Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Mengtao Zhang, Jin Wang, Xingang Kang
Summary: The effects of disturbance on spatial patterns and species interactions are important for understanding community structure and species coexistence. By analyzing the main tree species in two plots, we found that disturbance influenced the diameter distributions and clustering patterns of the species. The results of this study contribute to forest management planning and ecosystem services, as well as improving the accuracy of spatial distribution and inter-specific association of tree species.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2022)
Article
Plant Sciences
Shihua Wu, Ruili Wang, Haihua Zhu, Yuan Wang, Yanyan Du, Sihao Zhu, Ning Zhao
Summary: This study investigated the variation, diversity, and community assembly of root chemical traits in the fine roots of 204 plant species along an elevational transect in Changbai Mountain, China. The concentrations of macronutrients decreased with elevation, while trace metals increased. The root chemical traits at the community level showed a similar pattern to that at the species level, mainly influenced by climate and soil factors. The interactions of climate and soil were the main drivers of root chemical assembly for woody layers, while soil factors played a significant role for herb layers. Root chemical diversities were mainly regulated by species diversity, the interactions of climate and soil, and soil factors in the tree, shrub, and herb layers, respectively. A better understanding of plant root chemical diversity and community chemical assembly is important for understanding ecosystem functioning.
FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Plant Sciences
Yixin Wei, Xinchao Sun, Guangkai Jia, Yanhong Cao, Shijie Han
Summary: This study reveals the spatial patterns and determinants of trunk xylem sap nitrogen composition in different tree species across climate zones. Tree species and soil properties were found to be the key factors affecting the spatial patterns of nitrogen composition.
ENVIRONMENTAL AND EXPERIMENTAL BOTANY
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
David A. Orwig, Jason A. Aylward, Hannah L. Buckley, Bradley S. Case, Aaron M. Ellison
Summary: Land-use history has a lasting impact on the composition and structure of plant and tree populations, with soil type, neighborhood effects, and past land-use history being the main factors influencing the distribution and abundance of present-day tree species.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Rafael Hologa, Konstantin Scheffczyk, Christoph Dreiser, Stefanie Gaertner
Summary: The study demonstrates the use of data-driven remote sensing methods, particularly employing a Random Forest model, to detect tree species composition at the individual tree level for monitoring protected forest landscapes, especially suitable for complex terrain forest landscapes.
Article
Forestry
Jiaqi Zhang, Xiangjin Shen, Yanji Wang, Ming Jiang, Xianguo Lu
Summary: The area and vegetation coverage of forests in Changbai Mountain of China have increased in recent years, leading to a cooling effect on the summer temperature mainly by increasing latent heat flux.
Article
Forestry
Xu Lu, Hai-Sheng Yuan
Summary: This study identified three new fungal species in the genus Tomentella from Northwest China, based on molecular and morphological characteristics. These new species share similar features such as arachnoid basidiocarps and byssoid sterile margins, which can be used for species delimitation.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Yunga Wu, Zhijing Xie, Zhuoma Wan, Qiao-Qiao Ji, Jingjing Yang, Ting-Wen Chen, Donghui Wu, Stefan Scheu
Summary: Forest canopies are home to diverse Collembola communities, but research on canopy biodiversity has mainly focused on tropical and subtropical regions. This study examined canopy Collembola across elevational gradients in a temperate boreal forest in northeastern China, revealing an increasing pattern of species richness and abundance with elevation.
BIODIVERSITY AND CONSERVATION
(2023)
Article
Microbiology
Yue Zou, Jiangan Hou, Songning Guo, Changtian Li, Zhuang Li, Steven L. Stephenson, Igor N. Pavlov, Pu Liu, Yu Li
Summary: This study discovered two new species of dictyostelids and demonstrated that atp1 sequences can improve the accuracy of identifying dictyostelids. The diversity of dictyostelids on Changbai Mountain is higher than previously reported, and differences in diversity at the family level may be related to latitude. Mixed broadleaf-conifer forests have higher isolates and species richness than broadleaf forests, indicating the influence of vegetation on dictyostelids. However, there is a slight decrease in dictyostelid diversity with increasing elevation.
MICROBIOLOGY SPECTRUM
(2022)
Article
Forestry
Yuan Zhang, Anzhi Wang, Yage Liu, Lidu Shen, Rongrong Cai, Jiabing Wu
Summary: The changing climate poses a growing threat to forests, especially old-growth forests that are more vulnerable to insect outbreaks, fires, and drought. It is crucial to detect disturbance areas, identify disturbance agents, and evaluate disturbance intensity in old-growth forests.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Michael Kalyuzhny, Jeffrey K. Lake, S. Joseph Wright, Annette M. Ostling
Summary: For species to coexist, there must be a decline in performance as conspecific density increases. In this study, it is shown that adults of tropical forest tree species exhibit strong spatial repulsion, indicating substantial niche differences between species. The results demonstrate that conspecific negative density dependence can play a significant role in stabilizing species diversity.
