Treesearch

Updated version available at: https://www.fs.usda.gov/treesearch/pubs/57258

Updated version available at: https://www.fs.usda.gov/treesearch/pubs/58203

Across the 2 million km2 of the Cerrado ecosystem in central Brazil, open burnings of vegetation are a common and frequent disturbance. Their origins predominantly are human today, but evidence of frequent burnings extends millennia into records from lacustrine sediments (Ferraz-Vicentini 1999). Burning is a visible source of extensive particulate air pollution and likely an important source of carbon emissions to the atmosphere that may contribute to global climate change (Krug et al. 2006, Riggan et al. in preparation). The season and frequency of burning may have important ecological...

This study uses symbolic interactionism as a basis for understanding the salience and fundamental meanings of wildland fire to wildland–urban interface (WUI) residents. It contributes to an understanding of how WUI residents actually view wildland fire, its role in forest ecosystems, and its attendant risks for human settlements. Three focus groups were conducted with residents of the wildland–urban interface near Spokane, Washington. Results indicate a high level of salience of wildland fire to participants' daily lives and significant concern about the risk of fire events. It also...

Santa Ana winds (SAW) are synoptically driven mesoscale winds observed in Southern California usually during late fall and winter. Because of the complex topography of the region, SAW episodes can sometimes be extremely intense and pose significant environmental hazards, especially during wildfire incidents. A simple set of criteria was used to identify synoptic-scale conditions associated with SAW events in the NCEP–Department of Energy (DOE) reanalysis. SAW events start in late summer and early fall, peak in December–January, and decrease by early spring. The typical duration of SAW...

Fisheries managers commonly consider the addition of salmon carcasses when seeking to enhance salmonid populations. However, the range of environmental conditions under which the technique is effective remains poorly defined. We addressed this issue by measuring the effects of wintertime addition of salmon carcasses on the biomass, growth, and retention of juvenile salmonids in an experiment that included two study reaches within each of six northwestern California streams. In the first 2 years of the study, half of the streams received carcasses in both study reaches; in the subsequent 2...

Historically, in Spain and most European countries, forest fire budgets have never been subjected to an objective and rigorous economic analysis indicative of the returns on investments in fire management protection programs. Thus far we have witnessed expansive growth of costs without any investment planning. New economic realities and more focussed oversight by regulating organisations are forcing agencies with fire protection responsibilities to formally justify their fire protection budget requests. The fire economics evaluation system described here (SINAMI) is the first attempt by...

Over the past 20 years, the focus of forest science on air pollution has moved from forest decline to a holistic framework of forest health, and from the effects on forest production to the ecosystem services provided by forest ecosystems. Hence, future research should focus on the interacting factorial impacts and resulting antagonistic and synergistic responses of forest trees and ecosystems. The synergistic effects of air pollution and climatic changes, in particular elevated ozone, altered nitrogen, carbon and water availability, must be key issues for research. Present evidence...