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Simple Summary: Grasslands cover one-third of the world's land area and play a significant role in agriculture and ecological security. However, due to recent changes in precipitation patterns and land use, the coverage of grasslands is decreasing. The Hulunbuir steppe, one of the four major grasslands in the world, is also undergoing desertification caused by climate change and anthropogenic disturbances. To characterize the eco-functional diversity of plants in recently restored sites after the introduction of woody plants in natural grasslands, the competitor, stress tolerator, and ruderal (CSR) ecological strategies of plants were analyzed. As a result, the CSR ecological strategy in the temperate typical steppe was CSR and that in the woodland steppe was S/SR. The restored sites differed depending on the life-form of the introduced woody plants. The CSR ecological strategies observed over time in a restored site after the introduction of woody plants varied depending on the life-form of the introduced woody plants. This suggests the importance of selecting the life-form of woody plants for the success of ecological restoration in damaged grasslands. To reveal the changes in the life history characteristics of grassland plants due to vegetation restoration, plant species and communities were analyzed for their competitor, stress tolerator, and ruderal (CSR) ecological strategies after the introduction of woody plants in the damaged steppe grassland and were compared with those in reference sites in Hulunbuir, Inner Mongolia. As a result, it was found that the introduction of the woody plants (Corethrodeneron fruticosum, Caragana microphylla, Populus canadensis, and Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica) into the damaged land greatly increased the plant species diversity and CSR eco-functional diversity as the succession progressed. The plant strategies of the temperate typical steppe (TTS) and woodland steppe (WS) in this Asian steppe are CSR and S/SR, respectively, which means that the plants are adapted to disturbances or stress. As the restoration time elapsed in the damaged lands exhibiting (R/CR) (Corispermum hyssopifolium), the ecological strategies were predicted to change in two ways: (1) →R/CSR (Cynanchum thesioides, Astragalus laxmannii, etc.) → CSR in places (TSS) (Galium verum var. asiaticum, Saussurea japonica, etc.) where only shrubs were introduced, and (2) → S/SR (Allium mongolicum, Ulmus pumila, etc.) → S/SR in sites (WS) (Ulmus pumila, Thalictrum squarrosum, etc.) where trees and shrubs were planted simultaneously. The results mean that the driving force that causes succession in the restoration of temperate grasslands is determined by the life-form (trees/shrubs) of the introduced woody plants. This means that for the restoration of these grasslands to be successful, it is necessary to introduce woody tree species at an early stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ProSAVANA was a technical cooperation program signed between the governments of Brazil, Japan, and Mozambique. Its aim was to promote agricultural development in the northern region of this African country. In this article, I give an ethnographic account of ProSAVANA's implementation and the different struggles that emerged in opposition to its undertakings. As I describe, the program promoters constantly mobilized three allegories evocative of connections and flow in their fieldwork, speeches, or documents: parallels, chains, and corridors. Although, at the territorial level, these were connected to effects of isolation and fixation of the local population and their agriculture. Based on this controversy, I suggest that ProSAVANA can be understood as those world design projects that perform what Anna Tsing called a "plantation ecology," that is, machines to produce the same, that operate to expand their scale while creating simplified, homogenized, and standardized models on diverse landscapes. Nevertheless, throughout the ProSAVANA implementation, their plantation designs were (re)composed both by technicians who aimed to promote its development model and by peasants and activists critical of the program, showing that these configurations alone cannot comprehensively circumscribe human agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the durability of emerging plantation hardwood resources is important for optimising their production and use. This study compared timber density, extractives content and decay resistance in 12–13-year-old plantation and native forest regrowth Gympie messmate (Eucalyptus cloeziana) trees. Density increased from pith to bark for both plantation and native forest trees. Inner heartwood density of the plantation timber was significantly lower than that of the native forest regrowth timber. While the total extractives content of the outer heartwood was comparable in the plantation and native forest regrowth trees, the inner heartwood of the latter contained significantly greater extractives levels. Laboratory decay tests showed that all heartwood zones of plantation and native forest regrowth Gympie messmate were resistant to decay by the white rot Pycnoporus coccineus. The inner heartwood of the plantation timber was, however, susceptible to decay by the brown rot Fomitopsis ostreiformis. The results illustrate the potential variations in wood quality parameters to be considered when moving from native forest to plantation resources that are harvested at a younger age and managed for more rapid wood production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil quality assessment is important for arable land, particularly in the vicinity of urban areas. The research was carried out to determine the quality of soil that has been farmed for different land uses. Geo-referenced 200 surface soil samples were collected from agriculture, horticulture, flower and plantation land-uses, and were analyzed for soil texture and nutrients, of which pH, OC, N, P2O5, K2O, Mn, Cu, Ca, and dehydrogenase activity (DHA) were found statistically significant and were chosen for principal component analysis (PCA). Based on the level of significance from PCA only five variables (pH, K2O, Cu, Ca, and DHA) were retained for minimum data set and linear scoring functions were used to provide unit-less scores for the selected data sets, which were then integrated into a soil quality index (SQI). Plantation land use had the lowest (SQI) of 0.51, whereas agriculture land use had the highest SQI (0.55) and was comparable to flower and horticultural land uses (0.53). The SQI of agriculture land was found better than the plantation land use in nearly all of the quality indicators evaluated. As a result, implementing management measures that improve soil quality, such as OC, is critical for sustainable agricultural production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper studies the history of government-sponsored