Treesearch

This report summarizes the findings of data collected as part of the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program in the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) using data collected during inventory years spanning 2014 to 2024. The year 2024 was the first year the All Conditions Inventory (ACI) was employed and notable differences from traditional forest land inventory are highlighted in this report. The ACI yielded more information than measuring forest land alone. It has promise in island inventories where urban trees, fruit trees, yard trees, and other land conditions not defined as forest are...

Oxine copper is listed in the United States as a wood preservative for exterior aboveground use, with active Environmental Protection Agency registrations for both oil- and water-based formulations. While it has limited use in many markets, water-based oxine copper is widely used by the US military to protect wood packing materials for munitions because of its low risk to human health and demonstrated activity against certain insects, decay, and sapstain fungi. Thus, it will likely persist as a wood treatment while other preservatives may face greater restrictions or elimination due to...

Understanding and controlling agglomeration of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) is critical to enable their effective use in various applications. Light scattering techniques are powerful tools for studying how CNCs self-assemble in aqueous suspensions. We used small angle light scattering (SALS) and polarized microscopy to study the formation of ordered domains in CNC suspensions of moderate concentration (1–9 wt%) as a function of time and ultrasonication. Concentration, time and ultrasonication all influenced the structure and rate of tactoid formation. Ultrasonication allowed long-range...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program provides this resource update yearly as an overview of forest resources in Iowa. These estimates are derived from field data collected across a systematic network of fixed-radius forest monitoring plots located on both public and private land. New updates are provided annually as a subset of plots within the State are remeasured. Each year, field crews visit and measure a subset of all FIA plots across the entire State (the size of the subset varies by State and year). Combining all the...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program provides this resource update yearly as an overview of forest resources in Illinois. These estimates are derived from field data collected across a systematic network of fixed-radius forest monitoring plots located on both public and private land. New updates are provided annually as a subset of plots within the State are remeasured. Each year, field crews visit and measure a subset of all FIA plots across the entire State (the size of the subset varies by State and year). Combining all...

Carbon stocks and stock changes in harvested wood products (HWPs) are an important part of land sector greenhouse gas (GHG) estimation and reporting. HWPs broadly categorized as products in-use (e.g., solid wood and paper products) and in solid waste disposal sites (SWDS; e.g., landfills), store carbon transferred from harvested trees. In the United States (US), estimates of carbon in HWPs have historically been reported in the US GHG Inventory and included in submissions to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. These data have been obtained from national and internatio...

AimHydroelectricity is considered a renewable energy source with low greenhouse gas emissions. However, little attention has been given to the impact of the construction and maintenance of power line corridors on soil and vegetation. This study assessed the effect of power line corridors on terrestrial carbon pools in upland forests across a 750-km gradient from deciduous forests to open-canopy taiga in Quebec (Canada).MethodsQuantification of ecosystem carbon pools (live biomass, dead organic matter and soil) was carried out using transects of plots located in: i) the power line corridor,...

Natural gas development in forested landscapes can cause substantial forest disturbance, yet its impacts on forest carbon remain poorly quantified. In the Appalachian Basin of the United States, where natural gas production is expected to continue expanding in the coming decades, understanding these impacts is important for evaluating trade-offs between energy production and forest ecosystem services. Here, we combine nationwide forest inventory and remotely sensed data within a Bayesian spatiotemporal modeling framework to quantify forest disturbance, carbon loss, and opportunity cost...

Increases in the frequency and severity of forest disturbances over recent decades have raised concerns regarding the future health and functioning of forest ecosystems. Previous ground- and remote-sensing-based studies have quantified disturbance impacts and recovery, but we have limited understanding of the immediate impacts and short-term recovery of seedling density and live biomass across broad geographic regions. We quantified short-term impacts and recovery of seedling density and live biomass stocks following different disturbances (fire, harvest, and insect/disease) in forests of...

Wood is a complex material that is not only highly heterogeneous but also exhibits anisotropic behavior and high variability accentuated by the diversity of species. In this case, the presence of a defect leads in most cases to the initiation and propagation of cracks that can cause structural failure. It is therefore crucial to assess the stability of the crack and identify the fracture parameters in order to correctly estimate the effect of long-term aging on wooden structures. A numerical investigation of different geometric shapes for the Mixed Mode Crack Growth (MMCG) specimen is...