Forest ecology articles from across Nature Portfolio

In this Perspective, Vincent Merckx and colleagues discuss an important but overlooked aspect of mycorrhizal interactions, mycoheterotrophy, in the context of recent arguments about the importance of these interactions to forest functioning.

The authors use individual-based models to assess the contribution of frugivore-mediated seed dispersal to forest restoration. They show that the movement of large birds—which disperse seeds with higher carbon storage potential—is limited in landscapes with low forest cover (<40%).

Decreased availability of plant substrate can explain the decline in autotrophic respiration at constant temperature during the night, according to a simple respiration model with two carbohydrate pools.

Around 48% of tree species in an aseasonal forest in Borneo, Malaysia had reduced growth during heavy rains, and 92% of species showed reduced survival, whereas as little as 4% of species had a decrease in growth or survival during dry periods during 2004–2017, according to an analysis of tree dynamics data from 25 tropical species.

Forests are spatially and temporally dynamic, such that forest degradation is best quantified across whole landscapes and over the long term. The European Union’s forest degradation policy, which focuses on contemporary primary forest conversion to plantations, ignores other globally prevalent forestry practices that can flip forests into a degraded state.

Climate warming is triggering a steady increase in the mean thermal optimum of plant communities. We show that this increase reflects the dieback of cold-adapted species rather than the arrival of warmer-adapted species, with negative effects on local diversity and mutually cancelling effects on community heterogeneity.

Earthquakes not only affect tree growth directly by causing physical injury to individual trees but also indirectly by inducing changes in forest habitats. We established linkage between tree-ring series and seismic disturbances and found that prominent and lasting seismic legacies in drier areas may be due to an increased infiltration of precipitation through earthquake-induced soil cracks.

Two recent studies come to different yet complementary conclusions about the factors — species traits, climate conditions and past disturbances — that determine the responses of bird species to forest loss and fragmentation.

Two decades of global satellite observations reveal enhanced greening in mangrove forests relative to adjacent evergreen forests, which highlights important differences in the response of coastal and terrestrial ecosystems to climate change.

Following a catastrophic wildfire, iconic coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) trees rebuilt their canopies by leveraging massive, stored carbon reserves, some of which were photosynthesized from the atmosphere 50–100 years ago. New leaves grew from buried buds, which had been dormant for 500–1,000 plus years in the oldest trees.