Treesearch

This study aims to examine how organizations in the bio-based industry perceive risks and perform risk analysis within the capital investment decision-making process. More specifically, this study aims to assess sources of uncertainty commonly considered, identify tools and methods used for risk assessment and understand how risk analysis is considered in capital budgeting. Eighty-six respondents were electronically surveyed on practices for capital investment risk analysis, including C-suite and upper management from different organization sizes and segments in the bio-based industry. It...

Systems-based land management frameworks such as ecosystem services can improve cultural resource management and outdoor recreation in natural areas. We analyzed data from a participatory mapping survey of forest values from an ecological restoration area in the East Cascades, which provide conceptual and methodological tools that can be utilized in land management more widely. We also consulted archaeological, paleo-ecological, and traditional land use data to link heritage values with cultural landscapes. Heritage benefits mapped by respondents were associated with connections to...

The landscape context (i.e., anthropogenic setting) of forest change partly determines the social-ecological outcomes of the change. Furthermore, forest change occurs within, is constrained by, and contributes to a dynamic landscape context. We illustrate how information about local landscape context can be incorporated into regional assessments of forest area change. We examined the status and change of forest area in the continental United States from 2001 to 2016, quantifying landscape context by using a landscape mosaic classification that describes the dominance and interface (i.e.,...

Populations of cold-adapted species at the trailing edges of geographic ranges are particularly vulnerable to the negative effects of climate change from the combination of exposure to warm temperatures and high sensitivity to heat. Many of these species are predicted to decline under future climate scenarios, but they could persist if they can adapt to warming climates either physiologically or behaviourally. We aim to understand local variation in contemporary habitat use and use this information to identify signs of adaptive capacity. We focus on moose (Alces alces), a charismatic...

We compared long-term C sequestration in the pools of aboveground portions of live trees, dead wood, and harvested wood products among highly contrasting forest management scenarios on a rotation (30-100 years) and 100-year basis. Average annual net change in C (AAC) and the cumulative sum of net changes in C were calculated using 65 years of data from permanent plots representing contrasting approaches to managing mixed-species stands dominated by shade-tolerant coniferous species on the Penobscot Experimental Forest in Maine, USA. Simulations of tree growth and mortality were used to...

1. Degree of reproductive synchronization in prey is hypothesized as a predator defense strategy reducing prey risk via predator satiation or predator avoidance. Species with precocial young, especially those exposed to specialist predators, should be highly synchronous to satiate predators (predator satiation hypothesis), while prey with nonprecocial (i.e. altricial) young, especially those exposed to generalist predators, should become relatively asynchronous to avoid predator detection (predator avoidance hypothesis). The white-tailed deer Odocoileus virginianus in North America is an...

The Kids in the Woods program in Gainesville, Florida delivers science instruction to middle school students through a series of hands-on activities outdoors on the school campus and in a nearby nature park. This article reports on the results of a 10-question pre-post assessment of students' knowledge of the scientific process. Participants included 201 6th grade students at a public middle school participating in the Kids in the Woods program. Students improved significantly on four of the ten questions after participation in the program, indicating that students learned important...

From 2008 to 2013, we sampled freshwater turtle populations at 66 sites in south, central, and west Texas, USA. Sampling sites included ponds, lakes, resacas (oxbow lakes), canals, and rivers. We sampled turtle populations using baited hoop nets (66 sites) and basking traps (3 sites), and captured turtles by hand opportunistically in terrestrial habitat. We measured carapace length and width, plastron length and width, body depth, and weight of captured turtles. Excluding recaptures, we measured 356 Apalone spinifera emoryi (Texas Spiny Softshell), 24 Chelydra serpentina (Snapping Turtle),...

Terrestrial salamanders are adapted to moist, cool microenvironments that facilitate cutaneous respiration and decrease risk of desiccation. Warmer, drier microenvironments may induce habitat use changes by salamanders to alleviate stressful microenvironmental conditions. Changes in salamander habitat use may bias population metrics when sampling occurs in areas with different microenvironmental conditions. The objective of this study was to determine whether Plethodon cinereus (Eastern Red-backed Salamander) exhibit surface cover object refugia preferences or occupancy rate differences at...

Canola is widely grown in the northern latitudes for its vegetable oil, generating large quantities of residual, low value canola flour used as animal feed. The common wood adhesive poly(diphenylmethylene diisocyanate) (pMDI) should react with the wide variety of functional groups in proteins. Therefore, it would seem that canola flour with added pMDI could be an effective adhesive. Two main questions are addressed in this study: How do the wood adhesive properties of canola flour compare to the better-studied soy flour? How well do proteins, which contain an abundance of functional...