Treesearch

Conserving soil carbon (C) and harnessing the potential for soil C sequestration requires an improved understanding of the processes through which organic material accumulates in soil. Currently, competing hypotheses exist regarding the dominant mechanisms that control soil C accumulation and transfers to mineral-associated pools. Long-standing hypotheses rely upon an assumed strong relationship between the quantity of organic inputs and soil C accumulation, while more recent hypotheses have shifted the focus towards the more complex controls of root activity, microbial processing and...

Long-term, place-based research programs in the National Science Foundation-supported Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network have had profound effects on public policies and practices in land use, conservation, and the environment. While less well known than their contributions to fundamental ecological science, LTER programs’ commitment to serving broad public interests has been key to helping achieve their mission to advance basic science that supports society’s need to address major environmental challenges. Several attributes of all LTER programs are critical to these accomplishme...

Global increases in intensive forestry have raised concerns about forest plantation effects on water, but few studies have tested the effects of plantation forest removal and native forest restoration on catchment hydrology. We describe results of a 14-year paired watershed experiment on ecological restoration in south central Chile which documents streamflow response to the early stages of native forest restoration, after clearcutting of plantations of exotic fast-growing Eucalyptus, planting of native trees, and fostering natural regeneration of native temperate rainforest species....

Few long-term studies have explored how intensively managed short rotation forest plantations interact with climate variability. We examine how prolonged severe drought and forest operations affect runoff in 11 experimental catchments on private corporate forest land near Nacimiento in south central Chile over the period 2008–2019. The catchments (7.7–414 ha) contain forest plantations of exotic fast-growing species (Pinus radiata, Eucalyptus spp.) at various stages of growth in a Mediterranean climate (mean long-term annual rainfall = 1381 mm). Since 2010, a drought, unprecedented in...

Woody detritus (WD), created by mortality of trees and their associated parts, is an important component of forested ecosystems with roles in energy flow, hydrologic and geomorphologic processes as well as in carbon and nutrient cycling. Although likely to be increasingly important as forest systems respond to climatic and other human induced changes, WD-related science is just beginning relative to other aspects of forested ecosystems. WD differs from other litter forms and soil in key ways (i.e., size range, rigidity, and heterogeneity) that limit the application of many paradigms...

Field stations and marine labs (FSMLs) in the United States are predominantly white and often heteronormative and cis-gendered spaces. As such, it can be difficult for people of color and other minoritized groups to gain access, persist, and succeed as field scientists-in- training. While making large-scale changes in how our FSMLs look and operate can seem daunting, many FSMLs are working on DEAI (diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion) initiatives through their undergraduate student programs. We give examples from some of these efforts, and we suggest some concrete, achievable...

Recent debates around the meaning and implications of compassionate conservation suggest that some conservationists consider emotion a false and misleading basis for moral judgment and decision making. We trace these beliefs to a long-standing, gendered sociocultural convention and argue that the disparagement of emotion as a source of moral understanding is both empirically and morally problematic. According to the current scientific and philosophical understanding, reason and emotion are better understood as partners, rather than opposites. Nonetheless, the two have historically been...

When axioms (i.e., important yet assumed beliefs or principles) come to be accepted as authoritative and incontrovertible truths, they can become dogma. In conservation science, the belief that “conservation is engaged in the protection of the integrity and continuity of natural processes, not the welfare of individuals” (Soulé 1985) has come to be accepted somewhat dogmatically; so, too, has the practice of excluding non-native species in biodiversity calculations. Although proponents of this practice often refer to Soulé (1985) as justification, in a later work Soulé (1990) claims the...

Humans affect ecosystems in many ways, and scientific field studies are no exception. If data collection disrupts environments or biota too much, it can lead to inaccurate conclusions in the study of interest or in subsequent studies. We evaluated whether stream electrofishing surveys could measurably disturb the benthic biofilms in two forested headwaters in western Oregon, USA. While the consequences of electrofishing to macroinvertebrates and fish have been assessed, to date no studies have quantified its influence on benthic biofilms. We observed declines in the standing stocks of...

Protecting existing soil carbon (C) and harnessing the C sequestration potential of soils require an improved understanding of the processes through which soil organic matter accumulates in natural systems. Currently, competing hypotheses exist regarding the dominant mechanisms for soil C stabilization. Many long-standing hypotheses revolve around an assumed positive relationship between the quantity of organic inputs and soil C accumulation, while more recent hypotheses have shifted attention toward the complex controls of microbial processing and organo-mineral complexation. Here, we...