Treesearch

Riparian ecosystems in the American Southwest store disproportionate amounts of carbon relative to their limited extent, yet their capacity is poorly quantified and threatened by climate and land-use change. We synthesize current knowledge of riparian carbon dynamics in Arizona and New Mexico and combine this with spatial datasets to estimate potential and current carbon storage. We review how climate, hydrology, geomorphic setting, and biota interact to control carbon stored in biomass, large wood, and floodplain soils. Using the national riparian basemap and hydroclimatic data, we map...

Biochar, a carbon-rich material that can be produced from forest byproducts and waste, is emerging as a valuable material for removing heavy metal ions from aqueous solutions. Biochar can be produced by many processes and equipment. Among these, mobile air curtain burners, developed to achieve lower levels of particulate matter and smoke than open pile burning, can be deployed in the field where biomass feedstocks are located. To elucidate lead metal ion (Pb2+) removal mechanisms, this study characterized seven biochars generated by a novel mobile curtain burner, representing the first...

Seedling functional attributes (i.e., morphological and physiological traits driving water, carbon, and nutrient economy, as well as stress resistance and resilience) influence the early performance of forest plantings. Nursery environment and cultivation practices interact with species ecology to shape these attributes and potential outplanting success. Although extensive literature exists on these topics, studies that have quantitatively synthesized findings to generalize plant quality and nursery cultivation theory are almost nonexistent. This chapter quantitatively reviews the effects...

Soils on log landings can be significantly degraded as a result of harvesting equipment. We evaluated the efficacy of biochar application and subsoiling to reduce compaction and improve soil properties. Fifteen log landings were selected across three US Midwest national forests: the Hoosier National Forest in Indiana, the Mark Twain National Forest in Missouri, and the Shawnee National Forest in Illinois. Landings were divided into four treatments: (1) biochar applied on the soil surface (22.4 Mg ha −1 ), (2) subsoiling (depth of 50 cm), (3) a combination of subsoiling and biochar (22.4 Mg...

Due to the prevalence of local adaptation in plants, the provenance of seed sources can impact plant community restoration outcomes. Yet programs developing commercial germplasm releases often overlook local adaptation as a development criterion, leading to the selection of traits that may not support restoration success. In many cases, commercial germplasms are more available than plant materials developed explicitly considering spatial adaptation patterns.This study aims to demonstrate how seed transfer models can calibrate restoration guidance for commercially available germplasms of...

Information on climate‐associated phenotypic variation is essential for sourcing seed that matches restoration site conditions. Spatially explicit seed transfer models can effectively deliver this information. However, standard modeling approaches often do not provide flexibility for practical considerations and may not capture highly complex trait‐climate associations. We characterized climate‐associated variation in growth, reproduction, morphology, phenology, and survival across 98 source populations at 3 common gardens for the grass Elymus elymoides (bottlebrush squirreltail), an...

Pine (Pinus spp.) trees worldwide are subjected to selective evolutionary pressures from both abiotic (fire) and biotic (insects) damage resulting in their extant distribution and abundance, and life-history and morphological traits. These interactions merit serious consideration in long-term pine forest conservation and sustainability plans, and hence, we provide the following elements in this chapter: (1) a synthesis of eco-evolutionary components of these tri-lateral (fire-pine-insect) interactions; (2) a framework for understanding herbivory patterns and processes as based on adaptation...

Old-growth forests in the Southeast are diverse, highly valued, and complicated to both define and differentiate on the landscape. In this report, we review the history of forests in the region, including how old-growth has been defined, the characteristics of old-growth communities and old trees, and the values that old-growth communities provide. We also provide information for land managers to consider: threats that old-growth forests face, examples of management strategies for maintaining and restoring ecological functions, and tools for managing old-growth characteristics in mature...

Wildfire simultaneously disrupts ecosystem carbon, water, and soil processes, yet these coupled effects and postfire recovery trajectories cannot be reliably assessed from spectral vegetation indices alone. Here, we developed a fine-scale, multi-dimensional framework to quantify wildfire impacts and post-fire ecohydrological recovery, using the 2016 megafire in Great Smoky Mountains National Park in the eastern United States as a testbed. This framework integrated gap-filled 30 m NASA Harmonized Landsat and Sentinel-2 surface reflectance with an expanded diagnostic ecosystem model (Coupled...

Biomass harvesting is common across the northeastern United States, yet plant and soil responses in the years-to-decades after harvest are poorly understood. We assessed regenerating species composition and foliar and soil element concentrations after clearcutting with whole-tree harvesting, stem-only harvesting, and stem-only harvesting with prescribed burning in spruce-fir-hardwoods in Maine, U.S.A. We made measurements 50 years after the first treatment (applied 1964–65) and within 10 years after the second treatment (applied 2018), providing one of the longest evaluations of biomass...