Great journals are shaped by thoughtful editors. 🌿

With a passion for Patagonian native trees, Verónica Arana combines physiology, genomics, and ecology to uncover how plants regenerate, grow, and respond to environmental stress. 🌳

Get to know her in our #MeetTheEditor feature

#AoBPLANTS #PlantScience #ForestEcology #Botany

Great journals are shaped by thoughtful editors. 🌿

With a long-standing passion for forest community ecology, Xiangcheng Mi brings deep expertise in forest ecosystems and a commitment to helping early career authors strengthen their articles. 🌳

Get to know him in our latest #MeetTheEditor feature

#AoBPLANTS #PlantScience #ForestEcology #Botany

Larger forest patches have greater per-area productivity

TLDR:

- Larger forest patches are significantly more productive than small, isolated ones
- A hectare in a large forest can be ~38% more productive
- Fragmentation may have reduced U.S. forest productivity by ~14%
- Climate strategies must consider fragmentation, not just forest area

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-026-03075-5

#ForestEcology #Conservation #Biodiversity

Larger forest patches have greater per-area productivity - Nature Ecology & Evolution

Using remote sensing data, spatial modelling and counterfactual scenarios, this analysis reveals a positive relationship between forest patch size and productivity. This implies that preserving many small forest patches may not offset the carbon losses from larger contiguous forests.

Nature

Five years of satellite monitoring of forests in Germany found that trees that had been attacked by the gypsy moth delayed leaf production the following year, starving the emerging moth larvae and halving the subsequent leaf damage.

Summary: https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-science/oak-trees-can-starve-caterpillars-by-delaying-their-spring-leaves/

Original paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-026-03071-9

#Science #Ecology #ForestEcology #Trees #GypsyMoth

Oak Trees Can Starve Caterpillars By Delaying Their Spring Leaves

Trees seem to remember their past and plan accordingly.

ZME Science
Kinship Interlock: How The Elite Remains on Top

Podcast Episode · Heliox: Where Evidence Meets Empathy 🇨🇦‬ · May 1 · 43m

Apple Podcasts

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

Tropical trees are more neighborly than trees further from the equator, study finds

Tropical trees are better neighbors than trees in temperate forests, according to a study published in the journal Nature by researchers from 29 different institutions including the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) and the ForestGEO global network of forest monitoring sites.

Phys.org

As branches age, stems thicken, needles spread out, less self-shading.
This dynamic may further support long-term survival in low light. (10/10)

👉 https://botany.fyi/864hmk

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

Densely packed needles along the shoots of evergreen conifers exhibit shade-acclimated photosynthetic characteristics even under full sunlight

AbstractBackground and Aims. Evergreen conifer shoots that develop under full sunlight eventually move to the shade within the canopy as the tree grows. We

OUP Academic

🌲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