•Plant functional traits often impact trade-offs and synergies among ecosystem services.•A bipartite network module-based approach was used to classify the associations.•Trade-offs or synergies among ...ecosystem services may shift in different traits.•Forty-one traits affecting trade-offs or synergies were clustered in five groups.•Results provide forest management strategies from a plant functional traits perspective.
Understanding the mechanisms of ecosystem services trade-offs and synergies is critical for forest management. Plant functional traits provide an approach to identify the relationships between forest structure, processes, and ecosystem services, and to explain the trade-offs and synergies among ecosystem services. We performed a systematic literature review of forest ecosystem services trade-offs and synergies from the perspective of plant functional traits based on 216 articles. The number of associations varied greatly in terms of both traits and ecosystem services. 51.9% were associated with leaf traits, while the most associated services were soil fertility (16.7%), biomass (15.7%), and carbon sequestration services (14.7%). Plant functional traits (15.4%) associated with individual services tended to have stable positive or negative relationships with those services, but most plant functional traits (84.6%) were associated with multiple ecosystem services. Trade-offs existed primarily between regulating services (runoff control, pest control, carbon regulation, invasion control, air quality regulation, and soil conservation) and material production services (biomass, soil water content, sediment buffering of mass movement, and wind protection), and synergies mainly existed within regulating and material production services. The 41 plant functional traits that had a substantial influence on ecosystem services trade-offs or synergies corresponded to five different ecosystem structures or processes (belowground structure, aboveground structure, material decomposition, material production, and nutrient capture). These empirical findings contribute to our understanding of trade-offs and synergies among ecosystem services, and have the potential to provide effective strategies for forest restoration and management.
Understanding and quantification of phosphorus (P) fluxes are key requirements for predictions of future forest ecosystems changes as well as for transferring lessons learned from natural ecosystems ...to croplands and plantations. This review summarizes and evaluates the recent knowledge on mechanisms, magnitude, and relevance by which dissolved and colloidal inorganic and organic P forms can be translocated within or exported from forest ecosystems. Attention is paid to hydrological pathways of P losses at the soil profile and landscape scales, and the subsequent influence of P on aquatic ecosystems. New (unpublished) data from the German Priority Program 1685 “Ecosystem Nutrition: Forest Strategies for limited Phosphorus Resources” were added to provide up‐to‐date flux‐based information.
Nitrogen (N) additions increase the release of water‐transportable P forms. Most P found in percolates and pore waters belongs to the so‐called dissolved organic P (DOP) fractions, rich in orthophosphate‐monoesters and also containing some orthophosphate‐diesters. Total solution P concentrations range from ca. 1 to 400 µg P L−1, with large variations among forest stands. Recent sophisticated analyses revealed that large portions of the DOP in forest stream water can comprise natural nanoparticles and fine colloids which under extreme conditions may account for 40–100% of the P losses. Their translocation within preferential flow passes may be rapid, mediated by storm events. The potential total P loss through leaching into subsoils and with streams was found to be less than 50 mg P m−2 a−1, suggesting effects on ecosystems at centennial to millennium scale. All current data are based on selected snapshots only. Quantitative measurements of P fluxes in temperate forest systems are nearly absent in the literature, probably due to main research focus on the C and N cycles. Therefore, we lack complete ecosystem‐based assessments of dissolved and colloidal P fluxes within and from temperate forest systems.
Heatwaves exert disproportionately strong and sometimes irreversible impacts on forest ecosystems. These impacts remain poorly understood at the tree and species level and across large spatial ...scales. Here, we investigate the effects of the record-breaking 2018 European heatwave on tree growth and tree water status using a collection of high-temporal resolution dendrometer data from 21 species across 53 sites. Relative to the two preceding years, annual stem growth was not consistently reduced by the 2018 heatwave but stems experienced twice the temporary shrinkage due to depletion of water reserves. Conifer species were less capable of rehydrating overnight than broadleaves across gradients of soil and atmospheric drought, suggesting less resilience toward transient stress. In particular, Norway spruce and Scots pine experienced extensive stem dehydration. Our high-resolution dendrometer network was suitable to disentangle the effects of a severe heatwave on tree growth and desiccation at large-spatial scales in situ, and provided insights on which species may be more vulnerable to climate extremes.
