Forest Biodiversity Research Articles

Trade-offs in biodiversity and ecosystem services between edges and interiors in European forests.

Forest biodiversity and ecosystem services are hitherto predominantly quantified in forest interiors, well away from edges. However, these edges also represent a substantial proportion of the global forest cover. Here we quantified plant biodiversity and ecosystem service indicators in 225 plots along forest edge-to-interior transects across Europe. We found strong trade-offs: phylogenetic diversity (evolutionary measure of biodiversity), proportion of forest specialists, decomposition and heatwave buffering increased towards the interior, whereas species richness, nectar production potential, stemwood biomass and tree regeneration decreased. These trade-offs were mainly driven by edge-to-interior structural differences. As fragmentation continues, recognizing the role of forest edges is crucial for integrating biodiversity and ecosystem service considerations into sustainable forest management and policy.

Treemendous: an R package for integrating taxonomic information across backbones.

Standardizing and translating species names from different databases is key to the successful integration of data sources in biodiversity research. There are numerous taxonomic name-resolution applications that implement increasingly powerful name-cleaning and matching approaches, allowing the user to resolve species relative to multiple backbones simultaneously. Yet there remains no principled approach for combining information across these underlying taxonomic backbones, complicating efforts to combine and merge species lists with inconsistent and conflicting taxonomic information. Here, we present Treemendous, an open-source software package for the R programming environment that integrates taxonomic relationships across four publicly available backbones to improve the name resolution of tree species. By mapping relationships across the backbones, this package can be used to resolve datasets with conflicting and inconsistent taxonomic origins, while ensuring the resulting species are accepted and consistent with a single reference backbone. The user can chain together different functionalities ranging from simple matching to a single backbone, to graph-based iterative matching using synonym-accepted relations across all backbones in the database. In addition, the package allows users to 'translate' one tree species list into another, streamlining the assimilation of new data into preexisting datasets or models. The package provides a flexible workflow depending on the use case, and can either be used as a stand-alone name-resolution package or in conjunction with existing packages as a final step in the name-resolution pipeline. The Treemendous package is fast and easy to use, allowing users to quickly merge different data sources by standardizing their species names according to the regularly updated database. By combining taxonomic information across multiple backbones, the package increases matching rates and minimizes data loss, allowing for more efficient translation of tree species datasets to aid research into forest biodiversity and tree ecology.

Conserving dipterocarps biodiversity in remnant forests of small islands in Batam Island, Indonesia

Abstract. Susilowati A, Wijaya K, Mawazin, Rachmat HH, Lismayati Y, Kurniawan H, Ginting IM. 2024. Conserving dipterocarps biodiversity in remnant forests of small islands in Batam Island, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 25: 726-733. The protected forest of Sei Harapan is a remnant forest in Batam Island, the Riau Islands Province, Indonesia and one of the keruing (Dipterocarpus spp.) habitats on Sumatra Island. Illegal logging for its wood and land degradation have significantly reduced the keruing population. The objective of this research was to assess the diversity of keruing species and floristic composition in the Sei Harapan Protected Forest. This study employed a vegetation analysis method using purposive sampling with plotted lines and the transect placement based on the keruing position. The research revealed more than 70 species, three of which were Dipterocarpaceae species, including Vatica pauciflora, Shorea curtisii, and Dipterocarpus rigidus. D. rigidus had the highest IVI at the sapling (52.80%) and pole (67.22%). However, D. rigidus ranked 13th in the seedling stage, with an IVI of 5.79%. The diversity index was high at the seedling stage (3.73), moderate at sapling (2.25), pole (2.76), and tree stage (2.89). The evenness index was high at all growth stages, with values of 0.94 (seedling), 0.98 (sapling), 0.91 (pole), and 0.81 (tree). The richness index at the seedling, pole, and tree stage were categorized as high, with values of 10.40, 5.39, and 7.09, respectively, whereas the richness index at the sapling stage was moderate at 3.51. The study finding pointed out that the existence of Sei Harapan remnant forest requires to be preserved considering its essential function for preserving high economic value tree species, especially Dipterocarp. The comprehensive conservation effort for dipterocarps species, is crucial considering the research findings revealed a problem of continuity of species regeneration and the emergence of new pioneer species as the consequence of anthropogenic disturbance.

