Treesearch

Forest management that creates a diversity of prey habitats in ponderosa pine and mixed-conifer forests is beneficial to gos-hawks. The desired habitat diversity includes all tree age classes with a focus on older trees in fine-scale mosaics composed of groups of trees, scattered individual trees, large snags and logs and small openings with species-diverse and productive herbaceous-shrub communities.

Forests in the eastern United States have become fragmented by urban development and agriculture, creating a landscape of remnant forest patches. Many bird species rely on these fragments for breeding habitat, but habitat selection in these patches is not well-understood. Our objective was to examine the effects of forest structure, native plants, and invertebrate biomass on the occupancy of an assemblage of common Eastern songbird species in suburban forest fragments. We collected data at 98 plots in remnant forest patches in Delaware and Maryland. Avian point counts were conducted three...

Background: Restriction site associated DNA sequencing (RADseq) has the potential to be a broadly applicable, low-cost approach for high-quality genetic linkage mapping in forest trees lacking a reference genome. The statistical inference of linear order must be as accurate as possible for the correct ordering of sequence scaffolds and contigs to chromosomal locations. Accurate maps also facilitate the discovery of chromosome segments containing allelic variants conferring resistance to the biotic and abiotic stresses that threaten forest trees worldwide. We used ddRADseq for genetic...

Land transfer decisions for family forest owners (FFOs) potentially have large consequences for the critical public benefits these lands provide, but what triggers and influences the decisions are just beginning to be understood. The 2013 USA National Woodland Owner Survey provides an unprecedented set of national data to better understand near-term plans to sell or give away forestland either in its entirety or by subdividing. This study uses multinomial logit analysis to explore whether the likelihood of selling or giving away any or all of forestland within 5 years has some systematic...

Production of woody biomass for bioenergy, whether wood pellets or liquid biofuels, has the potential to cause substantial landscape change and concomitant effects on forest ecosystems, but the landscape effects of alternative production scenarios have not been fully assessed. We simulated landscape change from 2010 to 2050 under five scenarios of woody biomass production for wood pellets and liquid biofuels in North Carolina, in the southeastern United States, a region that is a substantial producer of wood biomass for bioenergy and contains high biodiversity. Modeled scenarios varied...

Domestic and foreign renewable energy targets and financial incentives have increased demand for woody biomass and bioenergy in the southeastern United States. This demand is expected to be met through purpose-grown agricultural bioenergy crops, short-rotation tree plantations, thinning and harvest of planted and natural forests, and forest harvest residues. With results from a forest economics model, spatially explicit state-and-transition simulation models, and species-habitat models, we projected change in habitat amount for 16 wildlife species caused by meeting a renewable fuel target...

For organisms with overlapping generations that occur in metapopulations, uncertainty remains regarding the spatiotemporal scale of inference of estimates of the effective number of breeders (Nb) and whether these estimates can be used to predict generational Ne. We conducted a series of tests of the spatiotemporal scale of inference of estimates of Nb in nine consecutive cohorts within a long-term study of brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis). We also tested a recently developed approach to estimate generational Ne from Nb and compared this to an alternative approach for estimating Ne that...

The inter-annual variability of southerly low-level jets (SLLJs) over North America during the warm (April–September) and cool (October–March) seasons is investigated. SLLJ occurrences over a 31-year period (1979–2009) were identified from the North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR) vertical wind profiles. The first empirical orthogonal function (EOF) modes of the SLLJ frequency during the warm and cool seasons account for about 30 and 20% of the total variance, respectively. Both modes can be interpreted as a strengthening or weakening of the core area of SLLJ anomalies. The principal...

Quantitative measures of site productivity provide critical information for management of forests. In this study, models were developed to predict site index (the average height of dominant/codominant trees at a specified base age) using data that encompassed the entire northeastern United States and a wide range of stand conditions. Regression analyses were conducted for 22 tree species/groups, with models utilizing breast-height age being presented. For 15 remaining species/groups having relatively low frequency of occurrence, empirical evaluations were performed to determine which of...

There is an increasing need for approaches to determine reference emission levels and implement policies to address the objectives of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, plus improving forest management, carbon stock enhancement and conservation (REDDC). Important aspects of approaching emissions reductions include coordination and sharing of technology, data, protocols and experiences within and among countries to maximize resources and apply knowledge to build robust monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) systems. We propose that enhancing the multiple...