Current and future carbon stocks of a dominant forest plantation species, Cryptomeria japonica, throughout Japan.

Estimation of forest carbon stocks is essential in ecological and political contexts to understand material cycles and achieve a carbon-neutral society. Because old-growth forests are vital for determining forest growth capacity, and recent climate change has significantly influenced forests worldwide, integration of the most recent data sets covering a broad range of forest ages and geographical variation is needed to construct accurate growth models and to estimate current and future forest resources. Japan's National Forest Inventory (NFI) provides nationwide information regarding forest ecosystems, in which Cryptomeria japonica forests dominate and are indispensable for forest resources and the wood industry.

Fine-root dynamics in deeper soils: a critical but overlooked component of ecosystem responses to climate warming.

Climate warming is predicted to strongly affect the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. The plant root system is a critical component of these ecosystems, with fine roots, in particular, playing a key role in plant water and nutrient uptake and transport. In addition, root litter and exudation represent the dominant plant carbon inputs into soil.

Harvest legacies and climate change interact to shape forest structure and biomass through time.

Forest structural change driven by climate trends has been observed worldwide and is expected to increase in the future. Management of forest structure has been an important tool for mitigating the impacts of climate change but forest structure may shift independently of management goals as it interacts with climate change. Here, we investigated the long-term impacts of harvest-based management strategies on structure and resistance to climate-induced biomass loss using a process-based ecosystem model for a midwestern USA hardwood forest.

Iterative effects: a new paradigm for root dynamics.

Roots profoundly influence soil carbon storage through root production, turnover, and decomposition over time. While root-derived carbon stabilization in aggregates and minerals is known, the role of slowly decomposing root fragments has been largely overlooked. We propose a new paradigm, 'iterative effects', integrating multigenerational root production and turnover with multistage root decomposition to address the build-up of moderately stable soil carbon forms.

A continental scale analysis reveals widespread root bimodality.

An improved understanding of root vertical distribution is crucial for assessing plant-soil-atmosphere interactions and their influence on the land carbon sink. Here, we analyze a continental-scale dataset of fine roots reaching 2 meters depth, spanning from Alaskan tundra to Puerto Rican forests. Contrary to the expectation that fine root abundance decays exponentially with depth, we found root bimodality at ~20% of 44 sites, with secondary biomass peaks often below 1 m.

Diverse Ecological Strategies Increase Invasion Resistance in an Experimental Grassland Restoration.

Understanding how the characteristics of native plant communities influence invasion is a pressing question, with implications for theory and management. For decades, the primary native community characteristic used in tests of biotic resistance was species richness. However, previous studies have demonstrated that evolutionary history and functional traits shape the invasion process, as ecological theory predicts.

Introgression, Phylogeography, and Genomic Species Cohesion in the Eastern North American White Oak Syngameon.

Hybridization and interspecific gene flow play a substantial role in the evolution of plant taxa. The eastern North American white oak syngameon, a group of approximately 15 ecologically, morphologically and genomically distinguishable species, has long been recognised as a model system for studying introgressive hybridization in temperate trees. However, the prevalence, genomic context and environmental correlates of introgression in this system remain largely unknown.

TropiRoot 1.0: Database of tropical root characteristics across environments.

Tropical ecosystems contain the world's largest biodiversity of vascular plants. Yet, our understanding of tropical functional diversity and its contribution to global diversity patterns is constrained by data availability. This discrepancy underscores an urgent need to bridge data gaps by incorporating comprehensive tropical root data into global datasets.

Variation of root resource acquisition and conservation strategies in a temperate forest is linked with plant growth forms.

Exploring why species of different plant growth forms can coexist in the same forest is critical for understanding the long-term community stability, but is poorly studied from root ecological strategies. The aim of this study was to explore the variation of root functional traits among different growth forms and their distribution patterns in root economics space to clarify how plant growth forms affect the root resource acquisition strategies of co-occurring species in a forest community. We sampled 115 co-occurring species with five growth forms (i.

Nutrient resorption of leaves and roots coordinates with root nutrient-acquisition strategies in a temperate forest.

Nutrient acquisition, conservation and recycling are three mechanisms for plants to meet their nutritional requirements. However, how nutrient recycling relates to other mechanisms remains unknown. Here, we hypothesize that nutrient resorption processes are coordinated with plant nutrient-acquisition strategies.

How can biodiversity strategy and action plans incorporate genetic diversity and align with global commitments?

National, subnational, and supranational entities are creating biodiversity strategy and action plans (BSAPs) to develop concrete commitments and actions to curb biodiversity loss, meet international obligations, and achieve a society in harmony with nature. In light of policymakers' increasing recognition of genetic diversity in species and ecosystem adaptation and resilience, this article provides an overview of how BSAPs can incorporate species' genetic diversity. We focus on three areas: setting targets; committing to actions, policies, and programs; and monitoring and reporting.

Global meta-analysis shows action is needed to halt genetic diversity loss.

