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Forests, Volume 8, Issue 3

2017 March - 43 articles

Cover Story: In this review, the authors synthesize innate characteristics of invading organisms (notably mating system, reproduction type, and dispersal mechanisms) and key factors of the host population (namely host diversity, host connectivity, and host susceptibility) that govern spread and impact of invasive forest pathogens at various scales post-introduction and establishment. View the paper.
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Articles (43)

  • Article
  • Open Access
9 Citations
7,272 Views
20 Pages

21 March 2017

Multi-cohort stands are increasingly recognized and valued because of their biological functioning, biological diversity, and resistance and resiliency to perturbations. These forest ecosystems are epitomized by multiple age classes, and often contai...

  • Article
  • Open Access
17 Citations
6,713 Views
11 Pages

Phenotypic Plasticity Explains Response Patterns of European Beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) Saplings to Nitrogen Fertilization and Drought Events

  • Christoph Dziedek,
  • Andreas Fichtner,
  • Leonor Calvo,
  • Elena Marcos,
  • Kirstin Jansen,
  • Matthias Kunz,
  • David Walmsley,
  • Goddert Von Oheimb and
  • Werner Härdtle

20 March 2017

Abstract: Climate and atmospheric changes affect forest ecosystems worldwide, but little is known about the interactive effects of global change drivers on tree growth. In the present study, we analyzed single and combined effects of nitrogen (N) fer...

  • Article
  • Open Access
94 Citations
8,615 Views
12 Pages

20 March 2017

Leaf surface is a multifunctional interface between a plant and its environment, which affects both ecological and biological processes. Leaf surface topography directly affects microhabitat availability and ability for deposition. In this study, ato...

  • Article
  • Open Access
22 Citations
7,658 Views
12 Pages

19 March 2017

Tropical forests play an important role in regulating the global climate and the carbon cycle. With the changing temperature and moisture along the elevation gradient, the Luquillo Experimental Forest in Northeastern Puerto Rico provides a natural ap...

  • Article
  • Open Access
40 Citations
9,101 Views
17 Pages

Acute Oak Decline and Agrilus biguttatus: The Co-Occurrence of Stem Bleeding and D-Shaped Emergence Holes in Great Britain

  • Nathan Brown,
  • Mike Jeger,
  • Susan Kirk,
  • David Williams,
  • Xiangming Xu,
  • Marco Pautasso and
  • Sandra Denman

17 March 2017

Acute Oak Decline (AOD) is a new condition affecting both species of native oak, Quercus robur and Quercus petraea, in Great Britain. The decline is characterised by a distinctive set of externally visible stem symptoms; bark cracks that “weep” dark...

  • Article
  • Open Access
39 Citations
9,313 Views
22 Pages

Non-Destructive, Laser-Based Individual Tree Aboveground Biomass Estimation in a Tropical Rainforest

  • Muhammad Zulkarnain Abd Rahman,
  • Md Afif Abu Bakar,
  • Khamarrul Azahari Razak,
  • Abd Wahid Rasib,
  • Kasturi Devi Kanniah,
  • Wan Hazli Wan Kadir,
  • Hamdan Omar,
  • Azahari Faidi,
  • Abd Rahman Kassim and
  • Zulkiflee Abd Latif

17 March 2017

Recent methods for detailed and accurate biomass and carbon stock estimation of forests have been driven by advances in remote sensing technology. The conventional approach to biomass estimation heavily relies on the tree species and site-specific al...

  • Article
  • Open Access
42 Citations
8,693 Views
15 Pages

Salvage-Logging after Windstorm Leads to Structural and Functional Homogenization of Understory Layer and Delayed Spruce Tree Recovery in Tatra Mts., Slovakia

  • Zuzana Michalová,
  • Robert C. Morrissey,
  • Thomas Wohlgemuth,
  • Radek Bače,
  • Peter Fleischer and
  • Miroslav Svoboda

17 March 2017

Stand-replacing disturbance and post-disturbance salvage-logging influence forest succession in different ways; however, limited knowledge regarding how salvage-logging affects vegetation patterns compared to natural development of forest ecosystems...

