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Copyright of Fire Ecology is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Local adaptation is key for ecotypic differentiation and species evolution. Understanding underlying genomic patterns can allow the prediction of future maladaptation and ecosystem stability. Here, we report the whole-genome resequencing of 874 individuals from 100 range-wide populations of European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.), an important forest tree species in Europe. We show that genetic variation closely mirrors geography with a clear pattern of isolation-by-distance. Genome-wide analyses for genotype-environment associations (GEAs) identify relatively few potentially adaptive variants after correcting for an overwhelming signal of statistically significant but non-causal GEAs. We characterize the single high confidence genomic region and pinpoint a candidate gene possibly involved in winter temperature adaptation via modulation of spring phenology. Surprisingly, allelic variation at this locus does not result in any apparent fitness differences in a common garden. More generally, reciprocal transplant experiments across large climate distances suggest extensive phenotypic plasticity. Nevertheless, we find indications of polygenic adaptation which may be essential in natural ecosystems. This polygenic signal exhibits broad- and fine-scale variation across the landscape, highlighting the relevance of spatial resolution. In summary, our results emphasize the importance, but also exemplify the complexity, of employing natural genetic variation for forest conservation under climate change. The genomic basis of local adaptation can contribute to predicting species' future maladaptation. This study shows that local adaptation in European beech is genetically complex, with current analyses only skimming the surface of the encoded information, highlighting the need for bigger data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The avocado is a commodity crop that has generated severe environmental and social impacts in Michoacán, the world’s leading producer. Current studies overlook the diversity of avocado production by focusing on Michocán’s central region, while the regions of a more recent expansion remain poorly studied. We analyzed the model of avocado production in five indigenous communities in the municipality of Zitácuaro that have part of their territory within the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve. We use the Framework for the Evaluation of Management Systems using Sustainability Indicators to characterize and evaluate the sustainability of the Community Model of Avocado Production (CMAP). Based on 42 interviews with producers, we identified eleven critical points related to environmental (small-scale production; forest conservation; high prophylactic use of agrochemicals; high dependence on irrigation), economic (high crop diversity; low profitability; high yield loss to pests; low economic diversification), and social (high dependence on technical advisors; low dependence on labor force external to the community; few changes in land ownership) aspects of sustainability. The CMAP has productive and socio-political characteristics that represent strengths and weaknesses for its sustainability. The main environmental results suggest that the avocado expansion (2007–2022) in the communities did not involve a change in forest land use. Socially, the CMAP favors the local workforce and facilitates the maintenance of land ownership. The sustainability of CMAP is mostly limited by its economic aspects. With adequate economic support for socially and environmentally sustainable productive practices, the CMAP can improve the local livelihoods while promoting forest conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food systems of indigenous people across the world have developed within the confluence of forests, biodiversity, and seasonal crops. However, due to multiple socio-economic, cultural, ecological and political changes, this relationship has evolved over time. This has not only impacted traditional food systems; we hypothesize that it has also shifted communities’ social connectedness, stability and sense of purpose, thus profoundly impacting their sense of health and well-being or ‘flourishing’. Taking the case of the Solega tribe in South Indian forests as an example, this paper attempts to assess the status of the community’s flourishing in the context of the multitude of socio-ecological challenges they face. Household socio-economic survey and dietary recall were used to gather information on parameters that influence flourishing. The study reveals an interesting pattern of Solega’s sense of flourishing based on forest types and ecology, availability of diverse foods from the forest and crop choices. While traditional diets were determined by food produce collected from the forest and grown on their farms, dietary patterns today are determined by state sponsored food distribution programs and markets; and influenced by exposure to mainstream society. Data also show that flourishing scores are higher in forest types where traditional food continues to be grown or collected from forests as compared to those that have greater exposure to external exchanges. Apart from this, the data also indicate that the financial burden of having to purchase food, and the associated anxiety negatively influence perceptions of flourishing. While measures of flourishing can be complex, the study uses a parsimonious set of indicators to generate insights into the factors underlying Solega perceptions of flourishing, and their implications for food and nutrition policies and programs. We recommend that careful attention should be paid to the multiple roles that forests, and traditional farming practices play in shaping the perception of flourishing of indigenous communities, and more active support be integrated into food and nutrition policy and programs to ensure the sustainability of traditional food systems, including sources of food and dietary practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban expansion has emerged as a pervasive driver of biodiversity loss in Mexican cities due to shifts in landscape composition and configuration. Hence, the preservation of forest cover, green spaces and isolated trees assume a critical role in conserving the biodiversity within urban areas. We compared mammal assemblages across 520 sites in Mexico City examining the impact of local vegetation and site characteristics (e.g., patch size, isolation distance) on diversity patterns. Then, we used a generalized linear model to evaluate the relationship between mammal assemblages (including both alpha and beta diversities) and the level of structural and functional connectivity across the landscape. We collected 5,063 records of 38 species from the sampled sites. Mammalian richness ranged from 1 to 9 spp./site, and the mean of taxonomic and functional (Functional Distance [MFD]) alpha diversities were 1.9 ± 1.3 spp./site and 0.41 ± 0.60 MFD/site, respectively. The average size of habitat fragments was 0.41 hectares, and the percent forest cover per site ranged from 0.5 to 100%. Both species and functional alpha diversities were different among the land-use and vegetation types (including protected vs. non-protected areas). There was a clear distinction (β value > 0.40) in species composition across the landscape, which was positively related to geographical distance and negatively related to connectivity between sites. We identified four main patches especially important to connectivity across the city and argue that conserving them is critical for restoring key components of biodiversity and ecosystem services in urban and peri-urban areas of Mexico City. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Old-growth forests are essential to preserve biodiversity and play an important role in sequestering carbon and mitigating climate change. However, their existence across Europe is vulnerable due to the scarcity of their distribution, logging, and environmental threats. Therefore, providing the current status of old-growth forests across Europe is essential to aiding informed conservation efforts and sustainable forest management. Remote sensing techniques have proven effective for mapping and monitoring forests over large areas. However, relying solely on remote sensing spectral or structural information cannot capture comprehensive horizontal and vertical structure complexity profiles associated with old-growth forest characteristics. To overcome this issue, we combined spectral information from Sentinel-2A multispectral imagery with 3D structural information from high-density point clouds of airborne laser scanning (ALS) imagery to map old-growth forests over an extended area. Four features from the ALS data and fifteen from Sentinel-2A comprising raw band (spectral reflectance), vegetation indices (VIs), and texture were selected to create three datasets used in the classification process using the random forest algorithm. The results demonstrated that combining ALS and Sentinel-2A features improved the classification performance and yielded the highest accuracy for old-growth class, with an F1-score of 92% and producer's and user's accuracies of 93% and 90%, respectively. The findings suggest that features from ALS and Sentinel-2A data sensitive to forest structure are essential for identifying old-growth forests. Integrating open-access satellite imageries, such as Sentinel-2A and ALS data, can benefit forest managers, stakeholders, and conservationists in monitoring old-growth forest preservation across a broader spatial extent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tropical dry forests are the most threatened of all the major tropical forest types and less than 25% of TDF currently remain