Treesearch

Norway spruce is one of the most important conifer tree species in Europe, paramount for timber provision, habitat, recreation, and protection of mountain roads and settlements from natural hazards. Although natural Norway spruce forests exhibit diverse structures, even-aged stands can arise after disturbance or as the result of common silvicultural practice, including off-site afforestation. Many even-aged Norway spruce forests face issues such as senescence, insufficient regeneration, mechanical stability, sensitivity to biotic disturbances, and restoration. We propose the use of Density...

This paper reports on the research and operational results of efforts made by some rural communities, the National Forestry Commission (CONAFOR), the Universidad Autónoma Chapingo (UACH) and other organizations to achieve integrated fire management in central Mexico. The research includes the latest results obtained by UACH's Ajusco Project on the subject, in both fire-maintained and fire-sensitive ecosystems. Operationally, the paper reports on the holding of workshops, meetings and prescribed burns oriented towards this type of fire management in Mexico City and the states of Mexico,...

Rapid expansion of natural gas drilling in Sublette County, WY (1999-present), has raised concerns about the potential ecological effects of enhanced atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition to the Wind River Range (WRR) including the Class I BridgerWilderness. We sampled annual throughfall (TF) N deposition and lichen thalli N concentrations under forest canopies in four different drainages of the WRR. Measurements of TF N deposition and N concentrations in lichen thalli were highest at plots closest to drilling operations (

Forest fires not only cause damage to ecosystems but also result in major socio-economic losses and in the worst cases loss of human life. Specifically, the incidence of fires in the overlapping areas between building structures and forest vegetation (wildland-urban interface, WUI) generates highly-complex emergencies due to the presence of people and goods. During the last decade in Spain, the occurrence of such fire events has led to the concept of wildlandurban interface which has been included, at least implicitly, in all regional forest fire management policies and which, in certain...

Aspen populations in the south-western portion of the range are consistent with expectations for a historically stable edge, with low within-population diversity, significant geographical population structuring, and little evidence of northward expansion. Structuring within the southwestern cluster may result from distinct gene pools separated during the Pleistocene and reunited following glacial retreat, similar to patterns found in other forest tree species in the western USA. In aspen, populations in the southwestern portion of the species range are thought to be at particularly high...

In a climate change scenario, where global warming increases the critical period of drought, the risk of wildfire is expected to increase. In the Federal District (DF) - Brazil, wildfire in periruban areas have economic, financial, environmental and public health significance, however it is poorly studied. Thus, one wonders if the DF is prepared to deal with the higher risk of wildfire in periurban areas as well as if a periurban community is able adapt to increasing risk of wildfire under climate change. This research presents a case study of the Urubu Valley Rural Community, located...

The foliage palatability hypothesis predicts that avian insectivores will preferentially forage in tree species with the greatest abundance of their arthropod prey, which in turn are associated with the tree’s foliage nutrition and palatability. We tested this hypothesis in a novel Prosopis–Leucaena woodland in Puerto Rico by determining foraging preferences of five insectivorous bird species for six tree species (five alien, one native) and relating preferences to foliage arthropod biomass and leaf chemistry. The most frequently preferred tree species for foraging were the alien Prosopis...

The purpose of green barriers, also known as green fuelbreaks, is to reduce the spread and intensity of fire, mainly by stopping it from spreading to the treetops, which facilitates fire control and suppression. A major difficulty in implementing green barriers is to identify suitable species for forming these structures. The aim of this study was to assess the flammability of some tree and shrub species used in urban forestry and along highways in Curitiba for use in green barriers in the rural-urban interface of cities in southern Brazil. To this end, fire behavior and flammability tests...

Communities located in the wildland-urban interface undergo a process of transformation until they can guard against fires occurring in the area. This study analyzed this process for the Estación neighborhood in the city of Esquel, Chubut Province, Argentina. The analysis was performed by comparing the level of danger diagnosed for each neighborhood home in 2004 with that diagnosed using the same methodology in 2011. It also inquired about the behavior of neighbor residents in dealing with the problem of living in that area, analyzing the results of interviews conducted with them in 2011....

The study of fuels is an important factor in defining the vulnerability of ecosystems to forest fires. The aim of this study was to model a dead fuel load based on forest mensuration attributes from forest management inventories. A scatter plot analysis was performed and, from explanatory trends between the variables considered, correlation analysis was carried out using the stepwise method in SAS software. Results showed that leaf load, total volume and cutting intensity largely explain dead fuel load as the dependent variable. In addition to discussing the statistical benefits of the...