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Non-IUFRO Publications

Non-IUFRO Publications

2024-12-02

Call for Submissions: Natural and Urban Forest Viromes and the Tree-Associated Microbiome: Composition, Properties, and Interactions

Submissions are invited for a Special Issue of microorganisms.

Recent insights on viral abundance in forest tree holobionts—which had previously only been explored to a limited extent­—has been driven by the rapid rise of metagenomics. The total diversity of viruses in forests now includes more than 120 identified species, at least twice the number known a decade ago. These viruses have a wide range of hosts: they are found on trees as plant pathogens or can be harboured by all tree-associated organisms, including pathogenic fungi, mutualistic fungi, and saprotrophs, while some others parasitize arthropods. A high occurrence of cross-kingdom transmission events between fungi, oomycetes, plants, and arthropods has also been clearly shown.

What is the impact of the newly defined forest virome on forest health? How can information on the health and vitality of forest ecosystems enable the assessment of their capacity for resilience? These questions become even more relevant when we consider the many stress factors affecting forests: deforestation, air and soil pollution, forest fires, storms, droughts, and heat waves, recently exacerbated by climate change. Additionally, trees in urban environments face fragmentation and limited root space, soil compaction, and heat and drought stress, making them more susceptible to pathogens. Under these circumstances, the likelihood that these viral pathogens will trigger an emerging infectious disease in forests or urban environments in the future is considerable.

At the same time, forest health relies on the variability of microorganisms interacting with the host tree holobiont; symbiotic microbiota and pathogens are in a constant interplay that influences the host. Through interactions between pathogens, synergistic relationships can develop, which can drastically improve the health of the holobiont. Additionally, changes in the microbiome genome can also lead to genetic variations in the hologenome.

For this Special Issue, contributions are invited that are related to the forest virome. Possible topics include, but are not limited to, the following: - the diversity and evolution of viruses in forest and urban ecosystems; - the microbiota in natural and urban forests and interactions with the holobiont; - forest plant protection based on endophytes and biocontrol agents.

Deadline for manuscript submissions:  30 June 2025
Guest editors:  Dr. Julio J. DiezDr. Artemis Rumbou
Details:  https://www.mdpi.com/journal/microorganisms/special_issues/T8U2BEOV25


2024-10-28

The Forest Factor

The role of protection, restoration and sustainable management of forests for the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework

Forests are a crucial element in most of the targets of the Global Biodiversity Framework. The Collaborative Partnership on Forests is a strong ally and advocate for countries to implement those forest-related targets. It is using its convening power to heighten the political commitment and scale up on-the-ground actions by facilitating cross-sectoral collaboration, supporting improved, coherent policy responses, and further integrating forest actions into relevant development plans and strategies.

The purpose of this report, developed in partnership with members of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests, is to highlight the role of the conservation of forest biodiversity and sustainable forest management (SFM) in achieving the goals and targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF). The report i) discusses the threats to forest biodiversity relative to recent global and regional trends and data on the conservation, restoration and sustainable management of forests and ii) identifies pathways (policies and recommended actions) to improve the implementation of the KMGBF in forests. It summarizes key analytical information and data and suggests recommendations for various stakeholders to: (i) assist governments to main- stream or update forest-related policies and commitments as planned in their National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs), (ii) assist organizations and businesses to align their policies and practices with the KMGBF to reduce impacts on biodiversity, and (iii) pro- vides increased understanding of the relationship between sustaining biodiversity and the associated goods and ser-vices from forests.

© 2024, Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

Available for download at:  https://www.cbd.int/forest/doc/forest-factor-en.pdf


2024-10-25

Resilience of genetic diversity in forest trees over the Quaternary

The effect of past environmental changes on the demography and genetic diversity of natural populations remains a contentious issue and has rarely been investigated across multiple, phylogenetically distant species. Here, we perform comparative population genomic analyses and demographic inferences for seven widely distributed and ecologically contrasting European forest tree species based on concerted sampling of 164 populations across their natural ranges. For all seven species, the effective population size, Ne, increased or remained stable over many glacial cycles and up to 15 million years in the most extreme cases. Surprisingly, the drastic environmental changes associated with the Pleistocene glacial cycles have had little impact on the level of genetic diversity of dominant forest tree species, despite major shifts in their geographic ranges. Based on their trajectories of Ne over time, the seven tree species can be divided into three major groups, highlighting the importance of life history and range size in determining synchronous variation in genetic diversity over time. Altogether, our results indicate that forest trees have been able to retain their evolutionary potential over very long periods of time despite strong environmental changes.

