Mapping multi-dimensional variability in water stress strategies across temperate forests.

Increasing water stress is emerging as a global phenomenon, and is anticipated to have a marked impact on forest function. The role of tree functional strategies is pivotal in regulating forest fitness and their ability to cope with water stress. However, how the functional strategies found at the tree or species level scale up to characterise forest communities and their variation across regions is not yet well-established.

Relative decline in density of Northern Hemisphere tree species in warm and arid regions of their climate niches.

Although climate change is expected to drive tree species toward colder and wetter regions of their distribution, broadscale empirical evidence is lacking. One possibility is that past and present human activities in forests obscure or alter the effects of climate. Here, using data from more than two million monitored trees from 73 widely distributed species, we quantify changes in tree species density within their climatic niches across Northern Hemisphere forests.

Harmonised statistics and maps of forest biomass and increment in Europe.

Forest biomass is an essential resource in relation to the green transition and its assessment is key for the sustainable management of forest resources. Here, we present a forest biomass dataset for Europe based on the best available inventory and satellite data, with a higher level of harmonisation and spatial resolution than other existing data. This database provides statistics and maps of the forest area, biomass stock and their share available for wood supply in the year 2020, and statistics on gross and net volume increment in 2010-2020, for 38 European countries.

Effect of yeast CTA1 gene expression on response of tobacco plants to tobacco mosaic virus infection.

The response of tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L. cv Xanthi-nc) plants with elevated catalase activity was studied after infection by tobacco mosaic virus (TMV). These plants contain the yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) peroxisomal catalase gene CTA1 under the control of the cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter.

Early defence responses in plants infected with pathogenic organisms.

Plant organisms possess a complex set of defence mechanisms that are responsible for preventing unfavourable interactions with other living organisms in their natural environment or for reducing negative effects of such interactions. They can be classified into two groups: early responses that occur immediately or shortly after contact with a pathogenic organism, usually in the proximity of the infection site, and late, usually transcription- and translation-dependent responses that take part in minimizing the long-term effects of the infection and in preventing further infections. Early responses are a mixture of distinct biochemical processes, leading to quick activation of enzymes, structural changes in components of the living cell, alteration of biochemical pathways and synthesis of intra- and intercellular signals.