The sampling area extended through the North Cachar hills in the Karbi-Anglong and Dima Hasao districts, formerly known collectively as North Cachar Hills. It included forest classified as 2B/C2 Cachar tropical semi-evergreen forest and 4E/RS1 tropical riparian fringing forest, with Dipterocarpus, Artocarpus and Gluta identified as dominant forest genera. The region receives annual rainfall of 1,500–3,750 mm, mainly from June through August, and has temperatures ranging from 5 to 32 °C.

Researchers used four belt transects, each 200 m long and 10 m wide, positioned at 7–8 km intervals perpendicular to the road from southern Panimore-Patherkore to Longphu-Digram. Ten randomly positioned 10 m × 10 m quadrats were established along each transect, producing 40 quadrats in total. Trees with circumference at breast height of at least 31.4 cm were sampled in the 10 m × 10 m plots, shrubs and saplings were recorded in nested 5 m × 5 m plots, and herbs were counted in nested 1 m × 1 m plots.

The investigators calculated density, abundance, frequency and dominance for each vegetation stratum. They also used species richness, the Shannon-Wiener diversity index, Pielou’s evenness index, Sorenson’s similarity index and the Importance Value Index. Trees were assigned to ten circumference-at-breast-height classes, while regeneration status was determined from the numbers of seedlings, saplings and adults in each tree population.

The overstorey contained 445 tree individuals representing 52 species, 44 genera and 28 families, with a density of 445 individuals per hectare and total basal area of 50.87 m² per hectare. Euphorbiaceae and Moraceae were the most species-rich families, each with five species. Holarrhena pubescens had the highest tree density at 35 individuals per hectare and the highest Importance Value Index at 29.67, whereas Protium serratum had the largest basal area at 19.78 m² per hectare.

Other species with high Importance Value Index values were Mangifera sylvatica at 14.69, Homonoia riparia at 13.74, Ficus benghalensis at 12.70 and Machilus parviflora at 11.86. The tree-layer Shannon-Wiener diversity index was 3.631, the Simpson index was 0.036 and the evenness index was 0.069. The low evenness value was consistent with an uneven distribution of individuals among species, with a smaller number of species accounting for a disproportionate share of the community.

The understorey contained 3,870 sapling or shrub individuals from 31 species and 157,250 herb or seedling individuals from 41 species, including seven pteridophyte species. Bambusa tulda and Chromolaena odorata were the most frequent species in these layers and had the highest Importance Value Index values. Poaceae was the most species-rich and most important family in both the sapling and seedling layers. Almost 80% of the dominant shrub and herbaceous species were native, with centres of origin in the Indian subcontinent, Indo-China, Southeast Asia and the Himalayan region.

Tree populations followed an overall reverse J-shaped size-class curve. Stand density and species richness were highest in the 30–60 cm girth class and declined as girth increased through 270 cm. Basal area reached 34.45 m² per hectare in the 90–120 cm class and was lowest, at 9.91 m² per hectare, in the 0–30 cm class. Homonoia riparia, Lepisanthes senegalensis and Machilus parviflora showed reverse J-shaped population structures, while Protium serratum had an interrupted curve.

Regeneration was limited across much of the tree assemblage. Of the 52 tree species, 23% had good regeneration, 17% poor regeneration and 3% fair regeneration, leaving 57% outside those three categories. Homonoia riparia, Lepisanthes senegalensis and Holarrhena pubescens had established saplings and seedlings. Aquilaria agallocha, Ixonanthes reticulata, Lithocarpus elegans, Magnolia gustavii, Protium serratum, Balakata baccata and Terminalia citrina were classified as non-regenerating.

The study was limited to one sampling season and a set of 40 quadrats in non-protected forests along one river corridor, so its results describe the surveyed stands rather than all forests in Northeast India. The authors noted that recurring disturbance, including shifting cultivation known locally as Jhum, timber extraction and expanding monoculture plantations of betelnut and rubber, was affecting forests in the study area. They concluded that quantitative analysis of tree and shrub diversity, particularly for rare, endemic and globally threatened species, would assist conservation and forest management in the Cachar Hills.

Subject of Research: Vegetation diversity, composition and tree regeneration in tropical semi-evergreen forests of Assam’s Cachar Hills

Article Title: Investigation of the vegetation structure, diversity and composition in the tropical semi-evergreen forests of Northeast India

Article References: Nautiyal, D. C., & Manish, K. (2025). Investigation of the vegetation structure, diversity and composition in the tropical semi-evergreen forests of Northeast India. Italian Botanist, 19, 31-43. https://doi.org/10.3897/italianbotanist.19.143517

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/italianbotanist.19.143517

Keywords: forest ecology, vegetation structure, understorey diversity, tree regeneration, tropical semi-evergreen forest, Cachar Hills, Assam, Kopili River, species richness, forest disturbance, Investigation, vegetation

The researchers surveyed six sites in Aalo Forest Division, West Siang District, within India’s Eastern Himalaya. The sites extended from 28°20′50″N to 28°40′21″N and from 94°21′42″E to 94°42′32″E, at elevations of 450–950 m. The area receives an average of 2,300 mm of monsoon rain annually, with temperatures of 18–22°C and relative humidity of 77–98%. Sampling took place in March–April, July and October over three years.

Vegetation was measured with nested quadrats: 10 × 10 m plots recorded trees with circumference at breast height above 30 cm, 5 × 5 m plots recorded shrubs and saplings with circumference of 10–30 cm, and 1 × 1 m plots recorded herbs below 10 cm. Species-area curves determined the number of quadrats needed at each location. The researchers analysed species richness, density, abundance, frequency, dominance, Shannon-Wiener diversity, Pielou evenness, importance value and tree population structure.

Disturbance was represented by a cumulative score based on four locally predominant pressures: proximity to roads, proximity to habitation, tree cutting or lopping, and browsing or grazing by domestic cattle. Tatogito was classified as least disturbed, Roying, Poma Basti and Tagurshit as moderately disturbed, and the two BB Camp sites as highly disturbed. The study was a comparison among six locations along an assumed gradient, not a longitudinal assessment of change through time, and the disturbance score was a surrogate based on field indicators rather than a direct experimental manipulation.

A total of 160 plant species was recorded across the six sites, comprising 54 tree, 30 shrub and 76 herb species. Mean tree species richness declined from 3.2 ± 1.03 in the least disturbed site to 1.9 ± 0.57 in highly disturbed sites, while shrub richness declined from 2 ± 0.82 to 1.5 ± 0.53. Herb richness differed: the moderately disturbed site had the highest mean value, 3.7 ± 1.2. Mean tree and shrub richness differed significantly among sites, as did mean density in all three vegetation classes.

Diversity and evenness measures did not change in parallel. Tree Shannon-Wiener diversity was highest at the least disturbed site, with a value of 2.79, and lowest at the highly disturbed BB Camp Basti site, where it was 1.65. Herb diversity was highest at Tagurshit, a moderately disturbed site, at 2.96, while shrub diversity reached its maximum at the highly disturbed BB Camp Bamboo bridge area, at 2.04. Tree evenness was greatest in the highly disturbed BB Camp Basti site, at 0.24, whereas shrub and herb evenness reached their maxima in the least disturbed Tatogito site.

Density responses also varied among vegetation layers. Mean tree density was highest in the least disturbed forest at 3.4 ha⁻¹ ± 0.5 and lowest in the highly disturbed sites at 2.55 ha⁻¹ ± 1.2. Shrub density ranged from 6.30 ha⁻¹ ± 0.8 at Tatogito to 8.40 ha⁻¹ ± 1.7 at the highly disturbed BB Camp Bamboo bridge area. Herb density was lowest in the least disturbed site, at 6.70 ha⁻¹ ± 1.1, and highest in the highly disturbed BB Camp Basti area, at 23.3 ha⁻¹ ± 2.7. Thus, higher disturbance was associated with fewer trees but more shrubs and herbs at the surveyed sites.

