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New England topography and climate: a elevation; b 30-years' mean of annual precipitation (1981-2010); and c 30-years mean of annual average temperature
Source publication
Background: Forest biodiversity is the foundation of many ecosystem services, and the effect of biodiversity on ecosystem functioning and processes (BEF) has been a central issue in biodiversity studies. Although many hypotheses have been developed to interpret global gradients of biodiversity, there has not been complete agreement on mechanisms co...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... corner of the Unite States. From north to south it includes Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. Topo- graphically, the western regions of New England are mountainous, running from north to south as part of Ap- palachian Mountains range, and the eastern regions are coastal areas facing the Atlantic Ocean (Fig. 1a). These geographical features affect climate patterns within New England, which is generally colder and drier in the north- west, warmer and wetter in the southeast (Fig. 1b and ...
Context 2
... of New England are mountainous, running from north to south as part of Ap- palachian Mountains range, and the eastern regions are coastal areas facing the Atlantic Ocean (Fig. 1a). These geographical features affect climate patterns within New England, which is generally colder and drier in the north- west, warmer and wetter in the southeast (Fig. 1b and ...
Context 3
... scale effect on species numbers in latitudinal bands (Table 2). Nevertheless, there remains about 32% of the variance in species diversity that cannot be interpreted, likely attributed to edaphic patterns such as calcareous soils in Vermont (Siccama 1974), topographical features promin- ent in longitudinal directions, and the impacts on climates (Fig. 1), as well as possible biotic interactions among tree ...
Context 4
... for transition zones with greater changes in SID from northern hardwood forests towards southern oak-hickory forests and towards northern boreal spruce- fir forests, respectively. Some higher β diversity values occur in northern New Hampshire and Vermont (Fig. 4b), which are likely due to their locations among the moun- tainous ranges and valleys (Fig. 1a) that increase uneven- ness in species ...
Citations
... The community structure and species diversity play an important role in evaluating the function of forest ecosystems (Wei et al., 2024), and a stable community structure is the foundation of forest ecosystem services (Li et al., 2023), while plant diversity can quantitatively characterize plant communities and ecosystems (Hooper et al., 2005). Changes in diversities can reflect the heterogeneity of community composition, structure, and function, which are the basis and indicators for maintaining ecosystem service functions (Nguyen et al., 2012;Pan et al., 2018). ...
Introduction
Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park is home to the largest and only breeding family of wild tigers and leopards in China. The mining of open-pit gold and copper mines in the core zone might affect the surrounding forest ecosystem and the survival activities of wild tigers and leopards.
Methods
In order to understand the impacts of gold and copper mining on the structure and diversities of the surrounding plant communities, the vegetation of the forest layer, shrub layer and herb layer of the forest community in the original forest area, mining area, tailings area and restoration area of the Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park were investigated, and the influence of plant community structure on species diversity was also evaluated.
Results
This study concluded that there are 25 species belonging to 11 families, 16 genera of trees, 43 species belonging to 22 families, 35 genera of shrubs, and 57 species belonging to 23 families, 46 genera of herb in the sampling sites. There were no significant differences in the community structure characteristics and species diversities of the tree layer and the shrub layer in different operational areas. However, in herb layer, the heights, the coverage and the species diversity index were higher in the restoration area. Additionally, the community structure was one of the major factors that influence the diversity indices, which might be an important way for mining to impact plant diversity.
Discussion
Therefore, mining had some impacts on the structure and diversity of the surrounding plant communities, but the impacts did not reach a significant level. These results could provide scientific support for the management of the forest ecosystems around the mining area of Northeast Tiger and Leopard Park.
... The condition of a forest area is closely linked to the composition of its community, which serves as a fundamental measure of diversity. The presence of diverse tree species and other plants signifies ecosystem stability, shapes forest structure, and influences the ecological functioning of the forest (Ali, 2019; Bugmann & Seidl, 2022;Ikbal et al., 2023;Latt & Park, 2022;Nugroho et al., 2022;Pan et al., 2018;Y. Wang et al., 2023). ...
Flora and fauna are essential components of ecosystems, playing a vital role in maintaining environmental balance. They also serve as bioindicators for assessing forest health. As a result, many researchers have focused their studies on bioindicators, as evidenced by the extensive literature published in journals. The objective of this Systematic Literature Review (SLR) is to systematically identify, study, evaluate, and interpret data from relevant journal articles. We conducted a search in the Scopus database using the keyword "Bioindicator Forest," which yielded a total of 248 articles. After applying our criteria, we narrowed our research to only 49 articles. To conduct our inclusion and exclusion process, we utilized PRISMA guidelines. Analyzing the publication trend on the topic of forest bioindicators, we observed a decline from 2021 to 2023. However, in 2020, we noted a peak with nine articles published. Regarding the research approach, forest bioindicator studies employ quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods. Notably, the most prominent authors in this field are F. Helbing, J. Litavsky, S Stasiov, Dominguez, and De Deyn. The dominant keyword used in these studies is biodiversity, often related to forestry botany. The authors of these articles originate from 29 different countries, with Europe contributing the majority at 62.07%. Collaboration-wise, a significant number of articles were published through both national and international collaborations. Furthermore, 47 articles received support or sponsorship from external parties. In our discussion, we explore the various techniques, instruments, and data analyses employed in these studies. Overall, this SLR serves as a comprehensive reference for researchers investigating forest bioindicators. Its findings contribute to the diversification of subjects and the enrichment of alternative bioindicators for forest ecosystems.
