Contributions of a global network of tree diversity experiments to sustainable forest plantations

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Abstract

The area of forest plantations is increasing worldwide helping to meet timber demand and protect natural forests. However, with global change, monospecific plantations are increasingly vulnerable to abiotic and biotic disturbances. As an adaption measure we need to move to plantations that are more diverse in genotypes, species, and structure, with a design underpinned by science. TreeDivNet, a global network of tree diversity experiments, responds to this need by assessing the advantages and disadvantages of mixed species plantations. The network currently consists of 18 experiments, distributed over 36 sites and five ecoregions. With plantations 1–15 years old, TreeDivNet can already provide relevant data for forest policy and management. In this paper, we highlight some early results on the carbon sequestration and pest resistance potential of more diverse plantations. Finally, suggestions are made for new, innovative experiments in understudied regions to complement the existing network.

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Most cited references 43

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Tree diversity reduces herbivory by forest insects.

Hervé Jactel, Eckehard Brockerhoff (2007)

Biodiversity loss from plant communities is often acknowledged to affect primary production but little is known about effects on herbivores. We conducted a meta-analysis of a worldwide data set of 119 studies to compare herbivory in single-species and mixed forests. This showed a significant reduction of herbivory in more diverse forests but this varied with the host specificity of insects. In diverse forests, herbivory by oligophagous species was virtually always reduced, whereas the response of polyphagous species was variable. Further analyses revealed that the composition of tree mixtures may be more important than species richness per se because diversity effects on herbivory were greater when mixed forests comprised taxonomically more distant tree species, and when the proportion of non-host trees was greater than that of host trees. These findings provide new support for the role of biodiversity in ecosystem functioning across trophic levels.

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Climate change may cause severe loss in the economic value of European forest land

Marc Hanewinkel, Dominik A. Cullmann, Mart-Jan Schelhaas … (2012)

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Finding generality in ecology: a model for globally distributed experiments

Elizabeth Borer, W. Stanley Harpole, Peter Adler … (2014)

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Author and article information

Contributors

Kris Verheyen: ++3292649027 , kris.verheyen@ugent.be

Bio :

Kris Verheyen

is an Associate Professor at the Department of Forest and Water Management, Ghent University. His research interests include studies on (1) the link between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning and (2) the impact of global changes on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Using these insights, he tries to develop (3) guidelines for ecological restoration and (4) management strategies for the optimal delivery of multiple ecosystem services.

Margot Vanhellemont: ++3292649037 , margot.vanhellemont@ugent.be

Bio :

Margot Vanhellemont

is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Forest and Water Management, Ghent University. Her research interests include forest dynamics and tree growth.

Harald Auge: ++493455585309 , harald.auge@ufz.de

Bio :

Harald Auge

is a Senior Scientist at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ and the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Germany. His research interests include plant population and community ecology, plant–herbivore interactions, and biological invasions.

Lander Baeten: ++3292649037 , lander.baeten@ugent.be

Bio :

Lander Baeten

is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Forest and Water Management, Ghent University. He is interested in biodiversity conservation and restoration, the functional importance of species and quantitative ecology.

Christopher Baraloto: ++594594329291 , chris.baraloto@ecofog.gf

Bio :

Christopher Baraloto

is currently the Director of the International Center for Tropical Botany in the Department of Biological Sciences at Florida International University, Research Director with the mixed research unit in Tropical Forest Ecology (UMR EcoFoG) in Kourou, French Guiana, and affiliate Professor in the Department of Botany at the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia. His research focuses on tropical botany, community ecology, and conservation. He works in sites across the Amazon and Guiana Shield seeking to understand the factors controlling plant species distributions, and the impacts of global change on forest structure and biodiversity.

Nadia Barsoum: ++44(0)3000675618 , nadia.barsoum@forestry.gsi.gov.uk

Bio :

Nadia Barsoum

is a forest ecologist at Forest Research, UK. Her research interests include understanding the influence of a diversification of forest stands on biodiversity and woodland ecosystem resilience and developing guidance on best forestry practice to protect and enhance woodland biodiversity.

