Treesearch

Oak (Quercus) is a fire-adapted genus that has assumed dominance in forests, woodlands, and savannas over thousands of years during periods of frequent fire in North America (fig. 1). Fire has played an important and sustaining role in regeneration, competitive dynamics, rise to overstory dominance, and ecosystem structure and function in oak-dominated ecosystems. Oak and pine (Pinus) were highly soughtafter timber species during the initial logging boom of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, prized for their high quality and the diversity of forest products made from them during a...

The atmospheric environment surrounding wildland fires is often extremely turbulent, characterized by varying wind speeds and directions (that is, wind gusts and vortices) associated with the ambient atmosphere or with fire-induced perturbations of the atmosphere. These turbulent circulations can have direct and indirect impacts on how wildland fires spread across landscapes and how fire emissions are transported and dispersed away from combustion zones (Forthofer and Goodrick 2011; Heilman and others 2019). Connections between fire behavior, smoke plume dynamics, and atmospheric turbulence...

Beaver-related restoration is a process-based strategy that seeks to address wide-ranging ecological objectives by reestablishing dam building in degraded stream systems. Although the beaver-related restoration has broad appeal, especially in water-limited systems, its effectiveness is not yet well documented. In this article, we present a process-expectation framework that links beaver-related restoration tactics to commonly expected outcomes by identifying the set of process pathways that must occur to achieve those expected outcomes. We explore the contingency implicit within this...

Identifying the signs and symptoms of pathogens, insects, and other biotic and abiotic agents provides valuable information about the absolute and relative impacts of different types of damage across the forest landscape. In the USA, damage collection protocols have been included in various forms since the initiation of state-level forest surveys in the early twentieth century; however, changes in the protocols over time have made it difficult for the data to be used to its full potential. This article outlines differences in protocols across inventory regions, changes in protocols over...

Community and stakeholder engagement is increasingly recognized as essential to science at the nexus of food, energy, and water systems (FEWS) to address complex issues surrounding food and energy production and water provision for society. Yet no comprehensive framework exists for supporting best practices in community and stakeholder engagement for FEWS. A review and meta‐synthesis were undertaken of a broad range of existing models, frameworks, and toolkits for community and stakeholder engagement. A framework is proposed that comprises situational awareness of the FEWS place or...

On wood surfaces and in planar section, zones lines appear as narrow and sharply delineated dark lines within wood visibly altered ("spalted") by the decay process. In intact wood, zone lines define an irregular volume of decaying wood. They are primarily aggregations ofmelanised hyphae that enclosewood being decayed by a single genetic individual of a wood decay fungus. In the industry for speciality wood products, zone lines are highly valued, especially for decorative pieces produced from wood turnery. While zone lines are commonly found in naturally infectedwood, they can also be...

Urban forest patches can provide critical ecosystem services and their ability to regenerate native tree species is critical to their sustainability. Little is known about native tree seedling establishment and physiological function in urban ecosystems. This growth chamber study examined the effects of urban soil and air temperatures on white oak (Quercus alba L.) germination, seedling growth, and leaf-level physiology. A split-plot design tested effects of field collected soils from urban and reference forest sites in Baltimore, Maryland, and warm (urban) versus cool (rural) growth...

The European strain of the gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar L. (Lepidoptera: Erebidae) was accidentally introduced to North America over 100 years ago and despite its explosive population growth there, the species still only occupies less than 1/3 of its potential range. While this slow rate of spread can be attributed in part to the limited dispersal capacities of this strain, its constrained distribution mainly reflects the success of efforts to limit range expansion of this species. Currently, two major area-wide programmes are operated to limit the spread of the gypsy moth in the USA, in...

Industrial forestry in boreal regions increases fragmentation and may decrease the viability of some wildlife populations, particularly the woodland caribou, Rangifer tarandus caribou. Caribou protection often calls for changes in forestry practices, which may increase the cost and reduce the available timber supply. We present a linear programming model that assesses the trade‐off between habitat protection and harvesting objectives by combining harvest scheduling and optimal habitat connectivity problems. We formulate the habitat connectivity model as a network flow problem that maximizes...

Southeastern forests are no strangers to fire. Historically, frequent fire was prevalent across the landscape (Guyette and others 2012; Lafon and others 2017). Today, however, wildfire affects southeastern upland hardwood forests only to a limited extent due to effective fire suppression. (An exception of note was in 2016, when the Great Smoky Mountains National Park experienced a 17,000-acre wildfire near Gatlinburg, TN, killing 14 people and causing $500 million in damage.) Most fires are quickly suppressed; human-ignited wildfires are normally small in area, driven by climate, terrain,...