Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment最新文献

Disturbances from insect pests threaten ecologically and economically important goods and services supplied by forests, including wood production and carbon sequestration. We highlight the factors that influence these services’ resistance, a term quantifying the initial response to disturbance. Insects inflict damage through a range of mechanisms, prompting distinct plant physiological responses that scale to influence ecosystem processes and, with time, goods and services. The degree and timing of tree mortality and defoliation affect the amount of residual vegetation available to support compensatory wood production and influence carbon sequestration by changing rates of detritus-fueled decomposition. Compounding, or sequential, insect attacks may prime a forest for additional disturbance, further eroding wood production and carbon sequestration. Forest management practices that promote biological and structural diversity, and augment or retain limiting biological and nutrient resources, may buffer against the effects of insect pests on wood production and carbon sequestration.

Finding ways to improve the sustainability of modern agriculture by recovering nature in agricultural landscapes is critical for conserving biodiversity and enhancing human well-being. Rewilding principles could be applied to any type of landscape, which raises the possibility of employing rewilding approaches in agricultural areas while maintaining some degree of food production therein. Moving beyond the simple dichotomy of land sparing versus land sharing, here we propose a multi-scale approach that integrates rewilding principles into agricultural landscapes by combining the creation of wilder ecosystems in separate set-aside recovered areas with the implementation of farming approaches that are more sustainable, such as precision farming, ecologically intensified farming, and extensive farming, in adjacent areas. Adoption of such approaches would allow for more biodiversity elements to persist within the agricultural matrix. We explain how this approach could support the three critical components of rewilded land—dispersal, trophic complexity, and stochastic disturbances—and create agroecological landscapes that are biodiverse, resilient, and functionally connected at multiple scales.

Invasive plants often benefit from a change in eco-evolutionary context, escaping the herbivores, pathogens, and competing plants from their native range. Introduced into naïve native communities, invasive plants can spread rapidly, threatening native plant diversity and ecosystem functioning. Increasingly, studies have shown that native species sometimes adapt in response to the selection pressures imposed by an invasive plant. While researchers have periodically suggested using adapted native species in the management of invasive plants, the idea generally has not found its way to the field. Here, we (1) compare the concept to the more established practices of assisted migration, classic biological control, and microbiome engineering; (2) discuss some of the hurdles to practical implementation; and (3) outline directions for further research that would help expose the role of native adaptations in shaping the trajectory of plant invasions.

Large disturbances to ecosystems can severely impact the stability of a region's natural resources, habitats, and outdoor recreation. Because extreme events can be large and relatively infrequent, they test institutional capacity to support recovery and restoration. When hurricanes and other large-scale disturbances like wildfires occur, much of the impacted landscape receives little to no active management. Ecosystems are often allowed to either recover or transition without much direct intervention, and successional dynamics are sometimes altered by novel invasive species, management history, or other environmental changes.

Recovery and restoration are especially challenging for landscapes with highly fragmented private ownership, such as the forests of the eastern US. Acting alone, non-industrial private forest landowners have little capacity to effectively respond to unexpected forest loss and to oversee forest recovery, as the scale of actions needed after extreme events may require cooperation across ownerships or jurisdictions.

In September 2024, Hurricane Helene exposed these underlying vulnerabilities of southern Appalachian forests. In western North Carolina alone, about 196,000 hectares of forest received major damage from Hurricane Helene, with most impacts occurring on private lands and in unusually large blowdown patches with no known regional precedent. Not since the widespread forest loss of the late 19th and early 20th centuries due to extensive logging and the American chestnut blight have so few trees covered the region's slopes.

This enormous damage to southern Appalachian forests raises concerns about loss of wildlife habitat, increased wildfire risks due to the abundance of fuel, reduced water quality from erosion and sedimentation, and spread of invasive species. Damaged forests are likely to reestablish as novel ecosystems composed of new species assemblages with a suite of interactions and processes that differ from prior conditions. On public and private lands, the duration of forest recovery will take decades or more and will be highly dependent on management choices and market incentives.

Since Hurricane Helene, disaster relief crews continue to work hard to remove fallen trees and debris near structures, roads, trails, and recreation areas as time and funds are available. However, removing downed and damaged wood is more costly and dangerous than typical forest harvesting. Piles of downed, unused wood may be burned, but combustion releases smoke and carbon into the atmosphere. Historically, debris burning and arson are the region's primary sources of wildfire ignitions, and it is hard to control burns when so many of the surrounding forests have high flammability.