Mitigating loss of genetic diversity is a major global biodiversity challenge. To meet recent international commitments to maintain genetic diversity within species, we need to understand relationships between threats, conservation management and genetic diversity change. Here we conduct a global analysis of genetic diversity change via meta-analysis of all available temporal measures of genetic diversity from more than three decades of research.

Macroevolutionary inference of complex modes of chromosomal speciation in a cosmopolitan plant lineage.

The effects of single chromosome number change-dysploidy - mediating diversification remain poorly understood. Dysploidy modifies recombination rates, linkage, or reproductive isolation, especially for one-fifth of all eukaryote lineages with holocentric chromosomes. Dysploidy effects on diversification have not been estimated because modeling chromosome numbers linked to diversification with heterogeneity along phylogenies is quantitatively challenging.

Dealing With the Complexity of Effective Population Size in Conservation Practice.

Effective population size () is one of the most important parameters in evolutionary biology, as it is linked to the long-term survival capability of species. Therefore, greatly interests conservation geneticists, but it is also very relevant to policymakers, managers, and conservation practitioners. Molecular methods to estimate rely on various assumptions, including no immigration, panmixia, random sampling, absence of spatial genetic structure, and/or mutation-drift equilibrium.

Multinational evaluation of genetic diversity indicators for the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

Under the recently adopted Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, 196 Parties committed to reporting the status of genetic diversity for all species. To facilitate reporting, three genetic diversity indicators were developed, two of which focus on processes contributing to genetic diversity conservation: maintaining genetically distinct populations and ensuring populations are large enough to maintain genetic diversity. The major advantage of these indicators is that they can be estimated with or without DNA-based data.

Divergent ecological selection maintains species boundaries despite gene flow in a rare endemic tree, Quercus acerifolia (maple-leaf oak).

Strong gene flow from outcrossing relatives tends to blur species boundaries, while divergent ecological selection can counteract gene flow. To better understand how these two forces affect the maintenance of species boundaries, we focused on a species complex including a rare species, maple-leaf oak (Quercus acerifolia), which is found in only four disjunct ridges in Arkansas. Its limited range and geographic proximity to co-occurring close relatives create the possibility for genetic swamping.

Best practices for genetic and genomic data archiving.

Genetic and genomic data are collected for a vast array of scientific and applied purposes. Despite mandates for public archiving, data are typically used only by the generating authors. The reuse of genetic and genomic datasets remains uncommon because it is difficult, if not impossible, due to non-standard archiving practices and lack of contextual metadata.

Linking fine root lifespan to root chemical and morphological traits-A global analysis.

Fine root lifespan is a critical trait associated with contrasting root strategies of resource acquisition and protection. Yet, its position within the multidimensional "root economics space" synthesizing global root economics strategies is largely uncertain, and it is rarely represented in frameworks integrating plant trait variations. Here, we compiled the most comprehensive dataset of absorptive median root lifespan (MRL) data including 98 observations from 79 woody species using (mini-)rhizotrons across 40 sites and linked MRL to other plant traits to address questions of the regulators of MRL at large spatial scales.

Ex situ conservation of two rare oak species using microsatellite and SNP markers.

Plant collections held by botanic gardens and arboreta are key components of ex situ conservation. Maintaining genetic diversity in such collections allows them to be used as resources for supplementing wild populations. However, most recommended minimum sample sizes for sufficient ex situ genetic diversity are based on microsatellite markers, and it remains unknown whether these sample sizes remain valid in light of more recently developed next-generation sequencing (NGS) approaches.

Assembly and analysis of the genome of Notholithocarpus densiflorus.

Tanoak (Notholithocarpus densiflorus) is an evergreen tree in the Fagaceae family found in California and southern Oregon. Historically, tanoak acorns were an important food source for Native American tribes, and the bark was used extensively in the leather tanning process. Long considered a disjunct relictual element of the Asian stone oaks (Lithocarpus spp.

Monitoring of species' genetic diversity in Europe varies greatly and overlooks potential climate change impacts.

Genetic monitoring of populations currently attracts interest in the context of the Convention on Biological Diversity but needs long-term planning and investments. However, genetic diversity has been largely neglected in biodiversity monitoring, and when addressed, it is treated separately, detached from other conservation issues, such as habitat alteration due to climate change. We report an accounting of efforts to monitor population genetic diversity in Europe (genetic monitoring effort, GME), the evaluation of which can help guide future capacity building and collaboration towards areas most in need of expanded monitoring.

Ancient tree genomes for old questions.

Most foundational work on the evolution and migration of plant species relies on genomic data from contemporary samples. Ancient plant samples can give us access to allele sequences and distributions on the landscape dating back to the mid Holocene or earlier (Gugerli et al., 2005).

Lessons from COP15 on effective scientific engagement in biodiversity policy processes.

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework was adopted by parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in December 2022. The aftermath of these negotiations provides an opportunity to draw lessons as to how ecological and evolutionary science can more effectively inform policy. We examined key challenges that limit effective engagement by scientists in the biodiversity policy process, drawing parallels with analogous challenges within global climate negotiations.