Treesearch

Techniques for monitoring deforestation and associated changes to forest carbon stocks are widespread and well published. In contrast, techniques for monitoring forest degradation are relatively untested in developing countries despite their inclusion in UNFCCC REDD+ negotiations. In the Mekong countries, forest degradation may contribute a substantial portion of the total carbon losses from forests. There is a critical need to assess approaches for monitoring forest degradation, particularly at the subnational level. One potential obstacle in assessing monitoring approaches for the region...

Laurel wilt, caused by Raffaelea lauricola, a fungal symbiont of the redbay ambrosia beetle, Xyleborus glabratus, is responsible for extensive mortality of native redbays (Persea borbonia and P. Palustris) in the coastal plains of the southeastern United States. The wilt also affect the more widespread sassafras, Sassafras albidum, particularly in areas where diseased redbays are common and populations of X. glabratus are high. Because sassafras stems were thought to lack chemicals that are attractive to the beetle, and sassafras tends to be widely scattered in forests, it was believed...

Conversion of natural forest to agricultural land is one of the most important forms of land-use change affecting both carbon stock and biodiversity. When the agricultural land contains trees, e.g. fallow-land forest of slash-and-burn agriculture, the conversion can be categorized into forest degradation when the forest definition covers such vegetation. One practical method to monitor carbon stock change is an approach using a parameter for plant community age. For cyclic land use that includes clear-cutting stage, from which chronosequential changes in carbon stock can be estimated by...

While research on the ecosystem services provided by biodiversity is becoming widely embraced as an important tool in conservation, the services provided by saproxylic arthropods - an especially diverse and threatened assemblage dependent on dead or dying wood - remain unmeasured. A conceptual model depicting the reciprocal relationships between dead wood and saproxylic arthropod biodiversity, wildfires, climate change, forest productivity, and pest outbreaks is presented. This model suggests that the ecological influence of saproxylic arthropods may extend far beyond their effects on wood...

Free-standing two-dimensional (2D) nanostructures, exemplified by graphene and semiconductor nanomembranes, exhibit exotic electrical and mechanical properties and have great potential in electronic applications where devices need to be flexible or conformal to nonplanar surfaces. Based on our previous development of a substrate-free synthesis of large-area, free-standing zinc hydroxy dodecylsulfate (ZHDS) hexagonal nanomembranes, herein, we report a spontaneous phase transformation of ZHDS nanomembranes under extended reaction time. The hexagonal ZHDS sheets transformed into rectangular...

Traumatic resin ducts form in xylem and phloem tissue of conifers in response to abiotic wounding, fungal invasion, and insect attack. Little is known about resin duct characteristics in the wood of fire-scarred trees. The aim of this study is to quantify changes in traits of both axial and radial resin ducts, along with those of associated epithelial cells and fusiform rays, in 2 individuals each of Larix occidentalis and Pseudotsuga menziesii. Transverse and tangential microsections were cut from samples for light microscopy. Using image analysis, anatomical measurements of cells are...

The Great Lakes watersheds have an important influence on the water quality of the nearshore environment, therefore, watershed characteristics can be used to predict what will be observed in the streams. We used novel landscape information describing the forest cover change, along with forest census data and established land cover data to predict total phosphorus and turbidity in Great Lakes streams. In Lake Superior, we modeled increased phosphorus as a function of the increase in the proportion of persisting forest, forest disturbed during 2000-2009, and agricultural land, and we modeled...

Fire scars are visible evidence of compartmentalization and closure processes that contribute to tree survival after fire injury. Preliminary observations of dissected fire scars from trees injured within the last decade showed centripetal development of wound-initiated discoloration (WID) through 2-3 decades of former sapwood in Larix occidentalis and Pseudotsuga menziesii. Although the WID reached and was apparently confluent with the visually similar heartwood, WID lacked the decay and insect resistance characteristics of heartwood. In contrast, development of WID in Pinus ponderosa,...

Fires that injure but do not kill trees cause scars used as proxies for the reconstruction of wildfire history. Understanding about these wildfires - and their relationship to vegetation dynamics and climate - has profoundly affected wildfire and land management policy globally. To better understand scarring in the context of wildfire behavior, landscape and biological processes, and tree species differences, we established a study on forests burned in 2003 near Missoula, Montana. We cut down small trees with visibly charred bark of species Larix occidentalis, Pseudotsuga menziesii, and...

Forests play a major role in the ecosystem sustainability and general health of our planet. The biomass contained in our forests and other green vegetations affects the carbon cycle, climate change, habitat protection, clean water supplies, and sustainable economy. Exciting new opportunities are emerging for sustainably meeting global energy needs and simultaneously creating high-value biobased products from wood, forest, agricultural residues, and other biobased materials.