worldwide. They are located mostly in South America. Parameters such as habitat loss, fragmentation and loss of connectivity have been identified as the main threats to biodiversity. This research aims to discover the forests changes, the evolution of connectivity and fragmentation of the South American tropical dry forest between 1992 and 2020. Land uses layers provided by the Copernicus program were employed, and land uses change, fragmentation and structural connectivity were analyzed in GIS systems. To calculate the functional connectivity, the Graphab software was used. The results showed a loss of forest surface, where fragmentation increased and a loss of functional connectivity between 25% and 49% occurs depended on the parameter analysed. On the other hand, some areas were recovered. Brazil is the country that recovered the most forest area and Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia those that lost the most area. Only 31% of the area was not altered between 1992 and 2020. Human activities such as deforestation, agriculture expansion, and urbanization have led these forests to become increasingly fragmented and worse connected impacting on both ecological and socio-economic aspects. Supranational measures must be taken to mitigate the negative impacts of fragmentation and the loss of connectivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing a secured and accurate disease diagnosis framework in the healthcare cloud systems are still remains one of the crucial problems in recent times. Due to the rapid growth of information and technology, it is highly essential to protect the patient health information against the unauthenticated users for ensuring the privacy and security. For this purpose, the different types of security approaches are developed in the conventional works, which are mainly focused on increasing the privacy of medical data stored in the cloud systems. However, it lacks with the major issues of increased computational overhead, communication cost, lack of security, complex mathematical modeling, and increased time consumption. Therefore, the proposed work objects to implement an intelligent and advanced privacy preserving framework, named as, lightweight signing signature based secured jellyfish data aggregation (LS3JDA) for ensuring the privacy of medical data in the healthcare cloud systems. The main contribution of this research work is to develop a new and lightweight privacy preservation model by incorporating the functions of both AI and signing signature algorithms for assuring data security in cloud systems. Moreover, it simplified the process of entire privacy preservation system with low computational burden and high data security. It also objects to accurately predict the type of disease based on the patients' medical history by using an advanced random forest (RF) machine learning methodology. The novel contributions of this work are, a message signing signature generation algorithm is used to strengthen the security of patients' medical data, and a jelly fish optimization (JFO) methodology is used to improve the process of data aggregation. The primary advantages of the proposed system are reduced processing time, low computational burden, and simple to deploy. For validating the results of the proposed model, several parameters include level of security, time, throughput, latency, signature cost, and communication overhead are assessed during evaluation. Moreover, the results are contrasted with some of the recent privacy preservation models for assuring the superiority of the proposed framework. Here, the overall processing time is reduced up to 1.5 ms, and communication overhead is reduced up to 100 bytes with the use of optimization integrated data aggregation model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forest conservation is essential for action on climate change and biodiversity loss. Forest loss and degradation are increasing around the world, including in the Amazon. It is widely reported that Indigenous communities can be effective in forest protection, but less attention has been paid to explaining how they are able to do this in the face of severe threats. This article investigates what can be learned from the success of the Kayapo Indigenous communities and their organizations in protecting more than nine million hectares of primary forest in one of the most highly degraded and deforested areas of the Brazilian Amazon. We use geographic information system analysis to demonstrate the extent of forest protection, along with field work to examine the crucial alliances with conservation NGOs from governance and planning perspectives. Our interdisciplinary analysis is guided by the three-pillar framework for integrated landscape management and is informed by interviews conducted with Indigenous and non-Indigenous staff working for the Kayapo NGOs. Based on this data and the experience of the Kayapo people, we identify the main factors that facilitated large-scale forest conservation. Our research also reveals that the work of the Kayapo NGOs aligns with the principles of strong governance and effective planning. Lastly, we discuss key lessons and critical considerations to ensure the continued viability and ongoing success of the Kayapo NGOs in achieving their objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental modification resulting from human activities has negative consequences, including biodiversity loss and a decline in insect populations, which threaten crucial ecosystem functions. A comparative study was conducted in gallery forests with different conservation statuses (Good, Intermediate, and Unfavorable) in the Humid Chaco ecoregion, Chaco Province, Argentina. We hypothesize that the conservation status of gallery forests influences the diversity parameters, composition, and structure of ant assemblages because it provides better conditions, thereby increasing diversity parameters and resulting in distinct patterns of ant species composition. Samplings were conducted during the peak ant activity periods in the spring and summer seasons between 2017 and 2018. We collected 5363 specimens belonging to 108 species/morphospecies, 36 genera, and nine subfamilies. Furthermore, the effect of environmental variables (leaf litter thickness, distance from the river, canopy coverage, number of seedling trees, human footprint index, temperature, relative humidity, and precipitation) on community structures was assessed. The highest species richness and diversity were recorded in sites with good conservation status. Our findings highlight the importance of gallery forests as biological corridors for the protection of ant diversity. Additionally, the distinct ant community structures in forests of varying conservation statuses emphasize the need for effective conservation strategies in these types of habitats. Implications for insect conservation: This work highlights the crucial role of ants as indicators of environmental quality and the impact of forest conservation status on their diversity and structure. It underscores the need for conservation efforts to protect biological corridors and their unique ant communities in the Humid Chaco ecoregion, contributing to our understanding of ant diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study assembles satellite data, individual-level death records, and air quality data to estimate forest greenness impact on air pollution and health outcomes in China. We find that forest greenness improves air quality. A 10 percentage-points increase in the seasonal average normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) is estimated to increase the overall air quality index (AQI) by 2.6 (3.8% from its mean of 70.8). This NDVI increase predicts decreases in seasonal cardiorespiratory deaths by 1.09% (9.5 people), and in non-cardiorespiratory deaths by 0.87% (7.3 people), ceteris paribus. Also, forest greenness has a mitigating effect of reducing the mortality risk of air pollution as we find that an additional greenness of 10-percentage-point increase in NDVI contributes to a reduction in air pollution-caused mortality by 0.5 people each season. The elderly and especially the elderly males are more likely to benefit from the mitigation by forest greenness possibly because they are more frequently exposed to air pollution and the greenness. A back-of-the-envelope calculation indicates that doubling the greenness of forest would bring about a health benefit that is far beyond an order of magnitude larger than the cost of forest conservation efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Approximately 3.9 billion people are at risk of infection with dengue fever, a group of viruses transmitted by mosquitoes (Halstead in Annu Rev Entomol 53:273–291, 2008. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.ento.53.103106.0933262008; WHO in WHO | Dengue and severe dengue, Geneva, 2018). In 2019, Central America suffered a severe dengue epidemic (Salinas Maldonado in Un brote de dengue pone en alerta a Centroamérica | Sociedad | EL PAÍS, El País, 2019). Costa Rica witnessed an almost doubling of the number of dengue cases in the first 24 epidemiological weeks of 2019 compared to the same period in the previous year (Ávalos in Costa Rica casi duplica número de enfermos de dengue en lo que va del año, con respecto al 2018, La Nación, 2019). In the Americas, forest cover is thought to diminish anthropogenic habitats for mosquitoes while also increasing the presence of their predators (Vasilakis et al. in Nat Rev Microbiol 9:532–541, 2011. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro2595; Weterings et al. in Basic Appl Ecol 15:486–495, 2014a. