Skip to content
Ecological Intelligence

Ecological evidence.
Independent perspective.
Explore Wild Lands ↗

Ecological Intelligence / Subject

productivity

Peer-reviewed North America

Ocean acidification may be shifting silicon availability beneath a Pacific food web

Evidence
Peer-reviewed
Geography
Tatoosh Island, Washington, Makah Tribal Nation waters
System
Coastal upwelling / diatoms / dissolved silicon

WHAT THE EVIDENCE SAYS

Two decades of coastal chemistry and plankton measurements showed strong declines in pH, soluble silicon relative to nitrogen and chlorophyll. Models controlling for river flow, upwelling indices and salinity remained consistent with silica-recycling losses associated with acidification.

WHY IT MATTERS / OUR READ

Acidification can potentially affect food webs through nutrient availability, not only the calcification of shells and coral skeletons. Testing the suspected silicon pathway elsewhere could reveal an overlooked productivity constraint.

CAVEATS / UNCERTAINTY

A single well-observed site with statistical models cannot prove pH directly caused the chlorophyll trend, nor establish comparable rates in all oceans.

SOURCE

Nature Communications — Wootton et al. (2026)
View original evidence ↗

Long-term Tatoosh Island observations link falling pH, dissolved silicon and chlorophyll.

Read the Wild Lands assessment →
Peer-reviewed

Heavy thinning increased short-term growth while shrinking one dimension of functional diversity

Evidence
Peer-reviewed
Geography
Zhejiang Province, China
System
Subtropical secondary evergreen broad-leaved forest

WHAT THE EVIDENCE SAYS

Thirty plots were assigned to control, light thinning (10–15% basal-area removal) or heavy thinning (20–25%), with ten replicates each. After three years, heavy thinning increased species diversity, functional evenness and divergence and raised total-biomass relative growth rate by 66.7% versus controls, while functional richness fell 61.9%. The diversity–productivity relationship also shifted from negative under control/light treatments to positive under heavy thinning.

WHY IT MATTERS / OUR READ

For managers, ‘more diversity’ and ‘more growth’ are not single outcomes. Thinning intensity can move species diversity, trait-space occupancy, structure and productivity in different directions, so the prescription should follow the objective and be evaluated with more than basal-area growth alone.

CAVEATS / UNCERTAINTY

These are three-year responses in one regional forest type and may represent transient post-thinning dynamics rather than a stable endpoint. Higher short-term biomass growth does not establish long-term resilience or biodiversity benefit, and the loss of functional richness is a material tradeoff rather than noise.

SOURCE

BMC Plant Biology
View original evidence ↗

Three years after treatment in a Zhejiang secondary forest, heavy thinning raised species diversity and biomass growth but reduced functional richness—so the management response depends on which objective is being measured.

Read the Wild Lands assessment →
Peer-reviewed Global

Forests can become more productive while becoming less resilient

Evidence
Peer-reviewed
Geography
Global forests
System
Boreal, temperate and tropical forests

WHAT THE EVIDENCE SAYS

A 2001–2021 global remote-sensing analysis found that more than one-third of forests simultaneously gained gross primary productivity while losing resilience. Rising vapour pressure deficit was the strongest driver of resilience loss, and non-intact forests were about twice as sensitive to resilience decline as intact forests.

WHY IT MATTERS / OUR READ

Carbon uptake and productivity are not reliable stand-alone proxies for forest stability. A forest can look productive in near-term flux metrics while becoming more vulnerable to drought, heat or disturbance; structural simplification appears to amplify that vulnerability.

CAVEATS / UNCERTAINTY

Resilience is inferred from remote-sensing time-series behavior rather than measured as direct mortality risk. Relationships differ among forest types, and productivity–water-use coupling can reflect stomatal constraint rather than improved physiological performance.

SOURCE

Communications Earth & Environment · Original evidence
View original evidence ↗

Global remote sensing shows rising atmospheric aridity can increase or maintain productivity even as resilience erodes, especially in structurally simplified forests.

Read the Wild Lands assessment →

Keep exploring

Follow the systems. Find the connections.

WildlifeLandWaterOceansClimateCitiesOne HealthGovernanceMethods / Monitoring
Browse the archive →