Treesearch

Bark beetles are keystone species that can alter the structure and function of forested ecosystems, yet the mechanisms underlying host selection and successful colonization remain poorly understood for most species. Comparison of closely related tree species that vary in their susceptibility to bark beetles could provide insights into such mechanisms. Here, we compare physical and chemical characteristics of blue (Picea pungensEngelm.) and Engelmann (Picea engelmanniiParry ex Engelm.) spruce, species rarely (blue) and frequently (Engelmann) selected and colonized by the spruce beetle...

Forest stands can be considered as dynamic carbon pools throughout their developmental stages. Silvicultural thinning and initial planting densities for reforestation not only manipulate the structure or composition of vegetation, but also disturb forest floor and soils, which, in turn, influences the dynamics of carbon pools. Understanding these carbon pools both spatially and temporally can provide useful information for land managers to achieve their management goals. Here, we estimated five major carbon pools in experimental ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) plots that were planted to...

A major challenge in landscape modeling is to effectively visualize and analyze a massive amount of simulation outputs, which usually are in various raster and vector geospatial data formats. Because the task is often time-consuming and costly, available handy data viewers are limited. Yet, it is a useful tool for land managers to prepare and deploy their management plan in a landscape scale. Here, we upgraded our previous LANDISVIEW (version 1.0) to significantly enhance both visualizing and analyzing four major raster and vector geospatial data formats: ERDAS GIS/ASCII Raster (gis/.asc),...

Moso bamboo is widespread in natural forests and is cultivated over large areas in China. This study investigated how climate controls its distribution, about which little is known. We collected moso bamboo presence-absence data from 674 sites with long-term climate data in Mainland China. Generalized additive models that included location and climate variables were used to test the effects of these predictors on the species’ occurrence. We identified the best model as the one with the lowest Akaike’s Information Criterion value that contained only statistically significant predictors. We...

Estimating baseline carbon stocks is a key step in designing forest carbon programs. While field inventories are resource-demanding, advances in predictive modeling are now providing globally coterminous datasets of carbon stocks at high spatial resolutions that may meet this data need. However, it remains unknown how well baseline carbon stock estimates derived from model data compare against conventional estimation approaches such as field inventories. Furthermore, it is unclear whether site-level management actions can be designed using predictive model data in place of field measurement...

Recent outbreaks of engraver beetles,Ipsspp. De Geer (Coleoptera: Curculionidae; Scolytinae), in ponderosa pine, Pinus ponderosa var. scopulorumEngelm. (Pinales: Pinaceae), forests of northern Arizona have resulted in widespread tree mortality. Current treatment options, such as spraying individualP. ponderosawith insecticides or deep watering ofP. ponderosain urban and periurban settings, are limited in applicability and scale. Thinning stands to increase tree vigor is also recommended, but appropriate timing is crucial. Antiaggregation pheromones, widely used to protect high-value trees...

Mean annual temperature (MAT) is an influential climate factor affecting the bioavailability of growth‐limiting nutrients nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P). In tropical montane wet forests, warmer MAT drives higher N bioavailability, while patterns of P availability are inconsistent across MAT. Two important nutrient acquisition strategies, fine root proliferation into bulk soil and root association with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, are dependent on C availability to the plant via primary production. The case study presented here tests whether variation in bulk soil N bioavailability across...

Understanding how tropical tree phenology (i.e., the timing and amount of seed and leaf production) responds to climate is vital for predicting how climate change may alter ecological functioning of tropical forests. We examined the effects of temperature, rainfall, and photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) on seed phenology of four dominant species and community‐level leaf phenology in a montane wet forest on the island of Hawaiʻi using monthly data collected over ~ 6 years. We expected that species phenologies would be better explained by variation in temperature and PAR than...

Seasonal changes in the magnitude and duration of streamflow can have important implications for aquatic species, drinking water supplies, and water quality. In many regions, including the Pacific Northwest (U.S. and Canada), seasonal low flow is declining, primarily due to a changing climate, but is also influenced by urbanization, agriculture, and forestry. We review the responses of seasonal low flow, catchment storage, and tree-water relations to forest harvest over long timescales and discuss the potential implications of these responses for current forest practices and aquatic biota....

This special issue of the Canadian Journal of Forest Researchhighlights research presented at the 12th North American Forest Ecology Workshop (NAFEW), which took place in Flagstaff, Arizona, USA, in June 2019. NAFEW is a biennial workshop series designed with the explicit mission “to bring researchers, academicians, and managers together to foster dialogue and discussion of current issues related to basic and applied research in forested ecosystems in North America”. NAFEW 2019 was a truly continental conference. Over 300 attendees from Canada, Mexico, and the United States gathered to...