Treesearch

July 2019 U.S. housing data indicated slight improvement; yet most categories remain well less than historical averages. Single-family starts, permits, and completions were all positive month-over-month. New single-family sales, total housing starts, and total plus single-family housing under construction were negative month-over-month. Notably, single-family construction spending continued a year-over-year decline. Total housing permits and starts also were positive on a yearly basis.

August 2019 U.S. housing data indicated improvement in most categories; yet most indicators remain well less than their respective historical averages. Single-family starts, permits, and completions were all positive month-over-month. Total housing starts, permits, under construction, and completions were positive year-over-year. New single-family sales recorded impressive month-over-month and year-over-year gains. Notably, total private residential and single-family construction spending continued year-over-year declines.

Phytophthora pathogens are damaging native wildland vegetation including plants in restoration areas and botanic gardens. The infestations threaten some plants already designated as endangered and degrade high-value habitats. Pathogens are being introduced primarily via container plant nursery stock and, once established, they can spread to adjacent areas where plant species not previously exposed to pathogens may become infected. We review epidemics in California – caused by the sudden oak death pathogen PhytophthoraramorumWerres, De Cock & Man in ‘t Veld and the first USA detections of...

April 2019 U.S. housing data were mostly negative, with total housing and single-family starts and total housing permits reported as positive on a month-over-month basis. The year-over-year data were also mostly negative, with only single-family under construction, total housing and single-family completions, and new single-family house sales being positive. Existing sales continued their stagnant trend.

The walnut twig beetle, Pityophthorus juglandisBlackman (Coleoptera: Scolytidae), vectors the fungus Geosmithia morbida, which has been implicated in thousand cankers disease of walnut. Little is known about the flight behavior of the insect across seasons, or about the variability in its flight patterns with weekly fluctuations in weather. We sampled flying adults weekly over a 142-week period (from 29 August, 2011 to 2 June, 2014) with 12-unit black plastic multiple funnel traps baited with a male-produced aggregation pheromone in California, USA. Up to 5000 beetles were captured per...

Climate change may have unpredictable effects on the cold hardiness of woody species planted outside of their range of origin. Extreme undulations in temperatures may exacerbate susceptibility to cold stress, thereby interfering with productivity and ecosystem functioning. Juglans L. and their naturally occurring interspecific F1 hybrids, are distributed natively across many temperate regions, and J. regia has been extensively introduced. Cold hardiness, an environmental and genetic factor yet to be evaluated in many native and introduced Juglans species, may be a limiting factor under...

Failed oak regeneration is widely reported in temperate forests and has been linked in part to changed disturbance regimes and land-use. We investigated if the North American fire–oak hypothesis could be applicable to temperate European oaks (Quercus robur, Quercus petraea) using a replicated field experiment with contrasting canopy openness, protection against ungulate browsing (fencing/no fencing), and lowintensity surface fire (burn/no burn). Survival, relative height growth (RGRH), browsing damage on naturally regenerated oaks (≤300 cm tall), and changes in competing woody vegetation...

Intermediate disturbances are an important component of many forest disturbance regimes, with effects on canopy structure and related functions that are highly dependent on the nature and intensity of the perturbation. Ice storms are an important disturbance mechanism in temperate forests that often result in moderate-severity, diffuse canopy damage. However, it has not previously been possible to distinguish the specific effect of ice storm intensity (as ice accretion) from predisturbance stand characteristics and physiographic factors. In this study, we utilized a novel experimental ice...

Tenuisvalvae notata preys upon several mealybug species (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae), a group of worldwide pests including Planococcus citri and Ferrisia dasyrilii. Although the consequences of variation in temperaturefor the development and reproduction of insects are generally appreciated, the consequences of potential interactions between temperature and prey for predatory insects are not. Thermal requirements and predation rates were determined for T. notata at different constant temperatures with both prey species. T. notata larvae developed to adults in experimental conditions > 18 to...

Prescribed fires are conducted extensively in pine-dominated forests throughout the Eastern USA to reduce the risk of wildfires and maintain fire-adapted ecosystems. We asked how fire behavior and fuel consumption during prescribed fires are associated with turbulence and energy fluxes, which affect the dispersion of smoke and transport of firebrands, potentially impacting local communities and transportation corridors. We estimated fuel consumption and measured above-canopy turbulence and energy fluxes using eddy covariance during eight prescribed fires ranging in behavior from low-intensi...