Urbanisation provides a unique framework for studying how organisms respond to human-modified environments. Although phenotypic differences between rural and urban populations are increasingly well documented, our knowledge of how natural selection operates in cities remains limited. In particular, few studies have quantified the direction and shape of natural selection acting on breeding phenology in urban environments. Using a 13-year dataset on great tits (Parus major), we investigated how first clutch laying date (FCLD) influences both fledgling output from first broods and total seasonal productivity (first and second clutches combined). We first tested whether FCLD differed between habitats and among urban plots. We then estimated natural selection on FCLD relating breeding phenology to fledgling number from (i) first broods only and (ii) total annual productivity including first and second broods. Finally, we evaluated how FCLD and habitat jointly affected the probability of multiple brooding. As in previous studies, FCLD occurred earlier in more urbanised areas. With first broods only, earlier breeding tended to be associated with higher fledging numbers in forest but not in urban habitats. In contrast, when including second clutches, a higher annual productivity was found for earlier breeders in both habitats. When controlling for clutch size, no direct selection on FCLD was detected. Earlier breeders were also more likely to initiate a second clutch, particularly in urban populations. Finally, structural equation models further showed that the effect of FCLD on annual fledgling production was largely indirect, mediated by the probability of multiple brooding and the resulting increase in annual egg number. Together, our analyses suggest that earlier laying females achieve higher annual fledgling productivity, mainly determined by a higher probability of double brooders and the resulting higher seasonal egg production in both forest and city. In general, these results highlight the importance of evaluating selection using annual reproductive output rather than single breeding attempts. We believe that the underlying proximate mechanism that may promote this advantage may be related to the dynamics of prey abundance throughout the birds' breeding season, and we encourage further studies that would compare these prey dynamics across habitats.

Understanding the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem productivity is a primary goal of contemporary ecology. However, the richest ecosystems, that is, tropical forests, remain underrepresented in global biodiversity-productivity research. We investigate this relationship in the Atlantic Forest, one of the world's most biodiverse and threatened tropical ecosystems. We analysed tree species richness and aboveground biomass data as a proxy for productivity in conjunction with environmental variables, including past and current climatic conditions, changes in forest cover, soil attributes, and topography. We investigated the shape of the richness–productivity relationship and employed spatial path analysis to assess how diversity influences productivity and how environmental factors modulate this relationship. Species richness sets a lower bound on biomass but does not determine it. Path analysis indicated that plant species richness is primarily driven by climatic stability, soil attributes, and forest cover. It also reinforced the limited effect of species richness on biomass, which was primarily driven by energy and water availability. These findings contribute to understanding the mechanisms that sustain productivity in tropical forests and shed light on assembly processes in the Atlantic Forest. These findings have important implications for conservation and management strategies aimed at preserving both biodiversity and ecosystem services in the Atlantic Forest. • The Brazilian Atlantic Forest has the highest level of diversity and productivity. • Examining their association clarifies the nature and limits of this relationship. • Species richness sets a lower bound on biomass but does not determine it. • Abundance-based explanations, independent of diversity, prevail for productivity. • Preserving top-diversity areas sustains high productivity levels, not the reverse.

• Small-scale forest loss and post-loss recovery from 2001 to 2021 were quantified in the Congo Basin. • The tracking of small-scale forest loss and post-loss recovery was enhanced by yearly maximal rNBR. • 76.5% of forest loss was small-scale clearing and 93.6% occurred within 4 km of human settlements. • Gross forest loss was 24.54 ± 1.70 Mha in Congo Basin and only 13.21% showed high-quality recovery. • Near-natural recovery can deliver four times more high-quality recovery than current levels. Despite containing the world’s second-largest tropical forest, the nuances of forest dynamics in the Congo Basin remain relatively less studied compared to other major tropical regions. While emerging evidence highlights smallholder clearing in the Congo Basin, the dynamic change mechanism of small-scale forest loss (i.e., clearing size ≤ 1.8 ha) and post-disturbance recovery is still not well understood, yet critical for the biodiversity conservation and carbon sequestration. Here, we presented a comprehensive quantification of forest loss and post-loss recovery in the Congo Basin by developing a new small-scale forest change product using all available Landsat and Sentinel-2 records from 2000 to 2021, improving upon previous products of global forest change (GFC) and JRC tropical moist forest (TMF) cover change. We detected extensive, small-scale, fragmented forest loss with an area of 24.54 ± 1.70 Mha and found that 76.5% of the total forest loss belonged to small-scale clearing and 93.6% occurred within 4 km of human settlements. Of the forest loss, only ∼13.21% subsequently experienced high-quality recovery, with greater proximity to human settlements associated with lower recovery. Protected areas decreased the forest loss rate, but the corresponding post-loss recovery was even less than that in non-protected areas, indicating that protected areas are only partially efficient and highlighting the vulnerability and exposure of the vast coverage of non-protected areas. Nevertheless, near-natural recovery of annual forest loss, defined as post-loss forest recovery without any further disturbances following the initial loss, holds the potential to achieve approximately four times greater high-quality canopy-level recovery magnitude (i.e., 50.9%) than the current levels of recovery, which underscores the importance of preventing additional disturbances after forest loss. This research provides essential evidence with which to guide the protection of the primary rainforest and reinforce policies to enhance post-loss recovery.

