Healthy forest floor; ground ivy, common ivy, enchanter's nightshade, etc. The herbaceous layer of a forest is perhaps the most undervalued, but the recognition of its importance to a wooded habitat is increasing.

#environment #environmentalscience #environmentalStewardship #nature #naturephotography #forest #forestecology #ecology #flora #naturalforest #woodland

A study of 2.7 million trees in 17 forest plots located from 5 deg. S to 47 deg. N found that tropical forests had higher neighborhood diversity--trees had more different kinds of neighbors--in tropical plots. Three explanations for this phenomenon are proposed.

Summary: https://phys.org/news/2026-04-tropical-trees-neighborly-equator.html

Original paper (not open access): https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10349-2

#Science #Ecology #ForestEcology #Trees #Diversity #Competition #Facilitation

🌲Just published in @AnnBot : “Densely packed needles along the shoots of evergreen conifers exhibit shade-acclimated photosynthetic characteristics even under full sunlight” by Mitsutoshi Kitao and co-authors. 🧵 (1/10)

👉 https://botany.fyi/864hmk

#AoBpapers #PlantScience #Photosynthesis #ForestEcology #PlantAdaptation #Botany

The latest research results on stomatal dynamics from our PhD candidate (and quite proud of it :-) : the shade tolerant Fagus sylvatica , the common beech, shows more reactive stomatal responses on shade leaves than on sun leaves, suggesting an optimisation to increase CO2 uptake. The differences in stomatal dynamics were not related, as usually assumed, to differences in stomatal morphology.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ppl.70856

#AcademicChatter #PlantPhysiology #BioDiversity #Stomata #StomatalAnatomy #PlantScience #ForestEcology

Nice study showing yet another effect of the ongoing temperature increase due to #ClimateChange : French oak populations were, over time, less exposed to late spring frost damage, in frequency as well as extent, which are largely driven by the temporal advance of both the last spring frost day and budburst dates.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2025.110927

#Forest #EUForests #ForestEcology #ForestDynamics #Ecology #EcologicalModelling
#AcademicChatter

Montane ecosystem (Ecosystems 🏞️)

Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial factor in shaping plant community, biodiversity, metabolic processes and ecosystem dynamics for montane ecosy...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montane_ecosystem

#MontaneEcosystem #Ecosystems #ForestEcology #MontaneEcology