Treesearch

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...

The Acetivibrio clariflavus (basonym: Clostridium clariflavum) glycoside hydrolase family 30 cellulosomal protein encoded by the Clocl_1795 gene was highly represented during growth on cellulosic substrates. In this report, the recombinantly expressed protein has been characterized and shown to be a non-reducing terminal (NRT)-specific xylobiohydrolase (AcXbh30A). Biochemical function, optimal biophysical parameters, and phylogeny were investigated. The findings indicate that AcXbh30A strictly cleaves xylobiose from the NRT up until an α-1,2-linked glucuronic acid (GA)-decorated xylose if...

Colorado's water supply is under threat due to climate change pressures and population growth, however Colorado has been recognized to have some of the most progressive water conservation programs in the country. Limiting outdoor water consumption is an increasingly popular approach to conserving water in semi-arid cities, yet in order to implement effective water reduction and conservation policies, more utilities and city managers need a firm understanding of the local drivers of outdoor water consumption. This research explores the drivers of outdoor water consumption in a semi-arid,...

While deforestation has traditionally been the focus for forest canopy disturbance detection, forest degradation must not be overlooked. Both deforestation and forest degradation influence carbon loss and greenhouse gas emissions and thus must be included in activity data reporting estimates, such as for the Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) program. Here, we report on efforts to develop forest degradation mapping capacity in Nepal based on a pilot project in the country’s Terai region, an ecologically complex physiographic area. To strengthen Nepal’s estimates...

Current estimates of forest degradation are associated with large uncertainties. However, recent advancements in the availability of remote sensing data (e.g., the free data policies of the Landsat and Sentinel Programs) and cloud computing platforms (e.g., Google Earth Engine (GEE)) provide new opportunities for monitoring forest degradation. Several recent studies focus on monitoring forest degradation in the tropics, particularly the Amazon, but there are less studies of temperate forest degradation. Compared to the Amazon, temperate forests have more seasonality, which complicates...