A major dilemma is what to do with all this downed wood and debris from Hurricane Helene and how to pay for its removal. There is ongoing timber demand for large intact boles, at least where they can be accessed, but demand i

To meet Kunming-Montreal Target 6 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), we argue that more comprehensive measures are needed to manage invasive alien species (IAS), which is especially true for China, given that it is undergoing an unprecedented wave of invasions due to its rapid development. Here, we consider the status of IAS in China, evaluate China's ongoing countermeasures against IAS, and provide recommendations for improving management. In total, 802 IAS have been identified in China. Facing the growing threats of IAS, China has made progress in IAS management, but more stringent and thorough measures are still required. In addition to improving legislation and governance, China should strengthen transdisciplinary and proactive research, implement more comprehensive prevention and control actions against IAS, and enhance international cooperation and translational education. By creating a model for IAS management that other countries can follow, China's efforts can contribute substantially to the CBD's Kunming-Montreal 2030 Global Targets.

Ecological integrity—the degree to which an ecosystem supports ecological structure, composition, diversity, function, and connectivity typical of natural conditions—has been a guiding principle in ecosystem monitoring around the world. However, in terrestrial ecosystems, integrity-based monitoring often excludes animal communities, even though they are critical drivers of integrity. Methodological advances in monitoring and data science have made it easier to document animal communities. We highlight examples of these advances and how they remove barriers to adopting animal-specific integrity metrics. We then illustrate how describing animal communities in terms of functional ecology, which has also undergone substantial development over the past several decades, can provide a generalizable approach to incorporating animal communities into integrity-based monitoring across taxa and ecosystems. Incorporating animal communities into ecological integrity monitoring is a vital step toward understanding how human-driven change, restoration, and conservation shape terrestrial ecosystems worldwide.

Scholars have long recognized the social dimensions of environmental problems. Environmental scientists have responded by increasingly focusing on the interactions between nature and social dynamics. This helps reveal problematic interactions that cause environmental challenges, many of which impact human well-being. Research teams that include environmental and social scientists engaging with diverse stakeholders can use many available tools to ask how changing a factor pivotal to problematic interactions influences environmental and social outcomes. When the research also includes identifying actions targeting those interactions and identifying those who can implement the actions, the research is most likely to lead to positive outcomes in the long term. This is especially true when researchers link changes to improving a given ecosystem service. Changes can not only involve adapting natural resource policies but also involve altering attitudes and beliefs. We describe a stepwise process that eases the path toward such actionable environmental science by researchers.

Beavers are everywhere…but not literally though. In fact, they are nowhere nearly as ubiquitous compared to where they used to be. Estimates suggest that while as many as 400 million beavers (Castor canadensis) were present in North America prior to European colonialization, there are around 10 million now. In Europe, by the end of the 19th century, the total number of Eurasian beavers (Castor fiber) was estimated to be just 1200 individuals scattered across eight isolated populations. A recent estimate puts the Eurasian beaver population at 1.5 million individuals (Mamm Rev 2021).

The reintroduction of beaver populations represents a major conservation success. Although modern beaver populations remain a fraction of their historical numbers, due to centuries of trapping and habitat loss, their recovery can be attributed to a suite of factors including not only effective conservation and legal protections, habitat restoration, and conflict resolution strategies, but also increased public awareness. Their resurgence, juxtaposed with the near-extirpation of C canadensis and C fiber from North America and Europe, respectively, may contribute to the perception that beavers are now widespread. However, recognizing this recovery within the context of historical population baselines underscores the continuing need for conservation and habitat restoration efforts.

Human fascination with this cute, orange-toothed, semi-aquatic rodent is encapsulated in several successful popular press books including Eager: The surprising, secret life of beavers and why they matter (White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green) by Ben Goldfarb; Beaverland: How one weird rodent made America (New York, NY: Twelve) by Leila Philip; and Bringing back the beaver: The story of one man's quest to rewild Britain's waterways (White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green) by Derek Gow. And there is now among the public a growing recognition of the ecological roles beavers play across the landscape. As ecosystem engineers, they actively shape their environments by regulating water flow, enhancing landscape resilience to wildfire, and creating critical habitat for a diverse array of species. A review out of the University of Helsinki of the ecosystem services that beavers provide would put a value of about $900 per hectare per year where beavers are active (Mamm Rev 2021).

Our lab began studying beavers after a 15-meter-long dam appeared seemingly overnight in one of the University of Vermont's Natural Areas. While students celebrated the new habitat, reactions were mixed, prompting us to reroute a trail and install signage highlighting the ecological benefits of these ecosystem engineers. This event sparked a series of research initiatives examining the ecological and social dimensions of beaver activity. We analyzed water quality upstream and downstream of beaver dams to assess their role in nutrient retentio