1 Although it is well established that nitrogen and light play major roles in structuring plant communities across the landscape, it is not as clear how they structure communities within forest stands. Virtually nothing is known about within-stand structure of understorey communities of herbs and small shrubs in near-boreal forests. 2 We tested the hypothesis that fine-scale (5–20 m) variabilit...

Spruce forests face many threats such as climate change and bark beetle outbreaks. Yet, dynamics have a long co-evolutionary history strongly linked to spruce forest structural dynamics. Disturbed sites resulting from outbreaks therefore should not be regarded degraded land, but early successional stages following natural Three post-bark-beetle disturbance one closed-canopy site in the Bavarian...

This paper was written by Jonathan Weiss of the George Washington University Center on Sustainability and Regional Growth* in collaboration with the Funders’ Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities. It is the fourth in a series of translation papers sponsored by the Funders’ Network to translate the impact of sprawl upon issues of importance to America’s communities and to suggest oppo...

1. Human-induced climate changes threaten the health of forest ecosystems. In particular, carbon dioxide (CO2) and tropospheric ozone (O3) will likely have significant but opposing impacts on forests and their associated insect communities. Compared with other animal groups, insect communities are expected to be especially sensitive to changes in global climate. 2. This study examined the effec...

Two contrasting strategies have been proposed for conserving biological diversity while meeting the increasing demand for agricultural products: land sparing and land sharing production systems. Land sparing involves increasing yield to reduce the amount of land needed for agriculture, whereas land-sharing agricultural practices incorporate elements of native ecosystems into the production syst...

Human modification of ecosystems is threatening biodiversity on a global scale (Whitmore 1997; W. F.Laurance 1999; Nepstad et aL 1999b; Chapman and Peres 2001). This is illustrated by the fact that an estimated 65.1 million hectares of forest were destroyed between 1990 and 1995 (FAa 1999). Many other areas are affected by forest degradation that involves logging, fire, and hunting; as a result...

In addition to academic contributions, economic impact research can provide local decision-makers with important information about economic shocks to resource dependent regions. This paper examines how economic impact models can be made accessible at the community level. We highlight why economic impact models are popular with decision-makers and the challenges that were encountered. A number o...

Direct video measurements of surface street truck traffic at eleven intersections and line segments in communities adjacent to southern California ports document that volumes of portrelated trucks often reach 400-600 per hour for several hours, immediately upwind of ‘sensitive’ land uses such as schools, open-field parks and residences. The diurnal fluctuation of trucks on surface streets varie...

Protected areas are a cornerstone of forest conservation in developing countries. Yet we know little about their effects on forest cover change or the socioeconomic status of local communities, and even less about the relationship between these effects. This paper assesses whether “win-win” scenarios are possible—that is, whether protected areas can both stem forest cover change and alleviate p...

Ethnobotanical knowledge is common and important among the tribal people but much of the information is empirical at best lacking logical validation. A number of ethnic communities residing in the study area are partially or fully dependent on the forest resources to meet their requirements. The present study analyses indigenous knowledge of ethnobotanical plant species and utilization of 68 sp...