Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Forest Sciences
Spontaneous native–non-native tree mixtures worldwide: a systematic map of research patterns, with knowledge gaps and management implications
Published: 2026-10-30
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Forest Sciences
Purpose of Review: Spontaneous mixtures of native and non-native tree species occur in forest landscapes affected by land-use change, species introductions and disturbances. However, research on these communities remains fragmented. Recent Findings: We identified 238 cases. Research was concentrated in high-income countries and studies included diverse combinations of native and non-native tree [...]
Discrepancies between climate velocity and dispersal capacity threaten subalpine forests in Northern Italy
Published: 2026-10-29
Subjects: Biodiversity, Forest Biology, Forest Management, Forest Sciences, Plant Sciences
The acceleration of anthropogenic warming is fundamentally altering the climatic space available to foundational conifer species in European alpine environments. This study evaluates the potential impacts of future climate scenarios on the spatial distribution and elevational displacement of four key taxa (Abies alba, Larix decidua, Picea abies, and Pinus sylvestris) in the Italian Alps. We [...]
How Much of the Forest Do Citizen Scientists Actually Record? A Decade of iNaturalist Sampling in the Hyrcanian Forests
Published: 2026-10-29
Subjects: Biodiversity, Forest Sciences
Citizen-science records increasingly inform biodiversity research and conservation planning, yet how much of a large forest they actually cover is rarely measured. We analyzed 1,700 research-grade iNaturalist records from the Hyrcanian Forest, northern Iran (2015–2025), on a 10 × 10 km grid, comparing observed coverage with null models. Annual records rose from 48 to 386, but occupied only 43.7% [...]
Abrupt reproductive responses to weather and shifting climatic signals across thermal contexts in trees
Published: 2026-10-23
Subjects: Environmental Sciences, Forest Sciences, Plant Sciences
Large inter-annual variation in tree seed production is widespread and closely linked to weather. Yet, we know little about the shape of these relationships, their dependence on resources, or their spatial consistency. We fitted boosted regression trees (eight species; 6,491 population-level observations; 352 sites), using prior seeding as proxy for resource status. Predictive performance ranged [...]
Functional gene content of fungi in a pine needle disease system largely reflects their phylogeny
Published: 2026-10-21
Subjects: Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology Life Sciences, Evolution, Forest Sciences, Genetics, Genetics and Genomics, Genomics, Life Sciences, Microbiology, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Pathogenic Microbiology, Plant Pathology, Plant Sciences
Background: Fungi recovered from diseased host tissue can differ substantially in functional gene content, but interpreting that variation requires knowing how it relates to evolutionary history. Results: We assembled and annotated genomes for 67 fungi cultured from pine needles with symptoms of brown spot needle blight and compared them with 13 reference genomes, including established pine [...]
Pine wilt disease as a holobiont disorder: microbiome assembly as a potential management target
Published: 2026-10-07
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology Life Sciences, Forest Management, Forest Sciences, Life Sciences, Microbiology, Plant Pathology, Plant Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Pine wilt disease (PWD), caused by the pinewood nematode (PWN) Bursaphelenchus xylophilus, continues to expand globally despite decades of pathogen-focused management. Here, we propose that disruption of microbiome assembly within the pine holobiont may contribute to disease progression and help explain variation in disease outcomes and responses to microbial interventions. Drawing on recent [...]
Reframing Mangroves as Socio-Ecological Coastal Infrastructure: Development and Application of a Six-Pillar Socio-Ecological Infrastructure Framework
Published: 2026-10-05
Subjects: Agriculture, Biodiversity, Earth Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Sciences, Forest Sciences, Other Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Mangrove ecosystems are critical components of coastal socio-ecological systems, providing shoreline protection, biodiversity support, carbon sequestration, and livelihood opportunities for coastal communities. However, increasing pressures from climate change, coastal development, and environmental degradation threaten their resilience and long-term sustainability. This study proposes a [...]