•Forest management must target to priority and quantity needs of ecosystem services.•A challenge is to maximize the overall value of competing forest ecosystem services.•Balanced management is the ...optimal approach of forest ecosystem services supply.•Multi-targeted payment of forest ecosystem services supports balanced management.•Balanced forest management needs its new theory, techniques, and decision tools.
Societal demand for vitally important hydrological and other forest ecosystem services (FES) has been rapidly increasing due to accelerating socioeconomic development and global change. Combined with growing threats of water insecurity, complex forest-water interactions are especially challenging to address given the trade-offs among competing FES (e.g., water yield vs carbon sequestration, or biomass production vs biodiversity conservation). The concept of balanced forest ecosystem service management (BFESM) offers a strategy for optimizing the production of multiple FES to meet societal demand and ensure ecological integrity in ways that harmonize both the synergies and tradeoffs across desired FES and the differing and often conflicting needs and priorities of diverse stakeholders. Better understanding the complex and often nonlinear interactions among different FES and how these vary across spatial and temporal scales and different site contexts is critical to developing BFESM strategies. Moreover, the often sharply contrasting FES needs and priorities of different societal groups or stakeholders must be considered in conjunction with information about FES trade-offs. Policy strategies that introduce compensation mechanisms to account for the public good and non-market nature of many highly valued FES (e.g., clean and plentiful water supply, climate regulation) such as Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES), are increasingly being used to foster FES stewardship, yet transitioning from the conventional single FES towards multi-targeted PES (MTPES) approaches could greatly improve the effectiveness of PES schemes. Here, we present five guiding principles of BFESM and discuss the opportunities and challenges of designing effective MTPES policy frameworks. Building on the strengths of each, we then propose an integrated BFESM-MTPES framework for balancing the biophysical understanding of complex synergies and tradeoffs across the target FES with the demands and interests of diverse stakeholders. We then discuss specific tools for developing a decision support framework that better integrates and informs strategies for managing forest-water interactions and other FES to achieve BFESM-MTPES goals based on innovative, science-based approaches. We conclude by highlighting key future research directions.
Although it is an integral part of global change, most of the research addressing the effects of climate change on forests have overlooked the role of environmental pollution. Similarly, most studies ...investigating the effects of air pollutants on forests have generally neglected the impacts of climate change. We review the current knowledge on combined air pollution and climate change effects on global forest ecosystems and identify several key research priorities as a roadmap for the future. Specifically, we recommend (1) the establishment of much denser array of monitoring sites, particularly in the South Hemisphere; (2) further integration of ground and satellite monitoring; (3) generation of flux‐based standards and critical levels taking into account the sensitivity of dominant forest tree species; (4) long‐term monitoring of N, S, P cycles and base cations deposition together at global scale; (5) intensification of experimental studies, addressing the combined effects of different abiotic factors on forests by assuring a better representation of taxonomic and functional diversity across the ~73,000 tree species on Earth; (6) more experimental focus on phenomics and genomics; (7) improved knowledge on key processes regulating the dynamics of radionuclides in forest systems; and (8) development of models integrating air pollution and climate change data from long‐term monitoring programs.
Air pollution and climate change interact in affecting forest ecosystems. IUFRO experts propose major prospects for protecting vulnerable forests. We need more long‐term ground monitoring sites, satellite monitoring, species‐specific critical levels, combined experimental studies e.g. on phenomics and genomics, understanding of key processes e.g. nutrients cycles and radionuclides dynamics, and integrated modelling.