  • Article
  • Open Access
13 Citations
8,386 Views
22 Pages

17 March 2017

Fire and timber harvesting can diminish the extent of older forests in the near term. The amount and configuration of mature and regenerating forest in the landscape (landscape structure) influences habitat suitability for mature-forest-associated sp...

  • Article
  • Open Access
76 Citations
9,617 Views
20 Pages

Tree Species Identity Shapes Earthworm Communities

  • Stephanie Schelfhout,
  • Jan Mertens,
  • Kris Verheyen,
  • Lars Vesterdal,
  • Lander Baeten,
  • Bart Muys and
  • An De Schrijver

17 March 2017

Earthworms are key organisms in forest ecosystems because they incorporate organic material into the soil and affect the activity of other soil organisms. Here, we investigated how tree species affect earthworm communities via litter and soil charact...

  • Article
  • Open Access
27 Citations
6,438 Views
14 Pages

16 March 2017

Inter-tree competition is considered one of the most important ecological processes of forest development. However, its importance in structuring the spatial patterns of plant communities remains controversial. We collected observational data from tw...

  • Article
  • Open Access
14 Citations
6,192 Views
15 Pages

16 March 2017

In this study, we assessed the impacts of climate change, forest management, and different forest productivity conditions on the water yield and profitability of loblolly pine stands in the southeastern United States. Using the 3-PG (Physiological Pr...

  • Article
  • Open Access
30 Citations
6,805 Views
14 Pages

Genetic Diversity of Walnut (Juglans Regia L.) in the Eastern Italian Alps

  • Massimo Vischi,
  • Cristina Chiabà,
  • Steluta Raranciuc,
  • Luca Poggetti,
  • Rachele Messina,
  • Paolo Ermacora,
  • Guido Cipriani,
  • Donatella Paffetti,
  • Cristina Vettori and
  • Raffaele Testolin

16 March 2017

Juglans regia L. is distributed primarily across temperate and subtropical regions of the Northern Hemisphere. During the last glaciation, the species survived in refugial areas that in Europe included the Balkans and the Italian peninsula, two areas...

  • Article
  • Open Access
47 Citations
8,692 Views
17 Pages

16 March 2017

The regional effects of climate change on forest ecosystems in the temperate climate zone of Europe can be modelled as shifts of forest vegetation zones in the landscape, northward and to higher elevations. This study applies a biogeographical model...

  • Review
  • Open Access
68 Citations
13,357 Views
21 Pages

15 March 2017

Biological invasions, resulting from deliberate and unintentional species transfers of insects, fungal and oomycete organisms, are a major consequence of globalization and pose a significant threat to biodiversity. Limiting damage by non-indigenous f...

  • Article
  • Open Access
6 Citations
6,782 Views
16 Pages

14 March 2017

Bent trees have been observed during the early years in juvenile plantations (less than 5 years-old) of Tectona grandis in Costa Rica. The relationship between bending and the morphological characteristics of the trees was explored. An evaluation of...

  • Article
  • Open Access
6 Citations
6,858 Views
12 Pages

11 March 2017

Effective time of thinning is essential for determining a silvicultural operation schedule. One of the most commonly used methods is the percentage of radial increase to assess the effect of thinning. However, it is difficult to determine the ideal t...

  • Article
  • Open Access
52 Citations
10,367 Views
27 Pages

11 March 2017

Post-fire forest regeneration is strongly influenced by abiotic and biotic heterogeneity in the pre- and post-fire environments, including fire regimes, species characteristics, landforms, hydrology, regional climate, and soil properties. Assessing t...

  • Article
  • Open Access
26 Citations
12,576 Views
24 Pages

11 March 2017

This paper analyses the design and implementation of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation, conserving and enhancing forest carbon stocks, and sustainably managing forests (REDD+) in the West African region, an important global biodiv...

  • Article
  • Open Access
21 Citations
7,106 Views
17 Pages

10 March 2017

Northern peatlands store globally significant amounts of soil carbon that could be released to the atmosphere under drier conditions induced by climate change. We measured forest floor respiration (RFF) at hummocks and hollows in a treed boreal bog i...

