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Full-Text Articles in Forest Sciences

Human Dimensions Of Woody Encroachment Management In Nebraska, Emily Rowen Dec 2023

Human Dimensions Of Woody Encroachment Management In Nebraska, Emily Rowen

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Woody plant encroachment (WPE) is a social-ecological problem that will challenge conservation professionals and agricultural producers to adapt their management strategies. This research first examined WPE from the perspective of individual conservation professionals through an online survey. Conservation professionals’ attitudes about adaptation to vegetation transitions, such as WPE, were of interest because these attitudes are one measure of how prepared this group is to respond to WPE. Hypothesized predictors of adaptation attitude were tested through linear regression modeling. These predictors included ecological change, observation of WPE, or risk perception. It was found that risk perception was the strongest predictor of …


Estimating Northern Spotted Owl (Strix Occidentalis Caurina) Pair Detection Probabilities Based On Call-Back Surveys Associated With Long-Term Mark-Recapture Studies, 1993–2018, Katie M. Dugger, Alan B. Franklin, Damon B. Lesmeister, Raymond J. Davis, J. David Wiens, Gary C. White, James D. Nichols, James E. Hines, Charles B. Yackulic, Carl J. Schwarz, Steven A. Ackers, L. Steven Andrews, Larissa L. Bailey, Robin Bown, Jesse Burgher, Kenneth P. Burnham, Peter C. Carlson, Tara Chestnut, Mary M. Conner, Krista E. Dilione, Eric D. Forsman, Scott A. Gremel, Keith A. Hamm, Dale R. Herter, J. Mark Higley, Rob B. Horn, Julianna M. Jenkins, William L. Kendall, David W. Lapmphear, Christopher Mccafferty, Trent L. Mcdonald, Janice A. Reid, Jeremy T. Rockweit, David C. Simon, Stan G. Sovern, James K. Swingle, Heather Wise Jan 2023

Estimating Northern Spotted Owl (Strix Occidentalis Caurina) Pair Detection Probabilities Based On Call-Back Surveys Associated With Long-Term Mark-Recapture Studies, 1993–2018, Katie M. Dugger, Alan B. Franklin, Damon B. Lesmeister, Raymond J. Davis, J. David Wiens, Gary C. White, James D. Nichols, James E. Hines, Charles B. Yackulic, Carl J. Schwarz, Steven A. Ackers, L. Steven Andrews, Larissa L. Bailey, Robin Bown, Jesse Burgher, Kenneth P. Burnham, Peter C. Carlson, Tara Chestnut, Mary M. Conner, Krista E. Dilione, Eric D. Forsman, Scott A. Gremel, Keith A. Hamm, Dale R. Herter, J. Mark Higley, Rob B. Horn, Julianna M. Jenkins, William L. Kendall, David W. Lapmphear, Christopher Mccafferty, Trent L. Mcdonald, Janice A. Reid, Jeremy T. Rockweit, David C. Simon, Stan G. Sovern, James K. Swingle, Heather Wise

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

The northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis caurina; hereinafter NSO) was listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act in 1990 and population declines have continued since that listing. Given the species’ protected status, any proposed activities on Federal lands that might impact NSO require consultation with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and part of that consultation often includes surveys to determine presence and occupancy status of the species in the proposed activity area. The objective of this report is to present study-area specific estimates of the probability of detection for NSO pairs from twelve 2-week seasonal survey periods …


Nexus Between Animal Welfare, Environment, And Sustainable Development: Resource Document, Wellbeing International Nov 2022

Nexus Between Animal Welfare, Environment, And Sustainable Development: Resource Document, Wellbeing International

Nexus – UNEP – Animal Welfare, Environment, Sustainable Development

This Resource Document has been developed to explore the Nexus (links) between Animal Welfare, the Environment, and Sustainable Development. The document includes relevant citations and reports addressing the topics encompassed by the Nexus. It will be maintained as a “living document” (subject to revision) in the WellBeing International Studies Repository. The original document and subsequent revisions will be kept in the Repository to provide a record of the changes.