... The age of the forest plays an important role in defining forest features and affects several biodiversity metrics (e.g. Pan et al., 2018;Jonsson et al., 2020), thus most of the trees in the reference forest must have achieved maturity. c. ...
High Nature Value (HNV) forests contribute to maintaining European biodiversity and public good supply. This study aimed to a) develop an objective and quantitative Nature Value (NV) index for the identification of HNV forests in the Republic of Ireland; and b) apply and validate the index using available data from the Irish National Forest Inventory (NFI).
Following recent European definitions of HNV forest, a six-step framework was adapted from literature and used for assessing forest naturalness. The reference forest (in an Irish context) and its naturalness traits were first described. Six indicators were selected to construct a NV index and three categories (low, medium and high NV) were defined based on the range of NV scores. Using data from the Irish NFI, the approach was implemented by calculating the indicators’ values and the NV score for 1,676 forest plots. The selected indicators were tested for redundancy and the NV index was validated with available floristic variables and with forest sub-type classes. A sensitivity analysis was conducted on the weighting values of the indicators.
Approximately 11% of the NFI plots were categorised as HNV. There was no redundancy between the selected indicators. The NV index was significantly positively correlated with data from the floristic variables collated by the NFI. The averages of the floristic variables per NV category were significantly different. NFI plots classified as HNV had a higher percentage of natural/semi-natural forest types than medium NV and low NV plots. The sensitivity analyses showed little effect of changes to the indicators' weighting values on a) the correlation coefficients between the floristic variables’ data and the new NV scores obtained and b) on the proportion of natural/semi-natural forests in HNV plots.
This work provides an approach for the development of a NV index to identify HNV forests in a European country following the naturalness concept exclusively. The selected indicators and their weighting should be tailored to each country’s particular conditions, especially due to potential differences in the reference level of naturalness of forests and differences within NFIs.
... Forest structure The structure of a forest is vital to its biodiversity (Pan et al. 2018). The data collected on tree species, height, and crown width from six orchards were used for Forest structure and tree diversity analysis ...
... Forest structure, particularly tree height, is important to forest biodiversity (Martins et al. 2017;Pan et al. 2018). Tree height has a strong relationship with tree species richness (Marks et al. 2016). ...
Bangkok’s Inner Orchard (BIO), located in the west peri-urban area of the city, provides both fresh products and ecological benefits to its inhabitants. Although this unique forest-like cultivation of mixed fruit trees growing on dikes has the potential to become an urban forest, it has never been thoroughly investigated. Urban expansion is a threat to this orchard. Sustainable cities must maintain a balance between development and the environment. In this study, six orchards were surveyed by collecting data on tree species, plant height, crown width, and location and analyzed to identify the orchard areas covered by forest canopy and clarify the forest structure and tree species diversity in the orchards. Overall, 98.64% of the forest canopy within the orchard area was evaluated using cover analysis. Analysis of the forest structure of the BIO revealed that the average tree height was greater than that of common orchard trees. Tree diversity analysis showed an average Shannon index value of 2.53, indicating mid-range diversity. Older orchards showed a greater diversity of fruit tree species, whereas newer orchards, replanted after major flood and drought events, showed a lesser diversity of fruit tree species. In order to protect BIO on the long-term, it is essential to identify and apply appropriate conservation strategies. Including BIO areas in the Bangkok greening scheme would cause rapid increases in the green area per capita ratio. Both urban food forest and urban agriculture concepts could be applied to existing BIO orchards, which represent new urban green area types. BIO thus has the potential to act as an urban forest and tree diversity hotspot for Bangkok.
... The age of the forest plays an important role in defining forest features and affects several biodiversity metrics (e.g. Pan et al., 2018;Jonsson et al., 2020), thus most of the trees in the reference forest must have achieved maturity. c. ...
... The number of timber production also describes the regeneration stock from different life stages of trees to maintain business sustainability (Zambiazi et al. 2021). Meanwhile, vegetation diversity information indicates the stability of environmental health and forest ecosystems (Pan et al. 2018). It also shows how many species live in the forest and their relative contribution to ecological functions (Matatula et al. 2021). ...
