Ecosphere最新文献

{"title":"Demographic rates and diversity vary with tree stature and ontogenetic stage in an African tropical rainforest","authors":"Moses B. Libalah,&nbsp;Sabrina E. Russo,&nbsp;George B. Chuyong,&nbsp;Duncan Thomas,&nbsp;David Kenfack","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70144","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70144","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The vertical gradient of light in closed-canopy forests selects for trees with different adult statures, but our understanding of how stature affects forest diversity and demography is unclear. In a species-rich rainforest in Cameroon, we quantified the contributions of four growth forms of increasing adult stature (treelet, understory, canopy, emergent species) to forest structure and diversity, and investigated variation in life history trade-offs across growth forms. Treelets had the highest stem density, contributed the most to forest diversity, and diverged from larger statured species in terms of demographic trade-offs. Growth rates were slower for smaller statured than for larger statured species, and at the adult stage, treelets had significantly lower mortality than other growth forms. We observed significant interspecific trade-off relationships between staure and demographic rates that often differed between growth forms. Recruitment rate strongly declined with adult stature for all growth forms, but recruitment per reproductive adult declined only for emergents. While we observed a significant growth-mortality trade-off across all species, the trade-off was similar across growth forms. Smaller statured species in our study are not light-demanding but rather treelet and understory species that live entirely in the shaded understory. Differences in how historical biogeography has shaped species pools may ultimately cause variation in how adult stature contributes to tropical forest diversity.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-01-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70144","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143114815","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A long-term study on food choices and nutritional goals of a leaf-eating primate","authors":"Patrick Lauer,&nbsp;Colin A. Chapman,&nbsp;Patrick Omeja,&nbsp;Jessica M. Rothman,&nbsp;Urs Kalbitzer","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70162","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70162","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Efficient foraging plays a critical role in fitness, yet food choices and underlying nutritional goals vary among animals. To understand those choices and therefore the importance of different food resources, many studies estimate food preferences by applying electivity indices that account for resource availabilities. However, the general applicability of electivity indices in biologically relevant foraging scenarios is unclear. Our major aims were to find effective methods to estimate animals' food choices and to investigate long-term food choices and underlying nutritional goals of the red colobus monkey (<i>Piliocolobus tephrosceles</i>) in Kibale National Park, Uganda, an endangered folivore. We used simulations of different foraging conditions to evaluate the applicability of electivity indices in biologically relevant scenarios to help interpret our results. Then, we used long-term data collected between 2006 and 2016 on the feeding behavior and ecology of red colobus to determine the consumption frequencies of different foods and their food preferences. Based on these results and nutritional concentrations of young leaves of frequently consumed tree species, we investigated the importance of the protein-to-fiber ratio in their diet. Our simulations highlight limitations of electivity indices in biologically relevant foraging scenarios. Further, red colobus clearly chose young leaves over other plant parts, and, considering species and plant part, red colobus fed on many different items, but few dominated their diet. The availability and spatial distribution varied across the most consumed foods, but red colobus preferences remained mostly stable over time. Protein-to-fiber ratio had no association with preference but with consumption frequencies of different young leaves. The limitations of electivity indices in different foraging conditions underline the importance of comparing food preferences with consumption frequencies to assess the importance of different food resources. Our results provide a robust understanding of the food choices and nutritional goals of a leaf-eating animal that can ultimately be used for implementing more effective conservation measures by directing habitat protection or restoration efforts toward these resources.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-01-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70162","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143114419","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Landscape composition and orchard management effects on bat assemblages and bat foraging activity in apple crops","authors":"Marcos Miñarro,&nbsp;Daniel García","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70140","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70140","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Bats are acknowledged as suppliers of essential ecosystem services such as insect pest control in agroecosystems. Little is known, however, on how bat assemblages respond to the gradients imposed by anthropogenic landscapes and farming practices and how these environmental effects translate into changes in bat foraging. In this study, we use cider apple crop in northern Spain as a model to address the filtering effects of landscape composition and orchard management on, simultaneously, quantitative and qualitative characteristics of bat local assemblages and their foraging activity. For that, we carried out acoustic monitoring of bats and sampled pest moth abundance across a wider range of apple orchards covering different landscape contexts and local management conditions. We found that bat assemblages markedly varied across orchards, according mostly to landscape composition gradients but with contrasting landscape effects on different assemblage characteristics. Namely, higher levels of rural urbanization and lower cover of seminatural woody habitats around orchards promoted bat total activity and the number of bat species/species complexes. However, this also altered bat assemblage composition, increasing dominance by the most abundant species, and decreased bat functional diversity. Additionally, a greater cover of apple tree canopy within the orchards decreased bat total activity. Landscape gradients led into predictable variations of bat foraging activity, suggesting a potential persistence of pest control services even in landscapes with limited seminatural habitat cover. The present study highlights the differential responses of bat assemblages to apple crop landscape and orchard-scale conditions, hindering the establishment of straightforward management guidelines. Further analysis on the relationship between bat assemblage characteristics and pest control is necessary to understand how ecosystem services can be promoted through management in the apple agroecosystem.