Treesearch

In this issue, we cover new research ranging from using chili powder to improve native plant restoration, searching for a link between exotic white pine blister rust and mountain pine beetle resistance in limber pine, identifying how melting arctic sea ice could open new pathways for invasive species introductions, and research into a relatively newly established biocontrol agent for rush skeletonweed. This issue also sees the return of a popular section called “Ask the Experts”, and it addresses a question about the important topic of secondary weed invasion.

The 1351 ha Walker Fire burned in late August 2015 on the eastern Sierra Nevada, California escarpment from sagebrush steppe and pinyon pine woodlands (2150 m) through mid-elevation forests into subalpine whitebark pine (WBP; 3310 m). Fuels were particularly dry due not only to the season but as a result of a record multi-year drought (2012–2015). The fire burned into stands heavily impacted by a mountain pine beetle outbreak (MPB) during a prior drought (2007–2010). Using plot data, we report 100% mortality due to fire of understory vegetation and trees in pinyon pine, aspen, white fir,...

Forest cover gains and losses occur in response to complex environmental and anthropogenic pressures. Yet the impact of forest gains and losses on the provision of ecosystem services differs markedly. Here we investigate the social costs of potential forest carbon change in Australia’s intensive agricultural region from 2015 to 2050 using spatial forest cover change and forest carbon models combined with climate and socioeconomic projections. More than 24,000 possible scenarios were used to identify the trend and lower and upper bounds of forest cover/carbon change. Net deforestation (3.5...

The behavior of adults and young at the time of fledging is one of the least understood aspects of the breeding ecology of birds. Current hypotheses propose that fledging occurs either as a result of parent-offspring conflict or nestling choice. We used video recordings to monitor the behavior of nestling and adult grassland songbirds at the time of fledging. We observed 525 nestlings from 166 nests of 15 bird species nesting in grasslands of Alberta, Canada, and Wisconsin, USA. Overall, 78% of nestlings used terrestrial locomotion for fledging and 22% used wing-assisted locomotion....

Federal directives including the National Seed Strategy, the President’s Memorandum on pollinators, and greater sage-grouse conservation plans emphasize the use of native species to recover ecosystems damaged by fire, mineral extraction, energy development, recreation, road construction, or other disturbances. Forbs or wildflowers are essential components of resilient, biologically and functionally diverse communities. However, restoration and rehabilitation use of native forbs in the Intermountain West remains limited. Because of this, Western Forbs: Biology, Ecology, and Use in Restoratio...

Urban parks are valued for their benefits to ecological and human systems, likely to increase in importance as climate change effects continue to unfold. However, the ability of parks to provide those myriad benefits hinges on equitable provision of and access to green spaces and their environmental quality. A social–ecological approach was adopted in a study of urban park use by recreationists in the City of Los Angeles, contrasting two affluent and two disadvantaged communities situated in coastal and inland zones. Twenty-four days of observations distributed across morning and afternoon...