Treesearch

This study focused on an outbreak of D. sapinea and Diplodia scrobiculata, which caused extensive dieback and mortality of slash pines (Pinus elliottii) along a highway in central Florida starting in 2012. The presence of an unusually large and uniform outbreak led to concern about what factors were responsible in the development of the outbreak. The objectives of this study were to (1) examine the effect of nutrients in this outbreak and (2) investigate the role of nitrogen in disease severity using inoculated saplings.

The objectives of this study were (1) to understand the increasing flowering dogwood mortality and population decline in the Southeastern United States over the past few decades; (2) to identify the predisposing, inciting, and contributing factors that could be leading to a decline complex; and (3) to investigate interactions between the identified factors based on Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data and site-specific field survey observations. Findings from the study could facilitate future development of flowering dogwood decline risk assessment tools to assist land managers with...

Environmental observation networks, such as AmeriFlux, are foundational for monitoring ecosystem response to climate change, management practices, and natural disturbances; however, their effectiveness depends on their representativeness for the regions or continents. We proposed an empirical, time series approach to quantify the similarity of ecosystem fluxes across AmeriFlux sites. We extracted the diel and seasonal characteristics (i.e., amplitudes, phases) from carbon dioxide, water vapor, energy, and momentum fluxes, which reflect the effects of climate, plant phenology, and ecophysiol...

National Forest Inventories (NFIs) provide statistically reliable information on forest resources at national and other large spatial scales. As forest management and conservation needs become increasingly complex, NFIs are being called upon to provide forest parameter estimates at spatial scales smaller than current design-based estimation procedures can provide. This is particularly true when estimates are desired by species or species groups, which is often required to inform wildlife habitat management, sustainable forestry certifications, or timber product assessments. Here we propose...

Invasive plants often can self‐pollinate and have higher reproductive outputs than native counterparts. Pollinator declines may exacerbate disparities in reproductive output by negatively impacting native plants more than invasives.To determine how pollinator availability affects reproductive success of two species (one native, one invasive), we conducted a pollinator exclusion experiment for two functionally similar species: the invasive musk thistle Carduus nutans and native field thistle Cirsium discolour. We manipulated pollinator access to flowers by partially or completely excluding...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program provides this resource update yearly as an overview of forest resources in Iowa. These estimates are derived from field data collected across a systematic network of fixed-radius forest monitoring plots located on both public and private land. New updates are provided annually as a subset of plots within the State are remeasured. Each year, field crews visit and measure a subset of all FIA plots across the entire State (the size of the subset varies by State and year). Combining all the...

The Enchantments area within the Alpine Lakes Wilderness has long been a popular recreation area, which has led the Forest Service to adopt an overnight permit system and, more recently, to consider a day-use permit system to balance recreation, resource protection, and visitor safety. The Enchantments area includes high-use trails such as those off of Icicle Rd, including Stuart Lake, Eightmile, and Snow Lakes. Current challenges facing managers include ensuring visitor safety, and mitigating crowding and impacts to nature. Current management strategies involve education, infrastructure...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program provides this resource update yearly as an overview of forest resources in Idaho. These estimates are derived from field data collected across a systematic network of fixed-radius forest monitoring plots located on both public and private land. New updates are provided annually as a subset of plots within the State are remeasured. Each year, field crews visit and measure a subset of all FIA plots across the entire State (the size of the subset varies by State and year). Combining all the...

This paper quantifies how softwood lumber tariffs propagate through the U.S. economy to affect homebuyers’ monthly mortgage payments, comparing this channel to direct mortgage rate changes. Using an integrated Armington-Leontief framework with 2022 IMPLAN data, we trace a tariff shock on Canadian softwood lumber into residential construction costs and mortgage payments. For a baseline $420,000 home with a typical principal-and-interest payment of about $2,190, a 25 % tariff raises monthly payments by $26-$41 (1.2 %–1.9 %), depending on market flexibility. In contrast, a one percentage...

It is becoming increasingly critical for societies to understand how costs and benefits associated with natural disasters and their mitigation activities are allocated across economic actors. Although higher rates of wildfire hazard mitigation would be expected to increase jobs in the forestry and logging sector, scientific examination of the magnitude of such impacts has been scarce. This research helps to close this research gap by evaluating how labor markets in Western U.S. counties have responded to the mechanical wildfire hazardous fuel reduction treatments carried out on national...