This paper summarizes the tree composition and structure of six sacred forests, located in northwestern Greece. These forests are recognized as important components of the cultural landscape and local traditional knowledge. However, they are gradually fading because of rural depopulation. To understand the effect of management on the forests' vegetation composition, we classified tree species across forests. Our results show the key role of former management in shaping the forests' structure.

In this study, we studied the effect of forest coppicing on birds inhabiting three different Mediterranean forest habitats. We observed a significant increase in diversity along the age gradient with implications for forest management.

Lophodermium needle cast is a common disease in the genus Pinus. Our analyses relating needle cast to climate in central Siberia showed that the disease depended most on precipitation and summer temperatures were important to trigger the disease in wetter years. In a warming climate needle cast outbreaks would have damaged the largest forest areas by 2020. In 2080 the outbreak progression would slow down because the Scots pine (the host tree) shift would be halted by the slow permafrost retreat.

Trees modify the physico-chemical and biological properties of the soil underneath. Here we present results for seven tree species planted at a site that was contaminated by a mine spill, after which soil was cleaned-up and remediated, and later was afforested. Although the observed tree effects on topsoil chemistry were weak, the footprint is expected to be reinforced with age of the plantation, contributing to the phytostabilization of contaminating elements and to the carbon sequestration.