Treesearch

Ecosystem Services (ESs) are either material or non-material benefits humans receive from ecosystems. Definitions, classifications, and typologies of ESs can vary to address different research and policy purposes. However, a boundary that distinguishes ESs from other ecosystem-related benefits (e.g., industrial products that consume raw materials, fossil fuels that used to be a part of ecosystems) is needed to avoid the risk of using ESs as an all-encompassing metaphor that captures any benefit. The boundary also maintains a common ground for communication and comparison of ESs across...

Cities need to take swift action to deal with the impacts of extreme climate events. The co-production of positive visions offers the potential to not only imagine but also intervene in guiding change toward more desirable urban futures. While participatory visioning continues to be used as a tool for urban planning, there needs to be a way of comparing and evaluating future visions so that they can inform decision-making. Traditional tools for comparison tend to favor quantitative modeling, which is limited in its ability to capture nuances or normative elements of visions. In this paper,...

Laurel wilt is a lethal disease of American Lauraceae caused by Harringtonia lauricola. Propiconazole is a systemic fungicide which arrests fungal growth among a variety of plant hosts. Propiconazole as a preventive treatment against laurel wilt in sassafras (Sassafras albidum) has not been evaluated. We treated sassafras trees with propiconazole using the Arborjet QUIK-jet® Micro-InjectionTM and TREE I.V. MicroInfusionTM systems (Arborjet,Inc., Woburn, MA, USA) and challenged trees by inoculating them with H. lauricola. Out of 7 trees treated using the QUIK-jet Micro-Injection system, 6...

Water in rivers is delivered via the critical zone (CZ)—the living skin of the Earth, extending from the top of the vegetation canopy through the soil and down to fresh bedrock and the bottom of significantly active groundwater. Consequently, the success of stream-rearing salmonids depends on the structure and resulting water storage and release processes of this zone. Physical processes below the land surface (the subsurface component of the CZ) ultimately determine how landscapes “filter” climate to manifest ecologically significant streamflow and temperature regimes. Subsurface water...

Forest structural diversity and community composition are key in regulating forest microclimates. When disturbance affects structural diversity or composition, forest microclimates may be altered due to changes in soil temperature, soil water content, and light availability. It is unclear however which structural or compositional components, when changed or to what extent, result in microclimatic change. To address this question, we used data from a large scale, manipulative stem-girdling experiment in northern, lower Michigan—the Forest Resilience and Threshold Experiment (FoRTE). FoRTE...

Heterogeneity in surface fuels produced by overstory trees and understory vegetation is a major driver of fire behavior and ecosystem dynamics. Previous attempts at predicting tree leaf and needle litter accumulation over time have been constrained in scope to probabilistic models that consider a limited number of key factors influencing tree litter dispersal patterns and decomposition processes. We present a mechanistic model for estimating variation in surface fuels called the Distribution of Understory using Elliptical Transport (DUET). DUET uses a pre-generated voxelated canopy array...

California (USA) supports the largest legal cannabis market in the world, yet faces increasing risk from wildfire. While anecdotal evidence of impacts to cannabis crops has been documented during recent extreme fire seasons, the economic losses resulting from smoke exposure and other indirect effects (e.g., ash fall, mandatory evacuations, power outages) are not well understood. We conducted an online survey of licensed cannabis farms across the state, reporting wildfire impacts on cannabis crops from 2018 through 2021. We summarized regional variation in reported cannabis crop losses, fit...

Nanocellulose is a promising and sustainable feedstock for developing advanced and functional materials. However, the characteristics of nanocellulose, such as crystallinity, surface energy, and aspect ratio, can vary depending on biomass source and pretreatment methods, leading to variable performance of the nanocellu-lose-based materials. In this study, cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) were isolated from hemp and poplar using totally chlorine free (TCF) peracetic acid and sodium chlorite delignification and bleaching pretreatments to probe the influences of biomass source and treatment...

Large trees (≥76.2 cm/≥30″ DBH) and especially very large trees (≥101.6 cm/≥40″ DBH) are key structures of Sierra Nevada forests for their ecological function, habitat, and carbon storage. Many of these trees have been lost to historic harvest and more recently to drought and wildfires. Understanding the current frequency and distribution of these large trees is essential to understanding their ecological contribution and management needs. We used airborne lidar to census large trees across three Sierra Nevada landscapes (cumulatively 396 K ha) in lower (dominated by ponderosa pine and...

Given increasing forest disturbances, novel solutions are needed to rapidly recover ecosystem services such as carbon storage, while bolstering climate change adaptation. Reforestation with single-species mixed-provenance plantings is an emerging strategy that may enhance stand productivity and disturbance resistance, while assisted gene flow is a potentially powerful tool for matching seed-source with future planting-site climate. We investigated the potential of mixed-provenance plantings and assisted gene flow for maximizing early growth using a historical dataset for knobcone-Monterey...