Forests, Volume 9, Issue 9

The classification of discrete forest disturbance events is usually based on the spatial extent, magnitude, and frequency of the disturbance. Based on these characteristics, disturbances are placed into one of three broad categories, gap-scale, inter...

The multiple agroforestry land uses of oak forests are of great ecological and economic interest as they contribute to the improvement of animal husbandry, wildlife, and environment. However, herbivory by wildlife and livestock highly affects the str...

Allometric equations are useful tools for calculating tree and stand-level attributes, such as above-ground biomass or stem volume, using simple measurements that can be obtained from stand inventory data. These equations tend to be species-specific...

Douglas-fir, the most important timber species in the Pacific Northwest, US (PNW), has high stiffness and strength. Growing it in plantations on short rotations since the 1980s has led to concerns about the impact of juvenile/mature wood proportion o...

Harvest residues can play a crucial role in conserving nutrients for recycling in forests, but little is known about the rates of decomposition and nutrient release from these residues following logging in tropical acacia plantations. In this study,...

Growing concern about forest degradation and loss, combined with the political impetus supplied by the Earth Summit in 1992, led to the establishment of eleven intergovernmental, regional, and international forest-related processes focused on the use...

Biodiversity in forests is strongly affected by forest management practices, such as clearcutting and aggregated retention. Therefore, the assessment of the effects of forest management on biodiversity is a major concern in forest ecology. In the pre...

Plants with ericoid mycorrhizal and ectomycorrhizal associations coexist at the tree line and in many boreal forests. Both ericoid mycorrhizal and ectomycorrhizal roots are known to produce extracellular enzymes, but ericoid mycorrhizal fungi have be...

Climatic change is expected to affect forest development in the short term, as well as the spatial distribution of species in the long term. Species distribution models are potentially useful tools for guiding species choices in reforestation and for...

Allometric equations for estimating aboveground biomass (AGB) from easily measured plant attributes are unavailable for most species common to mid-continental boreal peatlands, where shrubs comprise a large component of the vegetation community. Our...

Plant recruitment in tropical forests reflects the chance that seeds arrive at a site resulting in seedling establishment. To inform tropical forest restoration, we ask how seed and seedling densities differentially affect dispersal and establishment...

Establishing adequate advanced oak reproduction prior to final overstory removal is crucial for regenerating oak forests in the eastern U.S. Many management approaches exist to this end, but benefits associated with any individual technique can depen...

Two ground-based timber harvesting methods have been commonly used for beetle-kill salvage treatments after a bark beetle epidemic in northern Colorado. A “lop and scatter” method uses a mobilized stroke delimber to delimb and buck trees...

Alien tree plantations are expanding globally with potential negative effects for native biodiversity. We investigated plant species diversity and composition in a Pinus radiata landscape in south-central Chile, a biodiversity hotspot, by sampling un...

The increase in arrivals of new forest pests highlights the need for effective phytosanitary legislation and measures. This paper introduces legislation targeted at prevention and management of potential introductions of forest pests and pathogens. A...

Stand density directly affects the distribution of ecological factors such as light, heat, and water in forest communities and changes the diversity and structure of undergrowth species, thereby affecting soil health. Fine roots can provide water and...

Phosphorus (P) is one of the most important factors influencing the growth and quality of larch plantations. A systematic knowledge of the dynamic changes of P in soil–plant systems can provide a theoretical basis for the sustainable developmen...

The Three-North Shelter Forest (TNSF) is a critical ecological barrier against sandstorms in northern China, but has shown extensive decline and death in Populus simonii Carr. in the last decade. We investigated the characteristics—tree-ring wi...

Cycad plants possess uncommon morphological, chemical, and ontogenetic characteristics and they may introduce localized changes in soil traits that increase habitat heterogeneity. We used mature Cycas micronesica K.D. Hill trees growing in a range of...

Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis Engelm.), an ecologically important tree species in high-elevation ecosystems of western North America, is threatened by white pine blister rust (Cronartium ribicola Fischer) and increased pressure from mountain pine...

The research on mixed-species forestry has rapidly increased in recent decades because there is a growing interest in these types of stands for environmental reasons. Their positive influence on ecosystem biodiversity, stability and resilience, as we...

The fungal pathogen Fusarium circinatum is the causal agent of Pine Pitch Canker (PPC), a disease which seriously affects different species of pine in forests and nurseries worldwide. In Europe, the fungus affects pines in northern Spain and Portugal...

Foliar uptake of gaseous NO₂ mainly occurs through the stomata and disrupts normal plant growth, but no detailed reports about the physiological responses of plants exposed to NO₂ are available. In this study, to study leaf physicochemical responses,...

Disturbance plays a key role in shaping forest composition and diversity. We used a community phylogeny and long-term forest dynamics data to investigate biotic and abiotic factors shaping tropical forest regeneration following both human and natural...

