Treesearch

Accounting for the tradeoffs and importance urban, disadvantaged communities place on ecosystem services has implications for the management of nearby forests. Although stated preference valuation approaches are often used, they are based on an individual’s perspective and rarely account for collective or societal values. Thus, alternative methods are needed to capture this dichotomy from urban communities who may not even be aware of these benefits to themselves or society at-large. We explored individual and collective importance of, and tradeoffs for, ecosystem services (ES) and...

Loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) is the most commercially valuable conifer in the United States. This native species is grown widely across the Southern and Central States. Genetic diversity of this species is high, and population structure is low with some east-west differentiation. Loblolly pine seeds and seedlings for planting are typically moved from a 5 °F (2.8 °C) warmer hardiness zone to a cooler zone to maximize growth potential. Fusiform rust (caused by Cronartium quercuum f.sp. fusiforme) can be a lethal pathogen to loblolly pine if not managed properly, while southern pine beetle...

Context: Land use history of urban forests impacts present-day soil structure, vegetation, and ecosystem function, yet is rarely documented in a way accessible to planners and land managers. Objectives: To (1) summarize historical land cover of present-day forest patches in Baltimore, MD, USA across land ownership categories and (2) determine whether social-ecological characteristics vary by historical land cover trajectory. Methods: Using land cover classification derived from 1927 and 1953 aerial imagery, we summarized present-day forest cover by three land cover sequence classes: (1)...

Songbirds incidentally ingest soil contaminated with lead and several species in the Southeast Missouri Lead Mining District have a negative relationship between soil lead concentration and reproduction. We used an individual-based model (IBM) to simulate nesting processes throughout the breeding season to estimate annual productivity for 5 songbirds in relation to soil-lead concentration. We modeled daily nest survival and number fledged in relation to soil lead and incorporated these relationships into the IBM using a Bayesian approach that fully captured parameter uncertainty and...

Increased demands for timber products remove carbon from forests, however previous literature has suggested that higher resulting prices could spur forestland expansion, ameliorating the forest carbon impacts. We examine the impacts on forest carbon from harvest increases with an empirical forest sector model, coupled with an econometric model of endogenous land use change that differentiates the impacts of population, income, and pine plantation rents among forest management types and non-forest land uses. We explore the sensitivity of forest area and carbon to a suite of scenarios by...

Many studies have identified an association between exposure to the natural environment and improved public-health outcomes. However, much of this observational work lacks a theoretical foundation, so we look to the humanities for a stronger basis for green-health research, examining how trees have been used as religious metaphors and symbols for health and wellbeing. In particular, the tree of life, sacred trees, and other religious symbols provide a promising theoretical basis for green-health research. Based on this review, we propose the value of incorporating attributes such as...

Forest inventory data are useful for determining forest stand structure, growth, and change. Among the information collected on forest inventory plots by the USDA Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis Program, attributes characterizing various types of disturbance provide researchers a means of selecting plots specifically affected by disturbances, such as fire. We determine the performance of three of these attributes as indicators of recent fires on forest inventory plots of the United States by comparing them to independent records of wildland fire occurrence. The indicators are...

Forests provide multiple ecosystem services to society which are directly dependent on the vitality and health of forest ecosystems. In the past decades, the frequency and scale of events leading to large-scale damage/disturbance of forests have been increasing in the UNECE region. Examples include the forest dieback in Europe in the 1980s, the mountain pine beetle calamity in Canada in the late 1990s, drought and bark beetle damages in Central Europe since 2018, and devastating forest fires in the United States and Canada since the past decade. To some extent this tendency can be attribute...