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H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest site, station Reference Stand 2, study of aboveground net primary productivity of tree boles in units of gramsPerSquareMeter on a yearly timescale

The EcoTrends project was established in 2004 by Dr. Debra Peters (Jornada Basin LTER, USDA-ARS Jornada Experimental Range) and Dr. Ariel Lugo (Luquillo LTER, USDA-FS Luquillo Experimental Forest) to support the collection and analysis of long-term ecological datasets. The project is a large synthesis effort focused on improving the accessibility and use of long-term data. At present, there are ~50 state and federally funded research sites that are participating and contributing to the EcoTrends project, including all 26 Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites and sites funded by the USDA Agriculture Research Service (ARS), USDA Forest Service, US Department of Energy, US Geological Survey (USGS) and numerous universities. Data from the EcoTrends project are available through an exploratory web portal (http://www.ecotrends.info). This web portal enables the continuation of data compilation and accessibility by users through an interactive web application. Ongoing data compilation is updated through both manual and automatic processing as part of the LTER Provenance Aware Synthesis Tracking Architecture (PASTA). The web portal is a collaboration between the Jornada LTER and the LTER Network Office. The following dataset from H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest (AND) contains aboveground net primary productivity of tree boles measurements in gramsPerSquareMeter units and were aggregated to a yearly timescale.

H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest site, station Reference Stand 29, study of aboveground net primary productivity of tree boles in units of gramsPerSquareMeter on a yearly timescale

Harvard Forest site, station Little Prospect Hill at Harvard Forest, study of aboveground net primary production of trees in units of gramsCarbonPerSquareMeterPerYear on a yearly timescale

The EcoTrends project was established in 2004 by Dr. Debra Peters (Jornada Basin LTER, USDA-ARS Jornada Experimental Range) and Dr. Ariel Lugo (Luquillo LTER, USDA-FS Luquillo Experimental Forest) to support the collection and analysis of long-term ecological datasets. The project is a large synthesis effort focused on improving the accessibility and use of long-term data. At present, there are ~50 state and federally funded research sites that are participating and contributing to the EcoTrends project, including all 26 Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites and sites funded by the USDA Agriculture Research Service (ARS), USDA Forest Service, US Department of Energy, US Geological Survey (USGS) and numerous universities. Data from the EcoTrends project are available through an exploratory web portal (http://www.ecotrends.info). This web portal enables the continuation of data compilation and accessibility by users through an interactive web application. Ongoing data compilation is updated through both manual and automatic processing as part of the LTER Provenance Aware Synthesis Tracking Architecture (PASTA). The web portal is a collaboration between the Jornada LTER and the LTER Network Office. The following dataset from Harvard Forest (HFR) contains aboveground net primary production of trees measurements in gramsCarbonPerSquareMeterPerYear units and were aggregated to a yearly timescale.

Harvard Forest site, station Little Prospect Hill at Harvard Forest, study of aboveground net primary production of trees in units of megagramsCarbonPerHectarePerYear on a yearly timescale

The EcoTrends project was established in 2004 by Dr. Debra Peters (Jornada Basin LTER, USDA-ARS Jornada Experimental Range) and Dr. Ariel Lugo (Luquillo LTER, USDA-FS Luquillo Experimental Forest) to support the collection and analysis of long-term ecological datasets. The project is a large synthesis effort focused on improving the accessibility and use of long-term data. At present, there are ~50 state and federally funded research sites that are participating and contributing to the EcoTrends project, including all 26 Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites and sites funded by the USDA Agriculture Research Service (ARS), USDA Forest Service, US Department of Energy, US Geological Survey (USGS) and numerous universities. Data from the EcoTrends project are available through an exploratory web portal (http://www.ecotrends.info). This web portal enables the continuation of data compilation and accessibility by users through an interactive web application. Ongoing data compilation is updated through both manual and automatic processing as part of the LTER Provenance Aware Synthesis Tracking Architecture (PASTA). The web portal is a collaboration between the Jornada LTER and the LTER Network Office. The following dataset from Harvard Forest (HFR) contains aboveground net primary production of trees measurements in megagramsCarbonPerHectarePerYear units and were aggregated to a yearly timescale.

