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Topic Review
Medicinal Mushroom Therapeutic Use
Medicinal mushrooms have important health benefits and exhibit a broad spectrum of pharmacological activities, including antiallergic, antibacterial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, antioxidative, antiviral, cytotoxic, immunomodulating, antidepressive, antihyperlipidemic, antidiabetic, digestive, hepatoprotective, neuroprotective, nephroprotective, osteoprotective, and hypotensive activities. 
  • 1.4K
  • 02 Feb 2021
Topic Review
EU Timber Regulation
Illegal logging and the associated deforestation have serious consequences for biodiversity, the climate, the economy and society. The EU Timber Regulation (EUTR) prohibits the placing of illegally harvested timber or timber products on the market. The objective of this paper is to analyse the recent evolution of EU imports of these products from the international market, in order to check how the transparency index of the supplying countries’ institutions and tree cover loss have influenced this trajectory. To that end, a panel data model is estimated with 228 observations from 38 exporting countries between 2012 and 2017. The results show that EU timber imports have a direct association with the transparency index and an inverse relationship with tree cover loss; both these relationships are highly significant at the one-percent level. Other significant factors are the performance of the EU construction sector (as a proxy for timber demand) and timber supply. In the short and medium-term, Voluntary Partnership Agreements (VPAs) signed between the EU and non-EU timber-producing countries have a negative influence on the supply to EU member states. This study presents an analysis of EU timber imports after the implementation of the EUTR, providing specific conclusions that can inform policymakers’ efforts to foster sustainable forest management.
  • 1.4K
  • 26 Oct 2020
Topic Review
General Features of Micropropagation
Organogenesis and somatic embryogenesis are the two substitute pathways in plant micropropagation [16]. However, some literature emphasised the shoot proliferation as a separate class of Eucalyptus micropropagation method. To better understand the prospects of in vitro scenarios, in the coming section, we briefly describe the concepts of organogenesis and somatic embryogenesis in Eucalyptus.
  • 1.3K
  • 19 Jul 2021
Topic Review
Castanea mollissima
Chestnut (Castanea spp., Fagaceae family) is an economically important tree in the wood processing industry that occurs in Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas. There are four most important and cultivated chestnut varieties: C. molissima (Chinese chestnut) and C. crenata (Japanese chestnut) are distributed in Asia; C. sativa is distributed in continental Europe (European chestnut); and Castanea dentata is distributed in North America (American chestnut). Chestnuts are a source of nuts and industrial raw materials, including wood, that can be used as firewood, as well as to build timber and barrels for winemaking. Extracts from chestnut shells (e.g., tannins, polyphenols, and polysaccharides), female flower, and spring buds have been applied in the medical, pharmaceutical, and healthcare fields. Discarded chestnut shells, inner shells, burs, and leaves have been re-utilized as biomass and catalyst material. The important economic and environmental roles of chestnut underlie its high value to ecosystems and agroforestry systems.
  • 1.3K
  • 16 Sep 2022
Topic Review
Forest Fire Protection
The entry presents some significant issues related to the fire protection infrastructure in forests. In every forest complex a sufficiently dense network of fire roads is an extremely important element of the fire protection system. The requirements to identify roads as fire roads within the forest communication network and to maintain their condition up to a certain technical standard has been briefly explained.
  • 1.3K
  • 09 Nov 2020
Topic Review
Herbivory Exclosure
Large wild herbivores are important and natural components of forest ecosystems, but through their browsing activities have the potential to influence the structure and composition of forest communities, thus timber production and ecosystem dynamics.
  • 1.3K
  • 25 Jun 2021
Topic Review
Insect Pest and Disease Threats to Forest Plantations
The planted forest area in Vietnam increased from 3.0 to 4.4 million hectares in the period 2010–2020, but the loss of productivity from pests and diseases continues to be a problem. During this period, frequent and systematic plantation forest health surveys were conducted on 12 native and 4 exotic genera of trees as well as bamboo across eight forest geographic regions of Vietnam. Damage caused by insects and pathogens was quantified in the field and laboratory in Hanoi. 
  • 1.2K
  • 23 Nov 2021
Topic Review
Agroforestry and Global Climate Adaptation
Agroforestry plays a defining role in offsetting greenhouse gases, providing sustainable livelihoods, localizing Sustainable Development Goals and achieving biodiversity targets. 
