Treesearch

The impacts of climate change have accelerated significantly in recent decades. This paper explores the cascading effects of accelerating climate change using a participatory Futures Research method. The Implications Wheel® method was used to identify and score possible higher-order implications of three key direct impacts of accelerating climate change: Increasing crop failures; more frequent, severe, and longer-lasting heatwaves; and more frequent, intense, and larger wildfires. Analysis of the many second- and third-order implications that were generated revealed implications with...

Climate change is creating opportunities for agricultural expansion northward into the boreal forest. Converting forested land to agricultural land generally results in significant losses of organic matter (OM), which can impact soil health (SH). The objectives of this study were to assess the effects of land conversion on indicators of SH and to use the Comprehensive Assessment for Soil Health (CASH) framework to integrate measures of these indicators into a score to evaluate land conversion effects. Total carbon and nitrogen were also measured in this study. Soils (0–5 and 5–15 cm) were...

Cuticular hydrocarbon (CHC) mixtures from workers of five distinct CHC phenotypes of ReticulitermesHolmgren 1913 from two locations in northern California were examined from monthly collections taken over a 3-yr period. The objectives of this study were (1) to identify and quantify variations of the CHCs of multiple colonies of each of these phenotypes (= species or subspecies) to demonstrate consistency, (2) to assess the potential of CHC mixtures to separate or identify colonies within each phenotype, and (3) to detect any temporal changes in each of the hydrocarbons in the CHC mixtures....

A generic trap lure blend of host volatiles (ethanol + α-pinene) and Ips bark beetle pheromones (ipsenol + ipsdienol) is effective for detecting numerous species of longhorn beetles (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) in pine forests of North America. In 2021, the potential benefits of adding two other Ips pheromones (lanierone and cis-verbenol) to traps baited with the pine beetle lure blend were determined in north Georgia. Lanierone and cis-verbenol had no effect on catches of the six cerambycid species captured in the study: Acanthocinus nodosus (F.), A. obsoletus (LeConte), Astylopsis arcuata...

Natural disturbances such as wildfires are increasing in severity and frequency. Although the ecological impacts of disturbance are well documented, we have limited understanding of how disturbances and associated management responses influence recreation use patterns. This reflects, in part, difficulty in quantifying recreation use across different land ownerships with inconsistent, or non-existent, recreation monitoring practices. In this study, we use visitation models based on social media to examine how recreation use changed after a wildfire and site closures in a large, mixed-ownersh...

Phytosanitary heat treatments of Ceratocystis lukuohia and Ceratocystis huliohia-colonized Metrosideros polymorpha wood were evaluated using kilns. Wood poles subjected to a 22- to 34-day dehumidification kiln schedule with a heat treatment to 60°C to the poles' core. In vacuum kiln trials, logs were heated to 56°C at 70 percent log radius depth and the temperature maintained for 30 minutes. Neither Ceratocystis species was isolated from heat-treated wood using carrot baiting, whereas both fungi were isolated from control logs held at ambient temperature. Results of this study offer...

Neighborhood segregation by race and income is a structural determinant of firearm violence. Addressing green space deficits in segregated neighborhoods is a promising prevention strategy. This study assessed the potential for reducing firearm violence disparities by increasing access to tree cover. Units of analysis were census tracts in six U.S. cities (Baltimore, MD; Philadelphia, PA; Richmond, VA; Syracuse, NY; Washington, DC; Wilmington, DE). We measured segregation using the index of concentration at the extremes (ICE) for race-income. We calculated proportion tree cover based on...

Depression and other mental health conditions are consistently among the top ten contributors to the global public health burden (Patel et al., 2018). Between 1990 and 2019, the number of disability-adjusted life-years due to mental disorders world-wide increased from 80.8 million to 125.3 million (GBD 2019 Mental Disorders Collaborators, 2022). This mental health burden is not experienced equally between social groups, with lower-income and other marginalized groups often bearing a disproportionately high burden (Ridley et al., 2020). These inequalities may be explained by unjust systems...

Peatlands have acted as net CO2 sinks over millennia, exerting a global climate cooling effect. Rapid warming at northern latitudes, where peatlands are abundant, can disturb their CO2 sink function. Here we show that sensitivity of peatland net CO2 exchange to warming changes in sign and magnitude across seasons, resulting in complex net CO2 sink responses. We use multiannual net CO2 exchange observations from 20 northern peatlands to show that warmer early summers are linked to increased net CO2 uptake, while warmer late summers lead to decreased net CO2 uptake. Thus, net CO2 sinks of...

Several recent longitudinal studies have found that exposure to the natural environment is associated with lower non-accidental mortality. However, most of these studies used the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) as an exposure metric; and because NDVI might not be sensitive enough to adequately capture changes in urban vegetation, these studies might lack true longitudinal variation in exposure. Therefore, we used a natural experiment to assess the impact of 30 years of tree planting by the nonprofit Friends of Trees on non-accidental, cardiovascular, lower-respiratory, and...