Treesearch

Society’s most vulnerable communities bear the burdens of a multitude of environmental shocks and stressors, which are increasingly likely to occur simultaneously or in quick succession. However, our understanding of where environmental risks accumulate across the United States and how determinants of multi-hazard risk vary within the country remains incomplete. This study offers a more comprehensive understanding of the national scope and underlying drivers of compounding environmental risks from five hazards (water shortage, air pollution, wildfire, flooding, and impaired water quality)...

Temperature regulates the location, frequency, and extent of irruptive forest insect herbivore outbreak cycles. Across the Pacific coastal temperate rainforest, recent outbreaks by a native defoliator, western blackheaded budworm, have impacted the greatest land area recorded since the advent of aerial detection programs and led to widespread losses of canopy leaf area and forest growth. Evidence suggests that the geographic distribution of budworm outbreaks has tracked a poleward shift in suitable temperature across the ecoregion. In this manuscript, we compile aerial observer estimates...

There is a vigorous debate around whether and how to manage forests for climate mitigation or for other goals such as biodiversity. To achieve any of these goals it is necessary to define the parameters within which they can exist; ideally, the metrics used to evaluate progress towards one goal should be able to speak to other goals, especially when there are competing objectives at play. In the pitch pine (Pinus rigida) dominated coastal plain of New Jersey, open-canopy habitats are the locus of biodiversity, so we sought to define ‘open-canopy’ using a common metric of forest occupancy,...

High-elevation subalpine forests are experiencing rapid changes in climatic conditions, biological disturbances, and wildfire regimes. Despite this, evidence is mixed as to whether they will undergo major ecological transformation or be resilient to a confluence of global change drivers. Here we use subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa) and Englemann spruce (Picea engelmannii), which form co-dominant forests through much of the western United States, to investigate how species' demographic responses to global change influence forest community-wide resilience. We do this by adapting and building...

Over 95% of original longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) (LLP) forests have been converted toother land uses, including loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L) (LOP), croplands, urban uses during the past two centuries in the southeastern United States (U.S.) for socioeconomic developments. Restoring the LLP forests represents a contemporary forest management objective to improve wildlife habitat, water yield, and overall ecosystem services and resilience to a changing climate. Given the importance of understanding ecohydrological processes for guiding restoration efforts, this study compared evapotransp...

Ground-based measurements of smoke from prescribed fires in the southeastern US during the burning seasons of 2021 through 2024 are used to assess ozone (O3) and PM2.5 mass formation and their changes with age in 69 smoke events. O3 production occurred in nearly all plumes (31 out of 32) measured between 12:00 and 18:00. The O3 to carbon monoxide ratio (ΔO3/ΔCO) increased from 5.32 to 143 ppb ppm−1 as plumes aged from 1 to 480 min, showing a rapid initial increase, doubling in approximately 60 min, followed by a gradual slow down. Residual O3 from daytime fires was detected during the...

Recent changes of tree species demography in Texas likely can be attributed to climatic disturbances, particularly hot drought (i.e., drought exacerbated by extreme heat). In this study, we examined demographic change over East, Central and West Texas over a 16-year period (2004–2019), including a widely documented 2011 hot drought event. We used Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data to evaluate changes in tree count for the nine most abundant tree genera in Texas. Furthermore, we examined the associations between tree demography and the distribution of climate variables including the...

Trap colour can be an important consideration in detection programmes for arboreal and saproxylic beetles. Green and purple intercept traps are more attractive than black intercept traps to the emerald ash borer, Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire (Coleoptera: Buprestidae), an invasive species in North America. In four experiments, I tested three commercial multiple-funnel traps (green, purple, and black), baited with various lure blends, to determine the relative effects of trap colour on catches of other bark and woodboring beetles, and their associated predator species, in north–central...

Agroforestry offers producers climate mitigation and adaptation benefits and the opportunity to diversify income and enhance ecosystem services. Though these benefits are well-researched, few studies document agroforestry implementation through time in the United States using consistent national data sources. To fill this knowledge gap, we investigated changes in the number of farm operations with agroforestry across the United States using data from the 2017 and 2022 United States Census of Agriculture. Through this analysis, we showed that the number of farm operations with agroforestry...

Managers often rely on predictions of species distributions and habitat suitability to inform conservation and management decisions. Although numerous approaches are available to develop models to make these predictions, few approaches exist to update existing models as new data accumulate. There is a need for updatable models to ensure good modeling practices in an aim to keep pace with change in the environment and change in data availability to continue to use the best-available science to inform decisions. We demonstrated a workflow to deliver predictive models to user groups within...