Species composition and tree population structure also varied across the gradient. Tree-family richness fell from 18 families at the least disturbed site to 13 at the highly disturbed site, and Anacardiaceae was the only recorded family present at every site. Alnus nepalensis, Engelhardtia spicata and Albizia odoratissima were the dominant trees in the least, moderately and highly disturbed sites, respectively. At all six sites, trees were most abundant in the 30.1–90 cm circumference classes and least abundant in the 150.1–210 cm classes. Principal component analysis of tree basal area separated the six sites, with the first two axes accounting for 51.92% of the variation in species composition.

Together, the observations indicate that disturbance in these semi-evergreen forests did not produce a uniform response across vegetation layers. The study associated the decline in tree richness, density, basal area and large-tree representation with increasing disturbance, while some shrub and herb measures were greatest at moderate or high disturbance levels. The exotic herb Ageratum conyzoides was absent from the least disturbed forest but dominated highly disturbed sites, and the authors linked disturbed sites with proliferation of disturbance-tolerant shrubs and exotic herbs. Because the research covered only six sites and measured one regional disturbance gradient, the results characterize local associations rather than demonstrating causal or long-term changes throughout the Eastern Himalaya.

Subject of Research: Comparative field study of disturbance effects on tree, shrub and herb communities in six tropical semi-evergreen forests in Arunachal Pradesh, India

Article Title: Anthropogenic disturbance produces divergent effects in the community structure and composition of tropical semi-evergreen forests in the Eastern Himalaya

Article References: Nautiyal, D. C., & Manish, K. (2024). Anthropogenic disturbance produces divergent effects in the community structure and composition of tropical semi-evergreen forests in the Eastern Himalaya. BioRisk, 22, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.3897/biorisk.22.120802

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/biorisk.22.120802

Keywords: anthropogenic disturbance, Eastern Himalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, semi-evergreen forests, plant diversity, species richness, community composition, vegetation structure, forest ecology, Anthropogenic, disturbance, produces

Marcelleina evangelinae is a small woodland fungus with sessile, disc-shaped apothecia, the open reproductive structures commonly called cups. Its fruiting bodies measure 5–9 millimetres across and are dark purple to nearly black, with a smooth hymenium and a slightly rugose outer surface. Young specimens can be cup-shaped before flattening as they mature. The species grows gregariously on decaying wood beneath the Mexican cypress, Cupressus lusitanica, in temperate, humid forest. Its holotype was collected near Los Pilares in Yécora municipality, Sonora, at 1,297 metres above sea level, while another specimen was recorded at San Simón El Alto in Malinalco, Estado de México.

The microscopic characters of M. evangelinae provide several ways to distinguish it from its nearest known relative, Marcelleina persoonii. Its asci are cylindrical, contain eight spores and measure 120–200 by 12–13 micrometres, shorter than the 180–250 by 12–16.5 micrometre asci reported for M. persoonii. Its paraphyses, the sterile filaments among the spore-bearing asci, are 3–4 micrometres wide rather than less than 3 micrometres in the comparison species. Most conspicuous in electron-microscope images are the globose ascospores, which measure 9–11 micrometres and carry a dense, complete reticulum: a continuous raised network of ridges about 0.5–0.8 micrometres high. The species is also unusual within its genus because it grows on decaying wood rather than directly on soil.

Smardaea perezsilvae has a different microscopic profile but shares the conspicuous purple coloration. Its apothecia range from 5 to 11 millimetres in diameter and are deep violet to dark violet, remaining somewhat cup-shaped when young and becoming slightly disc-like at maturity. The specimens were found gregariously in soil beneath Abies religiosa, or oyamel fir, at Monte Tlaloc in Texcoco municipality, Estado de México, at an altitude of 3,106 metres. Its spores are larger and more elongated than those of M. evangelinae, measuring 20–26 by 10–12 micrometres. They are ellipsoid to fusoid, contain two conspicuous oil droplets and bear low ridges together with a small number of pustules. This ornamentation separates the fungus from Smardaea amethystina, whose similar-sized spores carry thick, rounded pustules.

DNA evidence supported the separation of both fungi from known species. For M. evangelinae, the researchers combined sequences from the internal transcribed spacer region of ribosomal DNA, the nuclear large-subunit ribosomal gene and the beta-tubulin gene. The resulting matrix contained 1,891 aligned positions across 17 taxa. Maximum-parsimony, maximum-likelihood and Bayesian analyses consistently recovered the new species as a distinct, highly supported lineage, with 100% bootstrap support and a Bayesian posterior probability of 1. For S. perezsilvae, the analysis combined nuclear large-subunit ribosomal DNA, the mitochondrial small-subunit region and translation elongation factor 1-alpha, producing 2,121 aligned positions across 12 taxa. All three analytical methods again supported the new species with full bootstrap support and a posterior probability of 1.

The study also used chemical stains to probe what might be responsible for the fungi’s purple appearance. Ferric chloride produced gray-to-black reactions, indicating phenolic compounds in several tissues and extracellular matrices. Tests with other reagents indicated furan derivatives, terpenoids, peptides and alkaloids in particular structures. M. evangelinae contained phenolic material in parts of its outer and inner tissues, paraphyses and immature spores; alkaloids also occurred in immature spores and the extracellular matrix of the medullary excipulum. S. perezsilvae showed phenolic material in its paraphyses and ectal excipulum, terpenoids in asci, paraphyses, ectal tissue and spore oil droplets, peptides in the spore wall, and alkaloids in the medullary excipulum. These tests identify broad chemical classes, not the exact pigment molecules, which remain unknown.

The violet fungi are more than a colorimetric curiosity. Purple pigments are known in several Pezizales families and are commonly concentrated in paraphyses, but the precise chemistry of many remains unresolved. Related groups have produced molecules with antioxidant, anti-inflammatory or other biological effects, and the phenolic substances detected here make the new species promising candidates for further chemical investigation. The research did not directly test those activities, so their efficacy cannot yet be inferred from color alone. Establishing the structures of the pigments would require isolation, purification and molecular characterization, and could clarify both their ecological roles and their potential uses in biotechnology or medicine.

Both discoveries also illustrate how much remains unknown about cup fungi in Mexico’s mountain forests. Pezizales are important components of forest ecosystems, where many species participate in ectomycorrhizal associations, form partnerships with tree roots, and help break down organic matter. The authors note that temperate conifer forests are particularly vulnerable to climate change, soil loss and wildfire. M. evangelinae represents the first Marcelleina species described from the Americas, whereas S. perezsilvae is the first member of that genus formally reported from Mexico based on the new material. The occurrence of both fungi in well-studied regions suggests that additional collecting could uncover more species, especially where decaying wood and forest soils remain undisturbed.

The taxonomy also exposes unresolved relationships within Pezizales. Marcelleina was historically treated in different ways and was eventually placed in Pezizaceae through molecular research, while Smardaea became part of the family Pyropyxidaceae. The analysis showed that M. evangelinae belongs to a group of related Marcelleina species, whereas S. perezsilvae is closest among the sampled taxa to S. verrucispora, despite marked differences in spore form and ornamentation. Limited DNA sampling remains a constraint: only three of the previously recognized 11 Smardaea species had suitable nuclear large-subunit sequences available for this study. The researchers therefore recommend broader systematic sampling to clarify species boundaries, generic relationships and the criteria used to classify members of Pezizales.

