Treesearch

Background Understanding the role of fire in forested landscapes is fundamental to fire reintroduction efforts, yet few studies have examined how fire dynamics vary in response to interactions between local conditions, such as soil productivity, and more broadscale changes in climate. In this study, we examined historical fire frequency, seasonality, and spatial patterning in mixed conifer forests across a distinct gradient of soil productivity in the northern Sierra Nevada. We cross-dated 46 different wood samples containing 377 fire scars from 6 paired sites, located on and off of...

During the Holocene, singleleaf pinyon pine (Pinus monophylla) spread across the mid-elevations of the central Great Basin to define the so-called pinyon curtain that marks the current northerly limit of pinyon woodlands. At the same time, Indigenous communities also dispersed across these landscapes, leaving behind their Paleoindian roots along the low-lying pluvial lake margins to populate the adjacent uplands. Here, we explore ecological and archaeological perspectives and offer new hypotheses on the co-arrivals of people and pinyon throughout the central Great Basin. We test several...

The Yurok Tribe, along with other tribal communities in northwest California, non-profit organizations, universities, and governmental agencies are working to restore forests and woodlands to be more resilient to wildfires, drought, pests and diseases. Our current work within ancestral Yurok territory is designing and evaluating effects of forest treatments including fuels reduction, tree harvesting, and intentional burning based upon indigenous knowledge and associated traditional stewardship practices. Central to these evaluations are the potential availability, quantity, and quality of...

As a journal dedicated to the conservation of California native plants, Artemisia fits the niche of being part science, and part philosophy of appreciation for native California flora and landscapes. In the midst of global recognition of the role Indigenous Peoples play in conserving and stewarding biodiversity, the California Native Plant Society engaged Native American practitioners, researchers, and allies to contribute perspectives on native plants and climate change. As the authors collectively reflect on their contributions, the stories that emerge do in fact illustrate the challenges...

This article shares Karuk cultural practitioner and academic researcher observations of heat and water stress on culturally significant species in the middle Klamath River Basin, as well as co-developed botanical monitoring and education approaches to support adaption and resilience of forests, plants and people to climate change. In doing so, we bring attention to the dire circumstances posed by the “new normal” of environmental change, as a climate crisis as well as the adaptive capacity of Indigenous plant gathering and stewardship to the growing climate crisis. Over three years, the...

The grassland biome is an important sink for atmospheric methane (CH4), a major greenhouse gas. There is considerable uncertainty in the grassland CH4sink capacity due to diverse environmental gradients in which grasslands occur, and many environmental conditions can affect abiotic (e.g., CH4diffusivity into soils) and biotic (e.g., methanotrophy) factors that determine spatial and temporal CH4dynamics. We investigated the relative importance of a soil's gas diffusivity versus net methanotroph activity in 22 field plots in seven sites distributed across the US Great Plains by making...

Litterfall production and decay, root biomass, and sediment accretion dynamics were investigated from restored ‘planted’ (R5, R8, R15, and R30 stands) and recolonized stands (C5, C12, and C20 stands) to investigate patterns in primary productivity, belowground biomass, and sediment accretion dynamics. Litterfall data was collected using litter traps over 12 months, while decay kinetics was investigated using a litterbag experiment. Root biomass and sediment accretion data were collected using makeshift acrylic corers. Litterfall production increased as stands aged, and tended to stabilize...

With the onset of rapid climate change and the legacy of past forest management and fire suppression policies, the capacity for forested landscapes to maintain core functionality and processes is being challenged. As such, managers are tasked with increasing the pace and scale of management to mitigate negative impacts of future large disturbances and improve resilience and climate adaptation of large landscapes. Such efforts require consensus building, with partners and stakeholders to determine where to allocate scarce resources. We present a methodology to identify strategic (where to...

The COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced the importance of recreation as people flocked outdoors for socially distant activities. However, gaps remain in our understanding of how pandemics impact recreation and the unequal distribution of impacts across communities. Our study used cell phone data from Safegraph to explore census block level changes to local park visitation in California, USA, during the first 27 weeks of the pandemic. We utilized Latent Class Analysis to examine visitation based on sociodemographic groupings of race/ethnicity, income, and age. We found that African American...

Bark beetles (Coleoptera: Curculionidae, Scolytinae) cause extensive tree mortality in conifer forests in the western United States. One method to protect conifers from bark beetles involves applications of liquid formulations of insecticides to the tree bole using high-pressure (e.g., ≥2,241 kPa) ground-based sprayers. Several active ingredients and products are effective when properly applied in accordance with the label. Researchers recently have developed more portable methods that inject small quantities of systemic insecticides directly into trees. The purpose of this review is to...