rural settlements in the province/state of São Paulo, Brazil, as a pendular movement, whose points of reversion depended on the interests of a landowning elite to obtain labour for newly expanding plantations from the 1820s to the 1920s. Faltering infrastructure and ill-defined property rights over public lands were persistent constraints to the development of such rural settlements. Part of this failure can be attributed to a lack of State capacity and part to the opposition of plantation owners to the settling of independent smallholdings. The paper complements this historical-institutional analysis with a quantitative description of such settlements in 1898–1920. These late government-sponsored rural settlements showed the potential to grow in demographic and economic terms and had an overall demographic and occupational composition well aligned with the goal of creating a family-based peasantry. However, there were enormous heterogeneities in ethno-linguistic composition, educational attainment, and economic prosperity between and within such rural settlements, which point to idiosyncratic features that should be taken into account in future research assessing the short- and long-run effects of immigration and settlement policies in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Afforestation has been widely implemented to deliver climate change mitigation and restore ecosystem benefits. However, the efficacy of afforestation has been deputed. The regeneration ability of most plantations in Northern China has been suggested to fail to reach their optimal. Objectives: Here, we compared the regeneration ability of plantations and natural forests in Northern China and explored how the climate factors and site features can determine the regeneration ability. We hypothesize that the deficient regeneration ability of plantations is mainly due to the single tree age and high stand density. Furthermore, the effects of climate factors cannot be ignored. Methods: We investigated the climate factor, stand features, tree radial growth, and regeneration ability (the number of cones and seedlings) of two dominant conifers, Larix principis-rupprechtii and Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica in natural forests and plantations in northern China. Results: Our analysis shows a significant difference in the number of both cones and regenerated seedlings produced by plantations and natural forests within the same site (P < 0.05). The stand density of plantations had a significant negative effect on the generation of seedlings (P < 0.05). Additionally, climatic factors, such as mean annual temperature and mean precipitation play a major role in regulating the heat and water availability for forest regeneration. Finally, we found that the inter-annual fluctuations in the radial growth of trees are also related to the number of seedlings produced, which is likely due to higher growth fluctuations indicating poorer drought adaptation of trees. Conclusions: Our study suggests that no single factor can explain the regeneration failure of plantations in semi-humid and semiarid regions of China. Both site features and climatic factors affect the production of seedlings. Future afforestation should follow low-density afforestation in areas with favorable climatic conditions for tree growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canopy height data from the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) mission has powered the development of global forest height products, but these data and products have not been validated in non-forest tree plantation settings. In this study, we collected field observations of the canopy heights throughout oil palm plantations in Nigeria and evaluated the performance of existing global canopy height map (CHM) products as well as a local model trained on the GEDI and various Landsat and Sentinel-2 feature combinations. We found that existing CHMs fared poorly in the region, with mean absolute errors (MAE) of 4.2–6.2 m. However, the locally trained models performed well (MAE = 2.5 m), indicating that using the GEDI and optical satellite data can still be effective, even in a region with relatively sparse GEDI coverage. In addition to improved overall performance, the local model was especially effective at reducing errors for short (<5 m) trees, where the global products struggle to capture the canopy height. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and aims: Soil extracellular enzyme activities (EEAs) and extracellular enzymatic stoichiometry (EES) play an important role in soil nutrient cycling processes. However, the response of EEAs and EES to forest management practices remains unclear, which hinders our understanding of the mechanisms regulating nutrient cycling. Methods: Soil microclimate, nutrients, microbial biomass, EEAs, and EES in Pinus massoniana plantations were investigated over 6 years after thinning (two levels: removal of 15% and 70% basal area) or understorey removal. Results: (1) Compared to the controls, the activities of β-1.4-glucosidase (BG), β-1.4-N-acetylglucosaminidase (NAG), leucine aminopeptidase (LAP) and acid phosphatase (AP) were not significantly influenced by thinning or understorey removal during the first 3 years after treatment, in the 4th year, however, understorey removal significantly reduced AP, and heavily thinning significantly increased NAG. (2) Between year 4 and year 6 after treatment, thinning significantly decreased the ratio of ln(BG) to ln(NAG + LAP) but increased the ratio of ln(NAG + LAP) to ln(AP). (3) EEAs and EES were significantly regulated by soil temperature and dissolved carbon during the first 3 years after treatment, after which microorganisms and soil total nitrogen drove the EEAs and EES. Conclusions: We found that thinning and understorey removal have similar effects on EEAs and EES. Our study suggests that nitrogen demand of soil microorganisms may change during the recovery of forests after thinning and understorey removal, which will further negatively affect EEAs and thus soil biogeochemical cycling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Afforestation has a substantial influence on soil fungal communities by introducing ecological variations within forest ecosystems via the inclusion of distinct tree species (coniferous and broadleaf) and afforestation patterns (pure forests and mixed forests). However, the specific effects of these variations on soil fungal communities require further investigation. Soil samples from birch (B: Betula platyphylla Suk.), larch (L: Larix gmelinii (Rupr.) Kuzen.), and mixed birch and larch (B–L) forests were used in this study, and a shrub–grassland field (S–G) was used as a reference. The abundance, diversity, and community composition of fungi in the soil of the monoculture forest (B and L), mixed forest (B–L), and S–G were studied by high‐throughput sequencing. The results showed that Basidiomycota was the dominant fungus in