Monitoring Whitebark Pine Stand Health In The Central Washington Cascades, Nancy H. Parra, Teresa J. Lorenz, Taza D. Schaming, Alison Scoville Jul 2022

Monitoring Whitebark Pine Stand Health In The Central Washington Cascades, Nancy H. Parra, Teresa J. Lorenz, Taza D. Schaming, Alison Scoville

Student Published Works

Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) plays a vital role in colonizing newly disturbed areas, providing shade for other tree species to germinate, and supplying food for a variety of birds and mammals, such as Clark’s Nutcrackers (Nucifraga columbiana) and grizzly bears (Ursus arctos horribilis). Decline of whitebark pine populations has been attributed to several factors, including white pine blister rust (Cronartium ribicola), mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) outbreaks, and fire exclusion. In 2009, the U.S. Forest Service began to install permanent plots in whitebark pine stands in Washington and Oregon as …


Disturbance Reduces Fungal White-Rot Litter Mat Cover In A Wet Subtropical Forest, D. Jean Lodge, Ashley E. Van Beusekom, Grizelle González, Mareli Sánchez-Julia, Sarah Stankavich Feb 2022

Disturbance Reduces Fungal White-Rot Litter Mat Cover In A Wet Subtropical Forest, D. Jean Lodge, Ashley E. Van Beusekom, Grizelle González, Mareli Sánchez-Julia, Sarah Stankavich

USDA Forest Service / UNL Faculty Publications

Fungi that bind leaf litter into mats and produce white-rot via degradation of lignin and other aromatic compounds influence forest nutrient cycling and soil fertility. Extent of white-rot litter mats formed by basidiomycete fungi in Puerto Rico decreased in response to disturbances—a simulated hurricane treatment executed by canopy trimming and debris addition in 2014, a drought in 2015, a treefall, and two hurricanes 10 days apart in September 2017. Percent fungal litter mat cover ranged from 0.4% after Hurricanes Irma and Maria to a high of 53% in forest with undisturbed canopy prior to the 2017 hurricanes, with means mostly …


Soil Microbial Community Dynamics In Response To Prescribed Extreme Fires Following Juniperus Virginiana Invasion In The Loess Canyons Of Nebraska, Julie A. Fowler Dec 2021

Soil Microbial Community Dynamics In Response To Prescribed Extreme Fires Following Juniperus Virginiana Invasion In The Loess Canyons Of Nebraska, Julie A. Fowler

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In Nebraska and other regions of the Great Plains, the conifer Juniperus virginiana (eastern redcedar) is converting grasslands to dense woodlands. This is driven by the interacting drivers of fire suppression, altered grazing regimes, climate change and other anthropogenic factors, impacting the provisioning of ecosystem services. This vegetation state transition modifies water resource regulation and biogeochemical cycles leading to altered edaphic properties including soil microbial community composition. To restore these grasslands and control J. virginiana spread, prescribed extreme burns are implemented as a management tool through local prescribed burn associations. We hypothesized that the alternative state transition to dense J. …


Global Forces Of Change: Implications For Forest-Poverty Dynamics, Priya Shyamsundar, Laura Aileen Sauls, Jennifer Zavaleta Cheek, Kira Sullivan-Wiley, J.T. Erbaugh, P. P. Krishnapriya Dec 2021

Global Forces Of Change: Implications For Forest-Poverty Dynamics, Priya Shyamsundar, Laura Aileen Sauls, Jennifer Zavaleta Cheek, Kira Sullivan-Wiley, J.T. Erbaugh, P. P. Krishnapriya

Natural Resource Management Faculty Publications

This article examines global trends likely to influence forests and tree-based systems and considers the poverty implications of these interactions. The trends, identified through a series of expert discussions and review of the literature, include: (i) climatic impacts mediated through changes in forests, (ii) growth in commodity markets, (iii) shifts in private and public forest sector financing, (iv) technological advances and rising interconnectivity, (v) global socio-political movements, and (vi) emerging infectious diseases. These trends bring opportunities and risks to the forest-reliant poor. A review of available evidence suggests that in a business-as-usual scenario, the cumulative risks posed by these global …


Net Geochemical Release Of Base Cations From 25 Forested Watersheds In The Catskill Region Of New York, Sara C. Nieman, Chris E. Johnson Jul 2021

Net Geochemical Release Of Base Cations From 25 Forested Watersheds In The Catskill Region Of New York, Sara C. Nieman, Chris E. Johnson

