Treesearch

Wood pallets play a critical role in the movement and storage of goods worldwide. They are an important component in the complex global supply chain and used by almost every industry. It is therefore important to assess the environmental implications of the wood pallet supply chain and identify optimization strategies that can be implemented. In this paper, primary 2018 annual production data collected from U.S. pallet manufacturers were used to develop the first industry-average life-cycle inventory (LCI). A new functional unit was proposed to perform a more refined and accurate environmen...

This study assessed the environmental impacts and economic feasibility of generating heat using wood-briquettes (WBs), and heat and electricity using torrefied-wood-briquettes (TWBs). WBs and TWBs were manufactured from forest residues using portable systems and delivered to either residential consumers or power plants in the United States. An integrated cradle-to-grave life-cycle assessment (LCA) and techno-economic analysis (TEA) approach was used to quantify environmental impacts and minimum-selling prices (MSPs) of heat and electricity, respectively. Results illustrated that 82% and...

Purpose: Global demand for construction materials has grown exponentially in the last century, contributing to climate change and detrimental impacts on the ecosystem. To aid in sustainable growth and reduce our environmental footprint, renewable construction materials, such as lumber, have been incorporated into green building activities. The purpose of this study was to quantify the environmental impacts associated with manufacturing redwood lumber in northern California using the life-cycle assessment (LCA) approach. Methods: This study surveyed and visited redwood manufacturing...

Global construction industry has a huge influence on world primary energy consumption, spending, and greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions. To better understand these factors for mass timber construction, this work quantified the life cycle environmental and economic performances of a high-rise mass timber building in U.S. Pacific Northwest region through the use of life-cycle assessment (LCA) and life-cycle cost analysis (LCCA). Using the TRACI impact category method, the cradle-to-grave LCA results showed better environmental performances for the mass timber building relative to conventional...

Hibiscus moscheutos L., also known as hardy hibiscus, is valued for its medicinal and ornamental attributes. It is usually propagated via seeds or cuttings. The purpose of this investigation was to develop a dependable micropropagation for H. moscheutos ‘Luna White’. To that end, the effect of four explant types (leaf, root, node, shoot tip) and two growth regulators 6-benzylaminopurine (BA) and meta-Topolin (mT) (6-(3-hydroxybenzylamino) purine) on in vitro growth of H. moscheutos was investigated. Genetic stability of the in vitro grown plants was assessed using flow cytometry, and...

The Forest Development Program (FDP) is a nationally renowned state-administered cost-share assistance program for forest landowners in North Carolina, primarily funded through taxation on primary forest product across the state. While the demand for FDP cost-share funds often exceeds available resources, over one-fourth of annual allocations on average go unused, due primarily to application cancellations and the divergence of actual costs and treated acres from the amounts approved originally. This study evaluates various factors related to the utilization of allocated funds based on...

Trees are long-lived organisms that integrate climate conditions across years or decades to produce secondary growth. This integration process is sometimes referred to as ‘climatic memory.’ While widely perceived, the physiological processes underlying this temporal integration, such as the storage and remobilization of non-structural carbohydrates (NSC), are rarely explicitly studied. This is perhaps most apparent when considering drought legacies (perturbed post-drought growth responses to climate), and the physiological mechanisms underlying these lagged responses to climatic extremes....

Heartwood extracts of naturally durable wood species are often evaluated as alternatives to chemical wood preservatives, but field data from long-term performance testing are lacking. The current study evaluated the long-term (five-year) performance of two non-durable wood species treated with heartwood extracts of either Tectona grandis, Dalbergia sissoo, Cedrus deodara, or Pinus roxburghii alone or combined with linseed oil. Stakes (45.7 × 1.9 × 1.9 cm) and blocks (12.5 × 3.75 × 2.5 cm) cut from the sapwood of cottonwood and southern pine were vacuum-pressure impregnated with the...

Alternative specifcations of univariate asymmetric Laplace models are described and investigated. A more general mixture model is then introduced. Bivariate extensions of these models are discussed in some detail, with particular emphasis on associated parameter estimation strategies. Multivariate versions of the models are briefy introduced.

The Kirtland's warbler (Setophaga kirtlandii) is a long-distance Neotropical migratory bird with narrow suitable nesting habitat conditions consisting of dense, young (3–20 year) jack pine (Pinus banksiana) forests growing on nutrient-poor and well-drained soils primarily within northern Lower Michigan. The Kirtland's warbler was officially delisted after more than 50 years of conservation and management activities following initial listing in 1966 under the U.S. Endangered Species Preservation Act (Byelich et al. 1976). However, Kirtland's warbler is considered a conservation-reliant...