Treesearch

We discuss a recent paper which evaluated the hydrologic changes resulting from a pond-and-plug meadow restoration project in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. In the study, measurements of streamflow into and out of the meadow suggested late-summer baseflow increased as much as five-fold when compared with prerestoration conditions. However, the volume of streamflow attributed to the restored meadow (49,000–96,000 m3 over four months) would require that 2.5–4.8 m of saturated meadow soils drain during summer months. The groundwater data from this meadow record only 0.45 m of...

In this article we respond to a recent paper in which Rosenberg (2019) suggested that red tree voles (Arborimus longicaudus) were just as common as western redbacked voles (Myodes californicus) and implied that federal management agencies should consider dispensing with field surveys of red tree voles in favor of an unspecified adaptive management approach. Our primary purpose in writing this response is not to debate how management agencies should manage red tree voles. Our objective is to demonstrate that Rosenberg’s (2019) attempt to compare the distribution and relative abundance of...

Objectives - Determine whether patients who live in greener and more walkable neighbourhoods live longer, and take fewer opioids, following hip or knee arthroplasty. Design - Retrospective cohort study. Setting - Residential environment following surgery at one of 54 New Zealand hospitals. Participants - All people who received a total hip or knee arthroplasty at a publicly-funded hospital in New Zealand in 2006 and 2007 (7449 hip arthroplasties and 6558 knee arthroplasties). Primary and secondary outcome measure - Time to all-cause mortality and number of postsurgical opioid prescriptions....

Salt marsh habitats support a diverse array of estuarine species but are vulnerable to increased inundation resulting from sea-level rise. In order to characterize relationships between vegetation and elevation and inform assessments of risk to salt marsh communities from projected sea-level rise, we collected vegetation and elevation data at 42 salt marsh sites in Coos Bay Estuary, Oregon. For 1-m2 plots along transects from the bayside edge to the upland, we recorded height and percent cover of all plant species present. We determined plot location and elevation at 1-m intervals with a...

Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is a well-established risk factor for public health. To support both health risk assessment and epidemiological studies, data are needed on spatial and temporal patterns of PM2.5 exposures. This review article surveys publicly available exposure datasets for surface PM2.5 mass concentrations over the contiguous U.S., summarizes their applications and limitations, and provides suggestions on future research needs. The complex landscape of satellite instruments, model capabilities, monitor networks, and data synthesis methods offers opportunities for research...

We quantified the sum of daily mean temperature above 0 °C and modeled incubation duration using water temperature data collected at 12 coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) spawning sites during two incubation periods with cool, snow dominant conditions and three incubation periods with anomalously warm, rain-transitional conditions, a proxy for a future climate scenario. Warmer water temperatures during warm–rain-transitional winters yielded a 58-day reduction in the median duration of egg incubation; however, the magnitude of change at individual sites varied widely and was controlled by...

The South-Central Oregon Adaptation Partnership (SCOAP) was developed to identify climate change issues relevant for resource management on federal lands in south-central Oregon (Deschutes National Forest, Fremont-Winema National Forest, Ochoco National Forest, Crooked River National Grassland, Crater Lake National Park). This science-management partnership assessed the vulnerability of natural resources to climate change and developed adaptation options that minimize negative impacts of climate change and facilitate transition of diverse ecosystems to a warmer climate. The vulnerability...

Longleaf pine (Pinus palustris P. Mill) survival and growth, net nitrogen mineralization, and soil microbial biomass, were evaluated after four growing seasons in a Florida wet flatwoods site following chemical vegetation control during the first year or second year after planting, or during both years. The four herbicide treatments included sulfometuron methyl at 0.26 ai kg ha-1, hexazinone (0.56 ai kg ha-1), sulfometuron (0.26 ai kg ha-1) plus hexazinone (0.56 ai kg ha-1) mix, and imazapyr at 0.21 ai kg ha-1. Imazapyr was the only treatment to significantly improve growth over the...

Identifying the mechanisms by which globally pervasive changes in habitat affect predators is a central, yet challenging, endeavor in applied ecology. Cryptic shifts in trophic interactions are potentially important but widely underappreciated mechanisms shaping predator population response to habitat change. Here, we assessed the extent to which variation in trophic interactions explained differences in predator populations at both local and landscape scales. We integrated stable isotope analyses, GPS tagging, and long-term territory occupancy information to characterize the trophic...

The Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP) has guided the management of 17 federal forests in the US Pacific Northwest for the past 25 years. The existing management plans for these national forests – which were amended by the NWFP – are now being evaluated for revision under the US Forest Service’s 2012 planning rule. To help inform federal land managers, we reviewed the scientific literature published since the inception of the NWFP and report several key findings: (1) conservation of at-risk species within national forests is challenging in the face of threats that are beyond the control of...