Treesearch

Southeast Asian vultures have been greatly reduced in range and population numbers, but it is challenging to use traditional tagging and monitoring techniques to track changes in their populations. Genotypes derived from non-invasively collected feather samples provide an alternative and effective means to 'capture' individual vultures for mark-recapture analyses. We describe a restriction endonuclease digest assay that distinguishes the visually similar feathers of three species of critically endangered Asian vultures Gyps bengalensis, G. tenuirostris, and Sarcogyps calvus. In addition,...

The objective of this study was to test the use of repeat flight, airborne laser scanning data (lidar) for estimating changes associated with low-impact selective logging (approx. 10-15 m3 ha−1 = 5-7% of total standing volume harvested) in natural tropical forests in the Western Brazilian Amazon. Specifically, we investigated change in area impacted by selective logging, change in tall canopy (30 m+) area, change in lidar canopy structuremetrics, and change in above ground biomass (AGB) using a model-based statistical framework. Ground plot measurements were only available from the time of...

Urban forests provide important environmental benefits, leading many municipal governments to initiate citywide tree plantings. However, nutrient cycling in urban ecosystems is difficult to predict, and nitrogen (N) use in urban trees may be quite different from use in rural forests. To gain insight into these biogeochemical and physiological processes, we compared foliar N characteristics of several common northeastern deciduous tree species across four newly planted New York City afforestation sites as well as at the Black Rock Forest (BRF), a rural oak-dominated forest in the Hudson...

We estimated aboveground tree biomass and change in aboveground tree biomass using repeated airborne laser scanner (ALS) acquisitions and temporally coincident ground observations of forest biomass, for a relatively undisturbed period (2004-2007; ∇07-04), a contrasting period of disturbance (2007-2009; ∇09-07), and an integrated period (2004-2009; ∇09-04). A simple randomsampling (SRS) estimator was used to estimate means and variances of biomass and biomass change for each measurement occasion and interval. For each year, linear regression models were used to predict mean total aboveground...

This report summarizes presentations and comments from the inaugural Wood Protection Research Council meeting. Research needs for the wood protection industry were identified and prioritized. Methods for successfully addressing research needs were discussed by industry, academia, and association representatives.

A nursery container could be anything that holds growing media, drains, allows for healthy root development, does not disintegrate before outplanting, and allows for an intact, healthy root system to be removed with a minimum of disturbance to the plant. Understanding how container properties affect plant health and growth, as well as nursery operations, will help growers choose the best containers for their needs. Container type and dimensions affect root development, amount of water and mineral nutrients available for plant growth, nursery layout, bench size, production scheduling, and...

Seeds of many native species are challenging to germinate. One important thing a grower can do is to learn as much as possible about the life history, ecology, and habitat of the species he or she wishes to grow to understand the processes seeds from each target species go through in nature. Any observations will be valuable when trying to germinate and grow species that have little or no published information available. How seeds are handled, treated, and sown can affect the genetic diversity and the quality of the crop produced. Growers need to balance the desire for uniform crops and...

As any experienced grower knows only too well, nursery management is a continuous process of solving problems. One recurring problem is pests. In the past, nursery managers waited for an insect or disease to appear and then sprayed some toxic chemical to wipe out the pest or disease. This approach, however, also wipes out natural predators of the pest, resulting in an expensive and repeating pesticide cycle. Instead of a knee-jerk reaction to a specific problem, “holistic” pest management is a series of interrelating processes that are incorporated into the entire spectrum of nursery...

Survival and growth after outplanting are the ultimate tests of nursery plant quality. After the nursery plants are established in the field, they will provide many benefits to the environment by improving soil quality, enhancing biodiversity, inhibiting establishment of invasive plants, sequestering carbon, restoring native plant populations, providing windbreaks, creating wildlife habitat, and preventing soil erosion. In addition, established native and traditional plants can provide food, fuel, medicines, crafts, animal fodder, beautification, and many other benefits. Careful planning...

Since 2004, close to 50,000 ac of hazardous fuels have been mechanically treated in east-central Arizona as part of the USDA Forest Service's first 10-year stewardship project on national forest lands. The need for coordinated wood products and biomass utilization in Arizona is likely to increase as broad-scale restoration treatments across Arizona's national forests remove large amounts of wood fiber in coming decades. This research considers biomass availability and land ownership patterns for three potential wood products cluster sites in the Mogollon Rim region of Arizona (Show Low,...