What emerges from the work is a portrait of two understated but ecologically intriguing organisms whose purple color is only the most visible feature. One species exploits decaying wood in Mexican cypress forest; the other fruits in soil beneath high-altitude fir. Between them, they combine distinctive spores, molecular identities and a shared chemistry of phenolic pigments. The findings extend the recorded range of both genera, demonstrate the value of combining field observation with microscopy and sequencing, and point toward a still-unexplored reservoir of fungal diversity in threatened temperate forests of Mexico.

Subject of Research: Description of two new purple Pezizales species from temperate forests in Mexico using morphology, histochemistry and multilocus phylogeny

Article Title: Two new purplish species of Pezizales from the temperate forests of Mexico: Marcelleina evangelinae ( Pezizaceae ) and Smardaea perezsilvae ( Pyropyxidaceae )

Article References: Raymundo, T., Sánchez-Flores, M., Martínez González, C. R., Alvarez-Cortés, P. M., García-Jiménez, J., & Esqueda, M. (2026). Two new purplish species of Pezizales from the temperate forests of Mexico: Marcelleina evangelinae (Pezizaceae) and Smardaea perezsilvae (Pyropyxidaceae). MycoKeys, 136, 37-59. https://doi.org/10.3897/mycokeys.136.195741

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/mycokeys.136.195741

Keywords: mycology, Pezizales, Mexico, purple fungi, new species, DNA phylogeny, forest ecology, microscopy, fungal pigments, purplish, species, temperate

The research, published in BMC Plant Biology, was conducted by Guanjie Wang of Henan Agricultural University and colleagues, working in permanent forest monitoring plots established in the Baotianman National Nature Reserve. The team analyzed a total of six hectares of forest, a substantial area for this kind of work, in a region where the cold-loving coniferous and broadleaved forests of the temperate zone give way to the species-rich evergreen and deciduous forests of the subtropics. This transition zone is a natural laboratory for studying how ecological rules change with climate, because both ectomycorrhizal and arbuscular mycorrhizal trees coexist there in varying proportions, allowing researchers to ask what happens to a forest as one fungal guild replaces the other.

The central question was deceptively simple: as the relative abundance of ectomycorrhizal trees rises, what happens to the forest’s aboveground biomass, the total mass of living wood, bark, and branches above the soil? Aboveground biomass matters enormously because it is the most direct measure of the carbon a forest pulls from the atmosphere and locks away in its trunks. It also reflects the forest’s productivity, its successional maturity, and its vulnerability to disturbances such as storms and droughts. But biomass does not exist in isolation. It is shaped by how many species share the canopy, by the range of tree sizes present, and by the competitive and facilitative interactions among neighbors. Disentangling these threads requires both careful measurement and sophisticated statistics.

To do so, the researchers deployed a three-tiered analytical strategy. First, they used bivariate regressions to examine simple pairwise relationships between variables. Second, they built Gaussian linear mixed-effects models, which allow scientists to estimate the influence of fixed predictors, such as mycorrhizal abundance, while accounting for random variation among plots. Third, and most revealing, they constructed a mixed-effects piecewise structural equation model, a framework that maps networks of hypothesized cause-and-effect pathways simultaneously rather than testing each link in isolation. This approach matters because ecological variables are deeply intertwined: a fungus-driven shift in species composition could influence biomass directly, or indirectly by changing how many species coexist or how variable tree sizes are, and only a path analysis can separate these routes.

The headline finding is striking. In the mixed-effects model, the relative abundance of large ectomycorrhizal trees accounted for 42.66 percent of the explained fixed-effect variation in aboveground biomass, while species richness accounted for 31.46 percent. In other words, the identity of the fungal partnership a tree forms predicted more of the variation in forest carbon storage than the sheer number of species did. The piecewise structural equation model sharpened the picture further: large ectomycorrhizal tree relative abundance showed the strongest direct positive association with biomass of any variable tested, with a standardized path coefficient of 0.570 and a p-value below 0.001, indicating an extremely unlikely chance occurrence.

Yet the story is not one of fungal dominance producing unambiguously richer forests. Species richness, although its direct link to biomass was weaker, accumulated influence through indirect routes, and its total effect on biomass, 0.466, slightly exceeded the total effect of large ectomycorrhizal tree abundance, which was 0.425. This means that while ectomycorrhizal trees are the heavyweight champions of direct carbon accumulation, diversity contributes to biomass through a web of secondary pathways, perhaps by improving resource partitioning, filling canopy gaps, or buffering the stand against environmental fluctuations. Both dimensions of forest structure matter, but they matter in different ways and through different mechanisms.

The negative side of the ledger is equally important. As large ectomycorrhizal tree abundance rose, the relative abundance of arbuscular mycorrhizal trees fell, with a path coefficient of −0.509, and tree-diameter variation collapsed even more dramatically, with a coefficient of −0.803. Diameter variation is a measure of how unevenly sized the trees in a stand are; high variation signals a forest with towering old giants alongside young saplings, a hallmark of complex, multi-aged structure. Its sharp decline under ectomycorrhizal dominance suggests that these forests become more uniformly sized, perhaps because ectomycorrhizal trees, with their ability to tap nitrogen directly through fungal networks, outcompete neighbors and drive the stand toward a narrower range of growth trajectories.

Crucially, when the researchers summed up all the indirect effects of ectomycorrhizal abundance on biomass, the total was negative, at −0.145. The suppression of species richness and the flattening of tree-size variation together worked against carbon storage, even as the direct pathway pushed it upward. The net result is that the positive relationship between ectomycorrhizal dominance and biomass is driven almost entirely by the direct route, the sheer capacity of these trees and their fungi to build wood, rather than by any indirect benefit flowing through structural complexity. This is a subtle but important correction to simpler narratives that equate fungal type with forest quality.

Why would ectomycorrhizal trees be such efficient carbon accumulators? The answer likely lies in fungal physiology. Ectomycorrhizal fungi can access organic forms of nitrogen, breaking down complex soil compounds that arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi largely cannot exploit. In nitrogen-limited temperate forests, this capability gives ectomycorrhizal trees a decisive edge, allowing them to sustain high growth rates on nutrient-poor soils. Many ectomycorrhizal species, such as pines and oaks, also tend toward denser, longer-lived wood, which stores more carbon per unit volume. The trade-off is that the same traits that make these trees competitive, including dense canopies and litter that alters soil chemistry, can exclude arbuscular mycorrhizal species and reduce the recruitment opportunities that maintain a diverse, uneven-aged forest.

The implications reach well beyond the mountains of central China. As climate change shifts the ranges of tree species, and as nitrogen deposition alters soil nutrient availability, the global balance between ectomycorrhizal and arbuscular mycorrhizal forests is expected to move. Models that forecast future carbon storage often treat forests as interchangeable pools of biomass, but this study suggests that the fungal identity of the dominant trees is a first-order control on both carbon and biodiversity outcomes. A future forest dominated by ectomycorrhizal species may store more carbon per hectare while supporting fewer species and a simpler size structure, a trade-off that conservation planners and climate policymakers will need to weigh together. The hidden marketplace beneath our feet, it turns out, helps set the terms for everything above it.