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.BAAE.2014.07.006). In this study, we estimate the marginal effects of increasing forest cover on dengue prevalence in Costa Rica using econometric models to relate hospital admission records to forest cover maps from 2001 and 2011. We find that increasing the percentage of forest cover significantly decreases both the number of hospital admissions for dengue and the probability of an outbreak. Using the same models, we predict that if forest cover had been increased by three percentage points during 10 years (0.29% per year), 29 dengue hospital admissions per year might have been avoided (around 1.4% of cases in the country, depending on the year). This represents average savings between USD 7230 and 82,207 per year, depending on the severity of the impact on individuals with dengue. Our study demonstrates that forest conservation can serve as a public health investment, enhancing social welfare by mitigating illness and reducing associated healthcare expenditures. Our results must be interpreted with caution, however, as the characteristics of our data prevent us from confirming that the estimated negative effect of forest cover on dengue represents a causal impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing literature seeks to econometrically identify the link between tree cover change and malaria, two of the most pressing problems facing the Global South. However, we know little about the effect of tree cover fragmentation on malaria transmission, even though correlational evidence suggests that this effect may be important. We use municipality-level panel data from Colombia along with two-way fixed effects models to identify the effect on malaria incidence of changes in two measures of tree cover fragmentation—perforation and edge—as well as of a conventional measure of aggregate tree cover loss. We find that perforation in core areas of tree cover spurs malaria transmission. Evidence for the effects of changes in edge and aggregate loss is weaker. On average, a one-percentage-point increase in contemporaneous perforation leads to a 12.7% increase in malaria cases. This effect is stronger in municipalities with gold production and in those with coca production. These findings provide further evidence that forest conservation has significant benefits for local communities. They can also help stakeholders improve the efficacy of policies to stem malaria transmission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Secondary tropical forests are at the forefront of deforestation pressures. They store large amounts of carbon, which, if compensated for to avoid net emissions associated with conversion to non-forest uses, may help advance tropical forest conservation. We measured above- and below-ground carbon stocks down to 1 m soil depth across a secondary forest and in oil palm plantations in Malaysia. We calculated net carbon losses when converting secondary forests to oil palm plantations and estimated payments to avoid net emissions arising from land conversion to a 22-year oil palm rotation, based on land opportunity costs per hectare. We explored how estimates would vary between forests by also extracting carbon stock data for primary forest from the literature. When tree and soil carbon was accounted for, payments of US$18–51 tCO2–1 for secondary forests and US$14–40 tCO2–1 for primary forest would equal opportunity costs associated with oil palm plantations per hectare. If detailed assessments of soil carbon were not accounted for, payments to offset opportunity costs would need to be considerably higher for secondary forests (US$28–80 tCO2–1). These results show that assessment of carbon stocks down to 1 m soil depth in tropical forests can substantially influence the estimated value of avoided-emission payments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mendoza city (Argentina) hosted the VIII Latin American Forestry Congress (CONFLAT) and the V Forestry Congress of Argentina (CFA) in 2023, where relevant issues were addressed, such as climate change, degradation, reforestation, management and forest industry, monitoring, environmental services, social issues, and governance, among others. The objective of this Special Issue was to present the main advances in Forestry Science for Latin-America in the context of changing governance and forest livelihoods for people. The fifteen articles emphasize the interdisciplinary nature of the forest management and conservation, and that multiple variables must be considered to achieve sustainability. The articles come from studies across Southern South-America (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay), and the collaboration of researchers of other countries (México, Canada, and Spain). Articles include research in tropical, Mediterranean and temperate Sub-Antarctic forests. Together, these articles provide a snapshot of new forestry research carried out locally and internationally to bring about beneficial ecological and environmental outcomes in a world facing the challenges of sustainable management and conservation amongst the threats and uncertainty of climate change and environmental degradation responsible for extensive loss of biodiversity and environmental services. We believe that this Special Issue will encourage more inter-disciplinary research focusing on management and conservation of forests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Endophytes play an important role in plant development, survival, and establishment, but their temporal dynamics in young conifer plants are still largely unknown. In this study, the bacterial community was determined by metabarcoding of the 16S rRNA gene in the rhizoplane, roots, and aerial parts of 1- and 5-month-old seedlings of natural populations of Abies religiosa (Kunth) Schltdl. & Cham. In 1-month-old seedlings, Pseudomonas dominated aerial parts (relative abundance 71.6%) and roots (37.9%). However, the roots exhibited significantly higher bacterial species richness than the aerial parts, with the dissimilarity between these plant sections mostly explained by the loss of bacterial amplification sequence variants. After 5 months, Mucilaginibacter dominated in the rhizoplane (9.0%), Streptomyces in the roots (12.2%), and Pseudomonas in the aerial parts (18.1%). The bacterial richness and community structure differed significantly between the plant sections, and these variations were explained mostly by 1-for-1 substitution. The relative abundance of putative metabolic pathways significantly differed between the plant sections at both 1 and 5 months. All the dominant bacterial genera (e.g., Pseudomonas and Burkholderia-Caballeronia-Paraburkholderia) have been reported to have plant growth-promoting capacities and/or antagonism against pathogens, but what defines their role for plant development has still to be determined. This investigation improves our understanding of the early plant-bacteria interactions essential for natural regeneration of A. religiosa forest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of the study was to analyze the occurrence of forest fires in a conservation unit (CU) of the Brazilian savannah using remote sensing techniques and statistical methods developed for spatial punctual processes. To conduct the spatial analysis of fires, fire polygons mapped using Landsat 8 satellite images were used. The fires were considered into size classes to better illustrate the spatial patterns. The analysis of the spatial distribution of fires utilized Ripley's K-function, in addition to the Kcross function to verify spatial interaction. The results show that the year 2015 had the highest number of fires and burned area. Smaller fires represent a greater number of occurrences, located mostly on CU boundaries. The spatial distribution of forest fires is not random and can cluster on a scale of approximately 6 km. There is a strong spatial interaction between forest fires and traditional communities, particularly with fires smaller than 100 hectares. However, these communities are not responsible for large fires. These results contribute to better-targeted forest fire prevention and combat policies, serving as management tools for the protected area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Amazon Forest has been facing the consequences of the expansion of activities of anthropic origin. A variety of human activities has caused impacts on the environment, resulting in profound negative consequences for biodiversity. Climate change and deforestation can affect, for instance, the spatial distribution of sensitive species such as Amazonian birds. In this context, we estimate the potential distribution of Penelope pileata, an endangered cracid bird with restricted distribution in the Brazilian Amazon, in future climate change and deforestation scenarios. We projected distribution models from occurrence data of P. pileata and bioclimatic variables onto optimistic and pessimistic scenarios to assess spatial gains or losses in the distribution of this bird species. Our results showed a loss of 97.5% and 100% of the suitable area for the occurrence of P. pileata in optimistic and pessimistic scenarios, respectively. We also found that this cracid bird, which is currently classified as a vulnerable species (VU) in The International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) red list, would be classified as Critically Endangered (CR) and/or extinct (EX) in the future. Thus, to ensure the conservation of P. pileata, it is crucial to develop policies for environmental protection and preservation of forest remnants that are suitable for the occurrence of this species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The subnational implementation of forest protection legislation is an important aspect of forest governance. In this article, I explore how competing interests regarding production and conservation affect forest protection at the local level in the Argentine Chaco Forest, which represents 60 percent of the Chaco Americano, the second largest forest in South America. Employing original