Evidence linking biodiversity to physical or climatic environmental diversity variables (ED) across scales are rare. Our study uses the set-up of the SAFE (Stability of Altered Forest Ecosystems Project) project to analyse forest structural complexity and its links to forest processes and biodiversity. We quantify these links using local- and landscape-scale (logging and fragmentation) ED accounting for scale-dependency in relationships

Tree diameter growth responds to many environmental factors. In this study we monitored the weekly growth of 100 trees in a mature mixed species forest on the mid-Atlantic coastal plain, USA, during three growing seasons. Here we present estimates of the aboveground biomass dynamics and the influences of short-term variations in water availability on whole-forest growth.   

Forests in the Western Ghats, a biodiversity hotspot are subjected to human disturbance and use. Currently, there is limited evidence on the status and dynamics of tropical forests as well the forest product flow, in the context of human disturbance and climate change. This paper presents structure, composition and forest product flow of tropical evergreen and deciduous forests.

How best to manage woodland patches, mitigate the consequences of habitat fragmentation, and enable landscape permeability are key questions facing conservation scientists. Using a landscape-scale mark-release-recapture study on macro-moths we looked at how life-history traits and landscape characteristics affect species abundance, composition and movements. Moreover, this study would have been be unfeasible without the use of citizen scientists.

This study examined the effects of forest fragmentation on multiple soil processes: decomposition of recalcitrant and easily decomposing leaf litter in the presence and absence of soil macrofauna, soil CO₂ flux including and excluding leaf litter, and soil fauna feeding activity. The process rates were best explained by soil moisture, which correlated positively with the distance to the edge.

Litter decomposition is a critical process driving ecosystem C and nutrient cycling, and especially vulnerable to disturbance. Decomposition loss from leaves ofCastanopsis eyrei, Schima superb,Cyclobalanopsis glaucaandCunninghamia lanceolatawere estimated in subtropical forests with different cutting regimes in southern China. Different patterns of leaf litter decomposition were seen among four plant species in these forests.

The Atlantic Forest is a biodiversity hotspot which originally covered 17.4% of the Brazilian territory. Currently 8% of the forest remains. Twelve 1 ha permanent sample plots along a successional gradient were enumerated to estimate the rate and mode of recovery in biodiversity and biomass. Data show that secondary forest remain depauperate in species diversity long after abandonment.

Whether catastrophic disturbances such as hurricanes create a carbon sink in tropical forests is unknown.  Here, we present pre- and post-hurricane data from permanent sample plots in northern Central America affected by a category 4 hurricane in 2001.  The data span 20 years with over a decade of post-hurricane growth.  

Up to half of the estimated aboveground carbon of global vegetation is stored in tropical forests. Large areas of rainforest are disturbed due to climate change and human influence. Using the process-based, individual-oriented forest model FORMIND we analyse how drought, fire and logging modify dynamics and carbon flux of African rainforests.

Land-use change is the primary driver of biodiversity loss. Different taxonomic and functional groups respond  differently to land-use change, with implications for ecosystem structure and function. We illustrate taxonomic and functional patterns in responses to land-use in tropical forests worldwide using the database on community abundance composition of the PREDICTS (Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity in Changing Terrestrial Systems) project.

Drought and fire disturb large areas of the Amazon rainforest with poorly understood consequences for ecosystem carbon storage. All major ecosystem carbon fluxes were recorded in two large-scale disturbance experiments in Amazon forest: one simulating drought and the other, natural ground fires. Results highlight areas of similarity and divergence in ecosystem carbon cycling responses to these contrasting disturbances.

Tropical Montane Cloud Forests harbour exceptional levels of biodiversity and endemism. They sit immediately below a zone of climatic tension where substantial elevation warming is likely to enhance fire presence. In this study we present data on above-ground carbon stocks in burned and unburned TMFCs sites (>2300m) with different fire chronosequences.

This project looked at the effects of reforestation on herpetofauna biodiversity in Madagascar by conducting surveys of 3 habitats; closed canopy forest, reforested areas, and cleared areas. The forest proved to be the most species diverse habitat for both taxa, with the greatest abundance of reptiles, but species abundance of frogs was found to be highest in the reforested site. 

To understand and predict changes in biodiversity with increasing fragmentation of natural habitat the configuration and geometrical properties of landscapes need to be assessed. We present novel computational methods evaluating pixel-based maps of landscapes to 1) flexibly delineate habitat patches and 2) characterise shape properties independently from size, for subsequent modelling of the biodiversity response to fragmentation of forest habitats.