Evaluating the long-term effects of near-natural restoration on post-fire forest dynamics in a wildland-urban interface landscape

Forests in the wildland-urban interface (WUI) are of high value but vulnerable to wildland fires due to abundant fire ignitions and flammable forest fuels. Restoring the post-fire Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) forest landscape is of utmost importance in order to maintain ecosystem service provision. The near-natural restoration strategy is widely employed in vegetation restoration as it enables the formation of healthy, stable, and diverse artificial mixed forests that resemble natural forests. To evaluate the long-term effects of near-natural restoration on the WUI forest landscape, which are largely unclear, we used a wildfire in 2019 near Shenyang City in northeast China as an example and investigated the post-fire forest dynamics under two different scenarios (i.e., natural succession and near-natural restoration) based on the forest landscape model. The results demonstrated that near-natural restoration can significantly accelerate the restoration process in terms of forest biomass, species biodiversity, and age structure. Under the near-natural restoration scenario, the biomass of the burned area can be quickly restored within 20 years after the fire. At the species level, the biomass and proportion of pioneer tree species such as Pinus tabuliformis and Robinia pseudoacacia decreased under the near-natural restoration scenario, while other species started to increase. Then post-fire near-natural planting accelerated the restoration of forest biodiversity, by 2070, the Shannon–Wiener index was predicted to be 1.49 under natural succession and remained at 2.02 under near-natural restoration. In terms of age structure, near-natural restoration shortens the recovery time of fire trails to mature forests. In summary, near-natural restoration accelerates forest recovery in post-fire WUI areas. Our results highlighted the impact of near-natural restoration on forest conservation to inform post-fire forest planning and management practices.

Mangrove distribution to support biodiversity management in Teluk Bintuni District, West Papua, Indonesia

Abstract. Kasihiw P, Bawole R, Marwa J, Murdjoko A, Wihyawari A, Heipon Y, Cabuy RL, Benu NMH, Hematang F, Leftungun NY. 2024. Mangrove distribution to support biodiversity management in Teluk Bintuni District, West Papua, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 25: 644-653. Mangroves play an important role in coastal ecosystems, but the areas of mangroves are decreasing globally. Understanding the ecological and geographical distribution of mangroves will be useful to develop sustainable management and policy. Thus, this study aimed to analyze the ecological and geographical distribution of mangroves in Teluk Bintuni, West Papua, Indonesia. The distribution of mangroves was investigated to see the relationships between elevation and the number of individual mangroves at the family level. Vegetation data were collected by setting 180 circular plots and geographical data were obtained from secondary sources. Our study revealed that Rhizophoraceae family was found in all plots with 97.78% presence, whereas Acanthaceae and Meliaceae families were found in half of the plots with 65% and 60.56% presence, respectively. Lythraceae, Primulaceae, Malvaceae, and Arecaceae were only found in 15% of the plots. Elevation affected significantly the presence of mangroves which there mainly occurred in elevation between 10-30 m asl, while they were lower in below 10 m asl and above 30 m asl. Species belonging to Acanthaceae and Lythraceae, such as those from the genera of Avicennia and Sonneratia, were found more abundant in the low elevation (seaward zone) than in the higher elevation (landward zone). In contrast, species belonging to Meliaceae and Rhizophoraceae were more abundant in the landward zone with the presence of genera Xylocarpus, Bruguiera, Ceriops, and Rhizophora. The distribution of Arecaceae, Malvaceae, and Primulaceae did not show a significant pattern where they appeared randomly in mangrove forests. Geographically, 12.43% area of Teluk Bintuni District was mangroves which mainly occurred in the eastern and southern parts. Based on forest status, 2.23%, 35.60%, 10.46%, and 51.71% of mangroves in Teluk Bintuni occur in non-forestry use areas (Area Penggunaan Lain/APL), conservation forest (Hutan Konservasi) in the form of nature reserve, protected forest (Hutan Lindung), and production forest (Hutan Produksi), respectively. As the mangrove ecosystem has been part of local people, the specific management to support biodiversity in mangrove forests must be put officially in the development program.

