It is generally hypothesized that forest dieback is a characteristic of alder swamp forests (alder carrs, Alnion glutinosae alliance). Different internal and external factors may trigger this process, including human disturbance, changes in river dis...
The alien invasive pathogen Hymenoscyphus fraxineus causes large-scale decline of European ash (Fraxinus excelsior). We assessed ash dieback in Germany and identified factors that were associated with this disease. Our assessment was based on a 2015...
Studying the causes of forest dieback in Norway spruce (Pícea ábies) and Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) stands is crucial for predicting their occurrence, promoting sustainable forest management and reforestation, and investigating the p...
An increased shift in climate change contributes to accelerated forest dieback around the world. Forest dieback is the process of a forest ecosystem suffering from disease, with mortality rates increasing among trees, potentially leading to the death...
In recent years, long periods of drought and heat waves have become increasingly frequent, causing forest dieback phenomena that make stands more sensitive to biotic stressors. How trees may respond to extreme climatic events and which metabolites ar...
A number of studies have documented coastal forest dieback as a historical and ongoing process across the Northeast US region. To further develop a current understanding of the state of knowledge, review adaptation and response measures available to...
The Bialowieza Primeval Forest (BF) is one of the well-known forests in Central Europe. The most common tree species in BF was Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) H. Karst), comprising 26%. However, a mass dieback of spruce has occurred during recent yea...
Background. Since the mid-20th century, massive dieback of coniferous forests has been observed in the temperate and boreal zones across North America and Northern Eurasia. The first hypotheses explaining forest dieback were associated with industria...
In Lithuania, the dieback of European ash (Fraxinus excelsior L.), caused by alien ascomycete Hymenoscyphus fraxineus, started in the mid-1990s, resulting in a large-scale decline of F. excelsior and its dominated forest habitats. Nevertheless, the r...
Urban forests are highly valued for the multiple benefits they provide to city dwellers. The strategic provision of ecosystem services by these forests is threatened by climate change, warming conditions being responsible for heat waves and chronic d...
Background and Objectives: The existence of common ash (Fraxinus excelsior) in Europe is severely endangered by ash dieback. To support its future sustainability, it is essential to improve the natural ash regeneration. The main aim of this study was...
Drought-induced forest mortality threatens biodiversity globally, particularly in arid, and semi-arid woodlands. The continual development of remote sensing approaches enables enhanced monitoring of forest health. Herein, we investigate the ability o...
Koa (Acacia koa) forests are found across broad environmental gradients in the Hawai‘ian Islands. Previous studies have identified koa forest health problems and dieback at the plot level, but landscape level patterns remain unstudied. The availabili...
The ash dieback epidemic, caused by the fungus Hymenoscyphus fraxineus, has been a significant issue in Europe for over 20 years, severely affecting ash tree populations (Fraxinus excelsior L.). In the Białowieża Forest, ash trees now repre...
The Norway spruce is one of the most important tree species in Europe. This tree species has been put under considerable pressure due to the ongoing impacts of climate change. Meanwhile, frequent droughts and pest outbreaks are reported as the main r...
Recent drought-induced dieback alters forest dynamics, which are also shaped by past management. In western Pyrenean silver fir (Abies alba) stands, dieback concurs in space and time with the legacies of past management, but the impacts on forest gro...
Mountains are global biodiversity hotspots but face the danger of habitat loss, especially at lower elevations due to climate-warming-induced forest dieback. In the Gongga Mountains (SW China), Abies fabri trees at 2800 m show increased mortality, ye...
We studied the impact of the neophyte tree Fraxinus pennsylvanica on the diversity of beetles in floodplain forests along the river Elbe in Germany in 2016, 2017 and in 2020, where 80% of all Fraxinus excelsior trees had died following severe drought...
European ash (Fraxinus excelsior L.) dieback caused by the fungus Hymenoscyphus fraxineus (T. Kowalski) Baral, Queloz, and Hosoya has been affecting European forests since 1992. The disease drives severe crown defoliation, branch loss, and finally tr...
Studies of Phytophthora impact in forests generally focus on individual species without recognition that Phytophthora occur in multispecies communities. This study investigated community structure of Phytophthora species in the rhizosphere of Agathis...
Secondary forest areas are increasing worldwide and understanding how these forests interact with climate change including frequent and extreme events becomes increasingly important. This study aims to investigate the effects of the strong 2015/2016...
Forest mortality (FM) is influenced by several independent factors, including forest fragmentation (FF) at different spatial scales and multi-scales, site conditions, and stand characteristics. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationshi...
Forests around the world are facing climate change. Increased drought stress and severe heat waves in recent decades have negatively impacted on forest health, making them more vulnerable and prone to dieback and mortality phenomena. Although the ter...
Forests provide essential ecosystem services but face increasing threats from invasive species like Toumeyella parvicornis (pine tortoise scale). Since its introduction to Italy in 2014, this pest has severely impacted Pinus pinea forests, with a maj...
Pollen viability is a crucial determinant of reproductive success in plants. Given the enormous threat posed to the common ash (Fraxinus excelsior L.) by ash dieback, it is important to investigate the potential disease’s effects on pollen viab...
