Treesearch

For decades, wood scientists and preservative formulators have employed the monocultured soil bottle assay to test efficacy of wood treatment in the laboratory as a rapid predictor of field performance. This study examines the effects of bicultured soil bottle assays on the decay by common wood decay fungi. Mycelial interactions were noted in early stages of colonization. With only two exceptions, a single fungus was apparent in each soil bottle, indicating dominance. The dominant fungi were not always the most efficient wood rots, and the rot type, white or brown, did not affect the...

The process sulfite pretreatment to overcome recalcitrance of lignocelluloses (SPORL) has been the focus of this study. Pilot-scale (50 kg) pretreatment of wood chips of lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta Douglas ex Loudon) killed by mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins) were conducted at 165°C with a dilute sulfite solution of pH 2 for bioconversion to ethanol and lignosulfonate (LS). The pretreatment duration was optimized in laboratory bench scale experiments with a certain severity based on a combined hydrolysis factor (CHF). The sodium bisulfite loading was 8% and the...

A young man or woman joins the military. He or she goes to war. Soldiers are trained and expected to follow orders and support the war effort. Likewise, military families are expected to support the military and, therefore, also support the war. As C. Wright Mills put it, “In the military world, debate is no more at a premium than persuasion: one obeys and one commands.” But what happens when military veterans and their families turn toward antiwar political activism?

There is growing interest in the implications of military service for the political attitudes, behaviors, and activism of military veterans. This article considers how promission and antiwar veterans’ narrate their experiences of becoming political activists and the mechanisms that effect that transition. The research draws on narratives from 40 members of the antiwar organization Iraq Veterans against the War and 28 members of the promission organization Vets for Freedom. Using ‘‘exemplars’’ from opposing political groups, the article reveals the shared process of politicization for both...

Total on-site energy requirements for wood product manufacturing are generally not well understood or publicly available, particularly at subregional scales, such as the state level. This article uses a mail survey of softwood sawmills in Montana to develop a profile of all on-site energy consumption. Energy use is delineated by fuel type on a production basis for both renewable and nonrenewable sources for production year 2009. Survey respondents represented 92 percent of total Montana softwood lumber production of 449 million board feet, which is 4 percent of western US production and 2...

Our explanation of the phenomenon differs from other researchers. Inasmuch as reproductive tissue contains little or no chlorophyll, we suggest that the flowers emerge from areas of the stems that receive abundant PAR, not because the reproductive tissue itself requires exposure to PAR. Because the translocation of photosynthates in cacti is difficult and energetically expensive, positioning of reproductive tissue in zones of the stems with high photosynthetic capacity is more energetically efficient. In addition, the Atacama Desert is not particularly warm. Exposure of flowers to solar...

Gene flow between Dalmatian toadflax (DT) and yellow toadflax (YT), both aggressive invaders throughout the Intermountain West, is creating hybrid populations potentially more invasive than either parent species. To determine the direction of gene flow in these hybrid populations, species-diagnostic cytoplasmic markers were developed. Markers were based on polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCRRFLP) polymorphisms in the trnT-D chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) region digested with Alu1, and single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the matK and trnL-F chloroplast-barc...

To detect and avoid illegal logging of valuable tree species, identification methods for the origin of timber are necessary. We used next-generation sequencing to identify chloroplast genome regions that differentiate the origin of white oaks from the three continents; Asia, Europe, and North America. By using the chloroplast genome of Asian Q. mongolica as a reference, we identified 861 variant sites (672 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs); 189 insertion/deletion (indel) polymorphism) from representative species of three continents (Q. mongolica from Asia; Q. petraea and Q. robur from...

We describe an efficient five-step, enantioselective synthesis of (R,R)- and (S,S)-lignin dimer models possessing a B-O-4 linkage, by using the Evans chiral aldol reaction as a key step. Mitsunobu inversion of the (R,R)- or (S,S)-isomers generates the corresponding (R,S)- and (S,R)-diastereomers. We further extend this approach to the enantioselective synthesis of a lignin trimer model. These lignin models are synthesized with excellent ee (>99%) and high overall yields. The lignin dimer models can be scaled up to provide multigram quantities that are not attainable by using previous...

Since 1960, the Forest Service has been guided by the multiple-use concept, which recognizes five major uses for public lands—timber, water, range, recreation, and fish and wildlife habitat—and mandates that all five should be equally considered in management plans. In recent decades, however, it has become evident that people also value many other benefits offered by the natural world, such as support for indigenous cultures and sustainable communities, protection for endangered species, and carbon sequestration. The “ecosystem services” concept has emerged as a way to describe a much...