Treesearch

Pyrolysis is a combustion process of woody biomass conducted under low or no oxygen conditions. It converts any kind of biomass into biochar, bio-oil, or biogas. Hence plants’ woody material can also be converted into bioenergy products. Valorization of woody biomass in the form of energy-rich compound biochar is a more sustainable technique as compared to conventional burning which leads to toxicity to the environment. Innovations and the need to limit open burning have resulted in numerous mobile and fixed plant pyrolysis methods that burn a variety of woody residues. Production technolog...

Biochar production from woody biomass generated during forest management (slash) offers significant benefits for soil health and carbon emissions, yet its adoption remains limited in the western United States (U.S.). To address this challenge, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (U.S.D.A.) Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station organized two workshops focused on forest management-centric biochar production. These workshops convened a diverse group of stakeholders, including investors, land management practitioners, industry professionals, and research scientists, each with unique...

Soil carbon-nitrogen (C:N) stoichiometry acts as a control over decomposition and soil organic matter formation and loss, making it a key soil property for understanding ecosystem dynamics and projected ecosystems responses to global environmental change. However, the controls of soil C:N and how they respond to increasing pressures from global change agents are not fully understood. The “foundational” controls on soil C:N, namely plant and microbial C:N, have been used to predict soil C:N, but fail to accurately simulate all ecosystems and may be insufficient for predictions under global...

Fuel and restoration treatments seeking to mitigate the likelihood of uncharacteristic high-severity wildfires in forests with historically frequent, low-severity fire regimes are increasingly common, but long-term treatment effects on fuels, aboveground carbon, plant community structure, ecosystem resilience, and other ecosystem attributes are understudied. We present 20-year responses to thinning and prescribed burning treatments commonly used in dry, low-elevation forests of the western United States from a long-term study site in the Northern Rockies that is part of the National Fire...

Climate is changing faster than long-lived species, such as forest trees, can migrate or adapt, risking adverse impacts on tree growth and forest composition (Aitken et al., 2008; Alberto et al., 2013; Sittaro et al., 2017). Nevertheless, current forest management and restoration tools, from tree breeding and seed zones to growth and yield models, assume a stable climate and that local sources are the best adapted (McKay et al., 2005; Bucharova et al., 2017; Alía et al., 2022; Park and Rodgers, 2023). Increasing frequency and severity of extreme events, including heat waves, drought, pest...

The City of Santa Fe is well known for arts, food, and architecture, but it also faces significant risk of wildfire. In 2020, the City of Santa Fe partnered with the Wildfire Research (WiRē) team with the goal of better understanding the needs of residents within the study area and their level of support for wildfire risk mitigation programs. The resulting project centers on two types of property-level data: rapid wildfire risk assessment data and household survey data. We followed the WiRē Rapid Wildfire Risk Assessment (WiRē RA) protocol, which measures parcel-level risk as the sum of a...

As bees’ main source of protein and lipids, pollen is critical for their development, reproduction, and health. Plant species vary considerably in the macronutrient content of their pollen, and research in bee model systems has established that this variation both modulates performance and guides floral choice. Yet, how variation in pollen chemistry shapes interactions between plants and bees in natural communities is an open question, essential for both understanding the nutritional dynamics of plant–pollinator mutualisms and informing their conservation. To fill this gap, we asked how...

Climate change poses challenges to ecological restoration and reforestation work, particularly in arid parts of the western United States. To incorporate future drought scenarios in the management of National Forests and Grasslands, scientists are working closely with plant nurseries to develop cultivation strategies that support plant adaptation in water-limited environments. Researchers are interested in overcoming physiological and morphological limitations to improve outplanting survival rates.

Public agencies and organizations often deliver financial assistance through cost sharing, in which recipients contribute some portion toward total costs. However, cost sharing might raise equity concerns if it reduces participation among populations with lower incomes. Here, we revisit a past study using a richer dataset (n=1,689) to assess whether stated income levels affect survey respondents’ willingness to participate in a cost share program for vegetation reduction to mitigate wildfire risk in western Colorado. Results show that residents with lower incomes are less likely to...

The Pacific coastal temperate rainforest of North America (“temperate rainforest”) includes the region adjacent to the Pacific Ocean along the west coast of the United States and Canada, including a narrow fog belt that stretches from northern California through Oregon and Washington, after which it widens to include most of coastal British Columbia (BC) and southeast Alaska, and tapers off in southcentral Alaska (Figure 15.1). The region is characterized by moderate temperatures and abundant precipitation throughout much of the year. In the north, a perhumid climate dominates where...