Article
Forestry
Jergus Rybar, Michal Bosela, Peter Marcis, Mariana Ujhazyova, Dominik Poltak, Lucia Hederova, Karol Ujhazy
Summary: This study investigated the temporal dynamics of herbaceous understory and its relationship with tree layer development in a primary beech-fir forest in the Western Carpathians. The results showed cyclical changes in species composition and diversity of the herbaceous understory during different developmental stages, which were influenced by above-ground tree biomass and diameter at breast height. These findings contribute to our understanding of the dynamics of temperate montane primary forests and have implications for biodiversity conservation and management strategies.
FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT
(2023)
Article
Forestry
Mingchang Wang, Mingjie Li, Fengyan Wang, Xue Ji
Summary: Tree species classification is crucial for forest resource investigation and management. In this study, we fused multiple features including spectral, texture, phenological, and topographic features to classify tree species in Changbai Mountain. The results indicate that topographic features play an important role in tree species classification.
Article
Forestry
Ning Wang, Mengmeng Zhang, Na Zhao, Fujuan Feng, Min Zhao
Summary: Changbai Mountain is home to a virgin Korean pine forest with soil enzyme activity and stoichiometry being reliable indicators of microbial energy and nutrient utilization. The study found that seasonal changes had a greater impact on soil enzyme activity than elevation, with available phosphorus and pH being key factors affecting soil enzyme activity.
JOURNAL OF FORESTRY RESEARCH
(2021)
Article
Microbiology
Peikun Li, Jian Zhang, Senlin Wang, Panpan Zhang, Wenju Chen, Shengyan Ding, Jingjing Xi
Summary: In this study, the distribution preference of soil bacteria and fungi in different succession stages of a temperate mountain forest was investigated. The results showed that the species composition of soil bacteria and fungi differed significantly in different succession processes, and fungi had higher specificity than bacteria. Fungi also exhibited more sensitivity than bacteria during secondary succession. These findings provide new insights into the mechanism of soil microbial communities in response to forest community succession.
FRONTIERS IN MICROBIOLOGY
(2022)
Letter
Plant Sciences
Zun Dai, Jian Zhang, Jian Wang
JOURNAL OF SYSTEMATICS AND EVOLUTION
(2023)
Editorial Material
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Dingliang Xing, Jian Zhang, Fangliang He
Article
Plant Sciences
Hong Qian, Michael Kessler, Jian Zhang, Yi Jin, Meichen Jiang
Summary: This study fills a critical knowledge gap by examining the relationships between the phylogenetic structure of ferns and climatic factors. The findings show that temperature-related variables explain more variation in phylogenetic structure than precipitation-related variables, and climate extremes have a stronger relationship than climate seasonality.
Article
Forestry
Meichen Jiang, Jiaxin Kong, Zhaochen Zhang, Jianbo Hu, Yuchu Qin, Kankan Shang, Mingshui Zhao, Jian Zhang
Summary: The complex topography of subtropical montane forests makes them a priority for biodiversity monitoring and conservation. In this study, the use of high-resolution UAV remote sensing imagery was tested for accurately mapping tree species in a specific phenological period. The results showed its potential for mapping species in these complex forests.
Article
Forestry
Jinming Yang, Mengfan Zhang, Jian Zhang, Huicui Lu, Richard J. Hauer
Summary: Allometric growth equations help estimate tree dynamics by describing the relationship between tree characteristics variables (such as diameter and height, diameter and canopy width). The development of allometric models for common tree species in urban forests is important for relating ecosystem services to tree measurements. This study developed allometric growth models for urban greening tree species in Qingdao, China, and found that the correlation and influence of tree species characteristics on allometry varied. The analysis provides theoretical models for urban forestry management and the evaluation of tree functions and ecosystem services.
Article
Microbiology
Yifan Feng, Jianbin Wang, Jian Zhang, Xuming Qi, Wenxing Long, Yi Ding, Lan Liu
Summary: Tropical montane ecosystems have high biodiversity and the variability of mountain climate is important for sustaining this diversity. In this study, we tested this hypothesis for soil bacteria and fungi along an elevational gradient in Hainan Island, China. We found that bacterial and fungal diversity decreased with increasing elevation, and their dissimilarities increased with greater separation in elevation. Soil moisture and pH were the major drivers of fungal and bacterial diversity respectively, while soil temperature was the main driver of dissimilarities in bacterial and fungal communities. Our findings indicate that local-climate variability plays a crucial role in structuring soil microbial communities along tropical montane gradients, and they may shift in response to future climate scenarios.
