Treesearch

As cities heat up and expand in area and population, urban forests offer a nature-based solution to enhance liveability and reduce rising temperatures in cities. However, urban forests are vulnerable to climate change and face costly establishment and maintenance challenges. Here we explore four key ecological and socioeconomic barriers to achieving resilient urban forests: species selection, tree supply, tree life cycle (establishment and maintenance, including irrigation) and community engagement. We discuss how integrating traditional urban forestry practices with emerging technology...

There are growing efforts to incorporate agroforestry into ecosystem service incentive programs. Indigenous and other place-based multi-strata agroforestry systems are important conservation and agricultural strategies, yet their ecosystem services, including carbon sequestration benefits, have received little research attention. To fill this gap, we draw on interviews with agroforestry practitioners and ecosystem service modeling in Hawaiʻi to: (1) create future scenarios of where fallow unmanaged agricultural and non-native dominated conservation lands could be transitioned to multi-strat...

Biocultural nature-based solutions provide many social, cultural, and ecological benefits. Yet, there has been little research on related land-sea societal benefits, hindering our ability to finance and scale these solutions. To help fill this gap, we evaluate the land-sea benefits of scaling biocultural restoration initiatives in Hawaiʻi, including multi-strata agroforestry and high-elevation silvopasture combined with native forest protection. We innovated and integrated a blue food production model into a land-sea modeling framework to illustrate the societal benefits of biocultural...

Geospatial products of land use and land cover are broadly used in many applications. The Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium, a group of Federal agencies with a common need for remote sensing data and derivative products, have developed a suite of a geospatial land use and land cover products, with broad use across a variety of applications. Increasingly, other Federal and non-Federal entities have produced additional land use and land cover datasets. With different mapping methodologies, thematic legends and definitions, and intended purposes, the broad array of...

Forest canopy height is a fundamental ecosystem property—influencing patterns of forest carbon storage and forest ecosystem responses to climate variability and change. Previous studies have analyzed environmental drivers influencing spatial variation in canopy height at landscape-to- regional scales; however, far less is known about the environmental determinants underlying regional and global scale variation in forest canopy height. Using the canopy height metrics products from Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI), a space-borne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) instrument...

Maple syrup has been produced in the United States for centuries. This production has been predominantly in the northeast states. Recent studies indicate promising maple syrup potential beyond the traditional boundaries. This study assesses the economic impacts of potential maple syrup production in Kentucky. Using the input-output analytical framework, likely producer price is considered at three maple syrup production potential levels. At a producer price of $9.48 per liter, the potential total impacts range from 336 jobs and $6.2 million in output at the lower production level to 1356...

Addressing climate change is a global priority. Life-cycle assessment (LCA) quantifies the carbon footprint of products and can provide strategies for climate change mitigation. This novel study analyzed the energy consumption of softwood sawmills and used attributional LCA to estimate cradle-to-gate environmental impacts of softwood lumber manufactured in California. Using a representative sample size, 16 California sawmills (capturing 88% of lumber production) were surveyed. Sawmills’ energy consumption was characterized and evaluated by fuel type and on-site energy generation for annual...

Mature forest cover for nesting and roosting currently plays a starring role in California spotted owl (Strix occidentalis occidentalis) habitat management, but spotted owls also depend on access to nearby mixed-age forest stands that support one of their main food sources, the dusky-footed woodrat (Neotoma fuscipes).

The larval stage of the army cutworm, Euxoa auxiliaris (Grote), is an agricultural pest in the Great Plains region of North America. Adult migration to alpine aggregation sites to escape extreme summer temperatures and depleted food resources provides a critical food resource for the grizzly bear, Ursus arctos horribilis (Linnaeus, Carnivora: Ursidae), in the Rocky Mountains. However, little is understood about the ecological consequences of the thermal tolerance of adult E. auxiliaris. Therefore, we investigated thermal tolerance of lab-reared and wild-caught individuals by assessing...

Canopy height models (CHMs) with sufficient resolution to distinguish individual trees are useful for a variety of applications. However, standard techniques to acquire such data, such as airborne lidar surveying, are often prohibitively expensive. Deep learning techniques for generating CHMs from high-resolution imagery are an attractive option to reduce costs. To date, success with these methods has been demonstrated using multichannel aerial photography and specialized satellite data products derived from multiple sensors, neither of which is commonly available at temporal resolutions...