Treesearch

Soil resilience following harvest disturbance was studied at nine Long-Term Soil Productivity sites across the Sierra Nevada mountain range of California. We tested whether soil compaction, surface organic matter (OM) retention, and plant diversity have lasting effects on soil C, N, bulk density, or porosity. Study treatments following clearcut harvesting included soil compaction (none, moderate, severe) in factorial combination with three levels of OM retention (harvest slash retained, [OM2]; no slash retained, [OM1]; bare soil, [OM0]) and two plant diversity treatments (trees only; trees...

Snags (standing dead trees) are important components of forest ecosystems that, among other benefits, provide critical habitat for many species of wildlife, but also represent important safety concerns to firefighters, forest workers, and the public. We identified factors that influence the fall rates of lodgepole pines, Pinus contorta Dougl. ex Loud., killed by bark beetles during a severe regional-scale outbreak of mountain pine beetle, Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins, that occurred in 2004–2012. Data were obtained during annual assessments (2010–2019) of a network of 107 0.081-ha...

Soil sustainability is key to maintaining forest growth and ecosystem services around the world. Determining how to maintain soil functions and knowing when soils are degraded can be difficult. Complicating our understanding of the relationship between soil functions and soil sustainability is the inherent heterogeneity of forest soils. However, maintaining or improving soil organic matter (OM) contents is essential to soil health, quality, and sustainability, and both OM quantity and quality have key roles in soil porosity, water infiltration, gas exchange, nutrient cycling, aggregate...

Our findings provide insight into the role of the landscape in shaping population genetic structure in a widespread tree species as well as the potential response of local populations to novel conditions, knowledge critical to understanding how widely distributed species may respond to climate change. Geographically based genetic structure and reduced survival under water-limited conditions may make some populations of widespread tree species more vulnerable to local maladaptation and extirpation. However, genetically diverse and phenotypically plastic populations of widespread trees, such...

Cofre de Perote National Park (CPNP) in Veracruz, Mexico is part of the Transmexican Volcanic Belt, and its Pinus hartwegii forests reflect a balance between the various natural factors that represent the region’s climatology and hydrology. Like many other areas in this region, the historical fire regimes of these forests and their relationship with climate are unknown, but are needed for sustainable management plans. The main objectives of this study were to reconstruct the historical fire regime in a Pinus hartwegii forest and decipher the influenced of climate. Our investigation focused...

The urban development process results in the removal, alteration and fragmentation of natural vegetation and environmental features, which have negatively impacted many wildlife species. With the loss of large tracts of intact wildlands (e.g. forests, deserts and grasslands), and the demise of specific habitat features (e.g. early successional habitat or native plants), many specialist species are filtered out from urban ecosystems. As a result, some argue that urbanization has a homogenizing effect on wildlife communities. However, these general patterns belie a high degree of variability...

Key Messages: * Soil salinization in the coastal Southeastern United States is becoming more prevalent as storm surges increase in frequency,and sea levels rise. * Salinization reduces the productivity of working lands and can prevent crops from growing. * Resources are lacking for landowners to understand coastal salinization and how to manage for resilience. * Action must be taken if the land is to remain profitable as conditions change. This manual describes the impacts and includes adaptation measures that can be taken to maintain productivity in working lands.

Global biodiversity is in unprecedented decline and on‐the‐ground solutions are imperative for conservation. Although there is a large volume of evidence related to climate change effects on wildlife, research on climate adaptation strategies is lagging. To assess the current state of knowledge in climate adaptation, we conducted a comprehensive literature review and evaluated 1,346 peer‐reviewed publications for management recommendations designed to address the consequences of climate change on wildlife populations. From 509 publications, we identified 2,306 recommendations and employed...

Although most predators are generalists, the majority of studies on the association between prey availability and prey consumption have focused on specialist predators. To investigate the role of highly generalist predators in a complex food web, we measured the relationships between prey consumption and prey availability in two common arthropodivorous bats. Specifically, we used high-throughput amplicon sequencing coupled with a known mock community to characterize seasonal changes in little brown and big brown bat diets. We then linked spatiotemporal variation in prey consumption with...

Land degradation resulting from anthropogenic activities worldwide has multiple and complex impacts on the global environment and public health through direct and indirect processes, which affects a wide array of ecosystem functions and services (Rodríguez-Eugenio et al., 2018). The pollution of soils and water caused by anthropogenic activities is often associated with modern urbanization, industrialization, and agricultural activities such as industrial mining of metals, extraction of petroleum oils and gas, landfill waste, and applications of pesticides and herbicides for food production...