Treesearch

Recreation ecology has its foundations in the premise that recreationists have a negative impact on ecosystems, and are thus treated as an ecological stressor. However, ecology is the study of interactions between organisms and the environment, not just an organism’s impacts on the environment. While we do not dispute the evidence that recreationists can negatively impact ecosystems, recreation can also have positive effects for conservation. Contextualizing interactions between recreation and ecology within broader multi-scale social-ecological systems can advance our scientific knowledge...

Over the last decade, a team of researchers and practitioners, referred to as the Wildfire Research Team (WiRē1 Team), has worked with wildfire practitioners seeking to create communities that are adapted to wildfire through an evidenced-based approach. The West Region Wildfire Council (WRWC) has been an integral partner amongst the WiRē Team throughout this time. Together, the WiRē Team has developed a systematic data collection and integration approach (the WiRē approach) that informs local wildfire risk education efforts and allows for monitoring of community adaptation over time....

Intensive pine silviculture has become the dominant management paradigm in the southeastern United States. Although productivity has been substantially increased by the combination of cultural, silvicultural, and genetic advancements, wood quality is sometimes sacrificed in intensive silviculture. Extending the optimal rotation allows trees to grow more timber, which may result in the production of better quality sawtimber; however, landowners may require incentives to do so. We simulated loblolly, slash, shortleaf, and longleaf pine for growth and yield using the Forest Vegetation...

We examined the composition and spatial correlation of sulfur and mercury pools in peatland soil profiles by measuring sulfur speciation by 1s X-ray absorption near-edge structure spectrocopy and mercury concentrations by cold vapor atomic fluorescence spectroscopy. Also investigated were the methylation/demethylation rate constants and the presence of hgcAB genes with depth. Methylmercury (MeHg) concentration and organic disulfide were spatially correlated and had a significant positive correlation (p < 0.05). This finding is consistent with these species being products of dissimilatory...

Increased urbanization drives habitat loss, yet residential land-use represents significant habitat potential for mammals and could provide connectivity between patches of green spaces. Diverse mammal communities exist across urban gradients, but it is unclear how mammal community composition varies within residential lands. We conducted a camera trapping study in 36 residential yards across an urban gradient to assess the relative contributions of the degree of urbanization in the land-use context versus parcel habitat features, such as vegetation structure, on mammal community diversity...

Species distribution models predict shifts in forest habitat in response to warming temperatures associated with climate change, yet tree migration rates lag climate change, leading to misalignment of current species assemblages with future climate conditions. Forest adaptation strategies have been proposed to deliberately adjust species composition by planting climate-suitable species. Practical evaluations of adaptation plantings are limited, especially in the context of ecological memory or extreme climate events. In this study, we examined the 3-year survival and growth response of...

Geographical variation in the likelihood of biological invasions can be affected by propagule pressure and habitat suitability, which are driven by ecological and social processes. Past studies have empirically quantified the role of drivers by comparing geographical variation in numbers of invading species with variation in candidate factors; however, lack of data has limited empirical studies for individual species. Lymantria dispar (L.), a nonnative forest pest formerly known as gypsy moth, is an exemplar species for exploring invasion drivers because of extensive records on its spread....

1. Corticosterone is a steroid hormone integral to a variety of physiological pathways and is strongly associated with the vertebrate stress response. In avian species, circulating corticosterone is sequestered into developing feathers and is used as an indicator of energy allocation during feather growth and widely applied in conservation physiology.2. The northern spotted owl Strix occidentalis caurina is a federally threatened old-growth forest obligate of conservation concern endemic to the Pacific Northwest of the United States and Canada. The effects of landscape characteristics and...

Prey respond to predation risk with a range of behavioral tactics that can vary based on space use and hunting mode of the predator. Unlike other predators, human hunters are often more spatially and temporally restricted, which creates a period of short‐duration, high‐intensity predation risk for prey. Consequently, identifying the roles different hunting modes (i.e., archery and rifle), hunts for targeted and non‐targeted species, and landscape features play in altering spatial and temporal responses of prey to predation risk by humans is important for effective management of harvested...

Nonnative tree species have received less scientific attention than nonnative species in general, but when a forest is colonized by a nonnative tree species, the ecological effects can be significant as a change in tree species composition can alter the structural and functional attributes of forest ecosystems. We assess the abundance, geographic distribution, contribution to forest structure (including carbon), and temporal trends of nonnative tree species between the most current inventory and the previous one, ranging from 3 to 15 years earlier, within the conterminous United States...