Extreme climatic events, including droughts and heatwaves, can trigger outbreaks of woodboring beetles by compromising host defenses and creating habitat conducive for beetle development. As the frequency, intensity, and duration of droughts are like...
During the seven-year research period, the average annual removal was by 3274 m3 higher than the average annual removal prescribed by the existing management plan (MP). The main reason lies in the high amount of salvage felling volume at 55,238 m3 (3...
Ash shoot dieback has now spread throughout Europe. It is caused by an interaction between fungi that attack shoots (Hymenoscyphus fraxineus) and roots (Armillaria spp., in our case Armillaria gallica). While detection of the pathogen is relatively e...
Reliable forest biomass and carbon-stock assessment is essential for climate-change mitigation and sustainable forest management, particularly in semi-arid Mediterranean mountain forests affected by drought, wildfire and tree decline. Here, we estima...
Forest health monitoring is crucial for sustainable management, especially with the challenges posed by climate warming. Remote sensing data provide vegetation indices, such as the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Enhanced Vegetation...
Forest ecosystems in the Mediterranean Basin are mostly situated in the north of the Basin (mesic). In the most southern and dry areas, the forest can only exist where topography and/or altitude favor a sufficient availability of water to sustain for...
The endemic New Zealand kauri trees (Agathis australis) are under threat by the deadly kauri dieback disease (Phytophthora agathidicida (PA)). This study aimed to identify spectral index combinations for characterising visible stress symptoms in the...
Hyperspectral images taken from aircraft or satellites contain information from hundreds of spectral bands, within which lie latent lower-dimensional structures that can be exploited for classifying vegetation and other materials. A disadvantage of w...
Most ash trees (Fraxinus excelsior) in Germany are infected with Hymenoscyphus fraxineus, the causative agent of ash dieback (ADB). This study investigates the phenolic content of ash leaves to evaluate their potential as indicators for monitoring AD...
Understanding how forests recover after severe disturbances is essential for developing effective management strategies that promote stable forest regeneration. Disturbances are particularly significant in transition zones such as treelines, which ar...
The endemic New Zealand kauri trees (Agathis australis) are of major importance for the forests in the northern part of New Zealand. The mapping of kauri locations is required for the monitoring of the deadly kauri dieback disease (Phytophthora agath...
Northern hardwood forests of the Lake Superior region face a series of novel disturbance pressures including canopy dieback. Previous studies have linked regional sugar-maple (Acer saccharum) canopy dieback to introduced earthworms, which may have co...
Since its first identification in Poland in 2006, the ascomycete Hymenoscyphus fraxineus has caused massive dieback of Fraxinus excelsior in the countries of eastern, northern and central Europe. This work shows the development, expansion, and severi...
Research Highlights: novel fast and easily assessable proxies for vulnerability to cavitation of conifer sapwood are proposed that allow reliable estimation at the species level. Background and Objectives: global warming calls for fast and easily app...
Ash trees are an important component of both forests and the countryside. Emerging new diseases like ash dieback poses new challenges to Fraxinus spp., which not only have to adapt to global warming but also defend themselves against new threats from...
The magnitude and frequency of Extreme Weather Events (EWEs) are increasing, causing changes in species distribution. We assessed the short-term effects of a late spring frost on beech forests, using satellite images to identify damaged forests and c...
Agricultural and ecological systems are threatened by extreme and compound climate extremes such as hotter droughts. These events are characterized by elevated maximum temperatures, leading to atmospheric drought, and reduced precipitation, leading t...
A Mediterranean holm oak forest was subjected to experimental partial rainfall exclusion during 21 consecutive years to study the effects of the expected decrease in water availability for Mediterranean vegetation in the coming decades. Allocation in...
The American quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) and its close relative, the Eurasian quaking aspen (Populus tremula L.), cover a realm that is perhaps the most expansive of all tree species in the world. In North America, sudden aspen decline...
Research Highlights: A small, long-term decrease in the water availability in a Mediterranean holm oak forest elicited strong effects on tree stem growth, mortality, and species composition, which led to changes in the ecosystem function and service...
Many planted Pinus forests are severely affected by defoliation and mortality processes caused by pests and droughts. The mapping of forest tree crown variables (e.g., leaf area index and pigments) is particularly useful in stand delineation for the...
The correlation between climate change and pine tree dieback must be understood to implement a proactive forest management system. In this study, an ensemble model combining random forest, the generalized boosting model, and the generalized linear mo...
Forestry is one of the sectors particularly affected by the threats posed by changing climatic conditions. This is reflected in the deterioration of the health status of stands due to the synergistic effect of numerous abiotic and biotic factors. Cur...
Climate extremes such as cold spells are becoming more frequent as climate variability increases. However, few studies have evaluated the impacts of winter cold spells on forest cover, tree growth and leaf and sapwood non-structural carbohydrate (NSC...
In many spruce stands, trees are frequently attacked by the pathogen Heterobasidion parviporum, albeit without visible symptoms in the crown. In the present work, the results of the presence of stem rot, assessed by PICUS Sonic Tomography, and the fu...
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