  • 1.2K
  • 08 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Climate Change and Quercus alba Biology
Quercus alba L., also known as white oak, eastern white oak, or American white oak, is a quintessential North American species within the white oak section (Quercus) of the genus Quercus, subgenus Quercus. This species plays a vital role in local and regional economies and as a keystone species in eastern North American forests. As a long-lived woody perennial covering an extensive natural range, Q. alba’s biology is shaped by a myriad of adaptations accumulated throughout its natural history. Populations of Q. alba are crucial repositories of genetic, genomic, and evolutionary insights, capturing the essence of successful historical adaptations and ongoing responses to contemporary environmental challenges in the Anthropocene. This intersection offers an exceptional opportunity to integrate genomic knowledge with the discovery of climate-relevant traits, advancing tree improvement, forest ecology, and forest management strategies. 
  • 1.2K
  • 19 Feb 2024
Topic Review
Bioactive Molecules from Forest Resources
Forest trees are the world’s most important renewable natural resources in terms of their dominance among other biomasses and the diversity of molecules that they produce. Forest tree extractives include terpenes and polyphenols, widely recognized for their biological activity. These molecules are found in forest by-products, such as bark, buds, leaves, and knots, commonly ignored in forestry decisions. The present entry focuses on in vitro experimental bioactivity from the phytochemicals of Myrianthus arboreus, Acer rubrum, and Picea mariana forest resources and by-products with potential for further nutraceutical, cosmeceutical, and pharmaceutical development. 
  • 1.2K
  • 01 Sep 2023
Topic Review
Wood-based pellets in Southeastern US
Effects of pellet production on selected Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs) are evaluated using industry information, available energy consumption data, and published research findings. Challenges associated with identifying relevant SDG goals and targets for this particular bioenergy supply chain and potential deleterious impacts are discussed. We find that production of woody pellets in the SE US and shipments to displace coal for energy in Europe generate positive effects on affordable and clean energy (SDG 7), decent work and economic growth (SDG 8), industry innovation and infrastructure (SDG 9), responsible consumption and production (SDG 12), and life on land (SDG 15). Primary strengths of the pellet supply chain in the SE US are the provisioning of employment in depressed rural areas and the displacement of fossil fuels. Weaknesses are associated with potential impacts on air, water, and biodiversity that arise if the resource base and harvest activities are improperly managed. The SE US pellet supply chain provides an opportunity for transition to low-carbon industries and innovations while incentivizing better resource management.
  • 1.2K
  • 31 Jan 2021
Topic Review
Decision Support Systems in Forestry and Tree-Planting Practices
Using deep neural networks (DNNs), a decision support system (DSS) can be trained to learn from a large dataset of tree data, including information about tree species, climate, soil conditions, and other factors that influence tree growth and survival. This is because the use of neural networks was proposed three decades ago to solve forest management problems by integrating forest knowledge with artificial intelligence (AI). AI greatly benefits sustainability and the preservation of ecosystem values, as increasing disruptions in a changing world can only be managed beyond human intelligence. Furthermore, despite the various DSSs and AI systems used, the appointment of appropriate project managers is crucial to the execution and subsequent success of a project.
  • 1.2K
  • 04 Mar 2024
Topic Review
Biological Deterioration and Natural Durability of Wood
The use of wood has gained social interest, leading to a global increase in its demand. Yet, this demand is often covered by the production of woods of low natural durability against biological deterioration. The main biological agents with the potential to attack the structural integrity of wood are wood-decay fungi, saproxylic beetles, termites, and marine molluscs and crustaceans. In most circumstances, fungi are the main wood-deteriorating agents. To attack the cell wall, wood-decay fungi combine a complex enzymatic mechanism with non-enzymatic mechanisms based on low-molecular-weight compounds. In some cases, the larvae of saproxylic beetles can also digest cell wood components, causing serious deterioration to wooden structures. The impact of subterranean termites in Europe is concentrated in the Southern countries, causing important economic losses. However, alien invasive species of voracious subterranean termites are expanding their presence in Europe. Wooden elements in permanent contact with marine water can be readily deteriorated by mollusc and crustacean borers, for which current preservatives lack efficacy. The natural durability of wood is defined as the inherent resistance of wood to catastrophic action by wood-destroying organisms. Besides exposure to the climate, product design and use conditions, the natural durability of wood is key to the prediction of the service life of wooden products, which can be shortened due to the impact of global change. 
