Treesearch

The Lichen Communities Indicator is a sensitive indicator of forest health changes caused by air quality, climate change, and other stressors. To date, more than 8,000 epiphytic lichen surveys have been collected across the Nation by the Forest Inventory Analysis (FIA) and Forest Health Monitoring (FHM) Programs and their partners (table 7.1; Phelan and others 2012).

Fire in the Ozark Highlands was historically used by Native Americans (Guyette and others 2002). Early European settlers continued to burn the landscape to manage livestock forage. In the late 1800s, people began to harvest timber, cutting first pine trees and later oak (Flader 2008).

Hickory decline, particularly decline in bitternut hickory (Carya cordiformis) and to a lesser extent in shagbark hickory (C. ovata), has recently been noted in Iowa, Maryland, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Wisconsin (Steinman 2004).

Savanna ecosystems historically comprised more than 10 million ha of the Midwestern United States, forming a transition zone between western prairies and eastern deciduous forest that extended from Texas into Canada (Nuzzo 1986).

Laurel wilt disease (LWD) is caused by the fungus Raffaelea lauricola and vectored by the redbay ambrosia beetle (RAB), Xyleborus glabratus (Fraedrich and others 2008). The pathogen and vector were apparently introduced from Asia through the Port of Savannah, and the disease has spread rapidly throughout the lower coastal plains forests in Georgia, killing nearly all large, previously abundant redbay (Persea borbonia)1 trees in its path.

Climate change poses challenges for the Southwest, where an already parched region is expected to get hotter and, in its southern half, significantly drier (Garfin et al. 2013). Increased heat and sustained drought will stress water sources and redefine urban landscapes. As landscapes gradually evolve from lush to xeric, tolerance of trees to water-related stress resulting from excess irrigation today and deficit irrigation tomorrow will become increasingly important. This article describes a 14-year evaluation of seven drought tolerant species that were obtained from a nursery in the arid...

The family Tricholomataceae, contained within the Tricholomatoid clade, has traditionally been one of the largest families of the Agaricales. However, in this sense it is highly polyphyletic and requires emendation. Here, we present a phylogeny of the Tricholomatoid clade based on nucleotide sequence data from two nuclear ribosomal RNA genes (large subunit and small subunit) and the second-largest subunit of RNA polymerase II (rpb2). Our aim is to delimit the Tricholomataceae and identify monophyletic groups within the Tricholomatoid clade. We also infer a separate phylogeny, based on the...

The annual national report of the Forest Health Monitoring Program of the Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, presents forest health status and trends from a national or multi-State regional perspective using a variety of sources, introduces new techniques for analyzing forest health data, and summarizes results of recently completed Evaluation Monitoring projects funded through the national Forest Health Monitoring Program. Survey data are used to identify geographic patterns of insect and disease activity. Satellite data are employed to detect geographic clusters of forest...

Forests cover a vast area of the United States: 304 million ha, or approximately one-third of the Nation’s land area (Smith and others 2009). These forests possess substantial ecological and socioeconomic importance. Both their ecological integrity and their continued capacity to provide goods and services are of concern in the face of a long list of threats, including insect and disease infestation, fragmentation, catastrophic fire, invasive species, and the effects of climate change.