Treesearch

The rate of global climate change is projected to outpace the ability of many natural populations and species to adapt. Assisted migration (AM), which is defined as the managed movement of climate-adapted individuals within or outside the species ranges, is a conservation option to improve species' adaptive capacity and facilitate persistence. Although conservation biologists have long been using genetic tools to increase or maintain diversity of natural populations, genomic techniques could add extra benefit in AM that include selectively neutral and adaptive regions of the genome. In...

The Chaohe watershed is a meso-scale watershed in northern China, and the primary reservoir watershed for Beijing's drinking water supply. Study focus This research aims to evaluate the effects of climate change on future seasonal streamflow regimes and understand the challenges to watershed management. The Regional Hydro-Ecological Simulation System (RHESSys) was applied to investigate the watershed's future hydrographic characteristics under the forcing of the downscaled precipitation and temperature projected by General Circulation Models (GCMs) under three emissions scenarios. New...

One of the largest impacts on forest soils, apart from logging disturbances, is wildfire. The physical disturbances include suppression activities, post-fire erosion during storm events, and slope failures. Biological and chemical disruptions to soil functioning can occur as well. Since soils are the key to site productivity and sustainability, conservation of soil resources in the post-wildfire environment are of the utmost importance. Some soil conservation measures can be employed during fire suppression as Best Management Practices conservation. The bulk of these activities fall into...

Urbanization is known to cause ‘Urban Heat Island’ (UHI) and elevate storm runoff. However, how urbanization influences local atmospheric moisture under global warming is not well-understood. By examining 140 paired urban-rural weather station data (1980–2018), this study finds significant declines in atmospheric humidity or the ‘Urban Dry Island’ (UDI) in multiple large city clusters across a large climatic gradient in China. Global warming, UHI, and reduction in local evapotranspiration and water vapor supplies all contribute to the observed UDI. The magnitude and frequency of UDI are...

Assessing a map's accuracy and efficacy requires careful consideration and calculation of a comprehensive set of measures, particularly when characteristics in geospatial datasets may be used for addressing multiple objectives. We describe a map accuracy assessment framework for categorical geospatial data over large areas that utilizes site-specific (plot-pixel), non-site specific (area estimates), and comparative accuracy (spatial and statistical distributions) methods. This comprehensive framework spans the range of approaches applied in most other studies, maximizing opportunities for...

For wood and forest products to reach their full potential as structural materials, experimental techniques are needed to measure mechanical properties across all length scales. Nanoindentation is uniquely suited to probe in situ mechanical properties of micrometer-scale features in forest products, such as individual wood cell wall layers and adhesive bondlines. However, wood science researchers most commonly employ traditional nanoindentation methods that were originally developed for testing hard, inorganic materials, such as metals and ceramics. These traditional methods assume that...

The AWPA E10 soil block test is one of the most often used methods to screen wood protectants against pure cultures of wood degrading fungi in North America. The test methodology was first developed in the early 1900s and has been adapted to evaluate a wide range of chemically treated, modified, and naturally durable woods and wood-based materials. The history and basic requirements of this fundamental test, along with good laboratory practices for optimum fungal strain performance, are discussed with practical considerations to ensure optimal and reproducible results.

Natural area management and sustainability in cities is ever more reliant on civic environmental stewardship. Many conservation organizations sponsor stewardship programs that enlist volunteers to care for the land and restore urban ecosystems. Stewardship program success depends on alignment of individuals’ and sponsoring organizations’ goals. We conducted surveys with a sample of 165 volunteers across natural areas stewardship events in metropolitan King County (Washington, U.S.). An adapted Volunteer Functions Inventory framework was used to understand volunteers’ motivations, satisfacti...

Poria carnegieae was described from Arizona growing on the woody ribs of the saguaro cactus, Carnegiea gigantea, and was transferred to Ceriporiopsis due to morphological evidence. Posterior phylogenetic studies showed a relationship of Poria carnegieae with Bjerkandera. New sequence data and morphologic evidence are presented to support the transfer of Ceriporiopsis carnegieae to Bjerkandera.

A conceptual framework for climate involvement in forest tree diseases was applied to seven examples to demonstrate its suitability for different disease types: cases where climate favours pathogen biology which then leads to tree mortality or where diseases are caused primarily by climate-driven physiological injury or stress to trees. Hypotheses for climate involvement are derived from detection and monitoring data to express associations of weather or climate factors with disease development at several spatial and temporal scales. Research findings contribute to an understanding of...