Treesearch

Renewable natural resources that have biological constraints on reproduction and are open-access may be subjected to intense harvest activity that limits regeneration, potentially leading to a backward-bending long-run supply curve. Empirical evidence of such supply abnormalities has been found for some open-access fish species but not yet for non-timber forest products (NTFPs). We describe the theory of the backward-bending long-run supply and how such a supply relationship could produce multiple market equilibria, affecting regulatory outcomes. An empirical example is provided to test...

This resource update provides an overview of the forest resources in Pennsylvania based on inventories conducted by the USDA Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program of the Northern Research Station. Estimates are based on field data collected using the FIA annualized sample design and are updated yearly. Information about the national and regional FIA program is available online at http://fia.fs.fed.us. FIA began annual inventories in Pennsylvania in 2000. For the 2017 inventory, estimates of current resource attributes, such as area, volume, and biomass, are based on...

Conserving tidal-marsh bird communities requires strategies to address continuing pressures from human development to the effects of increasing rates of sea-level rise. Knowing tidal-marsh bird distributions and population sizes are important for developing these strategies. In the Northeast United States, where estimates of sea-level rise are 3 times higher than the global average, 5 bird species are tidalmarsh specialists: clapper rail (Rallus crepitans), willet (Tringa semipalmata), Nelson’s sparrow (Ammospiza nelsoni), saltmarsh sparrow (A. caudacuta), and seaside sparrow (A. maritima)....

Quantifying shrub biomass can assist in natural resource management decision making. Nonlinear mixed effect models (NMEM) were developed to predict total aboveground biomass as well as biomass in leaves, 1-hour, 10-hour, and 100 or more hour fuel classes for seven species of shrubs common to the northeastern California. Using crown area as a predictor, an allometric (power) model was used as a base model. Coefficients varied by species, component, and by a nested combination of these random effects. The results showed that NMEM that used shrub species as random effect performed better than...

Fungi play a key role cycling nutrients in forest ecosystems but the mechanisms remain uncertain. To clarify the enzymatic processes involved in wood decomposition, metatranscriptomics and metaproteomics of extensively decayed lodgepole pine by RNAseq and LC-MS/MS, respectively. Following de novo metatranscriptome assembly, 52,011 were searched for functional domains and homology to database entries.

Disturbance-induced mortality events in forest ecosystems generate significant hotspots in biogeochemical cycles. These events occur sporadically across the landscape and contribute to large sources of error in terrestrial biosphere carbon models, which have yet to capture the full complexity of biotic and abiotic factors driving ecological processes in the terrestrial environment. The balance between production of stable soil organic matter and respiration from decomposing biomass greatly influences whether temperate forests remain modest carbon sinks or are transformed into carbon...

Radiotransmitters can be tail-mounted using cyanoacrylate glue and an accelerant rather than using a harness. Tail-mounted transmitters are dropped or shed when the rectrices molt, which may reduce transmitter effects while providing retention times sufficient for most research objectives. However, retention times of tail-mounted transmitters for birds are insufficiently described, and bias from not following all birds until transmitters are shed has been ignored. We studied transmitter retention of 106 birds of 6 species in the United States of America, 2010–2013, using direct observations...

Prescribed fire is a widely used ecosystem management approach and the vast majority of burns are conducted during the dormant season; however, these burning conditions (and therefore the type and persistence of fire effects) often differ from those of natural or historical fire regimes. Therefore, we leveraged a historical study (conducted 1959–70) with remeasurements in 2015 to evaluate effects of fire season (dormant, summer), frequency (annual, biennial, periodic), and their interaction on soil physical and chemical properties in a red pine (Pinus resinosa Ait.) forest in northern...

Forest ecosystems are shaped by their historical disturbance regime. Structural and species diversity are driven by disturbance frequency, patch size and microsite disturbance severity in forests across the globe. Forest management in Lake State northern hardwoods, however, has primarily used high-frequency, low- to moderate-severity canopy disturbance and low-severity microsite disturbance harvesting techniques such as single-tree selection. Catastrophic disturbances during European settlement followed by the widespread and long-term use of uniform approaches to forest management have...

Prescribed fire is increasingly viewed as a valuable tool for reversing ecological consequences of fire suppression within fire-adapted forests. While the use of burning treatments in northern temperate conifer forests has received considerable attention, the long-term (>10 year) effects on understory composition and dynamics have not been quantified. We describe the persistence of prescribed fire effects on the woody and herbaceous understory in a mature red pine (Pinus resinosa Ait.) forest in northern Minnesota, USA, over a ∼50-year period, as well as the relative roles of fire season...