Forest Ecosystems最新文献

{"title":"Shrub height and crown projection area are effective predictors in aboveground biomass models for multi-stemmed European hazel","authors":"Jozef Pajtík ,&nbsp;Bohdan Konôpka ,&nbsp;Ivan Barka ,&nbsp;Katarína Merganičová ,&nbsp;Martin Lukac","doi":"10.1016/j.fecs.2025.100316","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.fecs.2025.100316","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>While numerous allometric models exist for estimating biomass in trees with single stems, models for multi-stemmed species are scarce. This study presents models for predicting aboveground biomass (AGB) in European hazel (<em>Corylus avellana</em> L.), growing in multi-stemmed shrub form. We measured the size and harvested the biomass of 30 European hazel shrubs, drying and weighing their woody parts and leaves separately. AGB (dry mass) and leaf area models were established using a range of predictors, such as the upper height of the shrub, number of shoots per shrub, canopy projection area, stem base diameter of the thickest stem, and the sum of cross-sectional areas of all stems at the stem base. The latter was the best predictor of AGB, but the most practically useful variables, defined as relatively easy to measure by terrestrial or aerial approaches, were the upper height of the shrub and the canopy projection area. The leaf biomass to AGB ratio decreased with the shrub's height. Specific leaf area of shaded leaves increases with shrub height, but that of leaves at the top of the canopy does not change significantly. Given that the upper shrub height and crown projection of European hazel can be estimated using remote sensing approaches, especially UAV and LIDAR, these two variables appear the most promising for effective measurement of AGB in hazel.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54270,"journal":{"name":"Forest Ecosystems","volume":"13 ","pages":"Article 100316"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143684799","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Recreational and aesthetic values of forest landscapes (RAFL): Quantifying management impacts and trade-offs with provisioning and regulatory ecosystem services","authors":"Dagm Abate ,&nbsp;Brigite Botequim ,&nbsp;Susete Marques ,&nbsp;Constantino Lagoa ,&nbsp;Juan Guerra Hernández ,&nbsp;Geerten Hengeveld ,&nbsp;Marjanke Hoogstra-Klein ,&nbsp;José G. Borges","doi":"10.1016/j.fecs.2025.100318","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.fecs.2025.100318","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Cultural ecosystem services (CES), which encompass recreational and aesthetic values, contribute to human well-being and yet are often underrepresented in forest management planning due to challenges in quantifying these services. This study introduces the Recreational and Aesthetic Values of Forested Landscapes (RAFL) index, a novel framework combining six measurable recreational and aesthetic components: Stewardship, Naturalness, Complexity, Visual Scale, Historicity, and Ephemera. The RAFL index was integrated into a Linear Programming (LP) Resource Capability Model (RCM) to assess trade-offs between CES and other ecosystem services, including timber production, wildfire resistance, and biodiversity. The approach was applied in a case study in Northern Portugal, comparing two forest management scenarios: Business as Usual (BAU), dominated by eucalyptus plantations, and an Alternative Scenario (ALT), focused on the conversion to native species: cork oak, chestnut, and pedunculate oak. Results revealed that the ALT scenario consistently achieved higher RAFL values, reflecting its potential to enhance CES, while also supporting higher biodiversity and wildfire resilience compared to the BAU scenario. Results highlighted further that management may maintain steady timber production and wildfire regulatory services while addressing concerns with CES. This study provides a replicable methodology for quantifying CES and integrating them into forest management frameworks, offering actionable insights for decision-makers. The findings highlight the effectiveness of the approach in designing landscape mosaics that provide CES while addressing the need to supply provisioning and regulatory ecosystem services.