B and B–L, and the dominant genera were Inocybe and Amanita, respectively. Ascomycota was the dominant fungus in L and S–G, and the dominant genus was Mortierella. Afforestation reduced the richness and diversity of soil fungi. Larch forests were richer in soil fungi than B and B–L forests. Soil organic carbon was the main soil factor affecting the soil fungal community structure. Soil fungal community network changed less after planting L than after planting B and B–L, and the soil fungal community structure was more complex and stable in L than in B and B–L. For soil fungal community composition and function, mixed forests did not show outstanding advantages. Planting monoculture forests may be a more effective afforestation strategy in the rocky mountain areas of North China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today's world, GHG emissions, especially CO2, drive rapid global warming. Construction significantly contributes to this by emitting CO2. Plants have long been recognized for their role in mitigating climate change through CO2 absorption, enhancing both climate control and environmental beauty. Thus, the aim of this paper is to assess plants' CO2 absorption potential, focusing on recent articles from reputable journals in the past decade. First, we delve into the primary causes of global warming. Next, we explore the philosophy of CO2 emissions in construction, from inception to completion. Finally, CO2 emission control through plantation is examined, exploring the potential of organic and genetically modified plants for real-world applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past two decades, the Yunnan-Myanmar borderlands in Kachin State have become a major investment frontier for large-scale agribusiness. Chinese private capital, supported by state-led opium substitution programs, has turned thousands of hectares of forests into plantations. As in many such cases across Southeast Asia and beyond, this rapid development has come at the expense of local communities and displaced persons relying on these lands for their livelihoods and refuge. Caught between Chinese market expansion, and an ongoing war between the Myanmar Army and the Kachin Independence Organization/Army (KIO/KIA), plantations have become sites of often overlooked confrontations, compromise, and conflict operating behind the more spectacular politics of the grand infrastructures like the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in this region. Moving across plantation sites, armed bases and border markets; and building on interviews with Chinese entrepreneurs, Kachin leaders, and farmers, the paper explores how plantations have transformed not only environmental space but also social-political dynamics of Kachin State in ways, we argue, that are more difficult to reverse than previous or ongoing military territorialization. In doing so, we aim to localize and contextualize the plantation as a key force rapidly transforming Asian borderworlds, over which broader socio-political struggles, environmental transformations, nature loss, connectivity and developmental become imbricated with bordering space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The disciplining and ordering of informal settlement in Puerto Rico is made legible in contemporary cases such as the Villa Sin Miedo land occupation—or rescate de tierra (land rescue)—but can be located much farther back in the island’s agrarian history. My exercise in this essay is to locate traces of racial ordering first in the cañaverales (sugar plantations), and walk them through the mass evictions of urban settlers and the erection of the first residenciales (public housing), in mid-century San Juan. Through the archive, it becomes apparent that Puerto Rican elites and US technocrats shared a vision of modernity wherein humanness, or “‘human’ as modernity sanctioned,” was fundamentally distanced from rurality and Brownness/Blackness. Following Deborah Thomas’s working of “prior-ness,” and what scholars like Sylvia Wynter and Katherine McKittrick have termed “plantation logic,” I argue that sugar-plantation logic—what I call cañaveral logic—is indexed in how the state and its cadre of decision-making elites order residents from the arrabales and later caseríos [public housing projects]. Contrary to what the dominant narrative—supplanted by criollo literature, media, and plans—might suggest, urban settlers pushed back on the “commonsense arrangements” of the modernizing project to open up more humanly workable geographies within the contours of the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The plantation has become a landscape of political impossibility. Its industrial modes of production and scientific management pose existential threats to local lifeways, stymie social justice movements, and unleash persistent ecological harms. This article argues that a renewed scientific sensibility offers a way to expand local strategies for transformative political praxis in the face of other political constraints. It introduces the notion of 'science-in-vivo', a method of experimentation that has emerged in the context of Philippine banana plantations ravaged by the 'incurable' fungal disease Fusarium Wilt Tropical Race Four, also known as Panama Disease. Literally 'science within the living body', the method combines secular and non-secular thought, and gathers human, nonhuman, and extrahuman forces in ways that break down some of the hegemonic antagonisms that define plantation life. It was inspired, originally, by a series of God-given dreams about microbes in the forests of southern Mindanao. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Austria, paulownia (Paulownia spp.) has not been approved as a forest species. Because of the enormous annual growth and the promising mechanical and physical properties of this tree species, it is grown in short-rotation and value timber plantations in Central Europe. Previous studies have addressed the forestry and silvicultural aspects of different plant materials and issues in wood technology and wood physics based on small sample collections. Broad material screening for the technological evaluation of paulownia, samples obtained in large quantities from plantations, has not been conducted thus far. Therefore, this study aimed to provide a general overview of the technological, physical and mechanical properties of this wood species, in addition to basic forestry considerations. The wood samples for the experiments were obtained from an Austrian experimental plantation. In addition to wood drying, natural durability, workability and gluing, density and swelling/shrinking behaviour were investigated, and a comprehensive characterisation of all strength and stiffness properties was performed. The results will enable the modelling of paulownia wood to determine its static and dynamic loads, as well as the crash behaviour, using the finite element method (FEM) and well-founded assessments