Forests

Local communities in rural areas are dependent on hunting for their livelihoods and rely on their knowledge to understand wildlife ecology. Their knowledge and perceptions may be vital for forming effective and sustainable management plans related to wildlife conservation. We aimed to examine perceptions of local people living inside (n = 153 households) and outside (n = 178 households) the Kogyae Strict Nature Reserve (KSNR, Ghana) regarding bushmeat prevalence and long-term trends in illegal hunting, and to explore people’s knowledge about hunting tools, species, and reasons to hunt illegally. Perceptions of bushmeat sightings and illegal hunting trends were influenced by living inside or outside the protected area, gender, and residence time. Residents living inside the reserve perceived bushmeat and hunting as frequently present in their environment mainly due to frequent sightings of bushmeat and other wildlife products, while people living adjacent to the KSNR were more knowledgeable about the decrease in illegal hunting trends, probably because of awareness about penalties and biodiversity conservation. Furthermore, the perceptions of most residents about the decrease in hunting over time were validated by long-term KSNR law enforcement data. The perception in local communities that snares were the commonest form of hunting equipment used was also consistent with the ranger-based monitoring data. The need for money, bushmeat, unemployment, and retaliatory killings were the main drivers for illegal hunting. Our findings indicated that local people’s knowledge can have a valid relevance in protected area management and may assist in developing effective conservation strategies and in overall improvement of local socio-ecological systems. Full article

As human living environments face increasing challenges with resilience, the concept of nature-based solutions (NBS) was proposed in recent years as a way to promote sustainable living in urban environments. Urban forests and trees play important roles in urban ecosystems, while their potential as an NBS is promising. A bibliometric analysis was first conducted to explore the research pattern of NBS in urban environments. Studies of urban forest and tree-based green infrastructure in NBS research were further investigated using a systematic literature review method. The initial studies on NBS have increased since 2015 with 493 documents published from 142 sources in over 70 countries and regions. Keyword analysis showed green infrastructure had a rather high frequency of utility and received considerable attention. As for urban forests as nature-based solutions (UF-NBS) research, the most prominent study approaches used at different scales and the main benefits and typologies of urban forest studied in the articles were identified. UF-NBS research is still relatively scarce at present. Despite the role of urban forest and trees in addressing environmental challenges being well recognized, UF-NBS studies still need to be conducted in a more comprehensive context, taking social and economic aspects into account. Full article

Under the Kyoto Protocol regime, various forms of financial support have been committed to helping the implementation of reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, as well as fostering conservation, the sustainable management of forests, and the enhancement of forest carbon stocks (REDD+) in developing countries. We analyzed the fragmentation of REDD+ finance and suggested methods for its coordination under the Paris Agreement regime. The fragmentation of REDD+ finance was observed, but it was lower than that of general official development assistance (ODA). However, we found that the trend of fragmentation in REDD+ financing is different from that of general ODA, with a few major donors occupying a large portion of the total size of committed REDD+ finance. Thus, it may not be appropriate to consider the fragmentation of REDD+ finance merely as an obstacle that needs to be decreased. Still, the total amount of REDD+ finance should be increased and adjusted for various donor–recipient relationships, in consideration of the REDD+ finance options in the Paris Agreement. Some REDD+ countries have made progress in national REDD+ and accomplished emission reductions. However, REDD+ finance needs to be stratified considering the progress of national REDD+. For such forms of cooperation, an information-sharing and monitoring system that collects information on ongoing REDD+ cooperation, the commitment and expenditure of REDD+ finance, and the support needs of REDD+ countries at a global level should be established. Multilateral organizations need to provide safeguarding functions for developing countries that are isolated from bilateral REDD+ finance. Full article