Suyanto, Nugroho Y, Harahap MM, Kusumaningrum L, Wirabuana PYAP. 2022. Spatial distribution of vegetation diversity, timber production, and carbon storage in secondary tropical rainforest at South Kalimantan, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 23: 6147-6154. Sustainable management in secondary tropical rainforests requires basic information about stand characteristics, mainly related to productivity and biodiversity. This study aimed to quantify vegetation diversity, timber production, and carbon storage from various sites of secondary forests in South Kalimantan. Forest inventory was conducted using a census method at seven different natural forest management unit compartments. Four parameters were measured from each tree, including the type of species, commercial categories, tree diameter, and tree height. Individual tree volume and biomass were estimated using allometric equations, while carbon storage was determined using a conversion factor from biomass. Three indicators were used to evaluate vegetation diversity: richness, heterogeneity, and evenness. The analysis of correlations was applied to examine the relationship between vegetation diversity and stand productivity with a significant level of 5%. Results found that there were 41 tree species in the study site comprising 20 commercial and 21 non-commercial species. The highest richness (R') was recorded in compartment 18X by approximately 4.0, while the most increased heterogeneity (H') and evenness (E') were observed in compartment 18Y by around 2.4 and 0.7, respectively. The accumulation of timber production varied in each site, with a range of 45.46-68.32 m3 ha-1. The highest carbon storage was noted in compartment 19Y (38.74±1.79 t C ha-1), while the lowest was found in compartment 18W (20.76±0.93 t C ha-1). The relative contribution of commercial species to timber production and carbon storage was substantially higher than non-commercial species at all sites. However, there was not a significant correlation between vegetation diversity and stand productivity (P>0.05). Overall, our study concluded that the secondary tropical forest ecosystems in the site had good vegetation diversity, timber production, and carbon storage.
... The diversity and complexity of forest stand structures has been an important topic of forest ecosystems and forest dynamics research for decades (McElhinny 2005;Staudhammer and LeMay 2001). The need to quantify structural complexity has many important ecological and forest management applications (Buongiorno et al. 1994;Mackey and Currie 2001;McElhinny et al. 2005;Pan et al. 2018;Staudhammer and LeMay 2001). Structural complexity has been associated with many ecosystem functions and services (Christensen et al. 1996;Franklin et al. 1981;LaRue et al. 2019;Pan et al. 2018). ...
... The need to quantify structural complexity has many important ecological and forest management applications (Buongiorno et al. 1994;Mackey and Currie 2001;McElhinny et al. 2005;Pan et al. 2018;Staudhammer and LeMay 2001). Structural complexity has been associated with many ecosystem functions and services (Christensen et al. 1996;Franklin et al. 1981;LaRue et al. 2019;Pan et al. 2018). Structural complexity is an indicator of the functional state of the ecosystem as well as a measure of ecosystem response following stress or disturbance (Christensen et al. 1996;Ehbrecht et al. 2017;Larsen 1995). ...
... More complex forest structures are hypothesized to be more resilient to pests, disease, disturbance, and climate change (Bormann and Likens 1979;Klapwijk et al. 2018;Larsen 1995) and to provide more stable and abundant ecological services and economic returns (Buongiorno et al. 1994); however, there is limited empirical evidence to support these claims (Botkin 1990;Jacquet et al. 2016;May 1986). Whether structural diversity drives ecosystem function or merely facilitates increased biodiversity remains a topic of debate (Larson and Amoroso 2022;Pan et al. 2018). More structurally diverse forests connotate a more "natural" feeling (Storch et al. 2018) and much forest research over the past several decades has focused on producing more complex forest stand structures (Arseneault et al. 2011;MacLean et al. 2010;Maguire et al. 2006;Seymour and Hunter 1992). ...
Structural complexity is an important component when assessing ecosystem function and the impacts of disturbances, both natural and human, on forest ecosystems. We compare several of the common structural diversity indices used to describe structural complexity and propose a new index based on a modification of Shannon’s Index and the Staudhammer – LeMay Structural Variance Index. The new index was found to reflect management intensity better than the other indices and provided more resolution in more complex non-managed stands in eastern Canada. Structural attributes extracted from airborne light detection and ranging (ALS) point clouds were used to develop spatial maps of forest complexity. Again, the new index proposed here was not only more highly related to complex ALS attributes, such as rugosity and lacunarity, but also resulted in forest structure maps with more detail useful for management decision making. Potential applications of the structural maps are discussed.
... Forest stand structure is a useful indicator for assessing the functioning and health status of both natural and planted forests (Bell, et al., 2014;Dobrowski, et al., 2015;Millar & Stephenson, 2015;McIntyre et al., 2015;Pan, McCullough, & Hollinger, 2018;Zhang, Huang, & He, 2015;Zhou et al., 2006). Choosing the right species is an important precondition to sustain the stability and resilience of the forest ecosystem (Paquette, Vayreda, Coll, Messier, & Retana, 2018;Van de Peer, Verheyen, Kint, Cleemput, & Muys, 2017). ...
