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Basal area is a key measure of forest stocking and an important proxy of forest productivity in the face of climate change. Black walnut ( Juglans nigra ) is one of the most valuable timber species in North America. However, little is known about how the stocking of black walnut would change with differed bioclimatic conditions under climate change. In this study, we projected the current and future basal area of black walnut. We trained different machine learning models using more than 1.4 million tree records from 10,162 Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) sample plots and 42 spatially explicit bioclimate and other environmental attributes. We selected random forests (RF) as the final model to estimate the basal area of black walnut under climate change because RF had a higher coefficient of determination ( R 2 ), lower root mean square error (RMSE), and lower mean absolute error (MAE) than the other two models (XGBoost and linear regression). The most important variables to predict basal area were the mean annual temperature and precipitation, potential evapotranspiration, topology, and human footprint. Under two emission scenarios (Representative Concentration Pathway 4.5 and 8.5), the RF model projected that black walnut stocking would increase in the northern part of the current range in the USA by 2080, with a potential shift of species distribution range although uncertainty still exists due to unpredictable events, including extreme abiotic (heat, drought) and biotic (pests, disease) occurrences. Our models can be adapted to other hardwood tree species to predict tree changes in basal area based on future climate scenarios. 

Intensively managed forest plantations often require fertilization to maintain site fertility and to improve growth and yield over successive rotations. We applied urea-based “enhanced-efficiency fertilizers” (EEF) containing 0.5 atom% 15N at a rate of 224 kg N ha−1 to soils under mid-rotation black walnut (Juglans nigra L.) plantations to track the fate of applied 15N within aboveground ecosystem components during the 12-month period after application. Treatments included Agrotain Ultra (urea coated with a urease inhibitor), Arborite EC (urea coated with water-soluble boron and phosphate), Agrium ESN (polymer-coated urea), uncoated urea, and an unfertilized control. Agrotain Ultra and Arborite EC increased N concentrations of competing vegetation within one month after fertilization, while neither Agrium ESN nor uncoated urea had any effect on competing vegetation N concentrations during the experiment. Agrotain Ultra and Arborite EC increased δ15N values in leaves of crop trees above those of controls at one and two months after fertilization, respectively. By contrast, Agrium ESN and uncoated urea had no effect on δ15N values in leaves of crop trees until three months after fertilization. Fertilizer N recovery (FNR) varied among ecosystem components, with competing vegetation acting as a sink for applied nutrients. There were no significant differences in FNR for all the urea-based EEF products compared to uncoated urea. Agrium ESN was the only EEF that exhibited controlled-release activity in this study, with other fertilizers behaving similarly to uncoated urea. 

Abstract Plant hydraulics is key for plant survival and growth because it is linked to gas exchange and drought resistance. Although the environment influences plant hydraulics, there is no clear consensus on the effect of nitrogen (N) supply, which may be, in part, due to different hydraulic conductance normalization criteria and studied species. The objective of this study was to compare the variation of root hydraulic properties using several normalization criteria in four pine species in response to three contrasting N fertilization regimes. We studied four closely related, yet ecologically distinct species: Pinus nigra J.F. Arnold, Pinus pinaster Ait., Pinus pinea L. and Pinus halepensis Mill. Root hydraulic conductance (Kh) was measured with a high-pressure flow meter, and values were normalized by total leaf area (leaf specific conductance, Kl), xylem cross-section area (xylem specific conductance, Ks), total root area (root specific conductance, Kr) and the area of fine roots (fine root specific conductance, Kfr). Controlling for organ size differences allowed comparison of the hydraulic efficiency of roots to supply or absorb water among fertilization treatments and species. The effect of N on the root hydraulic efficiency depended on the normalization criteria. Increasing N availability reduced Kl and Ks, but increased Kh, Kr and especially Kfr. The positive effect of N on Kr and Kfr was positively related to seedling relative growth rate and was also consistent with published results at the interspecific level, whereby plant hydraulics is positively linked to photosynthesis and transpiration rate and fast growth. In contrast, normalization by leaf area and xylem cross-sectional area (Kl and Ks) reflected opposite responses to Kr and Kfr. This indicates that the normalization criteria determine the interpretation of the effect of N on plant hydraulics, which can limit species and treatment comparisons. 

One of the most fundamental questions in ecology is how many species inhabit the Earth. However, due to massive logistical and financial challenges and taxonomic difficulties connected to the species concept definition, the global numbers of species, including those of important and well-studied life forms such as trees, still remain largely unknown. Here, based on global ground-sourced data, we estimate the total tree species richness at global, continental, and biome levels. Our results indicate that there are ∼73,000 tree species globally, among which ∼9,000 tree species are yet to be discovered. Roughly 40% of undiscovered tree species are in South America. Moreover, almost one-third of all tree species to be discovered may be rare, with very low populations and limited spatial distribution (likely in remote tropical lowlands and mountains). These findings highlight the vulnerability of global forest biodiversity to anthropogenic changes in land use and climate, which disproportionately threaten rare species and thus, global tree richness.