Drought and rising temperatures can cause massive forest diebacks around the world. When a tree is experiencing drought, “shedding off” the leaves can enhance tree water status by reducing canopy transpiration. Whilst...
When fungal infection comes to Pinus radiata, it can run through the bottom of the crown of the tree, removing its leaves. What effect does this defoliation have when it occurs? Mireia Gomez-Gallego and colleagues...
Mean global temperatures have risen by almost 1°C since 1850 and are predicted to continue to rise through to the end of the century. Understanding how grasses are affected by a long-term increase in temperature is...
Secondary growth is a process related to the formation of new cells that increase in size and wall thickness during xylogenesis. Temporal dynamics of wood formation influence cell traits, in turn affecting cell patterns...
Mountain forests are important ecosystems subject to extreme climate conditions. Soil buffers root systems against variations in the weather, but we know little of how climate affects tree root growth and mortality...
Understanding how forests grow and how they metabolize carbon is crucial to ecosystem carbon flux, feedbacks between vegetation and climate, and the forestry. However, a key question remains unanswered: how is carbon...
Ephemeral seagrasses provide important marine habitats, but are under threat due to human activity. Whitehead et al. develop a new functional-structural environmentally dependant model, in order to integrate existing...
The presence in the specimens of both epicormic shoots and traumatic growth zones, combined with the observation of some disorientation of the wood structure in some parts of the trunks, suggest that these trees were...
Evaluating genetic and environmental effects upon sweet cherry cultivars differing in seasonal duration and fruit size, Gibeau et al. employ photographic measurements to apply a framework of biological time indices...
Recent repeated episodes of drought and high temperatures have resulted in substantial dieback of silver fir in the Spanish Pyrenees. However, mortality has been much greater in populations from the westernmost Pyrenees...