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54270,"journal":{"name":"Forest Ecosystems","volume":"13 ","pages":"Article 100318"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143552315","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Neighborhood competition improves biomass estimation for Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) but not Pyrenean oak (Quercus pyrenaica Willd.) in young mixed forest stands","authors":"Eric Cudjoe ,&nbsp;Ricardo Ruiz-Peinado ,&nbsp;Hans Pretzsch ,&nbsp;Shamim Ahmed ,&nbsp;Felipe Bravo","doi":"10.1016/j.fecs.2025.100317","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.fecs.2025.100317","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Neighborhood competition is a critical driver of individual tree growth, and aboveground biomass (AGB) accumulation, which together play key roles in forest dynamics and carbon storage. Therefore, accurate biomass estimation is essential for understanding ecosystem functioning and informing forest management strategies to mitigate climate change. However, integrating neighborhood competition into biomass estimation models, particularly for young mixed forest stands, remains unexplored. In this study, we examined how incorporating neighborhood competition improves biomass prediction accuracy and how the influence of neighborhood competition differs between Scots pine (<em>Pinus sylvestris</em> L.) and Pyrenean oak (<em>Quercus pyrenaica</em> Willd.), as well as the relative contributions of intra- and interspecific competition to AGB. Our findings revealed that including neighborhood competition alongside tree size variables (DBH and total tree height) significantly improved the predictive accuracy of AGB models for Scots pine. This addition reduced the root mean square error (RMSE) by 14% and improved the model efficiency factor (MEF) by 15%. Furthermore, intraspecific competition in Scots pine slightly reduced AGB, whereas interspecific competition had a significant negative effect on AGB. In contrast, DBH alone was the best predictor of AGB for Pyrenean oak, as neighborhood competition did not improve model performance. Also, intra- and interspecific competition in Pyrenean oak had positive but nonsignificant effects on AGB. These findings highlight the important role of competition in biomass models and suggest species-specific approaches in competition dynamics to inform sustainable forest management and climate change adaptation strategies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54270,"journal":{"name":"Forest Ecosystems","volume":"13 ","pages":"Article 100317"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143510792","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Half a century of demographic responses of Nothofagus cool temperate rainforests to disturbance","authors":"Kate A. Simmonds ,&nbsp;Ross J. Peacock ,&nbsp;Raphaël Trouvé ,&nbsp;Craig R. Nitschke ,&nbsp;Patrick J. Baker","doi":"10.1016/j.fecs.2025.100308","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.fecs.2025.100308","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Temperate rainforests have historically been considered highly vulnerable to disturbance. Climate change, which is expected to increase the intensity, frequency, and impacts of disturbance events, is consequently a significant threat to their long-term persistence. However, data describing the long-term response of temperate rainforests to disturbance is rare. In the cool temperate rainforests of northern New South Wales, Australia, <em>Nothofagus moorei</em> is considered especially vulnerable to climate change due to a decreasing number of mature individuals, limited remaining suitable habitat, and low rates of sexual regeneration. In this study, we used over 50 years of empirical data from silvicultural experiments with multiple thinning intensities to characterise the demographic responses (i.e., growth, mortality, and recruitment) of cool temperate rainforest species, including <em>N. moorei</em>, to disturbance over time. Cool temperate rainforest species showed resilience to disturbance, predominantly through their widespread ability to basally coppice. <em>Nothofagus moorei</em>, in particular, demonstrated higher rates of successful sexual and vegetative recruitment and grew faster in response to higher intensities of disturbance, in comparison to very low rates of recruitment pre-disturbance. These results challenge successional models that position rainforests as disturbance-sensitive ecosystems and identify <em>N. moorei</em> as a species that requires large-scale disturbance to successfully regenerate. Management regimes that actively exclude disturbance from these forests risk the local loss of disturbance-dependent rainforest species such as <em>N. moorei</em>.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54270,"journal":{"name":"Forest Ecosystems","volume":"13 ","pages":"Article 100308"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143527554","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Growth dynamics of longleaf pine during conversion to uneven-aged stands","authors":"Ashton Shell ,&nbsp;Ajay Sharma ,&nbsp;John L. Willis ,&nbsp;John Tracy ,&nbsp;Adam Polinko ,&nbsp;Santosh Ojha ,&nbsp;Jason Vogel","doi":"10.1016/j.fecs.2025.100305","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.fecs.2025.100305","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>A growing recognition that uneven-aged silviculture can offer multiple benefits to forested ecosystems has encouraged some landowners in the southern region of the United States to convert even-aged pine stands into multi-aged stands. For shade-intolerant pines of the southern United States, however, few studies have examined residual tree growth