Treesearch

Spatial and temporal heterogeneity, or messiness, is a broadly desirable characteristic of river corridors and an indicator of many of the geomorphic processes that sustain fluvial ecosystems. However, quantifying geomorphic heterogeneity is complicated by a lack of consistent metrics, classification schemas for dividing the river corridor into the patches that form the basis for those metrics, and guidance on interpreting metrics. Drawing from both geomorphic and landscape ecology concepts, we offer ideas and guidance intended to help investigators, from researchers to restoration...

Climate change is projected to alter precipitation patterns across northern latitudes, with decreased snow accumulation and summer rainfall predicted. These changes may alter soil physical properties such as soil strength, which would have implications for the feasibility of forest management activities. Reductions in summer and winter precipitation were simulated using a paired-plot design with throughfall reduction and snow removal as treatments across four soil drainage classes (well, moderately well, somewhat poor, and poorly drained) at each of three locations in northern Minnesota,...

It is critical to gain insight into the responses of forest soils to the changing climate. We simulated future climate conditions with growing season throughfall reduction (by 50%) and winter snow removal using a paired-plot design across a soil drainage class gradient at three upland, Populus-dominated forests in northern Minnesota, USA. In situ bulk soil respiration and concentrations of extractable soil N were measured during the summers of 2020–2021. Soil respiration and N concentrations were not affected by throughfall reduction and snow removal, which was largely attributed to the...

Drought is a growing threat to hydrological, ecological, agricultural, and socio-cultural systems of the tropics, especially tropical islands of the Pacific where severe droughts can compromise food and water security. Overcoming barriers to knowledge sharing between land managers and researchers is a critical cross-sector strategy for engaging and mitigating or adapting to drought. Here we describe the establishment and functioning of the Pacific Drought Knowledge Exchange (PDKE), which provides users with easier access to: (1) sector- and geography-specific climate information; (2)...

An indigenous subterranean termite, Reticulitermes tibialis Banks, fed on quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) and loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) stakes in prescribed burn and non-burned field plots on an established sagebrush-steppe rangeland restoration study site on Red Mountain, southeastern Idaho, expanding the known distribution of the ‘arid-land subterranean termite’ species. Aspen and pine stakes in the plots as part of a 5-year wood-decay study were unexpectedly damaged by termites. Groups of 25, 15-cm-long stakes were placed horizontally on the soil surface, and groups of...

Wildfires are an essential part of a healthy ecosystem, yet the expansion of the wildlandurban interface, combined with climatic changes and other anthropogenic activities, have led to the rise of wildfire hazards in the past few decades. Managing future wildfires and their multi-dimensional impacts requires moving from traditional reactive response to deploying proactive policies, strategies, and interventional programs to reduce wildfire risk to wildland-urban interface communities. Existing risk assessment frameworks lack a unified analytical method that properly captures uncertainties...

Forest management has the potential to contribute to the removal of greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere via carbon sequestration and storage. To identify management actions that will maximize carbon removal and storage over the long term, models are needed that accurately and realistically represent forest responses to changing climate. The most widely used growth and yield model in the United States (U.S.), the Forest Vegetation Simulator (FVS), which also forms the basis for several forest carbon calculators, does not currently include the direct effect of climate variation on tree...

Addressing the challenges of wildland fire requires that fire science be relevant to management and integrated into management decisions. Co-production is often touted as a process that can increase the utility of science for management, by involving scientists and managers in knowledge creation and problem solving. Despite the documented benefits of co-production, these efforts face a number of institutional barriers. Further research is needed on how to institutionalise support and incentivise co-production. To better understand how research organisations enable and constrain co-productio...

Verifying the abundance and distribution of species of conservation concern is necessary for land management agencies to determine potential impacts of management actions and for monitoring long‐term population trends. In the Rocky Mountains of the United States, Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis) and wolverine (Gulo gulo) are currently species of management importance for federal land management agencies. Optimal winter methods for detecting the 2 species differ in that wolverines are generally detected using bait stations and lynx are most efficiently detected through snow‐track encounters....

Wildfires are a perennial event globally, and the biogeochemical underpinnings of soil responses at relevant spatial and temporal scales are unclear. Soil biogeochemical processes regulate plant growth and nutrient losses that affect water quality, yet the response of soil after variable intensity fire is difficult to explain and predict. To address this issue, we examined two wildfires in Colorado, United States, across the first and second postfire years and leveraged statistical learning (SL) to predict and explain biogeochemical responses. We found that SL predicts biogeochemical...