of the material's workability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we investigate plantation agriculture as a technology aimed at extracting natural resources, utilising unpaid labour, and installing regulatory authority. Using the oil palm plantation territories of Johor State in Malaysia – a core zone of palm oil production, manufacturing and export – as a case study, we ask how more-than-human assemblages enabled the expansion and refinement of oil palm plantations in Malaysia and contributed to the material transformation of the territory. We also explore how plantations can be mobilised as an analytical device to study the urbanisation of territory through agro-industrial production. To explore those questions, we present three episodes of more-than-human involvement in assembling oil palm plantation territories in Johor. Through the conceptual frame of the operationalisation of territory, we bring into dialogue literature on the Plantationocene with critical urban studies and the history of urbanisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Korean forests need hardwood tree species that can produce timber, as global warming progresses and the habitats of conifers dwindle. For the past 30 years, exotic yellow poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera) has been planted to replace some of the pine-dominated forests, as there is a lack of native hardwood tree species that produce large and good quality timber. However, yellow poplar growth has varied among planting sites across the country. We studied how environmental factors affect the growth of 49 stands of yellow poplar trees, with 945 dominant trees across 129 plots. To identify the optimal conditions for yellow poplar growth, we assessed 28 environmental variables, including geographic, climatic, topographic, and soil properties, for their correlation with volume growth. We estimated the optimal conditions for yellow poplar growth by averaging the values of the variables for the top five performing stands. To calculate the relative distance of any stand from the optimal conditions, we divided the difference between the stand's values for the environmental variables and the optimal conditions by the standard deviation of those variables. We then calculated Spearman rank correlation coefficients between these distances and volume growth rankings. Wind exposure (WE), growing season temperature (GT), Latitude (LN), soil phosphorus pentoxide (P2O5) content, low extreme temperature during January and February (LT), and spring humidity (SH) were the most important environmental factors governing growing sites for yellow poplar in Korea, with WE being the most critical. Some variables showed synergistic effects and correlated slightly more strongly with volume growth when combined with the WE variable. Our study provides crucial insights for optimizing plantation management and site selection in non-native ranges, enhancing overall success in establishing yellow poplar plantations in South Korea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While many tree species occur across the Coastal Plain of the southeastern United States, longleaf pine (Pinus palustris C. Lawson) savannas and woodlands once dominated this region. To quantify longleaf pine's past primacy and trends in the Coastal Plain, we combined seven studies consisting of 255,000 trees from land surveys, conducted between 1810 and 1860 with other descriptions of historical forests, including change to the present day. Our synthesis found support that Pinus palustris predominantly constituted 77% of historical Coastal Plain trees and upland oaks (Quercus) contributed another 8%. While Pinus still dominates these forests today (58% of all trees), most are now either planted loblolly (Pinus taeda L.) or slash (Pinus elliottii Engelm.) pines. Water oak (Quercus nigra L.), live oak (Quercus virginiana Mill.), sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua L.), and red maple (Acer rubrum L.) have increased their proportions compared to historical surveys; both longleaf pine and upland oaks have declined to ≤5% of all trees. Our work also supports previous estimates that longleaf pine originally dominated over 25–30 million ha of Coastal Plain forests. As late as the early 1900s, longleaf pine may still have covered 20 million ha, but declined to 7.1 million ha by 1935 and dropped to 4.9 million ha by 1955. Longleaf pine's regression continued into the mid-1990s, reaching a low of about 1.3 million ha; since then, restoration efforts have produced a modest recovery to 2.3 million ha. Two centuries of overcutting, land clearing, turpentining for chemicals, fire exclusion followed by forest densification by fire-sensitive species, and other silvicultural influences, including widespread loblolly and slash pine plantations, have greatly diminished the Coastal Plain's once extensive open longleaf pine forests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Landscape modification is a major threat to carnivores worldwide, but modified landscapes can also provide important habitat for these species, as protected areas alone are insufficient. Understanding how carnivores use modified landscapes, such as production forests, can inform management strategies to improve the value of these landscapes to carnivores. Little is known about habitat selection by marsupial carnivores in production forests, where they occupy a similar ecological niche to their more well‐studied eutherian counterparts. We used GPS tracking, Hidden Markov Models, and Manly's selection ratios to identify the habitat selected in three behavioral states by the largest marsupial carnivore, the Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii), in a timber plantation‐dominated landscape. Behavioral states were approximated as: state 1, resting or feeding at a carcass; state 2, foraging; and state 3, travel. Devils did not show preferences for any of native forest, native grassland, and plantation in any behavioral state. Within plantations, devils preferred a plantation age of 4–7 years (selection ratio [wi] = 1.52). Devils preferred roads (state 1: wi = 2.71, state 2: wi = 2.48, state 3: wi = 2.97) and plantation edges (state 1: wi = 2.38, state 2: wi = 2.24, state 3: wi = 2.78) in all behavioral states, and moved faster on roads and edges than away from them. Together, our results indicate devils use road and edges for foraging (scavenging and hunting) and travel. No measured habitat variables influenced devil home range size. To support devils in plantation landscapes, we recommend maintaining a heterogeneous landscape of different plantation ages and native remnants and reducing the risk of vehicle collisions by minimizing forestry traffic at night. Tasmanian devils share similar adaptable traits to generalist eutherian carnivore species in their use of modified landscapes. Plantations can provide valuable habitat for this and other threatened predator species.