Organisms modify their geographical distributions in response to changes in environmental conditions, or modify their affinity to such conditions, to avoid extinction. This study explored the altitudinal shift of Abies pinsapo Boiss. in the Baetic System. We analysed the potential distribution of the realised and reproductive niches of A. pinsapo populations in the Ronda Mountains (Southern Spain) by using species distribution models (SDMs) for two life stages within the current populations. Then, we calculated the species’ potential altitudinal shifts and identified the areas in which the processes of persistence and migration predominated. The realised and reproductive niches of A. pinsapo are different to one another, which may indicate a displacement in its altitudinal distribution owing to changes in the climatic conditions of the Ronda Mountains. The most unfavourable conditions for the species indicate a trailing edge (~110 m) at the lower limit of its distribution and a leading edge (~55 m) at the upper limit. Even though the differences in the altitudinal shifts between the trailing and leading edges will not cause the populations to become extinct in the short term, they may threaten their viability if the conditions that are producing the contraction at the lower limit persist in the long term. Full article

The relative importance of different biotic and abiotic variables for estimating forest productivity remains unclear for many forest ecosystems around the world, and it is hypothesized that forest productivity could also be estimated by local biodiversity factors. Using a large dataset from 258 forest monitoring permanent sample plots distributed across uneven-aged and mixed forests in northern Iran, we tested the relationship between tree species diversity and forest productivity and examined whether several factors (solar radiation, topographic wetness index, wind velocity, seasonal air temperature, basal area, tree density, basal area in largest trees) had an effect on productivity. In our study, productivity was defined as the mean annual increment of the stem volume of a forest stand in m³ ha⁻¹ year⁻¹. Plot estimates of tree volume growth were based on averaged plot measurements of volume increment over a 9-year growing period. We investigated relationships between productivity and tree species diversity using parametric models and two artificial neural network models, namely the multilayer perceptron (MLP) and radial basis function networks. The artificial neural network (ANN) of the MLP type had good ability in prediction and estimation of productivity in our forests. With respect to species richness, Model 4, which had 10 inputs, 6 hidden layers and 1 output, had the highest R² (0.94) and the lowest RMSE (0.75) and was selected as the best species richness predictor model. With respect to forest productivity, MLP Model 2 with 10 inputs, 12 hidden layers and 1 output had R² and RMSE of 0.34 and 0.42, respectively, representing the best model. Both of these used a logistic function. According to a sensitivity analysis, diversity had significant and positive effects on productivity in species-rich broadleaved forests (approximately 31%), and the effects of biotic and abiotic factors were also important (29% and 40%, respectively). The artificial neural network based on the MLP was found to be superior for modeling productivity–diversity relationships. Full article

Gelam tree or Melaleuca cajuputi (M. cajuputi) is an important species for the local economy as well as coastal ecosystem protection in Terengganu, Malaysia. This study aimed at producing a current habitat suitability map and predicting future potential habitat distribution for M. cajuputi in Terengganu based on Species distribution modeling (SDM) using the Maximum Entropy principle. Our modeling results show that for the current potential distribution of M. cajuputi species, only 10.82% (1346.5 km²) of Terengganu area is suitable habitat, which 0.96% of the areas are under high, 2.44% moderate and 7.42% poor habitat suitability. The model prediction for future projection shows that the habitat suitability for M. cajuputi would decrease significantly in the year 2050 under RCP 4.5 where the largest contraction from suitable to unsuitable habitat area is about 442.1 km² and under RCP 2.6 is the highest expansion from unsuitable to suitable habitat area (267.5 km²). From the future habitat suitability projection, we found that the habitat suitability in Marang would degrade significantly under all climate scenarios, while in Setiu the habitat suitability for M. cajuputi remains stable throughout the climate change scenarios. The modeling prediction shows a significant influence on the soil properties, temperature, and precipitation during monsoon months. These results could benefit conservationist and policymakers for decision making. The present model could also give a perception into potential habitat suitability of M. cajuputi in the future and to improve our understanding of the species’ response under the changing climate. Full article

