Search Results (4,578)

Ecosystem restoration on Mediterranean islands is often hindered by the residual effects of past land use and invasive species. Decades of holm oak forest exploitation, the establishment of secondary pine plantations, and the introduction of invasive mammals have altered habitat configurations. Consequently, converting these conifer stands to promote the recovery of native Quercus ilex L. communities has become a conservation priority. This study investigates the regeneration constraints of Q. ilex in Mediterranean insular environments, focusing on the inhibitory role of conifer-derived litter and seed predation by invasive rodents and lagomorphs. We integrated an ex situ experiment (384 acorns) testing germination under varying local pine-forest soil and commercial substrate conditions, with an in situ field experiment (300 acorns) across five areas, comparing three treatments: closed cages (exclusion of all mammals), open cages (exclusion of lagomorphs), and unfenced controls. Results indicate that, while ex situ, local pine-forest soil significantly favoured germination over the commercial mixture, predation represents the main obstacle in situ, outweighing any soil-mediated effects. Seedling emergence was substantially reduced by early predation and, to a lesser extent, by litter presence. These findings highlight the necessity of integrated management strategies in insular ecosystems. Full article

This study conducts a multi-objective optimization of an impact pruner for coniferous plantation trees, using Prince Rupprecht’s larch (Larix principis-rupprechtii Mayr) in North China as a case study. The objective is to establish an impact cutting mechanics model and to construct an impact cutting platform. This study utilizes the Box–Behnken principle, with the cutting speed (v), cutter wedge angle (β), and cutting clearance (L) as influencing factors and the cutting energy consumption (Y₁), total equipment energy consumption (Y₂), and specific cutting area (S) as evaluation indexes. The cutting parameters were optimized using a mathematical model for multi-objective optimization. The experimental results indicate that the factors influencing target Y₁ were ranked as β, L, and v, while the factors influencing target Y₂ were ranked as β, v, and L, and the factors influencing target S were ranked as L, β, and v. Field tests demonstrated that the optimization reduced the cutting energy consumption by up to 16.90% and improved the cutting quality by up to 19.28%. These gains directly translate to improved operational efficiency and economic value in forestry management. The optimal parameters corresponding to these improvements are v = 2.15 m·s⁻¹, β = 20°, and L = 5 mm, resulting in Y₁ = 36.10 J, Y₂ = 3351.01 J, and S = 3.45. These results demonstrate the feasibility and efficiency of the impact pruning method for Larix principis-rupprechtii in coniferous plantation forests. By combing mechanism analysis with multi-objective optimization, this study proposes a solution that can improve the pruning quality of coniferous plantation trees, reduce the energy consumption of impact pruning machines, enhance tree health, and serve as a measure to prevent pests and diseases, contributing to the advancement of artificial forest plant protection technology. Full article

Seed enhancement technologies have emerged as promising approaches to improve seedling growth and nursery performance of forest tree species. This study evaluated the effects of combining seed priming and seed coating technologies with beneficial microbial inoculants on the seedling quality of Falcataria falcata (L.) Greuter & R.Rankin. Fourteen treatments, including hydropriming (HP), gibberellic acid (GA₃), Rhizobium sp., Trichoderma sp., endomycorrhiza, polymer coating, nutrients, fungicide, and insecticide, were assessed under nursery conditions. Seedling quality was determined using the number of roots, number of nodules, root-to-shoot ratio, vigor index I, and vigor index II. Significant differences among treatments were observed for all measured parameters (p < 0.001). The treatment HP + GA₃ + Rhizobium sp. + polymer coat + fungicide (T13) produced the highest number of roots (31.76 roots seedling⁻¹), indicating enhanced root development. Meanwhile, HP + endomycorrhiza (T4) resulted in the highest number of nodules (5.49 nodules seedling⁻¹), root-to-shoot ratio (0.593), and vigor index I (2055.57), reflecting improved biomass allocation and overall seedling quality. Principal component analysis explained 71.9% of the total variation and revealed distinct associations between treatments and growth attributes. Treatments containing Rhizobium sp. were primarily associated with root proliferation and seedling vigor, whereas endomycorrhizal treatments were linked to nodulation and balanced biomass development. The results demonstrate that integrating microbial inoculants with seed priming and coating technologies can significantly enhance seedling quality, even when germination responses are similar among treatments. These findings highlight the potential of biologically enhanced seeds as a sustainable strategy for producing vigorous planting materials suitable for plantation forestry, reforestation, and landscape restoration programs. Full article

