Treesearch

In this paper, I examine the socioeconomic dynamics and human–environment interactions in the region surrounding the El Yunque National Forest (EYNF) in northeastern Puerto Rico and their implications for policy development and sustainable resource use. As part of a larger, comprehensive assessment of the conditions and trends of the EYNF and broader region, I collected and analyzed demographic, economic, human health and well being, and other social and cultural data. Herein, I discuss the implications of my findings in terms of the management and conservation of the EYNF. I also present...

Urban sustainability discourse promotes the increased use of green infrastructure (GI) because of its contribution of important ecosystem services to city dwellers. Under this vision, all urban green spaces, including those at the household scale, are valued for their potential contributions to a city’s social-ecological functioning and associated benefits for human well-being. Understanding how urban residential green spaces have evolved can help improve sustainable urban planning and design, but it requires examining urban processes occurring at multiple scales. The interaction between...

We studied the response of Prestoea montana (Sierra Palm, hereafter Palm) brakes and a Palm floodplain forest to hurricanes in the Luquillo Experimental Forest in Puerto Rico. Over a span of 78 years, 3 hurricanes passed over the study sites for which we have 64 years of measurements for Palm brakes and 20 years for the Palm floodplain forest. For each stand, species composition, species density, basal area, tree density, rates of tree ingrowth and mortality, and importance value of tree species were assessed. We also estimated stand and Palm population aboveground biomass for the Palm...

This manuscript contains an overview of the 16th meeting of Caribbean Foresters that resulted in the establishment of a network of forest plots throughout the region with the purpose of increasing understanding of the patterns of long-term forest dynamics. Research projects in the network will improve collaboration among those working in Caribbean forests and will facilitate development of conservation plans consistent with the responses of Caribbean forests to hurricanes and other types of disturbances.

Throughout the Caribbean, conservation is ecologically, politically, and socially challenging due to a number of factors including globalization, climate change, loss of biodiversity, and the spread of invasive species. Relationships between organizations and institutions that govern the region’s natural and cultural resources are key to conservation success as partners work to implement plans to meet science, capacity, and information needs. However, the complex challenges involved in conservation work and tenuous relationships among organizations can result in a “knowing–doing gap”....

Governmental and nongovernmental organizations charged with managing natural resources increasingly emphasize the need to work across jurisdictional boundaries. Their challenge is to manage shifting resources under rapidly changing climate and land-use scenarios. Scientists, resource managers, and conservation planners, and their organizations and agencies routinely collaborate on projects to solve specific problems. Cooperative frameworks to programmatically address complex social–environmental issues and develop shared research, planning, and implementation priorities are relatively new....

The Argentinian Mesopotamia is the core of fast-growing tree species plantations of the country. Eucalyptus grandis plantations constitute 90 % of the forested area with Eucalyptus spp. in NE Entre Rios. Based on previous studies on structural and functional features, a comprehensive model is here proposed on emergence of new properties linked to matter and ecosystem processes. Data from different plantations at harvest time were used: biomass, net primary productivity, water flows, nutrient flows, nutrient content in biomass, necromass and soil. Aboveground biomass, productivity and...

To examine short- and long-term changes in hurricane-prone sub-montane rain forests on Dominica in the Lesser Antilles of the eastern Caribbean, we established 17 permanent, 0.25-ha vegetation plots clustered in 3 regions of the island—northeast, northwest, and southwest. We counted all trees ≥10 cm diameter almost 30 years after Hurricane David caused substantial tree mortality, primarily in the southern half of the island. We identified 1 vegetation association (Dacryodes–Sloanea) with 2 variants depending on whether Amanoa caribaea was co-dominant. We found that differences in forest...

The agave snout weevil (AGW) or sisal weevil, Scyphophorus acupunctatus Gyllenhal is here reported for the first time in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) where it threatens Agave eggersiana Trel., a USVI endemic and endangered century-plant. We provide molecular, morphological, and behavioral characters to successfully distinguish the two known Scyphophorus species at all developmental stages. We identified seven new larval characters on the mandibles and characters relating to the chaetotaxy of the labrum and labio-maxillary complex as well as new, putatively informative characters...