Citation
Pascal Milesi, Chedly Kastally, Benjamin Dauphin, Sandra Cervantes, Francesca Bagnoli, Katharina B. Budde, Stephen Cavers, Bruno Fady, Patricia Faivre-Rampant, Santiago C. González-Martínez, Delphine Grivet, Felix Gugerli, Véronique Jorge, Isabelle Lesur Kupin, Dario I. Ojeda, Sanna Olsson, Lars Opgenoorth, Sara Pinosio, Christophe Plomion, Christian Rellstab, Odile Rogier, Simone Scalabrin, Ivan Scotti, Giovanni G. Vendramin, Marjana Westergren, Martin Lascoux, Tanja Pyhäjärvi. Resilience of genetic diversity in forest trees over the QuaternaryNature Communications, 2024; 15 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-52612-y


2024-10-24

Forest disturbance and damage: Perspectives for forest monitoring and reporting

This forest perspectives paper explores issues and concepts involved in the enhancement of regional monitoring frameworks for reporting on forest disturbances and damages. First, it looks at the different meanings of “forest disturbance” and “forest damage,” terms that are often used interchangeably but have important differences in meaning and management implications. Human expectations, goals and concerns underlie both terms, especially forest damage, and they condition the data-gathering efforts and interpretations of resulting information. Accordingly, the paper also addresses the overall motivations for reporting forest disturbances and damages, the potentially impacted human expectations, and the general categories of impact and response. Next, it presents some general observations on the ecological processes underlying forest disturbances and forest damages and the approaches used to measure them, noting the following challenges these processes pose for clear and consistent reporting across space and time: complexity of disturbance processes; attributing causality and distinguishing between proximate, intermediate and ultimate causes; spatial and temporal discontinuities; measurement protocol variations between countries. Both ecological processes and their related measurement techniques are particularistic, involving various and specific measurement techniques and protocols, and they do not always conform to conceptual generalizations. It concludes with a discussion on bridging the gap between concept and practical application of disturbance and damage monitoring and reporting. Despite challenges in aggregating diverse data on forest disturbances, doing so is crucial for improving scientific understanding, policy-making, and environmental management on regional and global scales.  

Citation: Robertson G, Linser S, Köhl M. 2024. Forest disturbance and damage: Perspectives for forest monitoring and reporting. For. Monit. 1(1): 39-65. https://doi.org/10.62320/fm.v1.i1.10


2024-10-21

Summary for Policymakers: The First Synthesis Report on Climate Change Impact Assessment for Forest Sector

Like the IPCC's Summary for Policymakers (SPM), which distills the implications of scientific findings presented in its synthesis report, this summary aims to highlight the principal findings from the First Synthesis Report on Climate Change Impact Assessment in the Forest Sector; it seeks to elucidate the policy implications, thereby facilitating the decision-making process concerning climate change adaptation efforts.

The report by NIFoS was prepared by a specialized working group consisting of 35 members including representatives from one center, seven departments, and three research institutes within the NIFoS, in addition to the staff of two divisions of the National Arboretum.

National Institute of Forest Science (NIFoS) (2024). The first synthesis report on climate change impact assessment for forest sector:  Summary for policymakers. Cho, J.H., Yang, H., Choi, W.I., Park, G.E., Kirn, E.S., Jang, K., Yim, J.S., Lee, B., Jung, J.Y., Choi, H.T., Jang, Y., Kirn, C., Um, Y., Kirn, S., Kwon, C., Eu, S., Nam, Y., Cho, Y., Park, Y., Park, C.R., and San, D.C. National Institute of Forest Science, Seoul, Republic of Korea, 59 pp.

ISBN 979-11-6019-911-6 (93520).


Download link  (report in Korean/use translation tool if necessary)


2024-10-10

Does climate drive the defoliation of European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.)?

