Treesearch

Catchment studies are foundational to hydrological and biogeochemical process understanding that has informed resource management, policy development and societal well-being (Burt and McDonnell 2015; Likens 2021; Tetzlaff et al. 2017). These place-based studies with sustained monitoring have shaped understanding of fundamental ecosystem processes and consequences of environmental change on ecosystems (Campbell et al. 2022; Hewlett, Lull, and Reinhart 1969; Jones et al. 2012; Latron and Lana-Renault 2018; Lovett et al. 2007; McNamara et al. 2018). The special issue, Research and Observatory...

The Central Appalachian region contains several high-elevation endemic woodland salamanders, which are thought to be particularly vulnerable to climate change due to their restricted distributions and low vagility. In West Virginia, there is a strong management focus on protection and recovery of the federally threatened Cheat Mountain salamander Plethodon nettingi. To support this focus, there is a need for improved understanding of the occurrence–habitat relationships and spatially explicit projections of fine-scale contemporary and potential future habitat quality to inform management...

Soil seed banks are the hidden reservoir of forest plant diversity. Seed banking is a reproductive adaptation that allows plants to persist belowground as dormant seeds, where the soil serves as a buffer from aboveground disturbances. They play a key role in the recovery of forests post-disturbance, and it’s the post-disturbance plant recovery that replenishes, or makes seed deposits, in the seed bank. Since certain plant species are favored or disfavored by the type of forest disturbance, seed banks can vary depending on the disturbance affecting aboveground plants, and the abundance and...

Firewood banks are community-driven initiatives that aim to reduce fuel poverty by providing firewood to households facing heating insecurity. As firewood bank expansion continues, there is an emergent urgency to understand their operations, processes, capacities, and challenges. We formally surveyed known firewood bank leaders and evaluated the results through the framework of a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis to better understand the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of firewood banks more broadly. Further understanding of firewood bank...

Valued for timber and wildlife, oaks (Quercus spp.) face many regeneration challenges in the eastern United States. Decades of fire suppression have produced favorable conditions for tree species that grow well in humid climates, such as maples, and less favorable conditions for species that thrive under drier conditions, such as oaks. The Hoosier National Forest in southern Indiana noticed a lack of oak advance regeneration in the 2010s, when long-term research showed that clearcut harvests performed in the 1980s, which were intended to regenerate oak, were now more dominated by red...

Rachel Carson’s warning of a silent spring directed attention to unwanted side effects of pesticide application. Though her work led to policies restricting insecticide use, various insecticides currently in use affect nontarget organisms and may contribute to population declines. The insecticide tebufenozide is used to control defoliating Lepidoptera in oak forests harboring rich insect faunas. Over 3 years, we tested the effect of its aerial application on bird populations with autonomous sound recorders in a large, replicated, full factorial field experiment during a spongy moth...

Asian longhorned beetle (Anoplophora glabripennis Motschulsky), a wood borer (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) native to China, has been unintentionally and repeatedly introduced to North American and European landscapes as a stow-away in the wood packing material commonly used in international trade. Asian longhorned beetle causes extensive damage and mortality in multiple deciduous tree species and in response, countries in both North America and Europe have adopted policies of eradication. Models that integrate patterns of Asian longhorned beetle dispersal with records of infested trees are...

Hybridization between exotic and native species can lead to negative ecological and economic consequences. The invasive winter moth (WM), Operophtera brumata, uses the same sex-attractant pheromone and mates and produces fertile offspring with a native congener the Bruce spanworm (BSW), O. bruceata, and a stable hybrid zone has formed where their ranges overlap in the northeastern United States. However, the fact that the two species have not merged, despite seasonal overlap of flight, suggests that one or more pre- or post-mating barriers to hybridization might therefore exist. Here, we...

As an Evaluation Monitoring project funded under the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Forest Health Monitoring Program, this study had an overarching goal to provide insight into which locales may be at greatest risk of losing their future black cherry component. It proposed an examination of seedling dynamics, including the extent and severity of declining abundance, over 5–20 years at multiple spatial scales. The hypothesis was that seedling abundance declines would be pronounced in the Allegheny region, where black cherry has historically been most dominant, but less...

This study was an Evaluation Monitoring project funded under the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Forest Service, Forest Health Monitoring Program with an overarching goal to yield a better understanding of regeneration dynamics during disturbance-induced canopy reductions and help triage oak forests for regeneration risks. It proposed to examine seedling and sapling dynamics through time at broad spatial scales to examine whether forest health issues in eastern upland oak forests affect oak regeneration and recruitment by addressing two specific questions: (1) Do forest health...