The understorey vegetation of mature Quercus robur L. mixed forests (MF) was compared for richness and composition with that of natural forest gaps (FG) and of 30-year-old artificial Q. robur plantations (AF) in Mediterranean Italy. Richness was similar in AF and MF and was almost double in FG, due to the arrival of species from non-forest habitats, among which 14% were aliens. In these specific conditions, natural gap dynamics did not support forest recruitment, while AF hosted typical nemoral species, demonstrating that afforestation may be successful for nature restoration, provided that connectivity with natural systems is maintained for the supply of forest species propagules. Full article

Soil acidification is a widespread consequence of intensive agriculture and represents a major abiotic stress affecting plant performance, nutrient availability, and ecosystem functioning. Long-term tea (Camellia sinensis) plantations provide model systems of chronic acidification, where sustained low pH imposes strong environmental filtering on soil microbial communities. Although microbial responses to acidification have been extensively studied, research has focused predominantly on bacteria and fungi, leaving other key functional groups, particularly protists, largely overlooked. Here, we synthesize current knowledge on microbial communities in acidified soils and highlight trophic interactions, especially protist-mediated regulation, as a potentially critical but underexplored dimension linking abiotic stress to plant–soil processes. We propose that soil acidification may not only filter microbial community composition but also reshape trophic interactions. Based on evidence from other soil systems, protist-mediated trophic interactions could influence nutrient cycling, pathogen suppression, and ultimately plant responses under stress conditions. Integrating environmental filtering with trophic perspectives provides a conceptual framework for understanding microbiome dynamics in acidified soils. However, direct evidence linking protist-mediated trophic regulation to ecosystem functioning and plant performance in tea plantation soils remains limited and requires experimental validation. We further suggest that these systems provide unique opportunities to investigate how abiotic constraints and biotic interactions jointly shape plant performance. Addressing this gap is essential for advancing predictive understanding of plant–microbiome interactions under ongoing environmental change. Full article

In this work, a lightweight framework enabled by the modified YOLOv11s-seg model for tea shoot detection and plucking point localization is proposed. Detecting tea shoots and localizing plucking points with higher accuracy generally require larger model size and more model parameters, making it difficult to balance accuracy and lightweighting. To overcome this limitation, a modified lightweight YOLOv11s-seg model is developed. First, the multi-scale edge information enhancement is introduced into the conventional YOLOv11s-seg to extract edge feature better and improve the detection accuracy of tea shoots. Meanwhile, context anchor attention is utilized to modify the cross stage partial spatial attention module in a backbone network to improve the detection capability for small objects. Moreover, the detail calibration reconstruction feature pyramid network is proposed. It utilizes spatial and contextual semantic information to reconstruct and calibrate features in key regions, enhancing the capability for object fusion and recognition at various scales. Furthermore, with the modified model performing instance segmentation to acquire the contour of each tea shoot, the coordinates of the three lowest pixel points in the contour are captured to localize the plucking point based on the average coordinates. In addition, the layer-adaptive magnitude-based pruning (LAMP) method is used to lighten the model. The experimental results show that the LAMP-pruned modified YOLOv11s-seg model with a speedup ratio of 1.5 achieves a mAP@0.5 of 86.5% for tea shoot detection, exhibiting a 4.7 percentage point improvement over the conventional YOLOv11s-seg model. Moreover, it exhibits an accuracy of 81.9% for plucking point localization on the validation and test subsets with 232 images in total, and its number of parameters, model size and floating point operations (FLOPs) separately achieve reductions of 67.3%, 66.2%, and 24.9% over the conventional model as well. Therefore, the proposed LAMP-pruned modified model shows good balance between lightweighting and detection accuracy. Finally, the modified LAMP-pruned YOLOv11s-seg model is deployed on a Jetson Orin NX edge module and measured in a tea plantation, with the measured results exhibiting a detection speed of 34.1 FPS and verifying its availability in practical applications. Full article