Changes in Relationship between Forest Biomass Productivity and Biodiversity of Different Type Subtropical Forests in Southern China

Forest productivity is influenced by various factors, including biodiversity, environmental factors, functional traits, and forest types. However, the relative importance of these factors in determining the productivity of subtropical forests in southern China remains controversial. In this study, we analyzed a dataset of 24 forest plots from four subtropical forest types in the Nanling Mountains with the main goal of identifying and quantifying the relative contribution of the main driving factors of forest productivity in these forests. Generalized linear regression and structural equation modeling were used to examine the relationship between forest biomass productivity (aboveground, belowground and total), biodiversity (taxonomic diversity, phylogenetic diversity and functional diversity), and environmental variables (i.e., physiography and climate). The results indicated that both environmental factors and biodiversity played pivotal roles in explaining the biomass productivity of the Nanling subtropical forests. Environmental factors had the greatest influence on total productivity, while the impacts of different types of biodiversity on various productivity components (aboveground and belowground) varied notably. Taxonomic diversity showed the strongest positive effect on the aboveground and belowground biomass productivity. However, phylogenetic and functional diversity had negative effects on productivity. Furthermore, these relationships also exhibited variations when considering different altitude gradients, with low altitudes generally leading to negative biodiversity–productivity correlations. We contextualized our results regarding the three state-of-the-art theories about biodiversity–productivity relationships (selection probability, niche complementarity, and biomass ratio) and concluded that both selection probability and niche complementarity are the driving mechanisms of productivity in the subtropical forests of the Nanling Mountains. This study offers valuable insights into the functioning and biodiversity mechanisms of subtropical forest ecosystems in southern China.

<i>Diospyros</i> <i>crassiflora</i> (HIERN) surface and subsoil leaf litter decomposition pattern along a time gradient in a humid rainforest

Litter decomposition is a crucial bedrock of nutrient recycling, organic matter accumulation, soil physicochemical properties, biodiversity and life support of forest and agroforestry systems. We therefore investigated <i>Diospyros</i> <i>crassiflora</i> surface and subsoil leaf litter decomposition pattern along a duration gradient in a humid rainforest. The study was conducted in the nursery of the humid forest research station of the Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria (FRIN) in Umuahia, Abia State. One gram (1g) of <i>D.</i> <i>crassiflora</i> fresh leaf litter was placed on the surface and subsoil of 4kg of topsoil contained in 32cm x 20cm polyethene bags; there were a total of 108 bags in a completely randomized experimental design layout and the treatments were the duration gradient of litter decomposition which were: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 14 weeks; on each of the duration, litter was collected from nine of the polyethene bags for laboratory analysis and estimate of decomposition rate. The results showed a significantly high initial decomposition rate (3.19±0.13 %day-1; 4.28±0.03 %day-1) in the 2 week duration followed by significant continuous decline until the lowest (0.04±0.00%day-1; 0.28±0.02%day-1) in the 14 week in the surface and subsoil respectively. There was a positive correlation (r=0.80) in decomposition rate between the surface and subsoil leaf litter, which yielded a model with a significant R2 (0.64), for site-specific estimates of decomposition rate <i>D.</i> <i>crassiflora</i> leaf litter. A steeper and smoother subsoil cumulative percentage decomposition curve showed that leaf litter decomposition was significantly faster in the subsoil than surface soil.

Abiotic factors impact on oak forest decline in Lorestan Province, Western Iran

The Zagros oak forests in Iran are facing a concerning decline due to prolonged and severe drought conditions over several decades, compounded by the simultaneous impact of temperature on oak populations. This study in oak woodlands of central Zagros forests in Lorestan province analyzed abiotic factors such as climate properties, topographic features, land use, and soil properties from 1958 to 2022. We found that higher elevation areas with steeper slopes and diverse topography show significant potential for enhancing oak tree resilience in the face of climate change. Additionally, traditional land use practices like livestock keeping and dryland farming contribute to a widespread decline in oak populations. Preserving forest biodiversity and ensuring ecological sustainability requires immediate attention. Implementing effective land-use management strategies, such as protecting and regulating human-forest interaction, and considering meteorological factors to address this issue is crucial. Collaborative efforts from stakeholders, policymakers, and local communities are essential to oppose destructive suburban sprawl and other developments. Sustainable forestry practices should be implemented to improve the living standards of local communities that rely on forests and traditional livestock keeping, offer forestry-related jobs, and ensure social security. Such efforts are necessary to promote conservation awareness and sustainable practices, safeguarding this unique and vital ecosystem for future generations.

How to Optimize Carbon Sinks and Biodiversity in the Conversion of Norway Spruce to Beech Forests in Austria?

