Pieter Zuidema
@pieterzuidema.bsky.social
360 followers 490 following 20 posts
Tropical forest ecologist | Professor | Wageningen University 🇳🇱 | Climate change impacts on trees & forests | Tropical 🌳 rings | Dendrochronology | Timber tracing | Model-data integration
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Reposted by Pieter Zuidema
bio-diverse.bsky.social
A must-read special issue: “Bending the curve towards nature recovery: building on Georgina Mace’s legacy”
royalsocietypublishing.org/toc/rstb/202...
I: Determinants of diversity & resilience.
II: Measuring the state of biodiversity
III: Biodiversity & natural capital
IV: Future scenarios for nature
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences: Vol 380, No 1917
royalsocietypublishing.org
Reposted by Pieter Zuidema
timoconradi.bsky.social
Attribution of vegetation change to climate change: here we compared vegetation time series to simulations from a process model forced with observed and counterfactual (detrended) climate data. Trends in climate necessary for the model to emulate vegetation trends www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/3
Shifts in vegetation activity of terrestrial ecosystems attributable to climate trends - Nature Geoscience
An analysis fusing satellite data with a process-based model of plant growth attributes changes in vegetation activity across terrestrial ecosystems to climatic changes.
www.nature.com
pieterzuidema.bsky.social
Yesterday, Bo Zhou successfully defended his PhD thesis at @w-u-r.bsky.social on carbon & water dynamics in a montane forest in subtropical China. Bo studied tree growth rythms & transpiration fluxes.
🎉Congrats 🎓 Dr Bo!
▶️ Defense: wur.yuja.com/V/Watch?v=93...
📙Thesis: research.wur.nl/en/publicati...
Reposted by Pieter Zuidema
jappliedecology.bsky.social
Plant species–habitat networks in a mosaic landscape of restored and fragmented tropical forests 🌲🌏

Highlights the role of species interactions and their correlated traits such as dispersal syndromes in promoting landscape-scale connectivity 📊🧪

🔗 doi.org/10.1111/1365...
Reposted by Pieter Zuidema
rupertseidl.bsky.social
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...
Reposted by Pieter Zuidema
forestryjfr.bsky.social
🌱 Study in the tropical–subtropical zone shows slope and species diversity shape carbon sequestration!
Leaf nutrients + soil N and P = key drivers of soil organic carbon.
Random Forest and SEM offer restoration insights.
🔗https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11676-025-01895-y
🧪🌏🌐🍁🌺🌱🌿🦤
Reposted by Pieter Zuidema
osbertsun.bsky.social
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 Pieter Zuidema
journalofecology.bsky.social
⛰️🌳New study examines wood density variation across an elevational gradient from the Andean tree line to the Amazon basin, finding a decline from low to middle elevations, followed by an increase near the tree line. Species composition and disturbances influenced this pattern. 👉 buff.ly/ujConkt
Reposted by Pieter Zuidema
Reposted by Pieter Zuidema
juliakoricheva.bsky.social
Few weeks left to apply for a fully funded PhD studentship in my lab @rhulbiology.bsky.social as part of new EU project Trees4Adapt
🌲🌳 Fieldwork in forest diversity experiments in Finland www.sataforestdiversity.org
📆 Apply by Sept 8th, start date - Jan 2026
👉 www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
🍁🌍🧪
Reposted by Pieter Zuidema
forestryjfr.bsky.social
🌲 How does thinning influence the #carbon balance in upland vs peatland forests?
Thanks to @holisoils.bsky.social for shedding light on how #ForestManagement affects different soil types.

#ForestryResearch #ClimateAction #SoilScience #JFR
🧪🌏🌐🍁🌺🌱🌿🦤
holisoils.bsky.social
🌲Thinning is a common #ForestManagement practice, but how does it impact #carbon dynamics across different #forest types?

A recent #HoliSoils study explores this question in an upland forest on mineral #soil and a drained peatland forest 🔎🌱🏞️

📖 Find out more ⬇️
holisoils.eu/how-does-thi...
How does thinning affect forest carbon? A look at an upland and a drained peatland forest - HoliSoils
Thinning, the practice of removing some trees to help others grow better, changes how much carbon a forest stores or releases. We studied this effect in two
holisoils.eu
Reposted by Pieter Zuidema
markuseichhorn.bsky.social
Terrestrial laser scanning can transform national forest inventories by adding new measurements and a 3D perspective. In our new paper we provide a pathway for implementing 3D forest surveys. 1/6 🧪🌎🌳🌲 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Fig. 1 from Holvoet et al. (2025). TLS and MLS scan setup, point cloud segmentation, and pre-processing.
Reposted by Pieter Zuidema
journalofecology.bsky.social
🌴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 Pieter Zuidema
dudney-joan.bsky.social
Hey #ESA2025 #Baltimore! I'm seeking a #PhDstudent interested in #ForestEcology to join my lab, fall 2026. More here: www.landscapesofchangelab.com/join-us

DM me if you'd like to chat in person. Would love to connect and learn about your interests. Non-traditional backgrounds welcome! 🧪🌏🌐🍁🌺🌱🌿🔥
Six field researchers in Yosemite National Park celebrating a fun day of work in the Mariposa Grove
Reposted by Pieter Zuidema
natureportfolio.nature.com
The results of a study in Nature Communications show that climate change is raising the odds of extreme fire years and the number of large forest fires, necessitating proactive measures to mitigate risks and adapt to extreme fire years. go.nature.com/4m8fTSA 🧪
Fig. 1: Extreme regional fire years across forested areas during 2002–2023.
Reposted by Pieter Zuidema
markuseichhorn.bsky.social
Job opening: lecturership (research & teaching) in forestry or agroforestry at Bangor University. This is probably the best forestry programme in the UK and a great place to work. Deadline 1 Sep. More here: 🌳🌲🌏
Job Details | Bangor University Jobs
jobs.bangor.ac.uk
pieterzuidema.bsky.social
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
pieterzuidema.bsky.social
What does this mean for the future?

The past drought #resilience will very likely diminish. Stronger drought impacts in hotter & drier regions (see Fig) give a glimpse of aggravated drought responses in future. Also, droughts increase tree death, causing lasting carbon losses from forests.
pieterzuidema.bsky.social
What happened after the droughts? And during wet years?

Growth bounced back quickly after droughts. During the 1st post-drought year, pantropical average tree growth was similar to that of pre-drought year. Growth increase during wet years partially compensated for drought impacts.

(2/4)
pieterzuidema.bsky.social
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