The Lowland Forest is one of the most disturbed and fragile ecosystems in the Atlantic Forest biome, yet little is known regarding its successional trajectory and resilience. We evaluated changes in species assemblages and forest structure of the canopy and understory along a successional gradient (young 21-yrs old forest, immature 34-yrs old forest and late successional 59-yrs old forest) aimi...

Arctic ecosystems are characterized by a broad range of plant functional types that are highly heterogeneous at small (~1-2 m) spatial scales. Climatic changes can impact vegetation distribution directly, and also indirectly via impacts on disturbance regimes. Consequent changes in vegetation structure and function have implications for surface energy dynamics that may alter permafrost thermal ...

Leafing phenology of two dry-forest sites on soils of different depth (S = shallow, D = deep) at Shipstern Reserve, Belize, were compared at the start of the rainy season (April–June 2000). Trees 2.5 cm dbh were recorded weekly for 8 wk in three 0.04-ha plots per site. Ten species were analysed individually for their phenological patterns, of which the three most common were Bursera simaruba, M...

The absence of introduced browsing animals from Bench Island, located 5 km east of Stewart Island, provides the opportunity to compare forest structure and regeneration in these two areas of similar vegetation with and without browsing animals. The population structures of the main canopy tree species, rata (Metrosideros umbellata), kamahi (Weinmannia racemosa), and rimu (Dacrydium cupressinum)...

Fallow deer did not prefer either of the two main canopy species (silver beech, Nothofagus menziesii, and radiata pine, Pinus radiata), or any of the common indigenous shrubs, ferns, herbs and monocotyledons in three habitat types (beech, shrub-hardwood, and exotic forest). They did prefer all the common sub canopy tree species, and these comprised the bulk of diet in all habitats. Broadleaf (G...

Trees play a crucial role in the water, carbon and nitrogen cycle on local, regional and global scales. Understanding the exchange of momentum, heat, water, and CO 2 between trees and the atmosphere is important to assess the impact of drought, deforestation and climate change. Unfortunately, ground measurements of tree properties such as mass and canopy interception of precipitation are often ...

Upscaling the leaf economics spectrum (LES) from the species level to community level is an important step to understand how assemblages are constructed based on functional traits and how these coordinated traits for a community respond to the environmental gradients and climate change. In a 9-ha temperate forest dynamics plot located in northeastern China, we collected four LES traits and thre...