and administrative data, I assess whether deforestation is associated with large producers, who seek to expand soy cultivation into forestlands, and the presence of indigenous communities, who favor forest protection. Quantitative analysis of the departments in the Chaco region suggests that overall deforestation is associated with soy cultivation and past deforestation. In contrast, forest loss in protected areas, which should be zero but represents almost half of total deforestation during the studied period, is positively associated with the number of indigenous communities in the department, the share of protected forestlands, the power of large producers, and past deforestation. Qualitative analysis suggests that lands inhabited by indigenous communities were generally granted protected status, as requested by national legislation and consistent with demands of indigenous groups and their allies. Yet, this protected status has been watered down by permissive regulations and the overall lax enforcement of forest protection legislation, which were in turn driven by large producers invested in cropland expansion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canopy gaps are a prevalent disturbance form in forest ecosystems that promote forest regeneration and succession by modifying the heterogeneity of the microenvironment. However, a significant knowledge gap exists in comprehending the global-scale impact of canopy gaps on soil nutrient properties, which is related to forest management and conservation tactics. In this study, 518 paired observations derived from 31 peer-reviewed articles were meta-analyzed to evaluate the overall response of soil nutrient properties to canopy gaps. The results showed that canopy gaps increased NO3−–N (+ 22.20%) and MBP (+ 194.17%). The canopy gap decreased the content of TN, MBC, and C:P ratio by 9.27%, 19.58%, and 19.25%, respectively. The size of canopy gaps significantly reduced SOC (−14.37%), MBC (−27.45%), TN (−11.98%), NH4+–N (−65.26%), C:N (−15.77%, −16.02%) and C:P ratio (−28.92%), but significantly increases NO3−–N (+ 37.25%). Hence, it is advisable to establish a critical gap size that caters to the specific soil fertility requirements of various regions for the optimal release of soil nutrients. These findings hold substantial significance for optimizing canopy gap management, comprehensively understanding the impact of canopy gaps on soil nutrient properties, and facilitating decision-making to assess soil fertility following canopy gap disturbances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving water-holding functions is an important purpose of sustainable forest management. However, few studies have examined whether there are differences in water-holding capacities between the forests dominated by trees associated with different mycorrhizal types and what are the main factors leading to the differences. Here, we investigated seven parameters of water-holding capacities of soils, litter, and canopy interception in 210 forest plots (10 m × 10 m). The plots were equally divided into three forest types associated with mycorrhizal types, including AM plots (arbuscular mycorrhizal trees > 75% in dominance), ECM plots (ectomycorrhizal trees > 75%), and AM + ECM plots (between 25 and 75%). We calculated tree diversity (richness, Shannon–wiener index, Simpson index, evenness), community structure (diameter at breast height, height, under branch height, density, neighborhood comparison-U, uniform angle index-W, and mingling index-M), and soil physics (soil bulk density and field water content). The results showed that: (1) ECM-dominated communities increased 1.6–2.0-fold in the litter water-holding capacities than those of AM and AM + ECM. The canopy interception of the ECM community was the highest (0.97 mm), significantly higher than that of the AM + ECM community (0.58 mm). (2) The ECM community had lower field soil water-holding capacity (p < 0.05) but 42–78% higher soil non-capillary water capacity than that of AM and AM + ECM (p < 0.05). (3) ECM forests were characterized by low tree species evenness, big-sized trees, and low bulk density, favoring increasing ecosystem water-holding capacities. Moreover, increasing ECM tree dominance enhanced the contribution of community structure to water-holding variations. (4) ECM trees increased ecosystem water-holding functions by direct effects (mainly on the litter) and indirect effects from soil physics (mainly on the soils) or tree size (mainly on the canopy) regulations. This study highlighted that ECM trees enhanced water-holding capacity, providing important information for planting and managing temperate water conservation forests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Orchid bee species are important pollinators in the Neotropics. While male orchid bees are known to have a close interaction with odor-rewarding flowers, orchid bee females are often pollen generalists. In the current study, we investigated differences in the pollen diet diversity of orchid bees in various vegetation types and across sites with varying levels of forest cover by means of an analysis of the frass pellets of the orchid bee, Euglossa cordata (Linnaeus, 1758), and multiple species based on a literature review. The pollen grains found in the inner part of brood cells were used to assess the plant composition making up the diet of E. cordata in various areas of the state of São Paulo in Brazil. We found that this plant composition differed among vegetation types, and that diet specialization was lower in forested areas. Forest cover appeared to be the factor mostly associated with pollen richness in nests of E. cordata. Number of brood cells per nest were also associated with forest cover. The model used to assess the effect of forest cover on plant richness as part of brood diet of E. cordata was tested with the inclusion of published data and a newly generated data for E. annectans. This new data set allowed to understand the influence of forest in the pollen diet of multiple species in a more extensive geographic scale. Forest cover appeared to be important for a diversified pollen diet in several orchid bee species. Implications for insect conservation: Since a diversified pollen diet offered to larva bees is associated with bee survival and health, our results indicate that orchid bees relying on areas with higher forest cover have a more resilient population. Such findings emphasize the importance of conservation of forests, especially in the Neotropical region where many pollinator species are adapted to continuous forest environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study identified sources and established the levels of industrial noise in Okomu National Park with the aim of determining the impact of industrial noise pollution on wildlife in Okomu National Park. It also modelled propagation of ambient noise levels associated with the established levels as well as determined impacts of ambient noise obtained from industrial activities on wildlife of the National Park. Locations of identified sources of noise including industrial activities sources relative to the National Park were established and digital maps of the identified locations was generated. Ambient noise levels were obtained for wildlife populations around selected locations. Noise assignment was done at each of the hotspots for industrial activity that had been detected using EXTEC sensors. The average noise levels from the industrial sources were then processed into a model using NoiseMap. The calculated noise levels from identified sources were represented with contour map. The results identified sources of noise pollution in Okomu Forest Reserve as: Okomu Palm Oil processing mill and Michelin rubber Processing factory. The result showed that activities within these industries produced at least 40 dB during the period of study. The effects of noise from the industrial activities forced the migration of the animals out of the National Park to favourable habitats with less noise sources. The retreat of the animals caused energy depletion and reduced the chances of their survival. The study concluded that industrial activities such as Palm oil processing, rubber processing, logging and vehicles are a major source of noise pollution that threatens the sustainability of wildlife in the Okomu National Park. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The link between subjective well-being (SWB) and forest visits is increasingly driving the development and preservation of restorative forest environments in numerous countries. However, there is limited knowledge regarding the effect of people's preferences for forest patterns and activities on this connection. Here we investigated whether associations exist between the preferences for certain forest features and activities, and the SWB increase and stress reduction in response to forest visits. A nationwide digital survey was administered to a representative sample of the Slovak population. The recollection-based data obtained from one thousand respondents were analysed through agglomerative clustering and ordinal regression. The analyses revealed that improved SWB and stress reduction were associated with preferences for uneven-aged forests, forest smell, as well as recreational, but not provisioning forest activities. The respective interrelationships explained up to 20% of SWB increase and stress reduction after forest visits. The results suggest that recollection-based study findings can be generalized for real-world forests and that forest management can contribute to the well-being of forest visitors by shaping the diversity of woodlands and their sensory experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In forests, the amount and diversity of structural features with high value for biodiversity, such as large trees and dead wood, are affected by