Urban forests play a strategic role in mitigating urban heat, enhancing thermal comfort, and improving quality of life in cities. This essay examines the environmental performance of Terreiro Ilê Axé Opô Afonjá, an Afro-Brazilian sacred grove (terreiro), in Salvador da Bahia, Northeastern Brazil, as an example of climate-resilient infrastructure. Using ENVI-met 5.0, we simulated Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) conditions for the terreiro and for a hypothetical urbanized scenario over a 400 × 400 m study area. The results suggest that the vegetated terreiro is associated with lower UTCI values than the simulated built-up context, with modeled differences of up to 1.5 °C. The spatial distribution of UTCI values also suggests that the thermal influence associated with the terreiro’s vegetation extends beyond its vegetated interior into the surrounding urban context. The preservation of green spaces may also sustain additional ecosystem services in Salvador. The role of third-sector religious organizations in stewarding wooded areas that can support urban cooling, climate adaptation and climate justice deserves greater recognition. Although computational tools pose limitations in representing vegetated environments with irregular topography, as is the case in Salvador, the comparative results suggest that terreiro’s tree cover contributes to thermal moderation and supports the case for its conservation.
Tropical forests play a crucial role in biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation, and timber taxa such as Cedrela sp. are of significant ecological and economic importance. However, region-specific information on the anatomical characteristics and physical properties of Cedrela wood remains limited, restricting the availability of technological data to support its sustainable utilization. This study aimed to characterize the wood anatomy and physical properties of Cedrela sp. from the San Martín region, Peru, to provide baseline information for sustainable timber utilization and forest management. Wood samples were collected from ten standing trees using a Pressler increment borer, a non-destructive sampling technique. Macroscopic and microscopic anatomical characteristics were examined, together with physical properties including moisture content, basic density, and volumetric shrinkage. The results revealed consistent qualitative anatomical patterns among the sampled individuals and a significant correlation between fiber diameter and lumen diameter, indicating a close association between these cellular dimensions. The wood exhibited medium basic density and very high volumetric shrinkage, suggesting potential suitability for selected interior wood products while emphasizing the need for appropriate drying and moisture control to reduce dimensional changes and processing defects. Variability among the sampled trees further highlights the importance of considering local wood properties when evaluating potential timber applications. Overall, the findings provide preliminary technological information that may support more efficient utilization of legally harvested timber and contribute to sustainable forest management when integrated with reliable taxonomic identification and ecological information. The results are specific to the sampled Cedrela sp. individuals and should not be generalized to all species within the genus.
Accelerated global warming over recent decades has driven historically unprecedented advances in spring phenology of temperate forest trees. However, this advancing trend is slowing, mainly due to reduced chilling during shorter winters. Here, we ask how phenological shifts will proceed under continued warming and whether budburst success will be affected. Using seedlings of two common temperate tree species, Betula pendula and Fagus sylvatica, we investigated how strong warming by 4.4 °C - as projected by the IPCC under a very high greenhouse gas emissions scenario - from late summer to spring affects autumn and spring leaf phenology and budburst success. For mechanistic understanding, we tracked dormancy progression by assessing both dormancy depth and percent budburst over the entire period. Autumn senescence was delayed by 30 days, spring budburst was not altered, and leaf unfolding advanced by only 6.5 days (1.48 days/ °C). We attribute this small spring advancement to delayed dormancy induction under warm autumn temperatures, resulting in insufficient chilling. We therefore assume that spring phenology advancement will saturate under continued climate warming. Most importantly, the severe chilling deficits reduced the number of flushed buds by 13% in Betula and 17% in Fagus. Reduced budburst success may result in fewer leaves and thus lower carbon uptake, suggesting that elevated autumn temperatures could counteract potential gains in carbon uptake from an earlier spring start. However, we observed high intraspecific variation in chilling requirements and budburst success under warming. We therefore call for further research to identify ecotypes better suited to a warmer world.
Protected-area enclaves are areas geographically surrounded by protected areas (PAs) but outside the jurisdiction of their management authorities, yet their implications for conservation effectiveness remain understudied from a counterfactual perspective. Using estimated net primary productivity (NPP) data from 2014 to 2024, we examined five large enclaves in Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park within a propensity score matching–difference-in-differences (PSM-DID) framework. We constructed counterfactuals by separately matching enclave grid cells with park-interior and park-exterior controls within the same land-cover classes. The results showed that: (1) Relative to matched grid cells in the park interior, enclaves had a 0.024-standard-deviation smaller post-designation increase in NPP (p < 0.001). The unadjusted matched-pair difference in mean NPP change was −9.23 g C m⁻² yr⁻¹. (2) The gap was nonsignificant during 2019–2021 but became significantly negative in 2022 and widened further through 2024. (3) The most negative 10% of matched pairs accounted for 59.1% of the sum of absolute negative change differences, indicating concentration in a minority of pairs. (4) Enclaves showed greater NPP increases than matched grid cells in the park exterior, but divergent pre-policy trends precluded causal interpretation. These findings suggest that spatial enclosure within a PA may not substitute for incorporation into a unified conservation-governance system. Governance discontinuities may limit the enclave NPP gains relative to park-interior areas, underscoring the need for stronger coordination, targeted identification of relative underperformance, and differentiated management.
