silviculture

Increasing drought frequency and severity in a warming climate threaten forest ecosystems with widespread tree deaths. Canopy structure is important in regulating tree mortality during drought, but how it functions remains controversial. Here, we show that the interplay between tree size and forest structure explains drought-induced tree mortality during the 2012-2016 California drought. Through an analysis of over one million trees, we find that tree mortality rate follows a "negative-positive-negative" piecewise relationship with tree height, and maintains a consistent negative relationship with neighborhood canopy structure (a measure of tree competition)...

Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) holds a substantial position as a tree species designated for biomass energy within European forests, covering a significant part of Türkiye's forests. We used the machine learning technique, namely, maximum entropy (MaxEnt), to estimate the suitable areas for Scots pine and to investigate its potential future distribution under various climate change scenarios in Inner Anatolian Region, Türkiye. The distribution data of Scots pine was utilized, and a set of 20 variables was chosen from spectral, topographic, and bioclimatic datasets to train the MaxEnt model...

In highly climate-change-sensitive regions, such as the Mediterranean, increasing knowledge of climate-driven growth dynamics is required for habitat conservation and forecasting species adaptability under future climate change. In this study, we test a high spectrum of climatic signals, not only monthly and seasonal but also on a multi-year scale and include the single tree analysis to answer this issue, focusing on a low-elevation thermophilic old-growth beech forest surrounding the Bracciano Lake in Central Italy...

Roads are the second largest anthropogenic cause of mortality for most vertebrates. Previous research has analyzed the factors influencing roadkill either by species or by group of species based on some species-specific characteristics. However, to gain a comprehensive understanding on the consistency of findings within and between taxa, it is necessary to conduct an analysis that encompasses both individual species and group of species. This study aims to assess the role of taxonomic level in determining the spatial, climatic and temporal drivers using roadkill data for 70 species...

Identifying the new tree crop combinations plays an important function in transforming the low input agriculture into land units with high economic returns, increasing carbon (C) sink and nutrients storage capacity, and acting as a panacea to achieve Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs). The present study aims to evaluate various tree-crop combinations for (i) biomass production, (ii) carbon accumulation, and (iii) soil nutrient enrichment of traditional and commercially evolved eight agroforestry systems (AFSs), including agri-silvi-horticulture system, agri-silviculture system, silvi-pasture, fruit tree, fodder tree, bamboo, melia and poplar based AFSs with sole cropping system in the mid-hill zone of the north-western Himalaya...

In the northern Great Lakes region, the creation and maintenance of early-successional woody communities as wildlife habitat have increasingly become a conservation priority. The extent to which insect pollinators use these systems remains largely anecdotal. In summer (June-August) of 2021, we surveyed 49 early-successional sites in the western Great Lakes region treated with either shrub-shearing or silviculture (young forest) for bumble bees, butterflies, and habitat components (i.e., structural vegetation and floral resources)...

BACKGROUND: Agri-silvicultures (ASC) are biocultural practices procuring either the maintenance of wild diversity in predominantly agricultural spaces or introducing agrobiodiversity into forests. In the Mesoamerican region, ASC contribute to food sovereignty and territorial conservation and provide strategies for dealing with global changes. Previous inventories of ASC identified gaps in information about these systems in the Mexican Arid America region. This article raises the general question: How have human interactions between cultural, wild, and domesticated biodiversity in this territory? The particular questions in this paper are: (i) How have historical processes shaped human interactions between wild and domesticated biodiversity in the region? and (ii) What types of agri-silvicultures have emerged in Mexican Arid America since these relationships? METHODS: We trace a methodological border where archaeologists have identified the Mesoamerican region to define our study area as Arid America northern of this line in Mexico...

Tree-ring δ15N may depict site-specific, long-term patterns in nitrogen (N) dynamics under N2-fixing species, but field trials with N2-fixing tree species are lacking and the relationship of temporal patterns in tree-ring δ15N to soil N dynamics is controversial. We examined whether tree-ring δ15N of N2-fixing red alder (Alnus rubra) would mirror N accretion rates and δ15N of soils, and whether the influence of alder-fixed N could be observed in the wood of a neighbouring conifer. We sampled a 27-year-old replacement series trial on southeastern Vancouver Island, with red alder and coastal Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) planted in five proportions (0/100, 11/89, 25/75, 50/50, and 100/0, respectively) at a uniform stem density...

Habitat loss is a potential long-term effect of projected climate change for Mediterranean forest ecosystems. Here, we investigated the effectiveness of a close-to-nature silvicultural practice to conserve an old-growth white oak forest patch in Sicily (Italy) and promote regeneration dynamics. The study area, although small, is distinctive for its isolation, position and environmental characteristics. We conducted a Before-After Control-Impact (BACI) study to analyse the responses of different taxonomic groups (vascular plants and birds) to silvicultural treatments (selection thinning, no thinning), and to determine whether close-to-nature silviculture practices may cause significant shifts in the investigated communities...

