The management and mismanagement of Roman groves was a serious matter, and intentional and unintentional violations of these spaces could be severely punished. In spite of this, groves remained loosely defined by Romans and their boundaries were commonly misunderstood, a confusion that has continued into modern scholarship, where groves are understood as either a clearing in a wood or a dark space lit by artificial lighting. This article takes up this discussion, and explores the nature of an ancient grove as a well-attested space under forest management that influences later conversations on the nature of wooded spaces in more recent periods.

The vegetation at and beyond the northern edge of the world’s boreal forest plays an important though imperfectly understood role in the climate system. This is particularly true within Russia, where only a small proportion of the boreal land area has been studied in depth, and little is known about its recent evolution over time. We describe a long-term collaboration between institutions in Russia and the United Kingdom, aimed at developing a better understanding of high-latitude vegetation in Russia using remote sensing methods. The focus of the collaboration has varied over time; in its most recent form, it is concerned with the dynamics of the Russian boreal forest during the 21st century and its relation to climate change. We discuss the support framework within which it has been developed and reflect on its relationship to science diplomacy. We consider the factors that have contributed to the success of a decades-long international collaboration and make recommendations as to how such joint efforts can be encouraged in future.

Access to care services in remote areas is challenging. The use of telemedicine technology in these areas facilitates access to health care. This study aimed to summarize the current research on telemedicine in remote areas such as mountains and forests. A systematic search was conducted in databases including Medline (through PubMed), Scopus, IEEE Xplore Digital Library, and ISI Web of Science to identify relevant studies published until May 12, 2021. Screening of retrieved articles for selection and inclusion in the study was performed based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyzes extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) checklist. A total of 807 articles were identified after removing duplicates, from which 20 studies meeting our inclusion criteria were selected. Challenges, opportunities, and equipment required to use telemedicine in remote areas were extracted from the selected studies. The results revealed that telemedicine implementation in remote areas had many challenges, including harsh weather conditions, Internet connectivity problems, difficult equipment transportation, and ethical issues. Telemedicine also has many benefits, such as cost and time savings for patients, improving patients’ quality of life, and improving patient satisfaction. Telemedicine for inhabitants of forested and mountainous areas facilitates rapid access to health care and enhances patient satisfaction. Distinguishing advantages and barriers as well as reducing restrictions will have an essential role in accelerating the use of this technology.

The water purification functions of forests represent one of the most frequently invoked examples of nonmarket ecosystem services that are economically valuable. This study quantifies the monetary value of forests' water purification services in the form of the ensuing cost savings of municipal drinking water treatment, using a rich panel dataset from China's Sichuan province. Moreover, this study has undertaken a novel spatial piecewise approach to investigate the spatial patterns of such cost savings delivered by forests at different distances from the water intake point. The estimation results find that forests within a 2 km radius upstream from the water intake point have the most sizeable and statistically significant cost saving effect. For forests within a 3 km radius, this effect becomes somewhat smaller but remains statistically significant. Beyond a 4 km radius, this effect becomes notably smaller and statistically equal to zero. Our analysis facilitates the optimal spatial targeting of forest conservation.

Recently, human activities have impacted biodiversity-rich forest in western Rwanda, creating a need to enhance restoration activities of degraded lands in the region. To evaluate the effects of reforestation activities on the community composition of soil-litter ants, research was conducted in Gishwati tropical montane forest, located in northern-western part of Rwanda. The ant fauna was studied in reforested lands dominated by regenerated native species and exotic tree species. Further, a primary forest made of native trees served as a reference. In each forest type, nine sampling points were used to sample ants. Ant specimens were collected using pitfalls, hand sampling and Winkler extractor. They were identified to subfamilies, genus and species levels using dichotomous keys, and also statistically analysed for species richness, diversity, evenness and community composition. We collected a total of 2,481 individuals from 5 subfamilies, 18 genera and 35 species. Higher abundance, diversity and species richness were found in soil-litter under natural primary and secondary forests dominated by regenerated native plant species compared to exotic tree forest. The ant community composition analysis indicated higher similarities in ant species sampled under primary native forest and secondary forest dominated by regenerated native species. Reforestation by regenerating native species may be given priority in restoration of degraded lands due to their importance in species richness and species diversity.

