Treesearch

This study investigates the effect of land-use and land cover (LULC) change on above-ground tree carbon (AGTC) in a subbasin of the Tampa Bay Watershed, Florida. LULC change was integrated with AGTC to project future quantities under three landscape scenarios: baseline, increased and aggressive rates of development. A 12% increase in total landscape AGTC occurred from 2006 to 2011 as agriculture and rangeland were converted to residential, infrastructure and built classes. Scenario projections for 2016 show an additional increase of 11% AGTC under baseline change, 15% under increased...

At the beginning of the 21st century more than 50% of the world’s population lived in cities. By 2050, this percentage will exceed 60%, with the majority of growth occurring in Asia and Africa. As of 2020 there are 31 megacities, cities whose population exceeds 10 million, and 987 smaller cities whose populations are greater than 500 thousand but less than 5 million in the world. By 2030 there will be more than 41 megacities and 1290 smaller cities. However, not all cities are growing. In fact, shrinking cities, those whose populations are declining, occur throughout the world. Factors...

Plant diversity, habitat properties, and their relationships in karst caves remain poorly understood. We surveyed vascular plant and bryophyte diversities and measured the habitat characteristics in six karst caves in south China with different disturbance histories (one had been disturbed by poultry feeding, three had been disturbed by tourism, and two were undisturbed). The plant diversity differences among the six caves were analyzed using cluster analysis, and the relationships of plant diversity and microhabitat were assessed using canonical correspondence analysis. We found a total...

The construction, use, and maintenance ofterrestrial transport corridors [roads and railroads(TTCs)] facilitate the spread of invasive plants, butthe distances at which plants typically spread awayfrom TTCs, and how that process is mediated bylandscape context, is not well understood. We com-piled data on the number of invasive plant speciesper*672 m2plot (= invasive richness) from44,000?forest inventory plots in the eastern USA.Using a generalized linear model framework, weinvestigated how invasive richness is influenced bydistance from the nearest TTC, surrounding land usetype, and...

The southern Appalachian forests have been threatened by several large-scale disturbances, such as wildfire and infestation, which alter the forest ecosystem structures and functions. Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (Adelges tsugae Annand, HWA) is a non-native pest that causes widespread foliar damage and eventual mortality, resulting in irreversible tree decline in eastern (Tsuga canadensis) and Carolina (T. caroliniana) hemlocks throughout the eastern United States. It is important to monitor the extent and severity of these disturbances over space and time to better understand their implications...

While there are a handful of universally toxic woods (e.g., yew), for most woods and woodworkers, toxicity is a complex but fundamentally individual matter. Some people will react to minor exposures to a given wood, while others can work that species with no obvious effect. What matters most is how we are exposed to those chemicals, how our bodies can react, and how we can protect against exposure to those chemicals.

Bark beetles are keystone species that can alter the structure and function of forested ecosystems, yet the mechanisms underlying host selection and successful colonization remain poorly understood for most species. Comparison of closely related tree species that vary in their susceptibility to bark beetles could provide insights into such mechanisms. Here, we compare physical and chemical characteristics of blue (Picea pungensEngelm.) and Engelmann (Picea engelmanniiParry ex Engelm.) spruce, species rarely (blue) and frequently (Engelmann) selected and colonized by the spruce beetle...