Juniperus procera Hochst. ex Endl. is an evergreen highland tree species reaching 30–40 m high and restricted to some mountainous areas. This tree is a species of great ecological and economic significance in supporting biodiversity, preventing soil erosion, and providing valuable resources. The study aimed at comparing the provenances effect on growth and yield performance of a 16-years-old J. procera plantation. This long-term experiment included eleven provenances from different regions of Ethiopia. It was laid out in a randomized complete block design with four replicates. The plot size was 100 m2 with 2.5 m by 2.5 m spacing. Growth parameters such as height and diameter over a 1-m interval of standing trees were measured for sample trees. The results showed that the overall mean of basal area for 11 provenances was ranging from 4.4 ± 0.29 to 5.2 ± 0.33 m2 ha⁻1. The biggest (11.3 ± 0.14 m) and smallest (9.8 ± 0.16 m) mean height was obtained in the provenances of Kolobo and Dikisis, respectively. The mean volume of the stem ranges from 12.3 ± 0.93 to 17.9 ± 1.1 m3 ha⁻1. The highest and lowest form factor was obtained in the provenances of Gaynt (0.43 ± 0.02) and Hirna (0.32 ± 0.02), respectively. The generic form factor is 0.4 ± 0.01. Provenance Kolobo had the best growth rate in all growth stages with 1.4 m height greater than the poorest provenance Dikisis and 23% greater than the overall average volume (14.5 m3 ha⁻1) at age of 16 years. The variations in growth and yield performance among the provenances could be attributed to genetic differences and adaptation to the local environment. Provenances originating from similar altitude such as Kolobo's provenances showed better growth and yield performance, possibly due to their adaptation to the cooler and wetter conditions prevailing in the study area. Choosing provenances that are well-adapted to the local site conditions can lead to improved productivity and economic returns.

Agroforestry is often seen as a sustainable land-use system for agricultural production providing ecosystem services. Intercropping with food crops leads to equal or higher productivity than monoculture and results in food production for industry and subsistence. Low rubber price and low labor productivity in smallholdings have led to a dramatic conversion of rubber plantations to more profitable crops. The literature analysis performed in this paper aimed at better understanding the ins and outs that could make rubber-based agroforestry more attractive for farmers. A comprehensive search of references was conducted in March 2023 using several international databases and search engines. A Zotero library was set up consisting of 415 scientific references. Each reference was carefully read and tagged in several categories: cropping system, country, main tree species, intercrop type, intercrop product, level of product use, discipline of the study, research topic, and intercrop species. Of the 232 journal articles, 141 studies were carried out on rubber agroforestry. Since 2011, the number of studies per year has increased. Studies on rubber-based agroforestry systems are performed in most rubber-producing countries, in particular in Indonesia, Thailand, China, and Brazil. These studies focus more or less equally on perennials (forest species and fruit trees), annual intercrops, and mixed plantations. Of the 47 annual crops associated with rubber in the literature, 20 studies dealt with rice, maize, banana, and cassava. Agronomy is the main discipline in the literature followed by socio-economy and then ecology. Only four papers are devoted to plant physiology and breeding. The Discussion Section has attempted to analyze the evolution of rubber agroforestry research, progress in the selection of food crop varieties adapted to agroforestry systems, and to draw some recommendations for rubber-based agroforestry systems associated with food crops.

Background: The hydrological effects of invasive plant control in forestland have not been well studied in the past, and numerous scientific mysteries remain unsolved. The long-term suspension of the unsolved issues will unavoidably influence the sound growth and sustainable management of forest ecosystems. This study investigates the hydrological effects of controlling invasive weeds in forestland. The research aims to understand the impact of invasive weed control on soil and water loss. Methods: Conducted in Eucalyptus benthamii Maiden & Cambage plantations in Central Yunnan, SW China, which are invaded by alien weed Ageratina adenophora (Spreng.) R. M. King & H. Rob., four surface cover treatments were applied to study runoff and sediment yielding properties. The four surface cover treatments were weed harvesting and litter elimination (WH&LE), weed harvesting and litter retention (WH&LR), litter burning and weed renewal (LB&WR), and weed retention and litter retention (WR&LR). Essentially, WH&LE and LB&WR served as integrated management approaches for invasive weeds and litter, WH&LR was an independent weed control measure, and WR&LR served as a research control. Results: Runoff was significantly higher in the LB&WR plots (3.03 mm) compared to the WR&LR plots (1.48 mm) (p < 0.05). The WH&LE plots had higher runoff (2.39 mm) than the WR&LR plots (not statistically significant), while the WH&LR plots had less runoff (1.08 mm) than the WR&LR plots (not significant). Sediment yield was lower in the WH&LR plots (0.50 t/km2) than in the WR&LR plots (0.52 t/km2) (not significant), but significantly higher in the WH&LE plots (2.10 t/km2) and LB&WR plots (1.57 t/km2) than in the WR&LR plots (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Managing invasive weeds independently reduces the risk of soil and water loss, but combined management with litter can exacerbate the issue. Invasive weed control and litter management should be performed separately in slope plantations. This study provides a scientific basis for soil and water conservation, restoration and rehabilitation of plantation ecosystems.

