FORGENIUS’ peer-reviewed article production takes wing

Two years into the project, the FORGENIUS scientific teams are already busy publishing scientific papers. Petit-Callieux et al. (2021) opened the way with a first paper on modelling of forest survival. Along similar lines, Archambeau et al. (2022) links tree growth to genetic properties and climate through modelling. Both of these papers feed the reflection on composite indicators of forest performance that will be essential to describing the GCU network. Mauri et al. (2022) provide an impressive data set and model for the future distribution of tens of forest tree species. The question of forest resilience to drought is discussed by Zheng et al. (2023). On the link between modelling forest performance and remote-sensing approaches, Noumonvi et al. (2021) tackle the problem of assessing phenology. Finally, two papers address the problem of population dynamics and demography, from the standpoint of identifying marginality indicators (Picard et al., 2022) and on the long-standing problem of estimating effective population size (Santos-del-Blanco et al., 2022).

All these papers show the vitality of the FORGENIUS scientific thinking and the eagerness of the research teams to advance the science early in the project. These papers stem from, and contribute to, multiple work packages; and most importantly, all of them contribute to the build-up of scientific indicators that will appear in the new EUFGIS information system that FORGENIUS will provide by 2025.

References

Archambeau, J., Benito Garzón, M., Barraquand, F., de Miguel, M., Plomion, C., González-Martínez, S.C., 2022. Combining Climatic and Genomic Data Improves Range-Wide Tree Height Growth Prediction in a Forest Tree. The American Naturalist 200, E141–E159. doi.org/10.1086/720619

Mauri, A., Girardello, M., Strona, G., Beck, P.S.A., Forzieri, G., Caudullo, G., Manca, F., Cescatti, A., 2022. EU-Trees4F, a dataset on the future distribution of European tree species. Sci Data 9, 37. doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01128-5

Noumonvi, K.D., Oblišar, G., Žust, A., Vilhar, U., 2021. Empirical Approach for Modelling Tree Phenology in Mixed Forests Using Remote Sensing. Remote Sensing 13, 3015. doi.org/10.3390/rs13153015

Petit-Cailleux, C., Davi, H., Lefèvre, F., Verkerk, P.J., Fady, B., Lindner, M., Oddou-Muratorio, S., 2021. Tree Mortality Risks Under Climate Change in Europe: Assessment of Silviculture Practices and Genetic Conservation Networks. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 9, 582. doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2021.706414

Picard, N., Marchi, M., Serra-Varela, M.J., Westergren, M., Cavers, S., Notivol, E., Piotti, A., Alizoti, P., Bozzano, M., González-Martínez, S.C., Grivet, D., Aravanopoulos, F.A., Vendramin, G.G., Ducci, F., Fady, B., Alía, R., 2022. Marginality indices for biodiversity conservation in forest trees. Ecological Indicators 143, 109367. doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2022.109367

Santos-del-Blanco, L., Olsson, S., Budde, K.B., Grivet, D., González-Martínez, S.C., Alía, R., Robledo-Arnuncio, J.J., 2022. On the feasibility of estimating contemporary effective population size (Ne) for genetic conservation and monitoring of forest trees. Biological Conservation 273, 109704. doi.org/10.1016/J.BIOCON.2022.109704

Zheng, T., Martínez-Vilalta, J., García-Valdés, R., Gazol, A., Camarero, J.J., Mu, C., Mencuccini, M., 2023. Growth plasticity of conifers did not avoid declining resilience to soil and atmospheric droughts during the 20th century. Forest Ecosystems 10, 100107. doi.org/10.1016/j.fecs.2023.100107