Advertisement · 728 × 90

Posts by Nikola Besic

Wood density variation in European forest species: drivers and implications for multiscale biomass and carbon assessment in France Abstract. Wood density is a key parameter for estimating forest biomass and carbon stocks. However, the magnitude and the drivers of wood density variation in temperate forests, and the implications of this variation for biomass and carbon assessments, are not well understood. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of wood density variation in trees of western temperate Europe and evaluates its impacts on forest aboveground biomass (AGB) estimates at multiple spatial scales. From an initial dataset comprising wood density measurements from 110 763 individual trees, representing 156 species across mainland France, we analysed a subset of 44 species accounting for 97 % of the growing stock and providing sufficient observations for modelling. We developed linear models of wood density based on tree, stand, site, and climatic variables, and successively examined the contributions of taxonomic identity, environmental factors and their interactions. We also constructed a model using variables potentially accessible through spatial layers (i.e., GIS-based data) at broad scales and fine resolutions, to assess their predictive capacity. Models were applied to French National Forest Inventory (NFI) data to estimate AGB across four spatial scales: the national level, biogeographical regions and subregions (both delineated through biophysical partitioning of the territory) and individual NFI plots. Our analysis revealed that variation in wood density stemmed primarily from interspecific differences (78.6 % of the total variance), with the remaining 21.4 % attributable to intraspecific variability. Our best performing model – combining variables on species identity, tree dimensions (such as diameter at breast height and total height), stand structure, site conditions and climate – explained 82 % of total wood density variation. It captured only a modest portion of intraspecific variability of wood density, which was found to be mainly driven by tree dimensions and mean annual temperature. In contrast, the model relying solely on environmental factors and the one based on GIS-layer variables accounted for 17 % and 31 % of the variation in wood density, respectively. While accounting for wood density variation had minimal impact on national-scale AGB estimates, it caused deviations of up to 30 % at finer scales, such as biogeographical subregions and individual NFI plots. These findings highlight the importance of incorporating wood density variation into forest biomass and carbon assessment, especially at regional to local scales. Given its dominant role, we recommend integrating species identity as much as possible to enhance the accuracy of forest biomass and carbon stock assessment across spatial scales.

🚀 Proud to be part of the team behind this work, opening the door to more explicit integration of wood density variation in AGB assessment, grounded in remarkable field measurements from the XyloDenseMap experiment. 🪵

bg.copernicus.org/articles/23/...

1 week ago 6 1 1 0
Post image

A new paper for anyone interested in the role of forest conservation, forestry, and forest products as climate solutions.

Led by Didac Pascual and Anders Ahlstrom from Lund University.

theconversation.com/swedens-old-...

1 month ago 38 14 1 2

Even happier that this work appears in one of the journals of the French Academy of Sciences, which should become an increasingly prominent forum for discussing our science in the years to come!

2 months ago 0 0 0 0
An outlook on the rapid decline of carbon sequestration and perspectives for an improved monitoring of French forests

Very happy to be part of the team lead by P. Ciais behind a paper conveying an important message: investing BOTH in remote sensing developments and large-scale field-based monitoring protocols is essential to monitor, and hopefully preserve, the forest carbon sink in France.

➡️ lnkd.in/eQz4dhmT

2 months ago 1 0 1 0
Post image Post image

My PhD student Selim and I are looking for a motivated Master student to take on a pretty cool challenge: testing the NASA GEDI L4B biomass product across mainland France using a version of the algorithm Selim has been developing in his PhD -building on IGN’s LiDAR HD and NFI data.

Pls share! :)

6 months ago 3 2 1 0
Preview
Le réchauffement climatique n’est pas une « arnaque ». C’est un fait Face à la nouvelle négation du changement climatique par Donald Trump, les scientifiques du CNRS réagissent en rappelant les faits et les leviers d’acti

Le réchauffement climatique n’est pas une « arnaque ». C’est un fait.

Face aux nouvelles déclarations climatosceptiques de Donald Trump, les scientifiques du CNRS réagissent en rappelant les faits.
👉 www.cnrs.fr/fr/actualite...

6 months ago 120 68 2 1
Post image

Multiple models, one forest: a Bayesian perspective.

Led by Nicolas Picard, we combined climate-sensitive forest models to see where they agree - and where they don’t.

A better way to predict European beech’s future in a changing climate.

Read more 👉 authors.elsevier.com/c/1lrB815DJ-...

