Treesearch

Riparian areas, wetlands, and groundwater-dependent ecosystems, which are found at all elevations throughout the Blue Mountains, comprise a small portion of the landscape but have high conservation value because they provide habitat for diverse flora and fauna. The effects of climate change on these special habitats may be especially profound, due to altered snowpack and hydrologic regimes predicted to occur in the near future. The functionality of many riparian areas is currently compromised by water diversions and livestock grazing, which reduces their resilience to additional stresses...

Aim: Abiotic conditions are key components that determine the distribution of species. However, co-occurring species can respond differently to the same factors, and determining which climate components are most predictive of geographic distributions is important for understanding community response to climate change. Here, we estimate and compare climate niches of ten subdominant, herbaceous forb species common in sagebrush steppe systems, asking how niches differ among co-occurring species and whether more closely related species exhibit higher niche overlap. Location: Western United...

Bark beetle outbreaks are increasing in frequency and intensity, generating massive inventories of dead trees globally. During attacks, trees are pre-inoculated with ophiostomatoid fungi via bark beetles, which has been shown to increase termite presence and feeding. These events may, in turn, alter biogeochemical cycles during decomposition. We examined these relationships by experimentally inoculating dead wood with bluestain fungi in a temperate pine forest. Across ten replicate plots, eight 0.5 m-long logs were inoculated with Ophiostoma minus and eight with distilled water. Half of...

Concern about excessive woody debris removals during biomass harvests has led to the development of biomass harvesting guidelines (BHGs) for retaining woody debris for habitat and nutrient cycling. However, the efficacy of BHGs has not been experimentally examined. Two BHG treatments applied during clearcutting and thinning operations were examined in a replicated complete-block experiment. The first BHG treatment included the retention of one-third of tops of trees ≥8 in. dbh and one-third of trees <8-in. dbh. The second included the retention of all tops of trees ≥8-in. dbh and no...

The problems associated with air pollution and higher air temperatures in cities have been known for over a century, but so have the impacts of trees and forests on improving air quality and regulating air temperatures. Science has advanced our understanding on the various ways that trees affect air quality and temperatures. Trees affect air quality and consequently human health in both positive and negative ways by regulating air temperatures, altering the local microclimates, altering building energy use, removing air pollutants and emitting various chemicals. While the overall effect of...

Current design standards incorporate the use of preservative treated and naturally durable wood where conditions are suitable for deterioration, but treatment options for mass timber products, particularly, cross laminated timber (CLT) remain to be addressed. Termiticide treatment is a necessity for CLT structures, especially in southeastern climates. Wood species currently used to fabricate CLT are non-durable, and current design standards do not properly address incorporation of preservative treatments into these systems. In this study, 12” x 14” x 4” Douglas-fir CLT pieces were installed...

Field data examining the long-term effects of chemical wood preservatives on refractory wood species with abundant heartwood is limited. This study was initiated to determine, by ground contact exposure, the effectiveness of preservativetreated heartwood material comprised of refractory Douglas-fir, Engelmann spruce, or southern pine. The study compared incised and non-incised lumber treated at three retentions with either ammoniacal copper arsenate (ACA) or chromated copper arsenate (CCA) and placed in ground contact at Mississippi and Wisconsin field test sites in 1975 and 1976, respectiv...

Cross laminated timber (CLT) is a relatively recent addition to the North American timber construction market. CLT has been successfully used for construction in Europe and, in the past few years, manufacturers have looked forward to expanding the use of this product into the North American market. However, no termite susceptibility experiments have been published for the product and no standards exist for testing of the CLT and other mass timber products against termites. It is extremely important to evaluate the resistance to degradation of CLT, especially if the manufacturers are trying...

Fomitiporella has traditionally been delimited based on the gross morphology of the basidiomes, hyphal structure and basdiospores. Recently, phylogenetic studies supported the incorporation of an extensive number of species within the genus. Although most of its species are nested in the 'Phellinotus clade' (Hymenochaetaceae, Basidiomycota), genera such as Arambarria, Inocutis and Phellinotus were not included in previous analysis. To further our understanding of the genus, new sequences from 28S and ITS nuc rDNA genes were jointly analysed with a large selection of taxa in the 'Phellinotus...

The Hungry Bob fuels reduction project was part of a 12-site National Fire and Fire Surrogate (FFS) network of experiments conducted across the United States from the late 1990s through the early 2000s to determine the regional differences in applying alternative fuel-reduction treatments to forests. The Hungry Bob project focused on restoration treatments applied in low elevation, dry second-growth ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa subsp. ponderosa (Douglas ex C. Lawson) and Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii subsp. glauca (Beissn.) Franco forests of northeastern Oregon. Treatments included...