Publications by authors named "M Svoboda"

Balancing increasing demand for wood products while also maintaining forest biodiversity is a paramount challenge. Europe's Biodiversity and Forest Strategies for 2030 attempt to address this challenge. Together, they call for strict protection of 10% of land area, including all primary and old growth forests, increasing use of ecological forestry, and less reliance on monocultural plantations.

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Article Synopsis
  • Understanding tree growth in tropical forests is vital for carbon sequestration and assessing the impact of deforestation in these regions.
  • A study in Mount Cameroon examined how climatic factors, like rainfall and temperature, affect the growth of 28 tree species across different elevations and seasonal conditions from 2015 to 2018.
  • Findings indicated that tree growth was limited by both too little and too much water, with growth rates influenced by soil moisture levels and nighttime temperatures, highlighting the complexity of forest responses to climate variability.
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Cadmium is one of the most important environmental contaminants. Animals grazing on natural pastures are particularly exposed to cadmium. Sheep are mostly reared in extensive and grazing systems.

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With ongoing global warming, increasing water deficits promote physiological stress on forest ecosystems with negative impacts on tree growth, vitality, and survival. How individual tree species will react to increased drought stress is therefore a key research question to address for carbon accounting and the development of climate change mitigation strategies. Recent tree-ring studies have shown that trees at higher latitudes will benefit from warmer temperatures, yet this is likely highly species-dependent and less well-known for more temperate tree species.

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Article Synopsis
  • * Analysis of data from over 1 million forest plots and thousands of tree species shows that wood density varies significantly by latitude, being up to 30% denser in tropical forests compared to boreal forests, and is influenced mainly by temperature and soil moisture.
  • * The research also finds that disturbances like human activity and fire alter wood density at local levels, affecting forest carbon stock estimates by up to 21%, emphasizing the importance of understanding environmental impacts on forest ecosystems.
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