Forests are traditionally characterized by stand-level descriptors, such as basal area, mean diameter, and stem density. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in enhancing the resolution of forest inventory to examine the spatial structure and patterns of trees across landscapes. The spatial arrangement of individual trees is closely linked to various non-monetary forest aspects, including water quality, wildlife habitat, and aesthetics. Additionally, associating individual tree positions with dendrometric variables like diameter, taper, and species can provide data for highly optimized, site-specific silvicultural prescriptions designed to achieve diverse management objectives...

Insect and disease outbreaks in forests are biotic disturbances that can profoundly alter ecosystem dynamics. In many parts of the world, these disturbance regimes are intensifying as the climate changes and shifts the distribution of species and biomes. As a result, key forest ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration, regulation of water flows, wood production, protection of soils, and the conservation of biodiversity, could be increasingly compromised. Despite the relevance of these detrimental effects, there are currently no spatially detailed databases that record insect and disease disturbances on forests at the pan-European scale...

Soil quality and function in forest environments are influenced by the interaction of soil-forming parameters and silvicultural systems. Hyrcanian forests were recently accepted as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which extends across an area of approximately 1.8 million hectares and ascend to an elevation of 2800 m above sea level (m.a.s.l). In these woodlands, Oriental Beech (Fagus orientalis Lipsky) is the predominant tree species and could be observed at 700-1500 m.a.s.l., and occur on different parent rocks...

Intensive ungulate browsing significantly impacts forests worldwide. However, it is usually not single browsing events that lead to sapling mortality, but the little-researched interactions of browsed saplings with their biotic and abiotic environment. (I) Our objective was to assess the impact of ungulate browsing on the growth of young saplings relative to other environmental factors by utilizing their height increment as a sensitive measure of vitality to indicate their status. (II) Furthermore, we aimed to identify factors affecting ungulate browsing at our study sites, assessed as browsing probabilities, and identify effective mitigation measures for browsing impact...

The effect of stump sprouts on the growth of trees in the main plantation under system of even-aged forest was investigated in this study. In this context, eight plantations taking into account the age, the number of thinning and the type of soil were selected. In order to assess the practices related to cutting height, a survey was carried out in each plantation. In each plantation, at least, two square plots measuring 50 × 50 m (one containing trees with less stump sprouts and the other containing trees with stump sprouts) were installed...

Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) are known to provide livelihoods for forest-based communities across the world. While ensuring the sustainability of NTFP harvests is a key challenge, optimizing the production of NTFPs through appropriate silvicultural practices is also critical for forest-based economies. In Central India, the suitability of fire or pruning practices for enhancing the production of leaves of the tendu tree ( Diospyros melanoxylon ) has been much debated. While villagers commonly adopt annual litter fires, the state Forest Department urges leaf collectors to adopt the more labor-intensive practice of pruning...

The establishment of forest plantations is an excellent silvicultural alternative to improve atmospheric carbon (C) sequestration for climate change mitigation. In recent years, the importance of forest growth and C dynamics at different stand ages have drawn huge attention for investigation. To evaluate the impacts of different stand ages on the C storage capacity of Castanopsis hystrix plantations ecosystems, we measured biomass and C content in trees, understory, litter, and soil components from field measurements at different stand ages, i...

Mountain birch forest covers large areas in Eurasia, and their ecological resilience provides important ecosystem services to human societies. This study describes long-term stand dynamics based on permanent plots in the upper mountain birch belt in SE Norway. We also present forest line changes over a period of 70 years. Inventories were conducted in 1931, 1953, and 2007. Overall, there were small changes from 1931 up to 1953 followed by a marked increase in biomass and dominant height of mountain birch throughout the period from 1953 to 2007...

The Campos de Palmas Wildlife Refuge (CPWR) (Brazil) is a full protection Conservation Unit (CU) formed by private properties, where the use of land and natural resources are allowed sustainably according to the rules of the CU Management Plan. Inadequate practices of land use and occupation within this CU can affect its quality and the organisms that depend on them. Considering the above, the objective of the present study was to biomonitor different land uses and occupations within the CPWR and its surroundings, during the four seasons of a year, using the bioindicators Allium cepa (cytotoxicity and genotoxicity tests) and Eisenia fetida (leakage test)...

Pesticides and pathogens adversely affect amphibian health, but their interactive effects are not well known. We assessed independent and combined effects of two agricultural herbicides and the fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) on the growth, development and survival of larval American toads (Anaxyrus americanus). Wild-caught tadpoles were exposed to four concentrations of atrazine (0.18, 1.8, 18.0, 180 μg/L) or glyphosate (7, 70, 700, 7000 µg a.e./L), respectively contained in Aatrex® Liquid 480 (Syngenta) or Vision® Silviculture Herbicide (Monsanto) for 14 days, followed by two doses of Bd...

Hemiparasitic plants influence community composition by altering nutrient cycling. Although hemiparasites can deplete a host's nutrients via parasitism, their potentially positive effects on nutrient return to multispecies communities remain unclear. We used 13 C/15 N-enriched leaf litter of the hemiparasite sandalwood (Santalum album, Sa) and two N2 -fixing hosts of acacia (Acacia confusa, Ac) and rosewood (Dalbergia odorifera, Do), either as a single-species or mixed-species litter, to elucidate nutrient return by litter decomposition in an acacia-rosewood-sandalwood mixed plantation...