The Yellow River floodplain relies on plantations for ecological restoration, yet the key factors influencing soil microbial communities remain poorly elucidated. In this study, we investigated soil microbial communities under four representative stand types (Populus tomentosa monoculture (PP), Salix matsudana monoculture (PS), Populus tomentosa-Robinia pseudoacacia mixed plantation (MPR), and Salix matsudana-Populus tomentosa mixed plantation (MSP)) in this region. Using high-throughput sequencing, we compared the soil microbial community composition and diversity across stands, and combined soil physicochemical measurements to evaluate the relationships between community variation and soil factors. The results indicated that soil physicochemical properties differed significantly among stand types, except for available phosphorus. Bacterial α-diversity was highest in MPR, whereas fungal α-diversity was highest in MSP. Variation in microbial community structure (β-diversity) was primarily explained by soil organic carbon, total nitrogen, pH, water content, and electrical conductivity, as indicated by redundancy analysis and Mantel tests. The dominant bacterial phyla were Acidobacteriota, Pseudomonadota (formerly Proteobacteria), and Actinomycetota, while the dominant fungal phyla were Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, and Mortierellomycota. These findings demonstrate significant variation in soil microbial communities among plantation types and highlight the important role of soil physicochemical properties in shaping microbial community composition. Full article

Grain for Green, as an important ecological restoration method, profoundly affects soil nitrogen (N) cycling by altering the soil physicochemical properties and microbial community. Soil nitrogen mineralization is a key process in the terrestrial N cycle. However, the dynamics and underlying driving mechanisms of soil N mineralization rate (Rmin) that respond to afforestation remain unclear. In this study, we selected a typical afforestation sequence in Northeast China, including farmland (F), 21-year-old larch plantation (L21), 42-year-old larch plantation (L42), and natural larch forest (NL). The soil Rmin, associated soil physicochemical properties, and microbial community characteristics were determined to explore the effects of afforestation on soil Rmin and its potential mechanisms of action. The results suggested that soil Rmin was ranked in the order of L42 (0.41 mg kg⁻¹ d⁻¹) > F (0.39 mg kg⁻¹ d⁻¹) > L21 (0.23 mg kg⁻¹ d⁻¹) (p < 0.05) along the afforestation sequence, with no significant difference between L42 and F. Compared to the L42, the NL exhibited significantly lower soil Rmin (0.23 mg kg⁻¹ d⁻¹) (p < 0.05). The changes in soil Rmin during the afforestation were significantly positively related to soil total N (TN) and organic carbon (SOC) concentrations, but significantly negatively related to pH (p < 0.05). Furthermore, the abundances of Proteobacteria and Acidobacteria (bacteria) and Ascomycota (fungi) were also closely correlated with soil Rmin. Structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis further indicated that the afforestation mainly regulated soil Rmin by altering soil temperature (ST) and NH₄⁺-N content. Meanwhile, soil NH₄⁺-N content could also exert a significantly positive effect on soil Rmin by influencing the microbial community. In conclusion, afforestation effectively altered soil Rmin, which was even higher in the plantation than in natural forests. This finding further enhances our understanding of forest restoration and land management practices on soil N cycling in temperate regions. Full article

Individual tree modeling (ITM) is an effective system for thinned stands, especially in teak (Tectona grandis Linn F.) plantations, allowing the estimation of individual-tree-specific variables. Heartwood diameter and volume have high added value and can be estimated in living trees. Therefore, we developed an ITM system for clonal teak stands capable of projecting technical intervention ages and quantifying heartwood production throughout the rotation in the Eastern Brazilian Amazon. The system included equations for total tree height, site index, and taper of both stem and heartwood, with volumes obtained by integrating the respective taper equations. Future diameters and heights were projected using models based on the algebraic difference approach (ADA) and the generalized algebraic difference approach (GADA). Ages of technical intervention were defined by the maximum mean annual increment in volume with bark. The Lundqvist-Korf-ADA base model was the most accurate in estimating future trees’ diameters and heights. The inclusion of the number of trees as a covariate to represent thinning had a significant and positive impact on variable projections. Optimal technical rotations ranged from 17.1 to 21.3 years, considering volume with bark. An increase in the proportion of heartwood was observed, reaching 78% of the diameter and 53% of the volume at rotation ages. The modeling system developed in the present study enables the estimation of technical rotation ages and the quantification of heartwood production throughout the rotation, which provides reliable information for silvicultural planning and decision-making in the management of clonal teak stands. Full article

