Treesearch

The Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest (HBEF) was established in 1955 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service out of concerns about the effects of logging increasing flooding and erosion. To address this issue, within the HBEF hydrological and micrometeorological monitoring was initiated in small watersheds designated for harvesting experiments. The Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study (HBES) originated in 1963, with the idea of using the small watershed approach to study element fluxes and cycling and the response of forest ecosystems to disturbances, such as forest management...

Impact of Best Management Practices (BMPs) can be evaluated using hydrologic and water quality models. Although numerous models with diverse function, capability and degree of complexity are available, suitable model for each watershed should be determined. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) and Hydrologic Simulation Program-Fortran (HSPF) models were applied to the Big Sunflower River Watershed (BSRW) and their performances in simulating hydrology and water quality were evaluated. Both the models simulated streamflow, sediment, and nutrient concentrations with model efficiency...

Land use and land cover (LULC) change impacts on hydrology and water quality are of critical importance in regions where water quality is degraded. One such location is the Mississippi Delta in the United States, where widespread agriculture across the landscape is a major contributing source to sediment- and nutrient-heavy runoff. To address how the landscape has changed in the recent past and consider how it may continue to change in the future, we analyzed the temporal and spatial variability of the LULC changes (e.g. forest, cropland, corn and soybean) in the Big Sunflower River...

Increasing frequency and extent of high-severity wildfires pose a significant threat to California’s ecosystems. This is evident in both tree- and shrub-dominated landscapes, where novel, human-driven fire regimes may result in large-scale alteration of terrestrial ecosystems and decline in the services they provide. Based on these trends and a broader consideration of sustainability, there is a growing need for a well-supported, science-based approach to postfire management. This report presents a framework to guide the development of postfire restoration on national forests in California....

The 741 million acres of forestland in the United States play a role in mitigating the effects of climate change by sequestering nearly 16 percent of the atmospheric carbon dioxide emissions produced annually in our country. Reducing the conversion of forestland to other uses and planting even more trees, whether through afforestation or reforestation, would increase the nation’s carbon storage capacity. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has several incentive programs to accomplish these goals. Researchers with the USDA Forest Service and Portland State University modeled various...

The conterminous United States includes national forests and grasslands that provide ecological, social, economic, recreational, and aesthetic services. Future climate change can alter longterm hydroclimatic conditions of national forests and grasslands and lead to negative consequences. This study characterizes shifts in hydroclimatology and basin characteristics of US National Forests (NFs) and National Grasslands (NGs) in response to climate change over the 21st century under the DRY, MIDDLE, and WET climate models with the representative concentration pathway (RCP) 8.5 emission...

Short-rotation woody crops have maintained global prominence as biomass feedstocks for bioenergy, in part due to their fast growth and coppicing ability. However, the water usage efficiency of some woody biomass crops suggests potential adverse hydrological impacts. Monitoring tree water use in large-scale plantations would be very time-consuming and cost-prohibitive because it would typically require the installation and maintenance of sap flux sensors and dataloggers or other instruments. We developed a model to estimate the sap flux of eastern cottonwood (Populus deltoides. Bartr. ex...

We describe demographics of young-ofyear (YOY) Pondmussels (Ligumia subrostrata) and Giant Floaters (Pyganodon grandis) in ponds during 2009 and 2011. YOY attained large size by approximately 6 months (Pondmussel, mean = 48.5 mm; Floater = 57.5), most individuals were sexually mature, and most females were gravid. Size and sex ratios varied among ponds. Pondmussel size was negatively related to mussel density, suggesting food competition; Floater size was not related to density. Size was not related to glochidial infestation pressure on fishes, suggesting that acquired immunity did not...

Prescribed fire is widely used for ecosystem restoration, yet the mechanisms that determine its effectiveness remain poorly characterized. Because soil hydrology influences ecosystem processes like erosion, runoff, and plant competition, it is important to understand how fire affects soil hydrology. A systematic approach to understanding relationships among vegetation, topography, and fire is needed to advance knowledge of how fire influences soil properties that in turn affect restoration success. Our objective was to characterize relationships among burn severity, vegetation, and soil...