Elevation gradients provide opportunities to explore environmental controls on forest structure and functioning. We used airborne imaging spectroscopy and lidar (light detection and ranging) to quantify changes in threedimensional forest structure and canopy functional traits in twenty 25 ha landscapes distributed along a 3300 m elevation gradient from lowland Amazonia to treeline in the Peruvi...

Tree recruitment is a key process underlying stand dynamics and sustainability in managed forests. Woody plant cover is known to affect the regeneration success of Pinus nigra, suggesting the existence of facilitative plant-plant interactions. The regeneration patterns of this Mediterranean pine were analyzed across its distribution area, using data from 3226 plots of the Spanish National Fores...

As environmental stress increases positive (facilitative) plant interactions often predominate. Plant-plant associations (or lack thereof) can indicate whether certain plant species favor particular types of microsites (e.g., shrub canopies or plant-free interspaces) and can provide valuable insights into whether "nurse plants" will contribute to seeding or planting success during ecological re...

Responses of understory plant diversity to nitrogen (N) additions were investigated in reforested forests of contrasting disturbance regimes in southern China from 2003 to 2008: disturbed forest (with harvesting of understory vegetation and litter) and rehabilitated forest (without harvesting). Experimental additions of N were administered as the following treatments: Control, 50 kg N ha(-1) yr...

this research aimed to evaluate the effect of planting seasons (autumn and spring) on 10 accessions of two species of astragalus effusus and astragalus brachyodontus in the field condition (homand absard station, damavand). after preparing the seedbed, the plant species were planted on two lines in 2 m, where the spacing between the lines of each accession was 0.5 m, and the spacing between the...

because soil moisture condition affects vegetation changes hence, monitoring of drought and vegetation changes are among valuable management tools in these ecosystems. nowadays, satellite images are used as a low-cost and fast method for vegetation study in different scales. vegetation change is assessed using vegetation spectral characteristics. this study aimed to analyze and monitor the vege...

In 2011, Big Bend National Park, Texas, USA, experienced the most severe single year drought in its recorded history, resulting in significant plant mortality. We used this event to test how perennial plant response to drought varied across elevation, plant growth form and leaf traits. In October 2010 and October 2011, we measured plant cover by species at six evenly-spaced elevations ranging f...