Treesearch

Mountain pine beetle (MPB) is a native disturbance agent across most pine forests in the western US. Climate changes will directly and indirectly impact frequencies and severities of MPB outbreaks, which can then alter fuel characteristics and wildland fire dynamics via changes in stand structure and composition. To investigate the importance of MPB to past and future landscape dynamics, we used the mechanistic, spatially explicit ecosystem process model FireBGCv2 to quantify interactions among climate, MPB, wildfire, fire suppression, and fuel management under historical and projected...

Mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) and spruce beetle (D. rufipennis) are two significant native tree mortality agents with expansive distributions throughout North America. The range of spruce beetle is considered coincident with Picea across North America. Although the distribution of mountain pine beetle in Pinus forests has historically been restricted by climate, recent warming has accelerated migration northward in western Canada. Both species are being directly influenced by changes in climate, particularly warming temperatures that can reduce winter mortality and shorten...

Large amounts of urban wood resources are generated through tree removals in urban areas. Therefore, there is a growing interest to improve the environmental performance of the urban wood supply chain by quantifying the environmental impacts of creating high-value products from urban tree removals to enhance its utilization. By surveying existing urban wood utilization operations for primary data in two major cities: Baltimore, Maryland, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a new life cycle inventory (LCI) dataset per m3 of dry urban hardwood lumber and live edge slabs was created. Incorporating the...

Promoting ecological resilience to increasing disturbance activity is a key management priority under warming climate. Across the Northern Hemisphere, tree mortality from widespread bark beetle outbreaks raises concerns for how forest management can foster resilience to future outbreaks. Density reduction (i.e., thinning) treatments can increase vigor of remaining trees, but the longevity of treatment efficacy for reducing susceptibility to future disturbance remains a key knowledge gap. Using one of the longest-running replicated experiments in old-growth subalpine forests, we measured...

A changing climate is altering ecosystem carbon dynamics with consequences for natural systems and human economies, but there are few tools available for land managers to meaningfully incorporate carbon trajectories into planning efforts. To address uncertainties wrought by rapidly changing conditions, many practitioners adopt resistance and resilience as ecosystem management goals, but these concepts have proven difficult to monitor across landscapes. Here, we address the growing need to understand and plan for ecosystem carbon with concepts of resistance and resilience. Using time series...

Some organosilicon compounds, including alkoxysilanes and siloxanes, proved effective in stabilizing the dimensions of waterlogged archaeological wood during drying, which is essential in the conservation process of ancient artifacts. However, it was diffcult to determine a strong correlation between the wood stabilizing effect and the properties of organosilicon compounds, such as molecular weight and size, weight percent gain, and the presence of other potentially reactive groups. Therefore, to better understand the mechanism behind the stabilization effectiveness, the reactivity of...

Over the past several decades, the management of historically frequent-fire forests in the western United States has received significant attention due to the linked ecological and social risks posed by the increased occurrence of large, contiguous patches of high-severity fire. As a result, efforts are underway to simultaneously reduce potential fire and fuel hazards and restore characteristics indicative of historical forest structures and ecological processes that enhance the diversity and quality of wildlife habitat across landscapes. Despite widespread agreement on the need for...

Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) show promise for enhancing properties of waterborne latexes and coatings. Miniemulsion polymerization is a promising route to obtaining well-controlled latex distributions sufficient to encapsulate CNCs in the monomer phase. Here, we demonstrate the first miniemulsion polymerization resulting in encapsulation of CNCs that incorporates costabilizer, water soluble initiator, and comonomer mixtures, aspects that are important for practical implementation. CNCs were added to the monomer phase as either unmodified (umCNC) or one of two functionalized forms:...

Each year, wildfires ravage the western U.S. and change the lives of millions of inhabitants. Situated in southern California, coastal Santa Barbara has witnessed devastating wildfires in the past decade, with nearly all ignitions started by humans. Therefore, estimating the risk imposed by unplanned ignitions in this fire-prone region will further increase resilience toward wildfires. Currently, a fire-risk map does not exist in this region. The main objective of this study is to provide a spatial analysis of regions at high risk of fast wildfire spread, particularly in the first two...

Forest treatments reduce wildfire risk and can promote the vigor and production of remaining trees, but they are also a disturbance. Understanding the type, timing, and longevity of tree response to treatment, as well as the potential for interactive effects of treatments and drought, could help managers plan and evaluate forest management practices. Environmental drivers, biological modifiers, and tree capacity to respond to prior disturbances were concurrently tested to predict ponderosa pine basal area increment (ΒΑΙ) in a lowland and upland dry pine forest in south central Oregon, USA....