Forest ecology articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    This study reveals the spatial and temporal patterns of temperature buffer inside the tropical forests. It provides insights into the forests’ microclimate that controls the functioning of living organisms residing under the forest canopy.

    • Ali Ismaeel
    • , Amos P. K. Tai
    •  & Eduardo Eiji Maeda

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Tree mortality due to climate change and other disturbances is on the rise. Here, the authors use high-resolution remote sensing data, ground observations and deep learning to quantify individual dead trees and potential drivers across California in the year 2020, encompassing 91.4 million dead trees.

    • Yan Cheng
    • , Stefan Oehmcke
    •  & Stéphanie Horion

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Forest responses can have major effects on tree architecture and community structure near the edges of forest fragments. Here, using terrestrial LiDAR scanning data from long-term forest plots, the authors find a net negative effect of fragmentation on Amazonian Forest aboveground biomass.

    • Matheus Henrique Nunes
    • , Marcel Caritá Vaz
    •  & Eduardo Eiji Maeda

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Tree height and forest structure may both determine forest responses to drought. Here, the authors analyse highresolution airborne LIDAR data on <1 million trees during the 2012-2016 California drought and find that presence of both tall trees and structurally complex stands reduces tree mortality under drought.

    • Qin Ma
    • , Yanjun Su
    •  & Qinghua Guo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Species that are evolutionary distinct and have geographically narrow or isolated distributions may be in particular need of conservation. Here, the authors identify global patterns of tree phylogenetic endemism and their linkages with climate and land use, and estimate future trends.

    • Wen-Yong Guo
    • , Josep M. Serra-Diaz
    •  & Jens-Christian Svenning

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How trees respond to increasing atmospheric dryness has important implications for forest growth. Here, the authors use a network of tree-ring records to quantify the multidecadal impact of vapour pressure deficit trends on boreal forests in Canada.

    • Ariane Mirabel
    • , Martin P. Girardin
    •  & Peter B. Reich

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Explosive volcanic eruptions cause abrupt global cooling as happened after the 1809 and 1815 Tambora eruptions. Here, the authors show how forest growth was severely impacted by such cold extremes in high latitudes and elevations and that recovery took longer in mid-latitude regions.

    • Shan Gao
    • , J. Julio Camarero
    •  & Eryuan Liang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Forest losses and gains are highly dynamic processes. Here, the authors present a forest fragmentation index to map distribution and temporal changes of forest fragments globally, revealing major trends and patterns during the first two decades of the 21st century.

    • Jun Ma
    • , Jiawei Li
    •  & Jiajia Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Monitoring ecosystem conditions in quantitative and standardized ways could facilitate transnational coordination of conservation and land management policies. Here, the authors use a spatially explicit ecosystem accounting approach to assess the state of European forests and recent trends.

    • Joachim Maes
    • , Adrián G. Bruzón
    •  & Fernando Santos-Martín

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Tree growth in boreal forests is generally predicted to increase under warming. Here, the authors demonstrate a method to analyze physiologically informed temperature series of tree-ring data, finding potentially overlooked growth-temperature responses and projecting increasing risks of warming to boreal larch forests.

    • Wenqing Li
    • , Rubén D. Manzanedo
    •  & Neil Pederson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Drought can have complex effects on plants due to different responses of photosynthesis, growth and carbon storage. Here, the authors show that tree growth does not always stop before photosynthesis and non-structural carbohydrate may not accumulate.

    • R. Alexander Thompson
    • , Henry D. Adams
    •  & Nate G. McDowell

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Trees often associate with mycorrhizal fungi, arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) or ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi. Luo et al. analyze 74,563 forest plots across the contiguous USA, showing that forests with mixed AM and ECM tree species are more productive than when dominated by AM or ECM tree species.

    • Shan Luo
    • , Richard P. Phillips
    •  & Nico Eisenhauer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ungulate herbivory is an important driver of ecological change in forests. Here, the authors combine vegetation resurveys showing herbivory effects are highly dependent on soil eutrophication, promoting non-natives under high N-conditions, yet benefiting threatened species under low N-conditions.

    • Josiane Segar
    • , Henrique M. Pereira
    •  & Ingmar R. Staude

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors present a wood formation model to explain multiple, hitherto poorly understood observations, related to carbon density, cell size, and temperature-growth relationships key for future carbon cycle simulations and past proxy interpretation.