Stress on tree vitality is expected to increase due to climatic extremes in European forests. The decline in vitality of European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) that has been reported recently, makes it necessary to rethink its future adaptive potential under ongoing climate change. Here we performed a pan European assessment of defoliation chronologies on 414 ICP Forests Level I beech plots, between 1995 and 2022. We investigated the temporal trends, spatial variation, tree-specific patterns as well as climate sensitivity of defoliation at plot level. Various trends emerged and we delineated the plots accordingly: 1) increasing defoliation trends indicating declining vitality (categorized as t1 plots); 2) no trends indicating stable crown condition (t2 plots); 3) decreasing defoliation trends indicating increase in vitality (t3 plots).

Spatial variation was found among these plots but no regional grouping or clustering. Tree-specific patterns on 14 % plots were observed, characterized by an expressed population signal of < 0.85, indicating high inter-tree variability. Defoliation was found to be sensitive to climatic variables, mainly to temperature but also precipitation, albeit only for a small percentage of plots. Sensitivity was indicated by statistically significant (p<0.05) Pearson’s correlation coefficients.

Moreover, this response depended on month of the year. Climate sensitivity of defoliation also varied across space and plots of different trend categories. It also differed along monthly water balance gradient, further indicating the role of site-specific water availability in mediating the responses to climatic variables.

Our study provided basis for long-term defoliation studies, and is a crucial building block to assess beech vitality under potentially changing future climate. Furthermore, such studies will provide more insights into changes in sensitivity and adequate future sites for beech.

Andreas Bolte is one of the co-authors of this publication and Coordinator of IUFRO Research Group 1.01.00 - Temperate and boreal silviculture.

Citation
Shah Rukh, Inken Krüger, Nenad Potočić, Volkmar Timmermann, Andreas Bolte, Does climate drive the defoliation of European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.)?, Forest Ecology and Management, Volume 572, 2024, 122232, ISSN 0378-1127, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2024.122232.

Read more here:  https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378112724005449 


2024-10-09

The Enduring World Forest Carbon Sink

A new study published in Nature provides insights into the development of the global forest carbon sink over three decades.

Pan, Y., Birdsey, R.A., Phillips, O.L. et al. The enduring world forest carbon sink. Nature 631, 563–569 (2024).

"Because forests are the dominant component of the land carbon sink, we need to know how much atmospheric carbon the world's forests have been sequestering, where it is stored and whether recent trends are consistent with the desired strengthening of Earth's land sink," said the authors of the study. 

To do so, the international and multidisciplinary team, led by the US Forest Service and including IUFRO officeholders, analyzed several decades of data from the global forest community, combining this with forest area estimates from remote sensing in national forest inventories and other types of land surveys.

They found that the total amount of carbon stashed in the planet's forests was steady in the 1990s and 2000s, and slightly smaller in the 2010s.


Read:  the study
Read more:  Source


2024-10-08

Summary for Policymakers:  The First Synthesis Report on Climate Change Impact Assessment for Forest Sector

National Institute of Forest Science (NIFoS) (2024). The first synthesis report on climate change impact assessment for forest sector:  Summary for policymakers. Cho, J.H., Yang, H., Choi, W.I., Park, G.E., Kirn, E.S., Jang, K., Yim, J.S., Lee, B., Jung, J.Y., Choi, H.T., Jang, Y., Kirn, C., Um, Y., Kirn, S., Kwon, C., Eu, S., Nam, Y., Cho, Y., Park, Y., Park, C.R., and San, D.C. National Institute of Forest Science, Seoul, Republic of Korea, 59 pp.

ISBN 979-11-6019-911-6 (93520).

Like the IPCC's Summary for Policymakers (SPM), which distills the implications of scientific findings presented in its synthesis report, this summary aims to highlight the principal findings from the First Synthesis Report on Climate Change Impact Assessment in the Forest Sector; it seeks to elucidate the policy implications,
thereby facilitating the decision-making process concerning climate change adaptation efforts.

The report by NIFoS was prepared by a specialized working group consisting of 35 members including representatives from one center, seven departments, and three research institutes within the NIFoS, in addition to the staff of two divisions of the National Arboretum.

