Forest ecology articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Long-term stability of ecological communities is vital for maintaining ecosystem functioning. Here, Blüthgen et al. show that greater land-use intensity in grasslands and forests can have negative impacts on the stability of plant and animal communities, driven primarily by variation in asynchrony between species.

    • Nico Blüthgen
    • , Nadja K. Simons
    •  & Martin M. Gossner

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Forest fragmentation is thought to reduce carbon storage at forest edges. Here, using remote sensing datasets, the authors show that biomass is 25% lower within 500 m of the forest edge, and suggest that fragmentation results in a global reduction in tropical forest carbon stocks by nearly 10%.

    • Rebecca Chaplin-Kramer
    • , Ivan Ramler
    •  & Henry King

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Measurements of biodiversity may differ according to the extent of area sampled, although how this changes across taxa is not well understood. Here, Schuldtet al. find that the diversity of plants, arthropods and microorganisms in a heterogeneous subtropical forest is highly nonlinear across spatial scales.

    • Andreas Schuldt
    • , Tesfaye Wubet
    •  & Helge Bruelheide

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Balancing biological conservation with economic development is a challenge for policymakers. Analysing a range of possible future scenarios, Runting et al, show that coordinated planning would allow the island of Borneo to simultaneously retain forested land, protect species and meet economic goals.

    • Rebecca K. Runting
    • , Erik Meijaard
    •  & Kerrie A. Wilson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Local climatic effects of forests remain poorly understood due to the coarse spatial resolution of models and field observations. Here, the authors use global satellite data to analyse the spatiotemporal cooling or warming effects of tropical, temperate and boreal forests on climate.

    • Yan Li
    • , Maosheng Zhao
    •  & Shuangcheng Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The growth dynamics of forest ecosystems undergoing climatic change are not well understood. Here Pretzsch et al. show that two of the dominant tree species of Central Europe have undergone significantly accelerated growth dynamics during the past century.

    • Hans Pretzsch
    • , Peter Biber
    •  & Thomas Rötzer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Vegetation close to streams and lakes provides organic matter to aquatic ecosystems. Here, the authors show that the dense forest cover around lakes feeds the near-shore lake food web through organic matter subsidies, leading to faster growth in planktivorous fish.

    • Andrew J. Tanentzap
    • , Erik J. Szkokan-Emilson
    •  & John M. Gunn

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Forest recovery after past disturbances can help to understand how forests will respond to future scenarios. Here, the authors analyse palaeoecological records from tropical forests and find that Central American and African forests have recovered faster after disturbances than those in South America and Asia.

    • Lydia E. S. Cole
    • , Shonil A. Bhagwat
    •  & Katherine J. Willis

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The world’s tropical forests represent a terrestrial carbon sink, yet its size is uncertain. Espírito-Santo et al.characterize full Amazon disturbances combining forest inventories and remote sensing data, and use statistical modelling to quantify the Amazon aboveground forest carbon balance.

    • Fernando D.B. Espírito-Santo
    • , Manuel Gloor
    •  & Oliver L. Phillips

  • Article |

    Hitherto, Siberian vegetation was not considered to cause the south-to-north ion content gradient of thaw lakes. Herzschuh et al.propose that higher evapotranspiration in larch forests compared with that in the tundra leads to local salt accumulation in permafrost soils, which are transported as solutes to nearby lakes.

    • Ulrike Herzschuh
    • , Luidmila A. Pestryakova
    •  & H. John B. Birks

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It is thought that only climate change drives temporal tree mortality increases in old forests. Here, Luo and Chen show that both forest dynamics and climate change drive temporal tree mortality increases in young and old forests, and that climate change-associated mortality increases are higher in the young forests.

    • Yong Luo
    •  & Han Y. H. Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Tree diversity is thought to benefit forest ecosystems, but evidence from large-scale studies is scarce. This study of a 400,000 km2forest area shows that higher tree species richness supports higher levels of multiple ecosystem services, and therefore also a more sustainable management of production forests.

    • Lars Gamfeldt
    • , Tord Snäll
    •  & Jan Bengtsson

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