Forest Biology Commons^™

Campus Life: In Perkins Arboretum There Are Birds Of All Feathers, Trees That Tell A Story, And Even Romance (Especially If You're A Frog), Gerry Boyle

Colby Magazine

To the uninitiated, Perkins Arboretum is the edge of campus. For those familiar with its flora and fauna, the arboretum is a wondrous classroom and refuge.

Estimated Losses Of Plant Biodiversity Across The U.S. From Historical N Deposition From 1985—2010., Christopher M. Clark, Philip E. Morefield, Frank S. Gilliam, Linda H. Pardo

Biological Sciences Faculty Research

Although nitrogen (N) deposition is a significant threat to herbaceous plant biodiversity worldwide, it is not a new stressor for many developed regions. Only recently has it become possible to estimate historical impacts nationally for the United States. We used 26 years (1985–2010) of deposition data, with ecosystem-specific functional responses from local field experiments and a national critical loads (CL) database, to generate scenario-based estimates of herbaceous species loss. Here we show that, in scenarios using the low end of the CL range, N deposition exceeded critical loads over 0.38, 6.5, 13.1, 88.6, and 222.1 million ha for the Mediterranean …

Resin Volatiles Of Eastern Hemlock Induced By Its Non-Native Herbivores, Joshua D. Pezet

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

Eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) is in decline because of infestation by the invasive hemlock woolly adelgid (Adelges tsugae; ‘HWA’) and, to a lesser extent, the elongate hemlock scale (Fiorinia externa; ‘EHS’). Many conifers respond to insect herbivory by inducing oleoresin-based defenses, however it is unknown whether eastern hemlock is capable of this inducible response. We conducted a plantation setting study of artificially infested saplings to determine if feeding by HWA or EHS induces changes in the tree’s volatile chemistry. The induced changes in volatiles we found were unlike the terpenoid-based defenses of related conifers. Only HWA feeding …

Growth And Establishment Of Newly Planted Street Trees, Alexander R. Sherman

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

Developing quantified establishment period estimates for newly planted trees will help set realistic goals for plant performance in the urban landscape. Nine years of tree planting records obtained from the city of Boston, MA and the town of Brookline, MA were used to derive samples of trunk caliper for hedge maple (Acer campestre), London planetree (Platanus x acerifolia), and red oak (Quercus rubra). Several site characteristics were measured to identify effects on newly planted tree growth.

Breakpoint estimates of the piecewise regression models fell at 4 years and 6 years for London planetree and …

Sequoiadendron Giganteum (Cupressaceae) At Lake Fulmor, Riverside County, California, Rudolf Schmid, Mena Schmid

Aliso: A Journal of Systematic and Floristic Botany

A GPS census made on 19 June 2012 of the Lake Fulmor area, northwestern San Jacinto Mountains, Riverside County, California, revealed seven trees of the Sierra Nevada endemic Sequoiadendron giganteum (Cupressaceae). The trees occur in a 234-meter-long narrow strip along the northwestern side of the lake. The population appears to be naturalizing. The largest tree (45 cm DBH, about 20 m tall), planted in 1980, is reproductively mature. Its six offspring to the northeast and southwest are 3–5 m tall and do not presently bear cones.

Oaks For Nebraska, Justin R. Evertson

Nebraska Statewide Arboretum Publications

R = belongs to red oak group—acorns mature over two seasons & leaves typically have pointed lobes.
W = belongs to white oak group— acorns mature in one season & leaves typically have rounded lobes.

Estimated size range is height x spread for trees growing in eastern Nebraska.

A few places to see oaks: Indian Cave State Park; Krumme Arboretum in Falls City; Peru State College; Fontenelle Nature Center in Bellevue; Elmwood Park in Omaha; Wayne Park in Waverly; University of Nebraska Lincoln; Lincoln Regional Center Arboretum; Ehman Park in Gothenburg; Highland Park in Hastings; UNL Extension Center & Cody …

Use Of Small-Scale Disturbances To Establish Native Plants In An Abandoned Agricultural Field, Janine Roubik, James Reinartz, Gretchen Meyer

Field Station Bulletins

Small-scale disturbances in plant communities create open patches that may allow new species to invade or suppressed species to become more abundant. We evaluated whether small-scale disturbances in an abandoned agricultural field dominated by exotic grasses could be used to increase abundance and diversity of native plants. Coverboards made of plywood (2 X 122 X 81cm) were laid out on a 15 meter by 15 meter grid in the South Hayfield at the Field Station in 2008 for a study of the Butler’s garter snake. The boards were kept in place until March 2010, creating many small-scale disturbances after removal …

Seasonal Variation In Offspring Sex Ratio In The Snowy Plover, Sarah T. Saalfeld, Warren C. Conway, David A. Haukos, William P. Johnson

