Martin Ehbrecht
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martinehbrecht.bsky.social
Martin Ehbrecht
@martinehbrecht.bsky.social

Forest ecology, forest dynamics, forest management. Temperate and tropical.

Environmental science 64%
Geography 16%
Most major theories in ecology assume some sort of equilibrium, but only ~half of empirical tests acknowledge it & even fewer observed it in their system. Does this matter? How did the idea become so pervasive in ecology anyway? Find out in our new paper! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
The Equilibrium Conundrum
Although an assumption of equilibrium dynamics underlies most ecological theory, the evidence for this dynamic in nature and in empirical studies is scarce. This creates an unfortunate disconnect bet...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Reposted by Martin Ehbrecht

Reassembly und 🌴Regenwald-Regeneration im Kontext der Klimakrise.
Sehenswerte Vorlesungsreihe an der Uni Mainz @zukunftjgu.bsky.social
Kurzbericht:
www.reassembly.de/news/reassem...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIzT...
Kann sich der Regenwald wieder regenerieren? | #voicesforclimate mit Prof. Dr. Nico Blüthgen
YouTube video by OKTV Mainz
www.youtube.com
Check out our new insect decline paper. By analysing 36 yrs of German ground beetle distribution data, we show:
- ~80% of species have declined, with significant declines for >50%.
- The decline was similar across species traits and threatened status.
doi.org/10.1111/ddi.... @consbiog.bsky.social
Without forward-looking models, biodiversity policy risks missing the road to recovery.
Our new PNAS article calls for predictive tools and a World Biodiversity Research Programme to guide global action.

👉 doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
#Biodiversity #Conservation #PredictiveModels #PNAS
Our new perspective on what TLS can (& can't) do in forest research www.nature.com/articles/s41... - led by Eduardo Maeda w lots of great colleagues including @kimcalders.bsky.social @emilyrlines.bsky.social @louiseterryn.bsky.social @benjaminbrede.bsky.social (apols for any I don;t have @ for)
Expanding forest research with terrestrial LiDAR technology - Nature Communications
This Review highlights how terrestrial laser scanning is transforming forest research by enabling highly detailed 3D measurements of trees, supporting applications in forest ecology, carbon monitoring, and biodiversity assessment.
www.nature.com
Three exciting #PostDoc 🧑‍🔬👩‍🔬🧕 positions on #Ecological #Synthesis at TU Darmstadt @tuda.bsky.social for Reassembly #rainforest 🇪🇨 🌱🌴🦜 & #Biodiversity Exploratories 🌲🐄🚜🪲🐝🥀@bexplo.bsky.social
Please spread widely ✉️♥️▶️ & apply quickly 🙃
www.reassembly.de/the-team/job...
New paper in Nature Climate Change! What are the costs of increasing disturbances? Find out in this amazing contribution by @johannesmohr.bsky.social! Great to see this out and congrats Johannes on such a nice first PhD paper! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Rising cost of disturbances for forestry in Europe under climate change - Nature Climate Change
Climate change will raise the severity and frequency of forest disturbance, damaging the economic value of timber. Researchers show Europe’s timber-based forestry could lose up to €247 billion, yet in...
www.nature.com

Reposted by Martin Ehbrecht

Systematic attribution of heatwaves to the emissions of carbon majors - Nature
Systematic attribution of heatwaves to the emissions of carbon majors - Nature
Climate change made 213 historical heatwaves reported over 2000–2023 more likely and more intense, to which each of the 180 carbon majors (fossil fuel and cement producers) substantially contributed.
www.nature.com

Reposted by Martin Ehbrecht

W3-Professorship in Functional Ecology (m/f/d, 100%)
uni-tuebingen.de
Arthur Yambayamba's first PhD chapter is out today @biotropica.bsky.social 🍾

Using NFI data from Zambia we explore how climate and competition shape the crown allometries of Miombo woodlands 🌳📐

📜 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Climate change increasingly alters the interactions between forest disturbances. Here we present a framework for quantifying dist. interactions and compile evidence for their impacts. Led by @dudney-joan.bsky.social with @brian-j-harvey.bsky.social & @julieedtree.bsky.social doi.org/10.1146/annu...
Only a pre-print for now, but after 4 years of hard work I couldn't resist sharing this!

The Global Canopy Atlas: analysis-ready maps of 3D structure for the world's woody ecosystems

📜: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Huge team effort led by the brilliant Fabian Fischer!

Reposted by Martin Ehbrecht

🗞️ Here is a a nice newspaper article by Mongabay on #forest #restoration potential and where and how restoration should be carried out.

🌲 It also features results from our Sardinilla experiment. #TreeDivNet.🌳

news.mongabay.com/2025/09/new-...

