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European forests are among the most extensively studied ecosystems in the world, yet there are still debates about their recent dynamics. We modeled the changes in tree canopy height across Europe from 2001 to 2021 using the multidecadal spectral data from the Landsat archive and calibration data from Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS) and spaceborne Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) lidar
The 2018–2019 Central European drought was probably the most extreme in Germany since the early sixteenth century. We assess the multiple consequences of the drought for natural systems, the economy and human health in the German part of the Elbe River basin, an area of 97,175 km2 including the cities of Berlin and Hamburg and contributing about 18% to the German GDP. We employ meteorological, hyd
The accurate estimation of soil carbon (C) pool and fluxes is a prerequisite to better understand the terrestrial C feedback to climate change. However, recent studies showed considerable uncertainties in soil C estimates. To provide a reliable C estimate in the grasslands of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP), we calibrated key parameters in a process-based ecosystem model (the CENTURY model) throug
Linking individual and stand-level dynamics during forest development reveals a scaling relationship between mean tree size and tree density in forest stands, which integrates forest structure and function. However, the nature of this so-called scaling law and its variation across broad spatial scales remain unquantified, and its linkage with forest demographic processes and carbon dynamics remain
Globally, northern peatlands are major carbon deposits with important implications for the climate system. It is therefore crucial to understand their spatial occurrence, especially in the context of peatland degradation by land cover change and climate change. This study was aimed at mapping peatlands in the forested landscape of Sweden by modelling soil data against lidar-based terrain indices.
Soil organic matter decomposition and its interactions with climate depend on whether the organic matter is associated with soil minerals. However, data limitations have hindered global-scale analyses of mineral-associated and particulate soil organic carbon pools and their benchmarking in Earth system models used to estimate carbon cycle–climate feedbacks. Here we analyse observationally derived
This study spatially analyzes plant phenology and its variations over time in mainland Spain and the Balearic Islands. To conduct the analysis, a nearly 40-year span time series (1983-2020) was generated by merging NDVI vegetation index values from satellite images sourced from NOAA-AVHRR and MODIS sensors. The phenological variables were calculated using TIMESAT 3.3, which extracted 13 phenometri
This data package contains high accuracy CO2 dry air mole fractions from 58 ICOS and non-ICOS European observatories at in total 132 observation levels, collected by the ICOS Atmosphere Thematic Centre (ATC) and provided by the station contributors. The package is part of the Globalviewplus v8.0 data product, released in 2022 and is intended for use in carbon cycle inverse modeling, model evaluati
European forests are being shaped by active human use and management, and by harvesting of wood in particular. Yet, our understanding of how forests are harvested across Europe is limited, as the real harvest regimes are not well described by currently available data. Here, we analyse recent harvests, as observed in permanent plots of forest inventories in 11 European countries, totaling to 182,64
Rates of tree mortality are increasing globally, with implications for forests and climate. Yet, how and why these trends vary globally remain unknown. Developing a comprehensive assessment of global tree mortality will require systematically integrating data from ground-based long-term forest monitoring with large-scale remote sensing. We surveyed the metadata from 466 865 forest monitoring plots
Tree recruitment forms an essential process in forest growth models as it determines the amount and composition of the next generation of trees and, hence, the provision of forest ecosystem services over long time spans. With global change and the hereby associated changes in environmental conditions and forest management adaptations, the common static tree recruitment modelling approaches have be
The Amazon rainforest is highly biodiverse and has the largest extent of the remaining intact tropical forests in the world. To this day, undisturbed tropical forests act as a carbon sink by taking up about 15% of anthropogenic carbon emissions per year. However, in the past decades, a declining trend in the carbon sink capacity in the Amazon rainforest has been observed due to increased carbon lo
Dispersal barriers have demographic, evolutionary and ecosystem-wide consequences. With ongoing changes in the environment, it is likely that some dispersal barriers will disappear while others will appear, and it is crucial to understand these dynamics to forecast species distributions and adaptive potential. Here we review recent literature on the ecological and evolutionary aspects of dispersal
The spatial imprint of forest disturbances, which can result from a variety of anthropogenic and natural causes, is important in shaping the form and function of the world’s forests. However, we lack a systematic assessment of how the forms of forest disturbances differ globally, which could help in sustainable forest policy and management initiatives to protect forest biomes. Here we produce a gl
Increasing water stress is emerging as a global phenomenon, and is anticipated to have a marked impact on forest function. The role of tree functional strategies is pivotal in regulating forest fitness and their ability to cope with water stress. However, how the functional strategies found at the tree or species level scale up to characterise forest communities and their variation across regions
Tree growth and longevity trade-offs fundamentally shape the terrestrial carbon balance. Yet, we lack a unified understanding of how such trade-offs vary across the world's forests. By mapping life history traits for a wide range of species across the Americas, we reveal considerable variation in life expectancies from 10 centimeters in diameter (ranging from 1.3 to 3195 years) and show that the p
Forests have seen a strong greening trend worldwide, and previous studies have attributed this mainly to land-use conversions such as afforestation. However, for the greening of existing forests, the role of human interventions is unclear. Here we paired neighboring natural and planted forests in Southern China to minimize the differences between the forest types and analyzed the vegetation index
This study analyzes the relationship between drought processes and crop yields in Moldova, together with the effects of possible future climate change on crops. The severity of drought is analyzed over time in Moldova using the Standard Precipitation Index, the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index, and their relationship with crop yields. In addition, rainfall variability and its re
