Domestic livestock are widespread in seasonally dry forests, likely causing forest degradation and limiting tree seedling establishment. Shrubs can play an important role facilitating regeneration, by protecting trees from damage ameliorating unfavorable abiotic conditions. We aimed at disentangling the relative contribution of grazing exclusion, long-term conservation, potential facilitation e...

Natural regeneration after anthropogenic disturbance is slow in the tundra biome, but assisted can help speed up this process. A tracked off-road vehicle damaged a High Arctic dwarf shrub heath Svalbard May 2009, drastically reducing vegetation cover, soil seed banks, and incoming rain. We following year using six different revegetation treatments monitored their effects one month, eight years ...

—Most scrub–shrub bird species are declining in the northeastern United States, and these declines are largely attributed to regional declines in habitat availability. American Beaver (Castor canadensis; hereafter “beaver”) populations have been increasing in the Northeast in recent decades, and beavers create scrub–shrub habitat through their dam-building and foraging activities. Few systemati...

Species-specific allometric equations that provide estimates of biomass from measured plant attributes are currently unavailable for shrubs common to South Florida pine rocklands, where fire plays an important part in shaping the structure and function of ecosystems. We developed equations to estimate total aboveground biomass and fine fuel of 10 common hardwood species in the shrub layer of pi...

Two conservation goals of the early 20th century, extensive reforestation and reduced wildfire through fire exclusion, may have contributed to declining pollinator abundance as forests became denser and shrub covered. To examine how forest structure affects bees we selected 5 stands in each of 7 forest types including: cleared forest; dense young pines; thinned young pines; mature open pine wit...

We investigated changes in species richness, community biomass, and productivity during secondary forest succession in Ziwuling area of the Loess Plateau of China. Species richness(number of taxa) increased as the succession proceeds, and peaked at the climax forest community, but the richness growth gradually slowed down as the succession advanced. Community biomass rapidly increased from the ...

Studies have documented many biophysical factors that are correlated with urban forest carbon storage. This urban forest function is also increasingly being promoted as a nature-based solution for cities. While urbanization affects both the structure and function of urban forest ecosystems, quantitative analyses of specific casual drivers of carbon storage in urban versus peri-urban forests are...