Phosphorus availability may shape plant–microorganism–soil interactions in forest ecosystems. Our aim was to quantify the interactions between soil P availability and P nutrition strategies of ...European beech (Fagus sylvatica) forests. We assumed that plants and microorganisms of P-rich forests carry over mineral-bound P into the biogeochemical P cycle (acquiring strategy). In contrast, P-poor ecosystems establish tight P cycles to sustain their P demand (recycling strategy). We tested if this conceptual model on supply-controlled P nutrition strategies was consistent with data from five European beech forest ecosystems with different parent materials (geosequence), covering a wide range of total soil P stocks (160–900 g P m⁻²; <1 m depth). We analyzed numerous soil chemical and biological properties. Especially P-rich beech ecosystems accumulated P in topsoil horizons in moderately labile forms. Forest floor turnover rates decreased with decreasing total P stocks (from 1/5 to 1/40 per year) while ratios between organic carbon and organic phosphorus (C: Porg) increased from 110 to 984 (A horizons). High proportions of fine-root biomass in forest floors seemed to favor tight P recycling. Phosphorus in fine-root biomass increased relative to microbial P with decreasing P stocks. Concomitantly, phosphodi-esterase activity decreased, which might explain increasing proportions of diester-P remaining in the soil organic matter. With decreasing P supply indicator values for P acquisition decreased and those for recycling increased, implying adjustment of plant–microorganism–soil feedbacks to soil P availability. Intense recycling improves the P use efficiency of beech forests.
Forests, the ancient wooden giants, are both symbols of natural beauty and reservoirs of carbon stocks. The current climate crisis has created an urgent need for an in-depth study of forest ...ecosystems and carbon stocks. Based on forest inventory data from field surveys and four bioclimatic zones Zone 1 (Z1, humid forest), Zone 2 (Z2, semi-humid forest), Zone 3 (Z3, semi-humid to semi-arid forest-grassland), and Zone 4 (Z4, semi-arid typical grassland), two methods Method 1 (M1) and Method 2 (M2) were used to estimate carbon stocks in forest ecosystems in Shaanxi Province, China, and explored the spatial patterns of carbon pools and potential influences. The total forest ecosystem carbon pool amounted to 520.80 Tg C, of which 53.60% was stored aboveground, 17.16% belowground, and 29.24% in soil (depth of 0–10 cm). Spatially, there were marked north-south gradients in both biomass (Z2 > Z3 > Z1 > Z4) and soil organic carbon densities (Z1 > Z2 > Z3 > Z4). The differences between aboveground and belowground biomass carbon density across broadleaf, needle-leaf, and broadleaf and needle-leaf mixed forest were not pronounced, while soil organic carbon density had the order of broadleaf (18.38 Mg C/ha) > needle-leaf (11.29 Mg C/ha) > broadleaf and needle-leaf mixed forest (10.33 Mg C/ha). Under an ideal scenario that excludes external factors, mainly forest growth, the sequestration potential of forest biomass by 2032 was estimated by M1 as 85.43 Tg, and by M2 to be substantially higher at 176.21 Tg. As of 2062, M1 estimated 155.97 Tg of sequestration potential for forest biomass. The spatial patterns of forest biomass and soil carbon density were closely related to climatic factors, and these relationships allowed the spatial division into two distinct climatic regions. Moreover, biomass carbon density was significantly correlated with the normalized difference vegetation index, soil silt, and elevation. This study provides key information for promoting the strategic shift from light-green to deep-green forest systems in Shannxi Province and updates the estimation methods of forest ecosystems’ carbon pools based on field surveys.
•Two methods were used to estimate carbon stocks in forest ecosystems.•The estimated total forest ecosystem carbon stock was 520.80 Tg C.•Mixed forest had lower soil organic carbon (0–10 cm depth) than monotypic stands.•Spatial patterns of carbon density can be divided into two climate regions.
Natural forest succession after disturbances is one of the most important restoration strategies. However, the responses of ecosystem multifunctionality during natural forest succession remains ...poorly understood in forest ecosystem.
Here we evaluated how the ecosystem multifunctionality including nutrient cycling, carbon stocks, water regulation, decomposition, wood production and symbiosis develops using a chronosequence, and identified the key factors contributing to the variations in the ecosystem multifunctionality during natural forest succession.
We provide evidence that the ecosystem multifunctionality gradually increased along with succession stages. The individual functions of carbon stocks and water regulation also exhibited increasing patterns with stand development. The microbial diversity were more principal factors than plant diversity and soil properties for the explanation of changes in the ecosystem multifunctionality. The regression analysis showed that the diversity of bacteria, general fungi, actinomycetes, nematodes, G+ bacteria and G− bacteria significantly and positively associated with ecosystem multifunctionality. Soil nematodes exhibited significantly positive correlation with most of the individual functions.