Harvard Forest site, station Unknown, study of aboveground net primary productivity in units of gramsPerMeterSquaredPerYear on a yearly timescale

The EcoTrends project was established in 2004 by Dr. Debra Peters (Jornada Basin LTER, USDA-ARS Jornada Experimental Range) and Dr. Ariel Lugo (Luquillo LTER, USDA-FS Luquillo Experimental Forest) to support the collection and analysis of long-term ecological datasets. The project is a large synthesis effort focused on improving the accessibility and use of long-term data. At present, there are ~50 state and federally funded research sites that are participating and contributing to the EcoTrends project, including all 26 Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites and sites funded by the USDA Agriculture Research Service (ARS), USDA Forest Service, US Department of Energy, US Geological Survey (USGS) and numerous universities. Data from the EcoTrends project are available through an exploratory web portal (http://www.ecotrends.info). This web portal enables the continuation of data compilation and accessibility by users through an interactive web application. Ongoing data compilation is updated through both manual and automatic processing as part of the LTER Provenance Aware Synthesis Tracking Architecture (PASTA). The web portal is a collaboration between the Jornada LTER and the LTER Network Office. The following dataset from Harvard Forest (HFR) contains aboveground net primary productivity measurements in gramsPerMeterSquaredPerYear units and were aggregated to a yearly timescale.

opencc-by-4.0Sep 2020View details →

Data set: Burn severity and soil chemistry are weak drivers of early vegetation succession following a boreal mega-fire in a production forest landscape

Data used in the analyses of the study. Data set on soil chemistry (pH, organic content, nutrient content), plots distance to the fire perimeter, and plant communities (vascular plants and bryophytes) recorded in permanent plots on clearcuts in a burn-severity gradient two and five years following a wildfire. Data collected from a 13000 hectare wildfire that occurred in 2014, in boreal southern Sweden. Calculated trait means from data bases, and plant community data from unburned plots from another study, are are also included here.

opencc-zeroDec 2015View details →

Data from: Effects of species diversity on fine root productivity increase with stand development and associated mechanisms in a boreal forest

There is a growing interest in understanding the relationship between diversity and below-ground productivity due to the critical contribution of below-ground systems to overall terrestrial productivity. Yet, the temporal (seasonal and developmental) changes in diversity effects on below-ground productivity and their underlying mechanisms remain unclear. We hypothesized that (i) diversity effects on fine root productivity increase with stand development, and (ii) increased diversity effects associated with stand development result from augmented horizontal soil space utilization, increased forest floor depth for rooting, enhanced effects in nutrient-poor soil layers and/or foraging towards high nutrient availability. We investigated the effects of tree species diversity on fine root productivity by sampling 18 stands dominated by single species and their mixtures in post-fire boreal forests of two stand ages (8 and 34 years following stand-replacing fire). Species evenness was significantly higher in species mixtures than in single-species-dominated stands at both age classes, while species richness did not differ across stand types and age classes. We found that the annual fine root production was higher in mixtures than the mean of single-species-dominated stands in both stand ages, with a significantly higher magnitude of effects in the 34-year-old than 8-year-old stands. Mixtures had higher horizontal soil volume filling than single-species-dominated stands with a more pronounced increase in the 34-year-old than 8-year-old stands. Compared with the 8-year-old stands, the 34-year-old stands had increased forest floor depth and greater overyielding with soil depth, and their fine root productivity was more responsive to the vertical variation in soil phosphorus concentrations among soil layers. Synthesis. Our results provide evidence for increasing positive diversity effects on fine root productivity with stand development in heterogeneous natural forests. Moreover, our results indicate that the increased positive diversity effects with stand development was the result of multiple mechanisms, including higher horizontal soil volume filling, a thicker forest floor layer for rooting, a higher magnitude of complementarity in nutrient-poor deep soil layers and stronger nutrient foraging towards soil layers with high nutrient concentrations in older than younger stands.

