Treesearch

Periodical cicadas are enigmatic organisms: broods spanning large spatial ranges consist of developmentally synchronized populations of 3–4 sympatric species that emerge as adults every 13 or 17 years. Only one brood typically occupies any single location, with well-defined boundaries separating distinct broods. The cause of such synchronous development remains uncertain, but it is known that synchronous emergence of large numbers of adults in a single year satiates predators, allowing a substantial fraction of emerging adults to survive long enough to reproduce. Competition among nymphs...

Un mejor manejo de las áreas protegidas requiere que los tomadores de decisiones, mantengan el estatus de manejo de las mismas, por lo que especies de interés deben ser monitoreadas. Para esto se situaron trampas cámaras e lo largo del río Santa Maura en la Reserva Natural Datanlí-El Diablo, en un gradiente de distancia hacia la carretera. Se determinó la presencia de 24 especies de vertebrados, de los cuales 10 fueron aves y 14 mamíferos, del total se determinó que el 14% eran de interés cinegético. Las especies con mayor abundancia relativa incluyeron especies generalistas principalmente,...

A variety of commercial instruments are available for sampling and quantifying microscopic airborne organisms from the environment. Although most samplers are highly sensitive, they are also expensive, costing thousands of dollars per unit, a price that is out of reach for many researchers, especially those looking to design experiments with replication. While looking at options to monitor pine stands for the presence of Fusarium circinatum, the causal agent of pitch canker disease, on multiple sites with several units per site, we developed a simple, low-cost spore trap that allows...

Wildland fire is the dominant disturbance agent of the boreal forest of Alaska. Currently, about 80% of the population of Alaska resides in communities potentially at risk from wildland fire. The wildland fire threat to these settlements is increasing because of increased suburban construction in or near forested areas. The primary objective of this research was to assess the effectiveness of maturing treatment projects in terms of previously defined risk reduction and fire behavior objectives in order to better understand the contribution of fuel treatments to the broader economics of...

Tree wounds are caused by a wide range of natural events and anthropogenic activities and occur in tree crowns, on branches, on the bole, or on roots. Existing information mostly relates to bole wounds as they are more visible, accessible, and considered more economically important.

Understanding biodiversity-productivity relationships (BPRs) is of theoretical importance, and has important management implications. Most work on BPRs has focused on simple and/or experimentally assembled communities, and it is unclear how these observed BPRs can be extended to complex natural forest ecosystems. Using data from over 115,000 forest plots across the contiguous United States, we show that the bivariate BPRs are positive in dry climates and hump-shaped in mesic climates. When considering other site characteristics, BPRs change to neutral in dry climates and remain hump-shaped...

The Mongolian Plateau hosts two different governments: theMongolian People’sRepublicandthe Inner Mongolia AutonomousRegion, a provincial-level government of the People’sRepublic ofChina.The divergence between these governments haswidened in the past century,mostly due to a series of institutional changes that generated different socioeconomic and demographic trajectories.Due to its high latitude and altitude, the Plateau has been highly sensitive to the rapid changes in global and regional climates that have altered the spatial and temporal distributions of energy andwater.Based on a...

If a radiological incident such as a nuclear power plant accident, a radiological dispersal device, or detonation of an improvised nuclear device occurs, significant areas may be contaminated. Initial cleanup priorities would likely focus on populated areas, leaving the forested areas to pass several seasons where the overhead canopy materials would fall to the forest floor. In the event of a wildfire in a radionuclide-contaminated forest, some radionuclides would be emitted in the air while the rest would remain in the ash. This paper reports on a laboratory simulation study that examines...

Water conservation in nursery systems is an ever-increasing focus, yet there is relatively little guidance for growers producing seedlings intended for restoration regarding how practices such as subirrigation influence plant growth in the nursery and after outplanting. Our study investigated red-flowering currant (Ribes sanguineum Pursh) seedling development and early field performance using different fertilizer treatments under a subirrigation regime. Plants were fertilized with 1) incorporated organic fertilizer, 2) incorporated controlled-release fertilizer, 3) top-dressed controlled-re...