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Chemical weathering of minerals is the principal mechanism by which base cations (Ca2+, Mg2+, K+, and Na+) are released and acidity is neutralized in soils, bedrock and drainage waters. Quantifying the release of base cations from watershed soils is therefore crucial for the calculation of “critical loads” of atmospheric acidity to forest ecosystems. We used a mass-balance approach to estimate the rate of release of base cations in 25 headwater catchments in the Catskill region of New York, an area historically subject to high inputs of acid deposition. In 2010-2013, total net …


Development Of Mine Soils In A Chronosequence Of Forestry-Reclaimed Sites In Eastern Kentucky, Kenton L. Sena, Kevin M. Yeager, Christopher D. Barton, John M. Lhotka, William E. Bond, Kimberly J. Schindler Apr 2021

Development Of Mine Soils In A Chronosequence Of Forestry-Reclaimed Sites In Eastern Kentucky, Kenton L. Sena, Kevin M. Yeager, Christopher D. Barton, John M. Lhotka, William E. Bond, Kimberly J. Schindler

Lewis Honors College Faculty Publications

Surface mining for coal has contributed to widespread deforestation and soil loss in coal mining regions around the world, and particularly in Appalachia, USA. Mined land reforestation is of interest in this and other regions where forests are the dominant pre-mining land use. This study evaluated mine soil development on surface-mined sites reforested according to the Forestry Reclamation Approach, representing a chronosequence of time ranging from 0 to 19 years after reclamation. Soils were sampled in depth increments to 50 cm and analyzed for a suite of soil physical and chemical characteristics. Overall, soil fines (silt + clay) tended to …


White Pine Blister Rust Distribution In New Hampshire 1900-2018: Exploring The Impacts Of An Exotic Pathogen On Forest Composition And Succession, Janine Marr Jan 2021

White Pine Blister Rust Distribution In New Hampshire 1900-2018: Exploring The Impacts Of An Exotic Pathogen On Forest Composition And Succession, Janine Marr

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

White pine blister rust (WPBR) has been affecting New Hampshire’s white pines for more than a century, yet no data exist on the long-term effects of the non-native disease on the state’s forests, particularly with respect to the regeneration and sustainability of white pine, and forest succession. This study aimed to address the gaps in the literature by exploring: 1) the current distribution, incidence, and severity of WPBR in New Hampshire; 2) the application of two historical hazard ratings models, one climatic, and one biotic; and 3) the long-term effects of the disease on forest composition, structure, and succession. Historical …


Environmental Soft Law As A Governance Strategy, Cary Coglianese Oct 2020

Environmental Soft Law As A Governance Strategy, Cary Coglianese

All Faculty Scholarship

Soft law governance relies on nongovernmental institutions that establish and implement voluntary standards. Compared with traditional hard law solutions to societal and economic problems, soft law alternatives promise to be more politically feasible to establish and then easier to adapt in the face of changing circumstances. They may also seem more likely to be flexible in what they demand of targeted businesses and other entities. But can soft law actually work to solve major problems? This Article considers the value of soft law governance through the lens of three major voluntary, nongovernmental initiatives that address environmental concerns: (1) ISO 14001 …


Influence Of Timber Harvesting Operations And Streamside Management Zone Effectiveness On Sediment Delivery To Headwater Streams In Appalachia, Daniel Bowker, Jeffrey W. Stringer, Christopher D. Barton Jun 2020

Influence Of Timber Harvesting Operations And Streamside Management Zone Effectiveness On Sediment Delivery To Headwater Streams In Appalachia, Daniel Bowker, Jeffrey W. Stringer, Christopher D. Barton

Forestry and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Disturbances created by timber harvesting equipment and associated haul roads and skid trails can create overland sediment flows (sediment paths), especially in steeply sloping terrain, leading to stream sedimentation. This study investigated the effect of variables associated with GPS tracked harvest equipment movement, skid trail development and retirement, topography, and streamside management zone (SMZ) width and tree retention on sediment delivery to streams. While the intensity of harvest equipment traffic was not correlated with sediment path development, the presence and location of skid trails were. All of the sediment paths were found to originate at water control structures, influenced by …