  • 1.2K
  • 06 May 2023
Topic Review
Tracing the Timber Supply Chain
Traceability is the ability to follow the processes that a raw material or product goes through. For forestry, this means identifying the wood from the standing tree to the mill entrance and recording all information about the technical (production) and spatial (transportation) manipulation of the timber by linking it to the ID.
  • 1.2K
  • 11 Sep 2023
Topic Review
Forest-Based Initiatives
Research Highlights: This review gives an overview of existing literature on the emerging topic of human wellbeing-forest contact nexus and provides a preliminary framework linking forests to wellbeing by highlighting key variables a ecting this relationship. Background and Objectives: Existing literature reveals the psychological, physiological and social wellbeing benefits of contact with forest ecosystems; however, the role of forests in this relationship remains largely unexplored. The objectives of this review are twofold: (i) to provide an overview of the contributions of forest experiences to human wellbeing and the related interplay with forest ecosystems and (ii) to identify knowledge gaps to inform future research and systematize information available for forest managers and planners to support the development of e ective forest-based initiatives. Materials and Methods: A scoping review was performed with a five-phase method integrating a systematic approach on Scopus, Web of Science and PubMed databases and snowball search. Studies were analyzed using a descriptive-analytical method. Results: Overall, 93 papers were included in the review. These are mainly from health-related sciences providing limited information for forest managers, planners and practitioners. Four main underlying variables of the forest-wellbeing relationship are identified: interaction, forest features, sensorial dimension of the forest and individual traits and reactions. Conclusions: Forest-based initiatives provide good opportunities for supporting public health and time spent in contact with forests seems to have a “health-bonus”. Whether and to what extent forest management can contribute to this is still poorly investigated. There is the need to better study causal relationships between specific forest features, type of interactions, frequency and “dose” of experiences, individual reactions and needs and wellbeing e ects to maximize benefits from forest-based initiatives.
  • 1.1K
  • 03 Aug 2020
Topic Review
Cork Development
The cork layer present in all dicotyledonous plant species with radial growth is the result of the phellogen activity, a secondary meristem that produces phellem (cork) to the outside and phelloderm inwards. These three different tissues form the periderm, an efficient protective tissue working as a barrier against external factors such as environmental aggressions and pathogen attacks. 
  • 1.1K
  • 25 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Global Forest Types
Forest types are generally identified using vegetation or land-use types. However, vegetation classifications less frequently consider the actual forest attributes within each type. To address this in an objective way across different regions and to link forest attributes with their climate, we aimed to improve the distribution of forest types to be more realistic and useful for biodiversity preservation, forest management, and ecological and forestry research. The forest types were classified using an unsupervised cluster analysis method by combining climate variables with normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) data.
  • 1.1K
  • 12 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Mycorrhiza in Pines
Mycorrhiza is one of the fundamental phenomena of nature, characteristic of land plants from the moment of their formation, representing a form of symbiosis between plants, fungi, and bacteria.
  • 1.1K
  • 22 Feb 2024
Topic Review
BVLOS Unmanned Aircraft Operations in Forest Environments
Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations are attractive within forest environments because they remove the need for any pilot or visual observer to maintain Visual Line of Sight (VLOS) with the aircraft and the surrounding airspace. Technically speaking, even basic prosumer-grade unmanned aircraft are capable of BVLOS flight. However, they lack the technical capabilities to mitigate ground-based and airborne risks to the extent necessary to do this in a compliant manner with aviation regulations. There are also operational considerations around airspace use and organisational procedures, as well as other considerations such as those relating to human factors.
  • 1.1K
  • 15 Jul 2022
Topic Review
Forest Grazing
Daegwallyeong is a mountain pass at an altitude of 832 m, which has been designated a conservation area because of its essential role in Korea’s forest ecosystem. Simultaneously, this area is considered a suitable place for forest grazing due to the cool temperature during the summer.
  • 1.1K
  • 22 Jul 2021
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