This study focused on small gasification units for combined heat and power generation (CHP) up to 200 kW of electric power, which can use wood from salvage logging, and assessed the current feasibility of running commercially available units in the conditions of the Czech Republic. In total, the technical and economic parameters of 21 gasification units from ten major international producers were compiled. One of the most important parameters assessed was the net calorific value, which in the analysed samples of spruce wood was determined at 18.37 MJ kg⁻¹ on a dry basis. This complies to the requirements for fuel quality for these units. The economic profitability was determined for three investment variants with electric power of 10, 100, and 200 kW_el in an operating mode of constant power at 20 and 30 wt.% input moisture level of the wood. Economic analysis showed that smaller alternatives with an output of 10 and 100 kW_el produce economic losses. On the other hand, the 200-kW_el alternative produced operating profit and positive cash flow at both fuel moisture levels in the first year of operation. The evaluation of individual alternatives using dynamic investment evaluation methods also showed that only the alternative with an output of 200 kW_el with both fuel moistures was able to produce a positive net present value. Full article

This study investigates the effects of heat treatment time and presence of an air back cavity on the sound absorption performance of Indonesian momala (Homalium foetidum (Roxb.) Benth.) and Korean red toon (Toona sinensis (A. Juss.) M. Roem.) cross sections. To examine the porous characteristics of the two species before and after heat treatment, gas permeability, pore size, and porosity analyses were conducted. Additionally, the sound absorption coefficient was measured based on various heat treatment times and air back cavity sizes. The results showed that, with heat treatment at 210 °C for 6 h, the gas permeability improved by 4.3% for the momala and 38.5% for the red toon, the maximum pore size was improved by 5.25% in the momala and 26.0% in the red toon, and the through-pore porosity improved by 22.7% for the momala and 117.0% for the red toon. Due to these pore structure changes, the noise reduction coefficient (NRC) of the heat-treated momala improved by 6.8%. When a 3-cm air back cavity was applied to the heat-treated momala, the NRC was improved to 92.5%. Similarly, when the same air back cavity was applied to the heat-treated red toon, the NRC was improved to 190.7%. This study demonstrated that an increase in pore size and through-pore porosity by heat treatment triggered an increase in the sound absorption coefficient. Additionally, when an air cavity was applied, the sound absorption coefficient of both heat-treated wood species was increased at low frequency. From the results of this study, we expected that heat-treated momala and red toon cross-sections can be utilized as eco-friendly ceiling materials with sound absorption function. Full article

The herbaceous vegetation and forest stand characteristics in European beech forests growing in the Polish part of the Eastern Carpathians have changed over the last 40 years. This has been influenced by many factors, including land-use change, forest management and climate change. This study investigates changes in forest cover and structure and the associated changes in herbaceous layer plant communities and seeks to elucidate whether and how beech forest herbaceous layer communities have been affected by climate change. The study used information from archival and current land cover maps, semi-permanent sampling plots, forest management plans for the Forest Districts of Brzozów, Lesko and Ustrzyki Dolne and meteorological weather station data compiled for three study periods of herbaceous vegetation (1970s, 2000s, 2010s). In the study area, the regular shelterwood system was changed to an irregular shelterwood system that produces stands with a complex overstorey structure. The results revealed the important role of light availability in shaping the species composition of the herbaceous layer in semi-natural Carpathian beech forests, which was strongly related to the course of management activities. An overall decrease in the number of species during the 2010s is linked to the ageing of beech forests, increased intensity of management activities in ageing stands, competition from understorey vegetation and lower soil moisture that can be linked to climate change. Our study partially supports the existing findings that more manipulative forest management systems can play an important role in countering the current and expected effects of climate change on the forest ecosystem because of the low degree of spatial differentiation of the stand’s structure (developmental stages). Therefore, foresters managing the structure of stands should strive to create a forest structure with high variability of developmental stages on a regional scale. Full article