Tropical forests are highly diverse and productive ecosystems and store nearly 60% of vegetation biomass. Across the tropics, forests span large gradients of soil fertility, from vast regions situated on highly weathered, ancient geological formations to others on young, nutrient-rich landscapes. Tropical forest productivity, mortality, and biomass all vary systematically across these gradients in soil fertility. Aboveground forest productivity tends to increase with higher soil fertility, while counterintuitively, aboveground biomass does not increase proportionally. This disconnect is likely due to coinciding increases in mortality with higher soil fertility. However, we know relatively little about the mechanisms underlying how soil fertility regulates productivity or mortality - two critical determinants of forest biomass - and even less about how these relationships will shape tropical forest responses to global change. Here, we present a mechanistic framework for understanding how soil fertility affects productivity through photosynthesis, carbon allocation, and carbon-use efficiency; how it modulates mortality via direct and indirect interactions with various drivers of mortality; and how global change may alter these relationships. Based on this synthesis, we outline a roadmap to advance our understanding of tropical forests and improve predictions of their responses to global change.

Multiscale environmental and management effects on forest water use and productivity in contrasting U.S. regions.

Forest management and species identity shape climate sensitivity and drought resilience in temperate mountain forests.

Improving sustainable marketing performance for export-oriented MSMEs of forest products through sustainability practices and entrepreneurial marketing

Multinational financing facilities to improve environmental quality had been implemented by Indonesia at the fourth quarter of 2022, as Norway’s grant about USD 56 under the Forestry and Other Land Use (FOLU) Net Sink 2030 program. This study aims to assess the effectiveness and impact of the Norwegian grant on the development of Indonesia’s green economy using Indonesia’s 52-sector Input-Output analysis 2016 that already updated to 2025, interviews and documentation. This research finds that Norway’s grant was allocated under a Result-Based Contribution (RBC) scheme, achieved an effectiveness rate of 52% in 2023. It also boosted economic growth through increased output (Rp735,39 billion) and gross value added (Rp607,80 billion), enhanced by downstream forest product industries. Nonetheless, optimization gaps remain, particularly in governance quality, stakeholder synergy, and community-based downstream forestry initiatives.

Development and validation of a time domain NMR relaxometric method for rapid screening of soybean oil adulteration in copaiba oil-resin.

Forests provide many ecological and economic functions, but they are increasingly exposed to the invasion of various harmful insects. The bark beetle Dendroctonus micans and pine processionary moth Thaumetopoea pityocampa are highly destructive insect pests that kill living trees, leading to significant reductions in forest productivity and widespread tree death. In addition to these, Glyphodes pyloalis is another tree pest that damages mulberries, which are economically important for silk yarn production. In this study, a strain (27b2) from Beauveria bassiana was isolated from the cambium pests D. micans and Ips sexdentatus, which were collected dead from their natural habitat. Then, it was identified by morphological and molecular tests. The isolates of B. bassiana secondary metabolites were extracted from its extracellular medium and mycelium with ethyl acetate and acetone and then the efficacy of crude extracts against insect pests (D. micans adults and larvae), (Glyphodes pyloalis larvae and T. pityocampa larvae) was evaluated at concentrations of 500, 2000, and 5000ppm. Consequently, it was determined that the ethyl acetate and acetone extracts of B. bassiana 27b2 showed a 100% lethal effect on D. micans adults and larvae, while the acetone extract showed a 100% lethal effect on T. pityocampa larvae. The data suggest that the secondary metabolites of isolate 27b2 may be utilized as bio-pesticides for the control of these pests. Also, this is the first study examining the lethal effects of secondary metabolites extracted from B. bassiana on T. pityocampa, and D. micans.