following silvicultural treatments that convert even-aged stands to multi-aged stands. Understanding the growth response of residual trees to different kinds of stand conversion treatments is critical to stand development and sustainability, as trees must be recruited into larger size classes during the conversion process to develop the desired stand structure and maintain productivity. In this study, we utilized a replicated, long-term silvicultural experimental trial in the southeastern United States to assess the effects of two cutting treatments (dispersed “single tree cutting” that created small canopy gaps and the “patch cutting” that created 0.1–0.8 ​ha patch openings) and an uncut control on the 14-year growth (∼cutting cycle length) of residual longleaf pine (<em>Pinus palustris</em> Mill.) trees. We found that tree growth, measured as mean basal area increment (BAI), was significantly higher following patch cutting (mean BAI of 16.97 ​cm²) compared to both the single tree cutting (13.33 ​cm²) and the uncut control (12.68 ​cm²) (<em>p</em> ​&lt; ​0.001). In patch cutting, the size of the patch opening, the location of trees surrounding the patch opening, and the position of the tree canopy all had a significant effect on BAI. Trees surrounding patch openings of 0.4 ​ha exhibited greater growth, with a mean BAI of 19.24 ​cm², compared to those surrounding 0.1 and 0.8 ​ha patch openings, which had mean BAI values of 15.89 and 15.71 ​cm², respectively (<em>p</em> ​&lt; ​0.001). The position of a tree around the patch opening also influenced tree growth, as residual trees more to the North, South, and East sides exhibited significantly higher mean BAI than trees on the West side of the patch openings (<em>p</em> ​&lt; ​0.001). However, distance from the patch opening border did not significantly affect the mean BAI (<em>p</em> ​= ​0.522). In all treatments, dominant and co-dominant trees exhibited higher BAI than intermediate and overtopped trees, indicating that tree canopy position significantly influenced tree growth (<em>p</em> ​&lt; ​0.001). Understanding how residual trees grow after these silvicultural treatments is crucial for thoroughly assessing their efficacy with longleaf pine. This study's findings will enhance our understanding of stand dynamics during stand conversion and help land managers anticipate the growth of longleaf pine into larger size categories after single tree and patch cuttings.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54270,"journal":{"name":"Forest Ecosystems","volume":"13 ","pages":"Article 100305"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143518958","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Understanding visitor preferences: Perceived importance of anthropogenic and natural forest features in supplying cultural ecosystem services","authors":"Dumitru-Mircea Dușcu ,&nbsp;Geta Rîșnoveanu","doi":"10.1016/j.fecs.2025.100306","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.fecs.2025.100306","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Cultural ecosystem services (CES) provided by urban green infrastructure are essential for enhancing social well-being and resilience. Identifying and mapping CES at a local scale is crucial for informed land-use decisions that align with citizens' perceptions. However, research on ecosystem services in Romania has been limited, with a notable gap in the assessment of CES provided by urban green spaces. This study is the first to focus on Băneasa Forest, the only urban forest in Bucharest, which serves as a vital recreational area for thousands of residents and visitors. For the first time in Romania, this research uses a web-based Participatory GIS survey to collect spatially referenced data. The survey, which combines questionnaires and mapping exercises, allows us to produce high-resolution CES maps based on 816 responses. The results reveal that the forest's natural characteristics are perceived as the primary contributors to CES. These findings are valuable for urban planners, as they highlight the needs and expectations of forest visitors, promote conservation efforts, and foster collaboration to prevent conflicts. Alongside factors frequently discussed in the literature, such as age and accessibility, the percentage of green space in residents' neighborhoods emerges as a significant factor influencing CES preferences. This insight presents a novel contribution to the literature, being of particular importance for urban planners and policymakers, as it underscores the need to consider not just the green space within parks and forests, but also the broader context of surrounding neighborhoods when planning for CES. Understanding that the availability of nearby green space influences residents' CES preferences can guide more effective strategies to enhance access to CES in urban areas, both in Bucharest and elsewhere. This is especially relevant in the face of climate change and other emerging challenges, which are likely to increase the demand for CES in the future.