Forest physical structure (e.g., stem density, canopy complexity, etc.) and biological structure (e.g., age distribution, species diversity, etc.) are well established drivers of a variety of forest ecosystem functions. While the functional importance of forest structure has been long recognized, ecologists now have the ability to quickly and accurately quantify forest structure in unprecedented detail. This availability of forest structure data across a wide range of spatial and temporal scales is yielding new insights into its ecological importance but has yet to be robustly incorporated into ecosystem models. This gap may be a large source of unconstrained error when such models attempt to predict ecosystem functions such as response to disturbances and successional dynamics. A growing body of literature from many ecological subdisciplines indicates that the recent availability of tools to quantify forest structure have opened many new avenues of research seeking to characterize the influence physical structure exerts on ecosystem functions. This works supports an emerging consensus that accounting for this in ecosystem models is essential.
Results/Conclusions
With support from NSF (Award #1924942), we convened a workshop in May 2020 to advance understanding of the ecological role of forest structural diversity. We will present outcomes from this workshop, including a working definition of “forest structural diversity,” and priority research questions and knowledge gaps about structural diversity and its relationship to forest ecosystem functions.