Forests, Volume 8, Issue 9

Background: In order to maximize the resiliency of Pinus halepensis in semiarid forests, we analyzed direct seeding methods to recover burned stands by simulating post-fire soil treatments. Methods: Seeding was done by installing spot seeding (100 se...

Global demand for renewable energy has increased drastically over the last decade due to new climate change policies implemented in many jurisdictions. Wood pellets made from primary wood processing mill residues represent an attractive source of ren...

Transpiration is a significant component of the hydrologic cycle and its accurate quantification is critical for modelling, industry, and policy decisions. Sap flow sensors provide a low cost and practical method to measure transpiration. Various met...

Wildland fires are a function of properties of the fuels that sustain them. These fuels are themselves a function of vegetation, and share the complexity and dynamics of natural systems. Worldwide, the requirement for solutions to the threat of fire...

Dry mixed-conifer forests in the Southwest occupy an important ecological and hydrological role in upper watersheds. In the absence of reoccurring fire and silvicultural treatments over the last 50 years, we quantified forest structure and compositio...

Field observations using chronosequences are helpful to study vegetation succession. This method allows to establish comparisons based on soil composition, stand structure, micro- and macrofossil remains from sites of different ages but on similar ed...

Paulownia witches’ broom (PaWB) disease caused by phytoplasmas is a fatal disease that leads to considerable economic losses. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been demonstrated to play critical regulatory roles in posttranscriptional and transcrip...

While past research has studied forest succession on decadal timescales, ecosystem responses to rapid shifts in nutrient dynamics within the first months to years of succession after fire (e.g., carbon (C) burn-off, a pulse in inorganic nitrogen (N),...

Academic research on smallholders’ forestland-use decisions is regularly addressed in different streams of literature using different theoretical constructs that are independently incomplete. In this article, we propose a theoretical construct for mo...

The objective of this research was to study the relation between species richness and topography in the middle sub-tropical area of Eastern China. A species richness survey was conducted along altitude in Kaihua County, Zhejiang Province, Eastern Chi...

Here, we investigated the capabilities of a lightweight unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) photogrammetric point cloud for estimating forest biophysical properties in managed temperate coniferous forests in Japan, and the importance of spectral informatio...

Land change modeling has become increasingly important in evaluating the unique driving factors and proximate causes that underlie a particular geographical location. In this article, a binary logistic regression analysis was employed to identify the...

Novel forests are naturally regenerating forests that have established on degraded lands and have a species composition strongly influenced by introduced species. We studied ecophysiological traits of an introduced species (Castilla elastica Sessé) a...

Advances in Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology and data processing capabilities have made it feasible to obtain high-resolution imagery and three dimensional (3D) data which can be used for forest monitoring and assessing tree attributes. This...

Litter accumulation can strongly influence plants’ natural regeneration via both physical and chemical mechanisms, but the relative influence of each mechanism on seedling establishment remains to be elucidated. Chinese fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata)...

Betulin, betulinic acid and lupeol are naturally occurring pentacyclic triterpenoids with significant medicinal values. Great amounts of triterpenoids are found in the bark of white birch (Betula platyphylla Suk.) trees, which can be affected by clim...

Sustainable management of tropical forests is essential for conserving the ecosystem services they provide and protecting the livelihoods of the millions of people who depend on these forests. Community-based forest management in Quintana Roo, Mexico...

Tree growth rings are signs of the seasonality of tree growth and indicate how tree productivity relates to environmental factors. We studied the periodicity of tree growth ring formation in seasonally inundated peatlands of Central Kalimantan (south...

The estimation of the ozone (O₃) stomatal dose absorbed by a forest is a crucial step for O₃ risk assessment. For this purpose, data on O₃ concentrations at the forest top-canopy are needed. However, O₃ is barely measured at that height, while more o...

Wildfires and agricultural activities are relevant factors affecting soil quality, hydrological cycle and sedimentary dynamics. Land abandonment leads to afforestation, which increases fire risk and land degradation. However, no studies have yet eval...

The paper shows how the aspects of uncertainty in spatial harvest scheduling can be embedded into a harvest optimization model. We introduce an approach based on robust optimization that secures better scheduling schematics of the decision maker whil...

Exploring how drought influences growth, performance, and survival in different species is crucial to understanding the impacts of climate change on forest ecosystems. Here, we investigate the responses of two co-occurring pines (Pinus nigra and Pinu...

Black locust is a drought-resistant tree species with high biomass productivity during juvenility; it is able to thrive on wastelands, such as former brown coal fields and dry agricultural areas. However, research conducted on this species in such ar...

Forestry best management practices (BMPs) were developed to minimize water pollution from forestry operations by primarily addressing sediment and sediment transport, which is the leading source of pollution from silviculture. Implementation of water...

The main purpose of this work is to show the influence of vegetation in the storage and stabilisation of organic carbon in semi-arid Juniperus thurifera (J. thurifera) forest soil in central Spain. The variability of the organic matter storage with f...