Monitoring drought stress is crucial for estimating productivity and assessing the health status of forest ecosystems under global climate change. Solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) is mechanistically coupled to photosynthesis and has advantages over greenness-based vegetation indices in detecting drought. In recent years, SIF has commonly been used in monitoring drought stress in crop ecosystems. However, the response of tower-based SIF to drought stress in forest ecosystems remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the potential of tower-based SIF to monitor drought, which was quantified using the plant water stress index (PWSI) in a Chinese cork oak plantation. The results show the negative effect of drought on SIF, and afternoon depression of SIF emission under drought stress was observed. Canopy SIF (F) exhibited a nonlinear relationship with PWSI, while the quantum yield of SIF (ΦF) exhibited a significant linear relationship with PWSI at 687 nm and 760 nm (ΦF687: R2 = 0.90; ΦF760: R2 = 0.85). Incident radiation (PAR) and canopy structure affected the response of SIF to drought stress, with PAR as the main factor causing the nonlinear relationship between F and PWSI. Afternoon depression was described as the afternoon/morning ratio (AMR). AMRF and AMRΦF exhibited a negative linear response to PWSI. AMRF was less affected than F by PAR and canopy structures, and AMRΦF was more physiologically representative than ΦF. Moreover, AMRΦF was sensitive to VPD and REW, and it might be a good indicator of drought. Red SIF was more sensitive to drought than far-red SIF, as the R2 of PWSI with AMRΦF687 (R2 = 0.89) was higher than that with AMRΦF687 (R2 = 0.84). These results highlight the potential of tower-based SIF, especially red SIF, for drought monitoring in a plantation, and consideration of the physiological diurnal variation in SIF under drought stress is crucial for improving the accuracy of drought stress monitoring.

The spatial distribution of soil moisture is a critical determinant for the success of vegetation restoration initiatives in semi-arid and arid regions. The Qilian Mountains, situated within a semi-arid zone in China, have been subject to significant water-induced soil erosion, which has led to extensive restoration activities, predominantly utilizing the species P. crassifolia. However, the interconnections between soil moisture and various land cover types within this region remain unclear, presenting challenges to effective woodland rehabilitation. This study examines the surface soil moisture dynamics in afforested areas with varying ages of plantation to determine the influence of tree planting on the moisture content of the upper soil layer. It investigates the characteristics and temporal patterns of surface soil moisture as the age of the plantation increases. The findings indicate that: (1) soil moisture levels follow a descending sequence from natural forest, through shrubland and grassland, to planted forest and mixed forest, with statistically significant differences observed between natural and mixed forests (p < 0.05); (2) young afforested areas (less than 50 years old) have lower soil moisture levels compared to natural forests, shrublands, or grasslands, and the ecohydrological impacts of afforestation become apparent with a temporal delay; and (3) the analysis using Generalized Additive Mixed Models (GAMM) and the application of Kriging interpolation to determine the spatial distribution of soil moisture reveals that in semi-arid and arid regions, several factors have a pronounced a non-linear relationship with the moisture content of the surface soil. These factors include the duration of afforestation, the position on the lower slope, the presence of shade on the slope, and the scale at which the study is conducted. Therefore, a comprehensive understanding of the dynamics of soil water content is essential to prevent the potential failure of artificially established forests due to inadequate soil moisture in their later stages.

Abstract The planted Rhizophora mucronata was evaluated in two plant ages (one year and eight years) as a biological tool for reducing the mobility of heavy metals in sediments in Safaga and Hamata, Red Sea Coast, Egypt. It is an important region for tourism and nature reserves; however, this area suffers from various anthropogenic contaminants. The ability of mangrove plantations to reduce sediment contamination through bioaccumulation, phytostabilization, or phytoextraction must be clarified through the investigation of metal behavior in mangrove plants and sediments. All of the studied heavy metals had significantly higher concentrations in the Safaga site's sediments. Elder plants had much lower levels of heavy metals in their sediments than younger plants, also rhizosphere samples were less contaminated than non-rhizosphere ones. The order of remediation efficiency was Mo > Ni > Mn ≥ Co > Al > Cu > Zn ≥ Cr > Fe > V, where the highest % was 99.25, 58.97, 42.64, 42.48, 41.91, 39.47, 37.93, 37.01, 36.89, and 29.44, respectively. R. mucronata parts were more significantly contaminated with Co, Cr, Cu, Mo and Zn in Safaga site, while at the Hamata site, they were more significantly contaminated with Al, Fe, Mn, Ni, and V. The elder plants accumulated higher concentrations than younger ones and the contents of heavy metals in plant samples followed the order of root > aerial roots > shoot. Bioconcentration factor (BCF) values representing the accumulation efficiency of R. mucronata were Ni > Mo > Zn > Cu > Cr > Co > Mn ≥ Al > V > Fe, where their highest values were 17.74, 7.89, 3.95, 3.84, 2.66, 1.91, 1.67, 1.66, 1.6, 1.18, respectively. BCF values exceeded one for all metals and values of translocation factor (TF) were less than unity in all cases, thus Rhizophora mucronata can be considered as a good phytostabilizer of ten studied heavy metals able to reduce their mobility through accumulation by roots, thereby reducing off-site contamination.

