Treesearch

The third full annual inventory of Iowa's forests (2009-2013) indicates that just under 3 million acres of forest land exists in the State, 81 percent of which is in family forest ownership. Almost all of Iowa's forest land is timberland (96 percent), with an average volume of more than 1,000 cubic feet of growing stock per acre on timberland and more than 1,500 cubic feet of all live volume (for trees at least 5 inches diameter at breast height) per acre on timberland. American elm and eastern hophornbeam are the most numerous tree species, but bur oak and silver maple predominate in...

Questions: How do stand-level biomass and percentage of deadmaterial in chaparral vary as a function of stand age? How do the landscape properties of aggregation index and patch size vary in each of the dominant species groups as a function of stand age? Location: Stands of 7-, 28-and 68-yr-old chaparral, San Diego County, CA, US. Methods: We sampled and estimated above-ground biomass in 8 m 9 8m field plots. Each stand was classified into species groups using high-resolution imagery. After establishing coefficients for the average biomass per area for each species group and stand age...

We used a 10-year data set to illustrate the long-term correlates of wildfire on avian species richness in the ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests of northern Arizona. This study was conducted in the vicinity of the Horseshoe and Hochderffer Fires, which occurred in 1996, and sampling began 1 year after the fires. Using point-count data from breeding seasons, we described how avian species richness, local colonization, and local extinction changed over time following the wildfires. We used Bayesian hierarchical models to describe occupancy as a function of burn severity (severe,...

In areas with increasing demand for water, addressing water use objectives has long been a primary environmental objective and key concern among industrial water users including paper mills and other forest product companies. However, in recent years, water use metrics and related information (including population change, climate information, and land use characterization) have gained considerable importance to companies for addressing longer-term goals pertaining to growth and sustainability when it comes to water availability. One effort underway, lead by the National Council for Air &...

This resource update provides an overview of the forest resources in Pennsylvania based on inventories conducted by the U.S. Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program of the Northern Research Station (NRS). Estimates are based on field data collected using the FIA annualized sample design and are updated yearly1(see footnote 1, page 2). Information about the national and regional FIA program is available online at http://fia.fs.fed.us. Since 2000, FIA has implemented an annual inventory in Pennsylvania. For the 2015 inventory, estimates for current variables, such as...

Wetlands impart many important ecosystem services, including maintenance of water quality, regulation of the climate and hydrological flows, and enhancement of biodiversity through the provision of food and habitat. The conversion of natural lands to agriculture has led to broad scale historic wetland loss, but current US Department of Agriculture conservation programs and practices seek to replace or ameliorate the ecosystem services lost to agricultural conversion.

The purpose of this research is to explore water science methodologies in determining the source of sedimentation in the Guam Pago Watershed. Watersheds provide drinking water, an agricultural water source, and forms of recreation.

The National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) and the Carolinas Integrated Sciences and Assessments (CISA), a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)- funded Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments (RISA) program, are partnering to develop and support a Carolinas Drought Early Warning System pilot program. Research and projects focus on the unique coastal ecosystems in North and South Carolina.

Variations in evapotranspiration (ET) have been well documented across a variety of forest types and climates in recent decades; however, most of these data have focused on mature, secondgrowth stands. Here we present data on two important fluxes of water, canopy interception (Ic) and forest floor litter interception (Iff), across a chronosequence of forest age in the southern Appalachian Mountains.

Widespread mortality of eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) through hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA) infestation has altered riparian forest structure and function throughout the southern Appalachians. Eastern hemlock and Rhododendron maximum often co-occur in these riparian forests, where the latter species is highly shade tolerant, forms a dense shrub layer that strongly attenuates light incident on the forest floor, has little to no herbaceous cover below its canopy, negatively affects tree seedling recruitment, and decreases nitrogen availability in the soil and litter layer to non-ericaceou...