image: A recent Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment study cataloged a wide variety of lichens, mosses and liverworts living on the urban trees of Vancouver, Canada.
Credit: Nicole J Jung, from Jung et al., 2025
The Ecological Society of America (ESA) presents a roundup of six research articles recently published across its esteemed journals. Widely recognized for fostering innovation and advancing ecological knowledge, ESA’s journals consistently feature illuminating and impactful studies. This compilation of papers explores the relative effectiveness of different wildfire fuel treatments, the impacts of geese on Arctic breeding grounds, bumble bee foraging behavior in agricultural areas, the overlooked cornucopia of epiphytes in cities, China’s carbon sequestration capacity and the discoveries that result when modern science teams up with Indigenous knowledge.
From Ecological Applications:
Defueling forests across the US requires different treatments
Author contact: Alexis A. Bernal (alexis_bernal@berkeley.edu)
Prescribed fire and mechanical treatments like tree thinning are both useful measures for mitigating wildfire impacts on US forests, according to a recent analysis. But data collected as part of the Fire and Fire Surrogate study, a decades-long, nation-wide research program, also revealed that the relative effectiveness of the two approaches varied geographically and across forest types. While prescribed burns were more beneficial than thinning, creating fuel breaks or similar approaches for promoting fire resilience in eastern forests, the reverse was true for the woodlands of the west. Regardless of the region or type of forest, however, routine application of fuel treatments is critical, along with building flexibility into management strategies to meet new goals under changing environmental and social conditions.
Read the article: The national Fire and Fire Surrogate study: Effects of fuel treatments in the Western and Eastern United States after 20 years
From Ecosphere:
What’s good for the goose less so for Arctic ecosystems
Author contact: Dana K. Kellett (kellettconsulting@gmail.com)
Populations of migratory geese in North America have skyrocketed thanks to the bounty provided by the endless fields of crops in the birds’ southern wintering grounds. New research reveals that in the northern tundra where geese migrate in summer to breed, ecosystems are cracking under the strain of having to provide for so many nesting birds. Competition for food and nest-building material has become so intense in Canada’s central Arctic that many lowland areas once dominated by grasses and sedges now support little more than ground-hugging mosses and peat. Although plant diversity rebounded once grazing and nesting pressures were lifted, recovery was uneven across the region. The study demonstrates how changes in one part of the world can reverberate in far-away landscapes through impacts on migratory species.
Read the article: Ornithogenic alteration of a tundra ecosystem from decades of intense herbivory and dense nesting
From Ecology:
Little buzz among native bees for crop pollen
Author contact: Jeremy Hemberger (j.hemberger.wisc@gmail.com)
Spurning the enormous bouquet of flowers provided by nonnative crops, California bumble bees remain steadfastly loyal to their original plant partners, suggests a recent study. Such is their disdain for exotic pollen that in areas dominated by agriculture bees will often turn up their antennae at monoculture crops and instead search for food sources in surrounding habitat like chapparal and oak savanna, even field edges and roadside verges. The pickiness of foraging bees is a further reminder of how little we know about resource use by insects, and the importance of conserving as broad a range of natural habitats and native plant species as possible.
Read the article: Predicting landscape-scale native bumble bee habitat use over space, time, and forage availability
From Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment:
The secret life of urban epiphytes
Author contact: Nicole J. Jung (nicolejung.j@gmail.com)
Peering behind the leafy curtains of roadside trees, researchers in Vancouver, Canada, recently cataloged an astonishing array of lichens, mosses and liverworts hidden amid the city’s greenery. Despite the pollution and summertime heat characteristic of urban areas, mats of these small colonial organisms form thriving microenvironments on the bark of trees, offering habitat for numerous other tiny plants and animals. Given that many of the lichens, mosses and liverworts were found to be closely associated with specific types of trees, they could serve as valuable sentinels of host-tree condition and consequently overall ecosystem health. The results of the survey spotlight the wide variety of life forms living in the world’s cities that are too often overlooked.
Read the article: Re-envisioning urban landscapes: lichens, liverworts, and mosses coexist spontaneously with us
From Ecological Monographs:
China: a carbon sink, but for how long?
Author contact: Shiqiang Wan (swan@hbu.edu.cn)
A review of the scientific literature suggests that the ecosystems of mainland China are a major carbon sink — at least for the time being. Consolidating data from hundreds of experiments carried out across the country since 1991, researchers found that the rate at which carbon was locked away was highly influenced by a wide range of environmental factors. While warming affected different regions of the country in different ways, temperature increases exceeding 1.5°C (the target limit set by the Paris climate agreement) generally had adverse effects on plant productivity, a key measure of how much plants grow — and therefore how much carbon can be absorbed. As such, China’s capacity to store additional carbon may begin to slow as this threshold is passed, raising questions about the future role of the country’s ecosystems as a carbon sink.
Read the article: Global change and China’s terrestrial carbon sink: A quantitative review of 30 years’ ecosystem manipulative experiments
From Earth Stewardship:
Indigenous knowledge leads to new insights into forestry's impact on plants
Author contact: Kathleen A. Carroll (kathleen.carroll@uri.edu)
A new study highlights the effects of forestry practices on plants crucial to Indigenous communities in Canada’s western boreal forest. By blending traditional knowledge with modern scientific methods, the research examines how logging, herbicide use and fire influence 51 edible and medicinal plant species. Although some of these culturally important plants were more abundant in treated areas, assessments done in collaboration with local communities indicated that forestry practices — especially herbicide treatment — rendered these plants unsuitable for consumption. The research stresses the importance of respecting traditional ecological knowledge to ensure sustainable land use and preserve access to vital cultural resources. The findings underscore the need for continued partnerships that prioritize Indigenous governance and ecological concerns as industrial activities increasingly affect these lands.
Read the article: Indigenous-led research on traditional territories highlights the impacts of forestry harvest practices on culturally important plants
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The Ecological Society of America, founded in 1915, is the world’s largest community of professional ecologists and a trusted source of ecological knowledge, committed to advancing the understanding of life on Earth. The 8,000 member Society publishes six journals and a membership bulletin and broadly shares ecological information through policy, media outreach and education initiatives. The Society’s Annual Meeting attracts 4,000 attendees and features the most recent advances in ecological science. Visit the ESA website at https://www.esa.org
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