  • Article
  • Open Access
26 Citations
7,340 Views
17 Pages

The Relationship between Sap Flow Density and  Environmental Factors in the Yangtze River Delta  Region of China

  • Xin Liu,
  • Bo Zhang,
  • Jia‐Yao Zhuang,
  • Cheng Han,
  • Lu Zhai,
  • Wen‐Rui Zhao and
  • Jin‐Chi Zhang

10 March 2017

Canopy transpiration is an important component of evapotranspiration, integrating physical and biological processes within the water and energy cycles of forests. Quercus acutissima and Cunninghamia lanceolata are two important, fast‐growing and comm...

  • Article
  • Open Access
15 Citations
6,788 Views
11 Pages

8 March 2017

The predominant input of available nitrogen (N) in boreal forest ecosystems originates from moss-associated cyanobacteria, which fix unavailable atmospheric N2, contribute to the soil N pool, and thereby support forest productivity. Alongside climate...

  • Article
  • Open Access
14 Citations
7,289 Views
20 Pages

Airborne Laser Scanning Based Forest Inventory: Comparison of Experimental Results for the Perm Region, Russia and Prior Results from Finland

  • Tuomo Kauranne,
  • Sergey Pyankov,
  • Virpi Junttila,
  • Alexander Kedrov,
  • Andrey Tarasov,
  • Anton Kuzmin,
  • Jussi Peuhkurinen,
  • Maria Villikka,
  • Ville-Matti Vartio and
  • Sanna Sirparanta

7 March 2017

Airborne laser scanning (ALS) based stand level forest inventory has been used in Finland and other Nordic countries for several years. In the Russian Federation, ALS is not extensively used for forest inventory purposes, despite a long history of re...

  • Article
  • Open Access
27 Citations
9,071 Views
18 Pages

3 March 2017

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) offers developing countries an opportunity to engage in global climate change mitigation through the sale of carbon credits for reforestation, avoided deforestation and forest conse...

  • Article
  • Open Access
164 Citations
27,976 Views
20 Pages

3 March 2017

Structure from Motion (SfM) photogrammetry applied to photographs captured from Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) platforms is increasingly being utilised for a wide range of applications including structural characterisation of forests. The aim of this...

  • Article
  • Open Access
13 Citations
6,426 Views
15 Pages

3 March 2017

Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) has been systematically advanced within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). However, implementing REDD+ in a populated landscape requires information on local cos...

  • Article
  • Open Access
14 Citations
6,039 Views
13 Pages

Elevated CO2 and Tree Species Affect Microbial  Activity and Associated Aggregate Stability in Soil  Amended with Litter

  • Salwan M. J. Al‐Maliki,
  • David L. Jones,
  • Douglas L. Godbold,
  • Dylan Gwynn‐Jones and
  • John Scullion

3 March 2017

(1) Elevated atmospheric CO2 (eCO2) may affect organic inputs to woodland soils with potential consequences for C dynamics and associated aggregation; (2) The Bangor Free Air Concentration Enrichment experiment compared ambient (330 ppmv) and e...

  • Article
  • Open Access
49 Citations
10,762 Views
27 Pages

2 March 2017

Through different policies and measures reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation and enhancing conservation (REDD+) has grown into a way to induce behavior change of forest managers and landowners in tropical countries. We argue that deb...

  • Article
  • Open Access
68 Citations
7,032 Views
19 Pages

28 February 2017

Although the net primary productivity (NPP) of arid/semiarid ecosystem is generally thought to be controlled by precipitation, other factors like CO2 fertilization effect and temperature change may also have important impacts, especially in the cold...

  • Article
  • Open Access
47 Citations
8,071 Views
19 Pages

28 February 2017

Forests are important place for outdoor recreation and scenery appreciation. So in order to better meet the needs of the public, forest appreciation has received increasing attention from foresters in recent years. However, related research is still...

  • Article
  • Open Access
19 Citations
12,875 Views
27 Pages

Co-Operation or Co-Optation? NGOs’ Roles in Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative

  • Erlend A. T. Hermansen,
  • Desmond McNeill,
  • Sjur Kasa and
  • Raoni Rajão

28 February 2017

This paper investigates non-governmental organisation (NGO) involvement in policy processes related to Norway’s International Climate and Forest Initiative (NICFI) comparing four countries: Norway, Brazil, Indonesia, and Tanzania. Based on documents...