opencc-zeroNov 2019View details →

Effect of participation in commercial production of medicinal plants through community-based conservation groups on farm income at Kakamega forest, Kenya

Forest conservation by peripheral communities is one of the most advocated strategies for ensuring sustainable supply of forest goods and services. In Kenya, although conservation activities generate considerable environmental improvements, studies evaluating the economic benefits are very limited. This study aimed at assessing the impact of participating in the commercialization training program by forest adjacent communities on farm income. Utilizing matching techniques, the analysis is based on the data collected from a randomly selected sample of farm households around Kakamega forest in Kenya. The results show that age, forest distance, forest benefit, market distance and farming experience are the main factors that influence the participation in the commercialization program. Also, participating in commercial production of medicinal plants has a positive and significant effect on farmers' income. The average treatment effect on the treated (ATT), based on three estimation algorithms, ranges from KSH. 80,047 to KSH. 176,788 per hectare, per year, implying that policy efforts that focus on the participation in the commercialization program of medicinal plants can enhance incomes among farm-dependent households. The findings from this study suggest that upscaling the participation in the commercialization program to other areas.

opencc-zeroDec 2017View details →

Data from: Conservation value of low-productive forests measured as the amount and diversity of dead wood and saproxylic beetles

In many managed landscapes, low-productive land comprises most of the remaining relatively untouched areas, and is often over-represented within protected areas. The relationship between the productivity and conservational value of a site is poorly known; however, it has been hypothesized that biodiversity increases with productivity due to higher resource abundance or heterogeneity, and that the species communities of low-productive land are a nested sub-set of communities from more productive land. We tested these hypotheses for dead wood-dependent beetles by comparing their species richness and composition, as well as the amount and diversity of dead wood, between low-productive (potential forest growth < 1 m3 ha-1 year-1) and productive Scots pine-dominated stands in Sweden. We included four stand types: stands situated on (i) thin soils and (ii) mires (both low-productive), (iii) managed stands, and (iv) unmanaged stands set aside for conservation purposes (both productive). Beetle species richness and number of red-listed species were highest in the productive set-asides. Species richness was positively correlated with the volume and diversity of dead wood, but volume appeared to be a better predictor than diversity for the higher species richness in set-asides. Beetle species composition was similar among stand types, and the assemblages in low-productive stands were largely subsets of those in productive set-asides. However, 11% of all species and 40% of red-listed species only occurred in productive stands, while no species were unique to low-productive stands. We conclude that low-productive forests are less valuable for conservation than productive forest land. Given the generally similar species composition among stand types, a comparable conservational effect could be obtained by setting aside a larger area of low-productive forest in comparison to the productive. In terms of dead wood volumes, 1.8–3.6 ha of low-productive forest has the same value as 1 ha of unmanaged productive forest. This figure can be used to estimate the conservation value of low productive forests; however, as productive forests harbored some unique species, they are not completely exchangeable.

opencc-zeroDec 2018View details →

Data from: Wood and non wood forest products of Central Java, Indonesia

We investigated herb and woody species at rehabilitated forests planted by mahogany and teak, and original, not rehabilitated forests in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Plant species were classified into five use categories: medicine, food, fodder, ornament and construction. We registered 142 species belonging to 54 families known as useful species with at least one, often more, use categories. The number of useful species was highest for medicine use (107 species). There was a dominance of exotic herb species used for food and annual herbs used for fodder. The number of useful herbs and exotic woody species was highest in teak stands. The number of woody species used for medicine, food and construction were higher than those for ornament and fodder. All herb species decreased with time, except annual native, that increased. Around 50% of the useful species occurred only once in one site, and some species showed a distribution restricted to one type of stands. Overall, our results seem to show that rehabilitated stands are doing well with regard to useful herb and woody species. We suggest strategies for plant and ecosystem conservation, especially for rare native plant species and species with restricted distribution.

