Treesearch

Uncertainty and change are increasingly commonplace as communities respond to impacts of social-ecological change including climate change, and dangerous levels of pollution. Given the extent of these crises, new approaches are needed to support responses. Here we identify challenges and discuss insights that the nexus of Senses of place (SoP) and mobilities research offers in navigating such uncertainty. We conducted a two-round Delphi, followed by a workshop, and collaborative writing process with a global network of researchers with expertise in either or both SoP and mobilities...

We investigated the light-absorption properties ofbrown carbon (BrC) as part of the Georgia Wildland-FireSimulation Experiment. We constructed fuel beds representativeof three ecoregions in the Southeastern U.S. and varied the fuel-bed moisture content to simulate either prescribed fires ordrought-induced wildfires. Based on decreasing fire radiativeenergy normalized by fuel-bed mass loading (FREnorm), thecombustion conditions were grouped into wildfire (Wild),prescribed fire (Rx), and wildfire involving duff ignition (Wild-Duff). The emitted BrC ranged from weakly absorbing (WildDuff)to...

We report measurements of the absorption Ångström exponent (AAE) and single scattering albedo (SSA) of biomass burning aerosol from the combustion of fuel beds representing three eco-regions of the Southeast U.S. (Piedmont, Coastal Plain, and Blue Ridge Mountains) with moisture content representative of wildfires and prescribed fires. We find a strong correlation between the AAE and SSA for both simulated wildfires (low fuel moisture) and prescribed fires (higher fuel moisture). For wildfires, the AAE and SSA are strongly dependent on the eco-region of the fuel bed and span a much wider...

The global biodiversity crisis affects species across all continents and taxonomic groups. Direct destruction of species and habitats has been a primary driver of declines, though climate change and associated sea level rise are expected to accelerate loss. The flora of low-lying, relatively isolated islands is especially threatened when high species richness intersects with vulnerability to sea level rise. The Florida Keys represent a hotspot for cactus diversity in the eastern United States, with eight species recognized, three of which are endemic to the islands. Though not endemic to...

This work, as part of the Georgia Wildland fire Simulation Experiment (G-WISE) campaign, explores the aqueous photolysis of water-soluble brown carbon (W-BrC) in biomass burning aerosols from the combustion of fuel beds collected from three distinct ecoregions in Georgia: Piedmont, Coastal Plain, and Blue Ridge. Burns were conducted under conditions representative of wildfires, which are common unplanned occurrences in Southeastern forests (low fuel moisture content), and prescribed fires, which are commonly used in forest management (higher fuel moisture content). Upon exposure to...

Heat energy from combusting fuels is transferred into plant stems during surface fires, where it can damage or kill cambium cells, potentially resulting in stem top-kill or tree mortality. Quantifying energy thresholds that result in cambium death is needed to expand on the dose-response framework used to predict stem top-kill and tree mortality. We empirically quantified lethal energy dose thresholds in a laboratory using heating tape for American sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua) and loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) stems between 1.5-10 cm in diameter. We theoretically estimated lethal...

Space-based laser altimetry has revolutionized our capacity to characterize terrestrial ecosystems through the direct observation of vegetation structure and the terrain beneath it. Data from NASA’s ICESat-2 mission provide the first comprehensive look at canopy structure for boreal forests from space-based lidar. The objective of this research was to create ICESat-2 aboveground biomass density (AGBD) models for the global entirety of boreal forests at a 30 m spatial resolution and apply those models to ICESat-2 data from the 2019-2021 period. Although limited in dense canopy, ICESat-2 is...

Patterns of abundance across space and time, and intraspecific variation in body size, are two species attributes known to influence diet breadth and the structure of interaction networks. Yet, the relative influence of these attributes on diet breadth is often assumed to be equal among taxonomic groups, and the relationship between intraspecific variation in body size on interaction patterns is frequently neglected. We observed bee-flower interactions in multiple locations across Montana, USA, for two growing seasons and measured spatial and temporal patterns of abundance, along with...

Increasing impacts from wildfires are reshaping fire policies worldwide, with expanded investments in a wide range of fuel reduction strategies. In many fire prone regions, especially in the Mediterranean basin, fuel management programs have relied on fuel break networks for decades to facilitate fire suppression and reduce area burned and damage. By contrast, on the fire prone federal forests in the western United States, fuel management is guided primarily by landscape restoration goals, including improving fire resiliency such that wildfires can be managed for ecological benefit, and...

Scholars featured in a recent special issue of the Journal of Park and Recreation Administration and others have noted that public lands management has yet to integrate sustainable recreation policy and practice (Cerveny et al., 2022, p. 1). Additionally, there is growing recognition that inter-agency and scientist-citizen collaboration are needed to achieve this goal. In this commentary, we offer an example of minding the science-practice gap through co-creating research. Specifically, we describe how scientists from the US Forest Service and the University of California, Davis, and...