Subject of Research: Associations between ectomycorrhizal tree abundance, species diversity, tree-size variation, and aboveground biomass in temperate–subtropical transition forests

Article Title: Ectomycorrhizal tree relative abundance is associated with higher aboveground biomass but reduced species richness and tree-size variation in temperate–subtropical transition forests

Article References: Wang, G., Shi, K., Zhang, T., Huang, Q., Zhao, B., Chen, Z., Qian, J., Kong, D., Yang, L., Yu, C., Jin, X., & Wang, T. (2026). Ectomycorrhizal tree relative abundance is associated with higher aboveground biomass but reduced species richness and tree-size variation in temperate–subtropical transition forests. BMC Plant Biology. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12870-026-09910-y

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s12870-026-09910-y

Keywords: ectomycorrhiza, arbuscular mycorrhiza, aboveground biomass, species richness, tree-size variation, forest ecology, mycorrhizal fungi, temperate–subtropical transition, carbon storage, structural equation modeling, Baotianman, plant ecology

The research, published in the journal Caucasiana, set out to test two widely held assumptions drawn from western European forestry science: that deadwood accumulates more heavily in old-growth forests than in managed ones, and that natural regeneration is denser and more diverse where no cutting takes place. Both hypotheses were rejected by the data. Instead, the study paints a more complicated picture of how Georgian beech forests respond to timber harvesting, and it raises a warning about the long-term sustainability of current logging practices.

Oriental beech is the backbone of Georgian forestry, dominating roughly half of the country’s forests. In eastern Georgia it thrives between 1,000 and 2,000 meters above sea level, with optimal growth conditions between 1,000 and 1,500 meters, precisely the elevation band where most modern cuttings occur. To understand what harvesting does to these ecosystems, the researchers established ten study plots, each 37.5 by 37.5 meters, in the core zone of the Lagodekhi Protected Area, an unmanaged old-growth forest near the Azerbaijani border. Ten matching plots were laid out 20 kilometers to the east at Mtisdziri, on the same northwestern slope, the same soil type and similar site conditions, but in managed forest where cutting had occurred either five or fifteen years earlier.

The contrast in stand structure was stark. The old-growth forest at Lagodekhi held a living standing volume of 640 cubic meters per hectare, with Oriental beech making up 82 percent of the trees. The managed forest at Mtisdziri held only 271 cubic meters per hectare, and beech had fallen to just 41 percent of the tree count. Caucasian hornbeam (Carpinus caucasica), a minor player in the virgin forest at 7 percent, had surged to 39 percent in the managed stands. Linden (Tilia begoniifolia) held steady at around 7 to 8 percent in both areas, while scattered individuals of aspen, goat willow, wild cherry and wych elm appeared only in the logged forest.

Statistically, total tree species richness did not differ significantly between the two areas, with a p-value of 0.09. But the composition shift toward hornbeam is what concerns the authors. Dolukhanov had already noted decades ago that Caucasian hornbeam can replace Oriental beech in managed areas, and the new data confirm that this replacement is underway. In nearby unmanaged patches adjacent to the Mtisdziri plots, beech still prevails, suggesting the shift is a direct consequence of harvesting rather than a difference in site conditions.

The deadwood findings are the study’s most provocative result. In relative terms, deadwood made up only 5 percent of total wood volume in the old-growth forest but 14 percent in the managed forest, both five and fifteen years after cutting. Yet in absolute terms the two forest types were nearly identical: about 34 cubic meters of deadwood per hectare at Lagodekhi versus 43 at Mtisdziri, a difference well within the range of statistical noise. The explanation is simple arithmetic. Loggers in Georgia leave habitat trees and coarse woody debris behind when they cut, so the deadwood pool stays intact while the living volume collapses. Because the denominator shrinks, the relative deadwood share rises even though nothing was added.

This has real consequences for certification and sustainability assessment. Across Central Europe, deadwood proportions are a cornerstone indicator for judging sustainable forest management. The study argues that in Georgia, with its abundance of old-growth forest and its logging tradition of retaining dead and habitat trees, this indicator can be actively misleading. A heavily logged stand can look more natural by this metric than a pristine one. The authors suggest that maximum tree diameter or other old-growth indicators may serve better as yardsticks of naturalness in the Caucasus.

Regeneration told a similarly counterintuitive story. The managed forest actually hosted more seedlings, 14,200 per hectare compared with 9,588 in the old-growth forest, though the difference was not statistically significant. In the virgin forest, half of all seedlings were beech and 28 percent were linden. In the managed forest, hornbeam dominated the regeneration layer at 57 percent, with beech at 42 percent. Most strikingly, 92 percent of the tallest seedlings, those between one and two meters, were hornbeam, meaning the next generation of the managed forest is already tilting away from beech. Across all height classes, hornbeam seedling numbers were significantly higher in the managed forest, with a p-value below 0.001.

Canopy cover emerged as a key driver of this species shift. Under the densest canopy of the old-growth forest, 96 to 100 percent coverage, beech and linden seedlings prevailed, with 5,000 seedlings recorded in the darkest class alone. Where the canopy opened to 71 to 90 percent, beech made up 81 percent of regeneration. In the managed forest, hornbeam dominated the lowest canopy classes by up to 93 percent, while beech took the lead only where the canopy was most open, at 10 to 80 percent coverage, where it reached 74 percent of seedlings. The pattern suggests hornbeam thrives in the moderate shade left after selective beech removal, while beech requires larger gaps to assert itself.

The authors conclude that harvest intensity of Oriental beech should be reduced to preserve the uneven-aged beech-dominated ecosystem, and they recommend that hornbeam be harvested instead, with smaller individual removals of beech. They also suggest expanding the usable logging area through wires and winches on moderate slopes, which would spread the pressure rather than concentrating it. After heavy removals, competitive Rubus brambles can suppress tree regeneration for one to two decades, making overcutting doubly costly. The permanently marked study plots in both forests now form a long-term monitoring framework, allowing researchers to track whether the hornbeam takeover can be reversed and whether Georgian beech forests can keep their defining species for generations to come.

Subject of Research: Comparison of stand structure, deadwood and regeneration between managed and old-growth Oriental beech forests in eastern Georgia

Article Title: Comparison of tree species diversity, deadwood volume and regeneration of managed and old-growth Oriental beech ( Fagus orientalis L.) forests in Eastern Georgia

Article References: Droessler, L., & Wolff, T. (2023). Comparison of tree species diversity, deadwood volume and regeneration of managed and old-growth Oriental beech (Fagus orientalis L.) forests in Eastern Georgia. Caucasiana, 2, 171-176. https://doi.org/10.3897/caucasiana.2.e106898

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/caucasiana.2.e106898

Keywords: Oriental beech, Fagus orientalis, old-growth forest, deadwood, forest management, Caucasian hornbeam, natural regeneration, Georgia, Lagodekhi, forest ecology, sustainable forestry, Caucasus

The research team, led by Vernon S. Peters, deployed six autonomous recording units across the burn area from fall 2018 through spring 2020. Rather than relying on labor-intensive visual surveys in rugged terrain, the researchers used KALEIDOSCOPE PRO acoustic analysis software with an advanced classifier to detect and quantify nutcracker calls across thousands of hours of audio. This passive acoustic approach allowed continuous monitoring across seasons and habitat types that would be nearly impossible to survey on foot at comparable intensity, and it captured the birds’ vocal activity as a proxy for habitat use.

The study was designed around a natural experiment in pine reproductive timing. Both whitebark and limber pine are masting species, meaning they produce cones in intermittently massive crops rather than steady annual amounts. Fall 2018 was a mast year, when cone production surged and nutcrackers descended to harvest and cache seeds. Spring 2019 followed, when those cached seeds would be retrieved, either to be eaten or, crucially, forgotten in ways that allow seedlings to establish. The researchers contrasted habitat use between this mast year and the subsequent non-mast year, between whitebark and limber pine habitat, and between burned and unburned stands, testing whether distance from remaining seed sources shaped visitation patterns.