  • Article
  • Open Access
5 Citations
6,043 Views
24 Pages

28 February 2017

In forest climate governance processes such as REDD+, non-state actors take on various, more or less formal, but in fact potentially authoritative governance tasks when informing, financing, (co)deciding or implementing forest climate action. Drawing...

  • Article
  • Open Access
20 Citations
5,705 Views
14 Pages

27 February 2017

Forestry is an effective strategy for climate change mitigation. However, forestry activities not only sequester carbon but also release CO2. It is therefore important to formulate carbon subsidy and carbon taxation policies on the basis of the price...

  • Article
  • Open Access
12 Citations
6,441 Views
14 Pages

27 February 2017

In defining the environmental preferences of plant species, statistical models are part of the essential tools in the field of modern ecology. However, conventional linear models require compliance with some parametric assumptions and if these requir...

  • Article
  • Open Access
21 Citations
6,527 Views
15 Pages

Hydrology of a Water‐Limited Forest under Climate Change Scenarios: The Case of the Caatinga Biome, Brazil

  • Everton Alves Rodrigues Pinheiro,
  • Quirijn De Jong Van Lier and
  • Andre Herman Freire Bezerra

27 February 2017

Given the strong interactions between climate and vegetation, climate change effects on natural and agricultural ecosystems are common objects of research. Reduced water availability is predicted to take place across large regions of the globe, inclu...

  • Article
  • Open Access
70 Citations
13,145 Views
19 Pages

Implementing Forest Landscape Restoration in Ethiopia

  • Till Pistorius,
  • Sophia Carodenuto and
  • Gilbert Wathum

27 February 2017

Driven by various initiatives and international policy processes, the concept of Forest Landscape Restoration, is globally receiving renewed attention. It is seen internationally and in national contexts as a means for improving resilience of land an...

  • Article
  • Open Access
30 Citations
9,609 Views
23 Pages

25 February 2017

Forests and carbon sequestration have become fundamental themes in climate change mitigation. The idea of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) has generated significant interest in forest governance from United Nations...

  • Communication
  • Open Access
64 Citations
6,661 Views
10 Pages

25 February 2017

Soil respiration (RS, Soil CO2 efflux) is the second largest carbon (C) flux in global terrestrial ecosystems, and thus, plays an important role in global and regional C cycling; moreover, it acts as a feedback mechanism between C cycling and global...

  • Article
  • Open Access
7 Citations
7,951 Views
17 Pages

24 February 2017

Vietnam was one of the first countries to introduce the National REDD+ (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) Action Program in 2012. The country has recently revised the Program to aim for a more inclusive 2016–2020 strategy a...

  • Article
  • Open Access
15 Citations
6,245 Views
13 Pages

24 February 2017

Many studies have outlined the benefits for growth and reproduction resulting from thinning extremely crowded young forests regenerating after stand replacing wildfires (“thickets”). However, scarce information is available on how thinning may influ...

  • Article
  • Open Access
45 Citations
10,007 Views
20 Pages

Assessment of Textural Differentiations in Forest Resources in Romania Using Fractal Analysis

  • Ion Andronache,
  • Rasmus Fensholt,
  • Helmut Ahammer,
  • Ana-Maria Ciobotaru,
  • Radu-Daniel Pintilii,
  • Daniel Peptenatu,
  • Cristian-Constantin Drăghici,
  • Daniel Constantin Diaconu,
  • Marko Radulović and
  • Brice Sinsin
  • + 3 authors

24 February 2017

Deforestation and forest degradation have several negative effects on the environment including a loss of species habitats, disturbance of the water cycle and reduced ability to retain CO2, with consequences for global warming. We investigated the ev...

  • Article
  • Open Access
20 Citations
9,001 Views
24 Pages

23 February 2017

International bi-lateral agreements to support the conservation of rainforests to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are growing in prevalence. In 2009, the governments of Guyana and Norway established Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS). We...

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Forests - ISSN 1999-4907