opencc-zeroDec 2014View details →

Data from: ENSO and frost co-determine decade-long temporal variation in flower and seed production in a subtropical rain forest

Flower and seed production of plants can be greatly influenced by both natural climatic oscillations and local weather extremes. However, owing to the rarity of long-term monitoring studies conducted at a sufficient temporal scale to capture climatic oscillations and the unpredictability of extreme weather events, evidence that demonstrates how these two external forcings act in concert to drive plant reproduction remains scarce. In addition, considerable variation in species' phenological responses to the external climatic forcings was often observed. Phylogenetic relationships may mediate this inter-specific variation, but previous studies yielded inconsistent results when testing this hypothesis. We monitored the flower and seed production in a subtropical rainforest, Fushan, Taiwan (24°45'N, 121°35'E), for over ten years (since September 2002). In March 2005, a record low temperature (-1.3°C) occurred at Fushan and caused great frost damage to plants. We used weekly phenological records and long-term meteorological data to assess the effects of climatic fluctuations and extreme weather event on plant reproductive output. We show that the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) indices, which integrated local climatic variables at Fushan over several months, were strongly associated with flower and seed production. The 2005 spring frost also had long-lasting effects on the flower and seed production of several species. In particular, we detected phylogenetic signals in the relationships between phenological responses of flowering production and several climatic variables (maximum temperature, irradiance, and ENSO34 index). By contrast, the relationships between seed production and climatic variables, as well as phenological responses to the frost event, did not exhibit a phylogenetic signal. Synthesis: Our findings add to the growing evidence that together the natural climatic oscillation (ENSO) and the extreme weather event (frost) determined the temporal variation in flower and seed production. In addition, phylogenetically closely related species resembled each other in their flowering responses to abiotic variation in this subtropical rainforest. Improved understanding of these abiotic and biotic interactions may help predicting population- and community-level phenological responses under future climate changes.

opencc-zeroDec 2014View details →

Data from: Mapping wood production in European forests

Wood production is an important forest use, impacting a range of other ecosystem services. However, information on the spatial patterns in wood production is limited and often available only for larger administrative units. In this study, we developed high-resolution wood production maps for European forests. We collected wood production statistics for 29 European countries from 2000 to 2010, as well as comprehensive sets of biophysical and socioeconomic location factors. We used regression analyses to produce maps indicating the harvest likelihood on a 1 × 1 km2 grid. These likelihood maps were validated using national forest inventory plot data. We then disaggregated wood production statistics from larger administrative units to the grid level using the harvest likelihood as weights. We verified the resulting wood production maps by correlating predicted and observed wood production at the level of smaller administrative units not used for generating the wood production maps. We conclude that (i) productivity, tree species composition and terrain ruggedness are the most important location factors that determine the spatial patterns of wood production at the pan-European scale and that (ii) incorporating these location factors substantially improves the results of disaggregating wood production statistics compared to a disaggregation based on forest cover only. Our wood production maps give insight into forest ecosystem service provisioning and can be used to improve the assessment of potentials and costs of woody biomass supply.

opencc-zeroDec 2017View details →

Data from: Trade-offs in berry production and biodiversity under prescribed burning and retention regimes in Boreal forests