Quantitative And Qualitative Approaches To Assess Tree Vigor And Stand Health In Dry Pine Forests, Nancy Grulke, Craig Bienz, Kate Hrinkevich, Jason Maxfield, Kellie Uyeda Jun 2020

Quantitative And Qualitative Approaches To Assess Tree Vigor And Stand Health In Dry Pine Forests, Nancy Grulke, Craig Bienz, Kate Hrinkevich, Jason Maxfield, Kellie Uyeda

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Despite a critical need to evaluate effectiveness of forest treatments in improving stand health, practitioners lack quantitative, repeatable metrics to assess tree vigor and stand health. We evaluated canopy and whole tree attributes of ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Dougl. Ex Laws) related to carbon balance, water balance, and susceptibility to insects and pathogens in dry, pine-dominated forest stands during a multi-year drought, an environmental challenge to stand resilience. Metrics of trees in two unmanaged, and seven treated forested stands, in both uplands and lowlands to develop the quantitative approach. Whole tree and crown attributes including needle length and color, branchlet …


Fire And Land Cover Change In The Palouse Prairie–Forest Ecotone, Washington And Idaho, Usa, Penelope Morgan, Emily K. Heyerdahl, Eva K. Strand, Stephen C. Bunting, James P. Riser Ii, John T. Abatzoglou, Max Nielsen-Pincus, Mara Johnson Jan 2020

Fire And Land Cover Change In The Palouse Prairie–Forest Ecotone, Washington And Idaho, Usa, Penelope Morgan, Emily K. Heyerdahl, Eva K. Strand, Stephen C. Bunting, James P. Riser Ii, John T. Abatzoglou, Max Nielsen-Pincus, Mara Johnson

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: 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 Existing Vegetation classes to contrast historical land cover with current land cover. We reconstructed …


The Potential Role Of Payment For Ecosystem Services In Protected Area Management In Rwanda: A Case Study From Gishwati-Mukura National Park, Yves Gakunde Jan 2020

The Potential Role Of Payment For Ecosystem Services In Protected Area Management In Rwanda: A Case Study From Gishwati-Mukura National Park, Yves Gakunde

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The demand for ecosystem services (ES) by communities around the world especially from developing countries is increasing, and creates conflict between protected ecosystem management and community socioeconomic wellbeing needs, particularly around protected areas. Taking into consideration globalization, capitalism, weak policies, and population growth as some of the majors driving factors to land change, increased demand for ES comes in part from societies’ changing economic demands and opportunities, such as food and commercial crop production, timber extraction, urbanization, and infrastructural development. Many biodiversity conservation approaches and initiatives have been used to protect and maintain healthy ecosystems. While the fence and fine …


Green Strategic Planning Approach For International Shipping Activities, Xiaofang Wu, Luoping Zhang, Huan Feng Dec 2019

Green Strategic Planning Approach For International Shipping Activities, Xiaofang Wu, Luoping Zhang, Huan Feng

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Sustainability is a long-term and ultimate goal for international shipping, although it is slowly making progress. The shipping perspective that moves away from “port-to-port” operations to “door-to-door” services also requires international shipping to take a long-term and holistic view instead of fragmented efforts. How to achieve the long-term sustainability goal becomes a key issue for door-to-door international shipping. Hence, green strategic planning for door-to-door international shipping was proposed with green development that puts forward the eco-centric point of view as its basic theory for sustainability. This study used a strategic decision-making approach, a so-called multi-dimensional decision-making (MDDM), coupled with the …


Stakeholders’ Perceptions Of Geographical Criteria For Loblolly Pine Management For Bioenergy Production In Virginia, Meghann Smith, Gia Nguyen, Taylor Wieczerak, Bernabas Wolde, Pankaj Lal, John Munsell Sep 2019

Stakeholders’ Perceptions Of Geographical Criteria For Loblolly Pine Management For Bioenergy Production In Virginia, Meghann Smith, Gia Nguyen, Taylor Wieczerak, Bernabas Wolde, Pankaj Lal, John Munsell