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-01-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70140","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143113089","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Advancing the understanding of coastal disturbances with a network-of-networks approach","authors":"Allison N. Myers-Pigg,&nbsp;Diana Moanga,&nbsp;Ben Bond-Lamberty,&nbsp;Nicholas D. Ward,&nbsp;J. Patrick Megonigal,&nbsp;Elliott White Jr,&nbsp;Vanessa L. Bailey,&nbsp;Matthew L. Kirwan","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70156","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70156","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Coastal ecosystems are at the nexus of many high priority challenges in environmental sciences, including predicting the influences of compounding disturbances exacerbated by climate change on biogeochemical cycling. While research in coastal science is fundamentally transdisciplinary—as drivers of biogeochemical and ecological processes often span scientific and environmental domains—traditional place–based approaches are still often employed to understand coastal ecosystems. We argue that a macrosystems science perspective, including the integration across distributed research sites, is crucial to understand how compounding disturbances affect coastal ecosystems. We suggest that many grand challenge questions, such as advancing continental-scale process understanding of extreme events and global change, will only be addressed in coastal ecosystems using a network-of-networks approach. We identify specific ways that existing research efforts can maximize benefit across multiple interested parties, and where additional infrastructure investments might increase return-on-investment along the coast, using the coastal continental United States as a case study.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-01-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70156","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143113161","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Pawpaws prevent predictability: A locally dominant tree alters understory beta-diversity and community assembly","authors":"Anna C. Wassel,&nbsp;Jonathan A. Myers","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70115","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70115","url":null,"abstract":"<p>While dominant species are known to be important in ecosystem functioning and community assembly, biodiversity responses to the presence of dominant species can be highly variable. Dominant species can increase the importance of deterministic community assembly by competitively excluding species in a consistent way across local communities, resulting in low site-to-site variation in community composition (beta-diversity) and nonrandom community structure. In contrast, dominant species could increase the importance of stochastic community assembly by reducing the total number of individuals in local communities (community size), resulting in high beta-diversity and more random community structure. We tested these hypotheses in a large, temperate oak-hickory forest plot containing a locally dominant tree species, pawpaw (<i>Asimina triloba</i>; Annonaceae), an understory tree species that occurs in dense, clonal patches in forests throughout the east-central United States. We determined how the presence of pawpaw influences local species diversity, community size, and beta-diversity by measuring the abundance of all vascular plant species in 1 × 1-m plots both inside and outside pawpaw patches. To test whether the presence of pawpaw influences local assembly processes, we compared observed patterns of beta-diversity inside and outside patches to a null model in which communities were assembled at random with respect to species identity. We found lower local species diversity, lower community size, and higher observed beta-diversity inside pawpaw patches than outside pawpaw patches. Moreover, standardized effect sizes of beta-diversity from the null model were lower inside pawpaw patches than outside pawpaw patches, indicating more random species composition inside pawpaw patches. Together these results suggest that pawpaw increases the importance of stochastic relative to deterministic community assembly at local scales, likely by decreasing overall numbers of individuals and increasing random local extinctions inside patches. Our findings provide insights into the ecological processes by which locally dominant tree species shape the assembly and diversity of understory plant communities at different spatial scales.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-01-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70115","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143113162","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Mechanisms linking river flow regime and riparian hardwood establishment","authors":"Steven F. Railsback,&nbsp;John H. Bair","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70160","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70160","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The dominant conceptual model for how river flow affects when and where riparian hardwood trees establish (the “recruitment box model”) considers streamflow recession and a survivable rate of stage decline to predict survival of seedling desiccation. However, to become established, plants must also survive the pre-seedling life stages and avoid inundation and scour mortality in high flows. We examine the relative importance of these flow-dependent mechanisms by representing them in a two-dimensional simulation model. Analysis of the model as applied to a