Treesearch

Historically, oaks have dominated forests and woodlands in the eastern US, but oaks are being replaced by mesophytic tree species. Mesophication was likely triggered by moist, shaded conditions related to fire exclusion, and thus, moisture and fire have been the focus of prior research. However, forests undergoing mesophication also experience high soil nitrogen (N) availability, and timber harvests often create high-light conditions. Oaks may compete poorly with mesophytes in these resource-rich conditions due to their distinct strategies for growth and nutrient acquisition. Here, we...

Land cover and extreme weather events are closely connected to ecosystem services like water yield and carbon sequestration. Understanding how carbon and water respond to human disturbances is critical for managing these resources and realize desired ecosystem services at the national llevel. The monthly scale ecosystem model, Water Supply Stress Index (WaSSI), was tested and applied across Germany for mapping carbon and water balances from 2001 to 2019. We estimated that ecosystems in Germany generate 84.86 billion m3 of water yield and sequester 106.03 Tg of carbon annually on average....

The “Nature‐based Solutions” strategy for combatting global land degradation and climate change through forestation has drawn increasing concerns regarding its potential tradeoffs with water resources, especially in dry regions. China is “greening up” due to decades of large‐scale tree planting and ecological restoration campaigns. However, national‐level assessments of the individual and combined effects of forest cover and climate changes on water yield at a fine scale are still lacking. Here, we show several lines of evidence indicating that the unprecedented forestation has exacerbated...

Resource pulses are ecologically important events that occur in most ecosystems, yet most of our previous knowledge about their effects comes from relatively simple single pulse systems. In reality, many consumers likely attempt to track multiple, sometimes overlapping, resource pulses through space and time. Indeed, pulses of food resources at lower trophic levels have been shown to decouple the response of large omnivorous predators to pulses of vertebrate prey, with implications for predator–prey interactions more broadly. However, to date, the impact of these alternative food pulses on...

Density estimation is central to wildlife management efforts but can be challenging in anthropogenically‐dominated landscapes due to small parcel sizes, access restrictions, and limited green space. Reliable density estimates are especially important for managing white‐tailed deer ( Odocoileus virginianus ), whose high abundance in urbanized areas increases the need for accurate population assessments to guide management and reduce negative human–wildlife interactions. Herein, we evaluated (a) the use of a plot‐based spatial capture‐recapture sampling design to estimate deer density in...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program provides this resource update yearly as an overview of forest resources in South Carolina. These estimates are derived from field data collected across a systematic network of fixed-radius forest monitoring plots located on both public and private land. New updates are provided annually as a subset of plots within the State are remeasured. Each year, field crews visit and measure a subset of all FIA plots across the entire State (the size of the subset varies by State and year). Combining...

Tornadoes drastically impact managed forest landscapes, altering structure, composition, and economic valuation. Tornadoes occur frequently in the US and are projected to increase in the southeastern region, which is a substantial timber-producing region. Quantifying tornado damage in managed forest landscapes is important for guiding management decisions and modeling recovery efforts to recoup economic losses. We assessed the spatiotemporal effects on forest structure, volume, and carbon in 13–17 year old loblolly pine ( Pinus taeda L.) stands after an EF-3 tornado, with a path length of...

Although many species display relationships – both positive and negative – with various forest successional stages, researchers often rely on datasets that describe forest presence rather than forest age (i.e., National Landcover Database). In 2023, the USDA Forest Service introduced standardized region-specific mature and old-growth (MOG) forest definitions for the United States, but these definitions have not been readily integrated to address questions in ecology and conservation. Here, we introduce ‘mapMOG’—an open access R function that applies the recently adopted federal MOG...

This resource bulletin consolidates data from the ninth complete survey of Tennessee’s forest resources which was conducted during the period 2015–2019 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program in cooperation with the Tennessee Department of Agriculture Division of Forestry (TDF). Data on the extent, condition, and classification of forest land and associated timber volumes, as well as growth, removals, and mortality rates are described and interpreted. Data on forest health and forest landowner characteristics are also...

It is widely perceived that wildfire activity has increased across the western United States (WUS), with studies generally focusing on large wildfires. This study examines changes in the number of wildfire ignitions and burned area in the WUS using a comprehensive record of more than 750 000 wildfire incidents from 1992 to 2020 across biophysical gradients, seasons, and ignition causes. It further analyzes the environmental conditions associated with elevated fire activity. Our analysis comparing the periods 1992–2006 and 2007–2020 indicates that the annual number of recorded wildfires...