Article
Environmental Sciences
Enrico Tonelli, Alessandro Vitali, Francesco Malandra, J. Julio Camarero, Michele Colangelo, Angelo Nole, Francesco Ripullone, Marco Carrer, Carlo Urbinati
Summary: Late spring frosts have a negative impact on the productivity and growth of temperate beech forests. This study investigated the effects of late spring frosts on forest cover and radial growth of European beech populations at different elevations. The results showed that the growth reduction caused by late spring frosts ranged from 36% to 84%, but recovery occurred within 1-2 years after the event. There was no clear relationship between beech forest elevation and occurrence of late spring frosts defoliations.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Nina Skrk, Roberto Serrano-Notivoli, Katarina Cufar, Maks Merela, Zalika Crepinsek, Lucka Kajfez Bogataj, Martin de Luis
Summary: This study presents a new publicly available daily gridded dataset covering the whole territory of Slovenia with maximum and minimum temperature and precipitation data from 1950 to 2018. Through comprehensive quality control and gap filling processes, the dataset accurately estimates the spatial and temporal distribution of daily temperatures and precipitation in Slovenia with high spatial resolution.
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE DATA
(2021)
Article
Forestry
Matteo Cerioni, Gal Fidej, Jurij Diaci, Thomas A. Nagel
Summary: Large and severe disturbances can decrease the resilience of temperate forest ecosystems and alter their recovery dynamics. However, mixed mountain forests in Slovenia generally show adequate resilience to large-scale wind disturbances in terms of physiognomic recovery, but not in terms of rapid compositional recovery. Pioneer and light-demanding tree species increased in share compared to pre-disturbance stands.
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF FOREST RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Agronomy
Anna Neycken, Michel Scheggia, Christof Bigler, Mathieu Levesque
Summary: European beech trees have been severely affected by the exceptional 2018 drought and subsequent dry years. Some trees showed severe signs of crown dieback or died, while others showed no or minor damage. The reasons for this variation in vulnerability are not well understood. This study analyzed the long-term growth trends, neighborhood composition, early-warning signals, and growth responses to past severe droughts of co-occurring healthy and declining beech trees in Switzerland. The findings suggest that declining trees had lower growth rates even before the dieback occurred, indicating predisposing signs for crown dieback.
AGRICULTURAL AND FOREST METEOROLOGY
(2022)
Article
Forestry
Ettore D'Andrea, Andrea Scartazza, Alberto Battistelli, Alessio Collalti, Simona Proiett, Negar Rezaie, Giorgio Matteucci, Stefano Moscatello
Summary: Global climate change is leading to an increase in frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. Tree carbon reserves are important for the resilience of beech trees, helping to mitigate the effects of late frosts and summer droughts. Non-structural carbohydrates play a crucial role in assisting trees to cope with stressful situations and support plant survival.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Giorgi Mamadashvili, Antoine Brin, Claus Baessler, Vasyl Chumak, Maksym Chumak, Valeriia Deidus, Lars Droessler, Celine Emberger, Kostadin B. Georgiev, Tigran Ghrejyan, Martin M. Gossner, Ruslan Hleb, Razieh Rafiei-Jahed, Mark Kalashian, Ivan Kambarov, Gayane Karagyan, Joni Kevlishvili, Zviad Khutsishvili, Daniel Kraus, Thibault Lachat, Ludwig Lettenmaier, Meri Mazmanyan, Oliver Mitesser, Peter I. Petrov, Nicolas Roth, Levan Tabunidze, Laurent Larrieu, Joerg Mueller
Summary: A systematic analysis was conducted on tree-related microhabitats in beech forests, revealing the influences of tree species and elevation on microhabitat composition. The study highlights the importance of conserving old-growth forests due to their higher microhabitat diversity.
BIOLOGICAL CONSERVATION
(2023)
Article
Forestry
Petra D'Odorico, Meredith C. Schuman, Mirjam Kurz, Katalin Csillery
Summary: This study demonstrates the potential of leaf spectroscopy for discriminating and characterizing different subspecies of beech trees. By measuring leaf spectral reflectance, morphological and biochemical traits, the researchers found that Oriental beech has higher lignin and nitrogen content compared to European beech. The model based on short-wave infrared region spectra showed the highest accuracy in distinguishing Oriental from European beech.
FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT
(2023)
Article
Forestry
Luka Krajnc, Peter Prislan, Gregor Bozic, Marjana Westergren, Domen Arnic, Csaba Matyas, Jozica Gricar, Hojka Kraigher
Summary: Provenance trials of European beech were conducted in various environments, showing differences in radial growth and wood density among different provenances. Some provenances exhibited faster growth in favorable weather conditions, while overall differences in wood density were found to be relatively small. The Idrija provenance from Slovenia likely has higher wood density compared to other studied provenances.
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF FOREST RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Forestry
Jan Leidinger, Markus Blaschke, Michael Ehrhardt, Anton Fischer, Martin M. Gossner, Kirsten Jung, Sebastian Kienlein, Johanna Kozak, Barbara Michler, Reinhard Mosandl, Sebastian Seibold, Katja Wehner, Wolfgang W. Weisser
Summary: Forests in Central Europe have been heavily influenced by human activities, leading to a shift from natural beech-dominated vegetation to more profitable species. Integrative approaches promoting mixed forests are now reversing this trend to balance production and conservation goals, with implications for forest biodiversity. Mixing tree species affects local abundances, diversity, and community composition, highlighting the importance of forestry decisions in shaping forest communities.
FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT
(2021)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
L. Junger, P. Davids, G. Stoeglehner, T. Hartmann
Summary: This study examines the multidimensional resilience in the context of flood recovery, finding that the physical, social, and financial dimensions are all part of the recovery process. Conflicting impacts and dependencies exist between these dimensions, necessitating coordination and trade-offs.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF DISASTER RISK REDUCTION
(2023)
Article
Forestry
Wojciech Kraj, Marcin Zarek
Summary: The study revealed that tree populations at higher altitudes experience oxidative stress early in the leaf senescence process, showing higher antioxidant system activity. This allows high-altitude populations to efficiently remobilize nitrogen compounds, protect trees from nitrogen loss, and prepare them for winter dormancy.
Article
Agronomy
Robert Jankowiak, Hanna Stepniewska, Piotr Bilanski, Stephen Joshua Taerum
Summary: This study aimed to isolate Phytophthora species and investigate their role in the decline of beech seedlings in Poland. A total of 1192 Phytophthora isolates were obtained from 300 symptomatic beech seedlings, and six species were identified. The most frequently isolated species were Phytophthora cactorum, P. x cambivora, P. europaea, and P. plurivora. The results demonstrate that Phytophthora may play an important role in the reduction of naturally regenerated European beech seedlings.
Article
Biology
Markus Pfenninger, Friederike Reuss, Angelika Kiebler, Philipp Schoennenbeck, Cosima Caliendo, Susanne Gerber, Berardino Cocchiararo, Sabrina Reuter, Nico Bluethgen, Karsten Mody, Bagdevi Mishra, Miklos Balint, Marco Thines, Barbara Feldmeyer
Summary: In the face of increasing drought conditions in Central Europe due to global climate change, a study on European beeches found that drought resistance is influenced by genotype rather than environment, with specific genetic markers identified through SNP detection. This indicates that drought resistance in European beech is a moderately polygenic trait that can be enhanced through natural selection, management, and breeding.
Article
Genetics & Heredity
Catalina Salgado-Salazar, Demetra N. Skaltsas, Tunesha Phipps, Lisa A. Castlebury
Summary: Neonectria faginata and Neonectria coccinea are the causal agents of beech bark disease, with highly contiguous genome assemblies including similar gene counts and functional categories. Approximately 32% of their predicted proteomes are associated with pathogenicity, with N. coccinea showing a higher number of mitogen-activated protein kinase genes. Additionally, their genomes contain a wide range of genes encoding enzymes for degrading plant polysaccharides.
G3-GENES GENOMES GENETICS
(2021)
Article
Microbiology
Gitta Jutta Langer, Johanna Busskamp
Summary: This study examined filamentous fungi associated with woody tissues of European Beech and their impact on tree health. Various fungal strains were found to potentially harm the health of beech trees, with Botryosphaeria corticola identified as a particularly virulent pathogen. The research suggests that under conditions of climate change, Botryosphaeriaceae fungi could play a significant role in the disease progression of Vitality loss of Beech.
FRONTIERS IN MICROBIOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Forestry
Elena Larysch, Dominik Florian Stangler, Mona Nazari, Thomas Seifert, Hans-Peter Kahle
Summary: The study revealed that European beech and silver fir showed different responses in xylem cell differentiation and growth under the 2018 drought, with beech being significantly affected at the lowest elevation. Overall, there were species-specific differences in the response of xylem phenology and growth to drought.