Assessments of synergies and trade-offs between climate change mitigation and forest biodiversity conservation have focused on set-aside areas. We evaluated a more comprehensive portfolio of silvicultural management adaptations to climate change and conservation measures exemplary for managed European beech forests. Based on the available literature, we assessed a range of common silvicultural management and conservation measures for their effects on carbon sequestration in forest and wood products and for substituting more carbon-intensive products. We complemented this review with carbon sequestration simulations for a typical mountainous beech forest region in Austria. We propose three priority actions to enhance the synergies between climate change mitigation and biodiversity. First, actively increase the proportion of European beech in secondary Norway spruce forests, even though beech will not be unaffected by expected water supply limitations. Secondly, optimize the benefits of shelterwood systems and promote uneven-aged forestry, and thirdly, enhance mixed tree species. Targeted conservation measures (deadwood, habitat trees, and old forest patches) increase the total C storage but decrease the annual C sequestration in forests, particularly in wood products. The establishment of a beech wood market with an extended product portfolio to reduce the use of fuelwood is essential for sustainable climate change mitigation. Since there are limitations in the production of saw timber quality beech wood on low fertility sites, C accumulation, and biodiversity can be emphasized in these areas.

Monitoring Forest Diversity under Moso Bamboo Invasion: A Random Forest Approach

Moso bamboo (Phyllostachys edulis) is a crucial species among the 500 varieties of bamboo found in China and plays an important role in providing ecosystem services. However, remote sensing studies on the invasion of Moso bamboo, especially its impact on forest biodiversity, are limited. Therefore, we explored the feasibility of using Sentinel-2 multispectral data and digital elevation data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission and random forest (RF) algorithms to monitor changes in forest diversity due to the spread of Moso bamboo. From October to November 2019, researchers conducted field surveys on 100 subtropical forest plots in Zhejiang Province, China. Four biodiversity indices (Margalef, Shannon, Simpson, and Pielou) were calculated from the survey data. Subsequently, after completing 100 epochs of training and testing, we developed the RF prediction model and assessed its performance using three key metrics: coefficient of determination, root mean squared error, and mean absolute error. Our results showed that the RF model has a strong predictive ability for all indices except for the Pilou index, which has an average predictive ability. These results demonstrate the feasibility of using remote sensing to monitor forest diversity changes caused by the spreading of Moso bamboo.

Ancient trees are essential elements for high-mountain forest conservation: Linking the longevity of trees to their ecological function

Mature forests and their extremely old trees are rare and threatened ancient vestiges in remote European high-mountain regions. Here, we analyze the role that extremely long-living trees have in mature forests biodiversity in relation to their singular traits underlying longevity. Tree size and age determine relative growth rates, bud abortion, and the water status of long-living trees. The oldest trees suffer indefectible age-related constraints but possess singular evolutionary traits defined by fitness adaptation, modular autonomy, and a resilient metabolism that allow them to have irreplaceable roles in the ecosystem as biodiversity anchors of vulnerable lichen species like Letharia vulpina. We suggest that the role of ancient trees as unique biodiversity reservoirs is linked to their singular physiological traits associated with longevity. The set of evolutionarily plastic tools that can only be provided by centuries or millennia of longevity helps the oldest trees of mature forests drive singular ecological relationships that are irreplaceable and necessary for ecosystem dynamics.

Defining the Anthropocene tropical forest: Moving beyond ‘disturbance’ and ‘landscape domestication’ with concepts from African worldviews

How natural and cultural forces shaping tropical forested landscapes are conceptualised is of vital importance to Anthropocene debates. We examine two concepts: disturbance and landscape domestication. From the perspective of disturbance, humans – whether ancient or modern – are a priori negative for tropical forests, outside of and alien to nature. From this view, the Anthropocene is a planetary scale aggregation of disturbance. A more just vision of tropical forests, accepting anthropogenic influence on biodiversity, would combine ‘disturbance’ with other concepts that capture human agency and intentionality. Landscape domestication proposes that humans can shape ecology and plant and animal population demographics, making the landscape more productive and congenial for humans, upgrading or degrading the biodiversity of tropical forests. Herein, forest peoples shape the Anthropocene itself through their ‘domestication’ of the forest. Yet this approach can overdetermine culture, ignoring non-human agency, whilst human impacts can be seen as the outcome of intentional modifications to increase landscape productivity, at worst a disavowed projection of ‘economic man’. Using the convivial scholarship framework of Nyamnjoh, we argue that these ideas give incomplete views of tropical forests in the Anthropocene and can be enriched by concepts derived from African worldviews with ‘relationality’ and ‘wholeness’ at their core. These are expressed in ohanife, deriving from Igbo language, ubuntu, from the Nguni language and ukama, a notion from Shona culture. Together these concepts evince an ‘eco-bio-communitarianism’ embracing humans, God, spirits, ancestors, animals and inanimate beings in a ‘community of beings’ irreducible to the culture-nature divide (moving beyond disturbance) and allowing for the agency and personhood of non-humans (moving beyond historical ecology). This is consonant with Indigenous Amazonian worldviews, such as that of Kopenawa. Approaching human-nature relations from Nyamnjoh’s idea of conviviality, we elaborate a less incomplete and more just perspective on the cultural and natural shaping of Anthropocene tropical forests.