Download link  (report in Korean/use translation tool if necessary)


2024-08-28

Call for Papers: Genomic assessment of adaptive potential of populations to environmental challenges: applications to management and conservation

Understanding the adaptive potential of populations in the face of environmental challenges is crucial for effective management and conservation strategies. Genomic approaches offer valuable insights into this adaptive potential, but their application in this context still requires further development.

This Special Issue aims to delve deeper into how genomic variation influences responses to environmental pressures. By examining the genetic basis of adaptation potential, a better understanding of the mechanisms can be gained that enable populations to cope with changing environments. Such knowledge is essential for predicting how populations will respond to future environmental changes, such as climate change, new pest and disease outbreaks, habitat fragmentation and destruction, and pollution.

Guest editors:  Maren Wellenreuther, Plant and Food Research, New Zealand; Dr. David Chagné, Plant and Food Research, New Zealand; Dr. Santiago González-Martínez, INRAE, France; Prof. Lesley Lancaster, University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom; Assoc. Prof. Sam Yeaman, University of Calgary, Canada; Prof. Juntao Hu, Fudan University, China; Dr. Yiyong Chen, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Deadline for submissions:   1 April 2025

Details:  https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page/journal/17524571/homepage/call-for-papers/si-2024-000759


2024-08-26

Assessing the effect of invasive organisms on forests under information uncertainty: The case of pine wood nematode in continental Europe

Forests worldwide are experiencing increasingly intense biotic disturbances; however, assessing impacts of these disturbances is challenging due to the diverse range of organisms involved and the complex interactions among them. This particularly applies to invasive species, which can greatly alter ecological processes in their invaded territories. This paper has a focus on the pine wood nematode (PWN, Bursaphelenchus xylophilus), an invasive pathogen that has caused extensive mortality of pines in East Asia and more recently has invaded southern Europe. It is expected to expand its range into continental Europe with heavy impacts possible.

Authors:  Nick Schafstall, Laura Dobor, Marco Baldo, Andrew M. Liebhold, Werner Rammer, Juha Honkaniemi, Tomáš Hlásny
Details:  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fecs.2024.100226


2024-07-11

Seeing the Trees Without the Forest: What and How can Agroforestry and Urban Forestry Learn from Each Other?

Rita Sousa-Silva and colleagues have reviewed commonalities and differences between Agroforestry and Urban Forestry: Agroforestry and urban forestry have evolved mainly as separate disciplines, although they share a long history of tree cultivation in man-made environments. Here, they review their common threads, exploring how trees in both systems interact with and shape their environments. They examine common themes and methodologies – ranging from tree growth dynamics to environmental stressors, ecosystem services provision, and questions of governance – and identify opportunities for synergies between these fields. They emphasize the potential of agroforestry and urban forestry for enhancing multifunctional landscapes. Geographical divides in research are evident, with agroforestry predominantly studied in the Global South and urban forestry receiving more attention in the Global North. However, significant research gaps provide avenues for collaboration, for instance, addressing challenges in capturing the monetary and socio-cultural value of ecosystem services and environmental justice considerations. In light of the growing need for integrated approaches in addressing contemporary challenges, from climate change mitigation and adaptation to community well-being, our review explores what these research fields can learn from each other and provides recommendations for fostering greater interdisciplinary dialogue and new avenues for collaborations in a meaningful and synergistic manner, aiming to advance policy, research, and practice in agroforestry and urban forestry.


2024-06-11

Journal of Forest Science

This international open access peer-reviewed journal is published by the Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences and financed by the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic. It has been published since 1955 (by 1999 under the title Lesnictví-Forestry). Original results of basic and applied research from all fields of forestry related to European forest ecosystems and their functions including those in the landscape and wood production chain are published in original scientific papers, short communications and review articles. Articles are published in English.

Details:  https://jfs.agriculturejournals.cz/


2024-03-14

Forests Monitor (FM) - Journal

The Forests Monitor (FM) is an international peer-reviewed open-access journal, devoted to the science of multifunctional forest ecosystems, that aims to enhance management and conservation in support of good forest governance worldwide.

The next Issue will be published by the end of December 2024, and the deadline to submit papers is 30 June 2024.