Carbon stocks and stock changes in harvested wood products (HWPs) are an important part of land sector greenhouse gas (GHG) estimation and reporting. HWPs broadly categorized as products in-use (e.g., solid wood and paper products) and in solid waste disposal sites (SWDS; e.g., landfills), store carbon transferred from harvested trees. In the United States (US), estimates of carbon in HWPs have historically been reported in the US GHG Inventory and included in submissions to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. These data have been obtained from national and international statistics on production and consumption of forest products and incorporated into a compilation system to estimate carbon in products in-use and in SWDS. In contrast, estimates of carbon in forest ecosystems have been obtained from nationwide forest inventory (NFI) data collected and maintained by the US Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program. Here we describe a case study for the northern Lake States region of the US (Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin) where harvest data from the FIA program were integrated into HWP compilation systems. This advance improves consistency and continuity with forest ecosystem from NFI plots with estimates of HWPs. Over the 1900-2024 time period, total estimated net accumulation (i.e., balance of additions from transfers of harvested wood from forest ecosystems and losses from decay of wood harvested in the past) of carbon stored in products in-use was 277.0 ± 17.5 Million Metric Tons (MMT) Carbon (C) and in SWDS was 155.2 ± 9.8 MMT C. We estimate that HWPs from the region represent a carbon sink of 4.9 ± 0.1 MMT C in 2024. These estimates include HWPs produced in the region and exported domestically or internationally, as well as any HWPs produced and retained in the region, but not imports. The proposed methodology enables disaggregation with coarse national and state-level FIA data, and allows for integration of more specific, entity-level data to improve precision and reduce uncertainty in HWPs estimates in the US and improves consistency and continuity with forest ecosystem estimates across spatial and temporal scales.

Argentina has an extraordinary diversity of non-timber forest products, including edible fruits with high nutritional value and therapeutic properties that have been used by local indigenous communities since ancient times. Some species are resilient to climate change and are adapted to arid/semiarid environments, while others grow in tropical forest ecosystems. Various fruits and flours derived from these species have been incorporated into the Argentine Food Code, increasing their visibility and expanding their use as fresh products as well as alternative functional powders and flours. Growing consumer preference for nutrient-rich, multifunctional foods with clean labels is accelerating the demand for ancient and native fruits as well as alternative gluten-free and allergen-free flours that are rich in protein, fiber, and bioactive compounds. This review compiles evidence showing that these fruits and their derived flours have distinctive nutritional and phytochemical profiles, characterized by high levels of phenolic acids, flavonoids, and other bioactive metabolites. These compounds are associated with antioxidant, anti-hyperglycemic, hypocholesterolemic, anti-inflammatory, and antiproliferative activities, mainly through the inhibition of enzymes and the modulation of oxidative stress pathways. Recent developments also highlight their technological potential as functional ingredients in gluten-free formulations, microencapsulation systems, edible films, and nutraceutical products. Overall, this review identifies these underutilized resources as promising candidates for the development of sustainable and climate-resilient functional foods, while outlining current limitations and future research needs, particularly regarding standardization, bioavailability, and clinical validation.

Abstract Purpose of Review Foliar insect herbivory is a growing global threat to the health and productivity of forests. Timely and spatially explicit monitoring is essential for effective silvicultural interventions. Remote sensing (RS) technologies are powerful tools for detecting, mapping, and monitoring insect herbivory, offering scalable alternatives to traditional ground-based methods. This systematic review synthesises findings from 60 studies published between 2010 and February 2026, categorising them by insect feeding guilds and operational scales to identify key advancements, research gaps, and future opportunities. Recent Findings Research has predominantly focused on a limited number of host-pest systems and geographic regions. Results reveal a strong emphasis on landscape-scale assessments of leaf-chewing guilds, while tree-level studies remain underrepresented. Post-2020 adoption of Sentinel-2 has demonstrated strong potential for herbivory characterisation across feeding guilds. Leaf-chewing studies used spectral, structural, textural, and polarimetric features achieving high accuracy (R 2 = 0.34-0.9, overall accuracy = 73-97.7%), while other guilds remain methodologically underexplored. Phenology-aware time-series approaches combined with machine learning algorithms offer strong potential for near-real-time detection and mapping of outbreak extent, severity, timing, and frequency. Summary Future research should focus on (a) expanding studies into underrepresented domains; (b) developing flexible yet standardised host-herbivory specific ground-truthing protocols; (c) refining methods to separate foliage types and confounding stressors; (d) advancing time-series analysis for monitoring outbreak dynamics; and (e) quantifying herbivory impacts on tree growth and forest productivity. Integrating multi-platform, multi-sensor, multi-source and multi-scale RS frameworks will enable more robust, scalable, and actionable forest health monitoring, supporting adaptive forest management under accelerating environmental change.

