Treesearch

Natural climate solutions (NCS), a set of land management, conservation and restoration practices aimed at mitigating climate change, have been introduced as cost-effective strategies to increase carbon (C) sequestration in terrestrial ecosystems. Improved forest management (IFM) has been identified as one NCS for working forests with substantial climate change mitigation potential. However, there is a disconnect between the policy and carbon markets context and the scientific evidence for verifiable C benefits. Further, forest soil C—the largest forest C pool—has largely been excluded...

Rangeland managers promoting sustainable use of semiarid ecosystems in the Southwestern U.S. face numerous complex challenges, including invasions by non-native species, the expansion of woody vegetation, altered fire regimes, and drought. These challenges are compounded by uncertainty in how these problems will respond to any changes in climate. Decisions that land managers make today will influence landscapes for decades.

Managing forests has been demonstrated to be an efficient strategy for fragmenting fuels and for reducing fire spread rates and severity. However, large-scale analyses to examine operational aspects of implementing different forest management scenarios to meet fire governance objectives are nonexistent for many Mediterranean countries. In this study we described an optimization framework to build forest management scenarios that leverages fire simulation, forest management, and tradeoff analyses for forest areas in Macedonia, Greece. We demonstrated the framework to evaluate five forest...

Recent, widespread tree mortality in the western U.S. resulting from changes in climate, pathogens, insect activity, and forest management practices has led to concerns for many ecologically and culturally important species. Within conifers, resin-based defenses have long been recognized as a primary defense mechanism against a variety of insects and pathogens. Oleoresin produced by trees contain complex mixtures of terpenoids that have numerous insecticidal and fungicidal properties. Research has also identified links between resin duct characteristics and increased probability of...

After fire, bark beetles pose a significant threat to trees. Resin duct characteristics in trees can increase resistance to bark beetles. However, little is known about how intra- and interspecific variations in resin ducts due to tree characteristics, fire-caused tree injury and life history traits contribute to resistance. In fall 2013, a mixed-stand of Pinus sylvestris and P. nigra was underburned, with some trees subsequently attacked and killed by bark beetles (Ips sexdentatus) during the following two years. We investigated whether inter- or intraspecific differences in constitutive...

The dead foliage of scorched crowns is one of the most conspicuous signatures of wildland fires. Globally, crown scorch from fires in savannas, woodlands and forests causes tree stress and death across diverse taxa. The term crown scorch, however, is inconsistently and ambiguously defined in the literature, causing confusion and conflicting interpretation of results. Furthermore, the underlying mechanisms causing foliage death from fire are poorly understood. The consequences of crown scorch – alterations in physiological, biogeochemical and ecological processes and ecosystem recovery...

We compared precipitation intensity-duration-frequency (PIDF) curves developed for four small forested watersheds to spatially interpolated estimates from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Atlas-14. We also evaluated the Rational Method (RM) using on-site PIDFs and USGS Regional Regression Equations by comparing their estimated design discharges with a given exceedance probability p (Qp) to values computed from on-site data fitted to the Log-Pearson (LPIII) distribution. Overall, NOAA’s PIDF estimates were not substantially different from the on-site PIDFs. The...

Sensitivity of bats to land use change depends on their foraging ecology, which varies among species based on ecomorphological traits. Additionally, because prey availability, vegetative clutter, and temperature change throughout the year, some species may display seasonal shifts in their nocturnal habitat use. In the Coastal Plain of South Carolina, USA, the northern long‐eared bat (Myotis septentrionalis), southeastern myotis (Myotis austroriparius), tri‐colored bat (Perimyotis subflavus), and northern yellow bat (Lasiurus intermedius) are species of conservation concern that are threatene...

Mixedwood stands are composed of hardwoods and softwoods, with neither comprising greater than 75%–80% of basal area or aboveground biomass. By conferring associational resistance and greater resilience to forests when stressed or disturbed, the more diverse composition of mixedwood stands contributes to forest health. We analyzed three examples where mixedwood stands are more resistant to insect infestations in eastern North America. In balsam fir (Abies balsamea L. Mill.) and spruce (Picea spp.) forests, susceptibility and vulnerability to spruce budworm infestations is reduced with...

Aims. Slow decomposition and isolation from groundwater mean that ombrotrophic peatlands store a large amount of soil carbon (C) but have low availability of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P). To better understand the role these limiting nutrients play in determining the C balance of peatland ecosystems, we compile comprehensive N and P budgets for a forested bog in northern Minnesota, USA. Methods. N and P within plants, soils, and water are quantified based on field measurements. The resulting empirical dataset are then compared to modern-day, site-level simulations from the peatland land...