6 months ago 11 2 0 1
Preview
L’océan face au changement climatique | Météo-France En absorbant la chaleur, l'océan a un important effet modérateur sur le climat et ses changements. Il est aussi particulièrement vulnérable au réchauffement climatique global et à l'augmentation du co...

La Journée mondiale de la mer est aujourd'hui.
Pour l'occasion, un article grand public sur l'importance des océans dans le système climatique :

- une augmentation de l'acidité
- des extrêmes chauds + intenses et + chauds
- un niveau qui ↗️

Avec des conséquences désastreuses
👇
tinyurl.com/bdcmx2hb

6 months ago 12 5 0 0
Advertisement
Post image Post image

Want to do a PhD in remote sensing? Interested in mountain forest ecosystems? Then apply for a PhD position in our lab! You will be part of the newly founded Centre for Forest Management in the Alps, working on scaling tree productivity from tree to landscape scale. Deadline 21st September.

7 months ago 19 10 1 0

Many thanks to Martin, Philippe, and all other co-authors for the great collaboration!

4/4

7 months ago 0 0 0 0

🔍 More highlights:

- Height time series captures local forest growth, validated with ALS.

- Species-specific height–age curves consistent with field data.

3/4

7 months ago 2 0 1 0

🔍 Highlights:

- Yearly forest height, AGB, and GSV maps (2018–2024) at 10–30 m resolution in France.

- Canopy height validated with NFI data (MAE = 3.07 m).

2/4

7 months ago 0 0 1 0
Preview
Retrieving yearly forest growth from satellite data: A deep learning based approach High-resolution mapping of forest attributes is crucial for ecosystem monitoring and carbon budget assessments. Recent advancements have leveraged sat…

Happy to be part of the team led by Martin Schwartz (@lsce-ipsl.bsky.social) behind our new publication:

“Retrieving yearly forest growth from satellite data: A deep learning based approach.”

📖 Published in Remote Sensing of Environment:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

1/4

7 months ago 13 5 1 0

🌳 One of my dearest projects—with brilliant friends and colleagues—is out in @NatureComms

We show that how you plant tree species (not just which) can significantly boost forest functioning.

🔗 rdcu.be/evtXs

👇 A short thread

9 months ago 15 8 1 0

Interested in working with a fun and inspiring team? We are looking for a new PhD (mountain forest management) and PostDoc (forest adaptive capacity, w/ @juditlecinadiaz.bsky.social)

Comes along with:
🧗🏻‍♀️ mountain/ sport buddies
🙃 good + bad jokes
☕️👬amazing social time
💭 great ideas and conversations

8 months ago 7 1 0 0

Keep sciencing. We are living through a time when looking at a rock and wondering how old it is qualifies as an act of resistance.

8 months ago 1047 259 17 16
Post image

#Archives2025 👉En France, la baisse des émissions de gaz à effet de serre prévue en 2025 n’est que de 0,8 % selon le baromètre du Citepa. Un chiffre jugé alarmant par le climatologue Jean Jouzel, qui dénonce un « relâchement » général.

➡️ https://go.publicsenat.fr/Gy7

8 months ago 60 33 3 5
Preview
[Replay] Séminaire de Valérie Masson-Delmotte - LSCE Valérie Masson-Delmotte présente les principales conclusions du dernier rapport du Haut Conseil pour le Climat : "Relancer l'action climatique face à l'aggravation des impacts et à l'affaiblissement d...

Replay et diapos du séminaire sont disponibles (lien 🎥)

@valmasdel.bsky.social revient sur les principales conclusions du dernier rapport du @hc-climat.bsky.social qui a été présenté puis remis au premier ministre la semaine dernière.

www.lsce.ipsl.fr/replay-semin...

@cea.fr @ipsl.bsky.social

8 months ago 36 18 1 4
Advertisement
Preview
Human influence on Amazon’s aboveground carbon dynamics intensified over the last decade - Nature Communications New high-resolution datasets for the Amazon forest show a loss of carbon in 2010-2020, with gains by forest growth outweighed by losses by deforestation and degradation. Human losses intensified over ...

Human influence on Amazon’s aboveground carbon dynamics intensified over the last decade.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

9 months ago 5 3 0 0
Post image

La couv de Libe de demain
Titraille bien triste

9 months ago 116 43 5 3
gabdst/TurbulenceFlux.jl: v0.2.0 A Julia package for high resolution flux estimation

🛠️ Try the tool: zenodo.org/records/1531...

Congrats again to @gbrldst.bsky.social for leading this important step toward more accurate and flexible flux measurements!