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This study analyzed the perceptions of four stakeholder groups (forest landowners, private forest consultants, forest management researchers or educators, and federal or state agency foresters), regarding their management practices and preferred geographic growing conditions of loblolly pine in Virginia by combining AHP (analytical hierarchy process) and regression modeling. By ranking the importance of different geographical conditions for managing loblolly pine, we aimed to identify ways to support loblolly growth as a potential feedstock for biofuel generation. We achieved this through collecting survey responses from 43 stakeholders during the 2019 Virginia Forestry Summit. The results showed that the landowner, researcher/educator, and …


Social Vulnerability To Large Wildfires In The Western Usa, Palaiologos Palaiologou, Alan A. Ager, Max Nielsen-Pincus, Cody Evers, Michelle A. Day Sep 2019

Social Vulnerability To Large Wildfires In The Western Usa, Palaiologos Palaiologou, Alan A. Ager, Max Nielsen-Pincus, Cody Evers, Michelle A. Day

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Federal land managers in the US can be informed with quantitative assessments of the social conditions of the populations affected by wildfires originating on their administered lands in order to incorporate and adapt their management strategy to achieve a more targeted prioritization of community wildfire protection investments. In addition, these assessments are valuable to socially vulnerable communities for quantifying their exposure to wildfires originating on adjacent land tenures. We assessed fire transmission patterns using fire behavior simulations to understand spatial variations across three diverse study areas (North-central Washington; Central California; and Northern New Mexico) to understand how different land tenures …


Women In Conservation: A Study Of Effective Community-Based Conservation And The Empowerment Of Women In Tanzania, Ruby Krietzman Apr 2019

Women In Conservation: A Study Of Effective Community-Based Conservation And The Empowerment Of Women In Tanzania, Ruby Krietzman

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The subject of this study is women involved in Community-Based Conservation (CBC) from areas surrounding Lake Manyara National Park, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, and Mount Kilimanjaro National Park. CBC is a participatory process between people and organizations who have responsibilities affecting conservation. Communities surrounding protected conservation areas tend to experience high levels of poverty and marginalization due to exclusive conservation policies and the lack of co-management principles. Although tourism revenue is abundant in these locations, the benefits rarely impact local community members that disproportionately experience the effects of conservation. This is especially true for women who hold the responsibilities of collecting …


It's Essential: The Ylang-Ylang Trade On Nosy Be, James Sleigh Apr 2019

It's Essential: The Ylang-Ylang Trade On Nosy Be, James Sleigh

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper attempts to describe the production and sale of Ylang-Ylang from cultivation of the tree to the export of the flower, and examines the roles and power that each stakeholder has in the value chain. From there, the paper will look at issues associated with the trade; namely of the threat to the terrestrial ecosystem and the profit imbalance in the industry. Finally, the paper turns to potential strategies to resolve the previously stated issues associated with the production and sale of Ylang-Ylang. As a whole I hope that the paper can be seen as a rough survey of …


Competition And Burn Severity Determine Post-Fire Sapling Recovery In A Nationally Protected Boreal Forest Of China: An Analysis From Very High-Resolution Satellite Imagery, Lei Fang, Ellen V. Crocker, Jian Yang, Yan Yan, Yuanzheng Yang, Zhihua Liu Mar 2019

Competition And Burn Severity Determine Post-Fire Sapling Recovery In A Nationally Protected Boreal Forest Of China: An Analysis From Very High-Resolution Satellite Imagery, Lei Fang, Ellen V. Crocker, Jian Yang, Yan Yan, Yuanzheng Yang, Zhihua Liu

Forestry and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Anticipating how boreal forest landscapes will change in response to changing fire regime requires disentangling the effects of various spatial controls on the recovery process of tree saplings. Spatially explicit monitoring of post-fire vegetation recovery through moderate resolution Landsat imagery is a popular technique but is filled with ambiguous information due to mixed pixel effects. On the other hand, very-high resolution (VHR) satellite imagery accurately measures crown size of tree saplings but has gained little attention and its utility for estimating leaf area index (LAI, m2/m2) and tree sapling abundance (TSA, seedlings/ha) in post-fire landscape remains …


Potential Economic Impacts Of Allocating More Land For Bioenergy Biomass Production In Virginia, Thomas O. Ochuodho, Janaki R. R. Alavalapati, Pankaj Lal, Domena A. Agyeman, Bernabas Wolde, Pralhad Burli Feb 2019

