Treesearch

Brunnichia ovata (Walter) Shinners is a native, perennial, woody vine with the potential to become an aggressive competitor of the federally endangered shrub Lindera melissifolia (Walt.) Blume. Our study simulated habitat disturbances to hydrologic regime and light availability that may occur naturally, or through active management practices aimed at ensuring the sustainability of L. melissifolia, and we determined the species responses to these changes. First-year plants of L. melissifolia and B. ovata were grown at varying densities, in flooding or nonflooding treatments, and receiving...

The Turkey Creek watershed is a third-order coastal plain stream system draining an area of approximately 5,240 hectares of the Francis Marion National Forest and located about 37 miles northwest of Charleston near Huger, South Carolina. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service maintained a streamflow gaging station on Turkey Creek from 1964 to 1981.

Since the establishment of a collaborative study 10 years ago, research on the third-order, 5240 ha forested Turkey Creek watershed in South Carolina’s coastal plain has advanced the understanding of rainfall-runoff relationships, stream hydrograph characteristics, and water table dynamics for dominant soil types. Surface water dynamics were shown to be regulated primarily by the water table, which is dependent upon precipitation and evapotranspiration. The baseflow is, however, highly variable, resulting in zero streamflow about one-third of the time, on average. These processes regulate...

This resource update provides an overview of timber product output (TPO) and use in Michigan based on questionnaires designed to determine the size and composition of the State's primary wood-using industry, its use of roundwood, and its generation and disposition of wood residues. This study was a cooperative effort between the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MI-DNR) and the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) unit at the Northern Research Station (NRS) of the U.S. Forest Service. The MI-DNR surveys all known primary wood-using mills and FIA processes and analyzes the survey...

In 2010, there were 417 active primary wood-using mills in Minnesota. These mills processed 238.8 million cubic feet of industrial roundwood. There was 226.1 million cubic feet of industrial roundwood harvested from Minnesota forests. The majority of roundwood harvested was pulpwood, accounting for 61 percent of the total. The harvesting of industrial roundwood products generated 110.6 million cubic feet of harvest residues. Primary wood-processing mills generated 1.5 million green tons of mill residues.

Increased popularity of recreational activities in natural areas has led to the need to better understand their impacts on wildlife. The majority of research conducted to date has focused on behavioral effects from individual recreations, thus there is a limited understanding of the potential for population-level or cumulative effects. Brown bears (Ursus arctos) are the focus of a growing wildlife viewing industry and are found in habitats frequented by recreationists. Managers face difficult decisions in balancing recreational opportunities with habitat protection for wildlife. Here, we...

Realizing the benefits of tree planting programs depends on tree survival. Projections of urban forest ecosystem services and cost-benefit analyses are sensitive to assumptions about tree mortality rates. Long-term mortality data are needed to improve the accuracy of these models and optimize the public investment in tree planting. With more accurate population projections, urban forest managers can also plan for cycles of tree planting, death, removal, and replacement to achieve canopy cover goals. Analytical tools from demography, such as life tables and mortality curves, could be used...

Insects are among the world's most ecologically and economically important invasive species. Here we assemble inventories of native and nonnative species from 20 world regions and contrast relative numbers among these species assemblages. Multivariate ordination indicates that the distribution of species among insect orders is completely different between native and non-native assemblages. Some orders, such as the Psocoptera, Dictyoptera, Siphonaptera, Thysanoptera, and Hemiptera, are always over-represented in the non-native compared to native assemblages. Other orders, such as the...

Biogeochemical cycles are inherently linked through the stoichiometric demands of the organisms that cycle the elements. Landscape disturbance can alter element availability and thus the rates of biogeochemical cycling. Nitrification is a fundamental biogeochemical process positively related to plant productivity and nitrogen loss from soils to aquatic systems, and the rate of nitrification is sensitive to both carbon and nitrogen availability. Yet how these controls influence nitrification rates at the landscape scale is not fully elucidated. We, therefore, sampled ten watersheds with...

Prescribed fire is increasingly being viewed as a valuable tool for mitigating the ecological consequences of long-term fire suppression within fire-adapted forest ecosystems. While the use of burning treatments in northern temperate conifer forests has at times received considerable attention, the long-term (>10 years) effects on forest structure and development have not been quantified. We describe the persistence of prescribed fire effects in a mature red pine (Pinus resinosa Ait.)-dominated forest in northern Minnesota, USA over a ∼50 year period, as well as the relative roles of fire...