Treesearch

The second volume of Freshwater Fishes of North America is now available. This monumental, fully illustrated reference provides comprehensive details on the freshwater fishes of the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Mel Warren of the Center for Bottomland Hardwoods is lead editor (and author of several chapters) with four other editors and 35 chapter authors from the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Europe. The volume was published by the Johns Hopkins University Press (https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/title/freshwater-fishes-north-america-0 ). When the first volume of Freshwater Fishes...

This chapter is an authoritative synthesis covering the ecology, morphology, reproduction, distribution, behavior, taxonomy, conservation, and the fossil record of the Pirate Perches, family Aphredoderidae. The encyclopedic review is accompanied by color photographs, detailed illustrations, and figures creating a rich textual and visual experience that covers everything known about the diversity, natural history, ecology, and biology of this interesting family.

The DendroEcological Network (DEN; https://www.uvm.edu/femc/dendro) is an opensource repository of high quality dendrochronological and associated ecological data. Launched in 2018, the mission of the DEN is to provide a centralized, standards-driven cyberinfrastructure for data storage, exploration and sharing. Specifically, the objectives of the DEN are to, 1) act as an integrator of dendrochronological and ecological data, 2) facilitate synthetic investigation and analyses of these data, 3) uphold the scientific community’s goals of data transparency and reproducibility of results, 4)...

Prescribed fire is a vital tool for mitigating wildfire hazard and restoring ecosystems in many western North American forest types. However, there can be considerable variability in fuel consumption from prescribed burns, which affects both hazard mitigation and emissions. In the present study, data from replicated, repeat-entry burns following a period of 100+ years of fire exclusion were used to provide a detailed quantification of fuel consumption as it varies by fuel type, size class, stand and prescribed burn number (first, second or third). Using model selection on a series of...

Questions: A recently introduced non-native annual grass, Ventenata dubia, is challenging previous conceptions of community resistance in forest mosaic communities in the Inland Northwest. However, little is known of the drivers and potential ecological impacts of this rapidly expanding species. Here we (1) identify abiotic and biotic habitat characteristics associated with the V. dubia invasion and examine how these differ between V. dubia and other problematic non-native annual grasses, Bromus tectorum and Taeniatherum caput-medusae; and (2) determine how burning influences relationships...

Managed wildfire is an increasingly relevant management option to restore variability in vegetation structure within fire-suppressed montane forests in western North America. Managed wildfire often reduces tree cover and density, potentially leading to increases in soil moisture availability, water storage in soils and groundwater, and streamflow. However, the potential hydrologic impacts of managed wildfire in montane watersheds remain uncertain and are likely context dependent. Here, we characterize the response of vegetation and soil moisture to 47 years (1971–2018) of managed wildfire...

Understanding forest regeneration in the wake of large-scale wildfire events is critically important because these disturbances are expected to occur more frequently given future climate projections. While the impacts of individual management prescriptions on prevention, mitigation, and response to severe fire events have been studied, the influence of property ownership on their implementation and success has received less attention. The objective of this study was to compare how the management practices of two common US forestland owners- public (U.S. Forest Service) and a private forest...

Forests are the largest terrestrial carbon stock, and disturbance regimes can have large effects on the structure and function of forests. Many dry temperate forests in the western United States are adapted to a regime of frequent, low‐to‐moderate severity fire. The disruption of this disturbance regime over the last century has shifted forest conditions, making them more susceptible to high‐severity fire. Fuel treatments have been shown to effectively reduce wildfire hazard, often with co‐benefits to ecological values. However, the effects of fuel treatments on forest carbon are complex,...

Complex, reciprocal interactions among climate, disturbance, and vegetation dramatically alter spatial landscape patterns and influence ecosystem dynamics. As climate and disturbance regimes shift, historical analogs and past empirical studies may not be entirely appropriate as templates for future management. The need for a better understanding of the potential impacts of climate changes on ecosystems is reaching a new level of urgency, especially in highly perturbed or vulnerable ecological systems. Simulation models are extremely useful tools for guiding management decisions in an era...

Prairie-forest ecotones are ecologically important for biodiversity and ecological processes. While these ecotones cover small areas, their sharp gradients in land cover promote rich ecological interaction and high conservation value. Our objective was to understand how historical and current fire occurrences and human development influenced the Palouse Prairie-forest ecotone. We used General Land Office survey field notes about the occurrence of bearing trees to locate historical (1870s to 1880s) prairie, pine savanna, and forest at the eastern edge of the bioregion. We combined LANDFIRE...