Treesearch

Uromycladium falcatarium is a gall-forming rust fungus that causes highly damaging disease on Falcataria moluccana in commercial plantations in Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Falcataria moluccana is also an invasive weed that threatens infrastructure and native ecosystems in many Pacific Islands, including Hawaii, and is currently a target for biological control using host-specific natural enemies. Some Uromycladium species have been successfully used as biological controls for certain Acacia weeds. We conducted artificial inoculations to determine the ability of U. falcatarium...

Urban forests face challenges from invasive species, deer herbivory, and tree mortality, creating gaps where natural regeneration fails. We tested whether fast-growing hybrid Populus and Salix genotypes could facilitate urban forest restoration in post-emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis) canopy gaps. We planted six genotypes of each genus using two methods—potted trees and direct-planted cuttings across five 21 × 21-meter plots in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. We assessed initial light availability above each planted tree as canopy leaf area index (LAI). From 2021–2023, we measured...

An estimated 37% of the forestland across the United States, excluding Interior Alaska, is controlled by family forest ownerships. This paper examines trends in family forest ownerships with 4 + ha (10 + ac) based on data from the 2013, 2018, and 2023 iterations of the USDA Forest Service’s National Woodland Owner Survey (NWOS). The overall profile of family forest ownerships remained relatively consistent between 2013 and 2023, but there were some significant changes. The percentage of ownerships with a primary decision-maker older than 68 years (the median age in 2023) increased from 32...

When recreationists encounter negative site conditions, they may cope via displacement and choose alternative experiences to still attain the recreation outcomes they seek. Displacement may differ across demographics, but little is known about differences across social identities based in race/ethnicity, household composition, and generations in the U.S. Our research examines drivers and types of displacement and how these may vary based on social identity. We surveyed Southern Californians residing near one of four national forests in the area (n=3,585) about their visitor use patterns,...

Hyperspectral imaging provides rich spectral information for plant phenotyping, yet analyzing these high-dimensional data remains challenging due to limited labeled datasets and the reliance on manually extracted features, such as vegetation indices. Here, we present LeafVAE, a variational autoencoder framework that learns spectral signatures directly from hyperspectral leaf images without manual annotation. Our model encodes leaf spectra into a compact, two-dimensional latent space where pixels cluster by spectral similarity, creating quantitative leaf descriptors from signature compositio...

Soybean gall midge, Resseliella maxima Gagné, was first described in 2019 following widespread outbreaks in soybean across the midwestern United States. Larval feeding inside stems causes lesions, lodging, and yield loss. Third instars overwinter in the soil within silken cocoons, but their cold tolerance, an important factor for survival in the temperate midwestern United States, is unknown. In 2022 and 2023, late-season soybean stems with R. maxima were collected from southwestern Minnesota. Third instars were retrieved and transferred to vials of sand, where they successfully burrowed...

Increased wildfire activity in the US motivated the USDA Forest Service to update national wildfire simulation data used for risk assessment and prioritizing wildland fuel reduction programs. The update (FSim-2020 to FSim-2023) included revised data on fuels, ignition frequency, fire weather, and recalibration of the FSim model. We overlayed the new simulated fire perimeters with the most recent building footprint data to examine the change in magnitude and spatial patterns of estimated building exposure. We found that the update to FSim-2023 resulted in a 61% increase in simulated...

Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) are renewable, high-value nanomaterials with broad industrial applications. Based on laboratory-scale experimental data, this study demonstrates the feasibility of utilizing sugar maple forest residues for 10 metric tons per day (MTPD) production of CNC through an integrated techno-economic analysis (TEA) and life cycle assessment (LCA). The minimum selling price (MSP) of CNC was estimated at $16.03/kg, with a global warming (GW) impact of 28.60 kg CO₂ eq/kg CNC. Sensitivity analysis identified CNC yield and pretreatment solids loading as key drivers for the...

Growing concerns about global warming from fossil fuel combustion underscore the need for sustainable hydrogen production. Catalytic methane decomposition (CMD) offers a CO2-free pathway by generating hydrogen and solid carbon. This study performs a cradle-to-gate life-cycle assessment of CMD using two catalytic systems, including Ni/Al2O3 (metal-based) and biochar (renewable carbon-based), for producing 1 kg H2 under physical and economic allocation approaches. The physical allocation results demonstrated biochar’s superior environmental performance, with 26% lower fossil fuel depletion...

Carbon fibres (CFs) are indispensable for lightweight structural engineering, yet their widespread adoption is stifled by the high cost and environmental toll of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) precursors. While substituting PAN with low-footprint alternatives such as lignin or carbon black reduces emissions, the resulting fibres typically suffer from mechanical degradation caused by poorly integrated fillers. Here we report an electrified carbon-fibre upgrading strategy that transforms low-cost, carbon-black-loaded PAN precursors into high-performance CFs by incorporating methane (CH4)-derived...