Treesearch

White-nose syndrome (WNS) is a disease caused by the fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans which has resulted in the deaths of millions of bats across eastern North America. To date, hibernacula counts have been the predominant means of tracking the spread and impact of this disease on bat populations. However, an understanding of the impacts of WNS on demographic parameters outside the winter season is critical to conservation and recovery of bat populations impacted by this disease. We used long-term monitoring data to examine WNS-related impacts to summer populations in West Virginia,...

Documenting the sex of individuals encountered during wildlife research and monitoring activities is important for understanding and tracking changes in populations. However, sexing salamanders can be particularly difficult because secondary sex characters are often subtle or only visible during the breeding season, and guidance on species-specific sex determination is lacking from most field guides. The purpose of this guide is to provide a reference to assist biologists in the Central Appalachian region with identifying sex of live adult salamanders. In the main text we provide summary...

Traditional site index curves are frequently produced for shade-intolerant species but are scarce for shade-tolerant species. Red spruce (Picea rubens Sarg.) can be found in three distinct geographic regions (northern, central, and southern) within the Appalachian Mountains. The one commonly used set of red spruce site index curves is over ninety years old. A definite need exists for a modern, regionally applicable set of site index curves. This research sampled 83 plots randomly located in the central Appalachians of West Virginia. Three sets of anamorphic site index curves were created...

Understanding the socioeconomic drivers of biological invasion informs policy development for curtailing future invasions. While early 20th-century plant trade expansions preceded increased establishments of plant pests in Northern America, increased establishments did not follow accelerating imports later that century. To explore this puzzle, we estimate the historical establishment of plant-feeding Hemiptera in Northern America as a function of historical U.S. imports of live plants from seven world regions. Delays between establishment and discovery are modeled using a previously unused...

U.S. wood products industry members constantly strive to determine how to best promote and position their industry and products. Studies show that many in the public know little about the industry or the variety of wood products produced and hold a generally negative perception of the industry. In addition to combatting public perception and unfamiliarity, the industry also faces a labor problem. As older employees retire, enticing younger generations to work in a field that they know little about or are not interested in makes it challenging to fill empty positions with skilled employees.

Background: The walnut family (Juglandaceae) contains commercially important woody trees commonly called walnut, wingnut, pecan and hickory. Phylogenetic relationships and diversification within the Juglandaceae are classic and hot scientific topics that have been elucidated by recent fossil, morphological, molecular, and (paleo) environmental data. Further resolution of relationships among and within genera is still needed and can be achieved by analysis of the variation of chloroplast, mtDNA, and nuclear genomes. Results: We reconstructed the backbone phylogenetic relationships of...

Peatlands store one-third of Earth's soil carbon, the stability of which is uncertain due to climate change-driven shifts in hydrology and vegetation, and consequent impacts on microbial communities that mediate decomposition. Peatland carbon cycling varies over steep physicochemical gradients characterizing vertical peat profiles. However, it is unclear how drought-mediated changes in plant functional groups (PFGs) and water table (WT) levels affect microbial communities at different depths. We combined a multiyear mesocosm experiment with community sequencing across a 70-cm depth...

Reductions in acidic deposition rates through legislative actions in North America and Europe have stemmed further environmental degradation and shifted the focus to potential recovery. In the early 2000s, it had become clear that recovery of surface waters was being slowed by the long-term effects of acidic deposition on soils, which were only then becoming well documented. As a result, recovery of soils from acidic deposition has drawn considerable attention with respect to both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, particularly in the most recent decade. Recovery of surface waters is...

Dissolved organic matter (DOM) can serve as an indicator of watershed carbon cycling, and links terrestrial to aquatic ecosystems. The extent DOM is microbially processed before it enters aquatic ecosystems is expected to change with soil depth and landscape position, and as some research suggests, in response to recovery from chronic acidification. Here we examined DOM within freely flowing soil pore water and stream water collected from reference and calcium silicate-treated watersheds at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, New Hampshire, USA. Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and...

Reductions in exchangeable calcium and magnesium and increase in exchangeable aluminum concentrations have been shown in soils impacted by acid deposition, including at four sites on the Allegheny Plateau, PA, USA, sampled in 1967 and 1997 during a period of peak deposition. We repeated sampling at these sites in 2017 to evaluate changes in soils during the more recent period when there has been a strong decline in acid deposition. The uppermost horizons, including the Oa and A horizons where humified organic matter transitions to mineral soil, were thicker, had higher concentrations of...