Treesearch

As climate change is expected to significantly affect agricultural systems globally, agricultural farm advisors have been increasingly recognized as an important resource in helping farmers address these challenges. While there have been many studies exploring the climate change belief and risk perceptions as well as behaviors of both farmers and agricultural farm advisors, there are very few studies that have explored how these perceptions relate to actual climate impacts in agriculture. Here we couple survey data from United States Department of Agriculture farm service employees (n = 6,...

The number of global initiatives for forest restoration, and the scope of these initiatives, continues to increase. An important tool for meeting objectives of these global initiatives is reforestation, achieved by natural processes or by tree planting. Worldwide, organizations are challenged to most efficiently and effectively direct resources to the most critical reforestation needs. Currently in the United States, the reforestation efforts of the Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, are challenged by changes in policy, funding, climate change, and mega-fires, to name a few, and...

During a 3-y seed increase project, taproot size (volume and biomass) of showy milkweed (Asclepias speciosa Torr. [Asclepiadaceae]) increased annually, although top diameter of the taproot remained constant after the first growing season. At the end of the third year, taproots were harvested, held under different cold storage treatments, and subsequently outplanted. We observed that taproots can readily be stored in cardboard boxes placed in either cooler (0.5 to 2 °C [33-36 °F]) or freezer (-5 to -2 °C [23-28 °F]) conditions, and that success increases with the addition of protection from...

Wildlife biologists classify some bird species as early successional because of apparent dependence on early successional vegetation such as forbs, grasses, shrubs, and small trees. We propose that many "early successional" species were more often associated with open forests such as savannas and woodlands, which covered a much greater extent of the eastern United States under historical disturbance regimes than more ephemeral early successional forest. We draw on several lines of evidence, including knowledge of historical ecosystems and disturbance, landscape analyses, and general...

Many potential geographic information system (GIS) applications remain unrealized or not yet extended to diverse spatial and temporal scales due to the relative recency of conversion from paper maps to digitized images. Here, we applied GIS to visualize changes in the ecological boundaries of plant hardiness zones and the Köppen-Trewartha classification system between current climate (1981-2010) and future climate (2070-2099), as well as changing climate within stationary state boundaries of the conterminous United States, which provide context for the future of forests. Three climate...

Exotic grass invasions are often facilitated by disturbances, which provide opportunities for invasion by releasing pulses of resources available to invaders. Where disturbances such as prescribed fire are used as a management tool, there is a pressing need to identify ecosystem attributes associated with susceptibility to disturbance-induced invasion. In the Great Basin of the western United States, expansion of the exotic annual grass Bromus tectorum is transforming native ecosystems. In this study we examined long-term understory plant community responses to experimental prescribed fire...

In ponderosa pine forests of western North America, wildfires are becoming more frequent and affecting larger areas, while prescribed fire is increasingly used to reduce fuels and mitigate potential wildfire severity. Both fire types leave trees that initially survive their burn injuries, but will eventually die. Predicting delayed tree mortality has received considerable research attention to aid in post-fire planning and management. The amount of crown scorched is recognized as the most useful variable for discriminating between trees that live or die, but models gain discrimination with...

Two new species, Fomitopsis mounceae and F. schrenkii (Polyporales, Basidiomycota) in the F. pinicola species complex in North America, are described and illustrated. Previous molecular phylogenetic analyses identified three well-delimited lineages that represent F. mounceae and F. ochracea from Canada, the Appalachian Mountains, and the northern United States and F. schrenkii from western and southwestern regions of the United States. Fomitopsis pinicola sensu stricto is restricted to Eurasia and does not occur in North America. Morphological descriptions of basidiocarps and cultures for...

This is a Commentary for the 50th Anniversary Issue of Herpetological Review on the Diseases section of the journal which I initiated in December 2007. This section aimed to accelerate the pace and communication of science findings relative to herpetological emerging infectious diseases. Since the section was launched in late 2007, 185 disease articles by 594 authors have been published, including reports on seven disease-causing agents and a geographic scope spanning 42 countries and 35 US states. A world community has engaged in this work, empowering land managers, local biologists, the...

We examined the relationship between urban trees and the sales price of single-family homes in Tampa, Florida. We chose Tampa, because the city is facing major redevelopment pressure that may impact the association between trees and house price. In particular, a frequently voiced view in Tampa’s development community is that trees adversely affect the value of houses that are being sold for redevelopment. We estimated hedonic models of sales price controlling for house and neighborhood characteristics and correcting for spatial autocorrelation (n = 1,924). We found that trees within 152m...