Traditional transect survey methods for forest antelopes often underestimate density for common species and do not provide sufficient data for rarer species. The use of camera trapping as a survey tool for medium and large terrestrial mammals has become increasingly common, especially in forest habitats. Here, we applied the distance sampling method to images generated from camera-trap surveys in Dja Faunal Reserve, Cameroon, and used an estimate of the proportion of time animals are active to correct for negative bias in the density estimates from the 24-hour camera-trap survey datasets. We also used multiple covariate distance sampling with body weight as a covariate to estimate detection probabilities and densities of rarer species. These methods provide an effective tool for monitoring the status of individual species or a community of forest antelope species, information urgently needed for conservation planning and action.

The germinability of buried seeds changes with time, and the direction and periodicity of these changes differ among plant species. In 116 abundant dicotyledonous herb species, we investigated the changes in seed germinability that occurred during the 2-yr period following burial in the soil. We aimed to establish differences between seeds collected in “anthropogenic” (ruderal, arable land) and “wild” (grassland, forest) habitats. The seeds were buried in a field 1 mo after collection, exhumed at regular intervals, and germinated at 25 C. During the 2-yr study period, four categories of species-specific patterns of germinability changes were found: seeds demonstrating seasonal dormancy/nondormancy cycles (31 species); seeds germinating only in the first season after burial (16 species); seeds germinating steadily (38 species); and seeds whose germinability changed gradually, with increasing (7 species) or decreasing (18 species) germinability. The seeds of 6 species did not germinate at all. We found no significant difference in the frequency of these categories between species typical for anthropogenic and wild habitats. The cause for this result may be dramatic human influences (changes of agricultural practices), the pressure of which impedes the development of floras specific for certain habitats, as distinguished by the frequency of species with particular patterns of seed germinability. These frequencies varied among taxa with the growth form, seed mass, and flowering phenology of species.

Reconstructions of prehistoric vegetation composition help establish natural baselines, variability, and trajectories of forest dynamics before and during the emergence of intensive anthropogenic land use. Pollen–vegetation models (PVMs) enable such reconstructions from fossil pollen assemblages using process-based representations of taxon-specific pollen production and dispersal. However, several PVMs and variants now exist, and the sensitivity of vegetation inferences to PVM selection, variant, and calibration domain is poorly understood. Here, we compare the reconstructions, parameter estimates, and structure of a Bayesian hierarchical PVM, STEPPS, both to observations and to REVEALS, a widely used PVM, for the pre–Euro-American settlement-era vegetation in the northeastern United States (NEUS). We also compare NEUS-based STEPPS parameter estimates to those for the upper midwestern United States (UMW). Both PVMs predict the observed macroscale patterns of vegetation composition in the NEUS; however, reconstructions of minor taxa are less accurate and predictions for some taxa differ between PVMs. These differences can be attributed to intermodel differences in structure and parameter estimates. Estimates of pollen productivity from STEPPS broadly agree with estimates produced for use in REVEALS, while comparison between pollen dispersal parameter estimates shows no significant relationship. STEPPS parameter estimates are similar between the UMW and NEUS, suggesting that STEPPS parameter estimates are transferable between floristically similar regions and scales.

In regions where primeval forests have vanished it is unclear whether forest protection can sustain specialized old-forest biota, and over what time scale. We report on population expansion of an old-growth specific fungus of European conservation concern, Amylocystis lapponica, in the forest reserve network of Estonia. This conspicuous species was known for 40 years from only single records in one old-growth forest and was categorized nationally as Critically Endangered. During the last 10 years A. lapponica has expanded over the eastern half of the country, with nine subpopulations, in 12 localities, now known, all in long-protected old-growth forests and several > 50 km apart. In most of the new localities historical absence of the species can be reliably assessed based on earlier surveys. The historical remnant subpopulation has also increased. The population size (c. 100 mature individuals) in Estonia indicates the species should be recategorized nationally as Endangered. This success story suggests that more than 50 years of non-intervention may be needed even in large old-forest reserves for old-growth specialist species to recover.

