Treesearch

The association between invasive plants and disturbance is well-documented. Most forest management regimes include disturbance (i.e., harvesting and fire) to improve regeneration of native plants, such as oaks. There is a need for land managers of northeastern forests to foster regeneration of native species without promoting invasive species establishment. We evaluated the germination, first-year survival, and growth of three exotic plants (Ailanthus altissima, Alliaria petiolata, and Microstegium vimineum) in 56 uninvaded forest stands located in five management regimes (control, single...

Land use and management activities have a substantial impact on carbon stocks and associated greenhouse gas emissions and removals. However, it is challenging to discriminate between anthropogenic and non-anthropogenic sources and sinks from land. To address this problem, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change developed a managed land proxy to determine which lands are contributing anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and removals. Governments report all emissions and removals from managed land to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change based on this proxy, and...

A long-term study on the Fernow Experimental Forest (FEF) in West Virginia provided an opportunity to test for differences in the timber quality of trees harvested from three silvicultural practices (HarvestType): diameter-limit, patch cutting, and single-tree selection. The effects of HarvestType and site index (SI) over time on the harvested proportion of trees with grade 1 butt logs within a compartment were tested using a repeated-measures linear mixed model. HarvestType*Time was a significant interaction (P = 0.0018) and SI had a slight positive effect (P = 0.0036). When examining the...

The South’s production of pulpwood decreased from 63.7 million cords in 2012 to 62.9 million cords in 2013. Roundwood production decreased by 68,000 cords to 49.4 million cords and accounted for 79 percent of the South’s total pulpwood production. The use of wood residue dropped 6 percent to 13.5 million cords in 2013. Alabama and Georgia led the South in total production, with 10.0 million cords each. In 2013, 81 mills were operating and drawing wood from the 13 Southern States.

Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. glauca (Mayr) Franco), and western larch (Larix occidentalis Nutt.) are species of ecological and commercial importance that occur throughout the Western United States. Effective reforestation of these species relies on successful seedling establishment, which is affected by planting stock quality, stocktype size, and site preparation techniques. This study examined the effects of container volume (80, 130, 200, and 250 cm3) and vegetative competition on seedling survival and physiological and morphological responses for two years, post-outplanting....

Cities around the world are investing in urban forest plantings as a form of green infrastructure. The aim is that these plantations will develop into naturally-regenerating native forest stands. However, woody plant recruitment is often cited as the most limiting factor to creating self-sustaining urban forests. As such, there is interest in site treatments that promote recruitment of native woody species and simultaneously suppress woody non-native recruitment. We tested how three, common site treatments—compost, nurse shrubs, and tree species composition (six-species vs. two-species)—aff...

High lignin-containing cellulose nanocrystals (HLCNCs) were successfully isolated from hydrothermally treated aspen fibers and freeze-dried and compounded with poly (lactic acid) (PLA) by extrusion and injection molding. As a comparison, PLA composites containing commercial lignin-coated CNCs (BLCNCs) were also produced. HLCNCs showed higher crystallinity, larger surface area, lower degree of agglomeration, and more hydrophobic surfaces compared to BLCNCs, as characterized by electron microscopy, surface area measurements, thermal analysis, spectroscopy and water contact angle measurements....

Many projects have identified candidate genes for resistance to aflatoxin accumulation or Aspergillus flavus infection and growth in maize using genetic mapping, genomics, transcriptomics and/or proteomics studies. However, only a small percentage of these candidates have been validated in field conditions, and their relative contribution to resistance, if any, is unknown. This study presents a consolidated list of candidate genes identified in past studies or in-house studies, with descriptive data including genetic location, gene annotation, known protein identifiers, and associated...

The South’s production of pulpwood decreased from 62.9 million cords in 2013 to 61.8 million cords in 2014. Roundwood production decreased by 307,000 cords to 49.7 million cords and accounted for 80 percent of the South’s total pulpwood production. The use of wood residue dropped 10 percent to 12.1 million cords in 2014. Alabama and Georgia led the South in total production, with 10.2 million cords each. In 2014, 81 mills were operating and drawing wood from the 13 Southern States.

Oak (Quercus spp.) and hickory (Carya spp.) forests in the eastern United States provide a host of ecosystem services as their mast are prized by wildlife, the timber is a valued commodity, and they are generally more tolerant of extreme weather events under a changing climate. They are, however, undergoing a severe decline in prominence throughout the region, yielding to more mesic and shade-tolerant species, largely red maple (Acer rubrum). Two decades of research in Ohio have shown that silviculture and/or natural disturbances that reduce understory shade during seedling establishment...