Treesearch

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...

Background: Fuel reduction treatments have been widely implemented across the western US in recent decades for both fire protection and restoration. Although research has demonstrated that combined thinning and burning effectively reduces crown fire potential in the few years immediately following treatment, little research has identified effectiveness of thinning and burning treatments beyond a decade. Furthermore, it is unclear how posttreatment disturbances such as a bark beetle outbreak affect fuel treatment effectiveness. Results: We evaluated differences in surface and canopy fuel...

This field guide is a tool for the identification of 119 common forbs found in the sagebrush rangelands and grasslands of the northern Great Basin. These forbs are important because they are either browsed directly by Greater Sage-grouse or support invertebrates that are also consumed by the birds. Species are arranged alphabetically by genus and species within families. Each species has a botanical description and one or more color photographs to assist the user. Most descriptions mention the importance of the plant and how it is used by Greater Sage-grouse. A glossary and indices with...

Visual assessments are usually conceived of and applied to large‐area landscapes such as national forests. Yet the visual resource is an important cultural ecosystem service at all scales of landscape, from small sites to regional and national scales. In urban landscapes, visual resource stewardship has been framed in ways that address parks, lawns, or yard artifacts, and has not specifically been linked to planning issues nor to a visible line of research. The neighborhood scale is particularly relevant to people's everyday perception and experience of cities, and the recent availability...

What should be the role of the public in assessing the visual impacts of proposed changes to landscapes? This question was the basis of a guided discussion session hosted by the authors at the 2017 Visual Resource Stewardship Conference. In this paper we summarize our arguments regarding the appropriate role of the public in visual impact assessments (VIAs) and outline key issues from the guided discussion that must be resolved in answering the question. One key issue is how the perceptions of untrained people compare with those of trained professionals who now conduct most VIAs. To help...

The 2008 Maine Wind Energy Act (WEA) established a protocol for assessing potential visual impacts of wind turbines on the Maine landscape (Maine Legislature 2003a). The WEA stipulates that vwind project visual impact assessments (VIAs) must consider several factors, including impacts on scenic resources of state or national significance (SRSNS); existing character of the surrounding area; viewer expectations; the extent, nature and duration of public uses of SRSNSs; and potential effect on continued use and enjoyment. The WEA also defined SRSNSs; set a fixed 8‐mile limit for viewshed...

The great energy transition will have an impact on our built environment and our visual landscape like no other technical shift since the invention of the automobile. Our cities and countrysides will look different in 2040 than they do today as distributed renewable energy infrastructures expand at a rapid pace. The common perception of these systems is of standard flat blue solar panels and three‐blade horizontal axis wind turbines, separated from the public by chain link fences. Many people do not see these as welcome additions to cherished cityscapes and rural viewsheds. Rather than...

A brief description of the progress on mechatronic multi-degree of freedom material testers developed at the US Naval Research Laboratory (US-NRL) is given to describe the enabling technology for acquiring data that encapsulate both the recoverable and the dissipative behaviors of various composite material systems under quasi-static multiaxial loading conditions. The notion of material equivalence is then explored from the perspective of the data-driven dissipative behavior of multiaxially tested composite laminates. Emphasis is given by considering the same ber within the same resins and...

Glycoside hydrolase family 30 subfamily 8 (GH30-8) β-1,4-endoxylanases are known for their appendage-dependent function requiring recognition of an α-1,2-linked glucuronic acid (GlcA) common to glucuronoxylans for hydrolysis. Structural studies have indicated that the GlcA moiety of glucuronoxylans is coordinated through six hydrogen bonds and a salt bridge. These GlcA-dependent endoxylanases do not have significant activity on xylans that do not bear GlcA substitutions such as unsubstituted linear xylooligosacchar-ides or cereal bran arabinoxylans. In the present study, we present the...

Studies of habitat selection and use by wildlife, especially large herbivores, are foundational for understanding their ecology and management, especially if predictors of use represent habitat requirements that can be related to demography or fitness. Many ungulate species serve societal needs as game animals or subsistence foods, and also can affect native vegetation and agricultural crops because of their large body size, diet choices, and widespread distributions. Understanding nutritional resources and habitat use of large herbivores like elk (Cervus canadensis) can benefit their...