The landscape in the lowlands of south-central Chile is dominated by agricultural lands and forestry plantations of exotic species. Natural forests are restricted to successional forests, while old-growth forests are nearly absent. The lack of old-gr...

Rosewood (Aniba rosaeodora Ducke) is an endangered Amazonian tree species which produces one of the most valuable essential oils in the world. The species is used in silvicultural systems which are seen as a means to reducing the pressure of exploita...

The resilience of a National Forest Inventory and Monitoring sample design can sometimes depend upon the degree to which it can adapt to fluctuations in funding. If a budget reduction necessitates the observation of fewer plots per year, some practit...

Regional surveys done over the last decades show a clear decline in abundance of Northern white-cedar (Thuja occidentalis L.) throughout its range. A lack of seed trees, difficulties in the establishment of natural regeneration and high browsing pres...

Tropospheric ozone (O₃) enrichment could change the carbon (C) metabolism and decrease the C stock for tree species. To assess the differences in response of non-structural carbohydrates (NSCs) between Machilus ichangensis Rehd. et Wils. (M. ichangen...

Functional response traits influence the ability of species to colonize and thrive in a habitat and to persist under environmental challenges. Functional traits can be used to evaluate environment-related processes and phenomena. They also help to in...

This study uses a scenario-based approach to ask what are the varying impacts to forest extent and biodiversity from sixteen climate change and forest conversion scenario combinations, and what do they suggest about future forest conservation policy...

Fusarium circinatum, the causal of pine pitch canker disease (PPC), is now considered among the most important pathogens of Pinaceae in the world. Although in Europe PPC is only established in the Iberian Peninsula, the potential endangered areas cov...

The biology and population dynamics of pine sawfly Diprion pini L. are extremely complex and variable. Among other factors, climatic conditions determine the potential for mass outbreaks of the species. In this paper, we investigate this influence an...

Wildfire behavior depends on the type, quantity, and condition of fuels, and the effect that bark beetle outbreaks have on fuels is a topic of current research and debate. Remote sensing can provide estimates of fuels across landscapes, although few...

Ethylenediurea (EDU) is a synthetic chemical known to protect plants from the phytotoxic effects of tropospheric ozone (O₃). Although many studies have proposed the use of EDU for studying the O₃ effects under field conditions, its mechanism of actio...

The lack of knowledge regarding many aerial insectivorous bats and their relationships with forest characteristics limits conservation decision-making for tropical rainforests and for this important bat group. Therefore, our objective was to understa...

Outbreaks of forest pests increase with climate change, and thereby may affect microbial communities and ecosystem functioning. We investigated the structure of phyllosphere and soil microbial communities during defoliation by the nun moth (Lymantria...

Kamchatka’s forests span across the peninsula’s diverse topography and provide a wide range of physiographic and elevational settings that can be used to investigate how forests are responding to climate change and to anticipate future response. Birc...

We examined relationships between monthly Arctic sea-ice extent (ASIE) and annual wildfire activity for seven regions in the western United States during 1980–2015 to determine if spatio-temporal linkages exist between ASIE, upper-level flow, and sur...

The climate changed from warm-dry to warm-wet during the 1960s in northwest China. However, the effects of climate change on the response of radial growth from different age-class trees have been unclear. We assessed the age-effect radial growth resp...

Small-size, relict and marginal tree-species populations are a priority for conservation of forest genetic resources. In-situ conservation of these populations relies on adequate forest management planning based on knowledge and understanding of both...

Litterfall is the primary source of carbon and nutrients that determine soil fertility in forest ecosystems. Most current studies have focused on foliar litter, but the seasonal dynamics and allometric scaling relationships among different litter com...

Dry forests are important sources of biodiversity where lianas are highly abundant given their ability to grow during times of drought and as a result of secondary growth processes. Lianas provide food and shelter for fauna such as birds, but there a...

Some studies indicate that metal nanoparticles can be used in plant cultivation as fungicides and growth stimulators. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of silver (AgNPs) and copper nanoparticles (CuNPs) on the growth parameters, on the...

Assessing and monitoring forest degradation under national Monitoring, Verification and Reporting (MRV) systems in developing countries have been difficult to implement due to the lack of adequate technical and operational capacities. This study aims...

We observed the growth of juvenile sprouts at stool level in an oak-hornbeam selective coppice after selective thinning. We tested the relations of sprouting probability, number and height of new sprouts, and stool biometric characteristics with thin...

Remote detection of forest disturbance remains a key area of interest for scientists and land managers. Subtle disturbances such as drought, disease, insect activity, and thinning harvests have a significant impact on carbon budgeting and forest prod...

We evaluated the extent to which general or site-specific allometric equations, using diameter at breast height (DBH) as a predictor, are more accurate for estimating stem volume, stem biomass, branch biomass, aboveground woody biomass, and coarse ro...

Storage conditions play a vital role in maintaining biomass quality as a suitable bioenergy feedstock. Research has shown that biomass undergoes significant changes under different storage conditions and that these may influence its suitability for v...