Treesearch

The frequency and severity of natural disturbances and forest harvests are changing in many temperate and boreal forests worldwide, at a time when regional surveys suggest deficiencies in tree regeneration. This combination suggests the utility of assessing how regeneration existing prior to disturbance (i.e. advance regeneration) translates to forest recovery following recent disturbances.We used repeated plot measurements from nationwide forest inventory data to link advance seedling regeneration to post‐disturbance seedling abundance and sapling recruitment across forests of the...

Tree regeneration is vital to shaping characteristics of future forests, including vulnerability to climate change; resilience to pests, pathogens and disturbance; and departure from historical species composition. We used data from nationwide forest inventory plots to investigate trends in sapling abundance and recruitment as well as tree density for common tree species from 2003 to 2023 across forests of the northeastern United States . Tree seedling composition was then examined using (1) predicted sapling recruitment based on seedling abundance and (2) abundance of small‐sized seedlings...

Corbicula fluminea is a widespread aquatic invasive species that has major ecological effects. Corbicula is a proposed factor in global freshwater mussel declines, but its effects on mussels are poorly understood. We conducted five laboratory experiments to assess effects of Corbicula on juvenile mussel survival and growth and the modulating effects of food abundance, temperature, and the type of co-occurring bivalve. Corbicula had no effect on 60-day-old mussel survival. In two experiments, growth was higher in the presence of Corbicula; higher growth occurred only at low food in one...

Measurement errors can catastrophically bias parameter estimates in models to correlate nanoscale properties and structures, undercutting a foundation of nanoscience and nanotechnology. In a general solution to this latent problem, we derive a method-of-moments correction for least-squares estimates of correlative model parameters. Our correction applies to many relations of dependent and independent variables, subject to many types of measurement errors of the independent variable. Focusing on the prevalent power-law model to correlate optical intensity and nanoparticle size, we test the...

Mass timber (MT) is among the most sustainable construction materials for building structures. While U.S. building codes facilitate MT construction up to 18 stories of height, the frequent international sourcing of MT raises sustainability concerns regarding transportation emissions. Previous research relies primarily on deterministic whole building life cycle assessment (WBLCA), which lacks the mechanisms to balance environmental impacts with competing economic and logistical factors under uncertainty. To address this, we developed a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) framework that...

The production of biodegradable coatings using aqueous suspensions of cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) and solutions of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVOH) is costly due to the energy expenses associated with evaporating water. To address this issue, CNF-PVOH composite coatings were prepared through a two-step filtration process, where a low basis weight CNF coating was formed during the first filtration, acting as a matrix that absorbed PVOH in the second filtration. The CNFs used in this study were fibrillated by refining, maintaining some fiber presence, which made the material more economical while...

Production of Cross-laminated timber (CLT), which is the most widely used mass timber product, for use in largescale building construction has been increasing as an alternative to traditional building materials. While knowledge on the environmental and engineering aspects of mass timber, such as CLT, has been well documented in wood science and engineering literature, little is established regarding the social, economic, and policy aspects. Peer-reviewed publications were examined to establish current knowledge and future research gaps for cross-laminated timber and mass timber systems....

Surface fire is the primary ecological filter maintaining eastern North American woodlands. However, fire is not the only filteraffecting species demographics, and in the absence of fire, the influence of secondary filters, such as seed predators, increases.To explore how different seed predator guilds affect individual species, we established seed offerings examining the effects ofpredator type (invertebrates only and invertebrates + small mammals), forest type (upland and floodplain), season (fall andsummer), and offering location (beneath conspecific and heterospecific focal trees) on...

Food packaging is the largest segment of the global plastics market, yet its low degradability and limited performance in preserving perishable goods highlight the need for more sustainable alternatives. This study investigates the use of industrial softwood kraft lignin, a renewable polyol, and γ-valerolactone (GVL), an excellent green lignin solvent, to synthesize bio-based polyurethane (PU) coatings for recycled linerboard. PU was synthesized with hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI), GVL, and 1,4-diazabicyclo[2.2.2]octane (DABCO) as a catalyst and applied to recycled linerboard (166.6...

Long-term carbon storage by forests is important for climate mitigation, yet storage durability faces threats from natural disturbances whose causal impacts are not well quantified. We use the staggered timing of two Category 4 hurricanes that struck different regions of Louisiana—Laura in 2020 and Ida in 2021—to estimate the causal effect of severe hurricane damage on forest carbon stocks. Using parish-level data from the USDA forest inventory and analysis program covering all 64 Louisiana parishes over 2017–2024 and a doubly robust difference-in-differences estimator, we find that...