CTFS-ForestGEO: a worldwide network monitoring forests in an era of global change

There is a new paper in Global Change Biology, that describes the ForestGEO network of forest plots and does a nice analysis placing them in context of climate change pressures and other Anthropocene pressures. The network originated as a tropical forest network but in recent years has expanded into temperate forests. The core modus operandi of these studies is large plots where all trees greater than 1 or 2 cm diameter are censused every few years. They provide insights into long term dynamics and spatial interactions, and complement the smaller, more process-focussed studies of our GEM network.

Our local 18 ha plot at Wytham Woods is a key site in this network, the first ForestGEO site in Europe. The paper gives some fascinating insights into placing Wytham in a global context.

The paper can be downloaded here:

Anderson-Teixeira KJ, Davies SJ, Bennett, Amy C., Gonzalez-Akre EB, Muller-Landau HC, Wright SJ, et al. (2014) CTFS-ForestGEO: A worldwide network monitoring forests in an era of global change. Global Change Biology, doi: 10.1111/gcb.12712. Supplementary Info.