Treesearch

Lignocellulosic biomass is an alternative source of energy that can reduce our dependency on fossil fuels and limit greenhouse gas emissions. Several techno-economic analyses have consistently shown that all the steps in biomass-to-bioproduct processes needs improvement. Simultaneous assessment of genotypes for multiple productivity characteristics and integrating information across production stages has seldom been the focus of research efforts. To address this gap, we first determined the agronomic performance of 10 poplar genotypes. Differences between genotypes in height, diameter at...

This paper presents an example of an integrated application of two commonly used multi-criteria decision-making methods in landscape management, AHP and PROMETHEE, in order to select one of four management alternatives as the preferred alternative for management of the Fruska Gora National park in Serbia. AHP was used to derive the weights on five decision criteria, while PROMETHEE was used to assess the performance of four alternative management plans with respect to the five decision criteria. The five decision criteria were promoting biodiversity, wilderness, tourism, education, and use...

Long-term monitoring of forest soils is necessary to understand the effects of continued environmental change, including climate change, atmospheric deposition of metals, and, in many regions, recovery from acidic precipitation. A monitoring program was initiated in 2002 at five protected forest sites, primarily Spodosol soils, in Vermont, northeastern USA. Every 5 years, ten soil pits were sampled from random subplots in a 50 × 50-m plot at each site. Samples were taken by genetic horizon and, to reduce variability and improve comparability, from four specific layers: the combined Oi/Oe...

A new genus of Chamaemyiidae (Diptera: Lauxanioidea) is described, namely Leucotaraxis gen. nov. (type species Leucopis atrifacies Aldrich; other included species Leucotaraxis argenticollis (Zetterstedt), comb. nov., Leucotaraxis piniperda (Malloch), comb. nov., and Leucotaraxis sepiola sp. nov.). These species are predators of Adelgidae (Hemiptera) infesting Pinaceae. Leucotaraxis argenticollis is Holarctic, while the other three species are Nearctic. The phylogeny of Leucotaraxis with other representatives of Chamaemyiidae was elucidated using mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences and...

Most biological invasion literature—including syntheses and meta-analyses and the resulting theory—is reported from temperate regions, drawing only minimally from the tropics except for some island systems. The lack of attention to invasions in the tropics results from and reinforces the assumption that tropical ecosystems, and especially the continental tropics, are more resistant to invasions. We have critically assessed biological invasions in the tropics and compared them with temperate regions, finding relatively weak evidence that tropical and temperate regions differ in their...

Species of Radulomyces (Radulomycetaceae, Agaricales) with spines were studied by morphological and molecular methods. Phylogenetic analyses and morphological studies show that Radulomyces paumanokensis is a later synonym of Radulomyces copelandii and that Radulomyces licentii is a distinct taxon. Based on morphologic and molecular data, the new genus Noblesia (Meruliaceae, Polyporales) is proposed to accommodate Sistotrema croceum and Peniophora femsjoeensis. Sarcodontia is emended and restricted to three species with 13 taxa excluded from the genus. For many years, Sarcodontia crocea was...

As a forest landowner or manager, you know that what you do on your land is important. This is especially true when it comes to climate change. The decisions that you make affect how well your forest can handle droughts, recover from storms, and cope with insect outbreaks, events that are increasing in frequency and severity as the climate changes. This ability to "bounce back" is often called forest resilience. Your decisions also affect climate change by storing more or less carbon in your woods (carbon stocks) and by changing the rate at which carbon is absorbed by your trees (carbon...

This resource bulletin is part of a series of reports presenting findings from a Bureau of Business and Economic Research (BBER) census of Alaska’s primary forest products industry. Part 1 of this series presents information on the volume of timber harvested in Alaska during 2015 by product, ownership, species, and resource area. It also describes the flow of timber within the state, across state lines, and exports to countries outside the United States. Part 2 of the series presents information on the forest products industry sectors that processed timber and mill residue into finished...

The tayra (Eira barbara) is a common and broadly distributed Neotropical carnivore, yet is not well-studied. While this species is apparently associated with forested habitats, it also appears tolerant of some anthropogenic disturbance. We deployed 57 unbaited camera traps (n = 4923 trap-days) in and around a protected area (Furnas do Bom Jesus State Park, São Paulo, Brazil) to survey for tayra and two potentially interactive species: puma (Puma concolor) and free-ranging dogs (Canis familiaris). We used encounter histories generated from photographs and occupancy models to quantify tayra...

Background: The northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis caurina) is an Endangered Species Act-listed subspecies that requires coniferous forests with structurally complex and closed-canopy old-growth characteristics for nesting. With climate change, large wildfires are expected to become more common within the subspecies’ range and an increasing threat to these types of forests. Understanding fire severity patterns related to suitable nesting forest will be important to inform forest management that affects conservation and recovery. We examined the relationship between fire severity and...