Treesearch

In forest ecosystems, the interplay among plant-driven processes and anthropogenic activities profoundly influences water balance dynamics. Hydraulic redistribution is one plant-driven process that can provide a large proportion of a plant's daily water. However, critical gaps exist in our knowledge of hydraulic redistribution including how forest management processes, like thinning, and site-specific factors like basal area and hillslope position, may affect it. To address these gaps, we used hourly volumetric water content measurements from 2016 to 2021 from four sub-watersheds in a...

Starting in the fall of 2019, mortality, blight symptoms, and signs of white fungal mycelia were observed on external host tissues of non-native landscape trees as well as numerous native trees, understory shrubs, and vines throughout northern and central Florida, USA. We determined that the fungus is an undescribed species of Basidiomycota based on morphological characteristics and DNA sequence analysis. Phylogenetic analyses of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS), large subunit (LSU), and translation elongation factor 1-alpha (tef1) regions revealed that this novel plant pathogen is an...

The vast growth of spatial datasets in recent decades has fueled the development of many statistical methods for detecting spatial patterns. Two of the most commonly studied spatial patterns are clustering, loosely defined as data points with similar attributes existing close together, and dispersion, loosely defined as the semi-regular placement of data points with similar attributes. In this work, we develop a hypothesis test to detect spatial clustering or dispersion at specific distances in categorical areal data. Such data consists of a set of spatial regions whose boundaries are...

Mangroves can increase their elevation relative to tidal flooding through biogeomorphic feedbacks but can submerge if rates of sea-level rise are too great. There is an urgent need to understand the vulnerability of mangroves to sea-level rise so local communities and resource managers can implement and prioritize actions. The need is especially pressing for small islands, which have been identified as an area of concern by the IPCC. We developed a generalizable modeling framework for tidal wetlands (WARMER-3) that accounts for species interactions and the belowground processes that...

1. Tropical forest understories tend to be light-limited. The red-to-far-red ratio (R:FR) is a useful and reliable index of light quality and its spatial variability can influence competition between native and non-native seedlings. While per cent light transmittance has been quantified in some Hawaiian lowland wet forests (HLWF), no information exists on how the spatial distribution of understorey light varies in relation to species invasion, or if patterns of seedling regeneration and light are linked. 2. We measured the R:FR of light in the understorey to assess light quality in three...

The future distribution of invading species depends on the climate space available and certain life history traits that facilitate invasion. Here, to predict the spread potential of plant species introduced in North America north of Mexico (NAM), we compiled distribution and life history data (i.e., seed size, life form, and photosynthetic pathways) for 3021 exotic plant species introduced to NAM. We comparatively examined the species’ range size and climate space in both native and exotic regions and the role of key life history traits. We found that large climate space for most exotic...

Studies on plant diversity are usually based on the total number of species in a community. However, few studies have examined species richness (SR) of different plant life forms in a community along large-scale environmental gradients. Particularly, the relative importance (RIV) of different plant life forms in a community and how they vary with environmental variables are still unclear. To fill these gaps, we determined plant diversity of ephemeral plants, annual herbs, perennial herbs, and woody plants from 187 sites across drylands in China. The SR patterns of herbaceous plants,...

To date, whether Bergmann’s rule, initially developed for individual species or closely related taxa, can be applied to broader taxa remains elusive. Using global distribution data for birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians, both species- and assemblage-based, we examined the role of species richness and related climate variables in shaping body size patterns across the globe and the Northern Hemisphere only and whether the temperature–body size relationship had a phylogenetic signal. The results show that when species in all four classes were combined, body size increased with latitude...

Southeast Asian (SEA) mangroves are globally recognized as blue carbon hotspots. Methodologies that measure mangrove soil carbon stock (SCS) are either accurate but costly (i.e., elemental analyzers), or economical but less accurate (i.e., loss-on-ignition [LOI]). Most SEA countries estimate SCS by measuring soil organic matter (OM) through the LOI method then converting it into organic carbon (OC) using a conventional conversion equation (%Corg = 0.415 * % LOI + 2.89, R2 = 0.59, n = 78) developed from Palau mangroves. The local site conditions in Palau does not reflect the wide range of...

The current trends in climate change have captured the attention of stakeholders across multiple industries, including the building sector. With the introduction of innovative building materials such as mass timber products (MTPs), it has become essential to evaluate their environmental performance. In response, a variety of life cycle assessment (LCA) software programs are available to meet this need. However, it is crucial to understand how different LCA software and databases might influence the results. This study was aimed at exploring the impact of two widely used LCA software...