Treesearch

Reforestation and restoration using nursery-produced seedlings is often the most reliable way to ensure successful establishment and rapid growth of native plants. Plant establishment success - that is, the ability for the plant to develop within a set period of time with minimal further interventions needed - depends greatly on decisions made prior to planting, and yet nursery-grown plants are often produced independently of considering the range of stressors encountered after nursery production. The optimal plant or seedling will vary greatly with species and site (depending on edaphic...

In northeastern North America, group selection is frequently used in northern hardwood forests to maintain uneven-aged stand structure and promote regeneration of tree species spanning a range of shade tolerances. For this study, long-term application of group selection at the Bartlett Experimental Forest, New Hampshire, USA, provided a unique opportunity to address cohort- and stand-level progression after 80 years of treatment. Cohort-level evolution reflected successional and developmental dynamics associated with even-aged forest systems, whereas aggregate stand-level conditions were...

This is 1 of 23 guides to help Southeastern U.S. producers of economically important agricultural commodities build resilience to, prepare for, and recover from hurricane impacts. All guides can be found on the USDA Southeast Climate Hub Hurricane Preparation and Recovery Commodity Guides website.

In what ways do plant diseases affect forest sustainability? How will disease disturbance regimes change given global warming and increasing population pressures? In this chapter, we review how plant diseases, caused by both biological pathogens and abiotic disturbance agents, influence forest sustainability—but note that our findings derive less from data and more from observations and professional judgment. Many forest pathogens (fungi, bacteria, viruses, nematodes) are microscopic, which predisposes them to nondetection because they cannot be seen with the naked eye and their symptoms...

Frequent hurricanes affect agricultural productivity, food security, economic security, and human wellbeing in the Caribbean islands. We assessed recent hurricane effects on the agricultural sector, and the challenges faced by farmers, foresters, and advisors related to hurricane preparedness and recovery in Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands (USVI). We used qualitative and quantitative survey methods to compile perspectives from agricultural advisors related to hurricane effects on farmlands, preparedness and recovery measures taken by land managers, and the needs regarding preparing for...

Nest boxes are commonly used for species that utilize tree cavities, including small owls. Boxes were installed in 2011 to facilitate study of Northern Saw-whet Owls in Pennsylvania. We checked the 11 boxes that remained in 2020 after a hiatus of 8 years and found 3 rodent nests, but no evidence of owl usage. Playbacks revealed owls were present at 8 of 11 boxes checked. Cavity surveys yielded an average of 7.7 large cavities within 50 m of each box; extrapolation of cavity densities to a minimal territory size of 150 ha suggested that suitable cavities are an abundant, non-limiting...

The inclusion of diverse individuals in ecological sciences has shown little progress over the past 2 decades for various reasons, including structural barriers in societies, organizations, and academia. Collaboration networks are important for productivity, promotion, and scientific impact, yet the extent to which the structure of these networks affects the inclusion of minoritized people remains unknown. Here, we evaluated trends in published research between 1965 and 2017 within the U.S. fisheries science academic co-authorship network and evaluated its structural composition, focused...

Persicaria perfoliata (Mile-a-Minute Weed), an invasive vine, forms monocultural patches of various sizes within infested landscapes among patches also containing other plants. We compared the species composition of P. perfoliata-dominated patches and adjacent nondominated patches in 2 topographically homogeneous sites using 20 paired plots, nonmetric multidimensional scaling, multi-response permutation procedure, and indicator species analyses. Richness and diversity were lower in the P. perfoliata-dominated patches but both patch types had uncommon native plants present. The patch types...

We evaluated the productivity and profitability of four highly productive poplars including Populus deltoides× P. deltoides (DD '140' and '356'), P. deltoides× P. maximowiczii (DM '230'), and P. trichocarpa× P. deltoides (TD '185') under two densities (2500 and 5000 trees ha-1), and three fertilization treatments (0, 113, 225 kg nitrogen ha-1) at three sandy coastal sites varying in soil quality. Green stem biomass (GSB) was estimated from the sixth-year stem diameter. Leaf-rust (Melampsora castagne) and beetle damage (by Chrysomela scripta Fabricius), the leaf area index (LAI) and foliar...

The present special issue highlights the chances and addresses the main challenges for short rotation coppices (SRC) with poplars (Populus spp.) as agricultural crops for the sustainable bio-economy. The current public perception of planting more trees on Earth as a climate mitigation action is accompanied by controversial discussions about sustainability and biodiversity of tree plantations. In contrast to many industrial plantations in the tropics, agricultural tree cropping with site-adapted tree species in the temperate zones of the world follows an agroforestry concept towards more...