Treesearch

Terrestrial laser scanning of forest structure is used increasingly in place of traditional technologies; however, deriving physical parameters from point clouds remains challenging because LiDAR returns do not have defined areas or volumes. While voxelization methods overcome this challenge, estimation of canopy gaps and other structural attributes are often performed by reducing the point cloud to two-dimensions, thus decreasing the fidelity of the data. Furthermore, relatively few studies have evaluated voxel-size effects on estimation accuracy. Here, we show that voxelized laser-scannin...

The impacts of urbanization on bird biodiversity depend on human–environment interactions that drive land management. Although a commonly studied group, less attention has been given to public perceptions of birds close to home, which can capture people's direct, everyday experiences with urban biodiversity. Here, we used ecological and social survey data collected in the metropolitan region of Phoenix, Arizona, USA, to determine how species traits are related to people's perceptions of local bird communities. We used a trait-based approach to classify birds by attributes that may influence...

Urban forests are important components of societal interactions with nature. We focused on urban forest patches, a distinct and underexplored subset of the urban forest that spans land uses and ownerships, and requires silvicultural practices to address their unique biophysical characteristics and management regimes. Our goal was to elucidate multi-scalar urban forest patch governance arrangements as they translated to on-the-ground management in four urban areas (Chicago, New York City, Philadelphia, and Baltimore) within the eastern United States. A transdisciplinary knowledge co-producti...

The World Health Organization denotes March 11, 2020, as the official start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Though millions of people worldwide had already been living under severe restrictions by that point, this date marked the start of a global lockdown period that was often described as "unprecedented." This period was marked by pain—the loss of life and suffering of millions, but also fear—of unabated transmission, stressed healthcare systems, and strained and scarce resources. Further, the pandemic intersected with pre-existing vulnerabilities and axes of inequality, including by race,...

Forests play a critical role in mitigating climate change, and, at the same time, are predicted to experience large-scale impacts of climate change that will affect the efficiency of forests in mitigation efforts. Projections of future carbon sequestration potential typically do not account for the changing economic costs of timber and agricultural production and land use change. We integrated a dynamic forward-looking economic optimization model of global land use with results from a dynamic global vegetation model and meta-analysis of climate impacts on crop yields to project future...

Fire is a critical ecological process to the forests of the Southern Appalachians. Where fire was excluded from forest types that historically burned frequently, unanticipated changes can occur when fire is reintroduced. For example, the development of new fuel characteristics can change the patterns of fire mortality and associated ecological responses. To test the fire effects of delayed fire mortality (mortality initiated by fire that occurs subsequent to the fire year) in the Southern Appalachians, USA, we developed a fire-effects model using both field studies and remote sensing. We...

Strategic foresight, also known as Futures, is an applied field that uses a suite of methods to explore possible, plausible, and preferable future states in order to support today's decision making and management. Strategic foresight is widely used by (among others): All U.S. military branches and intelligence agencies, Many companies from the Fortune 500 as well as smaller businesses, and The United Nations and International Monetary Fund. Because the work tends to be proprietary or classified, the results are rarely made public, making strategic foresight less well known than its...

Mechanical site preparation is often prescribed as a tool for correcting soil condition problems encountered when planting former agricultural fields. While the impact of mechanical site preparation on early growth and survival of young oak seedlings is well-known, there is a shortage of information regarding the longer-term effects of these treatments. Four hundred and eighty, 1-0 bare-root seedlings each of Nuttall oak (Quercus texana Buckley), Shumard oak (Quercus shumardii Buckley), and swamp chestnut oak (Quercus michauxii Nutt.) seedlings were planted in February 2008 on a retired...

The course of the bark beetle-vectored fungus, Leptographium terebrantis S. J. Barras and T. J. Perry, in stemwood growth loss of declining pines in the southeastern United States was assessed in a 13-year-old loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) plantation near Eufaula, Alabama, U.S.A. Using stem inoculation as a surrogate for root infection, we hypothesized that L. terebrantis infection impairs sapwood function and thus limits the tree leaf area (AL), new root production, and stemwood growth. Sterile toothpicks colonized by L. terebrantis at varying inoculum densities was used to elicit host...

Wildfire influences wildlife habitat in ways that benefit some species while degrading habitat for others. Recent wildfire favors several woodpecker species by creating dead trees, or "snags," that are easily excavated for nest cavities and also provide foraging substrate for bark and wood-boring beetles. Within a few years after wildfire, openings in the canopy often stimulate understory vegetation and improve opportunities for species that nest in shrubs or forage on the ground. Yet the same wildfire may reduce habitat for species that nest and forage in live trees. Prescribed fires also...