Projecting future forest microclimate using a land surface model

The forest understory experiences temperature variations that are dampened compared to adjacent open areas, allowing the development of a forest microclimate and associated ecological conditions. It is however unclear to what extent forests will maintain this buffering effect under increasing global warming. Providing reliable projections of future forest microclimates is therefore crucial to anticipate climate change impacts on forest biodiversity, and to identify corresponding conservation strategies. Recent empirical studies suggest that the buffering of air temperature extremes in forest understory compared to open land could increase with global warming, albeit at a slower rate than macroclimate temperatures. Here, we investigate the trend of this temperature buffering effect in a high-emission global warming scenario, using the process-based Land Surface Model CLM5.1. We find biome-dependant buffering trends with strongest values in tropical forests where buffering increases for every degree of global warming by 0.1 ∘C for maximum soil temperature, and by 0.2 ∘C for maximum canopy air temperature. In boreal regions, forest microclimate exhibits a strong seasonality and the effect of global warming is more uncertain. Thus, our results highlight the importance of tropical forest canopies in particular, in maintaining hospitable conditions for understory species while increasing their climate debt under global warming. Our research also illustrates the potential and limitations of Land Surface Models to simulate forest microclimate, and calls for further collaborations between Earth system modelers and ecologists to jointly question climate and biosphere dynamics.

Microbiotope selection in saproxylic bees and wasps (Hymenoptera, Aculeata): cavity-nesting communities in forests and wooded pastures are affected by variation in openness but not deadwood

Saproxylic insects are an important component of forest biodiversity; however, their ecological requirements are mostly studied on beetles, while other groups are less considered. Aculeate Hymenoptera provide valuable ecosystem services, and some rely on deadwood cavities. We studied cavity-nesting aculeate Hymenoptera using wooden trap-nests set in a heterogeneous partially rewilded woodland area in Central Bohemia, Czech Republic, and tested their nesting preferences in association with canopy openness, amount of deadwood, and the diversity of surrounding vegetation types. We used 100 trap-nests in five microbiotopes—forest edge, shady closed-canopy forest, open patches in closed-canopy forest, open-grown trees in wooded pasture, and shady groves in wooded pasture, over 2 years. We reared 824 specimens belonging to 26 species of saproxylic hymenopterans. We found no effect of microbiotope on total species richness and richness of nest parasites, but richness of nest builders was highest in forest edge and lowest in open-grown trees in wooded pasture. Species composition of hymenopterans was driven by a wider habitat context: despite the proximity of the habitats, the forest, especially closed-canopy patches, hosted a different community, dominated by wasps, than open wooded pasture. Moreover, open patches in forest differed in composition from the closed-canopy patches, suggesting that in production forests, the diversity of saproxylic hymenopterans may be limited by the overall low share of open canopy stages. Deadwood (amount and diversity) did not affect the saproxylic bees and wasps in any way.Implications for insect conservationOur results support conservation measures leading to diversification of the forest canopy and vegetation structure in order to support rich communities of saproxylic Hymenoptera, especially in protected areas.