Simon Bilodeau-Gauthier: ++49(0)3419733128 , simonbgauthier@yahoo.ca

Bio :

Simon Bilodeau-Gauthier

is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Centre for Forest Research, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), Canada. He is a forest ecologist whose research interests include biodiversity, silviculture, plant–soil interactions, plant nutrition, and soil fertility. He was previously a postdoc at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) in Leipzig, where he worked on TreeDivNet data.

Helge Bruelheide: ++493455526222 , helge.bruelheide@botanik.uni-halle.de

Bio :

Helge Bruelheide

is Professor of Geobotany at the Institute of Biology at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg and one of the directors of the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig. He is a trained vegetation ecologist with a focus on community ecology, biodiversity effects, and ecosystem functioning. In TreeDivNet he is coordinating the BEF-China experiment in Jiangxi, China.

Bastien Castagneyrol: ++33557122730 , bastien.castagneyrol@pierroton.inra.fr

Bio :

Bastien Castagneyrol

is a Junior Scientist at the French National Institute of Agricultural Research (INRA). He is interested in plant–herbivore interactions and the effect of plant diversity on insect herbivory.

Douglas Godbold: ++431476544101 , douglas.godbold@boku.ac.at

Bio :

Douglas Godbold

is a Professor at the Institute of Forest Ecology, Universität für Bodenkultur (BOKU). His research interests include tree and belowground biodiversity in relation to ecosystem function, and the effects of climate change on forests.

Josephine Haase: ++497612032694 , josephine.haase@biologie.uni-freiburg.de

Bio :

Josephine Haase

is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Zurich, Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies. Her research interests are to understand the functional linkages between species and trophic levels, their interactions with the environment, and how these processes determine large-scale ecological patterns.

Andy Hector: ++441865275032 , andrew.hector@plants.ox.ac.uk

Bio :

Andy Hector

is Professor of ecology in the University of Oxford, Department of Plant Sciences. He is a plant community ecologist interested in how biodiversity is maintained or lost and in the consequences for ecosystem functioning and stability. He is also the scientific PI on the Sabah Biodiversity Experiment ( www.sabahbiodiversityexperiment.org) and recently published The new statistics with R: An introduction for biologists.

Hervé Jactel: ++33557122859 , herve.jactel@pierroton.inra.fr

Bio :

Hervé Jactel

is a Senior Scientist at the National Institute of Agricultural Research (INRA, France). His research interests include forest entomology and ecology, and more particularly the relationships between forest diversity and resistance to insect herbivores.

Julia Koricheva: ++441784443414 , julia.koricheva@rhul.ac.uk

Bio :

Julia Koricheva

is a Professor of Ecology at Royal Holloway University of London. Her research interests include plant–herbivore interactions, forest diversity and ecosystem function, and research synthesis in ecology.

Michel Loreau: ++33561040578 , michel.loreau@ecoex-moulis.cnrs.fr

Bio :

Michel Loreau

is Research Director at the Experimental Ecology Station of the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS, France). His research goal is to build the theoretical foundations of a new ecological synthesis that integrates the divergent perspectives of community ecology, evolutionary ecology, and ecosystem ecology. His main research theme during the past 20 years has been the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning and the ecological and societal consequences of biodiversity loss.

Simone Mereu: ++39079229933 , simonemereu@uniss.it

Bio :

Simone Mereu

is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Sassari. His research interests include terrestrial carbon and water cycles, plant and community responses to drought, diversity effects with a special focus on Mediterranean communities.

Christian Messier: ++1-5149873000 , messier.christian@uqam.ca

Bio :

Christian Messier

is Professor of Forest Ecology at the University of Québec in Montréal (UQAM) and in Outaouais (UQO). His research interests include the development of sustainable tree and forest management practices in both urban and natural forests.

Bart Muys: ++3216329726 , bart.muys@ees.kuleuven.be

Bio :

Bart Muys

is a Professor of Forest Ecology and Management at the University of Leuven. His research contributes to evaluation and optimization of forest management for multiple ecosystem services under a changing environment. He has an interest in the relation between forest biodiversity function and provisioning and regulating services including carbon sequestration and green and blue water-related services.

