Treesearch

Habitat disturbance events are critical to ecological systems in which some bird species have become specialized. The vegetation community, reduced competition, ability to avoid predators, nest site characteristics, and forage opportunities within a disturbed ecosystem are all aspects that make it desirable for selection by particular species (Svardson 1949, Cody 1981, Martin 1998). Specifically, avian species rely on the forest conditions created by fire, insects, and disease (Brawn et al. 2001, Hunter et al. 2001, Devictor et al. 2008). In the Black Hills National Forest (BHNF) of South...

Wildfires present a complex applied risk management environment, but relatively little attention has been paid to behavioral and cognitive responses to risk among public agency wildfire managers. This study investigates responses to risk, including probability weighting and risk aversion, in a wildfire management context using a survey-based experiment administered to federal wildfire managers. Respondents were presented with a multi-attribute lottery-choice experiment where each lottery is defined by three outcome attributes: expenditures for fire suppression, damage to private property,...

Dead wood (DW) plays a critical role not only in maintaining biodiversity but also in stocking carbon under UNFCCC. From the 5th national forest inventory (NFI5; 2006-2010) in South Korea, field data relevant to the DW including standing and downed dead trees by four decay class, etc. were collected. Based on the NFI5 data, the average volume of DW over the country is estimated to be 12.3m3/ha of which the total carbon stock accounts for 10.9 Tg C. Recently, NFI6 (2011-2015) has been implemented into monitoring and assessing forest resources including DW over time. We are to analyze...

For nearly a decade, the USFS FIA, NASA, and the University of Maryland have collaborated on the NASA/NACP funded North American Forest Dynamics (NAFD) project, and developed new approaches for annual mapping of CONUS forest dynamics (1984-2011). Building on this foundation of empirical research and results, the collaboration will continue with a new Carbon Cycle Science Synthesis Research effort to improve the spatial and temporal estimation of forest related carbon emissions. This newly funded study will 1) produce annual age and biomass maps and 2) use these national products to advance...

For more than a decade, the U.S. forest carbon sink including carbon in harvested wood products has been persistently removing more than 200 million tons of carbon from the atmosphere, enough to offset 16% of CO2 emissions from fossil fuel use. Maintaining or increasing this valuable benefit of forests is an important element of the U.S. strategy to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions as part of the national commitment to the next global climate accord. Yet, doubts have been raised about the future of the U.S. forest carbon sink which is threatened by deforestation, increasing demand for...

The Forest Carbon Management Framework (ForCaMF) integrates Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) plot inventory data, disturbance histories, and carbon response trajectories to develop estimates of disturbance and management effects on carbon pools for the National Forest System. All appropriate FIA inventory plots are simulated using the Forest Vegetation Simulator (FVS) growth model to develop the carbon response trajectories for undisturbed, managed, and disturbance from fire, pests, and in some regions wind. The challenges presented by the number of plots, number of FVS variants,...

Forested lands, representing the largest terrestrial carbon sink in the United States, offset 16% of total U.S. carbon dioxide emissions through carbon sequestration. Meanwhile, this carbon sink is threatened by deforestation, climate change and natural disturbances. As a result, U.S. Forest Service policies require that National Forests assess baseline carbon stocks and influences of disturbance and management activities on carbon stocks and trends, with the goal of incorporating carbon stewardship into management activities. To accomplish these objectives, we utilize Forest Inventory and...

Forest ecosystems are an important component of the global carbon (C) cycle. Recent research has indicated that large trees in general, and old-growth forests in particular, sequester substantial amounts of C annually. C sequestration rates are thought to peak and decline with stand age but the timing and controls are not well-understood. The objectives of this study were to determine how the balance of tree growth, mortality, and dead wood decay vary by plant community type, site productivity, and stand age. We compiled remeasured tree and dead wood estimates from 8,767 inventory plots on...

Estimates of carbon stocks and stock changes in the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service’s Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Program are reported as the official United States submission to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Soil, as a critical component of the forest carbon stocks, has been sampled in about 10-year intervals in FIA with the re-measurement underway. However, the magnitude of detectable change in soil organic carbon (SOC) with the current sampling scheme is unknown. We aim to identify SOC variability and to best determine minimum detectable changes in...

Refined estimation of carbon (C) stocks within forest ecosystems is a critical component of efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate the effects of projected climate change through forest C management. Recent evidence has pointed to the importance of climate as a driver of belowground C stocks. This study describes an approach for adjusting allometric models of belowground C with climate-derived predictions of belowground C stocks and quantifies the change in reported belowground C stocks applied to the US National Greenhouse Gas Inventory (NGHGI). Climate-adjusted prediction...