Forests, Volume 12, Issue 4

Permanent gullies are a serious type of soil erosion. A special type of permanent gully, called “Benggang” severly affects agricultural production in hilly areas. To reveal the influence of Benggang erosion on granitic soil restoration and fertility,...

Using a dendrochronological approach, we determined the resistance, recovery and resilience of the radial stem increment towards episodes of growth decline, and the accompanying variation of ¹³C discrimination against atmospheric CO₂ (Δ¹³C) in tree r...

Schima superba is a precious broadleaf tree species that produces excellent timber. Analyzing the radial variation of wood anatomical properties within stems and determining the boundary between the juvenile and mature wood can provide a theoretical...

Research Highlights: Raffaelea quercina sp. nov. is an ophiostomatoid fungus isolated from the ambrosia beetle Platypus cylindrus. The species occurs in symptomatic Portuguese cork oak trees, (Quercus suber L.), exhibiting vegetative decline. Backgro...

Marssonina brunnea causes a major disease that limits poplar growth. Lignin and lignan play essential roles in protecting plants from various biological stresses. Dirigent (DIR) proteins are thought to control the stereoselective coupling of conifery...

Forest ecological security is an important component of ecological security and national security, and it is a requirement for the sustainable development of the forestry economy. In this study, based on the pressure–state–response (PSR) model, an ev...

Although past increases in emissions and atmospheric deposition of reactive nitrogen (N_r) provided the impetus for extensive research investigating the effects of excess N in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, the Clean Air Act and associated rules...

The protection and propagation of rare and endangered species are key to the preservation of their population development; however, due to the scarcity of individuals, the potential effects and status of rare and endangered species in the whole fores...

Hydrological regime disturbances in riparian ecosystems affect the interactions between soil properties and vegetation. The proper assessment of changes occurring in river valley forests is a basis for planning in sustainable forest management. The e...

Soil bacterial microbial communities are important in the ecosystem function and succession of forests. Using high-throughput 16S rRNA gene sequencing and relative importance for linear regression, we explored how the structures of soil bacterial com...

The aims of this study were to evaluate the cambial activity and phenology of three species with different life forms (Alchemilla procumbens, Acaena elongata and Ribes ciliatum) along an altitudinal gradient and to establish which environmental varia...

Shear strength is an important mechanical property of soil, as its mechanical function plays critical roles in reducing land degradation and preventing soil erosion. However, shear strength may be affected by vegetation type through changes in the so...

Fruit tree culture is at the brink of disaster in arid to semi-arid regions due to low water availability. A pot experiment was carried out to analyze whether foliar application of salicylic acid (SA) can improve water stress tolerance in Syzygiumcum...

This paper is a review of published studies involving the use of ground penetrating radar (GPR) on wood structures. It also contains background information to help the reader understand how GPR functions. The use of GPR on wood structures began to gr...

Ecologically extreme habitats at a species’ distribution edges bear significance for biota under adverse climatic conditions and climate change. Range-edge populations adjust their functional traits to the special local ecological conditions, leading...

This article presents research about the influences of social and cultural norms on the adoption of agroforestry in the northwest mountainous region of Viet Nam. The farming systems practiced by various ethnic groups in the northwest mainly occur on...

(1) Research Highlights: Applications of a species-specific baculovirus is a promising method to control the gypsy moth and regulate its population dynamics in forest ecosystems. (2) Background and Objectives: Cork oak protection against the Lepidopt...

Southern yellow pines such as loblolly, Virginia and shortleaf pines constitute forest products and contribute significantly to the economy of the United States (U.S.). However, little is understood about the temporal change in canopy cover and green...

The summer drought of 2018 was one of the most climatically severe events in Europe that led to record-breaking temperatures and wildfires in many parts of Europe. The main objective of this study was to assess the impact of the 2018 drought on the p...

Swamp forests have been insufficiently studied yet in comparison with thoroughly examined carbon pools and greenhouse gas fluxes of peat bogs. This is primarily since the GHGs in swamp forests have huge spatial (due to the developed microrelief) and...

This study is aimed to compare the strengths and weaknesses of three approaches—analytic hierarchy process analysis, sentiment analysis, and floating population analysis—in estimating the social demands for local forest ecosystem services (ES) in Sou...

The ecological productivity of the Robinia pseudoacacia L. (RP) widely cultivated on the Loess hilly region has been widely questioned with its aging. Soil microbial biomass (SMB) plays a key role in soil nutrient dynamics and productivity of the eco...

Agrilus planipennis is a devastating invasive pest of ash trees in European Russia, Ukraine, and North America. To monitor the north-western limit of its European invasive range, in June 2018 we established 10 study plots along the federal highway M1...

Objective: To investigate the impact of different slope directions on the quantity and quality of the soil seed bank and seedling germination process of Castanopsis hystrix plantations. Method: Fixed sample plots in forest stands of Castanopsis hystr...

