5,132 Results Found

Individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD) are known to manifest a variety of neurocognitive impairments that can be attributed to alterations in specific brain networks. The current study aims to identify specific features of brain connectivity, ne...

Individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD) manifest a variety of impairments that can be attributed to alterations in specific brain networks. The current study aims to identify features of EEG-based functional connectivity, neuropsychological perfo...

The functional composition of plant communities (FCPC) makes a significant contribution to ecosystem properties, functions, and services. Here, we used 18 plant functional traits from the sPlot database v2.1 and the global forest management type data...

We conducted a systematic review of the effects of a forest therapy program on adults’ immune function. We used PICO-SD (participants, interventions, comparisons, outcomes, study design) to identify key items. The participants were adults over the ag...

Forest ecological function is one of the key indicators reflecting the quality of forest resources. The traditional weighting method to assess forest ecological function is based on a large amount of ground survey data; it is accurate but costly and...

Forests acting as carbon storage and sequestration play an essential role in the global nutrient cycle, in which fungi are active participants. The forests cover almost all regions from the boreal, temperate to the subtropical and tropical forests. T...

Modern forestry systems rely on typologies of forest types (FTs). In Argentina, several proposals have been developed, but they lack unified criteria. The objective was to compare different approaches, specifically focusing on (i) phenoclusters (func...

Vegetation and soil have spatial distributions at different scales, while the spatial distribution of soil microorganisms and factors driving their distribution are still unclear. We aimed to reveal the spatial pattern of microbial functional diversi...

Research Highlights: Functional diversity studies help to better understand how organisms respond to different environmental conditions. Conditions in tropical flooded forests are highly variable, including levels of nutrient availability, pH, and fl...

Monitoring wildlife responses is essential to assess restoration projects. Birds are widely used as bioindicators of ecosystem restoration, but most studies use only taxonomic descriptors to compare categories of reference and restoring sites. Here,...

In this research, we analyzed functional plant traits and life forms of plant species growing on five forest gaps in the Dinaric fir–beech forest in Slovenia. The forest gaps were created as a result of natural disturbances. We selected 18 func...

Using 642 forest plots from three regions in Germany, we analyzed the direct and indirect effects of forest management intensity and of environmental variables on lichen functional diversity (FDis). Environmental stand variables were affected by mana...

Multifunctional forest management is a common topic and hotspot of forestry research in recent years. Evaluating the suitability of forest land for multifunctional management is the first and most important step for realizing sustainable and multifun...

Tropical forests represent an important pool in the global carbon cycle. Their biomass stocks and carbon fluxes are variable in space and time, which is a challenge for accurate measurements. Forest models are therefore used to investigate these comp...

Disturbances have created heterogeneous habitats for secondary and old-growth forests. Under the assumption that ecologically similar species have similar functional traits, numerous studies have attempted to use trait-based approaches to infer the a...

Environmental health research has recently started to study the health effects of well-being-promoting practices based on forest exposure. This narrative review aims to understand whether forest exposure can directly improve respiratory function. Pub...

Water conservation is an important function of forest ecosystems, but it is still unclear which forest types function best in this regard. We investigated the water conservation function indicators including the water-holding rate of branches and lea...

The herb layer of temperate forests contributes to long-term forest ecosystem functioning and provisioning of ecosystem services. Therefore, a thorough understanding of its dynamics in the face of environmental changes is essential. This paper focuse...

The relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning is an important issue in ecology. Plant functional traits and their diversity are key determinants of ecosystem function in changing environments. Understanding the successional dynamics...

As cyclonic wind storms (hurricanes and typhoons) increase in frequency and intensity with climate change, it is important to understand their effects on the populations and communities of tropical trees they impact. Using tree demographic data from...

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...

In recent years, after the implementation of large-scale ecological restoration projects, karst areas in the South China Karst have become global “greening” hot spots. However, the biodiversity, ecosystem quality, and security patterns in...

To study the effect of ecological function restoration in degraded natural forests in Xiaoxinganling, Heilongjiang Province, China, we set up 90 plots of degraded natural forests of different types and ages in the Xinqing Group Branch of Yichun Fores...

Information on the ecological functions of forests is important for sustainable forest management. In this study, we introduced the national monitoring program which has been used in China to evaluate the overall health status and ecological function...

Microorganisms play important roles in phosphorus (P) cycling via their regulation of P uptake and transport, P mineralization and solubilization, and the mediation of P deficiency in forest biomes. However, the dynamics of microbial P functional gen...

