Treesearch

Distribution shift, a phenomenon in machine learning characterized by a change in input data distribution between training and testing, can reduce the predictive accuracy of deep learning models. As operator and hardware conditions at the time of training are not always consistent with those after deployment, computer vision wood identification (CVWID) models are potentially susceptible to the negative impacts of distribution shift in the field. To maximize the robustness of CVWID models, it is critical to evaluate the influence of distribution shifts on model performance. In this study, a...

Hardwood porosity domains (diffuse-, semi-ring-, and ring-porosity) exist along a spectrum with some taxa embodying only one porosity domain and others spanning more than one. A cascading model scheme involving a root-level porosity classifier and second-level taxonomical classifiers might be useful for mitigating reductions in the predictive accuracy of North American computer vision wood identification (CVWID) models when the number of classes increases. Thus far, the porosity classifier has been trained on images covering the breadth of the porosity spectrum. By reducing ambiguity near...

The USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory, was asked to inspect the timber frame that supports the USS Cairo, a historic civil war ship at the Vicksburg National Military Park in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Because the display of the historic ship and its support structure are located outdoors and are exposed to the elements, there is concern about deterioration from decay of the support structure. This report summarizes the results obtained from the inspection and assessment. It includes a summary of observations, wood species identification, and recommendations. The timber support...

Lignin possesses diverse bioactivities due to its unique physicochemical structure. This study investigates the structural-bioactivity relationships of lignin derived from maleic acid hydrotropic fractionation (MAHF) of two types of herbaceous biomass. The results indicated that lignin with higher phenolic hydroxyl (-OH) content (up to 2.0 mmol/g) and carboxyl (-COOH) groups (up to 0.89 mmol/g) exhibited significantly enhanced antioxidant activity. The highest antioxidant of MAHF lignin (MAHL) reached 98 % for scavenging DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-(2,4,6-trinitrophenyl)hydrazyl) at 0.56 mg/mL....

Urban populations adjacent to forested areas value water-related ecosystem services and recreational opportunities. However, maintaining these benefits requires active forest management through thinning and prescribed burns, infrastructure development as well as issues of equity. These activities can also lead to public concerns over access fees, smoke emissions, and perceived negative impacts on forest health. This study aims to understand the tradeoffs between public preferences and forest management objectives in Wildland-Urban Interface montane forests. We employed an online survey...

Tropical forests may be nearing critical temperatures, yet tree species may respond differently. Using high-resolution thermal, hyperspectral, and LiDAR imagery, we mapped 652 crowns of four Hawaiian tree species to study the effects of crown traits and abiotic conditions on species’ temperatures at two scales (whole crown vs. sunlit leaves). We show scale-dependent, species-specific relationships with environmental fluctuations. Net radiation was consistently the dominant determinant of crown temperature deviations from air temperature (Tdiff), while vapor pressure deficit, wind speed,...

We assessed the relative capacity of key global wood baskets in Latin America and Asia to determine their ability to meet increases in demands for pulp and paper, or to grow trees to store forest carbon. Drawing from the Trillion Trees proposal in 2020, a central aim of the research was to determine if a single country could plant an additional 10 million hectares (ha) by 2030. We analyzed secondary information from publicly available literature about the forest sector, forest plantations, and forest restoration in various countries. We screened land use types from the FAO data base to...

In this study, the effects of adhesives on the bonding performance of both southern yellow pine (SYP) and red maple plywood were investigated. Phenol–formaldehyde (PF), polymeric diphenylmethane diisocyanate (pMDI), phenol–resorcinol–formaldehyde (PRF), and polyurethane (PUR) were evaluated. This allowed us to understand the difference between thermosetting and cold-setting adhesives, as well as phenolic and isocyanate ones. Three-ply plywoods were fabricated using red maple veneers (Acer rubrum) for hardwood plywood specimens and using SYP (Pinus spp.) for softwood plywood specimens. The...

U.S. National Forest Service units in California are increasingly vulnerable to wildfires that could result in people being displaced during and after these events. The purpose of our study was to identify characteristics of national forest users potentially displaced due to recreation site closures from a wildfire event. This information is useful for managers to inform public outreach strategies. Our study focused on California’s Los Padres National Forest, which is a popular recreation area and has five resident communities. First, we produced a burn probability map using the FlamMap...

The forests of coastal Alaska and British Columbia are globally significant for their high carbon storage capacity and complex forest structure, hosting some of the densest values of aboveground biomass in the world. These ecosystems support biodiversity, provide critical habitat, and serve as long-term carbon sinks, offering resilience to climate change. However, comprehensive, spatially continuous estimates of forest structure across this region have been limited, particularly across political boundaries. In this study, we used a Gradient Nearest Neighbor (GNN) modeling approach to...