Treesearch

The synergy between human land use and climate change is accelerating the global decline of biodiversity. In the fragile Himalayas, this trend has a strong ecological impact on wildlife communities, and a better understanding is needed to discern changes in the mechanisms. This study aims to understand the effects of land use and climate change on the functional (FD) and phylogenetic diversity (PD) of mammal and bird communities across the land use gradient.

This study uses remote sensing and GIS techniques to examine the intensity and dynamics of land use/cover change and environmental indices across a four-decade period in the Chingola district of Zambia, from 1972 to 2020 using five classification stages (1972, 1992, 2001, 2013, and 2020). A total of 10 key climate change detection monitoring indices were generated using RClimDex to examine the implications of land degradation on the bioclimatic factors from 1983 to 2020. The findings revealed a significant expansion in Built-ups (7.3%/year), farmlands (3.18%/year), and mining areas...

The objectives of this study were to evaluate spatial sampling and statistical aspects of landscape-level wildfire rate of spread (ROS) estimates derived from airborne thermal infrared imagery (ATIR). Wildfire progression maps and ROS estimates were derived from repetitive ATIR image sequences collected during the 2017 Thomas and Detwiler wildfire events in California. Three separate landscape sampling unit (LSU) sizes were used to extract remotely sensed environmental covariates known to influence fire behavior. Statistical relationships between fire spread rates and landscape covariates...

As rates of urbanization and climatic change soar, decision-makers are increasingly challenged to provide innovative solutions that simultaneously address climate change impacts and risks and inclusively ensure quality of life for urban residents. Cities have turned to nature-based solutions to help address these challenges. Nature-based solutions, through the provision of ecosystem services, can yield numerous benefits for people and address multiple challenges simultaneously. Yet, efforts to mainstream nature-based solutions are impaired by the complexity of the interacting social,...

Wildlife management areas (WMAs) are important part of the public land system for forest-based recreation in the United States. Despite the growing literature on the economics of outdoor recreation, information about the economic benefit of visitors’ access to WMAs, common to 35 states nationally, is lacking. WMAs differ from other public areas because of their unique focus on promoting conservation as well as consumptive and nonconsumptive uses. With the data collected from a mixed-mode survey of WMA permit holders, this study estimated a travel cost model of WMA visitation with price...

Purpose of Review I aim to contextualize wildfire-disease interactions with the goal of building a better understanding of where these may be of ecological importance and problems for sustainable forest management. Recent Findings While wildfire-disease interactions have been documented, they are not well represented in the ecological literature, probably because they require considerable effort or serendipity to rigorously quantify. Examples of disease-fire interactions are relatively limited and tend to be clearer in systems where fire and disease are management problems. The most...

Disease combined with drought poses an important threat to plant survival, often compromising success in the restoration of riparian forests. Thus, understanding how biotic and abiotic stressors may affect plant survival and growth performance can greatly increase the success of ecosystem management strategies. The purpose of this study was to understand how two plant species, often used together in restoration of riparian ecosystems but with different ecological preferences, would respond to infection by each of two Phytophthoraspecies in Mediterranean-climate regions, in the absence or...

Northern Spotted Owls (Strix occidentalis caurina) are of management and conservation concern in the US Pacific Northwest where populations have been monitored since the 1990s using mark-resight methods. Passive acoustic monitoring has the potential to support monitoring efforts; however, its use is currently primarily restricted to determining species presence rather than breeding status. Distinguishing female from male Northern Spotted Owl vocalizations could facilitate determination of pair status using passive acoustic methods, greatly enhancing inference derived from noninvasive...

We screened and validated microsatellite DNA markers (i.e., simple sequence repeats, SSRs) from transcriptome sequences of white oak (Quercus alba L.). Of 84 PCR primer pairs previously identified and designed, we found 23 pairs that amplified white oak genomic DNA consistently and were polymorphic among three DNA samples. Subsequently, 16 of these 23 primer pairs were amplified across 225 white oak trees sampled from naturally regenerated stands on the Daniel Boone National Forest in southeastern Kentucky. Population estimates of heterozygosity and total and effective allele numbers...

Community forests have been established in many parts of the United States, spanning a broad range of ownership models, tenure regimes, governance approaches, aims, and activities, and have evolved over time within local and larger-scale social-ecological contexts and conditions. Understanding how different community forest ownership models and associated property rights and governance regimes shape benefits and potential trade-offs for forests and communities in the United States is important for devising effective policies and practices related to community forestry. In this chapter, we...