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54270,"journal":{"name":"Forest Ecosystems","volume":"13 ","pages":"Article 100306"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143444264","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Mitigating drought stress in European beech and pedunculate oak: The role of competition reduction","authors":"Sanne Verdonck ,&nbsp;Anneleen Geussens ,&nbsp;Roman Zweifel ,&nbsp;Arno Thomaes ,&nbsp;Koenraad Van Meerbeek ,&nbsp;Bart Muys","doi":"10.1016/j.fecs.2025.100303","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.fecs.2025.100303","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Droughts pose significant threats to forest ecosystems globally. Effective forest management strategies, adapted to local conditions, are needed to mitigate negative drought impacts. One proposed strategy is competition reduction to increase water availability and, as a result, alleviate drought stress. This study investigates the effect of competition intensity on drought stress and tree growth in European beech (<em>Fagus sylvatica</em>) and pedunculate oak (<em>Quercus robur</em>). We deployed 72 point dendrometers, placed along a competition intensity gradient, in National Park Brabantse Wouden (Belgium), to measure daily minimum tree water deficit (TWD_min) as a drought stress proxy and daily radial growth at tree level. Our results revealed species-dependent effects of competition intensity (CI). For European beech, competition reductions positively influenced growth and alleviated (1 ​&lt; ​CI ​&lt; ​2) or aggravated (CI ​&lt; ​0.5) drought stress. For pedunculate oak, competition intensity did not affect drought stress or growth along the investigated gradient. Environmental variables consistently affected TWD_min and growth of both species. Precipitation reduced TWD_min and increased growth, while vapor pressure deficit led to opposite trends. Thus, environmental conditions and competition can play a critical role in forest dynamics, especially in light of climate change. However, reducing competition through increased management efforts does not seem to be a one-size-fits-all solution to alleviating drought stress. Additionally, there seems to be a trade-off between reducing drought stress and improving tree growth in European beech: tree growth continuously benefited from competition reductions, while under low competition (CI ​&lt; ​0.5) drought stress increased. Revisiting or reviving long-term thinning intensity trials encompassing various regions, species, and soil types will be needed to gain comprehensive insights into mitigating drought stress through management interventions under different local stand conditions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54270,"journal":{"name":"Forest Ecosystems","volume":"13 ","pages":"Article 100303"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143518954","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Foliar resorption of beech and maple along an elevation gradient in a northern hardwood forest","authors":"Timothy J. Fahey ,&nbsp;Natalie L. Cleavitt ,&nbsp;Pamela H. Templer ,&nbsp;Peter M. Groffman ,&nbsp;Amey S. Bailey ,&nbsp;Stephen B. Caron ,&nbsp;Geoffrey Wilson","doi":"10.1016/j.fecs.2025.100304","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.fecs.2025.100304","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Foliar resorption is a principal nutrient conservation mechanism in terrestrial vegetation that could be sensitive to ongoing changes in climate and atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition. We quantified N resorption in northern hardwood forests along an elevation gradient of decreasing temperature and increasing soil N availability to evaluate how this critical nutrient cycling process can be expected to respond to global and regional environmental changes. Foliar N resorption proficiency (NRP) increased significantly at lower elevations for both sugar maple and American beech, the dominant species in these forests. Foliar N resorption efficiency (NRE) also decreased with increasing elevation, but only in one year. Both species exhibited strong negative relationships between NRP and soil N availability. Thus, we anticipate that with climate warming and decreasing N inputs, northern hardwood forests can be expected to exhibit stronger N conservation via foliar resorption. Both species also exhibited strong correlations between resorption efficiency of N and C, but resorption of both elements was much greater for beech than sugar maple, suggesting contrasting mechanisms of nutrient conservation between these two widespread species.