Treesearch

Wood-decay fungi soften wood, putatively providing opportunities for woodpeckers to excavate an otherwise hard substrate, yet the fungal community composition in tree cavities and the specificity of these relationships is largely unknown. We used high-throughput amplicon sequencing of the fungal ITS2 region to examine the fungal communities associated with acorn woodpeckers (Melanerpes formicivorus) and their cavities in mature valley oak (Quercus lobata) and blue oak (Q. douglasii) trees in an oak savannah of central coastal California, USA. Acorn woodpeckers and their excavations...

Wetlands around the globe are being impacted by changing temperature and precipitation patterns. Simultaneously black ash forested wetlands are expected to lose much of their overstory canopy due to the invasive Emerald Ash Borer (EAB). Field experiments and modeling efforts have provided information on species tolerance of post-EAB conditions and future climate adapted species. No studies have yet examined the interaction of the loss of ash and future climate scenarios on wetland hydrologic conditions. We developed daily wetland hydrology models for three vegetation conditions: black ash...

In 1990, the major destinations for hardwood logs exported by the United Sates were Europe, Canada, and three East Asian markets: Japan, Taiwan, and Korea. From 1990 to 2005, the volume of hardwood logs exported to Canada increased by 402 percent. During this period, another East Asian log market developed, consisting of China, Hong Kong, and Vietnam (CHV). While increased Canadian exports were an apparent result of increased U.S. bilateral trade with Canada, the development of the CHV market was associated with increased U.S. furniture imports from that region. The volume of U.S. log...

In light of concerns about the future of northern white-cedar, it is important to fully understand its current distribution and abundance, evaluate its ecological and social importance, and develop a strategy for conservation and sustainable use. In the previous chapter, we discussed the range of northern white-cedar and how that has changed and will continue to change over time. But knowing the extent of northern white-cedar's range and whether it is expanding or contracting isn’t enough to understand what is happening to the species. We must also know why these changes are occurring, and...

Lymantria dispar L. is a serious invasive defoliator of broadleaf trees in both North America and Eurasia. When rearing L. dispar for research, the artificial diet must have a source of iron that is bioavailable and in the quantity needed to ensure normal development and survival. The standard iron supplement in L. dispar diet, amorphous ferric phosphate, is no longer commercially available, which motivated studies on alternative iron sources and concentrations. The responses of three L. dispar populations (including an L. dispar asiatica Vnukovskij population) to seven different iron...

Thinning and prescribed fire are often used to promote oak recruitment into the canopy; however, little is known about the longevity of resprouting oak seedlings and how age affects growth response to these treatments. We investigated this by excavating 180 chinkapin oak seedlings (Quercus muehlenbergii) from an eastern Kansas upland hardwood forest study area divided into different combinations of burning and thinning treatments: control, burn only, burn and thin to 7 m2/ha, burn and thin to 14 m2/ha, thin to 7 m2/ha, and thin to 14 m2/ha. In each treatment, approximately three years...

A system of nonlinear biomass component equations was developed for slash pine (Pinus elliottii Engelm. var. elliottii) trees using an econometric approach in which endogenous right-hand-side variables were included in some equations. The system was fitted to component biomass data from 306 slash pine trees sampled in the southeastern United States with weighted two-stage (2SLS) and three-stage (3SLS) least squares and full information maximum-likelihood (FIML) estimation methods. The predictive performances of the system fitted with these three estimation methods were ranked based on an...

The impacts of urbanization on bird biodiversity depend on human–environment interactions that drive land management. Although a commonly studied group, less attention has been given to public perceptions of birds close to home, which can capture people's direct, everyday experiences with urban biodiversity. Here, we used ecological and social survey data collected in the metropolitan region of Phoenix, Arizona, USA, to determine how species traits are related to people's perceptions of local bird communities. We used a trait-based approach to classify birds by attributes that may influence...

Urban forests are important components of societal interactions with nature. We focused on urban forest patches, a distinct and underexplored subset of the urban forest that spans land uses and ownerships, and requires silvicultural practices to address their unique biophysical characteristics and management regimes. Our goal was to elucidate multi-scalar urban forest patch governance arrangements as they translated to on-the-ground management in four urban areas (Chicago, New York City, Philadelphia, and Baltimore) within the eastern United States. A transdisciplinary knowledge co-producti...

The World Health Organization denotes March 11, 2020, as the official start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Though millions of people worldwide had already been living under severe restrictions by that point, this date marked the start of a global lockdown period that was often described as "unprecedented." This period was marked by pain—the loss of life and suffering of millions, but also fear—of unabated transmission, stressed healthcare systems, and strained and scarce resources. Further, the pandemic intersected with pre-existing vulnerabilities and axes of inequality, including by race,...