productivity, stand age, and forest management. For efficient conservation of forest biodiversity, it is essential to understand the combined effects of these drivers. We used data from the Swedish National Forest Inventory to study the combined effects of productivity, stand age, and management for wood production on structures with high value for biodiversity: tree species richness, large living trees, dead wood volume, and specific dead wood types. Forest management changed the relationship between productivity and amount or diversity of some of the structures. Most structures increased with productivity and stand age, but decreased due to management. The negative effect of management was greatest for structures occurring mainly in high-productivity forests, such as deciduous dead wood. Thus, biodiversity conservation should target high-productivity forests to preserve these structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public extension services disseminate awareness and promote community participation in landscape restoration efforts around the world. Due to the importance of forest restoration programs in Pakistan, access to public extension services can have a significant impact on community mobilization in reforestation efforts. This study quantifies the social and landscape restoration impacts of extension services in communities with and without access to extension services. It also identifies the factors influencing community-level access to extension services in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region of Pakistan. The results of our study showed that those communities that had access to extension services were more active and effective in restoring forest landscapes than those that didn't have access to extension services. Extension services increased awareness of forest conservation, adoption and implementation of forest management strategies, changes in attitudes and behaviors, and social empowerment through capacity building. The findings suggested that several factors, including no roads to a village on hilltop, proximity/distance of a village to the extension office, lack of community cooperation with extension officers, weak government support for extension agents and elite capture in the communities restricted communities' access to extension services. Based on the findings of the study, we recommend the development of infrastructure, especially roads to uphill villages, and the recruitment of more extension agents to include marginalized communities in extension programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) is a specific strategy for combating deforestation and forest degradation to alleviate the effects of climate change. In this study, the potential greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction resulting from the implementation of a REDD project is estimated. Changes in forest cover throughout the years 1985, 1990, 1995, 2000, 2010, 2015, and 2020 were analyzed using time-series Landsat imagery (TM, ETM + , and OLI) and a random forest algorithm. Multilayer perceptron neural networks were used to model the transition potential of the forest cover, which were then predicted via Markov chain analysis. The change detection analysis revealed two discernible patterns in forest cover dynamics. Between 1985 and 2000, a notable decrease in forest cover was seen, whereas from 2000 to 2020, it significantly increased. The results suggested that the absence of REDD implementation would result in the deforestation of approximately 199,569 hectares of forest cover between 2020 and 2050, leading to the release of 1,995,695 tCO2e of emissions into the atmosphere. However, with the implementation of REDD, these emissions would be reduced to 405,512 tCO2e, effectively preventing the release of 1,590,183 tCO2e of emissions into the upper atmosphere. This study demonstrates that the implementation of REDD projects can be an effective strategy for reducing GHG emissions and mitigating climate change in the Hyrcanian forests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In forest science and practice, the total tree height is one of the basic morphometric attributes at the tree level and it has been closely linked with important stand attributes. In the current research, sixteen nonlinear functions for height prediction were tested in terms of their fitting ability against samples of Abies borisii regis and Pinus sylvestris trees from mountainous forests in central Greece. The fitting procedure was based on generalized nonlinear weighted regression. At the final stage, a five-quantile nonlinear height-diameter model was developed for both species through a quantile regression approach, to estimate the entire conditional distribution of tree height, enabling the evaluation of the diameter impact at various quantiles and providing a comprehensive understanding of the proposed relationship across the distribution. The results clearly showed that employing the diameter as the sole independent variable, the 3-parameter Hossfeld function and the 2-parameter Näslund function managed to explain approximately 84.0% and 81.7% of the total height variance in the case of King Boris fir and Scots pine species, respectively. Furthermore, the models exhibited low levels of error in both cases (2.310m for the fir and 3.004m for the pine), yielding unbiased predictions for both fir (−0.002m) and pine (−0.004m). Notably, all the required assumptions for homogeneity and normality of the associated residuals were achieved through the weighting procedure, while the quantile regression approach provided additional insights into the height-diameter allometry of the specific species. The proposed models can turn into valuable tools for operational forest management planning, particularly for wood production and conservation of mountainous forest ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genetic diversity is essential to evolution and a recognized target of conservation. When threats are high and populations are small, in-situ gene conservation needs to be reinforced with an ex-situ approach, where a genetically representative sample of the target taxon is safeguarded in a favorable environment. The fragmented habitat of Pinus nigra subsp. salzmannii (Dunal) Franco 1943 (Salzmann's pine) is threatened by wildfires. In France, gene flow from massive plantations of other subspecies of black pines threatens its genetic diversity. Here, using individual tree genotypic data at thirteen microsatellite loci, we identified differentiated lineages for in-situ gene conservation. Discriminating between autochthonous and hybrid trees, we proposed a method for the creation of an ex-situ core collection. We confirmed that Salzmann's pine is an original genetic lineage within the western European and Mediterranean black pine subspecies. We identified five genetic groups in France that can serve as the basis for in-situ gene conservation. Maximizing overall genetic diversity while maintaining among population diversity, we identified 80 native and non-hybridized trees that can form the basis of a representative ex-situ core collection. Our cost-effective methods combining in-situ and ex-situ conservation can be easily applied to many forest tree species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In the Himalayan region, fuelwood serves as a critical energy source for rural communities. Being vital for meeting energy needs, fuelwood combustion is a source of carbon dioxide (CO2) emission and, consequently, global warming, as well as deforestation and public health damage. Therefore, quantifying fuelwood consumption patterns and its associated CO2 emissions is essential to understand the environmental impact and promote sustainable resource management. Methods: This research conducts an evaluation of fuelwood burning patterns and the associated CO2 emissions in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), situated within the western Himalayan region. The study entails an extensive survey of 24 villages representing 240 households, equally distributed between the subtropical and temperate regions, each comprising 120 households. Data collection was executed through a combination of direct queries and the weight survey method, following standard protocols. Results: In the study area, the mean annual fuelwood comsumption per household amounts to 24.28 ± 3.1 Mg (or 3.195 ± 1 Mg capita−1). A variance was observed between subtropical and temperate zones, with the latter exhibiting higher consumption rates. The consequential CO2 emissions were assessed as 41.88 ± 4.5 Mg per household (5.51 ± 0.6 Mg capita−1). On a daily basis, households consumed an average of 66.52 ± 6.4 kg of fuelwood (8.75 ± 1.5 kg capita−1), resulting in a daily CO2 release rate of 114.745 ± 8.6 kg (15.095 ± 2 kg capita−1). The findings unveiled seasonal variations, indicating increased fuelwood consumption and emissions during the winter season. Statistical analysis shed light on the significance of altitude and family size in shaping the patterns of fuelwood use. Conclusions: The results revealed the importance of prioritizing forest conservation and strategically implementing sustainable practices, including reforestation, afforestation, responsible harvesting, and actively promoting sustainable fuel sources. This research highlights the vital role of well-designed policies focused on preserving ecosystems and improving energy management. Policy intervention can ensure the sustainable stewardship of local and regional forest resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conserving pollinators has been a concern and priority for ecological programs around the world, since these animals play a major role in forest ecosystems. Bees are among the main pollinators of these ecosystems. Here we used paleomodeling to infer refuge areas that putatively concentrate high levels