@uni-freiburg.de @idiv-research.bsky.social
New study pinpoints tree-planting hotspots for climate and biodiversity gains
Reforestation is gaining global momentum as a climate solution, but scientists warn that planting trees indiscriminately isn’t effective. Its success depends on how and, crucially, where it’s done. A ...
news.mongabay.com
I like big trees and I cannot lie. Great bit of work by @kimcalders.bsky.social @louiseterryn.bsky.social and colleagues using innovative climbing and scanning approach. Stunning illustration of tree structural and biodiversity complexity zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Integrating terrestrial and canopy laser scanning for comprehensive analysis of large old trees: Implications for single tree and biodiversity research
Canopy laser scanning (CLS) enhances 3D measurements of large trees by lifting laser scanners into the canopy. Combining CLS with terrestrial laser scanning improves point cloud precision, reduces oc...
zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
The first chapter of my dissertation is out in Ecology Letters! We pooled data from forest sites across the globe to understand how forests differ in their carbon investment in reproduction (flowers, fruits, seeds). #ForestEcology #GlobalEcology onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Forest Age Rivals Climate to Explain Reproductive Allocation Patterns in Forest Ecosystems Globally
Forest allocation of net primary productivity (NPP) to reproduction is poorly quantified globally, despite its critical role in forest regeneration and a well-supported trade-off with allocation to g...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Good news for a change: Background mortality in unmanaged forests of Europe has not increased over past decades. Great work from the European Forest Reserve Initiative EuFoRIa, out in @journalofecology.bsky.social doi.org/10.1111/1365...
#Tree stems accumulate biomass by adding volume of certain density. Which factor is more important?

Using tropical #treering data we found: diameter increment explains biomass growth at short term; wood density at long term.🌎🌐🍁
#dendrochronology
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Biomass production of tropical trees across space and time: The shifting roles of diameter growth and wood density
Diameter growth is an important and good indicator of forest carbon production. However, size-related changes in wood density, which are usually neglected, are critical for accurate short- and long-t...
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
FINAL VERSION PUBLISHED @forestecosyst.bsky.social
📰Tree competition in West African tropical forests mediated by the functional attributes of species and variation in soil moisture www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Reposted by Martin Ehbrecht

Emerging trend of increasing spring frost damage for beech at higher elevations in the Jura Mountains: evidence from tree‐ring data
Emerging trend of increasing spring frost damage for beech at higher elevations in the Jura Mountains: evidence from tree‐ring data
Late spring frost (LSF) severely impacts tree growth and forest productivity, with global warming potentially altering LSF risk due to asymmetric changes in vegetation onset and frost timing. Howeve...
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Reposted by Martin Ehbrecht

Hunting strongly affects the habitat selection of red deer, particularly during daylight hours. This suggests that hunting can efficiently control habitat use, and underscores the value of protected areas w/o hunting to conserve the behavior of ungulates. Led by J. Eggers doi.org/10.1002/wlb3...
🌴Researchers compared 2749 tree species using 497 Atlantic Forest surveys varying in successional stage to classify them into four disturbance-sensitivity group and found that turnover applies to a small fraction of species, and reassembly varies across time and space🌍🧪
buff.ly/Uv4aQ8d
Reassembly dynamics of tropical secondary succession: Evidence from Atlantic forests
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Reposted by Martin Ehbrecht

"if we plan restoration targets to match future climatic conditions and consider state transitions of currently natural ecosystems due to climate change, the potential for natural climate solutions related to ecosystem restoration is close to zero." www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Limited carbon sequestration potential from global ecosystem restoration - Nature Geoscience
The maximum carbon sequestration potential from global terrestrial ecosystem restoration efforts until 2100 is 96.9 Gt, which is equivalent to 3.7–12.0% of anthropogenic emissions until then, accordin...
www.nature.com
A very comprehensive analysis of lagged precipitation effects in terrestrial ecosystems. Tree rings, flux, grassland ANPP, satellite remote sensing, and DGVMs. Climate memory is an important driver of global plant productivity.
Where did we get the data? Where can you find them?

150 scientists contributed 1000s tree-ring data through Tropical Tree-Ring Network. This network unites tree-ring scientists & data. To fill tropical data gap all data are uploaded to International Tree-ring Databank.
tropicaltreeringnetwork.org
Tropical Tree-ring Network Website
Visit the post for more.
tropicaltreeringnetwork.org
How do tropical #trees deal with droughts? The answer is published today in @science.org

Our pantropical #treering analysis revealed 2.5% growth reduction during #drought years. Yet, growth declined by >10% in 1/4 of 500 study sites, and in hotter & drier regions.

doi.org/10.1126/scie...
🌍🍁🌐
(1/4)
Pantropical tree rings show small effects of drought on stem growth
Increasing drought pressure under anthropogenic climate change may jeopardize the potential of tropical forests to capture carbon in woody biomass and act as a long-term carbon dioxide sink. To evalua...
doi.org
Nice @mongabay.com article on our recent GEC paper linking deforestation and biodiversity loss in the Chaco to internationally traded commodities and domestic consumption (paper here - doi.org/10.1016/j.gl...).
news.mongabay.com/short-articl...
@mongabaylatam.bsky.social @biogeoberlin.bsky.social
Pasture and agricultural expansion in Gran Chaco drive biodiversity loss: Study
A recent study has identified how cattle pasture and agricultural expansion, driven by global demand for beef and soy, is causing biodiversity loss in the Gran Chaco region of Argentina and Paraguay. ...
news.mongabay.com
Our new study, led by Greta Dargie and published yesterday in Environmental Research Letters, shows that the Congo Basin peatlands are twice as old as previously thought. www.leeds.ac.uk/main-index/n... @congopeat.bsky.social @simonlewis.bsky.social @iopp-environment.bsky.social
World’s largest tropical peatlands revealed to be more than 40,000 years old
A peatland complex in the Congo Basin which is known to be a globally important carbon store is twice as old as previously thought, according to a new scientific study.
www.leeds.ac.uk