Verified hypotheses on the "nurse" and "burial" effects on introduced regeneration in a mesic Scots pine forest.

A previous study on the encroachment of North American northern red oak L. into the mesic Scots pine forest (in central Poland) revealed high abundances of seedlings and saplings under shrubs, with lower abundances in open areas or clumps of bilberry L. It was unclear whether the regeneration success of is enhanced by the presence of shrubs due to their "nurse effect", and how burying acorns of different sizes in soil or moss affects the survival of oak seeds and seedlings (a "burial effect").

Wildfires correlate with reductions in aboveground tree carbon stocks and sequestration capacity on forest land in the Western United States.

In the United States (US), forest ecosystems are the largest terrestrial carbon sink, offsetting the equivalent of >12 % of economy-wide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions annually. In the Western US, wildfires have shaped much of the landscape by changing forest structure and composition, increasing tree mortality, impacting forest regeneration, and influencing forest carbon storage and sequestration capacity. Here, we used remeasurements of >25,000 plots from the US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program and auxiliary information (e.

Linked disturbance in the temperate forest: Earthworms, deer, and canopy gaps.

Despite the large body of theory concerning multiple disturbances, relatively few attempts have been made to test the theoretical assumptions of how and if disturbances interact. Of particular importance is whether disturbance events are linked, as this can influence the probability and intensity of ecological change. Disturbances are linked when one disturbance event increases or decreases the likelihood or extent of another.

Patterns and drivers of recent disturbances across the temperate forest biome.

Increasing evidence indicates that forest disturbances are changing in response to global change, yet local variability in disturbance remains high. We quantified this considerable variability and analyzed whether recent disturbance episodes around the globe were consistently driven by climate, and if human influence modulates patterns of forest disturbance. We combined remote sensing data on recent (2001-2014) disturbances with in-depth local information for 50 protected landscapes and their surroundings across the temperate biome.