of genetic diversity for stingless bees and that would be priorities for conservation of these pollinators within Caatinga, a seasonally dry forest in Neotropical Dry Diagonal. In this sense, a total of 319 records of 10 species was used to build species models for the current days, Mid-Holocene and Last Glacial Maximum periods using MaxEnt algorithm. The results indicated climatically-stable areas (i.e., refuges) for each stingless bee species, where higher levels of historical genetic diversity are expected in the Caatinga. Moreover, a large continuous range of suitable areas for the assemblage in the Caatinga, divided into four main refuges, which likely concentrate high levels of genetic diversity for these pollinators, were observed. Considering that the Caatinga is threatened and has experienced an increase of deforestation in recent years, this inference of refuge areas should be useful to direct the choice of new conservation units. Our results also provide spatial insights for future phylogeographic studies involving these insects, which are recommended and might reinforce these findings. Conservation policies directed at preserving pollinating species may be an effective mechanism for preserving the biodiversity in the threatened Caatinga. Implications for insect conservation: Our study inferred four main refuge areas within this region that putatively concentrate high diversity for stingless bees, which should be considered as a priority in conservation strategies in the threatened Caatinga. In addition, we suggest evaluating the creation of new Conservation Units considering refuges areas proposed to the assembly of pollinators from this Neotropical dry forest, since this region exhibits high levels of species richness and endemism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Habitat fragmentation is one of the main causes of the global loss of plant biodiversity. It is also one of the major challenges in Ethiopia, where fragmented forest patches of different sizes have been observed. These patches of forest, especially in the highlands of northern Ethiopia, are mainly confined to churches. These remnant forest patches have long been said to have negative impacts (habitat amount hypothesis). Recently, however, there is evidence that these small patches of remnant forest may harbour more species than relatively large patches of the same area. We tested this hypothesis in the remnant church forests of the Ethiopian highlands using different plant growth forms. Ten church forests of different sizes were selected in which transects were established from the forest edges to the interior. A total of 56 20 × 20 m plots were used for plant sampling. All trees, shrubs and herbs within the plots were recorded, collected and identified. We found that the effects of forest fragmentation on plant diversity, abundance and composition varied with plant growth forms. In contrast to the habitat amount hypothesis, small forest fragments were found to support more tree species than relatively large forest fragments, suggesting the role of small forest fragments in maintaining species diversity. We found that soil moisture changes with fragment size but has no significant effect on plant abundance and diversity of plant growth forms. Our results indicate that a shift in conservation priorities may be needed to recognize the value of small fragmented patches of forest for biodiversity conservation, as a lack of protection of small patches of forest can lead to high cumulative impacts on biodiversity loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spatially-explicit data on the species composition of forest plants can be an important tool for forest management and conservation. One specific application of these data is for identifying tropical tree species through machine learning techniques to classify satellite remote sensing images. This study aims to examine the ability to use Worldview-2 high-resolution data with various machine learning methods to identify tree species in the Bogor Botanic Garden. Eighteen species from 11 families were selected as samples representing an ecologically and taxonomically diverse data set. Using aggregated image variables, each tree species was found to have different reflectance, texture, and spectral vegetation index variable values. Cluster analysis showed that the 18 tree species could be separated into three clusters that partly reflected taxonomic relationships. Four machine learning algorithms (Support Vector Machine (SVM), Random Forest (RF), K-nearest neighbor (KNN), and Bayesian) were used to predict the species identity of pixels in the image data. A multicollinearity test using a Variance Inflation Factor method reduced the predictor variables from 54 to 9. The highest accuracy (0.96) was observed using SVM, followed by RF (0.91), KNN (0.86), and Bayesian (0.74). The implementation of high-resolution satellite imagery and machine learning for species identification in tropical ex situ plant conservation areas, such as botanic gardens is reported here for the first time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mangrove forests support a wide diversity of habitats for numerous macrofauna species that are crucial to the health of mangrove ecosystems, as well as a vast variety of macroinvertebrate species. Therefore, it is necessary to periodically update our knowledge of the diversity of macrofaunal communities found throughout the mangrove forests of the Aqaba Gulf. This study seeks to examine biodiversity and identify macroinvertebrate fauna in various mangrove-associated habitats, i.e., genuine mangrove forests and neighboring coastal mangrove zones with varying levels of ecological heterogeneity. The belt transects and quadrate approach were used to collect samples from five distinct locations along the Aqaba Gulf mangrove. Overall, 8186 organisms belong to 118 species. Eighty-four molluscan species, 23 crustacean species, and 11 echinoderm species were recorded throughout the present investigation. The diversity of species was estimated for each site. Rowaisseia station showed significantly greater numbers for taxonomic richness, and the lowest number was present in Gharqana station. The statistical assessment of the various environmental factors and sediment characteristics in terms of abundance and variety of species of macroinvertebrate fauna revealed that the composition of bed sediment has a strong influence on the distribution and variation of macrofaunal communities. The current study's findings will aid in the conservation of mangrove forests by providing a better understanding of the ecological patterns and functions of benthic macrofaunal communities, which will be useful in future studies for habitat management and monitoring programs in the Gulf of Aqaba mangrove forests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Beetle species living in high-latitude forests may be sensitive to variations in habitat conditions and microclimate. We tested that the functional traits and guild structure of canopy-dwelling beetle species of the southernmost subantarctic forests respond to habitat and microclimate. Beetles were collected in 50,400 m radius circular landscapes regularly distributed over the study area, where habitat and microclimate variables were quantified. We assigned species to representative ecological guilds and estimated four components of functional diversity using traits related to feeding ecology, dispersion, size and color patterns. Generalized linear mixed models were used to estimate the additive and interactive effects of habitat and microclimate. The cover of open habitats (peatbogs and meadow) and landscape diversity had a negative effect on functional dispersion and richness, as well as on the abundance of large-sized, small-sized and saproxylic species. The moisture stress index (MSI) negatively affected the abundance of all species, large-sized species and saproxylic species. Winter temperature positively affected predators and interacted with woodpecker's foraging holes to positively affect small-sized species. A larger density of dead trees positively influenced large-sized species and reduced the negative effect of elevation and MSI on saproxylic species. These findings suggest that human-created habitat heterogeneity engages in negative effects on different guilds of beetles whereas climate conditions are limiting factors. However, unfavorable microclimate conditions are buffered by habitat and microhabitat features. Therefore, the conservation of beetle assemblages in high-latitude forests requires the preservation of habitats and microhabitats providing less stressful climate conditions to beetles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies (CCAMS) are changes to the management of production forests motivated by the need to mitigate climate change, or adapt production forests to climate change risks. Sweden is employing CCAMS with unclear implications for biodiversity and forest ecosystem services (ES). Here, we synthesized evidence from 51 published scientific reviews, to evaluate the potential implications for biodiversity and a range of provisioning, regulating, and cultural ES, from the adoption of CCAMS relative to standard forestry practice. The CCAMS assessed were the adoption of (i) mixed-species stands, (ii) continuous cover forestry, (iii) altered rotation lengths, (iv) conversion to introduced tree species, (v) logging residue extraction, (vi) stand fertilization, and (vii) altered ditching/draining practices. We highlight the complexity of biodiversity and ES outcomes, identify knowledge gaps, and emphasize the importance of evidence-based decision making and landscape-scale planning when navigating choices involving the widespread adoption of CCAMS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biodiversity conservation and economic profit from forests can be