Understory

America’s forests and grasslands are integral to global efforts to address current and future impacts of climate change. Healthy forest and grassland ecosystems are vital to the well-being and livelihoods of all Americans. These ecosystems provide drinking water for millions of people influence the global carbon balance, supply food, support rural and urban jobs, provide places to recreate, and are home to diverse fish and wildlife populations. Climate change is already having substantial impacts on these systems, which are increasingly stressed by severe wildfires, invasive species, diseases,...

Climate change, high-severity wildfire, and drought threaten the resilience of forests and communities in the Sierra Nevada. The area burned by high-severity wildfires annually is increasing, and prolonged droughts coupled with beetle outbreaks have the potential to result in massive tree mortality, leaving extremely large areas of dead trees. These factors, along with fire suppression and unsustainable logging practices, shaped the forests we know today, which are less resilient to wildfire and drought than pre-European settlement forests. Despite significant efforts since the early 1990s to ...

Bryophytes include mosses, liverworts, and hornworts. This one-page quick reference guide includes 20 bryophyte species found in Urban and Community Forests of Puerto Rico.Acknowledgments:Photos by Jerry Bauer, Amelia Merced, Erik J. Ruiz Parrilla, Adriel Torresola. 2021. International Institute of Tropical Forestry, San Juan, PR 00926. This reference guide was made possible by the Forest Health Program of the USDA Forest Service. With support from Research & Development, International Institute of Tropical Forestry, USDA Forest Service and the Herbarium of the Biology Department, University o...

This two-page quick reference guide includes 37 bryophyte species (including mosses, liverworts, and hornworts) found in El Yunque National Forest, Puerto Rico.Acknowledgments: Photos by Jerry Bauer, Amelia Merced. This reference guide was made possible by the Forest Health Program of the USDA Forest Service. With support from Research & Development, International Institute of Tropical Forestry, USDA Forest Service and the Herbarium of the Biology Department, University of Puerto Rico Río Piedras.

Acknowledgments: This fact sheet was made possible by the Forest Health Program in collaboration with Research & Development International Institute of Tropical Forestry of the USDA Forest Service.

This fact sheet was made possible by the Forest Health Program in collaboration with Research & Development International Institute of Tropical Forestry of the USDA Forest Service.

Fog inundation along California’s Coast Range creates microclimates that support coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens, D. Don) forests during the summer drought period. With changes in land use and climate, the coast redwood ecosystem is susceptible to increased drought stress. Thus, understanding the role of fog in relieving drought stress is important to properly manage the remaining coast redwood forests. Fog presence and ecosystem responses (e.g., climate, soil moisture, sap flow) were monitored at the Caspar Creek Experimental Watersheds in northwestern California over the 2020 fog season ...