1. Green tree retention and prescribed burning are practices used to mitigate negative effects of forestry. Beside their effects on biodiversity, these practices should also promote non-timber forest products (NTFPs). We assessed: (1) how prescribed burning and tree retention influence NTFPs by examining production of bilberry Vaccinium myrtillus and cowberry; Vaccinium vitis-idaea (2) if there are synergies or trade-offs in the delivery of these NTFPs in relation to delivery of species richness, focusing on five groups of forest dwelling species. 2. We used a long-term experiment located in eastern Finland with three different harvesting treatments: clearcut-logging, logging with retention patches and unlogged, which were combined with or without prescribed burning. Eleven years after the treatment application, we scored plant cover and berry production in different microhabitats within these treatments, while species richness data for five species groups (ground-layer lichens and bryophytes, vascular plants, saproxylic beetles, pollinators – here bees and hoverflies) were collected at the stand level. 3. Logging favoured cowberry production, particularly for plants growing in the vicinity of stumps. Logging was detrimental for cover and berry production of bilberry. Retention mitigated these negative effects slightly, but cover and berry production were still substantially lower compared to unlogged forests. Prescribed burning increased cowberry production in retention patches and in unlogged forest. Bilberry production decreased with burning, except in unlogged forest where the effect was neutral. 4. No single management treatment simultaneously favoured all values - NTFPs and richness - and trade-offs among values were common. Only bilberry production and beetle diversity were higher under retention forestry, or in unlogged stands, compared to logged stands. Prescribed burning favoured many values when performed in combination with retention forestry, or in unlogged stands, but different treatment combinations favoured different species groups. 5. Synthesis and applications. Our results demonstrate that widely-applied conservation practices in managed forests are unlikely to benefit all ecosystem values everywhere. If high multi-functionality is desired, managing at a landscape scale, countering the local trade-offs among values, may be more appropriate than the stand scale conservation practices commonly practiced today.

opencc-zeroDec 2017View details →

Data from: Litter removal in a tropical rain forest reduces fine root biomass and production but litter addition has few effects

Many old-growth lowland tropical rain forests are potentially nutrient limited, and it has long been thought that many such forests maintain growth by recycling nutrients from decomposing litter. We investigated this by continuously removing (for ten years) freshly fallen litter from five (45 m x 45 m) plots, adding it to five other plots, there were five controls. From monthly measures over one year we show that litter removal caused lower: fine root (≤2 mm diameter) standing mass, fine root standing length, fine root length production and fine root length survivorship. Litter addition did not significantly change fine root mass or length or production. Nutrient concentrations in fine roots in litter removal plots were lower than those in controls for nitrogen (N), calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg), concentrations in fine roots in litter addition plots were higher for N and Ca. Chronic litter removal has resulted in reduced forest growth due to lack of nutrients, probably nitrogen. Conversely, long-term litter addition has had fewer effects.

opencc-zeroDec 2014View details →

Data from: Conservation versus livelihoods: spatial management of non-timber forest product harvests in a two-dimensional model

Areas of high biodiversity often coincide with communities living in extreme poverty. As a livelihood support, these communities often harvest wild products from the environment. But harvest activities can have negative impacts on fragile and globally important ecosystems. This paper examines trade-offs in ecological protection and community welfare from the harvest of wild products. With a novel model and empirical evidence, I show that management of harvest activity does not always resolve these trade-offs. In a model of continuous harvests in a two-dimensional landscape, managed harvest activity improves welfare, but is uniformly bad for other ecosystem services that are sensitive to the presence (as opposed to the intensity) of human activity. Empirical results from a unique dataset of mushroom harvesters in Yunnan, China suggest more experienced, poorer, and more vulnerable individuals tend to rely on more distant harvests. Thus, policies that limit the extent of forest travel, such as protected areas, may protect fragile ecosystems but can have a disproportionately negative effect on those most vulnerable.

opencc-by-4.0Dec 2023View details →

Global forest net primary production dataset

Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.

opencc-by-4.0Jan 2024View details →

Data needed to reproduce analysis from "Frost matters: Incorporating late-spring frost in a dynamic vegetation model regulates regional productivity dynamics in European beech forests"