The application of remote sensing to forest aboveground biomass (AGB) mapping has received increasing attention, and substantial progress has been achieved. Nevertheless, saturation of remotely sensed signals remains a major challenge, often leading to the underestimation of AGB in high-density forests. In structurally complex forests, saturation in forest AGB mapping is influenced by multiple factors, including data sources, tree species, and modeling approaches. Although numerous methods have been proposed to mitigate saturation, a standardized metric for quantifying saturation and evaluating the effectiveness of these methods is still lacking. In this study, by separating saturation effects from mapping errors, SAT is proposed as a quantitative metric for assessing saturation in forest AGB mapping. The saturation levels of widely used and freely available Landsat 8 and Sentinel-1/2 remote sensing data were evaluated for forests dominated by ten common tree species in southern China. In addition, a quantitative analysis was conducted to examine the effects of multi-source data integration and nine different machine learning models on saturation levels. The results showed that tree species had a pronounced influence on estimation performance and saturation levels, with SAT values ranging from 48.15Mg/ha to 147.93Mg/ha. Integrated decision tree-based ensemble models produced more stable estimation results and higher saturation levels than single models. Moreover, texture features derived from optical images and Sentinel-1 data improved both the accuracy and saturation level of forest AGB estimation, with Sentinel-1 features showing a stronger contribution than texture features alone. Overall, the proposed SAT goes beyond conventional accuracy assessment by explicitly quantifying saturation-induced underestimation in high-biomass forests. This provides practical support for comparing sensor combinations and modeling strategies, and improves the reliability and interpretability of remote-sensing-based forest AGB products in dense forests.

Critical Institutionalist literature shows that institutional bricolage explains how actors creatively blend or modify formal and informal institutions across resource settings. Using this lens, scholars identify key institutional processes: aggregation, alteration, articulation, and erosion. However, their determinants, particularly in community forests (CF), remain underexplored. This study examines how socio-economic and political attributes of actors drive bricolage in Nepal’s lowland and mountainous landscapes. Based on a survey (n = 342), focus group discussions (n = 38), and key informant interviews (n = 61), ANOVA and logistic regression reveal that social networks, well-being, knowledge, and power significantly shape bricolage processes. In subsistence-oriented mountains, these drive aggregation in timber and non-timber forest products (NTFPs) use, while in commerce-driven lowlands, powerful actors use incentives and dominant information to steer alteration for timber. Marginalized groups rely on traditional knowledge to foster aggregation and articulation in fuelwood and NTFPs. The study advances critical institutionalist theory and urges policies that account for geographical variations within CF governance.

Balancing productivity and reliability in fire-prone boreal forests.

Evaluating the reliability of tree-ring-based estimates of aboveground biomass and biomass increment in managed forests

Minimum wage regulations: What it reveals about the Chinese forest products industry?

Fennoscandia has a long history of draining peatlands to increase forest production. Since these areas are potentially large sources of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), rewetting is considered as a strategy for mitigating these emissions. However, empirical data on how rewetting affects the spatial variability and partitioning of the carbon (C) cycle components, including production, respiration and methane (CH 4 ) fluxes, are largely missing, in particular for minerogenic boreal peatlands. In this study, we addressed this knowledge gap by conducting chamber measurements of C fluxes over one growing season prior (2020) and two following (2021–2022) the rewetting of a minerogenic drained peatland forest in boreal Sweden. Our results show that higher water table level (WTL) following rewetting led to increased daytime net CO 2 uptake, driven by increased gross primary production, as well as to enhanced CH 4 emissions. Furthermore, heterotrophic respiration decreased in the second year after rewetting, whereas total forest-floor respiration remained similar due to a concurrent increase in its autotrophic component. We further found that rewetting impacts on CO 2 and CH 4 fluxes were highest closest to the ditch, however, no consistent gradient with distance from the ditch was observed. Instead, spatial variations of C fluxes were more closely related to specific local environmental conditions. Thus, our study highlights a spatially non-uniform response of all C cycle components during the initial years following rewetting. This poses a challenge for process-based modelling and the application of default emission factors for evaluating rewetting effects on the peatland C cycle. • Rewetting of a boreal peatland forest increased net CO 2 uptake and CH 4 emissions. • Flux partitioning revealed increased GPP and lower peat respiration after rewetting. • Rewetting effects on carbon fluxes were strongest near the filled ditch. • No consistent spatial gradient in carbon flux variations with ditch distance. • Spatial variability in carbon fluxes was driven by microtopography.

ABSTRACT During the period of centralized forest management from 1976 to 1990, the expansion of shifting cultivation by ethnic minority groups was widely associated with deforestation in Vietnam’s upland regions. In response, the forestland allocation (FLA) policy was introduced to promote sustainable forest management and rural development. While previous studies have mainly examined the short-term impacts of FLA on forest cover and local livelihoods, this study investigates its long-term effects on changes in forest use and forestland use practices among ethnic minority households. Field research was conducted in two upland communes in the buffer zone of Pu Mat National Park. Results indicate that FLA contributed to substantial changes in forest use, including a decline in unregulated forest extraction. Forest resources nevertheless remain important for household livelihoods, particularly in geographically isolated areas with limited alternative income sources. Most forestland recipients had shifted from shifting cultivation to more stable land-use practices, such as small-scale timber and bamboo plantations. However, these plantations remain small and fragmented, potentially constraining the scale of forest production. The findings highlight the need for continued government support to expand household tree plantations and foster livelihood diversification, thereby reducing pressure on natural forests and enhancing sustainable forest management.