A bibliometric analysis using machine learning to track paradigm shifts and analytical advances in forest ecology and forestry journal publications from 2010 to 2022

Forest habitats are critical for biodiversity,ecosystem services,human livelihoods,and well-being.Capacity to conduct theoretical and applied forest ecology research addressing direct(e.g.,deforestation)and indirect(e.g.,climate change)anthropogenic pressures has benefited considerably from new field-and statistical-techniques.We used machine learning and bibliometric structural topic modelling to identify 20 latent topics comprising four principal fields from a corpus of 16,952 forest ecology/forestry articles published in eight ecology and five forestry journals between 2010 and 2022.Articles published per year increased from 820 in 2010 to 2,354 in 2021,shifting toward more applied topics.Publications from China and some countries in North America and Europe dominated,with relatively fewer articles from some countries in West and Central Africa and West Asia,despite globally important forest resources.Most study sites were in some countries in North America,Central Asia,and South America,and Australia.Articles utilizing R statistical software predominated,increasing from 29.5%in 2010 to 71.4%in 2022.The most frequently used packages included lme4,vegan,nlme,MuMIn,ggplot2,car,MASS,mgcv,multcomp and raster.R was more often used in forest ecology than applied forestry articles.R software offers advantages in script and workflow-sharing compared to other statistical packages.Our findings demonstrate that the disciplines of forest ecology/forestry are expanding both in number and scope,aided by more sophisticated statistical tools,to tackle the challenges of redressing forest habitat loss and the socio-economic impacts of deforestation.

Prosecution records reveal pangolin trading networks in China, 2014–2019

In a precautionary response to the current coronavirus(COVID-19)pandemic,China’s Ministries permanently banned eating and trading in terrestrial wild(non-livestock)animals on 24 February 2020,and extensively updated the list of Fauna under Special State Protection(LFSSP)in 2020 and 2021,in which pangolins(Manidae spp.)were upgraded to the highest protection level.Examining 509 pangolin prosecution records from China Judgements online prior to these changes(01/01/14–31/12/19),we identified that Guangdong,Guangxi and Yunnan Provinces were hotspots for trade in whole pangolins and their scales.

Seismic sentinel? An analysis of captive giant panda behavior in response to the Lushan earthquake in China

It is widely believed that various animal species can sense and respond to the geophysical stimuli that precede earthquakes,especially electromagnetic fields,although supporting field evidence is mostly anecdotal.Here we report on the reactions of four female giant pandas under observation over the three days prior to the Lushan(30.1°N,103.0°E)magnitude 7.0 earthquake that occurred in Sichuan province,China,on April 20,2013.We observed no significant generalized behavioral anomalies indicative of them perceiving an impending earthquake.We also observed no startle behaviors in the 5 s prior to tremors commencing,indicating that these pandas either did not detect or did not respond to precursor P-waves.Our findings suggest that although giant pandas have evolved in,and continue to occupy exclusively,a seismically active range in central China,they do not appear to perceive pre-earthquake geophysical warning signs.

Push and pull factors driving movement in a social mammal: context dependent behavioral plasticity at the landscape scale

Understanding how key parameters(e.g.,density,range-size,and configuration)can affect animal movement remains a major goal of population ecology.This is particularly important for wildlife disease hosts,such as the European badger Meles meles,a reservoir of Mycobacterium bovis.Here we show how movements of 463 individuals among 223 inferred group territories across 755 km2 in Ireland were affected by sex,age,past-movement history,group composition,and group size index from 2009 to 2012.Females exhibited a greater probability of moving into groups with a male-biased composition,but male movements into groups were not associated with group composition.Male badgers were,however,more likely to make visits into territories than females.Animals that had immigrated into a territory previously were more likely to emigrate in the future.Animals exhibiting such"itinerant"movement patterns were more likely to belong to younger age classes.Inter-territorial movement propensity was negatively associated with group size,indicating that larger groups were more stable and less attractive(or permeable)to immigrants.Across the landscape,there was substantial variation in inferred territory-size and movement dynamics,which was related to group size.This represents behavioral plasticity previously only reported at the scale of the species’biogeographical range.Our results highlight how a"one-size-fits-all"explanation of badger movement is likely to fail under varying ecological contexts and scales,with implications for bovine tuberculosis management.