combined by various land-sparing and land-sharing approaches. Using a semi-structured survey, we evaluated support for scenarios representing contrasting conservation strategies in a managed boreal forest landscape. Land-sparing approaches were supported by the conservation organisation, regional administrations and the forest company, mainly motivated by the benefit for biodiversity based on ecological theory. Land-sharing approaches were supported by one recreational organisation, some municipalities and the forest owners' association, mainly motivated by the delivery of ecosystem services. Stakeholder groups using certain ecosystem services had motivations that we related to an anthropocentric mindset, while others focused more on species conservation, which can be related both to an anthropocentric or an ecocentric mindsets. Forest conservation planning should consider stakeholders' preferences to handle land-use conflicts. Since reaching consensus among multiple stakeholders seems unfeasible, a combination of land-sparing and land-sharing approaches is probably the best compromise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study compared the ecological effects on forest conservation before and after changes in Brazilian forest protection, taking a case study of a water source area in Diadema, the municipality with the highest demographic density in São Paulo State. We also evaluated compliance with the laws (Forest Code—FC and Native Vegetation Protection Law—NVPL), considering the reality of land use and land cover (LULC) in the year before the new law NVPL. We created LULC maps of legal scenarios for both laws analyzed based on landscape metrics of optimal resource availability (ORA), distance from the nearest neighbor (ENN), and anthropogenic edge frequency and length (ESD and ED). Our findings revealed that changes to some technical criteria in the NVPL reduced the quantity (220–105 ha) and quality (ORAFC = 0.02 and ORANVPL = 0.005) of Diadema protected forests and altered their neighborhood relationships, stronger influenced by human-modified fields as agents of fragmentation and pressure for further disturbances. The results indicate that the new law does not substantially increase compliance (30–35%), but if it has full compliance, landscape connectivity could be improved (ENNFC = 8.6 and ENNNVPL = 11.2). Our technique to create a LULC map of legal expectation, combined with the application of selected landscape metrics, proves valid for understanding the changes in Brazilian expectative protection regarding forest conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The jurisdictional approach concept emerged in response to the widespread failure of sectoral forest conservation projects. Despite its increasing popularity, understanding jurisdictional approach outcomes is challenging, given that many remain in either the formation or implementation stage. Furthermore, diverse stakeholders hold different perspectives on what exactly a jurisdictional approach is intended to pursue. These different perspectives are important to unravel, as having a shared understanding of the outcomes is important to build the critical support needed for it. This study aims to add to the limited evidence with a case study in Sabah, Malaysia, which is committed to addressing a leading deforestation driver (palm oil) through sustainability certification in a jurisdiction. We used Q-methodology to explore stakeholder perceptions, revealing three distinct perspectives regarding what outcomes jurisdictional approaches should pursue. We asked about outcomes achievable within ten years (2022–2032) and considering real-world constraints. We found different perspectives regarding economic, environmental, governance, and smallholders' welfare outcomes. However, we found consensus among stakeholders about some outcomes: (i) that achieving zero-deforestation is untenable, (ii) that issuing compensation or incentives to private land owners to not convert forests into plantations is unrealistic, (iii) that the human well-being of plantation workers could improve through better welfare, and (iv) the free, prior and informed consent given by local communities being required legally. The findings offer insights into key stakeholders' perceptions of the deliverables of jurisdictional approaches and the difficulty of achieving its objectives under real-world constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Broad-leaved deciduous forests in the transitional region from temperate to subtropical climate in China exhibit a diverse assemblage of species. The effects of potential biotic and abiotic factors on forest species diversity are currently of great interest. Here, we quantified the diversity of woody plant species across vertical strata in a fully recorded 25-ha permanent forest dynamics plot (500 × 500 m) in the Mts. Qinling of China using 4 indices: Pielou evenness index ( J SW ), Shannon entropy (H ), species richness (S ), and species abundance. Analysis of multivariate linear regression was employed to compare the influences of potential biological, topography, and soil variables on the alpha diversity for each of the 625 sub-plot (20 × 20 m) in the canopy layer, substory layer, and understory layer. The results displayed that the indices of the alpha diversity significantly varied among different forest vertical strata and they were mostly and significantly related to the DBH structure variable, soil available phosphorus (P), and altitude. Despite vertical strata of the studied forest, biological, topographic, and soil factors jointly showed reasonably strong explanatory power for species diversity. More than 12% of the variations of the alpha diversity in canopy layer and 16% in substory layer as well as 8% in understory layer could be collectively explained by biological, topographic, and soil factors. Our findings can contribute to the understanding of how environmental and biological factors interact to affect species diversity and thus are of great implication for the preservation of forest species diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies identifying underlying and proximate drivers of tropical deforestation and forest degradation have applied a multitude of methodologies, with varying and sometimes conflicting results. Divergent results can have implications for evidence-informed programs, policy action, and land use planning since these differences can lead to controversy as to which drivers should be addressed by deforestation and emissions-reduction or conservation programs, in addition to mismatch between the scale of study results and the scale of policy and program implementation. To identify and reconcile divergences between results among different scales and methodological approaches, we systematically reviewed 231 articles in the drivers of deforestation literature and found inconsistency in scale applied within studies (e.g., differences between the stated scale of analysis and scale of article recommendations), and variation in the number and type of drivers identified between studies by methodology. Additionally, global and regional studies tended to feature recommendations that would be difficult to implement, or that targeted large-scale problems lacking specificity. This study clarifies common themes in driver identification and what is needed for drawing contextualized, scale-appropriate conclusions relevant to forest conservation policy and sustainable land use planning. We suggest improvements to recommendations drawn from drivers of deforestation studies and avenues to reconcile divergences in approaches and results, which will support efforts to advance forest conservation and sustainable forest management outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultivation of arabica coffee was implemented on the land of indigenous people outside the national park under an agroforestry program at Kerinci Seblat National Park (KSNP) in Indonesia aiming to reduce illegal activities inside the park. Traditional cropping patterns had increased the demand for land. This repetitive activity brought indigenous people to the national park for farming. We examine the economic impacts of the arabica coffee plantation program on the income of indigenous people and the changes in local activities in the national park through interpretation of maps, imagery/aerial photography, field surveys, and interviews with 244 households. Two surveys were conducted in 2016 (before the program), and in 2021 (after the program). We discovered that the average household income of the participating farmers increased by 109% after the program, while non-participating farmers saw a comparatively lower income increase of 91%. Moreover, program participants displayed a significant reduction of 83% in their activities within the parks. Conversely, a substantial 84% of households that did not participate in the program continued engaging in persistent, regular, and intensive activities within the national park.The program's achievements can be attributed to four primary factors: (1) effective coordination among multiple stakeholders, (2) the dedication and sacrifices made by traditional leaders and their families who served as program pioneers, (3) the commitment and diligence of field extension workers and farmers in practising sustainable agriculture for the cultivation of Arabica coffee, and (4) the cooperative's successful implementation of export-standard coffee bean processing and establishment of a robust market network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study is an attempt to analyze the pattern of trees distribution, population structure and regeneration status along altitudinal gradients by sampling vegetation within each 100 m altitudinal belts from 2100 m a.s.l. upto treeline ecotone (3300 m a.s.l.) in Kedarnath Wildlife Sanctuary in western Himalaya. The study