Treesearch

When recreationists encounter negative site conditions, they may cope via displacement and choose alternative experiences to still attain the recreation outcomes they seek. Displacement may differ across demographics, but little is known about differences across social identities based in race/ethnicity, household composition, and generations in the U.S. Our research examines drivers and types of displacement and how these may vary based on social identity. We surveyed Southern Californians residing near one of four national forests in the area (n=3,585) about their visitor use patterns,...

Hyperspectral imaging provides rich spectral information for plant phenotyping, yet analyzing these high-dimensional data remains challenging due to limited labeled datasets and the reliance on manually extracted features, such as vegetation indices. Here, we present LeafVAE, a variational autoencoder framework that learns spectral signatures directly from hyperspectral leaf images without manual annotation. Our model encodes leaf spectra into a compact, two-dimensional latent space where pixels cluster by spectral similarity, creating quantitative leaf descriptors from signature compositio...

Soybean gall midge, Resseliella maxima Gagné, was first described in 2019 following widespread outbreaks in soybean across the midwestern United States. Larval feeding inside stems causes lesions, lodging, and yield loss. Third instars overwinter in the soil within silken cocoons, but their cold tolerance, an important factor for survival in the temperate midwestern United States, is unknown. In 2022 and 2023, late-season soybean stems with R. maxima were collected from southwestern Minnesota. Third instars were retrieved and transferred to vials of sand, where they successfully burrowed...

Increased wildfire activity in the US motivated the USDA Forest Service to update national wildfire simulation data used for risk assessment and prioritizing wildland fuel reduction programs. The update (FSim-2020 to FSim-2023) included revised data on fuels, ignition frequency, fire weather, and recalibration of the FSim model. We overlayed the new simulated fire perimeters with the most recent building footprint data to examine the change in magnitude and spatial patterns of estimated building exposure. We found that the update to FSim-2023 resulted in a 61% increase in simulated...

Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) are renewable, high-value nanomaterials with broad industrial applications. Based on laboratory-scale experimental data, this study demonstrates the feasibility of utilizing sugar maple forest residues for 10 metric tons per day (MTPD) production of CNC through an integrated techno-economic analysis (TEA) and life cycle assessment (LCA). The minimum selling price (MSP) of CNC was estimated at $16.03/kg, with a global warming (GW) impact of 28.60 kg CO₂ eq/kg CNC. Sensitivity analysis identified CNC yield and pretreatment solids loading as key drivers for the...

Growing concerns about global warming from fossil fuel combustion underscore the need for sustainable hydrogen production. Catalytic methane decomposition (CMD) offers a CO2-free pathway by generating hydrogen and solid carbon. This study performs a cradle-to-gate life-cycle assessment of CMD using two catalytic systems, including Ni/Al2O3 (metal-based) and biochar (renewable carbon-based), for producing 1 kg H2 under physical and economic allocation approaches. The physical allocation results demonstrated biochar’s superior environmental performance, with 26% lower fossil fuel depletion...

Carbon fibres (CFs) are indispensable for lightweight structural engineering, yet their widespread adoption is stifled by the high cost and environmental toll of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) precursors. While substituting PAN with low-footprint alternatives such as lignin or carbon black reduces emissions, the resulting fibres typically suffer from mechanical degradation caused by poorly integrated fillers. Here we report an electrified carbon-fibre upgrading strategy that transforms low-cost, carbon-black-loaded PAN precursors into high-performance CFs by incorporating methane (CH4)-derived...

Urban sustainability systems, including green, blue, and grey infrastructures and spaces, require ongoing coordination, collaboration, and comanagement in order to function. Municipal agencies often do not have the resources to maintain these systems alone and rely on a network of civic organisations and volunteers as well as job trainees, temporary employees, and welfare- to- work staff, alongside permanent public employees (Krinsky and Simonet, 2017). Civic groups, however, are more than just a labour force; they envision and shape the public realm in their own right. The majority of...

Wood is preferred as a building material due to its high strength, low weight, and ability to retain many of its properties even at moderately high temperatures. However, numerous wood adhesives lose strength as the temperature increases, especially around 200°C. This study examined bond strength at temperatures above that required for initiation of wood degradation for bonds of wood-to-wood and wood-to-aluminum using two oil-based adhesives (resole phenolics and epoxies) and two bio-based adhesives (soy protein isolate and ovalbumin from egg whites). The phenolics not only gave the best...

Proteins were useful as adhesives for wood bonding, including those derived from animals (collagen, casein, ovalbumin, and blood), and plants (soy, canola, and cottonseed). These proteins have different structures that dictate their wood adhesive performance. Hydrolyzed collagens from animal hides and bones are hot-melt adhesives suitable for paper applications with durability improved by crosslinking. Soy flour adhesives, even with a crosslinker, are amphiphilic, giving moderate wet-strength wood bonds, while with ovalbumin (egg whites) curing exposes hydrophobic surfaces leading to high...