Potential Economic Impacts Of Allocating More Land For Bioenergy Biomass Production In Virginia, Thomas O. Ochuodho, Janaki R. R. Alavalapati, Pankaj Lal, Domena A. Agyeman, Bernabas Wolde, Pralhad Burli

Forestry and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

The growing attention to renewable energy and rural development has created greater demand for production of biomass feedstock for bioenergy. However, forest growth rates and the amount of land in most existing forests may not be sufficient to sustainably supply the forest biomass required to support existing forest products industries and the expanding bioenergy industry. Additionally, concerns about agricultural land use competition have dampened expansion of biomass production on agricultural land base. One of the ways to meet the growing forest biomass feedstock demand for bioenergy production is by allocating currently marginal non-forested land for growing bioenergy feedstocks. In Virginia, …


Wildfire Alters Spatial Patterns Of Available Soil Nitrogen And Understory Environments In A Valley Boreal Larch Forest, Jianjian Kong, Jian Yang, Bo Liu, Lin Qi Jan 2019

Wildfire Alters Spatial Patterns Of Available Soil Nitrogen And Understory Environments In A Valley Boreal Larch Forest, Jianjian Kong, Jian Yang, Bo Liu, Lin Qi

Forestry and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Wildfire, a primary natural disturbance in many forests, affects soil nutrient availability and spatial distributions of forest plants. However, post-fire changes in soil nutrients and spatial patterns of understory environments at fine scales are poorly understood. Here, we characterized spatial patterns of soil nitrogen availability and site characteristics at a 3-year-post-fire and an unburned site in a valley boreal larch forest. We also examined the relationship between soil nitrogen availability and site characteristics. The results showed that the burned site had higher NO3 and lower NH4+ than the control. The herb, litter and coarse wood debris …


Move It Or Lose It: Interspecific Variation In Risk Response Of Pond-Breeding Anurans, Philip Matich, Christopher M. Schalk Jan 2019

Move It Or Lose It: Interspecific Variation In Risk Response Of Pond-Breeding Anurans, Philip Matich, Christopher M. Schalk

Faculty Publications

Changes in behavior are often the proximate response of animals to human disturbance, with variability in tolerance levels leading some species to exhibit striking shifts in life history, fitness, and/or survival. Thus, elucidating the effects of disturbance on animal behavior, and how this varies among taxonomically similar species with inherently different behaviors and life histories is of value for management and conservation. We evaluated the risk response of three anuran species—southern leopard frog (Lithobates sphenocephalus), Blanchard’s cricket frog (Acris blanchardi), and green tree frog (Hyla cinerea)—to determine how differences in microhabitat use (arboreal vs …


Fine-Scale Assessment Of Cross-Boundary Wildfire Events In The Western United States, Palaiologos Palaiologou, Alan A. Ager, Cody Evers, Max Nielsen-Pincus, Michelle A. Day, Haiganoush K. Preisler Jan 2019

Fine-Scale Assessment Of Cross-Boundary Wildfire Events In The Western United States, Palaiologos Palaiologou, Alan A. Ager, Cody Evers, Max Nielsen-Pincus, Michelle A. Day, Haiganoush K. Preisler

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

We report a fine-scale assessment of cross-boundary wildfire events for the western US. We used simulation modeling to quantify the extent of fire exchange among major federal, state, and private land tenures and mapped locations where fire ignitions can potentially affect populated places. We examined how parcel size affects wildfire transmission and partitioned the relative amounts of transmitted fire between human and natural ignitions. We estimated that 85 % of the total predicted wildfire activity, as measured by area burned, originates from four land tenures (Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, private, and state lands) and 63 % of the …


Dynamics Of Postfire Aboveground Carbon In A Chronosequence Of Chinese Boreal Larch Forests, Yuan Z. Yang, Wen H. Cai, Jian Yang, Megan White, John M. Lhotka Dec 2018

Dynamics Of Postfire Aboveground Carbon In A Chronosequence Of Chinese Boreal Larch Forests, Yuan Z. Yang, Wen H. Cai, Jian Yang, Megan White, John M. Lhotka

