Treesearch

Maximizing the effectiveness of fuel treatments at landscape scales is a key research and management need given the inability to treat all areas at risk from wildfire. We synthesized information from case studies that documented the influence of fuel treatments on wildfire events. We used a systematic review to identify relevant case studies and extracted information through a series of targeted questions to summarize experiential knowledge of landscape fuel treatment effectiveness. Within a larger literature search, we identified 18 case study reports that included (1) manager assessment...

Ecosystem transformations to altered or novel ecological states are accelerating across the globe. Indicators of ecological resilience to disturbance and resistance to invasion can aid in assessing risks and prioritizing areas for conservation and restoration. The sagebrush biome encompasses parts of 11 western states and is experiencing rapid transformations due to human population growth, invasive species, altered disturbance regimes, and climate change. We built on prior use of static soil moisture and temperature regimes to develop new, ecologically relevant and climate responsive...

A key uncertainty of empirical models of post-fire tree mortality is understanding the drivers of elevated post-fire mortality several years following fire, known as delayed mortality. Delayed mortality can represent a substantial fraction of mortality, particularly for large trees that are a conservation focus in western US coniferous forests. Current post-fire tree mortality models have undergone limited evaluation of how injury level and time since fire interact to influence model accuracy and predictor variable importance. Less severe injuries potentially serve as an indicator for...

Longleaf pine forests were historically distributed throughout the southeastern United States and played an important role in local sectors of society, economy, and ecology. The longleaf pine became an endangered ecosystem due to over-harvesting, broad land-use change, and fire suppression. One major factor that has challenged restoration efforts is sporadic seed production. Based on collected cone production data in the past six decades, we tested whether critical slowing down existed in cone production at three longleaf pine locations. Our results indicated decreased variance and...

Land conversion and climate change are stressing freshwater resources. Riparian areas, streamside vegetation/forest land, are critical for regulating hydrologic processes and riparian buffers are used as adaptive management strategies for mitigating land conversion effects. However, our ability to anticipate the efficacy of current and alternative riparian buffers under changing conditions remains limited. To address this information gap, we simulated hydrologic responses for different levels of buffer protection under a future scenario of land/climate change through the year 2060. We used...

Nearly two-thirds of fossil fuel-fired electricity generation capacity in the United States is expected to reach its typical end of life by 2035. While the closure of fossil fuel-fired power plants will help advance decarbonization goals, the cessation of water use for fossil fuel-fired power plant cooling - the largest water user in the US - will also impact the nation’s water resources. We assess when, where, and how much water will be made available upon the expected retirement of the nation’s nearly one thousand fossil fuel-fired power plants by combining a lifespan-based model of...

The USDA Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program constructs area estimates of forest attributes through a quasi-systematic sample of field plots distributed across the contiguous US. The program is under increasing pressure to provide estimates over small areas, for which the precision of FIA estimates is limited by small sample sizes. Small area estimation (SAE) models can improve the precision of estimates by leveraging relationships between forest attributes and auxiliary data across multiple small areas of interest. SAE models with large model domains are challenged...

We identified 14 emerging and poorly understood threats and opportunities for addressing the global conservation of freshwater mussels over the next decade. A panel of 17 researchers and stakeholders from six continents submitted a total of 56 topicsthat were ranked and prioritized using a consensus-building Delphi technique. Our 14 priority topics fell into five broad themes (autecology, population dynamics, global stressors, global diversity, and ecosystem services) and included understanding dietsthroughout mussel life history; identifying the drivers of population declines; defining...

The effects of ethanol and α-pinene lures on trap catches of forest coleopteran predators and fungivores were evaluated in studies conducted in 2002–2004 to evaluate trap responses of bark and woodboring beetles in the southern United States of America. Traps baited with ethanol, α-pinene, or a combination of the two attracted predator species in six families of Coleoptera. The most abundant species were Coptodera aerata Dejean (Carabidae), Thanasimus dubius Fabricius (Cleridae), Temnoscheila virescens (Fabricius) (Trogossitidae), and Lasconotus spp. (Zopheridae). Most species were...

Individual plant species play valuable roles in meeting restoration goals for pollinators. However, the selection of plant species for pollinator restoration is rarely informed using empirical evidence and is usually developed in agroecosystems, which experience frequent human interventions to ensure plant success as compared to seminatural ecosystems. We highlight concepts and future research needs to design planting mixes that fulfill the ecological requirements of pollinators in seminatural ecosystems. Native plants that are attractive to pollinators, increase the stability of pollinatio...