Common drivers shaping niche distribution and climate change responses of one hundred tree species.

Climate change is increasingly contributing to climatic mismatches, in which habitat suitability changes outpace the dispersal abilities of species. Climate niche models (CNM) have been widely used to assess such impacts on tree species. However, most studies have focused on either a single or a limited number of species, or have employed a fixed set of climate variables for multiple species.

Forest-linked livelihoods in a globalized world.

Forests have re-taken centre stage in global conversations about sustainability, climate and biodiversity. Here, we use a horizon scanning approach to identify five large-scale trends that are likely to have substantial medium- and long-term effects on forests and forest livelihoods: forest megadisturbances; changing rural demographics; the rise of the middle-class in low- and middle-income countries; increased availability, access and use of digital technologies; and large-scale infrastructure development. These trends represent human and environmental processes that are exceptionally large in geographical extent and magnitude, and difficult to reverse.

Conceptual Links between Landscape Diversity and Diet Diversity: A Roadmap for Transdisciplinary Research.

Malnutrition linked to poor quality diets affects at least 2 billion people. Forests, as well as agricultural systems linked to trees, are key sources of dietary diversity in rural settings. In the present article, we develop conceptual links between diet diversity and forested landscape mosaics within the rural tropics.

Cropping history trumps fallow duration in long-term soil and vegetation dynamics of shifting cultivation systems.

In the study of shifting cultivation systems, fallow duration is seen as the key determinant of vegetation and soil dynamics: long fallows renew soil fertility, biomass, and biodiversity. However, long fallow systems are increasingly replaced around the world with short-medium fallow systems, and awareness is growing of the need to look across multiple (not just single) crop-fallow cycles to accurately understand observed soil and vegetation patterns. In a study from Peru that builds on 50+ years of field-level land-use histories, we found that, over multiple crop-fallow cycles, farmers' cropping practices mattered more than fallow duration for biodiversity and soil fertility.

Acceleration and novelty: community restoration speeds recovery and transforms species composition in Andean cloud forest.

Community-based tropical forest restoration projects, often promoted as a win-win solution for local communities and the environment, have increased dramatically in number in the past decade. Many such projects are underway in Andean cloud forests, which, given their extremely high biodiversity and history of extensive clearing, are understudied. This study investigates the efficacy of community-based tree-planting projects to accelerate cloud forest recovery, as compared to unassisted natural regeneration.

Historical dynamics in ecosystem service bundles.

Managing multiple ecosystem services (ES), including addressing trade-offs between services and preventing ecological surprises, is among the most pressing areas for sustainability research. These challenges require ES research to go beyond the currently common approach of snapshot studies limited to one or two services at a single point in time. We used a spatiotemporal approach to examine changes in nine ES and their relationships from 1971 to 2006 across 131 municipalities in a mixed-use landscape in Quebec, Canada.

Land-use poverty traps identified in shifting cultivation systems shape long-term tropical forest cover.

In this article we illustrate how fine-grained longitudinal analyses of land holding and land use among forest peasant households in an Amazonian village can enrich our understanding of the poverty/land cover nexus. We examine the dynamic links in shifting cultivation systems among asset poverty, land use, and land cover in a community where poverty is persistent and primary forests have been replaced over time--with community enclosure--by secondary forests (i.e.

Legacies of historical land use on regional forest composition and structure in Wisconsin, USA (mid-1800s-1930s-2000s).

Historical land use can influence forest species composition and structure for centuries after direct use has ceased. In Wisconsin, USA, Euro-American settlement in the mid- to late 1800s was accompanied by widespread logging, agricultural conversion, and fire suppression. To determine the maximum magnitude of change in forest ecosystems at the height of the agricultural period and the degree of recovery since that time, we assessed changes in forest species composition and structure among the (1) mid-1800s, at the onset of Euro-American settlement; (2) 1930s, at the height of the agricultural period; and (3) 2000s, following forest regrowth.

Historical forest baselines reveal potential for continued carbon sequestration.

One-third of net CO(2) emissions to the atmosphere since 1850 are the result of land-use change, primarily from the clearing of forests for timber and agriculture, but quantifying these changes is complicated by the lack of historical data on both former ecosystem conditions and the extent and spatial configuration of subsequent land use. Using fine-resolution historical survey records, we reconstruct pre-EuroAmerican settlement (1850s) forest carbon in the state of Wisconsin, examine changes in carbon after logging and agricultural conversion, and assess the potential for future sequestration through forest recovery. Results suggest that total above-ground live forest carbon (AGC) fell from 434 TgC before settlement to 120 TgC at the peak of agricultural clearing in the 1930s and has since recovered to approximately 276 TgC.