Forestry and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Boreal forests store a large proportion of the global terrestrial carbon (C), while wildfire plays a crucial role in determining their C storage and dynamics. The aboveground C (AC) pool is an important component of forest C stocks. To quantify the turning point (transforming from C source to C sink) and recovery time of postfire AC, and assess how stand density affects the AC, 175 plots from eight stand age classes were surveyed as a chronosequence in the Great Xing'an Mountains of Northeast China. Linear and nonlinear regression analyses were conducted to describe postfire AC recovery patterns. The results showed …


Understory Community Assembly Following Wildfire In Boreal Forests: Shift From Stochasticity To Competitive Exclusion And Environmental Filtering, Bo Liu, Han Y. H. Chen, Jian Yang Dec 2018

Understory Community Assembly Following Wildfire In Boreal Forests: Shift From Stochasticity To Competitive Exclusion And Environmental Filtering, Bo Liu, Han Y. H. Chen, Jian Yang

Forestry and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Understory vegetation accounts for the majority of plant species diversity and serves as a driver of overstory succession and nutrient cycling in boreal forest ecosystems. However, investigations of the underlying assembly processes of understory vegetation associated with stand development following a wildfire disturbance are rare, particularly in Eurasian boreal forests. In this study, we measured the phylogenetic and functional diversity and trait dispersions of understory communities and tested how these patterns changed with stand age in the Great Xing'an Mountains of Northeastern China. Contrary to our expectation, we found that understory functional traits were phylogenetically convergent. We found that random …


Impacts Of Climate Change And Bioenergy Markets On The Profitability Of Slash Pine Pulpwood Production In The Southeastern United States, Andrea Susaeta, Pankaj Lal Oct 2018

Impacts Of Climate Change And Bioenergy Markets On The Profitability Of Slash Pine Pulpwood Production In The Southeastern United States, Andrea Susaeta, Pankaj Lal

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

In this study, we assessed the impacts of climate change on the production of pulpwood and biomass for bioenergy, and the profitability of slash pine stands in the Southeastern United States. We employed the 3-PG (Physiological Processes Predicting Growth) model to determine the effects of future climates on forest growth and integrated it with a stand-level economic model to determine their impacts on optimal forest management. We found that the average production of pulpwood increased for all sites by 7.5 m3 ha−1 for all climatic scenarios and productivity conditions. In the case of forest biomass for bioenergy, the …


Assessing Ecosystem Services From The Forestry-Based Reclamation Of Surface Mined Areas In The North Fork Of The Kentucky River Watershed, Kumari Gurung, Jian Yang, Lei Fang Oct 2018

Assessing Ecosystem Services From The Forestry-Based Reclamation Of Surface Mined Areas In The North Fork Of The Kentucky River Watershed, Kumari Gurung, Jian Yang, Lei Fang

Forestry and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Surface mining is a major driver of land use land cover (LULC) change in many mountainous areas such as the Appalachian region. Typical reclamation practices often result in land cover dominated by grass and shrubs. Assessing ecosystem services that can be obtained from a forest landscape may help policy-makers and other stakeholders fully understand the benefits of forestry-based reclamation (FRA). The objectives of this study are to (1) identify how surface mining and reclamation changed the LULC of a watershed encompassing the north fork of the Kentucky River, (2) assess the biophysical value of four major ecosystem services under the …


Does Environment Filtering Or Seed Limitation Determine Post-Fire Forest Recovery Patterns In Boreal Larch Forests?, Wen H. Cai, Zhihua Liu, Yuan Z. Yang, Jian Yang Sep 2018

Does Environment Filtering Or Seed Limitation Determine Post-Fire Forest Recovery Patterns In Boreal Larch Forests?, Wen H. Cai, Zhihua Liu, Yuan Z. Yang, Jian Yang

Forestry and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Wildfire is a primary natural disturbance in boreal forests, and post-fire vegetation recovery rate influences carbon, water, and energy exchange between the land and atmosphere in the region. Seed availability and environmental filtering are two important determinants in regulating post-fire vegetation recovery in boreal forests. Quantifying how these determinants change over time is helpful for understanding post-fire forest successional trajectory. Time series of remote sensing data offer considerable potential in monitoring the trajectory of post-fire vegetation recovery dynamics beyond current field surveys about structural attributes, which generally lack a temporal perspective across large burned areas. We used a time series …