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54270,"journal":{"name":"Forest Ecosystems","volume":"13 ","pages":"Article 100304"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143394544","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Quantifying unseen woody biomass and diversity in understorey trees and shrubs at the extremes of water availability in the Miombo ecoregion","authors":"Hermane Diesse ,&nbsp;John L. Godlee ,&nbsp;Nichola Knox ,&nbsp;Jonathan Muledi ,&nbsp;Leena Naftal ,&nbsp;David Nkulu ,&nbsp;Ben Nkomba ,&nbsp;Gabriel Uusiku ,&nbsp;Kyle Dexter ,&nbsp;Vera De Cauwer","doi":"10.1016/j.fecs.2025.100302","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.fecs.2025.100302","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The Miombo ecoregion covers eastern and southern Africa, with variations in plant species composition, structure, and biomass across a broad precipitation gradient. Most studies of woody plant communities focus exclusively on larger overstorey trees (≥5 or ≥10 ​cm stem diameter), overlooking the contribution of small trees and shrubs in the understorey, which can comprise a significant portion of total biomass and diversity. Here, we evaluate the contribution of both large overstorey and small understorey woody plants to species diversity and above-ground biomass (AGB), with 17 plots (0.5–1 ​ha) across five sites representing both extremes of rainfall gradient spanning the Miombo ecoregion, in northeast Namibia (500–700 ​mm mean annual precipitation, MAP) and southern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) (&gt;1,200 ​mm MAP).</div><div>Mean AGB per site ranged from 21 to 119 ​Mg⋅ha⁻¹, increasing with rainfall, while the proportional AGB contribution of small trees, saplings, and shrubs decreased. In dry Namibia, small trees, saplings, and shrubs (&lt;5 ​cm DBH) contributed up to 28.2% of total AGB (mean ​± ​standard deviation: 18.3% ​± ​3.4%), whereas in wet DRC, they contributed only up to 2.5% (2.3% ​± ​1.4%).</div><div>Namibian sites, on average, contained a large proportion of woody species diversity exclusively in small trees and shrubs (&lt;5 ​cm DBH), with 55 species representing 59.4% of the total diversity. In contrast, DRC sites had higher overall small woody plant diversity (66 species) but fewer species found exclusively as small individuals (25.2%), with many saplings that grow to larger trees. Understorey composition also differed, with saplings of overstorey trees dominating in DRC, while shrubs dominated in Namibia.</div><div>Our findings show that woody biomass and diversity in dry woodlands are substantially underestimated when studies focus only on larger trees. This highlights the need to consider all woody vegetation to better understand woody plant diversity and biomass variation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54270,"journal":{"name":"Forest Ecosystems","volume":"13 ","pages":"Article 100302"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-02-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143552316","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Long-term forest damage due to an extreme weather event: An ice storm mediated by elevation causes tree breakage in sub-tropical China","authors":"Hanyu Xiang ,&nbsp;Yimei Yan ,&nbsp;Tian Tian ,&nbsp;Nan Wu ,&nbsp;Jie Wang ,&nbsp;Qian Qian ,&nbsp;Jinyu Guo ,&nbsp;Chris Newman ,&nbsp;Christina D. Buesching ,&nbsp;Hechun Chen ,&nbsp;Youbing Zhou","doi":"10.1016/j.fecs.2025.100301","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.fecs.2025.100301","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Extreme weather events pose an ever-greater threat to people, infrastructure, and nature. Forest ecosystems are highly sensitive to extreme cold events that can disrupt ecosystem functions, especially in montane regions. Ice storms can be particularly destructive, with rapid ice accretion causing tree branches to break, even snapping or uprooting entire trees. In March 2022, the Shennongjia forest in central China experienced severe ice storm conditions that severely damaged over 230,300 ​ha. We utilized this opportunity to assess the vulnerability of different tree types (coniferous, deciduous, and evergreen broad-leaved) and stand compositions to damage resulting from ice glaze along an elevation gradient from 1,200 to 2,400 ​m a.s.l. Among the 7,144 trees surveyed, 10.1% suffered some extent of damage, which was most prolific in the middle elevation zone. While 96.8% of all damage occurred to deciduous broadleaved trees that dominated the forest community, the most severe damage (uprooting and lower trunk breakage) occurred to coniferous trees. The extent and severity of tree damage were moderated by forest composition, with secondary effects of forest structure and slope. Abiotic factors predominantly affected coniferous trees. We emphasize that more research and monitoring are needed to better understand the full impact of extreme weather events on forests, especially as the frequency and intensity of these events increases due to climate change.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54270,"journal":{"name":"Forest Ecosystems","volume":"13 ","pages":"Article 100301"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8,"publicationDate":"2025-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143402644","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}