Treesearch

The Cerambycidae comprise a large and diverse family of beetles with more than 36,000 species recognized worldwide (see Chapter 1). Cerambycids vary greatly in adult body length, from as short as 1.5mm long in the Caribbean twig-boring lamiine Decarthria stephensi Hope (Villiers 1980; Peck 2011) to as long as 167mm in the prionine Titanus giganteus (L.) (Bleuzen 1994), the larvae of which likely develop in decaying wood in South American rain forests. Cerambycids are native to all continents with the exception of Antarctica and can be found from sea level [e.g., the cerambycine Ceresium...

The phenology of diameter-growth cessation in trees will likely play a key role in mediating species and ecosystem responses to climate change. A common expectation is that warming will delay cessation, but the environmental and genetic influences on this process are poorly understood. We modeled the effects of temperature, photoperiod, and seed-source climate on diameter-growth-cessation timing in coast Douglas-fir (an ecologically and economically vital tree) using high-frequency growth measurements across broad environmental gradients for a range of genotypes from different seed...

This volume presents findings on, and implications for, wildlife conservation in the tropical forests in Garo Hills of Meghalaya state in the North East India. A companion volume presented the findings on forest fragmentation due to practice of slash and burn agriculture in the region. Both of the volumes summarize work completed over more than a decade on characterizing conditions of tropical forests in the Garo Hills of western Meghalaya State of North East India. The work has led to innovations in use of remote sensing information and tools and to suggestions for designing a protected...

Intense precipitation over a short duration is a major cause of flash floods. Using hourly rainfall data from the North America Land Data Assimilation System Phase 2 from 1979 to 2013, we compared the differences in the response of the subdaily extreme precipitation occurrences across the contiguous U.S. to strong anomalous warming over the eastern equatorial Pacific known as El Niño and over the central equatorial Pacific known as El Niño Modoki. For both types of anomalous equatorial Pacific warming, the teleconnection is much stronger in the cold season (November through April) than...

The increasing need to predict how climate change will impact wildlife species has exposed limitations in how well current approaches model important biological processes at scales at which those processes interact with climate. We used a comprehensive approach that combined recent advances in landscape and population modeling into dynamic-landscape metapopulation models (DLMPs) to predict responses of two declining songbird species in the central hardwoods region of the United States to changes in forest conditions from climate change. We modeled wood thrush (Hylocichla mustelina) and...

In the Appalachian Mountains of eastern North America, mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia) thickets in mixed-oak (Quercus spp.) stands can lead to hazardous fuel situations, forest regeneration problems, and possible forest health concerns. Therefore, land managers need techniques to control mountain laurel thickets and limit their deleterious effects. From 2001 to 2009, I compared the effectiveness of seven understory management techniques (two chemical, two fire, two mechanical, and an untreated control) for reducing mountain laurel thickets. All of the methods except the control decreased...

The U.S. Forest Service has found itself in an era of intense human activity, a changing climate; development and loss of open space; resource consumption; and problematic introduced species; and diversity in core beliefs and values. These challenges test our task-relevant maturity and the ability and willingness to meet the growing demands for services. The Forest Service is now on a transformative campaign to improve abilities and meet these challenges. The “All-Lands Approach to Conservation” brings agencies, organizations, landowners and stakeholders together across boundaries to...

Tropical forest management increasingly is challenged by multiple, complex, intersecting, and in many cases unprecedented changes in the environment that are triggered by human activity. Many of these changes are associated with the Anthropocene—a new geologic epoch in which humans have become a dominating factor in shaping the biosphere. Ultimately, as human activity increasingly influences systems and processes at multiple scales, we are likely to see more extraordinary and surprising events, making it difficult to predict the future with the level of precision and accuracy needed for...

The Madrean Sky Island region is an ecologically important area harboring exceptional biodiversity, including a unique avifauna that supports a thriving ecotourism industry in southeastern Arizona. This area has been impacted by several large wildfires in recent decades. These wildfires have altered vegetation composition and structure in forests and woodlands, and the effects of these changes on bird populations and distribution are not well understood. We studied occupancy and habitat associations of forest and woodland birds within five mountain ranges in southeastern Arizona from 1991...

This resource update provides an overview of forest resources in Indiana based on an inventory conducted by the U.S. Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program at the Northern Research Station in cooperation with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. Estimates are based on field data collected using the FIA annualized strategic sample design and are updated yearly. The current 2011-2016 sample set consists of 5,381 plots with 1,372 of them being forested or partially forested. In 2014, NRS-FIA changed to a 7-year inventory cycle, wherein 1/7th (14.3 percent) of the...