Model selection using Akaike’s information criterion revealed that nutcracker habitat use depended on masting status, habitat type, burned habitat, distance from seed sources, and interactions among these factors in both fall and spring foraging periods. In the fall of the mast year, when both pine species produced high numbers of cones in close proximity, nutcrackers used whitebark pine habitat more heavily, particularly unburned stands. This pattern suggests concentrated caching behavior, as birds harvest seeds and bury them in sites they may later fail to recover, which is precisely the mechanism these pines depend upon for regeneration.

The spring results told a different and equally important story. Nutcracker habitat use was greater in the non-mast year, particularly in burned whitebark pine habitat. This shift makes ecological sense: after a mast year, birds return to retrieve the seeds they cached, and burned areas may offer favorable conditions for cache recovery. For the pines, lower habitat use the following spring carries a hidden benefit. When caches are retrieved, seeds are eaten rather than dispersed, so reduced nutcracker presence in spring means fewer caches are raided and more seeds survive to germinate. The 2018 mast year thus attracted seed dispersers when it mattered most, and the lower habitat use the following spring protected those caches from seed predation.

One of the most striking findings concerns the relative attractiveness of the two pine species. Whitebark pine attracted more nutcracker habitat use with fewer trees and fewer cones per tree than limber pine. This suggests that whitebark pine, despite its endangered status and often sparse distribution, exerts a disproportionately strong pull on its disperser, possibly through cone characteristics, stand structure, or landscape position. For limber pine, which co-occurs with whitebark at this northern range limit of five-needle pine overlap, the results imply that it may rely on the same nutcracker traffic drawn by whitebark, making the conservation of whitebark stands doubly important for the recovery of both species.

The prescribed burn itself emerged as a long-term asset rather than a temporary disturbance. The 2009 fire created attractive habitat for Clark’s Nutcracker nine to eleven years after the burn, demonstrating that opportunities for seed dispersal persist well beyond the immediate post-fire window. This finding challenges assumptions that nutcracker activity fades quickly after fire and instead shows that burned landscapes continue to function as dispersal corridors and caching grounds during the period when five-needle pine management is actively planned. For recovery strategies that use prescribed fire or manage natural burns, the results indicate that the window for natural regeneration on burns extends across at least a decade.

The study also highlights a critical intersection with disease management. White pine blister rust, caused by the fungal pathogen Cronartribicola, is a major threat to whitebark pine across its range, and current recovery strategies center on planting seedlings bred for rust resistance. The researchers emphasize that continued use of rust-resistant trees by dispersers is essential for natural regeneration to be effective. As existing plantings of rust-resistant seedlings reach cone production age in the future, attracting nutcrackers to those trees will leverage the investment in resistant stock, allowing the birds to disperse seeds from trees that can survive the disease and establish the next generation.

By combining passive acoustics with rigorous model selection, the study provides a template for monitoring disperser behavior across large, remote landscapes without the cost and bias of visual surveys. The approach captures seasonal dynamics that ground-based counts often miss, and it can be scaled to other systems where vocal birds serve as keystone dispersers. As climate change alters fire regimes and masting patterns across western North America, understanding when and where nutcrackers cache seeds becomes increasingly urgent for the survival of whitebark and limber pine at their northern range limit.

The findings carry direct implications for Alberta’s recovery plans for both endangered pines. Burns intended for five-needle pine management should be evaluated not just for immediate planting opportunities but for their capacity to attract nutcrackers during mast years, when cone crops in proximity to burned habitat create the conditions for caching. The study’s evidence that both pine species benefited from attracting dispersers in the 2018 mast year, and from reduced cache predation the following spring, suggests that synchronizing management actions with masting cycles could amplify natural regeneration. In a landscape where these pines face rust, fire exclusion, and climate stress, the humble nutcracker call recorded by a small device on a decade-old burn may prove to be one of the most valuable signals conservationists can listen for.

Subject of Research: Acoustic monitoring of Clark's Nutcracker habitat use during post-fire recovery of endangered whitebark and limber pines

Article Title: Acoustic analysis shows Clark’s Nutcracker seasonal and spatial habitat use during post-fire recovery of two endangered pine species

Article References: Peters, V. S., Vriend, J. L., Proppe, D. S., Buist, E., Greidanus, K., & Peters, C. E. (2026). Acoustic analysis shows Clark’s Nutcracker seasonal and spatial habitat use during post-fire recovery of two endangered pine species. Nature Conservation, 63, 99–126. https://doi.org/10.3897/natureconservation.63.171832

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/natureconservation.63.171832

Keywords: Clark's Nutcracker, whitebark pine, limber pine, seed dispersal, post-fire recovery, acoustic monitoring, masting, Alberta, endangered species, forest ecology, prescribed burn, seed caching

The research matters because vegetation classification is far more than an academic exercise. Consistent, reproducible categories of plant communities allow conservation planners to anticipate how ecosystems will respond to climate change, disturbance, and land use. They also enable species to serve as indicators of soil properties, moisture conditions, and bioclimatic zones. Yet in northern Patagonia, the classification of forests has been contested since the pioneering work of Oberdorfer in 1960, who divided the region’s vegetation into two broad classes: evergreen montane forests and deciduous subandean forests. Later researchers, particularly Eskuche in Argentina and Pollmann in Chile, proposed conflicting reclassifications, and the resulting confusion has persisted for decades.

The new study, led by researchers from the Universities of Göttingen, Bozen-Bolzano, and the Andean Patagonian Forest Research and Extension Centre (CIEFAP), adopted a fundamentally different approach. Rather than relying on expert judgment alone, the team combined purposive and stratified systematic sampling along precipitation and elevation gradients, then applied hierarchical clustering, Indicator Species Analysis, and both constrained and unconstrained ordination analyses to identify plant community types and their environmental drivers. The sampling design captured the full range of moisture conditions from the wet Valdivian rainforest edge in the west to the dry sub-Mediterranean conifer forests near the steppe boundary in the east, along with elevation belts from 500 to 1,600 metres above sea level.

The results revealed six ecologically meaningful plant communities, each with distinct species composition and environmental preferences. In the wettest western areas, broadleaved montane forests dominated by Nothofagus dombeyi harbour rainforest indicator species such as Drimys andina, Desfontainia spinosa, and Saxegothaea conspicua. Transitional mixed montane forests, characterized by Berberis darwinii and Azara microphylla, occupy intermediate moisture conditions. Drier coniferous montane forests, dominated by Austrocedrus chilensis, display the highest species richness and evenness in the study area but also the highest proportion of non-native species. At higher elevations, two subandean forest types dominated by Nothofagus pumilio are separated by moisture: a humid woody type near the treeline with cold-tolerant species such as Escallonia alpina and Ribes densiflorum, and a drier herbaceous type with species such as Leucheria glacialis and Acaena ovalifolia. Finally, shrublands dominated by resprouting Nothofagus antarctica occupy disturbed or exposed sites.

The constrained ordination analysis, a distance-based redundancy analysis, revealed that elevation had the strongest effect on species composition, followed by annual precipitation, stand age, basal area, browsing intensity, soil pH, and the Heat Load Index. Together, these variables explained 26.3 percent of the variation in community composition. The finding that elevation outweighs precipitation reflects the crucial role of temperature in structuring vegetation, a well-established principle in ecology. However, the study also found that precipitation alone does not fully capture moisture availability, which is influenced by atmospheric saturation deficit, soil water retention, and topography.