    • Andrew D. Friend
    • , Annemarie H. Eckes-Shephard
    •  & Quinten Tupker

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The mechanisms underlying plant phenological shifts are debated. Here, based on phenological observations and ecosystem flux and climate data, Gu and colleagues provide evidence that warming-enhanced photosynthesis in a growing season contributes to earlier spring phenology in the following year in temperate and boreal forests.

    • Hongshuang Gu
    • , Yuxin Qiao
    •  & Lei Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Afforestation and reforestation programs aimed at enhancing carbon sequestration may have unintended effects on non-forest ecosystems and biodiversity. Here the authors use remote sensing and land surface modelling to quantify trade-offs between tree planting and wetland conservation in China

    • Yi Xi
    • , Shushi Peng
    •  & Xutao Tang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Forest dynamics are monitored at large scales with remote sensing, but individual tree data are necessary for ground-truthing and mechanistic insights. This study on high temporal resolution dendrometer data across Europe reveals that the 2018 heatwave affected tree physiology and growth in unexpected way.

    • Roberto L. Salomón
    • , Richard L. Peters
    •  & Kathy Steppe

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Studies from tropical regions indicate that fragmented forests are less productive. Here, the authors report higher growth and biomass in temperate forest edges in North America, and show that temperate forests are more fragmented than tropical forests globally.

    • Luca L. Morreale
    • , Jonathan R. Thompson
    •  & Lucy R. Hutyra

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Tree species that are expanding their distribution in response to climate change could be hindered or facilitated by disturbances. Here the authors analyse forest inventory data from the western US to test the hypothesis that wildfire can facilitate climate-induced range shifts in trees.

    • Avery P. Hill
    •  & Christopher B. Field

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Defoliating insects disrupt nutrient cycling of boreal catchments by redistributing carbon and nitrogen from forests to lakes. The resulting shift in lake biogeochemistry exceeds broader between-year trends observed across the boreal and north temperate region.

    • Samuel G. Woodman
    • , Sacha Khoury
    •  & Andrew J. Tanentzap

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Climate change is expected to have major impacts on forest tree diseases. Here the authors analyse long-term data of white pine blister rust in the southern Sierra Nevada, finding evidence of climate change-driven disease range expansion that was mediated by spatially varying host-pathogen-drought interactions.

    • Joan Dudney
    • , Claire E. Willing
    •  & John J. Battles

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mangroves are adapted to cope with tropical storms, but might be threatened by rising frequency and intensity of these events. Here the authors document one of the largest mangrove diebacks on record following Hurricane Irma in Florida, and show a greater role of storm surge and ponding rather than wind as a mechanism for mangrove dieback.

    • David Lagomasino
    • , Temilola Fatoyinbo
    •  & Douglas C. Morton

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The role of non-structural carbohydrates (NSC) in mediating the impacts of drought in tropical trees is unclear. Here, the authors analyse leaf and branch NSC in 82 Amazon tree species across a Basin-wide precipitation gradient, finding that allocation of leaf NSC to soluble sugars is higher in drier sites and is coupled to tree hydraulic status.

    • Caroline Signori-Müller
    • , Rafael S. Oliveira
    •  & David Galbraith

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Natural disturbances imperil healthy and productive forests, but quantifying their effects at large scales is challenging. Here the authors apply machine learning to disturbance records and satellite data to quantify and map European forest vulnerability to fires, windthrows, and insect outbreaks through 1979-2018.

    • Giovanni Forzieri
    • , Marco Girardello
    •  & Alessandro Cescatti

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The long-term effectiveness of assisted gene flow of trees could be jeopardised by rapid climate change. Here the authors analyse a large dataset of relocated black spruce populations in Canada, finding that local adaptation to climate of origin improved NPP responses, but only for up to ~15 years after planting.

    • Martin P. Girardin
    • , Nathalie Isabel
    •  & Patrick Lenz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Tree mortality is increasing with climate change, which suggests that the biomass of dead wood is likely becoming more and more important to the global carbon cycle. Here, the authors perform a meta-analysis of the carbon content of dead wood and find that past estimates of total forest carbon were overestimated.

    • Adam R. Martin
    • , Grant M. Domke
    •  & Sean C. Thomas

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cloud cover and scarcity of ground-based validation hinder remote sensing of forest dynamics in the Amazon basin. Here, the authors analyse imagery from a high-frequency geostationary satellite sensor to study monthly NDVI patterns in the Amazon forest, finding support for spatially extensive seasonality.

