the face of climate change and anthropogenic pressures.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12350,"journal":{"name":"Forest Ecology and Management","volume":"605 ","pages":"Article 123503"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-01-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145974876","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}
Pub Date : 2026-01-14DOI: 10.1016/j.foreco.2025.123501
Stefan Kaufmann , Mareike Delp, Denise Heinze, Line Kreimeyer, Miriam Rosenbach, Markus Hauck
Pseudotsuga menziesii is considered as a replacement tree species for the drought-sensitive Picea abies in Central European forests, which was often cultivated outside its natural elevational distribution range. Hence, the natural tree species composition at lower elevations was replaced mostly by Picea abies, which in turn is partly displaced by Pseudotsuga menziesii. How epiphytic bryophytes and lichens respond to such alterations of the natural tree species composition has been only insufficiently studied so far. Hence, we compared taxonomic and functional diversity patterns of epiphytes between each 48 tree individuals of Picea abies and Pseudotsuga menziesii with native Abies alba along an elevation gradient in temperate mountain forests of southwest Germany. Lichen α- and γ-diversity was significantly higher on Abies alba, whereas no difference was found for bryophytes. Our models indicated that stem diameter and elevation as well as Abies alba, contrary to Picea abies and Pseudotsuga menziesii, favoured lichen richness. Again, no impact on bryophyte richness was detectable. Trait-based analysis revealed that Pseudotsuga menziesii was preferred by acidophytes. Especially lichen species with the secondary metabolite fumarprotocetraric acid were apparently able to colonize the highly acidic bark. Contrary to this, lichens with parietin and usnic acid avoided Douglas fir and were rather associated with Picea abies and Abies alba, which was also strongly preferred by liverworts and obligate epiphytic bryophytes. Threshold indicator taxa analysis identified epiphyte communities already increasing in abundance at ∼750 m a.s.l. on Abies alba, but only at ∼950 m a.s.l. on Picea abies and Pseudotsuga menziesii. Abies alba turned out to be a very valuable tree species for epiphytic bryophytes and lichens compared to non-native Pseudotsuga menziesii and Picea abies, when cultivated outside its natural range. At lower elevations, epiphytes do not seem to have the capability to adapt to Douglas fir and spruce under the present climate, but only at higher elevations under further increased humidity levels. This suggests that the anthropogenic change in tree species composition pushed epiphytes of the natural forest vegetation towards higher elevations.
孟氏假杉木被认为是中欧森林中对干旱敏感的云杉的替代树种，通常在其自然海拔分布范围之外种植。因此，低海拔地区的天然树种组成主要被云杉（Picea abies）所取代，部分被孟氏假杉（Pseudotsuga menziesii）所取代。到目前为止，对附生苔藓和地衣如何对自然树种组成的这种变化作出反应的研究还不够充分。因此，我们沿着海拔梯度比较了德国西南部温带山地森林中云杉、门齐假杉和本地白冷杉每48个树个体间附生植物的分类和功能多样性格局。地衣α-和γ-多样性在冷杉中显著高于苔藓植物，而在苔藓植物中无显著差异。我们的模型表明，与云杉和门齐假杉相反，白杉的茎粗和海拔以及冷杉更有利于地衣丰富度。同样，没有检测到对苔藓植物丰富度的影响。基于性状的分析表明，孟氏假糖是酸性植物的首选。特别是具有次级代谢物富马原三羧酸的地衣物种显然能够在高酸性树皮上定殖。与此相反的是，具有壁素和usnic酸的地衣避开花旗松，而与云杉和冷杉有密切关系，而这些地衣也被苔类和专性附生苔藓强烈偏爱。阈值指标分类群分析发现，冷杉（Abies alba）的附生植物群落在~ 750 m a.s.l.已经增加，而云杉（Picea Abies）和门氏假杉（Pseudotsuga menziesii）的附生植物群落仅在~ 950 m a.s.l.增加。结果表明，在其自然范围外栽培的白冷杉是一种非常有价值的附生苔藓和地衣树种，而非本地的孟氏伪杉树和冷杉。在低海拔地区，附生植物似乎不具备适应花旗松和云杉的能力，而只有在高海拔地区，在进一步增加的湿度水平下才能适应。这表明，人为的树种组成变化推动了天然林植被的附生植物向海拔较高的方向发展。
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