Application of the Global Uncertainty and Sensitivity Analysis to assess the importance of deadwood characteristics for forest biodiversity

AbstractData acquisition for sustainable forest management has focused on obtaining high quality information to estimate biomass. Improving the quality of non-timber sustainability indicators, like deadwood volume, has been a minor interest. To explore how inventory approaches could be improved, we applied a Global Uncertainty and Sensitivity Analysis (GUSA) to evaluate which factors propagate more errors in deadwood modelling and how better data collection can minimize them. The impact of uncertainty on deadwood characteristics (diameter, collapse ratio, decay class, tree species, and position) was explored under stakeholders´ preferences, management actions, and climate change scenarios. GUSA showed that removing the prediction error in deadwood tree species and diameter would alter the most the total uncertainty in deadwood volume. We found that assessment of high deadwood volume was less uncertain for the scenarios where small deadwood items were left decaying on the forest floor (BAU) and for high-end climate change scenario (RCP8.5) which resulted in lower deadwood accumulation in forest stands and therefore also in lower likelihood of erroneous estimates. Reduced uncertainty in tree species and diameter class will elevate the certainty of deadwood volume to a similar level achieved in living biomass estimation. Our uncertainty and sensitivity analysis was successful in ranking factors propagating errors in estimate of deadwood and identified a strategy to minimize uncertainty in predicting deadwood characteristics. The estimation of uncertainty in deadwood levels under the scenarios developed in our study can help decision makers to evaluate risk of decreasing deadwood value for biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation.

Specialist carabids in mixed montane forests are positively associated with biodiversity-oriented forestry and abundance of roe deer

The ongoing transition within forest management towards more biodiversity-oriented practices, such as close-to-nature forestry and retention forestry, may benefit forest fauna such as forest-specialized ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae). However, it remains unclear how forest carabids are jointly affected by these practices in Central European montane forests, which host particularly sensitive, range-restricted carabid species, and where biodiversity-oriented forestry is widely applied. Moreover, roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), the most common large herbivore in these forests, is intensively managed to reduce browsing pressure, but it is yet unknown how this may affect carabids, alongside the effect of silviculture. On 66 1-ha plots in the Black Forest region of Germany, we sampled carabids with pitfall traps, measured roe deer abundances using camera trapping, and measured several structural variables directly related to close-to-nature and retention practices, as well as variables describing microclimate and landscape-level forest cover. We found that the carabid assemblage was dominated by forest specialists, with little influence from fragmentation of the surrounding forest. Higher broadleaf share (and canopy cover for montane specialists) was correlated with higher carabid activity-density. Increasing stand maturity (and lying deadwood volume for montane specialists), was correlated with higher species richness. Plots with higher roe deer abundances showed higher carabid richness and activity-density. Assemblage composition changed along the altitudinal gradient, and both richness and activity-density increased with elevation. Thus, carabid communities, including montane specialists and several species of conservation interest, stand to benefit from close-to-nature and retention practices, if applied throughout the altitude range of montane forests. Forest carabids may additionally profit from maintaining higher roe deer abundances, but further research is needed to understand this causal link, as well as to weigh the costs and benefits of deer culling for forest biodiversity.

Leakage of biodiversity risks under the European Union Biodiversity Strategy 2030.

The European Union Biodiversity Strategy 2030 (EUBDS) aims to regain biodiversity through enhanced forest conservation and protection, which may lead to increased timber harvest in non-EU countries. We aimed to identify the potential leakage of biodiversity risks as induced by the EUBDS. We created an indicator framework that allows one to quantify vulnerability of forest biodiversity. The framework is based on 26 biodiversity indicators for which indicator values were publicly available. We weighted single indicator values with countrywise modeled data on changed timber production under EUBDS implementation. Nearly 80% of the indicators pointed to higher vulnerability in the affected non-EU countries. Roundwood production was transferred to countries with, on average, lower governance quality (p=0.0001), political awareness (p=0.548), forest coverage (p=0.034), and biomass (p=0.272) and with less sustainable forest management (p=0.044 and p=0.028). These countries had more natural habitats (p=0.039) and intact forest landscapes (p=0.0001) but higher risk of species extinction (p=0.006) and less protected area (p=0.0001) than the EU countries. Only a few indicators pointed to lower vulnerability and biodiversity risks outside the EU. Safeguards are needed to ensure that implementation of EUBDS does not cause harm to ecosystems elsewhere. The EU regulation on deforestation-free supply chains might have limited effects because the sustainable management of existing and even expanding forests is not well considered. Sustained roundwood production in the EU is needed to avoid placing more pressure on more vulnerable ecosystems elsewhere. Decreasing species and habitat indicator values nevertheless call for global conservation and protection schemes. The EUBDS helped pave the way to the Kunming-Montreal Biodiversity Framework. Yet, lower values for the indicators mean governance and biodiversity engagement in non-EU countries suggest that this global framework might not sufficiently prevent leakage of risks to biodiversity. Effective land-use planning is necessary to balance conservation schemes with roundwood production.

