Treesearch

Forests contribute to the nutritional and medicinal needs of billions of people worldwide. In the United States, the extent and impacts of provisioning forest foods are not fittingly understood. This study seeks to elucidate the scope and scale of forest food harvest. Using publicly available data, hunting surveys and proprietary data from the Wild Harvest Initiative®, we provide estimates of the amount of foods and medicines from wild-harvested flora and fauna, and meat produced from domesticated livestock grazed on public forest lands. The evidence strongly supports the assertion that...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service is required to monitor National Forest System (NFS) lands to assess whether management plans are maintaining or restoring ecological integrity. As part of this monitoring effort, each planning unit is required to select at least one focal species - or one focal species assemblage - that represents a specific aspect of ecological integrity or management plan effectiveness. The planning unit can then make inferences about ecological integrity by monitoring this focal species or assemblage. Although selecting a focal species may seem simple,...

Root nodule symbiosis is traditionally recognized in the Fabales, Fagales, Cucurbitales, and Rosales orders within the Rosid I clade of angiosperms. However, ambiguous root nodule formation has been reported in Zygophyllaceae and Roystonea regia (Arecaceae), although a detailed analysis has yet to be conducted. We aimed to perform morphological analyses of root structures in these plants and utilize metagenomic techniques to identify and characterize the bacterial populations within the nodule-like structures. We collected root samples of Tribulus terrestris (Zygophyllaceae) and Roystonea...

Spodoptera litura Fabricius (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) is a major agricultural pest, primarily in Asia and Oceania. Chemical odor-based trapping is a major method used to control S. litura, and thus understanding the antennal sensilla of S. litura is critical for improving the efficacy of attractants used in pest control. In the present study, the types of S. litura antennal sensilla were examined by low-voltage field emission scanning electron microscopy, and morphological descriptions were provided. A total of eight types and two subtypes of the antennal sensilla were identified, namely...

1. Urban natural area forests provide cities with crucial ecosystem services, including carbon storage and sequestration. Although previous work from a single city has suggested that urban natural area forests may be carbon-rich and dominated by native species, it is unclear if that pattern is widespread. Indeed, little is known about the species composition and carbon storage in these green spaces, or how urban natural area forests compared with similar rural forests. 2. Here, we use data collected by the Forests in Cities network to quantify carbon stored in urban natural area forests...

Evidence of unintended introductions of Phytophthoraspecies into native habitats has become increasingly prevalent in California. If not managed adequately, Phytophthoraspecies can become devastating agricultural and forest plant pathogens. Additionally, California’s natural areas, characterized by a Mediterranean climate and dominated by chaparral (evergreen, drought-tolerant shrubs) and oak woodlands, lack sufficient baseline knowledge on Phytophthorabiology and ecology, hindering effective management efforts. From 2018 to 2021, soil samples were collected from Angeles National Forest...

Background. The increased interest in why and how trees die from fire has led to several syntheses of the potential mechanisms of fire-induced tree mortality. However, these generally neglect to consider experimental methods used to simulate fire behaviour conditions. Aims. To describe, evaluate the appropriateness of and provide a historical timeline of the different approaches that have been used to simulate fire behaviour in fire-induced tree mortality studies. Methods. We conducted a historical review of the different actual and fire proxy methods that have been used to further our...

Soil respiration plays a key role in regulating ecosystem CO2 emissions and atmospheric concentrations. However, because it is highly sensitive to the environment and has large temporal and spatial variability, its contribution to the global carbon cycle remains highly uncertain. Recent advances in ecosystem process models have uniquely constrained soil respiration rates, largely based on results from tracing ecosystem CO2 losses using radioisotope and stable isotope methods. However, the computational requirements of process-based models at large scales are costly, limiting their applicati...

Temperate agroforestry practices offer various ecological, social, and economic benefits. However, data surrounding drivers of adoption for agroforestry in the U.S. remains limited. A survey of Missouri agricultural land managers was conducted to determine the extent of agroforestry adoption in the state, current knowledge and perceptions of agroforestry, and interest in implementing agroforestry practices. A choice experiment model was employed to assess participants’ willingness to accept (WTA) payment for adopting agroforestry practices and to determine land managers’ valuation of...

Prescribed fires can be a significant source of air pollution with negative consequences for public health and safety. Therefore, smoke management is a key element in the planning and execution of prescribed fires. Emission factors (EF), which quantify the relative abundance of pollutants released by wildland fires, are a needed input for the emission calculations which are essential to effective smoke management. A key challenge when conducting prescribed fires near sensitive receptors such as roadways, communities, and outdoor recreational sites, is limiting smoke production from...