low-gradient reach of a large mountain river indicates that the soil characteristic determining moisture elevation (the “capillary fringe” height) is the most important process driving establishment rates; also important are the dates of seed deposition, inundation mortality, and the time needed for sprouted seeds to develop roots. Root growth rate had only moderate effect on seedling survival. These results indicate that the conventional conceptual model of establishment is incomplete. At our site, natural rates of decline in soil moisture elevation exceeded root growth rates, so widespread establishment required periods of near-steady flows. Further, under both reservoir-controlled and unimpaired flow regimes, establishment was strongly determined by post-deposition flow <i>increases</i>: seeds deposited at elevations low enough to support rooting were often killed via inundation or scour in flow fluctuations that occurred under both reservoir-regulated and unregulated flow scenarios. When soil moisture dynamics are represented even simply, the survivable rate of stage decline is not constant but depends on capillary fringe height, seed elevation, and the duration of stage decline. A more complete conceptual model of hardwood establishment considers that seeds need to be deposited where soil is moist long enough to develop roots but far enough from the water's edge to avoid mortality in flow fluctuations; for soil moisture to remain within reach of roots, which could require unusually steady flows, a high capillary fringe, or favorable groundwater gradients; and to avoid mortality due to scour or inundation in winter high flows. Model sensitivity and lack of literature suggest the time and moisture requirements for seeds to develop roots and inundation mortality of seedlings as research priorities.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2025-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70160","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143112491","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Ammonium oxidation by bacteria and archaea have functional implications for nitrification across a forested landscape","authors":"Jennifer Wen,&nbsp;Rima Upchurch,&nbsp;Donald R. Zak","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.4958","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.4958","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) and ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) control nitrification in terrestrial systems. Soil pH and substrate availability (NH₄⁺) can influence community composition, which may affect the contributions of these organisms to nitrification in forest soils. Using high-throughput sequencing, we identified the <i>amoA</i> of AOA and AOB from northern forest stands that occur across a natural gradient of nitrification, soil pH, and net N mineralization (i.e., NH₄⁺ availability). Specifically, we investigated changes in relative abundance and community composition of AOA and AOB across a soil pH and net N mineralization gradient, and how turnover in community composition is linked to nitrification. We found that soil pH was a stronger driver of AOA and AOB relative abundance than was NH₄⁺ availability. Generally, AOA and AOB turnover were positively associated with soil pH; however, some AOA taxa also displayed a negative association. Interestingly, the relative abundance of only a small number of AOA and AOB taxa was significantly associated with net nitrification rates. Our findings reveal that coexisting taxonomical groups of ammonia-oxidizers in forest soils have diverse responses to environmental factors, which influence how ammonia-oxidizer communities are structured, likely having direct implications for nitrification and the regulation of N cycling in forest systems.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"15 12","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2024-12-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.4958","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143119533","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Biogeochemical evidence raises questions on the longevity of warming-induced growth enhancements in wet boreal forests","authors":"Susan E. Ziegler,&nbsp;Sharon A. Billings,&nbsp;Frances A. Podrebarac,&nbsp;Kate A. Edwards,&nbsp;Andrea Skinner,&nbsp;Kate M. Buckeridge,&nbsp;Trevor C. VandenBoer","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70109","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70109","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In wet regions, temperature increases can prompt increases in vegetation growth. Vegetation responses are determined in part by N and P availability, yet the relative importance of N- versus P-cycling supporting growth is unclear. Prompted by studies demonstrating that warming-enhanced N cycling supports greater productivity and soil C stocks in warmer forests along a wet boreal forest transect, we tested the hypothesis that enhanced organic matter cycling supports greater P demand in relatively warm forests. We further asked whether evidence from soil and litterfall fluxes indicates increases in P demand are met in these forests or potentially pose a limit on warming-enhanced productivity. Elevated tree growth and litterfall rates coupled with similar litterfall P concentrations suggest P demand is greater at warmer sites. By assessing multiple soil N and P stocks, inputs, and stoichiometry, we observed three lines of evidence indicating that this greater P demand is met through a combination of plant tissue plasticity and adequate surface soil P supplies. First, warming-enhanced N-cycling results in an increase in N:P of surface soils and litterfall inputs indicating a reduction in needle litter P relative to N. Second, organic layer C:P and P stocks were maintained across latitude despite increases in litterfall P inputs in the warmest forests suggesting increased cycling and retention of P by trees. Third, in contrast with soil N, estimates of soil P residence times are not coupled with those of C, and soil C:P does not correlate with tree growth across sites signifying that N, not P, may limit tree growth in these forests. Results here provide evidence that increased productivity with warming and enhanced N cycling in wet boreal forests is not likely to be limited by available P over the decadal timescale represented by the temperature gradient along this climate transect. However, similarities observed between warming-enhanced N availability in the current study's forests and that in boreal forests receiving high N additions indicate a need to better understand how boreal trees may adapt to shifts away from N limitation. Such new knowledge is needed to improve our understanding of the longevity of this important climate feedback.