Philippe Nolet: ++1-8195953900 , philippe.nole@uqo.ca

Bio :

Philippe Nolet

is a Professor at the Department of Natural Resources, Université du Québec en Outaouais. His research interests include studies on (1) silviculture and applied ecology, (2) the impact and benefits of silviculture on forest ecosystems in the context of global changes, and (3) the development of silvicultural approaches to favour forest ecosystem resilience.

Alain Paquette: ++1-5149873000 , alain.paquette@gmail.com

Bio :

Alain Paquette

is a Research Associate at the Centre for Forest Research, Université du Québec à Montréal. He is interested in biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in trees and coordinates the IDENT network of biodiversity experiments.

John Parker: ++1-4434822221 , parkerj@si.edu

Bio :

John Parker

is a Senior Scientist at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. His research interests include (1) impacts of herbivores on plant community structure and (2) plant invasions, (3) effects of biodiversity on populations, communities, and ecosystems, (4) effects of climate change on plant populations and plant–herbivore interactions, and (5) chemical ecology of plant–herbivore interactions.

Mike Perring: ++6186488 4692 , michael.perring@uwa.edu.au

Bio :

Mike Perring

is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Ghent University and The University of Western Australia. His research interests include restoration ecology and the influence of species composition on ecosystem function in an era of environmental change.

Quentin Ponette: ++3210473616 , quentin.ponette@uclouvain.be

Bio :

Quentin Ponette

is Professor at the Université Catholique de Louvain, Earth and Life Institute. His research interests include biogeochemistry of forest ecosystems and functional biodiversity.

Catherine Potvin: ++1-5143983730 , catherine.potvin@mcgill.ca

Bio :

Catherine Potvin

is a Professor at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Her research focusses on the link between tree diversity and carbon cycling in tropical landscapes.

Peter Reich: ++1-6126244270 , preich@umn.edu

Bio :

Peter Reich

is a Professor at the University of Minnesota, with a joint affiliation at the University of Western Sydney. His research interests include impacts of global environmental change (e.g., biodiversity loss, climate warming, rising CO2) on terrestrial ecosystems, and the feedbacks of such responses to the carbon cycle and climate system.

Andy Smith: ++441248382297 , a.r.smith@bangor.ac.uk

Bio :

Andy Smith

is Director of Research and Lecturer in Forestry at the School of Environment, Natural Resources and Geography, Bangor University. He is also a visiting scientist at NERC’s Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Bangor and forestry programme leader at the joint Bangor-CSUFT University Campus, Changsha, China. His research area is forest ecology, forest biogeochemistry, and control of GHG emissions. He has expertise in climate change impacts on biogeochemical processes and plant–soil interactions. His work includes studies on the impact of drought, warming and elevated CO2 on plant community dynamics, and belowground ecosystem processes.

Martin Weih: ++46-18672543 , martin.weih@slu.se

Bio :

Martin Weih

is a Professor at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. His research interests include the ecology and ecophysiology of forest trees and agricultural crops.

Michael Scherer-Lorenzen: ++497612035014 , michael.scherer@biologie.uni-freiburg.de

Bio :

Michael Scherer-Lorenzen

is a Professor for Geobotany at the Faculty of Biology, University of Freiburg. His research interest is on the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, and on the underlying mechanisms. This work focuses on biogeochemical processes related to carbon and nutrient dynamics (e.g., productivity, litter decomposition, nitrogen retention), and is done in grassland and forest ecosystems.

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Ambio

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Ambio

Title: Ambio

Publisher: Springer Netherlands (Dordrecht )

ISSN (Print): 0044-7447

ISSN (Electronic): 1654-7209

Publication date (Electronic): 12 August 2015

Publication date PMC-release: 12 August 2015

Publication date (Print): February 2016

Volume: 45

Issue: 1

Pages: 29-41

Affiliations

[ ]Forest & Nature Lab, Department of Forest and Water Management, Ghent University, Geraardsbergsesteenweg 267, 9090 Melle-Gontrode, Belgium

[ ]Department of Community Ecology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Theodor-Lieser-Straße 4, 06120 Halle, Germany

[ ]German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (Halle-Jena-Leipzig), iDiv, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany

[ ]Department of Biological Sciences, International Center for Tropical Botany, Florida International University, 11200 SW 8th Street, OE 167, Miami, FL 33199 USA