Accurate detection of tea buds is a key technology for enabling automated tea harvesting. However, in natural environments, tea buds present challenges such as scale variation, dense distribution, and high similarity to the background, making it difficult for traditional methods to balance accuracy and efficiency. To address these issues, this paper proposes a lightweight detection framework, PCM-YOLO. The model introduces a cascaded gated feature modulation network into the YOLOv11 architecture, combining feedforward structures and gating mechanisms to selectively emphasize informative features, thereby improving tea bud detection performance. In addition, a feature-enhanced downsampling module is proposed, which employs a stepwise pooling-based feature enhancement mechanism to progressively expand the receptive field while preserving feature resolution, effectively incorporating multi-scale contextual information. Finally, a multi-scale feature enhancement module is designed to reduce the computational complexity of the model while maintaining detection performance as much as possible. Experimental results on public datasets demonstrate notable performance improvements over YOLOv11-N: Precision increases from 86.7% to 90.6% (an absolute increase of 3.9 percentage points), mAP50-95 increases by 1.6%, and the number of parameters is reduced by 20.6%. These results indicate that PCM-YOLO achieves a substantial reduction in model complexity while effectively improving detection accuracy, providing a feasible technical solution for deploying high-precision, real-time tea bud detection systems at the edge in tea plantation environments. Full article

Picea koraiensis Nakai is a precious tree species in Northeast China with excellent traits, but research on thinning effects on its growth remains limited, especially regarding soil-thinning–growth interactions. This study focused on a 50-year-old Picea koraiensis plantation in the Mengjiagang Forest Farm, Jiamusi. Four thinning intensities were set: CK (no thinning), T1 (10%–20%), T2 (20%–30%), and T3 (40%–50%). Short-term (1–3 years) stand growth, soil properties, microbial biomass, and extracellular enzyme activities were measured, with stand volume and large-diameter timber yield estimated via self-established equations. Results showed that T3 significantly promoted average DBH (1.98 × CK) and tree height growth (1.60 × CK). T2 achieved the highest increases in stand volume (38.07 m³/ha) and large-diameter timber yield (56.02 m³/ha), exceeding other treatments by 1.20–7.12 m³/ha and 5.60–11.64 m³/ha, respectively. Stand growth indices were positively correlated with thinning intensity, soil microbial biomass carbon, and soil C/P ratio; DBH and height also correlated with soil catalase activity. Thinning intensity has a direct effect on stand growth. Meanwhile, observational data show that it is significantly correlated with changes in soil organic carbon fractions and soil extracellular enzyme activity, and these correlations may constitute potential pathways that indirectly affect stand growth. Moderate-intensity thinning (20%–30%) is recommended for scientific tending and large-diameter timber cultivation of middle-aged Picea koraiensis plantations in this region. Full article

Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia Mill.) is a globally significant crop, with Bulgaria maintaining a leading position in essential oil production. This study presents the first comprehensive, multi-regional analysis of commercial lavender plantations in Bulgaria, integrating phenotypic, biochemical, and genetic data. A new field quality index (FQI) was developed to evaluate production efficiency by intergating yield, essential oil quality, and intra-field homogeneity. Genetic profiling of 285 individual plants via Start-Codon-Targeted (SCoT) markers revealed significant genetic diversity and a population structure derived from two primary clusters (Delta K = 2), with high intra-field heterogeneity (64%). Our results demonstrate that peak FQI values are achieved in fields with moderate genetic diversity (genetic homogeneity index HI = 0.6–0.7) and high polymorphic information content (PIC ≥ 0.35), whereas excessive clonal uniformity compromises both yield and phytochemical complexity. The production areas in Northeastern Bulgaria (Shumen, General Toshevo, Shabla) outperformed the traditional areas (Chirpan, Kazanlak), demonstrating higher yields of high-quality essential oil. Furthermore, macroclimatic variations across the studied areas showed significant correlations with the main terpenoid components. Association analysis suggested six SCoT loci as preliminary candidates for Marker-Assisted Selection (MAS), explaining up to 33.97% of the variation in key terpenoids within this study. Furthermore the FQI is proposed as a promising conceptual framework for genome-informed management providing a strategic basis for the sustainable production of high-value lavender oil in a changing climate. The SCoT markers hold potential as useful tools for yield and quality assessment, with the possibility of inclusion in future breeding programs aimed at improving lavender production. Full article

