How nutrient additions alter the productivity benefits of tree diversity Dai F. Saito, Friderike Beyer, Grégoire T. Freschet, Anja Klingler, Charles A. Nock, Peter B. Reich, Michael Scherer-Lorenzen, Jürgen Bauhus This is a plain language summary of a Functional Ecology…

📰Published📰How nutrient additions alter the productivity benefits of tree diversity🌳

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A photo collage of ESA's 2026 class of fellows and early career fellows

🎉 Congratulations to ESA’s 8 new Fellows and 10 new Early Career Fellows! These honorees are advancing ecological science through research, leadership, and service.

Learn more about these individuals in our full announcement: https://ow.ly/Ao1V50YK00I

Sixty years of plant community change in Europe indicate a shift toward nutrient-richer and denser vegetation Bioindication reveals a 60-year shift toward denser, more productive vegetation, but a weak thermophilization signal.

New Science Advances paper: 60 years of change across European plant communities reveals a widespread shift toward denser vegetation, with increasing shade tolerance across habitats. Proud to co-author this important work🍃 #ecology www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Mixed Forestation Outperforms Pure Stands in Soil Carbon Sequestration and Stability

🔗 buff.ly/wo5JGwc

🏝️Tree islands in oil palm plantations boost phytochemical diversity via natural regeneration. Bigger islands = more species + more chemical trait diversity 👉️ buff.ly/QHCCPqB

The importance of competition and facilitation for global tree diversity - Nature Across 17 forest plots (2.7 million trees, 5,400 species), competition dominated overall, but facilitation was relatively stronger near the equator and declined towards higher latitudes, partly linked to temperature, legumes, mycorrhizal associations and canopy nursing effect.

Nature research paper: The importance of competition and facilitation for global tree diversity

go.nature.com/4ve0bul

Optimized afforestation reduces flood risk and limits water loss in Europe - Communications Sustainability Optimized afforestation in Europe can reduce peak river discharge by up to 43% and evapotranspiration losses by up to 60%, and limits groundwater losses compared with non-optimized approaches, based o...

Forests can reduce river discharge rates and therefore the risk of flooding, but also increase evapotranspiration and water scarcity. A new paper by El Garroussi et al. suggests strategies to balance these services. 🌲🌳🧪🌏

Tree characteristics change in mixed forests, leading to more wood production than in single-species plantations Joel Jensen, Haben Blondeel, Chloe MacLaren, Iftekhar U. Ahmed, Laurent Augusto, Lander Baeten, Mark R. Bakker, Jürgen Bauhus, Christel Baum, Friderike Beyer, Pedro Brancalion, Elisabeth Bönisch, P…

Tree characteristics change in mixed forests, leading to more wood production than in single-species plantations🌳

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Young tropical forests help to reverse biodiversity losses Forests that regrow on farmland are resilient and regain much of their lost biodiversity and species richness in 30 years — a finding with implications for conservation.

Forests that regrow on farmland are resilient and regain much of their lost biodiversity and species richness in 30 years — a finding with implications for conservation

go.nature.com/3O6gR6t

Trait–environment interactions mediate the encroachment of an exotic tree in coastal wetland transition zones The exotic mangrove Sonneratia apetala has undergone extensive natural expansion in coastal wetland of southern China. However, the mechanisms driving the

The non-native mangrove Sonneratia is invading wetlands in China that are dominated by the native mangrove Avicennia and non-native grass Spartina. Mangrove traits change across the intertidal, helping to explain why Sonneratia is invasive and Avicennia not. academic.oup.com/jpe/article/...

Biodiversity Insurance of Forest Productivity Has Strengthened Under Recent Climate Change

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Insect herbivores increase plant species richness in a long‐term grassland experiment Reducing insect herbivores (↓IN) lowered plant species richness in a 12-year experiment in restored tallgrass prairie. This effect developed slowly, first appearing in year 5 and persisting after yea...

Russell et al. Insect herbivores increase plant species richness in a long‐term grassland experiment besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Final version published @forestecosyst.bsky.social
📰Microbial necromass underpins long-term soil carbon stability and ecosystem carbon persistence in pine reforestations www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Our new paper is here 🌟

🪪📐Species identity and spatial scale drive context‑dependent tree diversity effects in a Finnish forest experiment

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#DBH #NeedleTraits #NorwaySpruce #ScotsPine #SpeciesDiversity #TreeDivNet

Fig. 2 Conceptual model of the expected role of dryland mechanisms along a climatic gradient from cool and moist towards hot and dry conditions (x-axis), and their relevance for climate-smart forestry (CSF, y

✨ Paper spotlight ✨

(🧵1/8) Shaping Future Forests: How can ecophysiology support climate-smart forest management?
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

#PlantScience

All Reforestation Methods Can Support Tropical Tree Diversity Recovery, but Drivers and Species Composition Vary

🔗 buff.ly/VB4ptsy

any observations from the Ga coast mangroves this winter?

