Treesearch

Land management legacies coupled with climate change have led to shifts in western ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forest structure and fire regimes. A growing body of evidence suggests that under increasing area burned at high-severity, warming and drought, ponderosa pine forests are vulnerable to conversion to alternate forest types or non-forest vegetation. However, the extent and direction of recent fire-induced changes in southwestern US ponderosa pine forests have not been subject to region-wide evaluation. Here, we assess recent fire effects in ponderosa pine forests using long-term...

Since 1972, the Landsat program has been continually monitoring the Earth, to now provide 50 years of digital, multispectral, medium spatial resolution observations. Over this time, Landsat data were crucial for many scientific and technical advances. Prior to the Landsat program, detailed, synoptic depictions of the Earth's surface were rare, and the ability to acquire and work with large datasets was limited. The early years of the Landsat program delivered a series of technological breakthroughs, pioneering new methods, and demonstrating the ability and capacity of digital satellite...

The emerging bioeconomy requires new supply chain paradigms for biomass materials to reach processing centers. Forest bio-hubs can be thought of as networks of collection points to facilitate biomass supply chains that feed from forest to central processing facilities. The design and functionality of forest bio-hubs depends on the form (e.g., vertically and horizontally integrated), and the quality and volume of feedstocks. In this paper we conceptually develop the potential role of forest bio-hubs. We then compare current bio-hub development in three U.S. regions—the Pacific Northwest,...

Whole body vibration (WBV) is a risk factor for the development of musculoskeletal disorders among logging equipment operators. In 2014 we sampled operator exposure to WBV in logging equipment common in the southern United States. The average weighted acceleration anticipated over an eight-hour day (A(8)) was 0.64 ms-2 (sd 0.32) for trailer mounted loaders, 1.04 ms-2 (sd 0.42) for wheeled feller-bunchers, and 1.58 ms-2 (sd 0.34) for skidders. All were above the European Union (EU) action value of 0.51 ms-2, but skidders were consistently above the limit value of 1.15 ms-2. Because travel...

In recent decades, wildfires have destroyed growing numbers of homes in the United States. Wildfire recovery has emerged as a critical time to reduce future vulnerability, yet we lack knowledge of how rebuilding efforts unfold over time, and are shaped by resident and housing characteristics, land use planning, and government regulations. We used a case study approach to document housing recovery a decade post-event for the Highway 31 fire in suburban South Carolina, and the Station fire in exurban California (both in 2009). We found divergent rebuilding and mitigation outcomes; rebuilding...

Analysis of volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions using electronic-nose (e-nose) devices has shown promise for early detection of white-nose syndrome (WNS) in bats. Tricolored bats, Perimyotis subflavus, from three separate sampling groups defined by environmental conditions, levels of physical activity, and WNS-disease status were captured temporarily for collection of VOC emissions to determine relationships between these combinations of factors and physiological states, Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd)-infection status, and metabolic conditions. Physiologically active (non-torpid)...

Sagebrush ecosystems of western North America are threatened by invasive annual grasses and wildfires that can remove fire-intolerant shrubs for decades. Fuel reduction treatments are used ostensibly to aid in fire suppression, conserve wildlife habitat, and restore historical fire regimes, but longterm ecological impacts of these treatments are not clear. In 2006, we initiated fuel reduction treatments (prescribed fire, mowing, and herbicide applications [tebuthiuron and imazapic]) in six Artemisia tridentata ssp. wyomingensis communities. We evaluated long-term effects of these fuel...

The majority of the aboveground biomass on the Earth’s land surface is stored in forests.Thus, forest biomass plays a critical role in the global carbon cycle. Yet accurate estimate of forestaboveground biomass (FAGB) remains elusive. This study proposed a new conceptual model to mapFAGB using remotely sensed data from multiple sensors. The conceptual model, which providesguidance for selecting remotely sensed data, is based on the principle of estimating FAGB on theground using allometry, which needs species, diameter at breast height (DBH), and tree height asinputs. Based on the conceptua...

Many National Forest Inventory (NFI) stakeholders would benefit from accurate estimatesat finer geographic scales than most currently implemented in operational estimatesusing NFI sample data. In the past decade small area estimation techniques havebeen shown to increase precision in forest inventory estimates by combining fieldobservations and remote-sensing.We sought to demonstrate the potential for improvingthe precision of forest inventory growing stock volume estimates for counties inUnited States of North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia, by pairing canopy heightmodels from digital...

Small area estimation is a growing area of research for making inferences over geographic, demographic, or temporal domains smaller than those in which a particular survey data set was originally intended to be used. We aimed to review a body of literature to summarize the breadth and depth of small area estimation and related estimation strategies in forest inventory and management to-date, as well as the current state of terminology, methods, concerns, data sources, research findings, challenges, and opportunities for future work relevant to forestry and forest inventory research....