Review
Forestry
Mingxia Yang, Xiaolu Zhou, Zelin Liu, Peng Li, Jiayi Tang, Binggeng Xie, Changhui Peng
Summary: Understanding the biomass, characteristics, and carbon sequestration of urban forests is crucial for maintaining and improving the quality of life and ensuring sustainable urban planning. This review evaluates recent developments in urban forest research methods, compares the accuracy and efficiency of different methods, and identifies emerging themes in urban forest assessment.
Article
Agronomy
Hang Jing, Ying Liu, Guoliang Wang, Guobin Liu
Summary: Nitrogen addition has differential effects on root respiration of tree and understory herb, mainly influenced by the rate of nitrogen addition and temperature. The changing mechanism of root respiration in tree and understory herb demonstrates an apparent species specificity.
Article
Forestry
Yuanchun Li, Huipeng Li, Wei Zhang, Baolin Chen, Lei Yang, Mengfan Li, Jianxiao Zhu, Qiong Cai
Summary: In Chinese pine plantations on the Loess Plateau, thinning was found to promote tree growth, particularly radial growth, while it had no effect on stand biomass. These findings provide valuable guidance for forest management and highlight the importance of reasonable thinning treatments.
Article
Forestry
Hongjuan Zhou, Yuqing Geng, Zihan Wang, Ruihong Dai, Qinrui Tian, Yanling Ge, Lixin Chen
Summary: Forest gap positions significantly influence the composition of forest floor microbial communities, with higher microbial abundance in the gap center and gap border compared to the closed canopy. Additionally, the composition of microbial communities is influenced by both gap positions and forest floor layers, with higher microbial abundance in the undecomposed forest layer.
Article
Biology
Alejandra G. Vovides, Marie-Christin Wimmler, Falk Schrewe, Thorsten Balke, Martin Zwanzig, Cyril Piou, Etienne Delay, Jorge Lopez-Portillo, Uta Berger
Summary: Root grafts, the union of roots of different trees, are common and may reduce stress and facilitate resource exchange. Research shows that the probability and frequency of root grafting increase with environmental stress, leading to smaller group sizes of trees within grafted groups.
COMMUNICATIONS BIOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Plant Sciences
Jiaxing Wang, Haoqiang Zhang, Jing Gao, Yu Zhang, Yaqin Liu, Ming Tang
Summary: The study found that under moderate and severe drought stress, the ectomycorrhizal fungus Suillus variegatus can reduce the mortality rate of Pinus tabulaeformis seedlings, increase growth indicators, significantly improve photosynthetic rates and transpiration rates, enhance NSC concentration, and enhance adaptability to drought conditions.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Yahui Song, Jiaying Zhai, Jiaoyang Zhang, Leilei Qiao, Guoliang Wang, Lihui Ma, Sha Xue
Summary: This study investigated how microbial characteristics in a Pinus tabulaeformis plantation responded to different management practices and their influence on soil organic carbon stability. Forest management practices were found to change soil organic carbon stability by adjusting microbial characteristics. Microbial biomass was identified as the biggest influencing factor of soil organic carbon stability.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Xiu Ren Zhou, Lei Dai, Gui Fang Xu, Hong Sheng Wang
Summary: Global warming has led to frequent droughts, causing challenges for afforestation in arid and semiarid regions. By isolating and identifying fungal endophytes from the roots of Pinus tabulaeformis trees, researchers have found that these endophytes can potentially enhance drought-resistance abilities of seedlings. This strain of Phoma spp. shows promising results in improving drought tolerance, increasing proline levels, and enhancing antioxidant enzyme activities in the seedlings.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2021)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Qianqian Qin, Yanhong Liu
Summary: The study found that wildfires have significant impacts on soil microbes, especially on the surface mineral soil, with more minor effects on subsoils. Microbial communities in undisturbed soils change over time and depth, indicating spatiotemporal variation. The differences in microbes between burned and undisturbed soils are mainly driven by soil pH, with organic matter and available potassium influencing microbial distribution along depth and time.
JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Isabel Alvarez Munck, Mariko Yamasaki, Jon Janelle
Summary: Managing multiple forest insect pests and diseases is challenging. Silvicultural treatments such as shelterwoods and low density thinnings can effectively reduce damage by pests and diseases while improving crown condition, regeneration quality, and increasing seral habitat and songbird diversity.
FRONTIERS IN FORESTS AND GLOBAL CHANGE
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Hiroyuki Torita, Kazuhiko Masaka, Norio Tanaka, Kenta Iwasaki, Satosi Hasui, Masato Hayamizu, Yasutaka Nakata
Summary: Different levels of tree thinning can increase the resistance of coastal forests to tsunamis, with trunk diameter playing a crucial role in resistance. Resistance to tsunamis decreases rapidly when inundation depth exceeds average tree height in all study plots.
JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
(2021)
Review
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Anastasia Y. Batalova, Konstantin V. Krutovsky
Summary: Trees are unique in their development, sustainability, and longevity, with some species living for several millennia. This review focuses on the genetic and epigenetic mechanisms of longevity in forest trees, highlighting the genetic aspects of well-studied species like oak, ginkgo, fig, poplar, Welwitschia, and Dracaena. Enhanced immune defense, increased gene families associated with disease resistance, and steady expression of specific genes were found to be key traits in long-lived trees. The study also identified the involvement of epigenetic regulators and changes in gene expression through grafting, cutting, and pruning.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Thomas Kirchhoff, Kilian Ramisch, Tabea Feucht, Cedric Reif, Michael Suda
Summary: This study explores the influence of moral judgments on the aesthetic evaluation of mast-like structures, including wind turbines, incinerator plant chimneys, and high-frequency communication towers, on the visual quality of landscapes. The findings suggest that moral associations play a significant role in shaping people's perception of these structures and their impact on landscapes. The study also indicates that supporters of wind energy tend to rate landscapes with wind turbines higher than non-supporters. These findings have important implications for the assessment of wind turbines' impact on landscape aesthetics and the interpretation of visual landscape quality assessments.
LANDSCAPE AND URBAN PLANNING
(2022)
Article
Forestry
Andrej Boncina, Vasilije Trifkovic, Andrej Ficko
Summary: The main objectives of this study were to determine the response of diameter growth in silver fir, Scots pine, and black pine in Central European seminatural forests to various factors and to test for differences in growth rate on different soils. The researchers developed linear mixed-effects models for each tree species and found that tree diameter, climatic variables, and soil unit were significant predictors of diameter increment variability. The developed models can be compared to other simulators and regions but need validation outside the study area.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Keliang Long, Nanxi Wang, Zhongxiao Lin
Summary: With the increasing demand for cultural ecosystem services worldwide, the importance of scenic beauty in villages has been recognized by many countries and regions, resulting in the implementation of relevant policies. However, limited studies have been conducted to evaluate the scenic beauty of villages. This study aimed to explore the assessment procedures and the relationship between scenic beauty and landscape indicators in mountain and hilly villages.
ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
(2023)
