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Early to intermediate ontogenetic stages of trees are important in forest regeneration. However, these critical life stages are often overlooked due to survey intensity and impracticality and/or disinterest in characterizing early life stage cohorts. This problem is particularly pervasive in mangrove forests where visibility of smaller stature trees may be limited by tidal flooding and younger cohorts are particularly vulnerable to changing hydrologic and biogeochemical conditions driven by climate change. Lacking data on early life stages in mangrove forests makes it difficult to predict ecosystem degradation and inform habitat resilience and restoration in one of the earth's most valuable blue carbon ecosystems. We identify challenges to collecting empirical data on early to intermediate age classes in mangroves and provide solutions to characterizing these cohorts. We emphasize the importance of gathering these data for improved understanding of forest regeneration dynamics and provide multi-scalar solutions to quantify vegetation structure of mangrove forest.
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Demystifying global climate models for use in the life sciences
For each assessment cycle of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), researchers in the life sciences are called upon to provide evidence to policymakers planning for a changing future. This research increasingly relies on highly technical and complex outputs from climate models. The strengths and weaknesses of these data may not be fully appreciated beyond the climate modelling community; therefore, uninformed use of raw or preprocessed climate data could lead to overconfident or spurious conclusions. We provide an accessible introduction to climate model outputs that is intended to empower the life science community to robustly address questions about human and natural systems in a changing world.
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- PAR ID:
- 10466945
- Publisher / Repository:
- Cell Press
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Trends in Ecology & Evolution
- Volume:
- 38
- Issue:
- 9
- ISSN:
- 0169-5347
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 843 to 858
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2023.04.005