Understanding the changes in xylem and phloem formation of trees and their relationship along latitudes are important for evaluating and predicting how fragile forests may respond to climate change; however, corresponding studies are still relatively scarce. This study investigated the intra-annual dynamics of xylem and phloem formation of Picea crassifolia and their relationship at two latitudes of arid and semi-arid forests in China. The results showed that both xylem and phloem formation varied at different latitudes. Xylem formation at the low-latitude site (Luoshan) started two weeks earlier than that at the high-latitude site (Helanshan) but ended one week later, resulting in an extended growing season at the low-latitude site. Phloem formation preceded cambium activity and xylogenesis at both sites by 24.6 days in Luoshan, which had warmer conditions, and by 17.3 days in Helanshan. In Luoshan, compared to Helanshan, there occurred significantly more enlarging and wall thickening cells, during (relatively wet) June–August, but significantly fewer enlarging and wall thickening cells as well as total xylem cells, during (relatively dry) April–May. Sample trees produced significantly fewer early phloem cells during the early growing season (April–May) in Luoshan, but generated significantly more late phloem cells during the late growing season in Helanshan. Additionally, different trade-offs between xylem and phloem formation were observed at different sites. The longer duration of early phloem formation might have shortened the duration of xylem lignification in Helanshan; in Luoshan, the date that late phloem reached its maximum growth rate was significantly positively correlated with the date when xylem lignification ended. The results revealed the plasticity of xylem and phloem formation under changing environmental conditions and a complex and site-specific relationship between xylem and phloem formation. These findings could help us better understand and predict the future growth of arid and semi-arid forests in China in response to climate change. Full article

Forest fires may have severe impacts on the aboveground biodiversity and soil chemical and biological properties. Edaphic organisms are highly sensitive to disturbances and are typically used to measure the magnitude of these events. Overall, little is known about the responses of these organisms to fires differing in their severity levels. This study aimed to assess the effect of fire severity on the soil mesofauna community diversity and structure in a site located in a Mediterranean zone of central Chile. In postfire conditions, we use spectral indexes from satellite images to map fire severity at four levels (non-damage (ND), low damage (L), medium damage (M), high damage (H)). Soil samples were collected at each severity level, and the mesofauna abundance was quantified. Although the metrics describing species diversity and dominance were similar among fire severity levels, the abundance and composition of the mesofauna were specifically altered at the high severity level. The edaphic mesofauna can be considered suitable bioindicators to evaluate the postfire ecosystem recovery, especially in the areas highly damaged by fire. Full article

Among the phenomena attributable to the Moon’s actions on living organisms, one of them seems to be related to analytical fluid mechanics: along the route of the International Space Station around the Earth, experiments on plants have revealed leaf oscillations. A parametric resonance due to a short period of microgravitational forces could explain these oscillations. Indeed, Rayleigh-Taylor’s instabilities occurring at the interfaces between liquid-water and its vapor verify a second-order Mathieu differential equation. This is the case of interfaces existing in the xylem channels of plant stems filled with sap and air-vapor. The magnitude of the instabilities depends on the distances between the Moon, the Sun, and the Earth. They are analogous, but less spectacular, to those that occur during ocean tides. Full article

Exploring the variations in the water use efficiency (WUE) is helpful in gaining an in-depth understanding of the regional carbon and water cycles on the Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP). Here, we employed the spatial variations in the WUE and the quantitative contributions of the influencing factors, including the precipitation (P), temperature (Temp), vapor pressure deficit (VPD), sunshine duration (SD), and leaf area index (LAI), with the drought index varying over the last two decades. Results showed that the multiyear average WUE decreased significantly as the drought index increased for all of the vegetation types. Per-pixel interannual variability of WUE trend was 0.024 gC·m⁻²·mm⁻¹·yr⁻¹. As the drought index increased, the WUE initially increased and then decreased for the forests, grassland, and shrubland, and their peaks occurred at drought index values of 2.60–3.10. Among the influencing factors, the WUE was predominantly controlled by the LAI, with an impact and relative contribution of 0.014 gC·m⁻²·mm⁻¹·yr⁻¹ and 58.3%, respectively. The P and SD contributed the least to the trend in WUE, and impact and relative contribution of both were 0.001 gC·m⁻²·mm⁻¹·yr⁻¹ and 4.17%. Our study also demonstrated that the LAI was the dominant factor affecting the WUE trends for grassland and the Yan River due to the structural parameters and geographical location. In addition, the impact and relative contribution of the residual factors on the WUE trend were 0.004 gC·m⁻²·mm⁻¹·yr⁻¹ and 16.7%. Our findings suggested that comprehensive effects such as micro-geomorphic changes and nitrogen deposition could not be ignored except for vegetation and climate change. This study will clarify the spatial and temporal evolution of WUE and its influence mechanism. Full article

