Treesearch

Gray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) populations have apparently declined across the Midwestern United States which may be reflected in their distributional patterns and occupancy. To assess the severity of gray fox population declines and potential changing space use patterns, we used two temporally independent datasets collected using camera traps at the same sites during 2008–2010 and 2022–2023 within a 16,058-km2 area of southern Illinois, USA. We then developed three predictive occupancy models that allowed comparison of gray fox spatial patterns and occupancy estimates over time. We...

Riverine fishes face many challenges including habitat degradation and climate change, which alter the productivity of the riverscapes in which fish live, reproduce, and feed. Understanding the watershed portfolio of foraging and growth opportunities that sustain productive and resilient fish populations is important for prioritizing conservation and restoration. However, the spatiotemporal distribution and availability of fish food are poorly understood relative to other factors such as abiotic habitat quantity and quality (e.g., water temperature). In this paper, we build on the concept...

Food webs vary in space and time. The structure and spatial arrangement of food webs are theorized to mediate temporal dynamics of energy flow, but empirical corroboration in intermediate-scale landscapes is scarce. River-floodplain landscapes encompass a mosaic of aquatic habitat patches and food webs, supporting a variety of aquatic consumers of conservation concern. How the structure and productivity of these patch-scale food webs change through time, and how floodplain restoration influences their dynamics, are unevaluated. We measured productivity and food-web dynamics across a mosaic...

As wildfire regimes shift, resource managers are concerned about potential threats to aquatic ecosystems and the species they support, especially fishes. However, predicting fish responses can be challenging because wildfires affect aquatic ecosystems via multiple pathways. Application of whole-ecosystem approaches, such as food web modeling, can act as heuristic tools that offer valuable insights that account for these different mechanisms. We applied a dynamic food web simulation model that mechanistically linked stream trophic dynamics to the myriad effects that wildfires can have on...

In the past three decades, Puerto Rico (PR) experienced five hurricanes that met or exceeded category three, and they caused severe forest structural damage and elevated tree mortality. To improve our mechanistic understanding of hurricane impacts on tropical forests and assess hurricane‐affected forest dynamics in Earth system models, we use in situ forest measurements at the Bisley Experimental Watersheds in Northeast PR to evaluate the Functionally Assembled Terrestrial Ecosystem Simulator coupled with the Energy Exascale Earth System Model Land Model (ELM‐FATES). The observations show...

In many parts of the western United States, wildfires are becoming larger and more severe, threatening the persistence of forest ecosystems. Understanding the ways in which management activities such as prescribed fire and managed wildfire can mitigate fire severity is essential for developing effective forest conservation strategies. We evaluated the effects of previous fuels reduction treatments, including prescribed fire and wildfire managed for resource benefit, and other wildfires on the burn severity of the 2022 Black Fire in southwestern New Mexico, USA. The Black Fire burned over...

This document contains abstracts and papers of the oral and poster presentations offered at the 31st annual U.S. Department of Agriculture interagency research forum on invasives species held in Annapolis, MD, in January 2023. The forum, sponsored by the Forest Service, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, National Institute of Food and Agriculture, and Agricultural Research Service, illustrates the depth and breadth of studies supported by the agencies and their cooperators.

Caribbean islands encompass diverse forest ecosystems which provide valuable ecosystem services to their inhabitants. Currently, researchers rely on global generic or broad regional models or default values to predict tree species growth rates, which, in some cases, have been developed in temperate forests. The ability to understand the factors influencing the growth rates of Caribbean forest ecosystems, including both native and non-native species, has implications for projecting changes in and managing these forests under climate change scenarios. The objective of this study was to...

Rangelands around the globe are experiencing management challenges associated with existing and emerging stressors, including more frequent and severe fires, woody species expansion, annual grass invasion, heavy, repeated growing season grazing, and climate change. Disturbance is an essential part of rangeland systems. Yet climate change is likely to affect rangelands most directly by increasing the likelihood, severity, and extent of long term, negative impacts from disturbance. We conducted a synthesis of key vulnerabilities to climate change for Northwest US rangelands. These rangelands...

Originally, forest sustainability was primarily concerned with continual timber production. Contemporary concepts such as sustainable forest management (SFM) and climate-smart forestry (CSF) emphasize the continual production of multiple forest goods and services, both market and non-market. In addition to the creation of new programs for CSF, recent legislation in the United States (US) has expanded the use of incentive programs traditionally used for subsidizing SFM to also support management activities that aid in climate adaptation and mitigation. Understanding landowner perceptions of...