The study is focused on the surface changes of five hardwoods (oak, black locust, poplar, alder and maple) that were exposed to natural weathering for 24 months in the climatic conditions of Central Europe. Colour, roughness, visual and chemical chan...

The hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA), Adelges tsugae, is an invasive pest of Tsuga spp. in eastern North America. Scymnus coniferarum is a predaceous beetle that was collected from HWA in the western United States. Limited knowledge of this insect in its...

Quantifying the impacts of multiple factors on surface runoff and base flow is essential for understanding the mechanism of hydrological response and local water resources management as well as preventing floods and droughts. Despite previous studies...

Ecosystem services (ES) are critical to human well-being, especially in developing countries. Improved understanding of the status of ES is required to help people improve their quality of life. The status of ES is largely unknown in many regions of...

Tree crowns are commonly measured to understand tree growth and stand dynamics. Crown ratio (CR—crown depth-to-total height ratio) is significantly affected by a number of tree- and stand-level characteristics and other factors as well. General...

Mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins; MPB) is an aggressive bark beetle that attacks numerous Pinus spp. and causes extensive mortality in lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta Douglas ex Loudon; LPP) forests in the western United States an...

Our understanding of nutrient limitations to jack pine (Pinus banksiana Lamb.) growth is lacking across the Lake States of the USA (Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota), where this species makes up an important forest cover type on nutrient poor sands....

In order to use the electrical resistance method to accurately and timely detect and evaluate the internal decay defects of living trees, the effects of the seasonal temperature and moisture content on the electrical resistance of standing trees were...

Land use science usually adopts a case study approach to investigate landscape change processes, so we considered a meta-analysis an appropriate tool for summarizing general patterns and heterogeneous findings across multiple case studies over a larg...

Crude rubber seed oil (CRSO) is a promising but currently underutilized biodiesel feedstock alternative, extracted by pressing the seeds of the rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis). Rubber trees are cultivated across more than 11.4 million hectares world...

The choice of seed material (genetics) is one of the tools that can improve adaptation to the changing climate. Insufficient adaptation can result in a number of potential risks, including stem cracking. The goal of this study is to assess the influe...

To illustrate the importance of theories-of-change (ToCs) for evaluation of conservation interventions, we consider the global ToC from the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and then develop a more explicit ToC focused on the sustained timber yield (S...

Spruce bud scale (Physokermes piceae (Schrnk.)) has gained attention due to recent outbreaks in the eastern Baltic Sea region—Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia. In the spring of 2010, it spread rapidly across Latvia, affecting large areas of Norway spruc...

Increasing atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition has profound effects on carbon (C) cycling in forest ecosystems. As an important part of belowground C dynamics, soil respiration is potentially affected by changing N availability. However, the response...

To investigate the effect of improved property rights and, in particular, village democracy under China’s Collective Forest Tenure Reform (Tenure Reform) on household forestry investments, we estimate both tobit models and the more general Crag...

Carbon sequestration is suggested as a low-cost option for climate change mitigation, the functioning of which can be threatened by pathogen infestation. This study calculates the effects of infectious pathogens on the cost of achieving the EU’...

After publication of the research paper[...]

In much of the commercial boreal forest, dense road networks and energy corridors have been developed to access natural resources with unintended and poorly understood effects on surrounding forest structure. In this study, we compare the effects of...

Torrefaction is a promising pre-treatment for improving the fuel quality of biomass. This study examined the effect of a mild torrefaction (from 160 to 230 °C) on the heating value, elemental composition, and thermogravimetric analysis of wood fr...

Portuguese cork oak (Quercus suber L.) extended mortality and lack of regeneration have been the drivers of important changes in the traditional cork oak woodlands (savanna-like) montado. The decrease in tree cover fosters the mixture with stone pine...

The severity of lodgepole pine mortality from mountain pine beetle outbreaks varies with host tree diameter, density, and other structural characteristics, influencing subcanopy conditions and tree regeneration. We measured density and leader growth...

The Austrian Federal Forests (ÖBf), the Republic of Austria’s state-owned company, manages 15% of the Austrian forests; about 50% of the land is devoted to nature conservation. This paper presents the results of a representative survey of...

Self-heating fires, dust explosions and off-gassing during biomass storage are serious hazards which can have devastating consequences, resulting in worker fatalities and health impacts, as well as bioenergy plant destruction and complete loss of pro...

In modern forestry, the complexity of the planning process is increasing, specifically in the context of the sustainable use of forest resources and its adaptation to climate changes. This article presents the concept of forest use regulation promoti...

In the forest supply chain of the coast of British Columbia, the material flows are directed toward the push production of commodity products. This industry has not adopted lean and agile principles due to unclear economic impacts on the supply chain...

Defoliation by spruce budworm (Choristoneura fumiferana Clem.) on balsam fir (Abies balsamea (L.) Mill.) is more severe in fir than in mixed fir-hardwood stands. Previous studies assumed that defoliation in fir-hardwood stands was reduced in proporti...