Treesearch

The Cascade red fox (CRF) occurred historically throughout subalpine and alpine habitats in the Cascade Range of Washington and southernmost British Columbia, but now appears to be extremely rare. Causes for its apparent decline are unknown, as is the current distribution and connectivity of its populations. Additionally, the introduction of nonnative (fur-farm) red foxes to surrounding lowland areas during the past century raises concerns about their expansion to higher elevations and potential hybridization with the CRF. We conducted noninvasive genetic sampling and analyses of CRFs in a...

A new family of materials comprised of cellulose, cellulose nanomaterials (CNMs), having properties and functionalities distinct from molecular cellulose and wood pulp, is being developed for applications that were once thought impossible for cellulosic materials. Commercialization, paralleled by research in this field, is fueled by the unique combination of characteristics, such as high on-axis stiffness, sustainability, scalability, and mechanical reinforcement of a wide variety of materials, leading to their utility across a broad spectrum of highperformance material applications....

Recent droughts in Puerto Rico and throughout the Caribbean have emphasized the region's agricultural vulnerability to this hazard and the increasing need for adaptation mechanisms to support sustainable production. In this study, we assessed the geographic extent of agricultural conservation practices incentivized by US Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and evaluated their large-scale contribution to drought adaptability. We identified concentrations of drought-related practices (e.g. cover crops, ponds) applied between 2000 and 2016. Using information...

In this new series of Fungal Biodiversity Profiles, the authors describe ten species new to science, nine basidiomycetes and one ascomycete, using both morphological and molecular data. Descriptions are provided for Hydnum berkeleyanum sp. nov. (Cantharellales), for Lactarius ambiguus, L. furfuraceus, L. orientaliquietus, L. subhirtipes, Russula blennia, R. pseudociliata (Russulales), Marasmius pseudohypochrysoides, Radulomyces paumanokensis (Agaricales) and Urnula himalayana (Pezizales).

Rangelands are increasingly urban, subdivided, and fragmented. About 62 percent of coterminous U.S. rangelands occur on private land and are at further risk for conversion. This Rangelands on the Edge (ROTE) project improves our understanding of the fate of rangelands from historical, present day, and future perspectives by describing human modification, fragmentation, and future residential growth projections for rangeland-dominated vegetation. Since pre-European settlement, some 340 million acres (over 34 percent) of rangelands, particularly in the Great Plains, have been converted to...

A new method is proposed for estimation of cellulose crystallinity (CrI) based on 93 cm−1 Raman band in spectra of cellulose I materials. In this method (93-Raman), CrI was determined based on regression that was developed using the ratios of peak-heights of the 93 and 1096 cm−1 Raman bands (I93/I1096). For calibration purposes, a set of eight samples, all derived from cotton microcrystalline cellulose Whatman CC31 were selected. When the peak intensity ratios (I93/I1096) were plotted against the calculated CrIs of the calibration set samples, the plot showed an excellent linear correlation...

In this paper, we describe and analyze a climatology of the Hot-Dry-Windy Index (HDW), with the goal of providing fire-weather forecasters with information about the daily and seasonal variability of the index. The 30-year climatology (1981–2010) was produced using the Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) for the contiguous United States, using percentiles to show seasonal and geographical variations of HDW contained within the climatology. The method for producing this climatology is documented and the application of the climatology to historical fire events is discussed. We show...

We studied the response to hurricanes of 2 Pinus caribaea Morelet var. hondurensis Barr. & Golf. (Honduran Pine) plantations and paired secondary forests over a period of 32 years (1982 to 2014). Plantations differed in age (38 and 53.5 years old), as did the paired secondary forests. The study included the passage of 2 hurricanes (1989 and 1998). The hurricanes altered forest structure by lowering the basal area and tree density, accelerated tree mortality to over 5% per year and ingrowth rate to over 200 stems/ha at the Cubuy plantation, caused variability and reduction in individual...

Two lignin-containing cellulose nanofibril (LCNF) samples, produced from two unbleached kraft pulps with very different lignin contents, were used to produce reinforced polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) hydrogels. The effects of LCNF loading (0.25−2wt %) and lignin content on the rheological and mechanical properties of the reinforced hydrogels were investigated. The 2 wt % LCNF-reinforced PVA hydrogels exhibited up to a 17-fold increase in storage modulus and a 4-fold increase in specific Young’s modulus over that of pure PVA hydrogel. Both the mechanical and rheological properties of LCNF-reinforce...

Fire weather indices are commonly used by fire weather forecasters to predict when weather conditions will make a wildland fire difficult to manage. Complex interactions at multiple scales between fire, fuels, topography, and weather make these predictions extremely difficult. We define a new fire weather index called the Hot-Dry-Windy Index (HDW). HDW uses the basic science of how the atmosphere can affect a fire to define the meteorological variables that can be predicted at synoptic-and meso-alpha-scales that govern the potential for the atmosphere to affect a fire. The new index is...