Bryophytes are key components of acid–soil ecosystems; however, their capacity for aluminum (Al) accumulation and tolerance remains poorly understood. In this study, bryophytes and a limited number of pteridophyte and lichen species were collected from acidic soils of tea plantations and adjacent forest stands in the Caspian region of northern Iran and analyzed. Nearly all bryophyte specimens exhibited Al concentrations above the critical accumulation threshold (1000 µg g⁻¹ DW), with some reaching values exceeding 28,000 µg g⁻¹ DW, confirming their strong accumulation capacity. After Al, iron was the most abundantly accumulated metal (1430–22,800 µg g⁻¹ DW), followed by manganese (100–3100 µg g⁻¹ DW). The sampled lichen species accumulated Al at concentrations between 1063 and 9154 µg g⁻¹ DW, while Al levels in the aerial parts of pteridophytes rarely exceeded the critical threshold; when they did, accumulation occurred predominantly in old and fertile fronds rather than sterile ones. Three field-collected bryophyte species—Barbula unguiculata, Palamocladium euchloron, and Hypnum cupressiforme—were acclimated to laboratory conditions and treated with two Al levels (without or with 150 µM Al, pH 4.0) for 12 weeks. The leafy shoots were analyzed for their antioxidant response, osmolyte accumulation, phenolic metabolism, callose deposition, and carboxylic-acid profile. Histochemical analyses revealed predominant localization of Al in cell walls, associated with enrichment of pectin and uronic acids. These responses were most pronounced in H. cupressiforme, followed by P. euchloron, and least evident in B. unguiculata. Elevated levels of intracellular detoxification compounds—phenolics, flavonoids, and carboxylic acids (tartaric, oxalic, malic, and citric acids)—were detected, again with species-specific differences. Overall, the results reveal that bryophytes employ multiple physiological strategies to tolerate Al toxicity, with substantial interspecific variation. These findings emphasize their ecological significance and provide a foundation for future research on the physiological and evolutionary mechanisms underlying Al tolerance and accumulation in early land plants. Full article

The leaf miner Leucoptera coffeella Guérin-Méneville & Perrottet, 1842 (Lepidoptera: Lyonetiidae), is a major pest of coffee plants (Coffea spp.) worldwide. It is recognized for its widespread occurrence in coffee plantations and the quantitative and economic losses it causes to coffee production, especially in regions with higher temperatures and greater water deficits. We evaluated historical and current research approaches to leaf miner management, establishing current knowledge through a systematic review of research on biological control agents (BCAs), plant extracts and cover crops or intercropping for L. coffeella control, according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. We conducted a systematic review of research findings from 1980 to 2025, developing a set of a priori criteria for subsequent replication of the review process. This review covers 130 publications, of which 28 met the inclusion criteria. The selected studies were conducted in five countries, although 75.00% of the studies were from Brazil. The BCAs accounted for 60.71%, followed by plant extracts (32.17%) and cover crops or intercropping (7.15%). Field studies were predominant, prioritizing diagnostic studies, surveys, studies on alternative control methods, and finally studies on BCAs, providing an effective solution. The limitations and prospects for their management were analyzed, and we highlighted recommendations that will improve future studies. Full article

Mitigating nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions from cropland soils is a pressing challenge for climate change mitigation. This study evaluated rockwool-based fertigation (RF) in reducing N₂O emissions from tea plantations. A 17-month field experiment was conducted comparing RF with conventional surface fertilization (CK), measuring tea plant biomass, new tea shoots yield, new tea shoots quality indices, soil N₂O fluxes, physicochemical properties, and nitrogen (N)-cycling functional genes across different soil layers. Results showed that RF treatment significantly increased the aboveground pruning biomass of tea plants, suggesting that RF promotes tea plant growth. The RF treatment showed lower N₂O fluxes and cumulative N₂O emissions within 90 days post-fertilization across the tea-growing season compared with CK, demonstrating that RF effectively mitigates N₂O emissions from tea plantation soils. Random forest analysis further revealed that the RF-induced vertical redistribution of nutrients and N-cycling functional genes was the primary driver of N₂O mitigation. Our findings demonstrate that RF is an effective dual-benefit strategy that simultaneously enhances tea plant productivity and mitigates N₂O emissions by reshaping soil biogeochemical processes and their spatial distribution. Full article