Tag: trees

plant physiological ecology

Tree plumbing system characteristics were not linked to their growth during drought

Chris M. Smith-Martin, Robert Muscarella, Roi Ankori-Karlinsky, Sylvain Delzon, Samuel L. Farrar, Melissa Salva-Sauri, Jill Thompson, Jess K. Zimmerman, María Uriarte This is a plain language summary of a Functional Ecology research article which can be found here. Droughts are causing trees to grow less and die more in many forests worldwide. Some tree species are more affected by drought than others, but we do … Continue reading Tree plumbing system characteristics were not linked to their growth during drought

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community ecology

It takes a community to maintain a tree hollow

Ross Wetherbee, Tone Birkemoe, Johan Asplund, Marek Renčo, Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson This is a plain language summary of a Functional Ecology research article which can be found here. Large, old trees were once common in forest throughout the world, but are now becoming increasingly rare, primarily due to human activities. When a tree grows old it develops a complex structure with many ‘microhabitats’, and the global … Continue reading It takes a community to maintain a tree hollow

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ecosystems ecology

Wood density and carbon concentration increase with tree size, but with little impact on tropical forest carbon estimates

Patcharapan Thripob, Claire Fortunel, Maxime Réjou-Méchain, Anuttara Nathalang, Wirong Chanthorn This is a plain language summary of a Functional Ecology research article that can be found here. Tropical trees strongly contribute to mitigating climate change by fixing carbon from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and subsequent storage in wood—potentially for centuries. The amount of carbon that a tree can store in woody tissues depends on its … Continue reading Wood density and carbon concentration increase with tree size, but with little impact on tropical forest carbon estimates

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ecosystems ecology

Invasive shrubs threaten cork oaks under drought in Portugal

Simon Haberstroh, Raquel Lobo-do-Vale, Maria C. Caldeira, Maren Dubbert, Matthias Cuntz, Christiane Werner This is a plain language summary of a Functional Ecology research article which can be found here. Plants have developed different strategies to withstand drought stress. Especially in Mediterranean regions, drought can last several months, which requires a variety of adaptations to save water. On the one hand, conservative plants can limit … Continue reading Invasive shrubs threaten cork oaks under drought in Portugal

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ecosystems ecology

Individual tree species within a mixed forest drive its nutrient use efficiency

Tania L. Maxwell, Nicolas Fanin, William C. Parker, Mark R. Bakker, Ariane Belleau, Céline Meredieu, Laurent Augusto, Alison D. Munson This is a plain language summary of a Functional Ecology research article that can be found here. Increasing the number of tree species within a forest has been shown to improve nutrient cycling due to factors such as complementarity between species that vary in structure … Continue reading Individual tree species within a mixed forest drive its nutrient use efficiency

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plant physiological ecology

Quantifying within-species trait variation in space and time reveals limits to trait-mediated drought response

Kelly L. Kerr, Leander D.L. Anderegg, Nicole Zenes, William R.L. Anderegg This is a plain language summary of a Functional Ecology research article that can be found here. Climate change is currently a major stressor for many forest ecosystems around the globe, yet some tree species can deal with climate change through acclimation to changing environmental conditions. However, we still do not fully understand the … Continue reading Quantifying within-species trait variation in space and time reveals limits to trait-mediated drought response

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community ecology

The importance of soil bacteria related to N cycle in eucalyptus plantations under the near-natural management model

Zhao-lei Qu, Bing Liu, Yue-mei Zhang, Lin Huang, An-gang Ming, Hui Sun This is a plain language summary of a Functional Ecology research article that can be found here. Eucalyptus, due to its fast growth and high yield of commercial timber, is widely planted in China, especially in Guangxi province, a mountainous region in the far south of China. However, inappropriate plantation management strategies (e.g., … Continue reading The importance of soil bacteria related to N cycle in eucalyptus plantations under the near-natural management model

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plant physiological ecology

Soil nutrient availability and tree height control the physiology of the world’s tallest tropical trees

David Bartholomew, Lindsay Banin, Paulo Bittencourt, Mohd Aminur Faiz Suis, Lina Mercado, Reuben Nilus, David Burslem, Lucy Rowland This is a plain language summary of a Functional Ecology research article which is published here. The tropical forests of Borneo in South-East Asia possess exceptionally high levels of biodiversity, act as important carbon stores and are home to the world’s tallest tropical trees. However, these characteristics … Continue reading Soil nutrient availability and tree height control the physiology of the world’s tallest tropical trees

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plant physiological ecology

How does wood density relate to xylem anatomy traits across environmental gradients?

Alex Fajardo, Frida I. Piper, Ana I. García-Cervigón This is a plain language summary of a Functional Ecology research article which is published here. Although it is well-known that plant functional traits, or plant’s attributes, change across environmental gradients, much less is known about how the coordination of traits changes across gradients within species. In the last decades, major research efforts have been made to … Continue reading How does wood density relate to xylem anatomy traits across environmental gradients?

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A high complexity cove forest in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee, USA. These forests are often structurally complex due to the confluence of multiple environmental factors allowing them to grow very tall (often over 35 m) and sustain high rates of biodiversity (over 100 endemic tree species).
plant physiological ecology

Power-law scaling relationships between forest height and complexity

Jeff W. Atkins, Robert T. Fahey, Atticus E. L. Stovall, Jonathan A. Walter, and Christopher M. Gough This is a plain language summary of a Functional Ecology research article. To read the article in full, click here. Forest complexity describes the arrangement of the component parts that comprise a forest, including trees, branches, leaves, etc. The arrangement of these component parts results in a structural … Continue reading Power-law scaling relationships between forest height and complexity

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