Temperate deciduous forests are located within the most populous regions in the northern hemisphere, such as China, Europe, and North America. This forest biome is important regionally as well as globally for providing ecosystem services to a large proportion of the global population. However, due to pressures from anthropogenic activities, a large proportion of temperate deciduous forests are relatively small patches. In the United States, 92% of these forests are less than 50 ha of contiguous forest. These small forests comprise most of the habitat available for forest-dwelling species in our densely populated states within the “megalopolis” of the coastal eastern US. The smallest forests are the most often seen, the most often used, and provide green space where it is most needed in densely populated areas. Temperate deciduous forests experience multitude environmental factors that vary temporally, from legacies of land-use history to current anthropogenic factors, and vary spatially across gradients of altered biogeochemical cycles and climates. Small forests are susceptible to adjacent and regional anthropogenic activities that can further alter species introductions and assemblages. The underlying mechanisms of anthropogenic impacts driving forest ecosystem response to multiple environmental changes are relatively disparate in small patches across the temperate deciduous forest biome. Small forests embedded across developed landscapes are ideal for studying combined anthropogenic impacts on forests, yet requires a synthetic effort across disciplines. Bridging research collaborations across fields is necessary for a whole systems approach to the study of temperate deciduous forests. We bring together a multidisciplinary group of researchers that focus on various aspects of anthropogenic influences on small temperate deciduous forests. The presentations in this session present new research on a wide range of anthropogenic influences, such as increased carbon dioxide concentrations, altered climate, and invasive species spread that influence forest responses from biogeochemical cycling to vertebrate dynamics. We conclude the session with presentations that characterize implications for restoration efforts and that synthesize the need for bridging research efforts across disciplines in these dynamic landscapes to fully understand ecosystem structure and function of this vital forest biome.