Synthesis and applications. Taken together, our results demonstrate that natural forest restoration plays a key role in promoting ecosystem multifunctionality, and emphasize the importance of soil microbial diversity for the maintenance of ecosystem functions and health.
Taken together, our results demonstrate that natural forest restoration plays a key role in promoting ecosystem multifunctionality, and emphasize the importance of soil microbial diversity for the maintenance of ecosystem functions and health.
Soil enzymes produced by microorganisms transform substrates in the soil carbon (C) and nutrient cycles. Limitations in C and other nutrients could affect microbial biosynthesis processes, so we ...expect that soil enzyme activity will reflect microbial deficiencies in C, nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) at a large spatial scale. We collected soil from nutrient addition trials in eight forest ecosystems, ranging from temperate forests to tropical forests in eastern China, and conducted vector analysis of the soil enzymatic stoichiometry to examine the spatial extent of soil microbial C and nutrient limitations. We also determined whether nutrient addition could alleviate nutrient limitation or otherwise impact soil microbial resource use. Soil microbial C vs. nutrient limitation (thereafter C limitation) was greater in the temperate forests than in the tropical forests, but did not vary with soil depth. Soil microbial P vs. N limitation (thereafter nutrient limitation) decreased with latitude, and increased with soil depth. We found a negative relationship between soil microbial C limitation and nutrient limitation, which was more pronounced in the topsoil than in deeper soil depths. Furthermore, we found that climate (mean annual precipitation and temperature), soil pH and soil nutrients were significantly correlated with soil microbial C (explaining about 23% of the variation) and nutrient limitation (responsible for about 87% of the variation). Nutrient addition represented ~1% of the variation in soil microbial C and nutrient limitations and thus did not alleviate nutrient deficiencies. We conclude that soil microbial C and nutrient limitations are more likely driven by climate and soil physicochemical properties than by nutrient addition in eight forest ecosystems. Since soil microbial C and nutrient limitations result from long-term adaptation of soil microbial communities to site-specific soil and environmental conditions, the soil enzyme activity is not modified by short-term changes in nutrient availability resulting from fertilizer application.
•Soil microbial C and nutrient limitations were studied across eight Chinese forests.•Microbial C limitation increases with latitude, but does not change with depth.•Microbial nutrient limitation decreases with latitude and increases with depth.•Climate and soil properties were main drivers of microbial C and nutrient limitations.•Nutrient addition does not alleviate soil microbial C and nutrient limitations.
Context
Recovery from disturbances is a prominent measure of forest ecosystem resilience, with swift recovery indicating resilient systems. The forest ecosystems of Central Europe have recently been ...affected by unprecedented levels of natural disturbance, yet our understanding of their ability to recover from disturbances is still limited.
Objectives
We here integrated satellite and airborne Lidar data to (i) quantify multi-decadal post-disturbance recovery of two indicators of forest structure, and (ii) compare the recovery trajectories of forest structure among managed and un-managed forests.
Methods
We developed satellite-based models predicting Lidar-derived estimates of tree cover and stand height at 30 m grain across a 3100 km
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landscape in the Bohemian Forest Ecosystem (Central Europe). We summarized the percentage of disturbed area that recovered to > 40% tree cover and > 5 m stand height and quantified the variability in both indicators over a 30-year period. The analyses were stratified by three management regimes (managed, protected, strictly protected) and two forest types (beech-dominated, spruce-dominated).
Results
We found that on average 84% of the disturbed area met our recovery threshold 30 years post-disturbance. The rate of recovery was slower in un-managed compared to managed forests. Variability in tree cover was more persistent over time in un-managed forests, while managed forests strongly converged after a few decades post-disturbance.
Conclusion
We conclude that current management facilitates the recovery of forest structure in Central European forest ecosystems. However, our results underline that forests recovered well from disturbances also in the absence of human intervention. Our analysis highlights the high resilience of Central European forest ecosystems to recent disturbances.
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