Perhaps the most striking results concern the influence of human land use. Browsing intensity, predominantly from cattle grazing, was significantly associated with species composition and correlated strongly with logging activity. Communities experiencing high browsing, particularly the coniferous montane forests, harboured large numbers of non-native pasture species such as Holcus lanatus, Rumex acetosella, and Dactylis glomerata. The study found that grazing reduces woody vegetation, encourages herbaceous plants, and promotes vegetation homogenization. This presents a concerning future scenario, as previous research in Patagonia has shown that plant traits allowing persistence under herbivore pressure also increase flammability, creating a synergistic relationship between grazing and fire disturbance.

Soil chemistry emerged as another key driver that has been overlooked in past classifications. The study found significant differences in soil pH and carbon-to-nitrogen ratios across the six communities. pH values increased from wetter to drier conditions, reflecting enhanced leaching of basic cations in humid environments and more frequent fires in dry areas. Carbon-to-nitrogen ratios were higher in moister and colder areas, corresponding to slower nitrogen turnover in cold environments and the production of more recalcitrant litter by humid-habitat species. The positive relationship between soil pH and species richness observed in the study aligns with the species pool hypothesis, which proposes that regional diversity is shaped by the soil conditions in which species originally evolved.

When the researchers compared their numerically derived communities with the traditional expert-based classifications, they found a better match in humid western areas than in drier eastern ones. This discrepancy, the authors argue, reflects a geographic bias in the historical literature: most early surveys were conducted in Chilean forests west of the Andes, where climate is the predominant structuring force, while Argentinian forests are shaped by both climate and fire disturbance. The truncated moisture gradient created by administrative borders has led to classification systems that work reasonably well for wet forests but poorly for the sub-Mediterranean areas of Argentina. The study’s findings call for more comprehensive sampling across the full precipitation gradient and a broader classification framework that incorporates this data.

The identification of diagnostic and indicator species for each community offers practical tools for future monitoring and conservation. These species, highly adapted to specific environmental conditions, can be used to track ecological change and inform restoration efforts. As temperatures rise and drought risks increase, the study’s evidence-based groundwork for management and monitoring becomes increasingly urgent. The strong link between climate factors and vegetation patterns, combined with the demonstrated influence of land use, suggests that preserving optimal forest density ranges and controlling grazing pressure will be critical for maintaining the phytodiversity of these unique Andean forests in the decades ahead.

Subject of Research: Ecology, vegetation science, Patagonian forests, biogeography

Article Title: Floristic patterns in the Andes of northern Patagonia’s forests, Argentina: towards integrating ecological responses with expert-based and unsupervised classification methods

Article References: Joelson, N. Z., Simon, A., von Lampe, F., Loguercio, G. Á., Zerbe, S., Leuschner, C., & Walentowski, H. (2025). Floristic patterns in the Andes of northern Patagonia’s forests, Argentina: towards integrating ecological responses with expert-based and unsupervised classification methods. Vegetation Classification and Survey, 6, 37-56. https://doi.org/10.3897/vcs.134621

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/VCS.134621

Keywords: Patagonia, Andes, vegetation classification, plant communities, Nothofagus, elevation gradient, rain shadow, grazing, soil chemistry, indicator species, Argentina, forest ecology

Wood-inhabiting fungi are among the most important decomposers in forest environments. By degrading cellulose and lignin, they facilitate the decomposition of fallen branches and rotting trunks, driving the flow of energy and nutrients through the ecosystem. Botryobasidium species are predominantly white-rot fungi, meaning they cause a distinctive type of decay that bleaches the wood they colonise. They commonly grow on rotten wood and fallen branches of both angiosperms and gymnosperms, including bamboo, oak, fir, pine and spruce. Some species have even been reported from soil or from the mature fruiting bodies of other fungi.

The genus Botryobasidium was first proposed in 1931 by Dutch mycologist Donk, who observed that its members bear barrel-shaped basidia with four sterigmata and densely ornamented basidiospores. Over the decades, the genus has undergone extensive morphological revision, with 49 species accepted worldwide by the year 2000. Molecular phylogenetic studies have consistently shown that Botryobasidium forms a well-supported monophyletic group, meaning all its species share a common ancestor. According to Index Fungorum and MycoBank, 120 names have been recorded for the genus globally, though many are invalidly published or have been transferred to other genera. Of these, 34 species have been confirmed by molecular sequence data, and 22 species have been reported in China.

During field surveys of wood-inhabiting fungi in eastern China, researchers collected six specimens that morphologically corresponded to Botryobasidium. Phylogenetic analysis based on the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region and the nuclear large subunit (nLSU) ribosomal RNA gene was conducted to determine their placement within the genus. The six specimens formed four distinct lineages within the Botryobasidium clade, each distinguishable from their phylogenetically related and morphologically similar species. Based on the combined morphological and molecular evidence, the team described them as four new species: Botryobasidium fujianensis, B. fusisporellum, B. subconiferarum and B. macrosporum.

The phylogenetic analysis used a combined dataset of ITS and nLSU sequences from 65 fungal specimens representing 39 taxa. The final alignment contained 2,101 nucleotide positions. Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian Inference methods were employed to construct the phylogenetic tree, with branch support assessed through bootstrap analysis with 1,000 replicates and Bayesian posterior probabilities. The results showed that the newly collected specimens formed four well-supported distinct lineages. Botryobasidium fujianensis grouped with B. aureum, B. indicum, B. coniferarum and B. subconiferarum with strong support, while B. fusisporellum formed an independent lineage not closely related to any other known species. Botryobasidium macrosporum was closely related to B. laeve, B. vagum, B. incanum and B. subincanum with high support.

Each of the four new species displays a unique combination of morphological features. Botryobasidium fujianensis is characterised by a hypochnoid, floccose to cottony, white to greyish-white hymenial surface, a monomitic hyphal system with simple septa, the presence of tubular cystidioid structures, barrel-shaped basidia with four or six sterigmata, and pip-shaped basidiospores measuring 6.0 to 7.9 by 2.3 to 3.4 micrometres. The species was collected on rotten wood of Chinese fir in Wuyishan National Nature Reserve in Fujian Province and on a fallen branch of pine in Tianbaoyan National Nature Reserve.

Botryobasidium fusisporellum shares a similar hymenial surface with B. fujianensis but is distinguished by its long barrel-shaped basidia bearing two or four sterigmata and its fusiform basidiospores measuring 5.3 to 6.5 by 2.3 to 3.0 micrometres. This species was found on rotten wood and on soil over stone in Wanmulin Nature Reserve, also in Fujian Province. In the phylogenetic tree, B. fusisporellum formed an independent lineage with maximum support, indicating it is not closely related to other sequenced species in the genus. Morphologically, it resembles B. chilense and B. daweishanense in having fusiform basidiospores, but the latter two species have wider basidia and larger basidiospores.

Botryobasidium subconiferarum is notable for being the only one of the four new species observed to produce conidiophores, the asexual reproductive structures. It is characterised by slightly barrel-shaped basidia with four sterigmata, subcylindrical conidiophores, and pip-shaped basidiospores measuring 6.2 to 8.6 by 2.3 to 3.7 micrometres. The holotype was collected on a fallen angiosperm branch in Tianhuajing National Forest Park in Jiangxi Province. The species name refers to its similarity to B. coniferarum, though it differs from that species by having a floccose rather than arachnoid hymenial surface and by the presence of cystidioid structures, which B. coniferarum lacks.

Botryobasidium macrosporum stands out for having the largest basidiospores among the four new species, measuring 9.4 to 11.0 by 4.8 to 5.9 micrometres. These fusiform spores carry one to three guttules, small oil droplets visible under the microscope. The species produces slightly barrel-shaped basidia with four to six sterigmata and was collected on an angiosperm trunk in Anhui Province. In the phylogeny, B. macrosporum is closely related to B. incanum, B. subincanum, B. laeve and B. vagum, but can be easily distinguished from all of them by its cystidioid structures and larger basidiospores. The species epithet directly reflects its most striking feature: large spores.