documented 39 species of trees belonging to 32 genera and 21 families; among these 13 (61.90%) families and 27 (84.38%) genera were monotypic indicating poor genetic base and recent speciation of the species in the region. The results of vegetation assessment reveal that tree density, species diversity (H´) and species richness decreased with increasing altitude. The average total tree basal area (TBA) was found 60–70 m2/ha upto 2800 m altitude, which considerably declined (24 m2/ha) upto 2800 m onward upto treeline ecotone. The forest population structure showed a classic inverse J-shape curve pattern in the lower altitude zone, suggesting a healthy proportional conversion rate of individuals (seedlings > saplings > adults) of tree species into higher size classes. The absence of tree saplings in many forest stands, suggests that seedlings had failed to reach sapling stage in recent years. At higher altitudes, the population structure was hill shaped, indicates poor regeneration of tree species. These findings have significant implications for appropriate forest management and conservation planning in the Himalayan region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fire is an important risk in global forest loss and contributed 20% to 25% of the global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions between 1997 and 2016. Forest fire risks will increase with climate change in some locations, but existing estimates of the costs of using forests for climate mitigation do not yet fully account for these risks or how these risks change inter-temporally. To quantify the importance of forest fire risks, we undertook a global study of individual country fire risks, combining economic datasets and global remote sensing data from 2001 to 2020. Our estimates of forest fire risk premia better account for the risk of forest burning that would be additional to the risk-free and break-even price of credits or offsets to promote carbon sequestration and storage in forests. Our results show the following: (1) forest fire risk premia can be much larger than the historical forest area burned; (2) for some countries, forest fire risk premia have a large impact on the relative country-level break-even price of carbon credits or offsets; (3) a large spatial and inter-temporal heterogeneity of forest fires across countries between 2001 and 2020; and (4) the importance of properly incorporating forest fire risk premia into carbon credits/offset programs. As part of our analysis, and to emphasise the possible sub-national scale differences, our results highlight the heterogeneity in fire risk premia across 10 Canadian provinces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: West Mediterranean relict firs (Abies pinsapo Boiss. and Abies marocana Trab.) are closely related species threatened by global change. Government authorities in Morocco and Spain have established protected conservation areas around remaining fir groves but concerns linger regarding their effectiveness in light of emerging global environmental challenges. Objectives: We collected data on stakeholder perspectives in 3 protected fir forests in Morocco and Spain. The goal was to reveal preferences regarding emerging conservation threats in these landscapes; land use, climate change, and wildfires as well as describing local and indigenous management practices. We hypothesized that park manager preferences would not align with those of local resource users, suggesting underrepresentation of local and indigenous views on current conservation policies. Methods: We employed Q methods and analysis to explore this hypothesis. 38 park managers and local resources users were asked to numerically sort their preferences regarding 23 Q statements, 3 of which were photos depicting fir forests with markedly different structural states of conservation. Additionally, we conducted in-depth follow up interviews to allow stakeholders to identify local and indigenous management practices. Results: Through a principal components analysis of Q scores, we found 4 factors that help explain 63% of the variance amongst stakeholder responses. The factors showed statistically significant similarities between the perspectives of local resource users in Morocco and Spain and differences with park manager and NGO perspectives. Conclusions: Our analyses reveal divergent cultural frames among government managers and local resource users regarding landscape preferences and sustainable use, suggesting areas in which current conservation and management strategies may be improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) has increasingly been used in ecological conservation efforts through implementing forest policies worldwide. However, outcomes of forest policies with PES are often mixed due to the complex social-ecological dynamics. Objectives: In this study, we develop a spatially explicit agent-based model for cropland abandonment and labor migration (ABM-CALM) based on data from very high-resolution satellite images, the global positioning system, household surveys, and a population census. Methods: The ABM-CALM is used to simulate bidirectional social-ecological feedbacks within a coupled human and natural system under two large PES programs in China. Results: The simulation results show that labor migration and cropland abandonment follow nonlinear trajectories with feedback loops mediated by household capital endowment. Households tend to reduce labor allocation for migration to retain essential croplands after abandonment of marginal ones. For the reforestation program, participating households are more resilient in maintaining migration than non-participants. The model reveals the feedback mechanisms between the two concurrent PES programs through synergistic and offsetting interactions. Specifically, labor migration under higher payments of one program is more sensitive to payments of the other due to the feedback of additional cropland abandonment induced by the former program. Conclusions: Using the real-world landscape and in-situ socio-economic settings, the integrated model captures the dynamics of the social-ecological systems affected by PES across space and time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines Islamic boarding schools (pesantren) as traditional Indonesian Islamic educational institutions, showing a new face as agents in nature conservation, especially forest conservation and considering Indonesia as a country with the best tropical forest land in the world and pesantren as indigenous Islamic educational institutions owned by Indonesia. This study finds pesantren as the landscape of a forest conservation movement started by the Al-Ittifaq pesantren and the Ecopesantren community. By focusing on the eco-centric paradigm where Islamic teachings teach the concept of forest conservation, this concept is rarely taught in traditional Islamic educational institutions such as pesantren. The results found that the eco-pesantren model was created by integrating religious education and ecological conceptions of dialectical qauliyah and kauniyah verses through the involvement of community alliances. Kyai's leadership behaviour is a key factor where all three (meditation, mediation, and reflection) are formed based on the two powers of authority in Weber's tripartite (legal-formal and transformational). This study contributes that Islamic education is a religious institution that teaches forest conservation movements through an eco-pesantren format. This research contributes that pesantren can synergise religion and forest conservation movements through the eco-pesantren format. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Amazon Forest, the largest contiguous tropical forest in the world, stores a significant fraction of the carbon on land. Changes in climate and land use affect total carbon stocks, making it critical to continuously update and revise the best estimates for the region, particularly considering changes in forest dynamics. Forest inventory data cover only a tiny fraction of the Amazon region, and the coverage is not sufficient to ensure reliable data interpolation and validation. This paper presents a new forest above-ground biomass map for the Brazilian Amazon and the associated uncertainty both with a resolution of 250 meters and baseline for the satellite dataset the year of 2016 (i.e., the year of the satellite observation). A significant increase in data availability from forest inventories and remote sensing has enabled progress towards high-resolution biomass estimates. This work uses the largest airborne LiDAR database ever collected in the Amazon, mapping 360,000 km2 through transects distributed in all vegetation categories in the region. The map uses airborne laser scanning (ALS) data calibrated by field forest inventories that are extrapolated to the region using a machine learning approach with inputs from Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR), vegetation indices obtained from the Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite, and precipitation information from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM). A total of 174 field inventories geolocated using a Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) were used to validate the biomass estimations. The experimental design allowed for a comprehensive representation of several vegetation types, producing an above-ground biomass map varying from a maximum value of 518 Mg ha−1, a mean of 174 Mg ha−1, and a standard deviation of 102 Mg ha−1. This unique dataset enabled a better representation of the regional distribution of the forest biomass and structure, providing further studies and critical information for decision-making concerning forest conservation, planning, carbon emissions estimate, and mechanisms for supporting carbon emissions reductions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]