Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41951644›Full record

ArticleNature communications2026

The safety margin of small-scale tree cover loss in global fragmented forests.

Jingrui Wang, Chaoqun Zhang, Yixuan Pan, Yongxian Su, Philippe Ciais, Taylor Smith, Jiali Shang, Jane Liu, Jing M Chen, Alessandro Cescatti and 14 more

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Nature communications, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

24 authors.

Jingrui Wang *Guangdong Province Data Center of Terrestrial and Marine Ecosystems Carbon Cycle, School of Atmospheric Sciences, School of Ecology, School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
Chaoqun Zhang *State Key Laboratory of Regional and Urban Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0860-9681
Yixuan PanGuangdong Province Data Center of Terrestrial and Marine Ecosystems Carbon Cycle, School of Atmospheric Sciences, School of Ecology, School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
Yongxian SuState Key Laboratory of Regional and Urban Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. yxsu@rcees.ac.cn.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2114-628X
Philippe CiaisLaboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, IPSL, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Université Paris-Saclay, Gif sur Yvette, France.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8560-4943
Taylor SmithInstitute of Geosciences, Universität Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6763-7204
Jiali ShangOttawa Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Jane LiuDepartment of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7760-2788
Jing M ChenDepartment of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Alessandro CescattiEuropean Commission, Joint Research Centre, Ispra, Italy.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2769-2591
Yongguang ZhangInternational Institute for Earth System Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8286-300X
William F LauranceCentre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science, College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Cairns, QLD, Australia.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4430-9408
Cornelius SenfEarth Observation for Ecosystem Management, School of Life Sciences, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2389-2158
Zhiyan ZuoDepartment of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences/Institute of Atmospheric Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5708-723X
Jinbao LiaoCollege of Ecology and Environment, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, China.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9520-3235
Raffaele LafortezzaDepartment of Soil, Plant and Food Sciences, University of Bari "Aldo Moro", Bari, Italy.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4642-8435
Kai YanState Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, Advanced Interdisciplinary Institute of Satellite Applications, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4262-1772
Peng ZhuDepartment of Geography and Institute for Climate and Carbon Neutrality, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7835-3971
Xiaobin GuanSchool of Resource and Environmental Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China.
Xing LiGuangdong Province Data Center of Terrestrial and Marine Ecosystems Carbon Cycle, School of Atmospheric Sciences, School of Ecology, School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2206-0429
Meimei XueGuangdong Province Data Center of Terrestrial and Marine Ecosystems Carbon Cycle, School of Atmospheric Sciences, School of Ecology, School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
Wenping YuanCollege of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1469-4395
Xiuzhi ChenGuangdong Province Data Center of Terrestrial and Marine Ecosystems Carbon Cycle, School of Atmospheric Sciences, School of Ecology, School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.ORCID http://orcid.org/0009-0003-5688-2997
Weiqi ZhouState Key Laboratory of Regional and Urban Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7323-4906

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Climatic and anthropogenic disturbances have led to intense small-scale tree cover loss in global forests. However, it remains unclear when forest attributes at a large scale (e.g., 0.05° resolution) will decline in response to such sub-grid (e.g., 30-m) tree cover losses within forest ecosystems. Utilizing global maps of forest attribute proxies, we discover that vegetation greenness, canopy structure, composition, and photosynthesis function can all increase under limited tree cover loss, indicating a widely existing safety margin in global forests that is primarily buffered by a positive edge effect of landscape fragmentation within forest ecosystems. The safety margin varies across biomes (tropical: 7.7%; temperate: 3.7%; boreal: 1.0%) and is often positively correlated with ecosystem resistance. In addition, about 35.7% of the remaining global forests have exceeded the safety margin. Our finding contrasts with the conventional perception that sub-grid tree cover losses are inevitably associated with declines in forest attributes and functions. It provides quantitative information for mitigating forest degradation and has strong implications for sustainable forest management practices.

Indexed as

Conservation of Natural ResourcesForestsTreesEcosystemPhotosynthesis

Identifiers

PMID41951644
PMCPMC13237198

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.