Post-dispersal seed predation reflects tree species occurrence beyond local neighborhoods in a forest biodiversity experiment
Published: 2026-09-21
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Forest Sciences
Post-dispersal seed predation is a key mechanism underlying Janzen-Connell (JC) effects with seed predation expected to decline with increasing distance from conspecific trees. However, the spatial scale at which seed predators respond to the occurrence of their resource tree species remains poorly understood. In particular, mobile consumers may respond to resource distributions beyond the local [...]
Climate change experience, knowledge and management goals shape native and non-native tree species choices among European foresters
Published: 2026-09-11
Subjects: Environmental Studies, Forest Sciences
Assisted migration (AM) is increasingly considered in forest adaptation to climate change, yet its implementation depends on how forestry practitioners evaluate concrete planting options rather than on support for the concept alone. We surveyed 743 forestry practitioners and researchers across Europe, assessing planting preferences for 30 tree species differing in geographic origin, together with [...]
Does roadless rule? Social-ecological consequences of the Roadless Area Conservation Rule
Published: 2026-09-11
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Sciences, Forest Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The Roadless Rule, established 25 years ago to maintain 58.5 million federal forest acres in roadless condition, is one of the U.S.’s most expansive and debated natural resource experiments. We synthesize research on the effects of the Roadless Rule on biodiversity, wildfire, forest and watershed health, and economics to guide current and future decision making. Research shows the Roadless Rule [...]
Toward a standardized workflow for pre-processing large vegetation-plot databases
Published: 2026-08-17
Subjects: Bioinformatics, Botany, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Forest Sciences
Large vegetation-plot databases have opened unprecedented opportunities for investigating vegetation patterns and processes across large spatial and temporal scales. However, such databases are typically created by combining pre-existing smaller databases or datasets that often used different standards and protocols, leading to data inconsistencies (e.g., different taxonomy and nomenclature) and [...]
Influence of Selected Urban Tree Species on Soil Microbial Activity, Litter Decomposition, and Soil Chemical Properties in Akure, Southwestern Nigeria
Published: 2026-08-04
Subjects: Agriculture, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Forest Sciences, Other Life Sciences, Plant Sciences
Urban trees shape belowground ecological processes through litter deposition, root exudation, and interactions with soil microbial communities, yet species-specific effects are rarely incorporated into urban green-space management. This study evaluated the effects of five common urban tree species (Eucalyptus globulus, Azadirachta indica, Thuja occidentalis, Prunus dulcis, and Buddleja globosa) [...]
Centuries of provenance trials: towards predictive infrastructures for forest adaptation under climate change
Published: 2026-07-24
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Forest Sciences
Provenance trials are among forestry's most valuable experimental legacies. Established over centuries to compare species and provenances, they laid the foundation for understanding local adaptation and supported tree breeding, but remained focused on growth, timber quality, and ranking provenances by performance. Climate change calls for a next generation of comparative trials that can help [...]
Sniffing for fungi: Use of a conservation dog uncovers high regional truffle diversity
Published: 2026-07-09
Subjects: Biodiversity, Biology, Botany, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology Life Sciences, Forest Biology, Forest Sciences, Plant Sciences, Research Methods in Life Sciences, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Hypogeous aromatic fungi (‘truffles’) contribute significantly to overall fungal diversity but are difficult to find using traditional survey methods because they fruit underground, leading to under-documentation and a lack of understanding of truffle ecology. Truffles evolved to emit strong aromatic compounds to attract mycophagists for spore dispersal, a trait that culinary truffle harvesters [...]
Insects as agents of national security: entomological biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse in agriculture and forestry threaten geopolitical stability
Published: 2026-07-02
Subjects: Agriculture, Biodiversity, Biosecurity, Entomology, Forest Management, Forest Sciences, Life Sciences, Policy Design, Analysis, and Evaluation, Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration
1. In early 2026, the UK Government published a report assessing how global biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse represent systematic threats to UK national security through cascading impacts to food security, land use and climate-related feedbacks. 2. Recontextualising biodiversity and ecosystem health as determinants of national security offers a novel perspective on long observed [...]