Treesearch

Sediment budgets describe the input, transport, storage, and export of sediment in a geomorphic system. Such budgets can be used to address questions regarding how changes in catchment conditions affect channels, how long the effects will last, and what the sequence of responses will be. This chapter defines and describes budget components, outlines strategies and procedures for quantifying components, and provides a guide to published descriptions of various aspects of sediment budget construction.

An experiment was conducted to concentrate on the rainfall interception process of individual trees for four common species in Beijing, China, which included needle species (Platycladus orientalis and Pinus tabulaeformis) and broadleaf species (Quercus variabilis and Acer truncatum). Two types of interception storages, the maximum (Cmax) and the minimum interception storage (Cmin), were examined at four simulated rainfall intensities (from 11.7 to 78.5 mm h−1). Results showed that an average of 91% of Cmax for all the species was intercepted during the first 10 minutes of rainfall, while...

Biological control researchers commonly avoid targets with potential for high conflict, but for certain highly damaging invaders with no viable management alternatives, it may be necessary to consider biological control even when it is likely to generate conflict. Discussed here is a case study, strawberry guava (Psidium cattleianum Sabine) in Hawaii, in which conflicting views of the targeted plant engendered substantial opposition to biological control. The processes followed and lessons learned may be useful for others considering biological control as a management option for widespread...

The behavioral ecology of the American pika (Ochotona princeps) was investigated at a relatively hot south-facing, low-elevation site in the Mono Craters, California, a habitat quite different from the upper montane regions more typically inhabited by this species and where most prior investigations have been conducted. Mono Craters pikas exhibited a behavioral profile that contrasted significantly with that of pikas found in upper montane regions. Mono Craters pikas were less surface active than pikas in studies at high-elevation sites, although their rate of short-call vocalizations was...

Development of methods that more accurately estimate spatial distributions of fuel loads in shrublands allows for improved understanding of ecological processes such as wildfire behavior and postburn recovery. The goal of this study is to develop and test remote sensing methods to upscale field estimates of shrubland fuel to broader-scale biomass estimates using ultra-high spatial resolution imagery captured by a lightsport aircraft. The study is conducted on chaparral shrublands located in eastern San Diego County, CA, USA. We measured the fuel load in the field using a regression...

Increased sea level is the climate change effect expected to have the greatest impact on mangrove forest survival. Mangroves have survived extreme fluctuations in sea level in the past through sedimentation and belowground carbon (C) accumulation, yet it is unclear what factors may influence these two parameters. We measured sedimentation, vertical accretion, and belowground C accumulation rates in mangrove forests from the Republic of Palau and Vietnam to examine how diversity (high-Vietnam vs. low-Palau), land use, and location (fringe vs. interior) might influence these parameters. Land...

Finding novel ways to plan and implement landscape-level forest treatments that protect sensitive wildlife and other key ecosystem components, while also reducing the risk of large-scale, high-severity fires, can prove to be difficult. We examined alternative approaches to landscape-scale fuel-treatment design for the same landscape. These approaches included two different treatment scenarios generated from an optimization algorithm that reduces modeled fire spread across the landscape, one with resource-protection constrains and one without the same. We also included a treatment scenario...

California’s montane forests include some of the most productive and diverse temperate ecosystems in the world, containing the largest single stem tree (the 1487 m3 General Sherman giant sequoia [Sequoiadendron giganteum]) (Van Pelt 2001) and highest conifer diversity (30 plus species in the Klamath-Siskiyou mountain range) (Sawyer 2006). Although these forests share some of the attributes of those in the Pacific Northwest (i.e., long-lived large trees, and some common wildlife species)(North et al. 2004) and Southwest (i.e., historical forests dominated by pine and shaped by frequent...

California spotted owls (CSOs) (Strix occidentalis occidentalis) have received significant conservation attention beginning with the U.S. Forest Service interim management guidelines in 1992. The most commonly reported forest habitat feature for successful nesting habitat of CSO is canopy cover > 70%. Loss and degradation of Sierra Nevada CSO habitat, however, has been a growing concern, initially from commercial tree harvesting and, more recently, from wildfire. This study examined trends in wildfire impacts on potential nesting habitat of the CSO and discusses different management...

Until very recently, complete characterization of the megagenomes of conifers has remained elusive. The diploid genome of sugar pine (Pinus lambertiana Dougl.) has a highly repetitive, 31 billion bp genome. It is the largest genome sequenced and assembled to date, and the first from the subgenus Strobus, or white pines, a group that is notable for having the largest genomes among the pines. The genome represents a unique opportunity to investigate genome “obesity” in conifers and white pines. Comparative analysis of P. lambertiana and P. taeda L. reveals new insights on the conservation,...