[ ]INRA, UMR Ecologie des Forêts de Guyane, 97310 Kourou, French Guiana

[ ]Department of Botany, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Manaus, Brazil

[ ]Centre for Ecosystems, Society and Biosecurity, Forest Research, Alice Holt Lodge, Farnham, GU10 4LH Surrey UK

[ ]Centre for Forest Research (CFR), Université du Québec à Montréal (UQM), P.O. Box 8888, Centre-ville Station, Montréal, QC H3C 3P8 Canada

[ ]Institute of Biology/Geobotany and Botanical Garden, Martin Luther University Halle Wittenberg, Am Kirchtor 1, 06108 Halle, Germany

[ ]INRA, UMR 1202 BIOGECO, 69 route d’Arcachon, 33612 Cestas, France

[ ]INRA, UMR 1202 BIOGECO, 33610 Cestas, France

[ ]UMR 1202, BIOGECO, University of Bordeaux, 33615 Pessac, France

[ ]Institute of Forest Ecology, Universität für Bodenkultur (BOKU), Peter Jordan Str 82, 1190 Vienna, Austria

[ ]Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057 Zurich, Austria

[ ]Faculty of Biology, University of Freiburg, Schaenzlestrasse 1, 79104 Freiburg, Germany

[ ]Ecosystem Management, Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zurich, Universitaetsstr. 16, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland

[ ]Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3RB UK

[ ]School of Biological Sciences, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, TW20 0EX Surrey UK

[ ]Centre for Biodiversity Theory and Modelling, Station d’Ecologie Expérimentale du CNRS, 2 route du CNRS, 09200 Moulis, France

[ ]Department of Science for Nature and Natural Resources, University of Sassari, Via Enrico De Nicola 1, 07100 Sassari, Italy

[ ]Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC), Impacts on Agriculture, Forest, and Natural Ecosystems, Lecce, Italy

[ ]Institut des Sciences de la Forêt tempérée (ISFORT), Université du Québec en Outaouais (UQO), 8, Rue Principale, Ripon, QC JOV 1V0 Canada

[ ]Division Forest, Nature and Landscape, Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences, KU Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200E, Box 2411, 3001 Louvain, Belgium

[ ]Département des Sciences naturelles, Université du Québec en Outaouais, 58 Principale, Ripon, QC J0V 1V0 Canada

[ ]Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, 647 Contees Wharf Road, Edgewater, MD 21037 USA

[ ]Ecosystem Restoration and Intervention Ecology Research Group, School of Plant Biology, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009 Australia

[ ]Earth and Life Institute - Environmental Sciences, Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL), Croix du Sud 2, Box L7.05.09, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

[ ]Department of Biology, McGill University, 1205 Dr Penfield, Montréal, QC H3A-1B1 Canada

[ ]Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama, USA

[ ]Department of Forest Resources, University of Minnesota, 1530 Cleveland Avenue North, St Paul, MN 55108 USA

[ ]Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, University of Western Sydney, Penrith, NSW 2753 Australia

[ ]School of Environment, Natural Resources and Geography, Bangor University, Thoday Building, Bangor, LL57 2UW Gwynedd UK

[ ]Department of Crop Production Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, PO Box 7043, 750 07 Uppsala, Sweden

Article

Publisher ID: 685

DOI: 10.1007/s13280-015-0685-1

PMC ID: 4709352

PubMed ID: 26264716

SO-VID: 45c60805-0737-46e4-b3fc-9e0c34d5c36a

History

Date received : 31 January 2015

Date revision received : 16 June 2015

Date accepted : 27 June 2015

Custom metadata

ScienceOpen disciplines: Sociology

Keywords: biodiversity experiments,functional biodiversity research,plantation forest,sustainable forest management,ecological restoration

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ScienceOpen disciplines: Sociology

Keywords: biodiversity experiments, functional biodiversity research, plantation forest, sustainable forest management, ecological restoration

Contributions of a global network of tree diversity experiments to sustainable forest plantations

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Abstract

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Transnational Chinese identity

Most cited references 43

Tree diversity reduces herbivory by forest insects.

Climate change may cause severe loss in the economic value of European forest land

Finding generality in ecology: a model for globally distributed experiments

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