#EnvironmentalMonitoring #CarbonCycle #EcosystemFluxes #Wavelets

(5/5)

9 months ago 1 0 0 0

📍 At the Hesse forest site (FR-Hes @icos-ri.eu), this method reveals:
– higher summer carbon uptake (+2 ± 1 µmol/m²/s)
– better nighttime respiration estimates
– strong agreement with standard EC

Implemented in TurbulenceFlux.jl (Julia)

(4/5)

9 months ago 1 0 1 0

@gbrldst.bsky.social introduces a wavelet-based method to analyze turbulent fluxes in time & frequency, using a metric based on the vertical Reynolds stress tensor to adaptively localize turbulence.
This helps separate turbulence from advection.

(3/5)

9 months ago 0 0 1 0

🌍 Flux towers are essential for tracking CO₂, water vapor, and heat exchange between ecosystems and the atmosphere.
But traditional 30-min eddy-covariance averaging often misses rapid responses to environmental change.

(2/5)

9 months ago 0 0 1 0
Preview
Turbulent transport extraction in time and frequency and the estimation of eddy fluxes at high resolution Abstract. We introduce a novel framework for estimating eddy fluxes using cross-scalogram smoothing, addressing key limitations of the standard eddy-covariance method. The standard approach suffers fr...

🌱 New publication 🌱

Excited to share a study led by @gbrldst.bsky.social, now out in AMT:
"Turbulent transport extraction in time and frequency and the estimation of eddy fluxes at high resolution"
w/ myself, @e-joetzjer.bsky.social & @mcuntz.bsky.social

📄 amt.copernicus.org/articles/18/...

(1/5)

9 months ago 3 3 1 0
This image features part of Bolivia. This vibrant image was created using the radar instrument’s different polarisation channels, with each colour revealing distinct characteristics of the landscape. For instance, green hues mainly represent rainforest, red hues forested floodplains and wetlands, and blue–purple is indicative of grasslands, while black areas are rivers and lakes. The image spans approximately 90 km along the Biomass satellite's flight path (length) and 60 km across in width, with north oriented to the right.

This image features part of Bolivia. This vibrant image was created using the radar instrument’s different polarisation channels, with each colour revealing distinct characteristics of the landscape. For instance, green hues mainly represent rainforest, red hues forested floodplains and wetlands, and blue–purple is indicative of grasslands, while black areas are rivers and lakes. The image spans approximately 90 km along the Biomass satellite's flight path (length) and 60 km across in width, with north oriented to the right.

🆕 The first stunning images from our groundbreaking #Biomass satellite mission have been released – they mark a major leap forward in our ability to understand how Earth’s forests are changing and exactly how they contribute to the global carbon cycle 🌳🌍

www.esa.int/Applications...

9 months ago 310 58 4 14
Video

"La France ne s'adaptera pas à un réchauffement climatique de +4°C"
Intervention magistrale de @cassouman40.bsky.social . Chaque phrase prononcée est précise et lourde de sens. Un discours lucide sur le service public qui mériterait d'être entendu de tous les Français.

10 months ago 1694 1025 39 56
Schematic diagram showing the major axes of tree crown architecture

Schematic diagram showing the major axes of tree crown architecture

So excited to finally share our new paper charting the global spectrum of tree crown architecture, out today at @natcomms.nature.com ‬🧪🌐

Paper link 🔗: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A brief thread of what we found 🧵

10 months ago 145 63 5 3
Advertisement
Preview
An outlook on the Rapid Decline of Carbon Sequestration in French Forests and associated reporting needs In this study, we present and discuss changes in carbon storage in the French forests from 1990 to 2022, derived from CITEPA statistics on forest carbon accounting, fed by National Forest Inventory (N...

Check out our preprint currently under review at Comptes Rendus. Géoscience - Sciences de la Terre (French Academy of Sciences).

We examine the current state of the French forest carbon sink and discuss how to enhance carbon sink quantification in the near future.

arxiv.org/abs/2505.11512

10 months ago 1 0 0 0
Preview
High-income groups disproportionately contribute to climate extremes worldwide - Nature Climate Change While climate injustice is widely recognized, a quantification of how emissions inequality translates into unequal accountability is still lacking. Here researchers examine how affluent groups disproportionately contribute to the increase in mean temperature and the frequency of extreme events.

High-income groups disproportionately contribute to climate extremes worldwide - Nature Climate Change

11 months ago 17 6 0 0