Forest stand structure is not only a crucial factor for regulating forest functioning but also an important indicator for sustainable forest management and ecosystem services. Although there exists a few national/global structure databases for natural forests, a country-wide synthetic structure database for plantation forests over China, the world’s largest player in plantation forests, has not been achieved. In this study, we built a country-wide synthetic stand structure database by surveying more than 600 peer-reviewed literature. The database covers tree species, mean stand age, mean tree height, stand density, canopy coverage, diameter at breast height, as well as the associated ancillary in-situ topographical and soil properties. A total of 594 published studies concerning diverse forest stand structure parameters were compiled for 46 tree species. This first synthesis for stand structure of plantation forests over China supports studies on the evolution/health of plantation forests in response to rapid climate change and intensified disturbances, and benefits country-wide sustainable forest management, future afforestation or reforestation planning. Potential users include those studying forest community dynamics, regional tree growth, ecosystem stability, and health, as well as those working with conservation and sustainable management. This dataset is freely accessible at http://www.doi.org/10.11922/sciencedb.j00076.00091.
... Forests are home to rich floral, faunal, and organisms and by regulating global biogeochemical cycles, and supporting diverse subsistence demands and livelihoods, forests have been widely acknowledged for their role in securing human well-being (Kumar et al. 2019a;Haq et al. 2020). Forest biodiversity is key resource for many crucial ecosystem services, contributions, and impact of biodiversity on ecosystem functioning and processes (BEF) has central to ongoing ecosystem and biodiversity research (Pan et al. 2018). The inherent ability of the natural forests to recover after disturbances, i.e., their resilience, regulates their capacity to support its functions and process over time (Ibáñez et al. 2019). ...
Forest ecosystems are one of the most important ecosystems on earth, and
sustainability of the planet heavily relies on diverse ecosystem services emerging
from them. In order to maintain unrestricted flow of ecosystem services in the
warming world, it is essential to conserve and sustainably manage them. This
necessitates an understanding of past, present, and future structural and functional
pattern of forests, their functioning as well as health status. There are substantial
indications that unsustainable human activities have significantly affected the
structure and functioning of natural forest ecosystems. To explain the distribution
of forests, their functioning, and different drivers of loss to which forests are
exposed, enormous methodological and socio-ecological and governance
advancements have already taken place. In the opening chapter, we elaborate
on the understanding of forest ecosystems from variations in definitions and
conceptualizations of forests, emerging challenges, monitoring advancements,
etc. Chapter broadly covers scientific advancements for monitoring various
stressors, forest degradation, inventory using advanced tools to present the fate
of forest structure, and functioning in the changing world. The volume highlights
drivers of deforestation and forest degradation, provides insights to innovations,
and also touches advanced institutional provisions and governance framework. The thematic and cross cutting chapters bring in scientific evidence-supported
information and solutions to enhance the prospects for conserving forests in the
fast changing world. Apart from providing a broader overview of the book, its
growing relevance, the chapter also offers a brief outline of the chapters in
different sections of the book.
... threats and invasions [9][10][11]. Reconciling forest disturbances and stress requires understanding where it occurs and what influences it may have at several spatial and temporal scales. ...
Forest disturbances—driven by pests, pathogens, and discrete events—have led to billions of dollars in lost ecosystem services and management costs. To understand the patterns and severity of these stressors across complex landscapes, there must be an increase in reliable data at scales compatible with management actions. Unmanned aerial systems (UAS or UAV) offer a capable platform for collecting local scale (e.g., individual tree) forestry data. In this study, we evaluate the capability of UAS multispectral imagery and freely available National Agricultural Imagery Program (NAIP) imagery for differentiating coniferous healthy, coniferous stressed, deciduous healthy, deciduous stressed, and degraded individual trees throughout a complex, mixed-species forests. These methods are first compared to assessments of crown vigor in the field, to evaluate the potential in supplementing this resource intensive practice. This investigation uses the random forest and support vector machine (SVM) machine learning algorithms to classify the imagery into the five forest health classes. Using the random forest classifier, the UAS imagery correctly classified five forest Health classes with an overall accuracy of 65.43%. Using similar methods, the high-resolution airborne NAIP imagery achieved an overall accuracy of 50.50% for the five health classes, a reduction of 14.93%. When these classes were generalized to healthy, stressed, and degraded trees, the accuracy improved to 71.19%, using UAS imagery, and 70.62%, using airborne imagery. Further analysis into the precise calibration of UAS multispectral imagery, a refinement of image segmentation methods, and the fusion of these data with more widely distributed remotely sensed imagery would further enhance the potential of these methods to more effectively and efficiently collect forest health information from the UAS instead of using field methods.