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"15 12","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2024-12-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70109","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143119207","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A suite of wildlife crossing structures facilitates mammal movement across tropical forest fragments in a city","authors":"Li Si Tay,&nbsp;Ruisheng Choo,&nbsp;Max D. Y. Khoo,&nbsp;Eunice Kong,&nbsp;Yi Xiang Chan,&nbsp;Wivian H. Y. Neo,&nbsp;Sebastian Ow,&nbsp;Yuet Hsin Toh,&nbsp;Han Ling,&nbsp;Malcolm C. K. Soh,&nbsp;Benjamin P. Y.-H. Lee,&nbsp;Adrian H. B. Loo,&nbsp;Kenneth B. H. Er","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70114","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70114","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Wildlife crossing structures and road calming measures are frequently implemented to improve habitat connectivity and mitigate the risks of wildlife–vehicle collisions on roads. Although Southeast Asia is a known biodiversity hotspot, majority of studies assessing effectiveness of such structures were conducted outside the region. Existing studies also tended to be non-comparative and focused on crossing structures in silo. We addressed this gap by simultaneously surveying and comparing the usage frequency of mammals across three crossing types—culverts, roads and rope bridges—along a road surrounded by forests in Singapore. This allowed us to evaluate the preferences of mammals, assess usage patterns and investigate factors influencing the use of different crossing types. Using camera traps and closed-circuit televisions, we documented 1133 independent crossing events across a 9-month study period from March to November 2021. Fourteen mammal species were detected across all crossing types, with wild boar (<i>Sus scrofa</i>) being the most prevalent species (68.2%). Locally critically endangered species such as the Malayan porcupine (<i>Hystrix brachyura</i>), Sunda pangolin (<i>Manis javanica</i>), and Raffles' banded langur (<i>Presbytis femoralis femoralis</i>) were also recorded to use culverts, roads, and rope bridges for crossings, respectively. Although many species used multiple crossing types, most species had a preferred crossing method. Between culverts and roads, factors that influenced crossing preferences included group size for wild boars and time of day and presence of fences for other mammals. Even though such culverts were intended for drainage, they were still widely used by mammals. Overall, all three crossing methods were crucial in facilitating the movement of animals between habitats. Thus, a variety of infrastructure and measures to accommodate the diversity of wildlife moving across forest patches in a fragmented landscape is recommended.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"15 12","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2024-12-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70114","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143119553","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Aligning urban forest management actions with urban sustainability goals: A multi-city expert elicitation","authors":"Corinne G. Bassett,&nbsp;Susan D. Day,&nbsp;Cecil C. Konijnendijk,&nbsp;Lara A. Roman,&nbsp;Victoria Hemming","doi":"10.1002/ecs2.70120","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.70120","url":null,"abstract":"<p>City leaders are setting ambitious plans to achieve critical urban sustainability goals such as reducing urban heat, mitigating flooding during storms, and conserving biodiversity, and increasingly rely on urban forests as a key nature-based solution to such challenges. Current paradigms of urban forest management typically prioritize goals like increasing tree canopy cover that are often viewed as proxies for increased ecosystem service provision, in a general sense. However, urban foresters, the professionals with responsibility to manage urban forests, are increasingly faced with the complex challenge of managing for new goals related to ecosystem services, biodiversity, or people–nature relationships, as cities increasingly set goals centered on such outcomes, without robust guidelines to follow. We ask: How can urban foresters align their street tree management actions with specific urban sustainability goals? We conducted a structured expert elicitation of urban forest professionals in three cities: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, United States; and Washington, DC, United States. A socio-ecological lens was used to examine urban foresters as agents of change in urban ecosystems. Participants assessed the impacts of 40 direct management actions on five goals: (1) canopy cover increase and tree risk reduction, (2) urban heat reduction, (3) people–nature relationships, (4) wildlife habitat, and (5) stormwater interception and infiltration. While certain actions (e.g., in the mature tree maintenance phase) were selected as needed to advance every goal, experts identified numerous actions which aligned with one or several goals, but not all. Preplanting actions, specifically site selection and species selection, presented the greatest opportunities to advance specific goals, suggesting that aligning this phase with city sustainability goals is critical. Participants were highly confident in being able to advance all goals through street tree management, but were more confident in being able to advance the goals of increasing canopy cover while reducing tree risk and of mitigating urban heat, possibly because these goals more closely align with traditional canopy cover goal setting. This research underscores the necessity of considering site-level ecosystem management actions to advance strategic sustainability goals, while also revealing the complexity of the role and responsibilities of professionals who manage urban ecosystems.</p>","PeriodicalId":48930,"journal":{"name":"Ecosphere","volume":"15 12","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2024-12-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecs2.70120","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143119208","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}