Treesearch

Insects and other pests can travel between countries in pallets and other wood packaging materials through international trade. Because these pests can cause significant ecological damage, their invasion into non-native countries is undesirable. Heat sterilization is currently the most practical and environmentally friendly treatment to kill pests in solid wood materials and prevent their transfer between continents and regions. Consequently, regulations requiring heat sterilization are becoming more common. Two important questions should be considered in heat sterilizing solid wood...

Biosecurity and decontamination procedures for herpetofaunal conservation fall into several broad categories . This corresponds to the multifaceted decontamination approach tied to the stages of pathogen emergence (pre-arrival, invasion front, epidemic and establishment), and the intertwining contexts of natural resource management activities, the human dimension of transmission of novel pathogens, and integrated biodiversity conservation practices. Standard field-hygiene protocols generally aim to reduce the likelihood of human-mediated spread of disease-causing pathogens or invasive...

Background: We evaluated whether occupancy modeling, an approach developed for detecting rare wildlife species, could overcome inherent accuracy limitations associated with rapid disease tests to generate fast, accurate, and affordable SARS-CoV-2 prevalence estimates. Occupancy modeling uses repeated sampling to estimate probability of false negative results, like those linked to rapid tests, for generating unbiased prevalence estimates. Methods: We developed a simulation study to estimate SARS-CoV-2 prevalence using rapid, low-sensitivity, lowcost tests and slower, high-sensitivity,...

Under proper conditions, wood will give centuries of service. However, when wood is exposed to conditions that allow the growth of wood-degrading organisms, protection must be provided during processing, merchandising, and use. The organisms that can degrade wood are principally fungi, insects, bacteria, and marine borers. Molds, most sapwood stains, and decay are caused by fungi, which are microscopic, thread-like microorganisms that must have organic material to live. For some of them, wood offers the required food supply. The growth of fungi depends on suitably mild temperatures,...

Wood products can be protected from the attack of decay fungi, harmful insects, or marine borers by applying chemical preservatives. Preservative treatments greatly increase the life of wood structures, thus reducing replacement costs and allowing more efficient use of forest resources. The degree of protection achieved depends on the preservative used and the proper penetration and retention of the chemicals. Some preservatives are more effective than others, and some are more adaptable to certain use requirements. To obtain long-term effectiveness, adequate penetration and retention are...

Ventenata (Ventenata dubia L.) is an invasive annual grass that has rapidly expanded its range across temperate grassland and shrub-steppe ecosystems in western North America. However, there is little published regarding its ecology, especially its relationship with fire on rangelands. The objective of this study was to examine the effect of fire on ventenata invasion in the Pacific Northwest Bunchgrass (PNB) Prairie. Given the influence of fire on the invasion of other annual grasses such as cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum L.), we expected that fire would facilitate the spread and increase in...

Western Snowy Plovers (Charadrius nivosus nivosus) are federally listed under the US Endangered Species Act as Threatened. They occur along the US Pacific coastline and are threatened by habitat loss and destruction and excessive levels of predation and human disturbance. Populations have been monitored since the 1970s for distribution, reproduction, and survival. Since the species was federally listed in 1993 and a recovery plan was approved under the US Fish and Wildlife Service in 2007, recovery actions have resulted in growing populations with increased presence at breeding and...

The use of passive acoustic monitoring in wildlife ecology has increased dramatically in recent years as researchers take advantage of improvements in autonomous recording units and analytical methods. These technologies have allowed researchers to collect large quantities of acoustic data which must then be processed to extract meaningful information, e.g. target species detections. A persistent issue in acoustic monitoring is the challenge of efficiently automating the detection of species of interest, and deep learning has emerged as a powerful approach to accomplish this task. Here we...

Structural analysis mathematically models the physical forces, deformations, and stresses acting within a system. Structural analysis may generally apply to the construction of aircraft, bridges, buildings, furniture, pallets and shipping containers, sculpture, sporting equipment, and tools. In other words, structural analysis is useful in nearly every aspect of wood engineering. The ability to model deformations and stresses under load naturally lends itself to efficient design and, ultimately, effective use of materials.

A large portion of wood products made today are glued, or bonded, together. This is because bonding allows wood to be used in ways that would be impossible otherwise. We take wooden sheet materials, such as plywood, for granted, but they perform far better in some ways, and are far less expensive, than solid wood alternatives. Large structural pieces, such as the glulam skeletons in many buildings, would be impractical without adhesives. Everyday items such as wooden chairs would be extremely difficult to build without adhesives. In short, bonding wood products increases their value. This...