BACKGROUND AND AIMS Morphology of crown shoots changes with tree height. The height of forest trees is usually correlated with the light environment and this makes it difficult to separate the effects of tree size and of light conditions on the morphological plasticity of crown shoots. This paper addresses the tree-height dependence of shoot traits under full-light conditions where a tree crown...

In most tree species, xylem consists of two different functional parts: sapwood and heartwood. While sapwood, as the flowpath for sap, has received more attention in isotope studies assessing water sources accessed by trees (e.g. soil from depths, groundwater, stream or a mixture these), much remains unknown about heartwood possible exchange between parts. We investigated four species (Fagus sy...

BACKGROUND Despite abatement programs of precursors implemented in many industrialized countries, ozone remains the principal air pollutant throughout the northern hemisphere with background concentrations increasing as a consequence of economic development in former or still emerging countries and present climate change. Some of the highest ozone concentrations are measured in regions with a M...

Wild ginger (Hedychium gardnerianum) is a tall rhizomatous herb that invades forests and shrubland fragments in northern New Zealand. In order to determine the impacts of this invasive weed on forest processes, comparisons of conifer-broadleaved forest patches with different densities of ginger were made at Opononi and Whangarei in Northland. Soil properties, vegetation structure, floristics, a...

Newly planted broadleaved woodlands under agri-environment schemes lack floral diversity. The dispersal range and colonisation rates of herbaceous ground flora in thirty newly Northern Ireland were investigated during spring early summer (2017). 14 species conventionally recognised as Ancient Woodland Indicator Species (AWIS) (WIS) together with Lesser Celandine assessed the maximum distances f...

Understory plants are important components of forest ecosystem productivity and diversity. Compared to biomass models of overstory canopy trees, few are available for understory saplings and shrubs and therefore their roles in estimation of forest carbon pools are often ignored. In this study, we harvested 24 understory species including 4 saplings, 9 tree-like shrubs and 11 typical shrubs in c...

BIOLOGY/ECOLOGY Dispersal mechanisms Flight range of winged adults is very limited. Long-range dispersal of eggs, immature stages and adults is manmediated with the transport of infested plant material. Reproduction The taxonomic status of this alien aphid is problematic, and hence the interpretation of biological information is difficult. Moreover, different biotypes exhibiting host preference...

Bamboo (Phyllostachys pubescens) expansion into adjacent forests is a widespread phenomenon in subtropical regions, and it has greatly changed the dominance hierarchy from trees to bamboos. This process may be accompanied by changes in productivity, nutrients accumulation and biogeochemical cycles. We compared the net primary production (NPP) and major pools and fluxes of nitrogen (N) in bamboo...