Treesearch

Brown rot fungi utilize iron as part of a chelator-mediated Fenton (CMF) reaction during wood biodegradation. Research suggests these fungi reduce Fe3+ to promote oxygen radical generation resulting in depolymerization of the wood cell wall. High levels of Mn are also found in wood decayed by brown rot fungi. However, little is known about the oxidation states of Fe and Mn during the decay process. X-ray absorption near edge spectroscopy (XANES) can be used to examine metal oxidation states and coordination chemistry. XANES experiments were conducted on wood decayed by Gloeophyllum trabeum...

In October, the aggregate U.S. housing market was mixed. Assessing the month-over-month data yielded decreases for multifamily permits and under construction, all three completion categories, and new single-family sales. Year-over-year, most categories were positive, with the exceptions of multifamily starts and permits, and single-family completions. Residential construction spending was positive month-over-month and year-over-year; and expenditures in August, September, and October are the greatest since the residential surge of 2005–2006. Housing remains a bright spot for the U.S. economy.

In November, the aggregate (month-over-month and year-over-year) U.S. housing market indicators were positive. November housing data denoted the second consecutive month of total starts greater than 1.5-million units. The single-family subsector is the primary source of the current uptrend and is progressively gaining momentum. Month-over-month data yielded decreases in four categories: total and multifamily completions, new single-family and existing sales. Similarly, year-over-year data indicated declines for multifamily starts and permits, and total and single-family completions....

December housing data denoted the second consecutive month of total starts greater than 1.5 million units. For the fourth consecutive month, total starts exceeded their 61-year historical average. Further, single-family starts were the greatest since September 2006 (1,384,000 units). Aggregate (month-over-month and year-over-year) U.S. housing market data also were positive. The single-family subsector is the primary source of the current uptrend and is progressively gaining momentum. Month-over-month data yielded decreases in three categories: aggregate multifamily starts and permits, and...

Supporting wildfire management activities is frequently identified as a benefit of forest roads. As such, there is a growing body of research into forest road planning, construction, and maintenance to improve fire surveillance, prevention, access, and control operations. Of interest here is how road networks directly support fire control operations, and how managers incorporate that information into pre-season assessment and planning. In this communication we briefly review and illustrate how forest roads relate to recent advances in operationally focused wildfire decision support. We...

Wildfires have important effects on wildlife habitat. Within fire perimeters, ‘fire refugia’ are unburned or less severely burned areas that contain residual pre-fire habitat structures and facilitate species persistence following fire. However, fire refugia may vary in their relative quality. The ability to evaluate the relative quality of fire refugia for wildlife habitat may help efficiently allocate resources for post-fire conservation planning, especially for at-risk species. Using spatial overlays of habitat models and burn severity data, we developed the refugia index, a flexible...

The distribution of fuels is recognised as a key driver of wildland fire behaviour. However, our understanding of how fuel density heterogeneity affects fire behaviour is limited because of the challenges associated with experiments that isolate fuel heterogeneity from other factors. Advances in fire behaviour modelling and computational resources provide a means to explore fire behaviour responses to fuel heterogeneity. Using an ensemble approach to simulate fire behaviour in a coupled fire-atmosphere model, we systematically tested how fuel density fidelity and heterogeneity shape...

A continual improvement of our understanding about factors that influence tree regeneration is needed to inform landscape-scale restoration efforts across the western USA. This is increasingly important because changing climate and disturbance regimes will influence where restoration efforts should be implemented across landscapes. In this study, we used Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data to model ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa C. Lawson var. scopulorum Engelm.) seedling presence across FIA plots in Arizona and New Mexico, USA. Additionally, we analyzed archived soil samples from...

Forest classifications by disturbance permit designation of multiple types of both old growth forests and shorter-lived forests, which auto-replace under severe disturbance, and also identification of loss of the disturbance type and associated forest. Historically, fire and flooding disturbance regimes, or conversely, infrequent disturbance, produced unique forests such as disturbanceindependent forests of American beech (Fagus grandifolia), eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis), and sugar maple (Acer saccharum) in the Eastern United States. However, disturbance has changed to primarily...

The first research on acetylation of wood started in 1928, and the first research done on acetylation of wood at the USDA Forest Service Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) started in 1945. This is a review of the research done between 1945 and 1966 at the FPL. This research was the first to show that acetylated wood was both decay-resistant and dimensionally stable. It was the pioneering research that ultimately led to the commercial production of acetylated wood.