Treesearch

Research and development provide the scientific basis for adaptive, sustainable management of forests. Research is critical to understanding and improving forest conditions, determining compatible human uses, and developing technologies that sustain the availability and productivity of market and nonmarket forest goods and services. This indicator measures the development and application of research and technologies for sustainable forest management.

This paper presents a nationwide application of k-nearest neighbors (k-NN) to estimate growing stock volume per hectare for the Irish National Forest Estate using optical satellite imagery and field inventory data from the second National Forest Inventory (NFI). Two approaches are tested: an unweighted k-NN and an improved version (ik-NN) that is optimised using a genetic algorithm. The performance of the models is assessed in terms of the root mean square error (RMSE) and prediction error. From the simulations, it was found that the optimal value of k was 3, and the smallest pixel-level...

Species-specific responses of plant intrinsic water-use efficiency (iWUE) to multiple environmental drivers associated with climate change, including soil moisture (θ), vapor pressure deficit (D), and atmospheric CO2 concentration (ca), are poorly understood. We assessed how the iWUE and growth of several species of deciduous trees that span a gradient of isohydric to anisohydric water-use strategies respond to key environmental drivers (θ, D and ca). iWUE was calculated for individual tree species using leaf-level gas exchange and tree-ring δ13C in wood measurements, and for the whole...

Pulper consistency affects production capacity, defibering efficiency, and particle size distribution of contaminants, and in particular, stickies and inks. The effect of pulper consistency on stickies size distribution, though important, has not been studied in detail. In this project, pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA)-containing furnish was pulped in a laboratory at 5%, 10% and 15% consistency. Results show that 15% consistency pulp produced many more small-sized stickies compared to pulps produced at 5% and 10% consistency. This is contrary to the generally accepted hypothesis and needs...

This study evaluated the potential of an acid hydrotropic process at low temperatures for on-farm valorization of wheat straw by producing ligocellulosic nanofibrils (LCNFs), lignin nanoparticles (LNPs), and furfural. p-Toluenesulfonic acid (p-TsOH) was used to fractionate wheat straw under a range of conditions below 90 °C at low to moderate concentrations, between 15 and 60 wt %, for up to 2 h. p-TsOH fractionated wheat straw into a cellulose-rich waterinsoluble solid (WIS) fraction and a spent liquor stream that contained dissolved lignin and xylan. Various degrees of delignification...

High competitive ability has often been invoked as a key determinant of invasion success and ecological impacts of non-native plants. Yet our understanding of the strategies that non-natives use to gain competitive dominance remains limited. Particularly, it remains unknown whether the two non-mutually exclusive competitive strategies, neighbour suppression and neighbour tolerance, are equally important for the competitive advantage of non-native plants. Here, we analyse data from 192 peer-reviewed studies on pairwise plant competition within a Bayesian multilevel meta-analytic framework...

Stable property rights and the assurance that those rights will be protected, or disputed through due process, are essential for sustainable forest management, particularly for those who depend on forests for sustenance or income. With mounting pressures to convert forests to more profitable uses, such as agriculture or urban development, innovative ownership and tenure mechanisms have evolved to protect forest land in its natural state or managed condition. These mechanisms include the purchase and reservation of development rights, through payments for environmental services, or through...

Nonnative invasive herbivores can create complex biotic interactions by differentially feeding on native and nonnative invasive plant species. The herbivores may act as enemies of nonnative plants and prevent them from becoming invasive, or they may facilitate invasion by having a greater negative impact on native plants compared with nonnative plants. It is also possible that within the same ecosystem nonnative herbivores could either facilitate or inhibit invasion under different abiotic or biotic conditions. In this study we experimentally investigated how abiotic (soil nutrients) and...

One of many ecosystem services essential to land management is carbon regulation, but presence of invasive species can influence carbon (C) in undesirable ways. Here we discuss early results of C accumulation from the Liko Nā Pilina hybrid wet forest restoration experiment. The focus of our project is to deliberately increase C storage through a functional trait-based approach to restoration. By choosing plant species mixes with specific functional trait values, a novel ecosystem can be assembled that supports desired ecosystem services such as C regulation. We designed species mixtures...

Existing research suggests that adoption or development of various wildfire management strategies may differ across communities. However, there have been few attempts to design diverse strategies for local populations to better “live with fire.” This article extends an existing approach by articulating how characteristic patterns of local social context might be used to generate a range of fire adaptation “pathways” that can be applied variably across communities. Each ‘pathway’ would specify a distinct combination of actions, potential policies and incentives that best reflect the social...