Treesearch

Quantifying tree canopy cover is fundamental to applications in forestry and ecology, but estimates vary substantially depending on type of field measurement, imagery, or active sensing used. Our objective was to improve estimates of stand-level canopy cover from standard tree inventory measurements, using representative data collected across diverse forest plant association groups across Oregon, USA. Canopy cover was measured with line intercept sampling on 1706 inventory plots and compared to calculations from individually tallied trees. We investigated adjustments of tree crown area...

Biodiversity collections are experiencing a renaissance fueled by the intersection of informatics, emerging technologies, and the extended use and interpretation of specimens and archived databases. In this article, we explore the potential for transformative research in ecology integrating biodiversity collections, stable isotope analysis (SIA), and environmental informatics. Like genomic DNA, SIA provides a common currency interpreted in the context of biogeochemical principles. Integration of SIA data across collections allows for evaluation of long-term ecological change at local to...

Cloud forest species face many threats including, but not limited to, climate change and increased extreme weather events. On September 20th, 2017, Hurricane Maria hit the island of Puerto Rico, changing the amount of coverage, structure, and microclimate of its forests. Cloud forest epiphytes can be particularly susceptible to such dramatic changes. Following Hurricane Maria, we studied the leaf characteristics potentially associated with reduced leaf health in the Lepanthes woodburyana, an epiphytic micro-orchid, endemic to Puerto Rico. We specifically assessed whether the environmental...

Plants endemic to the Caribbean region have evolved in response to hurricanes. These natural phenomena appear to be more frequent and more intense in the Caribbean region, which requires the study and understanding of their influence on responses by these plants - particularly if rare and with limited geographic distribution within the region - as a priority for conservation. We took advantage of long-term monitoring studies at the Luquillo Experimental Forest/El Yunque National Forest in Puerto Rico to evaluate the short-term changes in population size and the distribution oflife stages...

The increase in wildfire risk in the United States in recent decades has been linked to rapid growth of the wildland-urban interface and to changing climate. While there have been numerous studies on wildfires and climate change, few have separately assessed the impact of climate response to land-use-land-cover change (LULCC) on wildfires. In this study, we analyse two 10-year regional climate simulations driven by the current (2011) and future (2100) land-use-land-cover patterns to assess modifications by the projected LULCC to the frequency and severity of fire-prone atmospheric condition...

The idea of harmonizing data is not new. Decades of amassing data in databases according to community standards - both locally and globally - have been more successful for some research domains than others. It is particularly difficult to harmonize data across studies where sampling protocols vary greatly and complex environmental conditions need to be understood to apply analytical methods correctly. However, a body of longterm ecological community observations is increasingly becoming publicly available and has been used in important studies. Here, we discuss an approach to preparing...

Many fungi develop both asexual and sexual spores that serve as propagules for dissemination and/or recombination of genetic traits. Asexual spores are often heavily pigmented and this pigmentation provides protection from UV light. However, little is known about any purpose pigmentation that may serve for sexual spores. The model Ascomycete Aspergillus nidulans produces both green pigmented asexual spores (conidia) and red pigmented sexual spores (ascospores). Here we find that the previously characterized red pigment, asperthecin, is the A. nidulans ascospore pigment. The asperthecin...

Invasion of forest ecosystems by non‐native invasive insect pests (NNIIPs) can alter native animal and plant communities by disrupting species interactions. However, little is known about how fruittargeting NNIIPs may alter forest ecosystems. Recently introduced to the western United States, spotted wing Drosophila (Drosophila suzukii; SWD) is a parasite of soft‐skinned fruits. The ability of SWD to parasitize still‐ripening fruits of many plant species led to rapid expansion in agricultural systems across North America. Recent surveys have documented widespread SWD parasitism of wild...

The inclusion of forest carbon in climate change mitigation planning requires the development of models able to project potential future carbon stocks—a step beyond traditional monitoring, reporting and verification frameworks. Here, we updated and expanded a high-resolution forest carbon modelling approach previously developed for the state of Maryland to 11 states in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) domain, which includes Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont. In this study, we...

Large-scale airborne lidar data collections can be used to generate high-resolution forest aboveground biomass maps at the state level and beyond as demonstrated in early phases of NASA's Carbon Monitoring System program. While products like aboveground biomass maps derived from these leaf-off lidar datasets each can meet state- or substate-level measurement requirements individually, combining them over multiple jurisdictions does not guarantee the consistency required in forest carbon planning, trading and reporting schemes. In this study, we refine a multi-state level forest carbon...