Hydrological changes in Serra da Mantiqueira Range watersheds (Southeast Brazil)

The Serra da Mantiqueira Environmental Protection Area is one of the most important Atlantic Forest biodiversity hotspots in the World, and one of the main water sources for the Brazilian Southeast Region. In this study, we analyze the existence and characteristics of streamflow changes in two watersheds (Sapucaí-Mirim and Sapucaí-Guaçu River watersheds) of the Serra da Mantiqueira Range, and if these changes are due to climate change, alterations of land cover and/or external factors. Mann-Kendall and Pettit tests were used to detect changes in streamflow, rainfall and evapotranspiration data series, at different time scales. The characteristics and magnitude of land cover changes were evaluated from multi-temporal maps, produced from satellite images and the supervised classification technique. The results show an increase in winter rainfall at the two watersheds studied. No changes were detected in the streamflows of the Sapucaí-Mirim River Basin. The summer streamflow of Sapucaí-Guaçu River watershed reduced at a rate of −0.035 m³.s−1. year−1. In addition, there were sudden streamflow changes in the summer (from the year 1967) and autumn (from the year 1988) in Sapucaí-Guaçu watershed. Furthermore, the reference summer evapotranspiration of the Sapucaí-Guaçu watershed showed an increasing trend and an abrupt increase (in 1988), besides a sudden reduction of actual evapotranspiration in 2006. The integrated analysis of these results, together with the changes in land cover and population, allow us to conclude that the reductions in summer and autumn streamflows at the Sapucaí-Guaçu watershed were probably due to the increase in the water withdrawal for public supply, added to the effects of urbanization on the hydrology of the watershed.

Relating forest structural characteristics to bat and bird diversity in the Italian Alps

The global decline of biodiversity has affected European forests, involving many tree species and forest-dwelling threatened animals. An integrated approach linking forest structure and multi-taxon diversity is increasingly needed to maintain the multifunctionality of forest ecosystems. We investigated the relationship between forest structure, deadwood elements, canopy attributes, and tree-related microhabitats on bat and bird communities in the north-eastern Italian Alps. We collected forest attributes, bats, and bird data on 40 forest plots encompassing the diversity of forest types. To assess the different contributions of each forest attribute variables we performed a two-step statistical analysis using generalised and linear models, including bat and bird taxonomical and functional diversity indices as response variables. Our findings reveal that bats and birds respond differently to variation in forest structural characteristics. Specifically, bat species richness was higher in forests with both higher standing tree and lying deadwood volume. The Shannon diversity index for bird community was higher in forests with high volumes of coarse lying deadwood and stumps. Moreover, plots with mature trees, gaps, and heterogeneous diameter distribution fostered the presence of generalist species of bats and birds, while the abundance of tree-related microhabitats was not significant for these two taxa. This study demonstrates that the optimal habitat conditions for bats and birds in Alpine forests are multifaceted. Promoting distinctive elements within forest stands and a complex forest structure through adaptations in forest management interventions would enhance the conservation of multi-taxon forest biodiversity.

Integrating Remote Sensing Data and CNN-LSTM-Attention Techniques for Improved Forest Stock Volume Estimation: A Comprehensive Analysis of Baishanzu Forest Park, China

Forest stock volume is the main factor to evaluate forest carbon sink level. At present, the combination of multi-source remote sensing and non-parametric models has been widely used in FSV estimation. However, the biodiversity of natural forests is complex, and the response of the spatial information of remote sensing images to FSV is significantly reduced, which seriously affects the accuracy of FSV estimation. To address this challenge, this paper takes China’s Baishanzu Forest Park with representative characteristics of natural forests as the research object, integrates the forest survey data, SRTM data, and Landsat 8 images of Baishanzu Forest Park, constructs a time series dataset based on survey time, and establishes an FSV estimation model based on the CNN-LSTM-Attention algorithm. The model uses the convolutional neural network to extract the spatial features of remote sensing images, uses the LSTM to capture the time-varying characteristics of FSV, captures the feature variables with a high response to FSV through the attention mechanism, and finally completes the prediction of FSV. The experimental results show that some features (e.g., texture, elevation, etc.) of the dataset based on multi-source data feature variables are more effective in FSV estimation than spectral features. Compared with the existing models such as MLR and RF, the proposed model achieved higher accuracy in the study area (R2 = 0.8463, rMSE = 26.73 m3/ha, MAE = 16.47 m3/ha).