Tradicionalmente, el efecto combinado de la demografía y la productividad de los ambientes patagónicos ha sido invocado para explicar que el interior del bosque del centro-norte de la Patagonia argentina fue utilizado luego de la ocupación de espacios más favorables, con una antigüedad máxima de 3.500 años. El hallazgo de contextos del Holoceno temprano y medio en el sitio de Población Anticura situado en el bosque mixto permite reformular este escenario. El análisis sedimentario, de los procesos de formación y de la evidencia arqueológica recuperada indica, para estos momentos, la existencia de ocupaciones breves y con cierta redundancia a través del tiempo, con conjuntos artefactuales pequeños pero variados, una subsistencia basada en el huemul (Hippocamelus bisulcus) y el consumo ocasional de especies de menor tamaño corporal como alimento y como materia prima. La procedencia de algunos materiales sugiere que el uso temprano del interior del bosque estaría vinculado a redes de circulación amplias en el marco de una baja demografía, mientras que la naturaleza de las ocupaciones muestra un conocimiento del ambiente que señala que los contextos más antiguos de Población Anticura no reflejan la primera exploración del interior del bosque.

This contribution discusses possible relationships between human populations and Holocene environmental deterioration phenomena (cold/arid pulses and volcanic eruptions) in the Fuegian Archipelago (South America), based on summed probability distributions of archaeological dates, paleoenvironmental information, geospatial data, and archaeological evidence. During the first millennia after peopling, only the Hudson (ca. 7700 cal yr BP) and the first Monte Burney (ca. 8600 cal yr BP) eruptions might have played a role in human dispersion. Particularly, a more intense human occupation around the Beagle Channel and long-distance interactions are proposed as risk-buffer strategies related to the Hudson eruption. A cooling phase and a demographic growth at ca. 5500 cal yr BP might have favored more dispersed spatial occupations and a subsistence diversification in the Beagle Channel. In the northern steppes, the second Monte Burney eruption (ca. 4300 cal yr BP) and an arid episode (ca. 2600 cal yr BP) are proposed as the main triggers for changes in land-use patterns, long-network interactions, and subsistence strategies. Even though occupation changes in the Fuegian Archipelago coexist with environmental deterioration episodes after 1500 cal yr BP, demographic processes and the European colonization most likely explain this trend. Similarities between the steppe/ecotone and forest occupation curves suggest common behavioral patterns across the Holocene.

Although the disaster reduction effects of forest braking have long been known empirically, they have not been known in detail down to recent. In this study, we ascertained forest braking effect by numerical simulations using the avalanche dynamics program, TITAN2D, to model large-scale avalanches. One of these avalanches occurred in the Makunosawa valley, Myoko, and damaged a cedar forest; the others occurred on Mt. Iwate and damaged a subalpine forest. All avalanches damaged many trees and terminated within the forests. In our simulations, the resistance of the forests to avalanches is simulated using a larger bed friction angle. Fitting the observations from the Makunosawa avalanche by trial and error, a bed friction angle of 13–14° in the non-forested area and of 25° in the forested area is obtained. We conducted simulations of the Mt. Iwate avalanches using the same method as for the Makunosawa valley avalanche, and obtained good agreement between observations and simulations. Simulations reveal that without the forest, the avalanche would have traveled at least 200 m farther than the forest's actual end in the Makunosawa valley, and at least 200 m and possibly up to 600 m farther on Mt. Iwate. This study therefore clearly shows that forests provide a braking effect for avalanches.

Snowmelt was measured on a daily basis for 17 days at the open site and 18 days at three Japanese cedar sites with canopy closure of 17.8% (cedar stand A), 5.2% (B) and 2.4% (C) in April. Measured daily snowmelt at each site was reproduced by heat-balance calculation with an accuracy of <±1 mm w.e. From 1st April to the date of snow disappearance net radiation accounted for 88.4, 43.0, 32.7 and 34.2% of total snowmelt energy at the open site, the cedar stands A, B and C, respectively. The ratio of sensible and latent heat to total snowmelt was 33.1–37.9 and 25.9–29.4%, respectively, at three cedar stands. The ratios of sensible and latent heat increased over time in accordance with the rise in temperature at all cedar sites. They became large on a daily basis when air temperature and/or wind speed were high. Wind speed is dependent on morphology around each site that also dictated snowmelt.