Treesearch

Riparian ecosystems are a critical ecological component in the Pacific Northwest. Many have been altered by human activities and need restoration. Establishing restoration objectives is daunting because of inherent spatial and temporal variation of geomorphology, disturbance regimes, and vegetation. We developed an analytical framework using geology and climate as the template for natural disturbance processes influencing riparian vegetation in northwest Oregon. We identified three ecoregions with contrasting geology and climate: Coast Range, with dissected topography and rain-dominated...

Understanding how Mediterranean forests respond to the increasing frequency of extreme droughts and forest densification is crucial for effective land management in the present context of climate change and land abandonment. We study the responses of Iberian holm oak (Quercus ilex L.) woodlands to recent extreme droughts during 2000–2019 along broad gradients of climate aridity and forest structure. To this purpose, we apply large-scale remote-sensing using MODIS EVI as a primary production proxy in 5274 Q. ilex sites distributed within a 100,000 km2 region in eastern Spain. These woodlands...

Road and pipeline infrastructure development for natural gas extraction often results in forest fragmentation, which could negatively influence habitat quality for many amphibian species. We investigated occurrence dynamics of the eastern red-backed salamander Plethodon cinereus in relation to natural gas pipeline rights-of-way (ROWs) and forest structure characteristics in northern Pennsylvania, USA. We sampled 80 sites across two study areas by using coverboards, with each site containing sampling plots at the center of the ROW, the edge of the ROW, and 10 m and 30 m into the adjacent...

Introduction: Forest landscapes offer resources and ecosystem services that are vital to the social, economic, and cultural well-being of human communities, but managing for these provisions can require socially and ecologically relevant trade-offs. We designed a spatial decision support model to reveal trade-offs and synergies between ecosystem services in a large eastern Cascade Mountain landscape in Washington State, USA. Methods: We used process-based forest landscape (LANDIS-II) and hydrology (DHSVM) models to compare outcomes associated with 100 years of simulated forest and wildfire...

The National Climate Assessment is conducted every four years summarizing the impacts of climate change on the US, now and into the future. The fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA5) contains over thirty chapters spanning topics from water, forests and human health to many regionally focused chapters such as the Northwest and Southeast. Over 300 technical experts produce this report. Because good air quality is vital to human health and the environment, Air Quality is one of the chapters and it has five focus sections; changes in ozone and PM2.5, protecting people from wildfire smoke,...

Ranavirosis is a disease of high concern for amphibians due to widespread documentation of its lethal and sublethal impacts and its high transmission potential across populations and species. We investigated whether spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum) ranavirus prevalence and viral load were associated with habitat characteristics, genetic diversity, corticosterone levels, and body size. In 2015 and 2016, we sampled 34 recently created vernal pools in the Monongahela National Forest, West Virginia, USA. We collected tail clippings from 1,128 spotted salamander larvae and waterborne...

During an extreme heat wave event (‘Heat Dome’) in Pacific Northwest (PNW, USA) and British Columbia during late June of 2021, all-time record high air temperatures (Tair) exceeding 40-45 °C were observed. Within days of the event, widespread foliar damage was observed in many locations of this region, along with some reports of tree mortality. Indeed, there is an increasing recognition that heat waves can lead to widespread growth reductions and forest vulnerabilities. As the frequency of coincident heat waves and drought has increased and is expected to continue to increase, understanding...

An increasingly important goal of federal land managers in seasonally dry forests of the western US is restoring forest resilience. In this study, we quantified the degree to which a thinning treatment in a dry forest of eastern Oregon restored aspects of forest resilience by focusing on key functional attributes of our study system. First, we measured several physiological responses of overstory trees that are associated with resilience, including radial growth, resin production, abundance of non-structural carbohydrates (NSC), and leaf area. Second, we investigated understory vegetation...

Freshwaters require targeted policy considerations to achieve biodiversity conservation goals and to support ecosystem services that communities around the globe depend upon. Effective conservation requires creative solutions that build and expand upon conventional protected areas, contextualized for these diverse ecosystems. Global recognition of the need for protection targeting inland waters has lagged behind protections for marine and terrestrial ecosystems, likely contributing to the greatest biodiversity losses occurring among freshwater species1. In December 2022, at the Convention...

Recent stream restoration approaches, such as Stage 0 restoration, aim to restore natural processes to regain lost ecosystem functions, but project implementation can also represent a reach-scale disturbance. Assumed outcomes of these restoration actions, like greater biological productivity, are rarely evaluated. In this study, we examined the short-term effects of Stage 0 floodplain restoration on the secondary production of aquatic macroinvertebrate communities in the South Fork McKenzie River, Oregon, 1–2 years following project implementation. We seasonally sampled macroinvertebrates...