Good faith is fundamentals in every contract, without which a contract will find it difficult to achieve its goals. In 2019, through a contract made before a notary in the hall of Kampar Regent Office, Kooperasi Nenek Eno Senamanenek and PT. Perkebunan Nusantara IV start a new beginning after a long period of dispute over Senamanenek community’s customary land. The good faith in fulfillment of contract between KNES and PTPN V would affect the legal relationship between these two parties. For KNES, the realization of the clauses within the contract will affect senamanenek community who become the member of the cooperative. The contract object was a palm oil plantation owned by the cooperative member. This empirical legal study scrutinized the implementation of good faith in the contract between KNES and PTPN V By identifying the law and the effectiveness of legal principles in the community. It took place in Kampar Regency. Primary, secondary, and tertiary data were collected through interviews and literature review. This study concludes that the good faith has not been fully implemented in the contract between PTPN V and KNES due to legal and non-legal factors. Therefore, both parties are suggested to possess a good faith in all stages of the contract-making process, from the pre-contract, contract, and post-contract stages. They are also suggested to minimize factors inhibiting good faith in the contract.

Restoration activities in degraded and/or deforested forest landscapes are common and old occurrences around the world. Tree planting is common in most forest landscape restoration initiatives. In Ethiopia, eight seedling-based landscape restoration options are identified to alleviate land degradation and its consequences. The primary purpose of this work was to review factors affecting the early survival of tree and shrub seedlings and their remedies in the restoration sites of Ethiopia. Drought and moisture stress, low soil fertility, poor seedling quality, weak species site matching, termites, livestock grazing, and seasonal frost are the basic factors that hinder the survival and growth of seedlings in the field. In situ rainwater harvesting structures, fertilizer application, the use of quality seedlings, the right species site matching, and the exclusion of livestock and grazing animals from planted seedlings are the remedies that must be employed to increase the success of tree-based restoration practices. Thus, further investigation of the factors affecting the survival of seedlings in the out-planting sites and remediation accordingly is necessary to ensure the productivity and sustainability of restoration practices in Ethiopia.

ABSTRACTProSAVANA was a technical cooperation program signed between the governments of Brazil, Japan, and Mozambique. Its aim was to promote agricultural development in the northern region of this African country. In this article, I give an ethnographic account of ProSAVANA’s implementation and the different struggles that emerged in opposition to its undertakings. As I describe, the program promoters constantly mobilized three allegories evocative of connections and flow in their fieldwork, speeches, or documents: parallels, chains, and corridors. Although, at the territorial level, these were connected to effects of isolation and fixation of the local population and their agriculture. Based on this controversy, I suggest that ProSAVANA can be understood as those world design projects that perform what Anna Tsing called a “plantation ecology,” that is, machines to produce the same, that operate to expand their scale while creating simplified, homogenized, and standardized models on diverse landscapes. Nevertheless, throughout the ProSAVANA implementation, their plantation designs were (re)composed both by technicians who aimed to promote its development model and by peasants and activists critical of the program, showing that these configurations alone cannot comprehensively circumscribe human agency.

Tree plantations are expanding globally to satisfy demands for wood, food, energy, oil and other ecosystem services, often replacing primary vegetation. Plantations are generally less biodiverse than primary vegetation, yet the effects of plantation age on biodiversity are not well understood. More accurate estimations of biodiversity within plantations over time could improve predictions of the ecological effects of tree planting, guiding more sustainable land use and management decisions. Here, we assess the effects of plantation age on the abundance and number of species of invertebrates, birds, plants, mammals, amphibians, reptiles and lichens, and on compositional similarity to minimally-used primary vegetation. We find that plantations usually support fewer species than both minimally-used primary vegetation and mature secondary vegetation, fewer individuals, and some novel species (i.e. species not also found in primary vegetation). We also find that, on a global scale, plantation age has positive effects on species richness, the abundance of individuals, and compositional similarity to primary vegetation. However, geographic realm, biome, management intensity and plantation type influence the biodiversity trends. We also include a case study for oil palm, showing that species richness increases with oil palm plantation age. Nevertheless, plantations typically remain less biodiverse than natural vegetation even thirty years after planting, especially in the tropics, where compositional similarity between plantations and minimally-used primary vegetation remains approximately 20% lower than the non-tropics. Our results highlight the negative ecological consequences of establishing new plantations in place of primary vegetation or restoration, yet we also reveal spatio-temporal differences in plantation biodiversity.

AbstractThis study examines the historical evolution of land law during the Dutch East Indian colonial period, with a particular emphasis on the land use management policy for the benefit of foreign plantations in East Sumatra. The introduction of foreign investment in tobacco plantations in the region provided the Sultan of Deli and local village leaders with a novel experience. They encountered the concept of long-term concession contracts for land that was formerly communally owned by the Malay people. Several issues arose due to signing these contracts, including the status of communal land now used for tobacco cultivation and the compatibility of these agreements with Western legal principles. Archival materials and colonial data were used to examine the historical aspects of the subjects. Ultimately, this study reached two significant conclusions. First, the implementation of long-term concession contracts diminished the autonomy of communal land administration among Malays. Second, the customary community, led by the Sultan of Deli, retained complete ownership rights over the land following the applicable principles of the civil law code.

