Treesearch

This paper presents a series of narratives that can be used to define possible future trends in the global forest sector across the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs), which we refer to as Forest Sector Pathways (FSPs). SSPs are part of a new scenario framework established by the climate change research community that facilitate the integrated analysis of future climate impacts, vulnerabilities, adaptation, and mitigation. The SSPs are based on five narratives describing alternative socio-economic pathways, including sustainable development, regional rivalry, inequality, fossil-fueled...

Most people who concern themselves with the study of soil will broadly agree that soil is a dynamic mixture of chemical, physical, and biological components. That there is a biological component to soil therefore suggests that soil, or at least “healthy” soil, is alive. But to say that soil is simply alive does not do justice to the multitude of organisms that occupy soil, ranging from the simplest forms, like bacteria, through most of the invertebrate phyla, and up to fossorial reptilian and mammalian vertebrates. In recent years, life in soil has been intensively studied mainly in terms...

Scientists and managers initiated a collaborative process to assist the Rio Grande National Forest (RGNF) with bringing climate change information into its Forest Planning Process. The first objective of the collaborative, 2-day workshop was to present and discuss in a workshop format the salient climate change science for the RGNF landscape, in terms of projections, impacts, and vulnerabilities. The second objective was to facilitate a planning process that would stimulate ideas regarding aspects of current and proposed management that may need modification in light of stressors related...

Worldwide, forests are increasingly affected by nonnative insects and diseases, some of which cause substantial tree mortality. Forests in the United States have been invaded by a particularly large number (>450) of tree-feeding pest species. While information exists about the ecological impacts of certain pests, region-wide assessments of the composite ecosystem impacts of all species are limited. Here we analyze 92,978 forest plots distributed across the conterminous United States to estimate biomass loss associated with elevated mortality rates caused by the 15 most damaging nonnative...

Tidally influenced coastal forested wetlands can be divided into two broad categories, mangroves and freshwater forested wetlands. These forested wetlands perform valuable ecosystem services, and both are endangered by threats of sea level rise and land use. Understanding the mechanisms that control the distribution of tidal forests has been greatly enhanced by innovation in measurement and modeling of tidal forcing brought about by satellite observation of sea level. Oceanographic hydrodynamic models can now be merged with riverine hydraulic models to address forcing functions in the...

Trade‐offs in resource selection by central‐place foragers are driven by the need to balance the benefits of selecting resources against the costs of travel from the central place. For group‐territorial central‐place foraging birds, trade‐offs in resource selection are likely to be complicated by a competitive advantage for larger groups at high group density that may limit accessibility of high‐quality distant resources to small groups. We used the group‐territorial, central‐place foraging Red‐cockaded Woodpecker Leuconotopicus borealis (RCW) as a case study to test predictions that...

This study examines how natural disturbance can adversely affect the carbon sequestration potential of the forest, and the potential contribution that genomics might make towards offsetting these impacts when carbon is priced. A stochastic dynamic programming model of the BC interior, which includes a detailed carbon accounting module, shows that harvests are delayed as carbon prices rise, with less carbon stored in harvested wood products and more in the forest ecosystem, but an increase in the risk of natural disturbance causes the landowner to harvest sooner. As natural disturbance...

Projections are that the area of planted stands of southern pines will exceed 50 million ac (20 million hectares) by 2060; most will be managed primarily for timber and fiber production using rotations less than three decades in length. This has been a tremendous silvicultural success. However, weighing against that success is the associated decline of native fire-adapted ecosystems dominated by longleaf pine (Pinus palustris L.) and shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata Mill.), and the flora and fauna adapted to open woodland habitats. Three elements of silvicultural practice will be needed to...

Sustainable management of forested wetlands requires an understanding of water Table (WT) dynamics affected by rainfall and evapotranspiration (ET) and management practices, designed to sustain water quality, quantity, and ecosystem functions and productivity. In this paper analysis of long-term data from four drained and six undrained sites on coastal forested wetlands showed that their growing season WT dynamics depends upon ET as affected by vegetation stand age, with undrained sites yielding deeper WT than the drained young sites but shallower than the mature ones. Wetland hydrology...

Root–shoot allocation of biomass is an underrepresented criterion that could be used for tree selection in phytoremediation. We evaluated how root–shoot allocations relate to biomass production and overall health of poplar and willow clones grown in landfill soil treatments. Fifteen poplar clones and nine willows were grown in a greenhouse for 65 days in soils from five Wisconsin landfills and one greenhouse control. We tested for treatment, clone, and interaction differences in root–shoot ratio (RSR), health, and growth index, along with relationships between RSR with diameter, health,...