Treesearch

Background: Plant lignocellulosic biomass is an abundant, renewable feedstock for the production of biobased fuels and chemicals. Previously, we showed that iron can act as a co-catalyst to improve the deconstruction of lignocellulosic biomass. However, directly adding iron catalysts into biomass prior to pretreatment is diffusion limited, and increases the cost of biorefinery operations. Recently, we developed a new strategy for expressing iron-storage protein ferritin intracellularly to accumulate iron as a catalyst for the downstream deconstruction of lignocellulosic biomass. In this...

Aldehyde-functionalized cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) were applied to synthesize Pt nanoparticles (NPs) on CNF surfaces via on-site Pt ion reduction and achieve high concentration and uniform Pt NP loading. ALD could then selectively deposit TiO2 on CNFs and keep the Pt NPs uncovered due to their drastically different hydro-affinity properties. The high-temperature ALD process also simultaneously improved the crystallinity of Pt NPs and decomposed the CNF template leaving a pure anatase phase TiO2 nanofiber network decorated with high-density Pt NPs (up to 11.05 wt%). The as-prepared fibrous...

Fungal decomposition of plant cell walls (PCW) is a complex process that has diverse industrial applications and huge impacts on the carbon cycle. White rot (WR) is a powerful mode of PCW decay in which lignin and carbohydrates are both degraded. Mechanistic studies of decay coupled with comparative genomic analyses have provided clues to the enzymatic components of WR systems and their evolutionary origins, but the complete suite of genes necessary for WR remains undetermined. Here, we use phylogenomic comparative methods, which we validate through simulations, to identify shifts in gene...

Loaded log trucks are commonly seen on Alabama’s state and county highways. In fact, 1.648 million truck loads of roundwood were harvested in Alabama in 2015. Many gallons of diesel fuel are used in transporting Alabama’s unprocessed forest products, but the majority of the diesel fuel taxes collected aren’t used to support and maintain the roads that loaded log trucks use. Two routes were examined to compare and contrast the impact of time, mileage, and weight restrictions. One route included interstate highway travel and the other avoided the interstate. Safety considerations were also...

The relatively small sampling intensities used by national forest inventories are often insufficient to produce the desired precision for estimates of population parameters unless the estimation process is augmented with auxiliary information, usually in the form of remotely sensed data. The k-Nearest Neighbors (k-NN) technique is a non-parametric,multivariate approach to prediction that has emerged as particularly popular for use with forest inventory and remotely sensed data and has been shown to contribute substantially to increasing precision. k-NN predictions are calculated as linear...

Long- term studies at local scales indicate that fluctuations in abundance among trophically similar species are often temporally synchronized. Complementary studies on synchrony across larger spatial extents are less common, as are studies that investigate the subsequent impacts on community dynamics across the landscape. We investigate the impact of species population fluctuations on concordance in community dynamics for the small mammal fauna of the White Mountain National Forest, USA. Hierarchical open population models, which account for imperfect detection, were used to model...

Background: Loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) is one of the most widely planted and commercially important foresttree species in the USA and worldwide, and is an object of intense genomic research. However, whole genomeresequencing in loblolly pine is hampered by its large size and complexity and a lack of a good reference. As avalid and more feasible alternative, entire exome sequencing was hence employed to identify the gene-associatedsingle nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and to genotype the sampled trees.Results: The exons were captured in the ADEPT2 association mapping population of 375...

This study evaluated high sulfur dioxide (SO2) loading in applying Sulfite Pretreatment to Overcome the Recalcitrance of Lignocelluloses (SPORL) to Douglas-fir forest residue (FS-10) for ethanol production through yeast fermentation. Three pretreatments were conducted at 140°C with a targeted total SO2 loading of 32 wt% on wood, or 80 g/L in the pretreatment liquor. Magnesium was used as the metal base with a targeted combined SO2 loading of 4.4 wt% on wood. A pretreatment duration of approximately 60 min was found sufficient to effectively remove the strong recalcitrance of FS-10...

Commercialization of cellulose nanomaterials (CNs) is rapidly advancing, to the benefit of many end-use product sectors, and providing information about the safe manufacturing and handling for CNs is a priority. Safety Data Sheets (SDS) are required for industrially produced materials to communicate information on their potential health, fire, reactivity, and environmental hazards, and to provide recommendations on how to safely work with these materials. Cellulose and cellulose pulp, which have widespread commercial end uses, can create nuisance dusts when dried and are required to have...

Long-term ecological data play a vital role in ecological conservation and restoration, however, using information from local forest soil pollen data to assist restoration remains a challenge. This study analyzed two data sets, including 1) surface soil pollen (0–5 cm) and current vegetation data from four near-natural communities and four plantations, and 2) fossil pollen from soil profiles (0–80 cm) from a regional climax community and a degraded land. The pollen representativeness and similarity indexes were calculated. The results showed a low similarity between soil pollen and current...