FRONTIERS IN MICROBIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Plant Sciences
Xinyang Wang, Xavier Morin, Jian Zhang, Guoke Chen, Lingfeng Mao, Yuheng Chen, Zhuqiu Song, Yanjun Du, Keping Ma
Summary: Biodiversity is an important issue in ecological research and is generally highest in tropical regions. By studying reproductive phenology data of over 20,000 plant species in China, we found that the duration of reproductive phenology decreased with latitude, with temperature seasonality playing a significant role in woody plant phenology.
FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Jiale Chen, Li Wang, Tommaso Jucker, Hongzhi Da, Zhaochen Zhang, Jianbo Hu, Qingsong Yang, Xihua Wang, Yuchu Qin, Guochun Shen, Li Shu, Jian Zhang
Summary: Accurate and efficient detection of canopy gaps is crucial for understanding forest dynamics. This study compared four methods for detecting canopy gaps in a subtropical forest using UAV imagery. The HSTAC method outperformed the others, achieving high detection efficiency, accuracy, and speed. It also overcame limitations in spectral complexity and topographic shadowing, making it a reliable tool for mapping canopy gaps in diverse forests.
REMOTE SENSING IN ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION
(2023)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Hong Qian, Jian Zhang, Yi Jin, Tao Deng
Summary: The global cooling starting from the Eocene has resulted in a significant reduction in the coverage of tropical forests in Africa. The evolution of traits tolerating cold and extreme drought in the Sahara accompanied the climate cooling and drying. This study analyzed the impacts of evolutionary history on the assembly of angiosperms in regional floras in Africa and found that climate variables have a strong influence on the phylogenetic structure of angiosperms.
Article
Plant Sciences
Hasigerili, Kun Guo, Miao-Miao Zheng, Rui-Ling Liu, Yan-Yan Wang, Yuan Gao, Li Shu, Xiao-Ran Wang, Jian Zhang, Wen-Yong Guo
Summary: The dispersal of invasive alien plant species (IAPS) into mountains poses a great threat to local native plant species. It has been found that intraspecific trait variability contributes to the spread of invasive plant species in mountains. Considering Grime's CSR plant strategies and their intraspecific variation can improve the understanding of successful invasion mechanisms by alien plant species.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Lan Liu, Zhaochen Zhang, Xin Wang, Ran Zhang, Meng Wang, Nina Wurzburger, Junxiang Li, Jian Zhang
Summary: Urbanization strongly alters the topological features of soil microbial co-occurrence networks, leading to less connected and more isolated structures. Urbanized land-use and impervious land cover dominate the network structures, with a loss in efficiency and connectivity compared to remnant land-use. Soil properties and urbanization jointly shape the microbial networks, highlighting the clear direct and indirect effects of urbanization on microbial communities.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Forestry
Yongchao Liu, Ruyun Zhang, Chen-Feng Lin, Zhaochen Zhang, Ran Zhang, Kankan Shang, Mingshui Zhao, Jingyue Huang, Xiaoning Wang, You Li, Yulin Zeng, Yun-Peng Zhao, Jian Zhang, Dingliang Xing
Summary: Tree species diversity is crucial for ecosystem functions, but traditional field-based approaches limit our ability to map it. However, recent advances in spaceborne remote sensing provide new opportunities. In this study, using Sentinel-2 satellite data and forest plot inventory data, we developed regression models to predict tree diversity in an eastern Chinese natural reserve.
Article
Plant Sciences
Hong Qian, Jian Zhang, Meichen Jiang
Summary: Species diversity of angiosperms varies greatly among regions, with high diversity in tropical regions and low diversity in temperate regions. Geographic patterns of taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity are similar, but differ from patterns of phylogenetic deviation. These metrics can be considered when selecting areas for biodiversity protection.
Article
Plant Sciences
Jian Zhang, Hong Qian
Summary: The scientific names of organisms are crucial for biodiversity research and documentation. 'U.Taxonstand' is an R package that can efficiently standardize and harmonize scientific names in plant and animal species lists. Unlike other similar packages, U.Taxonstand can work with any properly formatted taxonomic databases.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Zhihua Liu, Wen J. Wang, Ashley Ballantyne, Hong S. He, Xugao Wang, Shuguang Liu, Philippe Ciais, Michael C. Wimberly, Shilong Piao, Kailiang Yu, Qichao Yao, Yu Liang, Zhiwei Wu, Yunting Fang, Anping Chen, Wenru Xu, Jiaojun Zhu
Summary: According to satellite data, the rate, frequency, and extent of forest disturbances in China decreased from 1986 to 2020, possibly due to forest protection policies. However, while these disturbances intensified in the southeast, they weakened in the northeast.
COMMUNICATIONS EARTH & ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
