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Fig. 4 | Forest Ecosystems

Fig. 4

From: The functional complex network approach to foster forest resilience to global changes

Fig. 4

Schematic representation of the analysis of a fictive forested landscape before (a) and after (b) targeted silvicultural interventions. Three attributes related to the resilience of the territory are represented: the functional diversity (related to the average size of the dots), connectivity (related to the total number and the average thickness of the links between dots), and centrality (related to the average number of links per dot). By prioritizing stands in which interventions will have the greatest impact at the scale of the territory (shown with an asterisk) or by adding a new stand with tree species with key functional traits (red stand), it is possible to switch from a landscape with a low resilience (a) to one with a higher resilience (b). Thus, by promoting tree species, through forest cutting or planting, with important and/or key missing functional traits in the most central stands (blue dots), one can increase the functional diversity, connectivity, and centrality of the landscape. This figure illustrates the situation at time 0 (before the possible dispersion of functional traits (by seeds) to adjacent stands) so the values of the different functional and spatial network attributes may change and improve over time across the whole territory (modified from Messier et al. 2018). Functional and spatial network indices for the two landscape scenarios: a Landscape with a low overall resilience and with low functional diversity (e.g., average value of 0.17), average connectivity (19 relatively weak links) and a low centrality (2.35 links per dot). b Territory with a good overall resilience with a good functional diversity (e.g., value of 2.3), good connectivity (26 links with many of them being strong) and a high centrality (2.94 links per dot)

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