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Biodiversity in dead wood
\"Fossils document the existence of trees and wood-associated organisms from almost 400 million years ago, and today there are between 400,000 and 1 million wood-inhabiting species in the world. This is the first book to synthesise the natural history and conservation needs of wood-inhabiting organisms. Presenting a thorough introduction to biodiversity in decaying wood, the book studies the rich diversity of fungi, insects and vertebrates that depend upon dead wood. It describes the functional diversity of these organisms and their specific habitat requirements in terms of host trees, decay phases, tree dimensions, microhabitats and the surrounding environment. Recognising the threats posed by timber extraction and forest management, the authors also present management options for protecting and maintaining the diversity of these species in forests as well as in agricultural landscapes and urban parks\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Size‐related scaling of tree form and function in a mixed‐age forest
Many morphological, physiological and ecological traits of trees scale with diameter, shaping the structure and function of forest ecosystems. Understanding the mechanistic basis for such scaling relationships is key to understanding forests globally and their role in Earth's changing climate system. Here, we evaluate theoretical predictions for the scaling of nine variables in a mixed‐age temperate deciduous forest (CTFS‐ForestGEO forest dynamics plot at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, Virginia, USA) and compare observed scaling parameters to those from other forests world‐wide. We examine fifteen species and various environmental conditions. Structural, physiological and ecological traits of trees scaled with stem diameter in a manner that was sometimes consistent with existing theoretical predictions – more commonly with those predicting a range of scaling values than a single universal scaling value. Scaling relationships were variable among species, reflecting substantive ecological differences. Scaling relationships varied considerably with environmental conditions. For instance, the scaling of sap flux density varied with atmospheric moisture demand, and herbivore browsing dramatically influenced stem abundance scaling. Thus, stand‐level, time‐averaged scaling relationships (e.g., the scaling of diameter growth) are underlain by a diversity of species‐level scaling relationships that can vary substantially with fluctuating environmental conditions. In order to use scaling theory to accurately characterize forest ecosystems and predict their responses to global change, it will be critical to develop a more nuanced understanding of both the forces that constrain stand‐level scaling and the complexity of scaling variation across species and environmental conditions.
Journal Article
The power of trees : how ancient forests can save us if we let them
\"From the international bestselling author of The Hidden Life of Trees. An illuminating manifesto on ancient forests: how they adapt to climate change by passing their wisdom through generations, and why our future lies in protecting them. In his beloved book The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben revealed astonishing discoveries about the social networks of trees and how they communicate. Now, in The Power of Trees, he turns to their future, with a searing critique of forestry management, tree planting, and the exploitation of old growth forests. As human-caused climate change devastates the planet, forests play a critical role in keeping it habitable. While politicians and business leaders would have us believe that cutting down forests can be offset by mass tree planting, Wohlleben offers a warning: many tree planting campaigns lead to ecological disaster. Not only are these trees more susceptible to disease, flooding, fires, and landslides, we need to understand that forests are more than simply a collection of trees. Instead, they are ecosystems that consist of thousands of species, from animals to fungi and bacteria. The way to save trees, and ourselves? Step aside and let forests--which are naturally better equipped to face environmental challenges--heal themselves. With the warmth and wonder familiar to readers from his previous books, Wohlleben also shares emerging scientific research about how forests shape climates both locally and across continents; that trees adapt to changing environmental conditions through passing knowledge down to their offspring; and how old growth may in fact have the most survival strategies for climate change. At the heart of The Power of Trees lies Wohlleben's passionate plea: that our survival is dependent on trusting ancient forests, and allowing them to thrive.\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Patterns of tree mortality in a temperate deciduous forest derived from a large forest dynamics plot
Tree mortality is one of the most influential drivers of forest dynamics, and characterizing patterns of tree mortality is critical to understanding forest dynamics and ecosystem function in the present era of global change. Here, we use a unique data set of mortality in a temperate deciduous forest to characterize rates and drivers of mortality. At the 25.6‐ha Center for Tropical Forest Science—Forest Global Earth Observatory forest dynamics plot at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (Virginia,
USA
), we conducted two full tree censuses in 2008 and 2013 and then tracked mortality over the next 2 years (2014 and 2015). Overall, the mortality rate,
m
, of stems ≥10 cm diameter was 1.3–2.1%/yr. Biomass mortality,
M
, was 1.9–3.4 Mg·ha
−1
·yr
−1
at the stand level (0.6–1.1%/yr of biomass), less than biomass gains from growth and recruitment, resulting in net live biomass accumulation. Small stems died at the highest rate; however, contributions to
M
increased toward larger size classes. Most species had
m
< 2%/yr and
M
< 0.25 Mg·ha
−1
·yr
−1
(<3%/yr of biomass), whereas two to four species had anomalously high mortality rates during each census period, accounting for 15–24% of
m
(
n
= 2,
Cercis canadensis
,
Ulmus
species) and 39–75% of
M
(
n
= 4
Quercus
species). Stems that died, whether or not in association with mechanical damage, tended to grow more slowly in preceding years than surviving stems and, for certain shade‐intolerant species, tended to be in neighborhoods with higher basal area. These findings show how relatively fine‐scale mortality processes contribute to stand‐level compositional change and carbon cycling. The mortality patterns reported here will provide a valuable basis for understanding future disturbance events within eastern deciduous forests and for comparing across forest types.
