Treesearch

Methods: for sequencing microbial communities are constantly improving, necessitating storage of samples for future analyses. However, tests of different storage approaches have been limited, hindering our ability to use soil samples stored under various conditions to understand how microbial communities may be changing over time. Few studies have directly compared the effects of different storage methods on microbiome composition over month-to-decade time scales. Here, we present evidence from two experiments investigating how microbial community composition differs between soil samples...

Understanding past fire environments is vitally important for applying silvicultural treatments, which often include prescribed burning to restore fire-dependent ecosystems. We have developed a novel method by which witness trees can be used as pyro-indicators to map past fire environments. The stepwise process first involves partitioning witness trees into two classes, pyrophobic and pyrophilic, based on their known ecophysiological traits. Pyrophilic percentages are then calculated at survey corners by dividing the number of pyrophilic trees by the total number of trees. Next, statistical...

Prof. Dr. Dieter Eckstein (1939 - 2021) significantly influenced the global development of dendrochronology and the underlying science of wood biology. Eckstein’s research areas included dendroclimatology, xylogenesis, ecophysiology, and quantitative wood anatomy. His personal and collaborative work continues to improve our understanding of both the natural environment and human cultural development. The techniques he developed and championed resolved long-standing difficulties in the application of tree-ring science to understand both natural processes and human effects on tree and forest...

Fire is an integral natural disturbance in the moist temperate forests of the Pacific Northwest of the United States, but future changes remain uncertain. Fire regimes in this climatically and biophysically diverse region are complex, but typically climate limited. One challenge for interpreting potential changes is conveying projection uncertainty. Using projections of Energy Release Component (ERC) derived from 12 global climate models (GCM) that vary in performance relative to the region's contemporary climate, we simulated thousands of plausible fire seasons with the stochastic spatial...

About one-third (or 4.06 billion hectares) of the Earth’s land surface is covered by forests, with the majority in the tropics and subtropics (56%), followed by boreal (27%) and temperate (16%) zones (FAO UN, 2020). These forests provide vital ecosystem services, including carbon sequestration (2.460.4 pg C yr21 or 2.4 billion tons per year) (Pan et al., 2011), which is critical for mitigating climate change in the 21st century. Forests provide 75% of the world’s accessible freshwater resources, and more than half the human population is dependent on these water resources for domestic,...

Today, the application of green materials in the building industry is the norm rather than the exception and reflects an attempt to mitigate the sector’s environmental impacts. Mass timber is growing rapidly in the construction field because of its long span, speed of installation, lightness and toughness, carbon sequestration capabilities, renewability, fire rating, acoustic isolation, and thermal resistance. Mass timber is close to overtaking steel and concrete as the preferred material. The endeavor of this research is to quantitatively assess the ability of this green material to...

Surface mining may be humanity’s most tangible impact on Earth’s surface and will become more prevalent as the energy transition progresses. Prediction of post-mining landscape change can help mitigate environmental damage, but requires understanding how mining changes geomorphic processes and variables. Here we investigate surface mining’s complex influence on surface processes in a case study of mountaintop removal/valley fill (MTR/VF) coal mining in the Appalachian Coalfields, USA. The future of MTR/VF landscapes is unclear because mining’s effects on geomorphic processes are poorly...

Wildfire is increasing in frequency, extent, and severity in many parts of the USA. Considering the unequal burden of natural hazards on socially vulnerable populations, we ask here, how are characteristics of social vulnerability associated with wildfire occurrence nationwide, at different scales and across differing levels of wildland–urban interface development? To answer this question, we first identify all non-urban census tracts in the USA that have experienced a wildfire since 1984. Using 26 different measures of social vulnerability, we compare these tracts to non-urban census...

Aquatic invasive species (AIS) threaten ecosystem health, serving as a major challenge for conservation efforts worldwide. Invasive species easily move across jurisdictional boundaries that may each have diverse management approaches, leading to management mosaics in which each manager’s actions impact those of neighboring jurisdictions. Here, we investigate the potential impact of collaborations between counties in Minnesota in managing four aquatic invasive species (Eurasian watermilfoil, spiny waterflea, starry stonewort, and zebra mussels), with a focus on evaluating the efficiency of...