Treesearch

Urbanization alters wildlife habitat through the removal of native vegetation and replacement with more exotic plants, and installation of impervious surfaces. Thus, many urban areas have become unsuitable for some species, yet favorable for others, particularly generalist and invasive species. Understanding some of the habitat features enabling invasive species to exploit urban environments has important conservation implications. Here, we focus on the nest site characteristics of the introduced House Sparrow (Passer domesticus Linnaeus) in residential yards in Springfield, MA, US. First...

Ecological resources for fishes in stream food webs shift over space and time, providing a complex template of available resources that can be used for growth. We tracked water temperature in conjunction with young-of-year Coho Salmon size, growth, and diet in 2 streams with contrasting thermal regimes: a groundwater stream with colder temperatures and lower thermal variability all year and a surface-water stream with greater thermal variability and warmer summer temperatures more conducive to young-of-year salmon growth. We hypothesized that fry emergence would occur when rearing condition...

Background: In forest trees, genetic markers have been used to understand the genetic architecture of natural populations, identify quantitative trait loci, infer gene function, and enhance tree breeding. Recently, new, efficient technologies for genotyping thousands to millions of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have finally made large-scale use of genetic markers widely available. These methods will be exceedingly valuable for improving tree breeding and understanding the ecological genetics of Douglas-fir, one of the most economically and ecologically important trees in the...

Glaciers have shaped past and present habitats for Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) in North America. During the last glacial maximum, approximately 45% of the current North American range of Pacific salmon was covered in ice. Currently, most salmon habitat occurs in watersheds in which glacier ice is present and retreating. This synthesis examines the multiple ways that glacier retreat can influence aquatic ecosystems through the lens of Pacific salmon life cycles. We predict that the coming decades will result in areas in which salmon populations will be challenged by diminished water...

How can we better understand, recognize, and support the role of local civic groups in environmental governance? Natural resource management often begins with a perspective that focuses on public authorities' formal jurisdictions and properties, e.g., federal, state, and local agencies, as well as private property owners and the parcels they manage. Through research focused on adaptation and collaboration in governance, environmental governance is recognized to be composed of collaborative arrangements and polycentric networks of actors working across sectors and scales (Dietz et al. 2003,...

Pituophis ruthveni (Louisiana Pinesnake) is one of the rarest snakes in the United States. Efforts to refine existing habitat models that help locate relictual populations and identify potential reintroduction sites are needed. To validate these models, more efficient methods of detection for this rare species must also be developed. Here we expand recent habitat suitability models based on edaphic factors to include mature Pinus (pine) stands that have not been cut for at least 30 years and likely have vegetation structure with the potential to support the species. Our model identified a...

This report traces the flow of California’s 2016 timber harvest through the primary wood products industry and characterizes the structure, condition, and economic impacts of California’s forest products sector. Historical changes in the forest products industry are presented, as well as trends in timber harvest, production, sawmill capacity, mill residuals, and sales value. Also discussed are employment and worker earnings in the state’s primary and secondary forest products industries. Periodic survey data collected from the forest products industry provides detailed information on...

This Wilderness Character Monitoring Technical Guide provides a national framework and detailed protocols to monitor trends in wilderness character within the Forest Service. This document updates and completely replaces the former technical guide that was published in 2009. The approach described in this document is consistent with the interagency wilderness character monitoring strategy used by the other wilderness managing agencies and was endorsed in 2015 by the Federal Interagency Wilderness Policy Council. This technical guide incorporates a wide variety of the best available...

The movement patterns of native migratory fishes may reflect different selection pressures in different environments that are associated with predictable patterns of temperature and discharge. Spatial and temporal variability in the movement patterns of adult Coho Salmon Oncorhynchus kisutch were explored with data that were collected from the Umpqua River basin, Oregon, focusing on two points in their return migration: (1) main-stem midriver migration timing of adult Coho Salmon as they pass Winchester Dam, Oregon, and (2) adult spawn timing in tributary streams of the Smith River....

Tapiscia sinensis (Tapisciaceae) possesses an unusual androdioecious breeding system that has attracted considerable interest from evolutionary biologists. Key aspects of T. sinensis biology, including its biogeography, genomics, and sexlinked genes, are unknown. Here, we report the first de novo assembly of the genome of T. sinensis. The genome size was 410 Mb, with 22,251 predicted genes. Based on whole-genome resequencing of 55 trees from 10 locations, an analysis of population genetic structure indicated that T. sinensis has fragmented into five lineages, with low intrapopulation...