Riparian forests are important for maintaining aquatic biodiversity, yet they face increasing pressure from logging activities. This study assessed the functional diversity of Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera (EPT) in 30 Amazonian first-ord...

The saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks) is one of the most important soil properties for many hydrological simulation models. Especially in South Korea, analyzing the Ks of the forest soil is essential for understanding the water cycle throughout t...

In the context of considering natural capital in decision-making, the ecosystem services concept is steadily increasing in importance. This also holds for the forest sector in Germany. This development calls for a harmonisation of approaches and term...

Forest height and vertical structure profile functions can be estimated using polarimetric interferometric synthetic aperture radar (PolInSAR) data based on the random volume over ground (RVoG) model and polarization coherence tomography (PCT) theory...

Efforts to assess and understand changes in plant diversity and ecosystem functioning focus on the analysis of taxonomic diversity. However, the resilience of ecosystems depends not only on species richness but also on the functions (responses and ef...

Forest bathing is beneficial for human health. To investigate whether walking in forest or urban parks affects cardiovascular functions (CVFs), the present study was conducted in five forest trails in the Xitou Experimental Forest and in five urban p...

Human-induced environmental changes threaten the functional stability of natural forest ecosystems. Understanding the dominant factors influencing both functional space and stability in extremely heterogeneous environments is crucial for elucidating...

Floodplain forests are considered important forest ecosystems, and providers of ecosystem functions and services. The subject of this research was to assess the level of provision of five selected ecosystem functions (climate regulation and regulatio...

Plant leaf functional traits can reflect the adaptive strategies of plants to environmental changes. Exploring the patterns and causes of geographic variation in leaf functional traits is pivotal for improving ecological theory at the macroscopic sca...

Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) H. Karst.) is a primary forest-forming species in the European part of Russia, both in terms of its distribution and economic importance. A number of studies indicate that one of the reasons for the disturbance of spru...

It has been widely reported that biodiversity, ecosystems, and functional traits are positively interrelated in natural forest ecosystems. However, it remains unclear whether these relationships should be expected in secondary forests. In this study,...

Southwest China is distributed with the largest area of limestone and dolomite karst landscapes in the world, and its ecological environment is very fragile; the problem of rock desertification is particularly prominent. Karst lithological difference...

Forest productivity (FP) depends not only on tree species diversity but also on functional traits, stand structure, and environmental factors; however, causation and relative importance remain controversial. The effects of tree species diversity (spe...

Increasing evidence supports the direct healing effects of forests, partly attributed to the exposure to plant-emitted monoterpenes available in the forest atmosphere. The potential benefits on respiratory functions from inhaling monoterpenes have ga...

Understanding how main plant functional strategies scale from species to communities is critical for guiding restoration in tropical disturbed areas by unsustainable livestock grazing; yet, the patterns and drivers of functional trait space along suc...

After the transformation of counties in urban suburbs into districts, the rapid urbanization and industrialization process in China’s developed regions had a huge impact on the spatial distribution and equity of the suburban forest ecological f...

The vegetation for water and soil conservation on the Loess Plateau has resulted in the formation of large areas of low-quality and inefficient forests during its growth process, thereby hindering the high-quality development of such vegetation and c...

As a key part of the forest ecosystem, soil microorganisms play extremely important roles in maintaining the ecological environment and the security of water quality in reservoir areas. However, it is not clear whether there are differences in the fu...

Forest herb-layer vegetation responds sensitively to environmental conditions. This paper compares drivers of both taxonomic, i.e., species richness, cover and evenness, and functional herb-layer diversity, i.e., the diversity of clonal, bud bank and...

As the cornerstone of terrestrial ecosystems, forests have faced mounting challenges due to escalating human activities, jeopardizing their vital ecological functions and even their existence. It has become an important issue to explore how to promot...

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...

Research highlights: shifts in the composition and functional diversity of lichen biota reflect changes in the environment caused by climate warming and eutrophication. Background and objectives: studies on lichen functional diversity and refinement...

Functional traits are pivotal for understanding the functional niche within plant communities. Yet, the relationship between the functional niches of typical forest plant communities across different climatic zones, as defined by functional traits, a...

This study evaluated the response of bat communities, from a taxonomic and functional perspective, to variation in the vegetation and landscape attributes produced by anthropogenic activities. We characterized the following: (1) the community of phyl...

Long-term studies have revealed that forest species composition was shifting under environment change and disturbance induced by loss of large trees. Yet, few studies explicitly analyzed their impacts on composition concurrently. To learn more about...