Article
Forestry
Dominik Florian Stangler, Hans-Peter Kahle, Martin Raden, Elena Larysch, Thomas Seifert, Heinrich Spiecker
Summary: The study compares different methods for investigating wood formation dynamics in Norway spruce, showing strong endogenous control of tree-ring formation at higher elevations and a shift to environmental control at lower elevations during drought. Additionally, comparing xylogenesis data with dendrometer measurements reveals interesting insights into the interplay between tracheid development and environmental factors during dry-wet cycles.
Article
Agronomy
Rafael Bohn Reckziegel, Jonathan P. Sheppard, Hans-Peter Kahle, Elena Larysch, Heinrich Spiecker, Thomas Seifert, Christopher Morhart
Summary: The study simulated the pruning of wild cherry trees using terrestrial laser scanning and compared the shading effects of different pruning treatments. Results showed that conventional pruning reduced crown size and shading intensity, while selective branch removal decreased shading effects and maintained more similar spatial distribution. The findings are important for designing and selecting appropriate tending operations for managing light distribution in agroforestry systems.
AGROFORESTRY SYSTEMS
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Roberto L. Salomon, Richard L. Peters, Roman Zweifel, Ute G. W. Sass-Klaassen, Annemiek I. Stegehuis, Marko Smiljanic, Rafael Poyatos, Flurin Babst, Emil Cienciala, Patrick Fonti, Bas J. W. Lerink, Marcus Lindner, Jordi Martinez-Vilalta, Maurizio Mencuccini, Gert-Jan Nabuurs, Ernst van der Maaten, Georg von Arx, Andreas Bar, Linar Akhmetzyanov, Daniel Balanzategui, Michal Bellan, Jorg Bendix, Daniel Berveiller, Miroslav Blazenec, Vojtech Cada, Vinicio Carraro, Sebastien Cecchini, Tommy Chan, Marco Conedera, Nicolas Delpierre, Sylvain Delzon, Lubica Ditmarova, Jiri Dolezal, Eric Dufrene, Johannes Edvardsson, Stefan Ehekircher, Alicia Forner, Jan Frouz, Andrea Ganthaler, Vladimir Gryc, Aylin Guney, Ingo Heinrich, Rainer Hentschel, Pavel Janda, Marek Jezik, Hans-Peter Kahle, Simon Knusel, Jan Krejza, Lukasz Kuberski, Jiri Kucera, Francois Lebourgeois, Martin Mikolas, Radim Matula, Stefan Mayr, Walter Oberhuber, Nikolaus Obojes, Bruce Osborne, Teemu Paljakka, Roman Plichta, Inken Rabbel, Cyrille B. K. Rathgeber, Yann Salmon, Matthew Saunders, Tobias Scharnweber, Zuzana Sitkova, Dominik Florian Stangler, Krzysztof Sterenczak, Marko Stojanovic, Katarina Strelcova, Jan Svetlik, Miroslav Svoboda, Brian Tobin, Volodymyr Trotsiuk, Josef Urban, Fernando Valladares, Hanus Vavrcik, Monika Vejpustkova, Lorenz Walthert, Martin Wilmking, Ewa Zin, Junliang Zou, Kathy Steppe
Summary: Heatwaves have strong and sometimes irreversible impacts on forest ecosystems. This study used high-temporal resolution dendrometer data to investigate the effects of the 2018 European heatwave on tree growth and water status. The findings showed that while annual stem growth was not consistently reduced, stems experienced temporary shrinkage due to water depletion. Conifer species were less capable of rehydrating overnight compared to broadleaves, indicating lower resilience to transient stress.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2022)
Article
Agronomy
Tobias Walter Miller, Dominik Florian Stangler, Elena Larysch, Harald Honer, Thomas Seifert, Heike Puhlmann, Georg von Arx, Patrick Fonti, Marina V. Fonti, Cyrille B. K. Rathgeber, Hans-Peter Kahle
Summary: Climate change is expected to have significant impacts on European forests. This study compares the intra-annual growth dynamics of Douglas fir, silver fir, and Norway spruce in changing climate conditions. The results show that Douglas fir has higher cell production rates and a longer wood formation season, making it a potential alternative to the climate-change-endangered Norway spruce.
AGRICULTURAL AND FOREST METEOROLOGY
(2022)
Article
Forestry
Tobias Walter Miller, Dominik Florian Stangler, Elena Larysch, Harald Honer, Thomas Seifert, Hans-Peter Kahle
Summary: This study presents a methodological framework for evaluating the accuracy of different mathematical fittings to derive tree-ring phenology from dendrometer data. The results show that fitting the Gompertz model to the dendrometer data and applying relative and absolute thresholds to the model predictions can provide the most precise and unbiased predictions of tree growth phenology.