Urban green space is generally considered a significant component of the urban ecological environment system, which serves to improve the quality of the urban environment and provides various guarantees for the sustainable development of the city. Remote sensing provides an effective method for real-time mapping and monitoring of urban green space changes in a large area. However, with the continuous improvement of the spatial resolution of remote sensing images, traditional classification methods cannot accurately obtain the spectral and spatial information of urban green spaces. Due to complex urban background and numerous shadows, there are mixed classifications for the extraction of cultivated land, grassland and other ground features, implying that limitations exist in traditional methods. At present, deep learning methods have shown great potential to tackle this challenge. In this research, we proposed a novel model called Concatenated Residual Attention UNet (CRAUNet), which combines the residual structure and channel attention mechanism, and applied it to the data source composed of GaoFen-1 remote sensing images in the Shenzhen City. Firstly, the improved residual structure is used to make it retain more feature information of the original image during the feature extraction process, then the Convolutional Block Channel Attention (CBCA) module is applied to enhance the extraction of deep convolution features by strengthening the effective green space features and suppressing invalid features through the interdependence of modeling channels.-Finally, the high-resolution feature map is restored through upsampling operation by the decoder. The experimental results show that compared with other methods, CRAUNet achieves the best performance. Especially, our method is less susceptible to the noise and preserves more complete segmented edge details. The pixel accuracy (PA) and mean intersection over union (MIoU) of our approach have reached 97.34% and 94.77%, which shows great applicability in regional large-scale mapping. Full article

The purpose of the research was the recognition of edge effects regarding similarities and differences of vascular flora in undergrowth layers in the urban forest ecotones. Four types of urban forest neighborhoods were analyzed: ecotones adjacent to the manor park, the agriculture field, housing estates and the road. The plant compositions in the forest ecotones were compared with the plant compositions in the urban forest interior and the forest nature reserve. The phytosociological type of studied forests was a subcontinental oak-hornbeam one (Tilio-Carpinetum). Diagnostic plant species (e.g., characteristic) for forests from the non-diagnostic ones were identified. Forest consistent plant species dominated in the ecotone adjacent to the manor park and in the interior of urban forests too, but the best conditions for these plants were inside the forest nature reserve, where native consistent forest plants showed the highest dominance when comparing all studied areas. A higher anthropogenic pressure from the adjacent areas results in supporting the growth of inconsistent plant species in the forests, and these plants are mostly represented by plants belonging to grass and synanthropic communities. Another conclusion drawn from our research is that the protected forest, represented by a nature reserve in the city, provides better “shelter” for native forest plants than the urban forest without any protection. Ultimately, a permanent challenge is to achieve and maintain the balance between nature and the impact of anthropogenic activities on urban forests in the city. The high quality of green areas, biodiversity, including forests, implicates possibilities of sustainable development in cities. The research results will be useful for local urban planners and ecologists during their work on strategies of city development, including shaping of green infrastructure. Full article