Ecotourist trail-use affects the taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity of mammals in a protected area: lessons for conservation management

Ecotourism,by definition,aims to engage peoples’interest in wildlife and the environment.The use of tourist roads and trails to access sites within protected areas(PAs)can detrimentally affect the behavior and distribution of species.The way mammals respond to anthropogenic pressures may differ across taxonomic,functional,and phy-logenetic groups;nevertheless,how ecotourist trail-use affects these different diversity remains under-investigated.Here,we assessed 6 metrics of taxonomic,phylogenetic,and functional diversity for a mammal community in a PA in central China,recording how Trail use(using Trail type as a proxy)and habitat variables affected sightings and signs of mammals across 60 replicate 0.5 km transects.We then examined how Trail use affected the taxonomic,functional,and phylogenetic diversity indices of species(>1 kg).Using generalized liner mixed modeling,we identified that more used trail types had a greater adverse effect on all diversity richness indices than did less used trail types.Consequently,tourist pressure was associated with a general tendency to homogenize the site’s mammal community.In contrast,the effects of Trail Types on all diversity evenness indices were non-significant.Further-more,more developed and more heavily used trail types had a greater,significant negative effect on taxonomic,functional,and phylogenetic richness,whereas these richness indices were unaffected by minor trail types,used less intensively.As a general principle,lower biodiversity indices reduce ecosystem resilience,and so it is vital to better understand these responses to balance public access against biodiversity management in PAs.

Parallel Algorithms and Software for Nuclear,Energy,and Environmental Applications.Part Ⅱ:Multiphysics Software

This paper is the second part of a two part sequence on multiphysics algorithms and software.The first[1]focused on the algorithms;this part treats the multiphysics software framework and applications based on it.Tight coupling is typically designed into the analysis application at inception,as such an application is strongly tied to a composite nonlinear solver that arrives at the final solution by treating all equations simultaneously.The applicationmust also take care tominimize both time and space error between the physics,particularly if more than one mesh representation is needed in the solution process.This paper presents an application framework that was specifically designed to support tightly coupled multiphysics analysis.The Multiphysics Object Oriented Simulation Environment(MOOSE)is based on the Jacobian-freeNewton-Krylov(JFNK)method combined with physics-based preconditioning to provide the underlying mathematical structure for applications.The report concludes with the presentation of a host of nuclear,energy,and environmental applications that demonstrate the efficacy of the approach and the utility of a well-designed multiphysics framework.

Parallel Algorithms and Software for Nuclear,Energy,and Environmental Applications.Part Ⅰ:Multiphysics Algorithms

There is a growing trend within energy and environmental simulation to consider tightly coupled solutions to multiphysics problems.This can be seen in nuclear reactor analysis where analysts are interested in coupled flow,heat transfer and neutronics,and in nuclear fuel performance simulation where analysts are interested in thermomechanics with contact coupled to species transport and chemistry.In energy and environmental applications,energy extraction involves geomechanics,flow through porous media and fractured formations,adding heat transport for enhanced oil recovery and geothermal applications,and adding reactive transport in the case of applications modeling the underground flow of contaminants.These more ambitious simulations usually motivate some level of parallel computing.Many of the physics coupling efforts to date utilize simple code coupling or first-order operator splitting,often referred to as loose coupling.While these approaches can produce answers,they usually leave questions of accuracy and stability unanswered.Additionally,the different physics often reside on distinct meshes and data are coupled via simple interpolation,again leaving open questions of stability and accuracy.∗Corresponding author.Email addresses:Derek.Gaston@inl.gov(D.Gaston),This paper is the first part of a two part sequence on multiphysics algorithms and software.Part I examines the importance of accurate time and space integration and that the degree of coupling used for the solution should match the requirements of the simulation.It then discusses the preconditioned Jacobian-free Newton Krylov solution algorithm that is used for both multiphysics and multiscale solutions.Part II[1]presents the software framework;the Multiphysics Object Oriented Simulation Environment(MOOSE)and discusses applications based on it.