Pairwise ITS sequence divergence between the new species and their closest relatives further confirmed their status as distinct taxa. Botryobasidium fujianensis differed by 5.55 percent from B. aureum, 6.56 percent from B. coniferarum and 7.03 percent from B. indicum. Botryobasidium subconiferarum differed by 4.46 percent from B. aureum and 6.70 percent from B. coniferarum. Botryobasidium macrosporum showed 3.50 percent divergence from B. incanum and 3.15 percent from B. laeve. These levels of sequence divergence, combined with consistent morphological differences, provide robust evidence that the four lineages represent species new to science.

The discovery of these four new species in eastern China expands the known global diversity of Botryobasidium and provides additional morphological and molecular data for the genus. The researchers also compiled a morphological comparison of 20 Botryobasidium species with molecular data from China, creating a reference for future taxonomic studies. Beyond taxonomy, the findings carry broader ecological and evolutionary significance. Some Botryobasidium species possess diverse enzymes capable of acting on crystalline cellulose, and the genus may manifest a decay mode that is plesiomorphic, or ancestral, for the entire class Agaricomycetes. Understanding the diversity of this lineage is therefore important not only for cataloguing fungal species but also for reconstructing the origin of wood-decay mechanisms in one of the largest groups of mushrooms and their relatives.

Wood-inhabiting fungi in China remain insufficiently documented despite their crucial roles in forest ecosystem functioning. This study adds four new species to the national inventory and underscores the value of combining classical morphological observation with modern molecular phylogenetics. As field surveys continue across China’s diverse subtropical and temperate forests, further discoveries of novel fungal species are likely, each contributing to a more complete picture of the decomposer communities that sustain forest health and drive the global carbon cycle.

Subject of Research: Morphological characteristics and phylogenetic analyses revealed four new wood-inhabiting species of Botryobasidium (Cantharellales, Basidiomycota) from East China

Article Title: Morphological characteristics and phylogenetic analyses revealed four new wood-inhabiting species of Botryobasidium ( Cantharellales , Basidiomycota ) from East China

Article References: Jing, W., Li, W.-Y., Papp, V., Guan, Q.-X., Zheng, Z.-W., Cui, Y.-J., & Wu, F. (2026). Morphological characteristics and phylogenetic analyses revealed four new wood-inhabiting species of Botryobasidium (Cantharellales, Basidiomycota) from East China. MycoKeys, 139, 321-339. https://doi.org/10.3897/mycokeys.139.206012

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/mycokeys.139.206012

Keywords: mycology, fungi, biodiversity, taxonomy, phylogenetics, forest ecology, new species, China, Morphological, characteristics, phylogenetic, analyses

The research team, drawing on one of the few long-term dormouse monitoring datasets in existence, digitised home range maps from a 60-hectare study site embedded in a roughly 3,000-hectare forest in south-western Lithuania. The site holds 272 nest boxes spaced 50 metres apart, checked twice a month from April to October over many years, with every captured dormouse individually ringed. Two seasons were selected to represent contrasting population conditions: 2010, a high-density year with 1.4 adults per hectare and 92 recorded individuals, and 2013, a low-density year with 0.7 adults per hectare and 45 individuals. Using the GIS software QGIS, the researchers reconstructed each animal’s home range as a minimum convex polygon around its capture points, buffered by 25 metres.

Onto this living map, the team superimposed a barrage of simulated clear-cuts, the bare patches of felled ground needed to erect and assemble wind turbines. Sixteen scenarios were tested, combining two shapes, compact squares and elongated strips, with four sizes of one, two, four and six hectares, each under both low and high population densities. For every scenario, 1,000 random clear-cut placements were generated within the monitoring grid, and each was intersected with the mapped home ranges. Statistical models, including Poisson generalised linear models for the count of affected home ranges and beta regressions for the proportion of each range overlapped, then quantified how the damage scaled with size, shape, density and sex. A home range counted as affected if more than five per cent of its area was cleared.

The headline result is stark. At low density, a one-hectare clear-cut affected a median of two home ranges; at high density, the median rose to four, with a maximum of twelve home ranges touched by a single square hectare cut. Because dormouse densities in commercial forests are naturally low, roughly one to two adults per hectare, individual ranges are surprisingly small, yet they are packed together and overlap extensively. In the high-density year, more than half of the total home range area consisted of ground shared by two to four individuals. When half the population’s ground is doubles-up territory, any felling operation is mathematically guaranteed to hit multiple animals at once, not one.

Scale matters enormously. At low density, growing the cut from one to six hectares raised the median number of affected home ranges from two to six, equivalent to roughly four to thirteen per cent of the whole population for a single felling site. The statistical models showed that the increase was far steeper at high density: for females, moving from a one-hectare to a six-hectare cut more than tripled the number of affected ranges, with a rate ratio of about 3.17. Shape played a subtler role. Strip-shaped cuts, at high density, intersected significantly more individual home ranges than square cuts, nine per cent more for females and twelve per cent more for males. Squares, however, devoured a larger share of each range they touched, overlapping female ranges by roughly 6.5 to 7.1 percentage points more than strips did.

Sex-specific vulnerability emerged as one of the most consistent findings. Male dormice roam larger territories, so more male home ranges were clipped by every clear-cut configuration, up to 79 per cent more than female ranges for the largest strip cuts. But females, with their smaller ranges, lost a proportionally greater slice of their world: at high density, female overlap exceeded male overlap by between 7.9 and 15.9 percentage points on square cuts. That asymmetry carries real demographic weight, because breeding females are the engine of population growth. If adult female numbers dip below a critical threshold, breeding events and autumn juvenile recruitment collapse, and a local population can slide towards decline even when males remain relatively abundant.

The consequences for individual animals are often lethal rather than merely inconvenient. Dormice are famously reluctant to flee disturbance: in a previous study, most individuals stayed put even when chainsaws operated nearby, leaving them exposed to being crushed by felled trees or vehicles. The danger peaks in winter, when dormice lie in torpor and cannot escape, and between May and October, when breeding females may abandon litters amid felling and timber transport. Survivors face a second bottleneck: their remaining habitat is now smaller, and if neighbouring forest is already occupied or unsuitable, they may be unable to establish a new range at all. Unlike conventional forestry clear-cuts, which regenerate into valuable early-succession dormouse habitat within a few years, the area permanently cleared for a turbine pad and its infrastructure is lost for good.

The study’s authors argue that the German planning convention, in which one hectare of clearance is offset as the loss of exactly one home range, should be retired in favour of site-specific assessment. Their data show that a one-hectare cut typically affects two to four ranges, and that the fraction of each range destroyed climbs steadily with cut size and population density. Practical recommendations follow directly from the results: keep clear-cuts as small as possible, favour elongated configurations over compact squares where the surroundings allow, never shrink occupied forest patches below the roughly 20 hectares thought necessary for a stable dormouse population, and time felling to avoid both winter torpor and the summer breeding season. Directional felling, which guides timber away from occupied areas, may also shepherd animals towards intact habitat.

There are important caveats, and the researchers are candid about them. Nest-box monitoring, while reliable, likely underestimates true home range sizes, since dormice can use boxes and surrounding vegetation without being detected, meaning the reported number of affected ranges is probably a conservative floor rather than a ceiling. The five per cent overlap threshold is an operational choice, not an ecological one, as no study has yet established how much of a range can be cleared before a dormouse is seriously harmed. The simulations also excluded fragmentation effects from new roads built for construction and maintenance, which can itself barrier movement and mate-finding. The team calls for real-world monitoring of actual clear-cuts using a before-after, control-impact design to validate the modelled predictions.