Anthropogenic disturbance alters the diversity, composition, and abundance of microbes as well as the edaphic properties of the soil.

#TansleyReview: Why, when, and how microbes can benefit ecological restorations: current approaches and future directions

📖 nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
by Crawford et al.

@kerricrawford.bsky.social @collingdice.bsky.social
Figure created in biorender.com/iwso49n.

More than mitigation: The role of forests in climate adaptation Forests regulate global and local climates in ways that impact human well-being. In this Review, we discuss the scale-dependent mechanisms through which forests regulate climate, highlighting their co...

More than mitigation: The role of forests in climate adaptation | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Ocean Empire - Science Politics Introducing a new column breaking down seismic shifts in ocean policy and explaining why they matter.

🌊I have a new gig. 🌊

Introducing: OCEAN EMPIRE, my new column about U.S ocean policy and foreign affairs for @sciencepolitics.bsky.social.

We are a brand new online magazine housed at Georgetown University. I'm thrilled to bring in-depth news analysis about what's happening to 70% of our planet.

📖Published!

Forest structural complexity recovers during secondary succession and reaches levels comparable to old-growth forests within 40 years🌳🌲

Recovery of forest structural complexity is driven by increasing tree species diversity along the recovery trajectory

🔎https://buff.ly/VGrATSK

How strong is enemy release? A systematic compilation across taxa and approaches The enemy release hypothesis posits that introduced species escape some of their predators, pathogens, and parasites when they move to a new range. We used a systematic review to compile data from 69...

New year new paper!

How strong is enemy release? A systematic compilation across taxa and approaches
doi.org/10.1002/ecy....

We found that introduced plants and animals experience less enemy diversity and damage than native counterparts, but do not gain fitness benefits as a result.

Forest biodiversity experiments test how tree species richness improves the productivity & functioning of forests. After 30 years, there are now 45 experiments worldwide!

A new synthesis on 30 years of research:
Liu et al. 2026: doi.org/10.1038/s443...
#TreeDivNet #BEF-China #MultiTroph

📖Published!

These results provide the first experimental evidence that enhancing structural heterogeneity at the landscape scale can restore multidimensional hoverfly diversity in temperate forests🌲 🪰

Read more:https://buff.ly/XdZNi2J

Best TikTok thing going is the two dudes trying food from every country without leaving NYC. If you haven’t seen them yet, it’s incredible. My favorite so far is last week’s. Legit got me emotional.

New paper out! 🎉 Led by Jenickson Costa @uspoficial.bsky.social @cirad.bsky.social @jenicksoncosta.bsky.social

Forest Ecosystem Multifunctionality: A Systematic Review of Measures and Drivers
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link.springer.com/article/10.1...

If you can’t be simple, you will be ignored This title is an oversimplification. That is deliberate. In a world shaped by shrinking attention spans, overflowing news cycles, and…

Experts don’t lose public debates because they’re wrong. They lose because they’re hard to hear.

In energy, complexity without a clear takeaway gets ignored. Simpler, louder stories take its place.

My latest piece is about starting with clarity and then layering nuance.

medium.com/@jan.rosenow...

Figure 4 from Shovon et al. (2025). Influence of diversity on transpiration as described by Hedges' g effect size as a function of species richness and water limitations at the (a–c) community level and (b–d) species level. Upper panels assess the influence of drought stress by comparing drought versus no drought conditions, defined through self-reported information. Lower panels assess the influence of regional aridity by comparing humid climates (aridity index >0.65) and dry climates (aridity index ≤0.65). Circles represent observed effect sizes; lines represent posterior mean trends, and shaded areas represent the 95% credible intervals.

More diverse forests have greater productivity, but do they use more water? A new meta-analysis by Shovon et al. in @journalofecology.bsky.social suggests not. 🌐🌏🧪 besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Published!📖

Forest structural and functional diversity can attenuate forest productivity losses after harvesting and fires. In undisturbed forests, dominance boosts productivity via selection effects, but not after harvesting🌳🌲🌍

Read here:https://buff.ly/Gw5Hq6X