Prescribed fire is a globally relevant fuel treatment for surface fuel management and wildfire hazard reduction. However, Mediterranean ecosystems are adapted to low and moderate fires; hence, the useful life of prescribed fires is limited. Useful li...

Current trends emphasize the importance of the examination of the functional composition of lichens, which may provide information on the species realized niche diversity and community assembly processes, thus enabling one to understand the specific...

The southeast Iberian Peninsula is the only place in the European Community where Tetraclinis articulata (Vahl) Masters populations are native. In this area, the optimal ecological niche for this species is occupied by Pinus halepensis (Miller). The...

Forest ecosystems are important habitats for a vast number of species worldwide [...]

Speciation mechanisms, including the role of interspecific gene flow and introgression in the emergence of new species, are the major focus of evolutionary studies. Inference of taxonomic relationship between closely related species may be challenged...

Decision support systems (DSSs) are increasingly common in forest and wildfire planning and management in the United States. Recent policy direction and frameworks call for collaborative assessment of wildfire risk to inform fuels treatment prioritiz...

The reflection of ecosystem services in environmental policy has recently become a key aspect in solving environmental problems occurring as a consequence of their overburdening. However, decision makers often pay attention predominantly to results o...

Urbanization has led to the continuous expansion of built-up areas and the ever-growing urban population, threatening the quantity and quality of urban green space (UGS). Exploring the spatiotemporal variations of UGS is substantially conducive to th...

Eighty-six percent of the largest Portuguese public forest, Leiria National Forest (Mata Nacional de Leiria—MNL), central west, was burned in a wildfire in October 2017. Most of the area was covered by maritime pine stands (Pinus pinaster Aiton) cros...

Needle blights are serious needle fungal diseases affecting pines both in natural and productive forests. Among needle blight agents, the ascomycetes Lecanosticta acicola, Dothistroma pini and D. septosporum are of particular concern. These pathogens...

For a long time, the geometry dimensions of tenons have been designed through empirical methods, which is not beneficial to designers and manufacturers and results in more time spent in construction and a greater amount of waste wood materials. In th...

Tropical forest management has both positive and negative effects on climate change, and quantifying these effects is important both to avoid or minimize negative impacts and to reward net positive effects. This study contributes to this effort by es...

Since the publication of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA), the global interest for “ecosystem services” has rapidly grown in scientific studies and policy makers’ agenda [...]

Fast-growing species often have a low natural durability and can easily be attacked by fungi and insects, and therefore it is often better to preserve them before use. Permeability is a physical property in porous media that significantly affects the...

Poplar tree improvement strategies are needed to enhance ecosystem services’ provisioning and achieve phytoremediation objectives. We evaluated the establishment potential of new poplar clones developed at the University of Minnesota Duluth, Natural...

In recent years, with the growing environmental concern regarding climate change, there has been a search for efficient alternatives in indirect methods for the quantification of biomass and forest carbon stock. In this article, we seek to obtain pio...

The boreal forest floor vegetation is critical for ecosystem functioning and an important part of forest biodiversity. Given the ongoing global change, knowledge on broad-scale changes in the composition and abundance of different plant species and s...

Global wildfire activity has experienced a dramatic surge since 2017 [...]

Although the soundscape in cities is receiving increased attention in urban planning, there is still a lack of knowledge of how personal factors influence the perception of and preference for soundscapes. Most present studies are linked to one or a f...

This study investigated growth performances of black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia L.) tree species in various soil and agro-climatic conditions in Poland. Implementing of research was based on monoculture black locust stands in which it was possible...

Photosynthesis and the allocation of photosynthetic products are the two main factors that determine plant growth. To understand the growth and productivity of Pinus massoniana Lamb., the diurnal changes in photosynthetic rate were continuously monit...

The paper deals with measurements of water infiltration carried out on a well-developed forest floor formed by needle-leaf litter of Norway spruce. Three field methods (tension disk permeameter, single-ring infiltrometer and Guelph permeameter) were...

Research shows that the intensity impact factors of wood, such as late timber ratio, volume density and the intensity of itself, correlate with the width of wood annual rings. Therefore, extracting wood annual ring information from wood images is hel...

As anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions intensify global climate change, plantations have become an important tool to mitigate atmospheric CO₂. Our aim in this study was to estimate carbon assimilation and clarify the impact of environmental factor...

Forest ecosystems play multiple important roles in meeting the habitat needs of different organisms and providing a variety of services to humans. Biodiversity is one of the structural features in dynamic and complex forest ecosystems. One of the mos...

Countries are forced to develop bio-based economic strategies to promote efficient use of renewable natural resources. The transition towards a sustainable forest bio-based economy is associated with resource efficiency optimization, adoption of inno...