Article
Plant Sciences
E. Larysch, D. F. Stangler, H. Puhlmann, C. B. K. Rathgeber, T. Seifert, H-P Kahle
Summary: Hot droughts are expected to increase in Europe and affect forest ecosystem functioning. This study focused on the wood formation and anatomical characteristics of mature silver fir and Scots pine trees in the Black Forest during a hot drought year. The differentiation kinetics of tree cells were influenced by temperature and water availability, leading to a decline in woody biomass production. The growth processes of pioneer species and climax species were affected by different drought periods.
Article
Forestry
Rafael Bohn Reckziegel, Werner Mbongo, Anton Kunneke, Christopher Morhart, Jonathan P. Sheppard, Paxie Chirwa, Ben du Toit, Hans-Peter Kahle
Summary: This study assessed the effects of branch wood harvesting in a silvopastoral system in the African Savannah ecoregion using terrestrial LiDAR technology. The results showed that branch harvesting can provide a significant amount of wood biomass while retaining the original tree structures. The choice of harvesting treatment depends on practitioners' interests, but this study provides useful tools for decision making.
Article
Forestry
Ehsan Safari, Hossein Moradi, Andrea Seim, Rasoul Yousefpour, Mahsa Mirzakhani, Willy Tegel, Javad Soosani, Hans-Peter Kahle
Summary: The study reveals that the growth of the dominant oak species in the Central Zagros Mountains of western Iran is positively influenced by water availability and climatic conditions, with precipitation and temperature playing significant roles in the radial growth of the trees.
Article
Forestry
Gleice Gomes Rodrigues, Martin Raden, Luciana Duque Silva, Hans-Peter Kahle
Summary: This study analyzed the wood density profiles of three different Eucalyptus urophylla clones grown under two spacing regimes in Brazil. The results showed that clone identity, cambial age, and hydro-climatic conditions significantly affected the density profiles, while spacing did not. A workflow was developed to synchronize and annotate the density profiles, which can be applied to analyze other intra-annual tree-ring features.
Article
Forestry
Lucky Makhubele, Paxie W. Chirwa, Jonathan P. Sheppard, Ratsodo P. Tshidzumba, Mulugheta G. Araia, Hans-Peter Kahle
Summary: This study investigated the link between socio-ecological and conservation strategies regarding tree species richness in traditional agroforestry landscapes in the Vhembe Biosphere Reserve, South Africa. The findings showed that tree species richness is commonly driven by provisioning ecosystem services on farms and communal land, while distance is a major factor influencing species richness in protected areas. The study also revealed a lack of conservation strategy and practices targeting the enhancement of tree species richness by the local people in the traditional agroforestry landscape.
Article
Ecology
Dominik Florian Stangler, Tobias Walter Miller, Harald Honer, Elena Larysch, Heike Puhlmann, Thomas Seifert, Hans-Peter Kahle
Summary: This study examines the response of Norway spruce, silver fir, and Douglas fir to drought events. It finds that Norway spruce is declining under climate change, silver fir is more vulnerable to drought than expected, and Douglas fir has superior growth rates and drought tolerance.
FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2022)
Article
Forestry
Chaofang Yue, Hans-Peter Kahle, Joachim Klaedtke, Ulrich Kohnle
Summary: Quantification and prediction of forest site productivity potential is crucial for effective forest management. Climate change is an important factor that needs to be considered in growth and yield modeling. The assumption that growth response across spatial gradients is equivalent to dynamic growth response over time has never been thoroughly tested in site index modeling. The state-space modeling approach is statistically superior to the space-for-time substitution approach in predicting site index dynamics.
FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Tobias Walter Miller, Dominik Florian Stangler, Elena Larysch, Harald Honer, Heike Puhlmann, Dirk Schindler, Christopher Jung, Thomas Seifert, Andreas Rigling, Hans -Peter Kahle
Summary: This study investigates the impact of drought events on tree growth, specifically addressing the delayed growth onset and reduced growth rate in the post-drought year. The findings reveal that tree rings become smaller as a legacy effect of drought, and Douglas fir exhibits a superior recovery potential compared to other species.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Heinrich Spiecker, Hans-Peter Kahle
Summary: Climate-driven tree mortality and growth decline in the Black Forest mountain range in Germany is described based on a 68-year data series. The study identifies drought and heat as the main drivers of tree mortality and growth decline.
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY
(2023)