Treesearch

While biochar and manure can provide considerable benefits to soil properties, how these amendments may alter soil microbial activity and decomposition processes remains unknown. In a split-split-split-plot experiment, we amended a sandy loam soil with three rates of manure (whole plot; 0, 3, 9 Mg ha-1) and biochar (split-plot; 0, 2.5, 10 Mg ha-1), and installed three species of wood stakes (split-split-split plot; triploid poplar, Populus tomentosa Carr.; trembling aspen, Populus tremuloides Michx.; and loblolly pine, Pinus taeda L.) on the soil surface and in the mineral soil (split-split...

During a time of rapid urban growth and development, it is becoming ever more important to monitor the carbon fluxes of our cities. Unlike Canada’s commercially managed forests that have a long history of inventory and modelling tools, there is both a lack of coordinated data and considerable uncertainty on assessment procedures for urban forest carbon. Nonetheless, independent studies have been carried out across Canada. To improve upon Canada’s federal government reporting on carbon storage and sequestration by urban forests, this study builds on existing data to develop an updated...

Wood products are an essential provisioning ecosystem service with US forests providing nearly one-fifth of global wood supply. As of 2018, an estimated 46% of the annual wood harvested came from corporate forests, 42% came from family forests, and the remainder came from other private, public, and Tribal forests. The supply of wood from corporate forests is well described by traditional economic models, but the supply from family forests is much less well understood. This article combines data from three components of the USDA Forest Service’s Forest Inventory and Analysis program—plots,...

Theodor Hartig's aphid and scale insect type specimens have been presumed lost or destroyed for the last 140 years. Here we document their discovery at the Bavarian State Collection of Zoology (Zoologische Staatssammlung München, ZSM), in Munich, Germany. These specimens include primary types for 24 aphid, three adelgid, and two armored scale insect species named by Hartig between 1834 and 1851, as well as other specimens of unknown importance.

Mastication, thinning, and prescribed fire can help shift fire-prone forests to a structure and composition more resilient to wildfire, but the ability to evaluate treatment effectiveness requires monitoring forest response to disturbances over time after treatment. In this study, we investigated fuel loadings, forest structure, and tree growth to assess treatment legacies thirteen years after mastication, prescribed fire, and surface fuel pull-back from tree boles in Sierra Nevada mixed-conifer forest. An outbreak of bark beetles between 2011 and 2018 impacted all plots but burned...

Background. Climate change is expected to increase fire activity across the circumboreal zone, including central Siberia. However, few studies have quantitatively assessed potential changes in fire regime characteristics, or considered possible spatial variation in the magnitude of change. Moreover, while simulations indicate that changes in climate are likely to drive major shifts in Siberian vegetation, knowledge of future forest dynamics under the joint influence of changes in climate and fire regimes remains largely theoretical. We used the forest landscape model, LANDIS-II, with...

Turfgrass lawns in residential yards can have significant water requirements. However, it is difficult to estimate how much water is consumed by lawns in households that vary in landscape type, management, and climate both within and across different cities. We visited 79 residential households in the United States and measured water use, or evapotranspiration (ET), of turfgrass lawns in six cities with different climates and yard management practices. Lawns used 0.6–1.3 mm of water per day in humid cities, and 2.2–3.6 mm per day in hot and dry cities. Lawn water use was more strongly...

Urban trees are an important part of biodiversity in urban areas, from cities to periurban suburbs and exurbs. Trees are often the base or underlying ecological support for other biota since they provide habitat, food, and influence other environmental conditions like temperature and moisture. Urban trees provide diverse ecosystem services for people, too, such as providing shade and cooler temperatures, aesthetic value, increases in senseof- place and social cohesion, reductions in crime, and improvements to physiological and psychological health and well-being.

Since the emergence of White-nose Syndrome, a fungal disease in bats, caused by Pseudogymnoascus destructans, hibernating populations of little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) have declined by 70–90% within P. destructans positive hibernacula. To reduce the impact of White-nose Syndrome to North American little brown bat populations we evaluated if exposure to volatile organic compounds produced by induced cells from Rhodococcus rhodochrous strain DAP96253 could improve the overwinter survival of bats infected by P. destructans. Two simultaneous field treatment trials were conducted at...

Biomass burning emissions estimates of gas and aerosol air pollutants are used in modeling and forecasting smoke and air quality. These emissions originate from combustion of the fuels found in the landscape and vary based on the terrain, weather, fuel type, and condition of the fuelbed, including the arrangement of fuels, during the fire event. Combustion describes the flaming and smoldering burning phases of a fire that, summed over the duration of the event, equals the fuel consumed. This chapter provides a review of approaches to quantify fuel consumption from biomass burning relevant...