The broader tension the study exposes is uncomfortable but unavoidable: meeting Paris Climate Goals requires wind energy to supply over a third of global electricity by 2050, and in Germany alone more than 2,500 wind turbines, about nine per cent of the national fleet, already stand in forest, each 2024 installation permanently clearing a median of 0.56 hectares, double the footprint of a decade earlier. Solving one environmental crisis by deepening another is a poor trade, and the hazel dormouse has become a test case for whether green infrastructure can be sited with genuine ecological precision. The message from Lithuania’s long-term data is clear: habitat loss for a territorial, low-density mammal does not scale in neat one-hectare units, and mitigation rules built on that assumption will keep undercounting the casualties.

Subject of Research: Impacts of wind-energy clear-cuts on hazel dormouse home ranges

Article Title: Considering hazel dormouse ( Muscardinus avellanarius ) home ranges to assess the impacts of development projects

Article References: Kannegieser, L., Juškaitis, R., Büchner, S., & Lang, J. (2026). Considering hazel dormouse (Muscardinus avellanarius) home ranges to assess the impacts of development projects. Nature Conservation, 64, 283-296. https://doi.org/10.3897/natureconservation.64.160352

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/natureconservation.64.160352

Keywords: hazel dormouse, wind energy, home range, clear-cut, forest ecology, habitat loss, population density, QGIS simulation, Habitats Directive, renewable energy, wildlife conservation, Germany

The authors’ central claim is deceptively simple: forests always have a history. There are specific reasons why they exist where they do and how they came to look the way they do, and the legacy of that past remains embedded in the ecosystem today. Ignoring it, they contend, has tangible consequences for society, for our understanding of forest ecology, and for forest management. Most ecosystems on Earth are now anthropogenically modified, whether through the diffuse fingerprints of climate change and altered soil chemistry or through complete transformation, as in plantations and urban forests. Because ecosystems are not in equilibrium with present conditions alone, their current state reflects superimposed past and present impacts, some of which act with long delays.

These so-called legacy effects can be striking. The authors point to research showing that soil carbon pools in Swiss forests still bear the imprint of historical litter raking, a practice of collecting forest floor material for animal bedding that ceased long ago. Interpreting forest change purely as a response to current management or a warming climate risks misreading signals that actually reflect recovery from abandoned land uses. Knowing more about past impacts allows ecologists to assess the degree and direction of human influence on forests and to better predict future trajectories, a point the authors illustrate with the classic work of Oliver Rackham on English ancient woodlands and G.F. Peterken on natural woodlands.

The relevance extends to disturbance regimes, one of the most consequential areas of modern forest science. Forest fires can be of natural or human origin, and people interfere with fire regimes in many ways: through arson, firefighting, fuel removal by logging, grazing, and litter collection. Analyzing past fire events alongside historical management practices provides the tools to disentangle the drivers of changing fire regimes, and forms the basis for informed decisions about when and how to use fire in restoration or to protect forests from burning. With a recent review indicating that European forests face more frequent and destructive disturbances from wildfire, windstorm, drought, and bark beetles under climate change, this historical baseline has never been more valuable.

So how do researchers actually reconstruct a forest’s past? The paper provides a systematic tour of the main source types, spanning both the humanities and the natural sciences. Field surveys remain foundational: by analyzing tree age, forest density, growth patterns, recruitment, and traces of disturbance, researchers can reconstruct historical development. Fieldwork is also essential for detecting living trees bearing evidence of past human activity, including logging stumps, old roads, fire scars, and archaeological remains. Old-growth forests are especially precious in this regard, because their ancient living and dead trees preserve long-term evidence of human-forest interactions. The method is labor-intensive and poorly suited to very large areas, but national forest inventories can help contextualize smaller-scale studies.

Tree rings offer a second powerful window. Dendrochronology and dendroecology exploit the annual record of growth encoded in ring widths, anatomical features, and wood chemistry. By extracting cores and cross-dating samples, scientists can reconstruct forest dynamics over centuries or even millennia, and rings record environmental shifts from climate variation to pollution and drought. Fire scars allow precise dating of both natural and human-caused fires, while other scars reveal logging damage, animal browsing, and wind events. The limitations are real: some species lack clear annual rings, decay and harvesting destroy records, and sampling effort constrains spatial coverage.

For deeper time, paleoecology takes over. Pollen and macrofossils preserved in lake and bog sediments survive for thousands of years, allowing reconstruction of past vegetation composition, clearing events, grazing pressure, and fire activity through microscopic identification and radiocarbon dating. Recent advances in automated pollen classification using deep learning have improved analytical efficiency, and the authors expect sedimentary ancient DNA to further transform the reconstruction of local and regional vegetation change. Documentary evidence, meanwhile, brings the human perspective: local histories, letters, travel reports, court records, maps, and diaries all illuminate past relationships between people and forests, provided researchers read them critically for bias and context. Forest management plans deserve special mention. Originating in Germany in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and typically revised every ten to twenty years, these standardized documents allow researchers to reconstruct long-term changes in forest structure, species composition, and management strategy, though unofficial uses are often omitted.

Remote sensing, oral history, and pictorial sources round out the toolkit. Aerial photography, available since the early 1900s, reveals changes in forest extent, composition, and disturbance, while satellite imagery has monitored deforestation since the 1980s. LIDAR creates detailed three-dimensional models that can expose hidden cultural features such as hunting pits, charcoal kilns, and ancient monuments, directly linking present forest structure to past land use. Historical paintings and photographs, including repeat photography retaken from identical viewpoints, document change visually, and oral history interviews capture firsthand accounts of forest use, often preserving the voices of marginalized communities absent from official archives.

The real power, the authors argue, lies in combining these sources. In the Swiss Rhone valley, pairing forest management plans with oral history interviews revealed the full picture of traditional non-timber forest uses: the plans recorded the administration’s view, while farmers’ narratives explained the extent, intensity, and daily-life context of practices like woodland pasture and litter collection. In northern Scandinavia, researchers combined court, tax, and church records dating to the seventeenth century with detailed field inventories and dendrochronological analysis of Scots pine and Downy birch to decipher centuries of Sámi indigenous forest use, revealing subtle resource areas created by bark harvesting, reindeer lichen cutting, and settlements within what is today protected old-growth forest. The study concluded that the designation and management of protected forests should incorporate these cultural dimensions.

The authors’ recommendation is clear: ecologists should incorporate retrospective methods into broader studies, and important forest landscapes deserve historical analysis as a distinct component of ecological research. Fostering exchange between scholars of cultural forest history and ecological forest history, they argue, will deepen our understanding of the interrelationship between ecosystems and humans. Disregarding history, they warn, is not merely incomplete science; it is perilous, because without understanding the longer trajectory of change we cannot truly know what a forest is, what it once was, or what it might become.

Subject of Research: Interdisciplinary methods for studying forest history and their relevance to forest ecology and management

Article Title: Bridging forest history and forest ecology: Why it is important to understand the history of forests and what are the main sources and methods

Article References: Bürgi, M., & Östlund, L. (2026). Bridging forest history and forest ecology: Why it is important to understand the history of forests and what are the main sources and methods. Ambio. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-026-02502-y

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s13280-026-02502-y

Keywords: forest history, forest ecology, dendrochronology, pollen analysis, legacy effects, oral history, remote sensing, forest management plans, old-growth forests, interdisciplinary research, historical ecology, biodiversity conservation