Treesearch

Concerns over climate change and fossil resources depletion are drivers for increasing efforts to global transition from fossil-based to biobased products. The development of bioenergy and bioproduct systems, however, faces challenges in terms of resource use, environmental impacts, and production costs. Thus, identifying key areas to reduce costs and environmental impacts of biobased products is crucial. Based on the review of recent literature, this study aims to provide insights into the technical feasibility, costs, and environmental impacts of biobased products produced from different...

There are nearly one million small forest patches in the Northeast United States alone. For many Americans, interacting with these patches is the main way they spend time with trees. Urban forests, large and small, provide numerous environmental benefits to people.

Canopy gaps are evidence of disturbances on forest landscapes. A forest stand is in constant flux, with long stretches of biomass accumulation punctuated by episodic disturbances. We used multitemporal airborne laser scanning data to compare the gap dynamics of four Amazon forest sites. We assessed gap dynamics over 1.9–3.8 years between 2017 and 2020 at sites in the central, central eastern, southeastern, and northeastern regions of the Brazilian Amazon, over areas ranging from 590 to 1205 ha at each site. Gap size ranged from a minimum of 10 m2 to a maximum of about 10,000 m2. We...

Although highly desirable, the nature of wood-cellulose in its native state has remained difficult to comprehend. Contrary to the traditional acceptance of wood-cellulose being crystalline, in 2016, the authors’ research found that the cellulose was not crystalline. Here, additional evidence is presented that further supports the non-crystalline model. One of the key pieces of evidence was obtained by 64% H2SO4 hydrolysis of tension- and opposite-aspen woods (TW and OW, respectively). The TW (G-layer rich) yielded significant amount of CNCs (TW-CNCs, 20.7%), the OW yielded a much lower...

Trap lure blends that maximize the diversity of captured insect species help to reduce the costs of detection programs that target native and nonnative invasive species of bark and woodboring beetles. In 2007, the effects of the bark beetle pheromones ipsdienol and ipsenol on catches of beetles (Coleoptera) in multiple-funnel traps baited with ethanolþapinene were evaluated in a trapping study in one stand of mature loblolly pine, Pinus taeda L., in northcentral Georgia. Ipsenol and/or ipsdienol increased catches of Acanthocinus obsoletus (LeConte) and Monochamus titillator (F.) (Cerambycid...

Successful use of biological control agents can be improved with a thorough understanding of the life history, survival, diapausing strategy, and synchrony with the host in the introduced range. Introduction of a novel organism can be influenced by abiotic factors that can impact the interactions with their target prey. Leucotaraxis argenticollis (Zetterstedt) and Le. piniperda (Malloch) (Diptera: Chamaemyiidae) are two species of predatory fly showing promise in the biological control program to manage the invasive hemlock woolly adelgid, Adelges tsugae (Annand)(Hemiptera: Adelgidae), in...

Invasive plant species (IPS)1 have been monitored on select Phase 2 (P2) FIA plots since 2005 in the Midwest and since 2007 in the northeastern part of the NRS. In 2005 and 2006, IPS data were collected year-round on 100 percent of the plots. Starting in 2007, the sampling changed to collecting IPS data on 20 percent of plots with the monitoring window running from May through September. Since 2012, IPS data are collected on the Phase 2 Plus (P2+) sample. These plots are a 12.5 percent subsample of the Phase 2 plots, measured from May through September. These plots only occur on forest...

Forest fungal communities are shaped by the interactions between host tree root systems and the associated soil conditions. We investigated how the soil environment, root morphological traits, and root chemistry influence root-inhabiting fungal communities in three tropical forest sites of varying successional status in Xishuangbanna, China. For 150 trees of 66 species, we measured root morphology and tissue chemistry. Tree species identity was confirmed by sequencing rbcL, and root-associated fungal (RAF) communities were determined using high-throughput ITS2 sequencing. Using distance-bas...

Community science initiatives offer a powerful mechanism for obtaining large numbers of occurrence records over broad geographic areas for target species. In January 2020, the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources (WVDNR) initiated a statewide community science monitoring initiative to improve our knowledge of the distribution of Terrapene carolina (Eastern Box Turtle). The program received 6,045 verified and 2,681 unverified T. carolina observations between 01 Jan 2020 and 31 Dec 2021, respectively, including 5 county records for Terrapene carolina.