Data to reproduce analysis from "Frost matters: Incorporating late-spring frost in a dynamic vegetation model regulates regional productivity dynamics in European beech forests". This includes: <ol> <li>Tree ring data (meyer, bdn, principe, dittmar)</li> <li>LPJ-GUESS model output (frost_validation, frost_sensitivity, runs_22012024_revision)</li> <li>Data used for plotting</li> </ol>

opencc-zeroFeb 2022View details →

Changes in the direction of the diversity-productivity relationship over fifteen years of stand development in a planted temperate forest

Experiments manipulating diversity in both forests and grasslands have often observed a positive diversity-productivity relationship (DPR) which tends to strengthen during plant community development. This pattern is generally attributed to an increase in niche complementarity or facilitation. Most analyses do not examine species dominance and density, which also change over time. Moreover, how neighbourhood scale interactions among tree species affect the DPR is not well understood. We analysed growth and mortality data from the Simplex experiment, a part of the BIOTREE tree diversity experiment. Simplex consists of 36 plots each planted with four common and commercially important tree species to create a gradient of tree species evenness at two tree densities (6667 and 3556 trees ha-1). We test whether: i) the effect of evenness on total aboveground biomass productivity increase with stand development (year), ii) the effect of evenness on productivity is stronger in dense plots; iii) intra-specific competition from neighbours negatively affect the growth of dominant species more strongly compared to co-dominant species, and whether this negative effect is stronger in denser plots. The direction of DPR was initially negative because the fast-growing long-lived pioneer Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco) dominated. However, with time, shade tolerant Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) and European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) increased in abundance (by biomass), and the relationship between evenness and biomass increment changed from negative to positive in high-density plots. Neighbourhood analyses revealed that for Douglas fir and Norway spruce, conspecifics reduced individual growth rates across density levels and years. Synthesis: We observed a shift in the diversity-productivity relationship over 15 years in our experiment. Over time, increasing intraspecific competition limited the increment of the abundant Douglas fir in uneven plots, and a persistent increase in the abundance (by biomass) of shade tolerant Norway spruce and European beech in even plots led to a higher community biomass increment, which led to a positive DPR. Emergence of a positive DPR in temperate forest plantations requires significant time and is importantly promoted by diversity at the neighbourhood scale (intimate mixtures) as well as higher density planting.

opencc-zeroMay 2024View details →

Data from: Climate interacts with the functional trait structure of tree communities to influence forest productivity

Tree functional diversity can increase forest productivity by enhancing species interactions and providing greater growth stability. However, very few studies have examined the influence of tree community trait structure on survivor growth, recruitment, and mortality simultaneously, which are the main drivers of forest population dynamics. Here we explore the interactions among functional diversity, productivity, and climate to investigate the role of the trait structure of communities on forest productivity and to determine under what circumstances functional diversity should be promoted to ensure forest adaptive capacity under future climate. Using random-forest modeling and a network of permanent sample plots covering a broad gradient of climatic conditions, we isolated the effects of functional diversity—described as the distribution of trait values in a community—and climate variables on net forest productivity (NFP), survivor growth, recruitment, and mortality. Based on our findings, community-level trait structure affects forest productivity in different ways. NFP was influenced by three traits from three different plant strategy dimensions, whereas survivor growth and recruitment were strongly correlated with leaf and resource acquisition traits, and tree mortality with a mix of traits reflecting various plant strategies. We also observed climate interactions with the functional trait structure of tree communities. For instance, we observed an interaction between drought tolerance and mean annual temperature: at low temperatures, NFP biomass accumulation increased with the value of the drought tolerance trait; however, at higher temperatures, the opposite pattern was observed. However, we found contrasting patterns of population response to climate variability, depending on their functional diversity. Greater functional diversity does not necessarily increase biomass accumulation under different climatic conditions. Synthesis. As all components of forest productivity contribute to NFP, studies on forest productivity should not only consider survivor growth but also recruitment and mortality. Each component responds differently in terms of biomass changes to climatic variation, according to the trait structure of tree communities. This study provides a framework to identify the trait structure that should be targeted under different climate scenarios to anticipate change and help strengthen forest response capacity to climate change.