Although decades of research suggest that higher species richness improves ecosystem functioning and stability, planted forests are predominantly monocultures. To determine whether diversification of plantations would enhance aboveground carbon storage, we systematically reviewed over 11,360 publications, and acquired data from a global network of tree diversity experiments. We compiled a maximum dataset of 79 monoculture to mixed comparisons from 21 sites with all variables needed for a meta-analysis. We assessed aboveground carbon stocks in mixed-species planted forests vs. (a) the average of monocultures, (b) the best monoculture, and (c) commercial species monocultures, and examined potential mechanisms driving differences in carbon stocks between mixtures and monocultures. On average, we found that aboveground carbon stocks in mixed planted forests were 70% higher than the average monoculture, 77% higher than commercial monocultures, and 25% higher than the best performing monocultures, although the latter was not statistically significant. Overyielding was highest in four-species mixtures (richness range 2–6 species), but otherwise none of the potential mechanisms we examined (nitrogen-fixer present vs. absent; native vs. non-native/mixed origin; tree diversity experiment vs. forestry plantation) consistently explained variation in the diversity effects. Our results, predominantly from young stands, thus suggest that diversification could be a very promising solution for increasing the carbon sequestration of planted forests and represent a call to action for more data to increase confidence in these results and elucidate methods to overcome any operational challenges and costs associated with diversification.

Flying squirrels have important roles in ecosystems, dispersing seeds and spores. However, flying squirrel species, which strongly depend on old mature forests, have declined in abundance due to the logging of mature forests. Guidelines for the conservation of flying squirrels have been developed, but it is vital to have an accurate understanding of their ecology to revise the guidelines to be more effective. The Japanese flying squirrel (Pteromys momonga, JFS), endangered in wide areas of Japan, is one of the flying squirrel species for which the least ecological information is available. This paper reviews individual reports and attempts to address knowledge gaps in JFS ecology to facilitate conservation strategies. Of particular importance is the fact that JFS uses planted Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica) for nesting, gliding and winter forage, and JFS habitat may be strongly influenced by human activities such as forestry. Plantations are regularly logged, so management of plantations needs to be implemented with attention to the JFS habitat. It was also found that some ecological information necessary to develop guidelines for conservation, such as diet, gliding ability, and home-range size, is missing. Clarification of these issues is an important task. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: It is essential to explore tree root development, dynamics and its control factors to improve the productivity of plantations. Tree provenance and soil lithology may jointly regulate root growth in subtropical plantations, but this relationship has not yet been quantified. Methods: We used a split-plot design with tree provenances (DY, GP, CY, SG, TM) and soil lithology (basalt, quartz sandstone, feldspathic quartz sandstone, blastopsammite) to determine the root growth of 4-year-old Masson pine seedlings in combination. Results: Our results showed an interaction effect between tree provenances and soil lithology on root surface area (RSA), root length (RL), root volume (RV), root biomass (RB), specific root surface area (SRA) and specific root length (SRL). The RV, RSA, RL, RB, and SRL of the DY provenance were higher than those of the other provenances due to site conditions similar to the planting site (e.g., climate, altitude, and latitude); the RSA, RV, SRL, SRA and RB of DY provenance on the soil with lithology of blastopsammite were significantly lower than those of feldspar quartz sandstone and quartz sandstone, which indicates that the root growth is also affected by soil lithology. Furthermore, soil bulk density, total soil potassium, soil organic carbon and soil particle composition were the main factors affecting root growth in basalt, quartz sandstone, feldspathic quartz sandstone and blastopsammite soil, respectively, indicating that the required soil properties by plants changes with changes in the soil environment. Conclusions: We conclude that provenance and soil lithology jointly drive the root growth of young subtropical plantations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aims to analyze the role of environmental societies in promoting hygiene and creating a pleasant environment in public schools in tehsil Sargodha. A qualitative phenomenological research design was used. The population of the study was all male and female students of elementary public schools in Sargodha city. A total of twenty schools including 10 males and 10 females in the city of Sargodha selected purposively were visited. Only ten schools had functional environmental societies. Ten schools including five males and five females had a functional environment society. From each selected school two students were interviewed through a semi-structured interview schedule. Thematic analysis was used to draw results. Findings revealed that environmental societies work efficiently to raise awareness about good hygiene and cleanliness in school and environmental societies take a keen interest in school environment activities. Moreover, environmental societies give awareness at the classroom level about viral diseases, smog, etc. It is recommended that the environmental may invite the surrounding community to raise awareness about issues like smog, pink eye, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the soil phosphorus (P) cycle is a prerequisite for the sustainable management of land resources. The sequential-extraction method was used to determine P fractions in 513 soils of Larix principis-rupprechtii Mayr. plantations. With these data, this study applied structural equation modeling to evaluate the interaction between various soil P fractions. Quantitative analysis was conducted on the importance of different soil P pools and P transformation pathways on soil P availability in a larch plantation. Our study showed that soluble inorganic P (Pi) was directly positively affected by labile Pi, labile organic P (Po), secondary mineral P, and primary mineral P, and was directly negatively affected by moderately labile Po. Soluble Pi was not directly affected by occluded P. The primary mineral P (β = 0.40) had the greatest total impact on soluble Pi, followed by secondary mineral P (β = 0.32) and labile P (labile Pi and Po, β = 0.31), and then occluded P (β = 0.11), with the total impact of moderately labile Po being relatively small (β = −0.06). In summary, this study reveals the important roles of soluble Pi in P transformations and in determining overall P availability in soils, as well as the extensive effects of weathering on soil P dynamics in L. principis-rupprechtii plantations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]