Treesearch

If there is one common experience shared by all scientists, regardless of subdiscipline, it is the gauntlet of peer review. We all know the painful experience of rejection, the frustration of acquiescing to reviewers’ demands, and the many months that can sometimes elapse between the submission of and first decision on a paper. But for many, it is the peer-review process that adds the necessary ingredient of rigor - the stamp of approval - to science. For instance, science journalists primarily cover peer-reviewed studies, and the court systems consider peer-reviewed science to be the gold...

Advances in hierarchical modeling have improved estimation of ecological parameters from count data, especially those quantifying population abundance, distribution, and dynamics by explicitly accounting for observation processes, particularly incomplete detection. Even hierarchical models that account for incomplete detection, however, cannot compensate for data limitations stemming from poorly planned sampling. Ecologists therefore need guidance for planning count‐based studies that follow established sampling theory, collect appropriate data, and apply current modeling approaches to...

Background: Studies of animal habitat selection are important to identify and preserve the resources species depend on, yet often little attention is paid to how habitat needs vary depending on behavioral state. Fishers (Pekania pennanti) are known to be dependent on large, mature trees for resting and denning, but less is known about their habitat use when foraging or moving within a home range.Methods: We used GPS locations collected during the energetically costly pre-denning season from 12 female fishers to determine fisher habitat selection during two critical behavioral activities:...

Forests in the western US have undergone a profound transformation over the last 100 years due to chronic fire suppression and a cycle of extensive timber harvest followed by little silvicultural activity. Forested landscapes in this region are now dominated by intermediate age, denser stands of coniferous trees that reduce transmission of light and precipitation to the understory, with potential consequences for ungulate nutrition. We used a 20-year dataset of mule deer locations (560 animal-years of data) to evaluate long-term patterns of selection of forest stands that had been thinned...

New datasets and information infrastructure are revolutionizing how societies respond to environmental crises, while creating novel challenges. Conservation biology can learn from other fields that have confronted crises while navigating changes in the scientific process. The COVID-19 pandemic offers one such opportunity. We identify lessons from the use of big data and the sharing of preliminary scientific information in an increasingly “networked” communication system during the pandemic. Although big data were central to early pandemic responses, acquisition and sharing of big data...

Species' ranges are shifting rapidly with climate change, altering the composition of biological communities and interactions within and among species. Hybridization is among the species interactions that may change markedly with climate change, yet it is understudied relative to others. We used non-invasive genetic detections to build a maximum entropy species distribution model and investigate the factors that delimit the present and future ranges of American marten (Martes americana) and Pacific marten (Martes caurina) in a contact zone in the Northern Rockies. We found that climate...

Background. The decision making process undertaken during wildfire responses is complex and prone to uncertainty. In the US, decisions federal land managers make are influenced by numerous and often competing factors. Aims. To assess and validate the presence of decision factors relevant to the wildfire decision making context that were previously known and to identify those that have emerged since the US federal wildfire policy was updated in 2009.Methods. Interviews were conducted across the US while wildfires were actively burning to elucidate time-of-fire decision factors. Data were...

Litterfall production and decay, root biomass, and sediment accretion dynamics were investigated from restored ‘planted’ (R5, R8, R15, and R30 stands) and recolonized stands (C5, C12, and C20 stands) to investigate patterns in primary productivity, belowground biomass, and sediment accretion dynamics. Litterfall data was collected using litter traps over 12 months, while decay kinetics was investigated using a litterbag experiment. Root biomass and sediment accretion data were collected using makeshift acrylic corers. Litterfall production increased as stands aged, and tended to stabilize...

The prevalence, intensity, or outcome of interference competition and interspecific killing between predominantly solitary species operating on large spatial scales is challenging to document or test. Here, we present a detailed account of inter- and intraspecific interactions from contemporaneous GPS location data and in-field investigation. In June 2018, a GPS-collared female cougar (Puma concolor) maintained strong site fidelity for a period of 19 days, indicative of parturition behavior and establishment of a nursery site. In early July 2018, three GPS-collared black bears (Ursus...

Urban trees can reduce stormwater runoff and mitigate flood risk by increasing infiltration, and storing water in the soil, while reducing nutrient loading, and improving water quality in developed areas. Tree water use can constitute a major component of evapotranspiration, but knowledge gaps about how the local environment affects transpiration limits our ability to predict how management will affect hydrology. In this study, we investigated the influence of management context on the transpiration of deciduous tree species and the relationship between environmental factors (soil moisture...