As one of the largest TF families+ in plants, the basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) family plays an important part in the growth and development of many plants. FLOWERING BHLH (FBH) encodes a bHLH-type transcriptional factor related to the flowering process. Poplar is a model woody plant as well as an important economic tree species with a small genome. However, the characteristics of the bHLHs and FBHs gene family in the newest version of Populustrichocarpa genome have not been analyzed yet. We identified 233 PtbHLHs and 10 PtFBHs in the newest version genome, and PtbHLHs were classified into 21 groups with FBH subfamily occupying one, supported by phylogenetic analysis, exon–intron patterns, and conserved protein motifs. These PtHLHs were distributed on 19 chromosomes unevenly and expressed in nucleus mainly. Gene duplication and synteny analysis have indicated that the PtbHLHs gene family has undergone strong purification selection during the evolution process. The cis-elements analysis has suggested that PtbHLHs may be related to the growth and development. Conserved residues of FBHs among Arabidopsis and poplar were also identified. Expression of 227 PtHLH genes (6 unmatched, 13 no expressed) showed diverse patterns in different tissues, implying their multiple functions. Protein–protein interaction network prediction and expression patterns in three states of the flowering process (Flowers-Dormant, Flowers-Expanding and Flowers-Expanded) suggested that some members of PtbHLH and PtFBH family may be involved in the flowering process. Our comprehensive and systematic analysis can provide some valuable clues and basic reference toward further investigations on physiological and molecular functions of PtbHLHs. Full article

Austroboletusbrunneisquamus (Boletaceae/Boletales), an ectomycorrhizal fungus, is described as a new species from a tropical rainforest in China based on morphological and molecular evidence. It is morphologically characterized by a subtomentose pileal surface when young, which cracks into areolae, having large, pale brown and brown to dark brown scales, a stipe with yellowish brown reticulation, basidiospores measuring (11–)12–14.5(–15) × 6–8(–8.5) μm, with fine cristate to subreticulate ornamentation, and a pileipellis in the form of a cutis. A detailed description, color photographs of fresh basidiomata, and line drawings of microscopic features of the new species are presented. Full article

Ganoderma P. Karst. is a genus of wood decaying fungi with complicated taxonomy due to morphological variability of their basidiomata. Although a wide range of host plants is assumed for the genus as a whole, there is a need for revision of the host specificity of individual species. Based on revision of mycological collections across the Czech Republic we analyzed the ecological trends of six European species, including host preferences and propensity to parasitism. Individual Ganoderma species were sampled differentially along vegetation categories, with G. adspersum (Schulzer) Donk prevailing in habitats with high anthropogenic factors and G. applanatum (Pers.) Pat. in natural vegetation with limited anthropogenic influence, differing also in average altitude of sampling. The number of host species of individual Ganoderma spp. did not reach an asymptote, suggesting an open host plasticity and great potential for finding new host associations in future. Very distinct host compositions were found for individual Ganoderma species, at the genus level, with G. applanatum being the least host specific. Individual Ganoderma species differ also in their tendency to parasitic life strategy. The proportion of parasites increases with decreasing vegetation category and it is therefore higher in urban than natural environment, especially on hardwood trees. Full article

Policies that attempt to balance timber production with non-market values that forests provide are common across the United States. Such is the case in northern Maine, USA, where management of critical areas of mature softwood-dominated forest are regulated through the State’s primary wildlife management agency. We use a case study approach with qualitative and quantitative analyses to understand the persistent difficulties encountered by both forest and wildlife managers when implementing this policy. Interviews with foresters and wildlife biologists established the management parameters, and simulated management scenarios compared forest management outcomes with respect to both financial and wildlife habitat provision goals. The model results indicated that there are opportunities for comparable revenues within regulated habitat areas as without, although the returns varied due to legacy of previous management and species composition. More importantly, the interviews revealed that differing habitat metrics used by foresters and biologists are a barrier to communication and management planning, and thus also a barrier to effective policy implementation. We close with thoughts on the applicability of both the methods and results to other situations where an understanding of multiple-use forest policy implementation is desired. Full article