Journal Article
Rain forest experiments : 10 science experiments in one hour or less
\"A variety of science projects that can be done in under an hour, plus a few that take longer for interested students\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Sapling growth rates reveal conspecific negative density dependence in a temperate forest
Local tree species diversity is maintained in part by conspecific negative density dependence (CNDD). This pervasive mechanism occurs in a variety of forms and ecosystems, but research to date has been heavily skewed toward tree seedling survival in tropical forests. To evaluate CNDD more broadly, we investigated how sapling growth rates were affected by conspecific adult neighbors in a fully mapped 25.6 ha temperate deciduous forest. We examined growth rates as a function of the local adult tree neighborhood (via spatial autoregressive modeling) and compared the spatial positioning of faster‐growing and slower‐growing saplings with respect to adult conspecific and heterospecific trees (via bivariate point pattern analysis). In addition, to determine whether CNDD‐driven variation in growth rates leaves a corresponding spatial signal, we extended our point pattern analysis to a static, growth‐independent comparison of saplings and the next larger size class. We found that negative conspecific effects on sapling growth were most prevalent. Five of the nine species that were sufficiently abundant for analysis exhibited CNDD, while only one species showed evidence of a positive conspecific effect, and one or two species, depending on the analysis, displayed heterospecific effects. There was general agreement between the autoregressive models and the point pattern analyses based on sapling growth rates, but point pattern analyses based on single‐point‐in‐time size classes yielded results that differed markedly from the other two approaches. Our work adds to the growing body of evidence that CNDD is an important force in temperate forests, and demonstrates that this process extends to sapling growth rates. Further, our findings indicate that point pattern analyses based solely on size classes may fail to detect the process of interest (e.g., neighborhood‐driven variation in growth rates), in part due to the confounding of tree size and age.
Conspecific negative density dependence (CNDD) occurs in a variety of forms and ecosystems, but research to date has been skewed towards tree seedling survival in tropical forests. We investigated how sapling growth rates were affected by large conspecific and heterospecific neighbors in a fully mapped temperate forest, and found that negative conspecific effects were stronger for most species. Our work adds to the growing body of evidence that CNDD is a major organizing force in temperate forests and demonstrates that this process extends to sapling growth rates.
Journal Article
The hidden company that trees keep : life from treetops to root tips
James Nardi guides you through the innermost unseen world that trees share with a wondrous array of creatures. With their elaborate immune responses, trees recruit a host of allies as predators and parasites to defend against uninvited advances from organisms that chew on leaves, drain sap, and bore into wood. Microbial life thrives in the hidden spaces of leaf scales, twigs, and bark, while birds, mammals, and insects benefit from the more visible resources trees provide. In return, animals help with pollination, seed dispersal, and recycling of nutrients. 'The Hidden Company That Trees Keep' blends storytelling with illustrations and science to reveal how the lives of trees are intertwined with those of their diverse companions.
Book
After the Blast
On May 18, 1980, people all over the world watched with awe and horror as Mount St. Helens erupted. Fifty-seven people were killed and hundreds of square miles of what had been lush forests and wild rivers were to all appearances destroyed.Ecologists thought they would have to wait years, or even decades, for life to return to the mountain, but when forest scientist Jerry Franklin helicoptered into the blast area a couple of weeks after the eruption, he found small plants bursting through the ash and animals skittering over the ground. Stunned, he realized he and his colleagues had been thinking of the volcano in completely the wrong way. Rather than being a dead zone, the mountain was very much alive.Mount St. Helens has been surprising ecologists ever since, and in After the Blast Eric Wagner takes readers on a fascinating journey through the blast area and beyond. From fireweed to elk, the plants and animals Franklin saw would not just change how ecologists approached the eruption and its landscape, but also prompt them to think in new ways about how life responds in the face of seemingly total devastation.
eBook
Pathless forest : the quest to save the world's largest flowers
As a child, Chris Thorogood dreamed of seeing Rafflesia - the plant with the world's largest flowers. He crafted life-size replicas in an abandoned cemetery, carefully bringing them to life with paper and paint. Today he is a botanist at the University of Oxford's Botanic Garden and has dedicated his life to studying the biology of such extraordinary plants, working alongside botanists and foresters in Southeast Asia to document these huge, mysterious blooms. 'Pathless Forest' is the story of his journey to study and protect this remarkable plant - a biological enigma, still little understood, which invades vines as a leafless parasite and steals its food from them.
Book
Diversity and carbon storage across the tropical forest biome
Tropical forests are global centres of biodiversity and carbon storage. Many tropical countries aspire to protect forest to fulfil biodiversity and climate mitigation policy targets, but the conservation strategies needed to achieve these two functions depend critically on the tropical forest tree diversity-carbon storage relationship. Assessing this relationship is challenging due to the scarcity of inventories where carbon stocks in aboveground biomass and species identifications have been simultaneously and robustly quantified. Here, we compile a unique pan-tropical dataset of 360 plots located in structurally intact old-growth closed-canopy forest, surveyed using standardised methods, allowing a multi-scale evaluation of diversity-carbon relationships in tropical forests. Diversity-carbon relationships among all plots at 1 ha scale across the tropics are absent, and within continents are either weak (Asia) or absent (Amazonia, Africa). A weak positive relationship is detectable within 1 ha plots, indicating that diversity effects in tropical forests may be scale dependent. The absence of clear diversity-carbon relationships at scales relevant to conservation planning means that carbon-centred conservation strategies will inevitably miss many high diversity ecosystems. As tropical forests can have any combination of tree diversity and carbon stocks both require explicit consideration when optimising policies to manage tropical carbon and biodiversity.
Journal Article