Treesearch

Solanum aethiopicum L. is native to sub-Saharan Africa but is now found in many parts of the world. It is used for food, medicinal, and ornamental purposes. It has also been used as a rootstock for tomato and common eggplant because of its resistance to certain pathogens. However, very little is known about its genetics, so the purpose of this work was to assess intraspecific variability in S. aethiopicum via morphological and cytomolecular characterization of 12 scarlet eggplant accessions. Cluster analysis was used for grouping the accessions using means of 27 variables. Four separate...

Intensively managed pine forests in the southeastern United States are considered an important C sink and may play a critical role in offsetting increased global CO2 emissions. The combination of improved silvicultural methods and the use of superior genotypes are estimated to result in future volume gains of up to 60 percent. However to date, no work has looked at whether selection of elite genotypes could influence soil C dynamics, which could decrease the time necessary for the stand to function as a C sink. We evaluated the effects of contrasting loblolly pine genotypes on total soil...

Rust fungi are a group of fungal pathogens that cause some of the world’s most destructive diseases of trees and crops . A shared characteristic among rust fungi is obligate biotrophy, the inability to complete a lifecycle without a host. This dependence on a host species likely affects patterns of gene expansion, contraction, and innovation within rust pathogen genomes. The establishment of disease by biotrophic pathogens is reliant upon effector proteins that are encoded in the fungal genome and secreted from the pathogen into the host’s cell apoplast or within the cells. This study uses...

The Novus Network annual meeting was held at H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest in Oregon, USA, from 22 May to 24 May 2013. The topic was: ‘Nutrient responses to ecosystem disturbances from annual to multi-millennial timescales’. The 2013 workshop brought together 28 researchers from 21 institutions spread across three continents. The participants – 17 faculty members, five postdoctoral researchers and four graduate students – were chosen for variety in background, methods and research programs. All those involved focus on the questions of plant and ecosystem response to disturbance, but at...

Given your education, experience, frequent contact with trees, and honed observational skills, you as municipal foresters are well suited for tracking recurring seasonal events such as leafing, flowering, and fruiting. The study of these phenomena is known as phenology.

In order to inform natural resource policy and land management decisions, landscape values mapping (LVM) is increasingly used to collect data about the meanings that people attach to places and the activities associated with those places. This type of mapping provides geographically referenced data on areas of high density of values or associated with different types of values. This article focuses on issues and challenges that commonly occur in LVM, drawing on lessons learned in the US Forest Service Olympic Peninsula Human Ecology Mapping Project. The discussion covers choosing a spatial...

Evaluation of forest landscape model (FLM) predictions is indispensable to establish the credibility of predictions. We present a framework that evaluates short- and long-term FLM predictions at site and landscape scales. Site-scale evaluation is conducted through comparing raster cell-level predictions with inventory plot data whereas landscape-scale evaluation is conducted through comparing predictions stratified by extraneous drivers with aggregated values in inventory plots. Long-term predictions are evaluated using empirical data and knowledge.We demonstrate the applicability of the...

Rising temperatures are expected to reduce global soil carbon (C) stocks, driving a positive feedback to climate change1-3. However, the mechanisms underlying this prediction are not well understood, including how temperature affects microbial enzyme kinetics, growth effiency (MGE), and turnover4,5. Here, in a laboratory study, we show that microbial turnover accelerates with warming and, along with enzyme kinetics, determines the response of microbial respiration to temperature change. In contrast, MGE, which is generally thought to decline with warming6-8, showed no temperature sensitivit...

Tens of thousands of kilograms of rhizomes and roots of Actaea racemosa L., a native Appalachian forest perennial, are harvested every year and used for the treatment of menopausal conditions. Sustainable management of this and other wild-harvested non-timber forest products requires the ability to effectively and reliably inventory marketable plant components.