Treesearch

The escalating climate and wildfire crises have generated worldwide interest in reducing the risk of wildfire-caused carbon loss in forests. The United States (US) is no exception, with billions of US dollars being invested into proactive forest management (e.g. forest thinning, prescribed fire, cultural burning) that mitigates wildfire hazard and promotes fire-resilient forests. In turn, proactive forest management helps forests retain carbon in living vegetation and organic soil after wildfire, which allows forests to help humans with climate-mitigation goals by keeping carbon out of the...

The established efficacy of electronic volatile organic compound (VOC) detection technologies as diagnostic tools for noninvasive early detection of COVID-19 and related coronaviruses has been demonstrated from multiple studies using a variety of experimental and commercial electronic devices capable of detecting precise mixtures of VOC emissions in human breath. The activities of numerous global research teams, developing novel electronic-nose (e-nose) devices and diagnostic methods, have generated empirical laboratory and clinical trial test results based on the detection of different...

The ForSys spatial planning system was developed by USDA Forest Service Research and Development to modernize agency tools to prioritize forest and fuel management investments and understand tradeoffs among alternative scenarios. ForSys uses inputs on objectives, management restrictions, constraints, and treatment thresholds to organize stands into planning areas that are optimized for one or more objectives. The model has been used in five different countries resulting in published case studies at scales ranging from watersheds to the continental United States, and multiple Federal...

The hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA, Adelges tsugae Annand) is an invasive forest insect threatening the sustainabilityof eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis (L.) Carri`ere) in eastern North America. In this study, cutting small gaps in the forest canopy above understory eastern hemlocks was evaluated as a potential tool for use in the integrated pest management of HWA. Two gap sizes and two gap creation methods (felling vs. girdling trees) were assessed for effects on HWA density, hemlock crown health, hemlock growth, and regeneration of competing tree species, at three different latitude...

Background: Current guidance for implementation of United States federal wildland fire policy charges agencies with restoring and maintaining fire-adapted ecosystems while limiting the extent of wildfires that threaten life and property, weighed against the risks posed to firefighters. These ostensibly conflicting goals can make it difficult to clearly communicate specific response objectives of a given incident. Inherent ambiguity can expose land management agencies, like the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service (USFS), to scrutiny when once remote, lightning-ignited...

Contemporary fire dynamics is one of the most complex and least understood land surface phenomena. Global fire controls related to climate, vegetation, and anthropogenic activity are usually intertwined, and difficult to disentangle in a quantitative way. Here, we leveraged an ensemble of five machine learning (ML) models and multiple satellite-based observations to conduct global fire modeling for three fire metrics (burned area, fire number, and fire size), and quantified driving mechanisms underlying annual fire changes in a spatially resolved manner for the period 2003–2019. Ensemble...

El género Capsicum inclu-ye cinco especies domesticadas cuyos frutos cons-tituyen parte fundamental de la gastronomía tradicional de diferentes culturas. En países de habla hispana se les conoce comúnmente como chiles, pimientos, ajíes y/o guindillas. En particular, Capsicum chinense es una especie de amplio cultivo y consumo en la isla de Puerto Rico, pero esta no se encuentra reportada en los listados florís-ticos y literatura botánica pertinentes a la región. Investigamos la presencia de Capsicum chinense en Puer-to Rico, y presentamos los primeros registros botáni-cos y ejemplares de...

The impact of jet cooking on shear strength of soy-and-water adhesives was investigated to understand the higher shear strength of commercial soy protein isolates compared to soy flours. Soy flour-based wood adhesives are appealing because of their bio-based content, low formaldehyde emission, and low cost, but their commercial application is limited by low wet cohesive strength. Previous researchers proposed that the process of jet cooking (steam injection with high turbulence followed by rapid cooling) was responsible for the high (∼3 MPa) wet shear strength of adhesives made with...