    • Hirofumi Hashimoto
    • , Weile Wang
    •  & Ramakrishna R. Nemani

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The nature of forest disturbances are changing, yet consequences for forest dynamics remain uncertain. Using a new index, Stanke et al. show the populations of over half of the most abundant tree species in the western US have declined in the last two decades, with grim implications for how temperate forests globally will respond to sustained anthropogenic and natural stress.

    • Hunter Stanke
    • , Andrew O. Finley
    •  & David W. MacFarlane

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The 2012–2016 drought and western pine beetle outbreaks caused unprecedented mortality of ponderosa pine in the Sierra Nevada, California. Here, the authors analyse drone-based data from almost half a million trees and find an interaction between host size and climatic water deficit, with higher mortality for large trees in dry, warm conditions but not in cooler or wetter conditions.

    • Michael J. Koontz
    • , Andrew M. Latimer
    •  & Malcolm P. North

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Evergreen conifers rely on ‘sustained quenching’ to protect their photosynthetic machinery during long, cold winters. Here, Bag et al. show that direct energy transfer (spillover) from photosystem II to photosystem I triggered by loss of grana stacking in chloroplast is the major component of sustained quenching in Scots pine.

    • Pushan Bag
    • , Volha Chukhutsina
    •  & Stefan Jansson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Quantifying forest degradation and biodiversity losses is necessary to inform conservation and restoration policies. Here the authors analyze a large dataset for the Atlantic Forest in South America to quantify losses in forest biomass and tree species richness, functional traits, and conservation value.

    • Renato A. F. de Lima
    • , Alexandre A. Oliveira
    •  & Paulo I. Prado

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mapping and quantifying degree of forest modification is critical to conserve and manage forests. Here the authors propose a new quantitative metric for landscape integrity and apply it to a global forest map, showing that less than half of the world’s forest cover has high integrity, most of which is outside nationally designed protected areas.

    • H. S. Grantham
    • , A. Duncan
    •  & J. E. M. Watson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Droughts pose an increasingly important threat to forests. Here the authors analyse a high-resolution Landsat-based dataset of forest canopy mortality in Europe over 1987–2016 to show that drought is already a major driver of tree mortality.

    • Cornelius Senf
    • , Allan Buras
    •  & Rupert Seidl

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Tree mortality has been shown to be the dominant control on carbon storage in Amazon forests, but little is known of how and why Amazon forest trees die. Here the authors analyse a large Amazon-wide dataset, finding that fast-growing species face greater mortality risk, but that slower-growing individuals within a species are more likely to die, regardless of size.

    • Adriane Esquivel-Muelbert
    • , Oliver L. Phillips
    •  & David Galbraith

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Correlations between tree species diversity and tree abundance are well established, but the direction of the relationship is unresolved. Here the authors use path models to estimate plausible causal pathways in the diversity-abundance relationship across 23 global forests regions, finding a lack of general support for a positive diversity-abundance relationship, which is prevalent in the most productive lands on Earth only

    • Jaime Madrigal-González
    • , Joaquín Calatayud
    •  & Markus Stoffel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Many models assume a universal carbon use efficiency across forest biomes, in contrast to assumptions of other process-based models. Here the authors analyse forest production efficiency across a wide range of climates to show a positive relationship with annual temperature and precipitation, indicating that ecosystem models are overestimating forest carbon losses under warming.

    • A. Collalti
    • , A. Ibrom
    •  & I. C. Prentice

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Tropical rainforests partly create their own climatic conditions by promoting precipitation, therefore rainforest losses may trigger dramatic shifts. Here the authors combine remote sensing, hydrological modelling, and atmospheric moisture tracking simulations to assess forest-rainfall feedbacks in three major tropical rainforest regions on Earth and simulate potential changes under a severe climate change scenario.

    • Arie Staal
    • , Ingo Fetzer
    •  & Obbe A. Tuinenburg

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Salvage logging has become a common practice to gain economic returns from naturally disturbed forests, but it could have considerable negative effects on biodiversity. Here the authors use a recently developed statistical method to estimate that ca. 75% of the naturally disturbed forest should be left unlogged to maintain 90% of the species unique to the area.

    • Simon Thorn
    • , Anne Chao
    •  & Alexandro B. Leverkus

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Mapping ecological variables using machine-learning algorithms based on remote-sensing data has become a widespread practice in ecology. Here, the authors use forest biomass mapping as a study case to show that the most common model validation approach, which ignores data spatial structure, leads to overoptimistic assessment of model predictive power.

    • Pierre Ploton
    • , Frédéric Mortier
    •  & Raphaël Pélissier

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