Faculty Publications

The Snowy Plover (Charadrius nivosus) is unique in being a determinate layer of an odd modal clutch size and in having a variable mating system in which female brood desertion occurs regularly. These traits make determining Snowy Plover offspring sex ratios important not only for long-term population stability, as the species is of conservation concern, but also for application to sex allocation theory. In this study, we determined Snowy Plover offspring sex ratios, examined differential costs of producing male and female offspring, and evaluated sex ratio variation in relation to maternal condition, habitat condition, and time during the …

Uncertainty Associated With Estimating A Short-Term (1–3 Hr) Particulate Matter Concentration From A Human-Sighted Visual Range, William C. Malm, Bret A. Schichtel

JFSP Research Project Reports

Several state air quality agencies have developed policies to issue air quality health index (AQI) warnings based on low values of visual range (V_r). Vr has been defined in the context of how far away a black object has to be such that it is just noticeable or visible. This distance at which a landscape feature can just be detected is referred to as the V_r. AQI warnings are based on the levels of particulates (PM_2.5) resulting from fire smoke, often with less than 24-hr average concentrations. Because monitoring data are not available in …

A Fire Severity Mapping System For Real-Time Fire Management Applications And Long-Term Planning: The Firesev Project, Robert E. Keane, Penny M. Morgan, Gregory K. Dillon, Pamela G. Sikkink, Eva C. Karau, Zack A. Holden, Stacy A. Drury

JFSP Research Project Reports

Accurate, consistent, and timely fire severity maps are needed in all phases of fire management including planning, managing, and rehabilitating wildfires. The problem is that fire severity maps are commonly developed from satellite imagery that is difficult to use for planning wildfire responses before a fire has actually happened and can’t be used for real-time wildfire management because of the timing of the imagery delivery. Moreover, imagery is difficult to use for controlled fires such as prescribed burning. This study, called FIRESEV (FIRE SEVerity Mapping Tools) created a comprehensive set of tools and protocols to deliver, create, and evaluate fire …

An Investigation Of The Differences Between Real Time Mesoscale Analysis And Observed Meteorological Conditions At Raws Stations In The Northeast United States, Joseph J. Charney, Shiyuan Zhong, Michael T. Kiefer, Xiaoqing Zhu, Greg Soter, Adam Cinderich

JFSP Research Project Reports

This project investigates the differences between the gridded meteorological fields produced by the Real Time Mesoscale Analysis (RTMA) and observed meteorological conditions at Remote Automated Weather Stations (RAWS) for two years in the northeastern United States. National Weather Service (NWS) fire weather forecasts are produced using the National Digital Forecast Database (NDFD), which is a gridded analysis of meteorological fields generated by forecasters at NWS forecast offices nationwide. The NDFD is verified by comparing its gridded meteorological fields against the RTMA, which is an advanced modeling and data assimilation system that provides the best-available hourly gridded estimate of surface and …

Archival Of Eastern U.S. Fire Scar History Data, Michael C. Stambaugh, Joseph M. Marschall, Richard P. Guyette

JFSP Research Project Reports

Fire scar histories are a critical fire data source because they form a foundation for defining fire regimes. The objective of this project was to properly archive the data (fire scar event chronologies, tree-ring chronologies) and metadata of eastern U.S. fire scar study sites developed under project #06-3-1-16, “Developing and Using Fire Scar Histories in the Southern and Eastern United States”, PI: Richard Guyette. Datasets to be archived included tree-ring chronologies (annual resolution), fire event chronologies (annual to seasonal resolution), and wood samples. Crossdated tree-ring measurements used to date fire scars have been submitted to the International Tree-Ring Databank. All …

Archiving Of Data On Occurrence Of Breeding Birds Associated With Fire Treatments And Controls, Erica Fleishman, Jeanne C. Chambers, David S. Dobkin

JFSP Research Project Reports

Since 2001, we have collected data on occupancy and relative abundance of Greater Sage- Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) and other species of breeding birds in the central Great Basin, and characterized the vegetation structure and composition of breeding birds’ habitats, through four projects supported by the Joint Fire Science Program (00-2-15, 01B-3-3-01, 05-2-1- 94, and 09-1-08-4). These projects collectively have generated dozens of refereed publications, dozens of invited papers or presentations, multiple M.S. theses and Ph.D. dissertations, and many workshops and field tours. Bird data included in refereed publications to date were based on point counts with a fixed radius of …

Bark Beetles, Fuels And Future Fire Hazard In Contrasting Conifer Forests Of Greater Yellowstone, Monica G. Turner, William H. Romme, Philip A. Townsend, Roy A. Renkin, Daniel C. Donato, Martin Simard, Brian J. Harvey, Jacob M. Griffin

JFSP Research Project Reports

The extent and severity of bark beetle (Curculionidae: Scolytinae) epidemics and the frequency of large, severe fires have reached unprecedented levels in recent decades, and these trends are expected to continue with ongoing climate change. Insects and fire have tremendous ecological and economic effects in western forests, yet their interactions are poorly understood. We combined field studies and simulation modeling to understand how bark beetle infestation and post-outbreak management affect fire hazard in two widespread but contrasting forest types, lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) and Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) in northwestern Wyoming. We directly addressed key …

Characterization Of Masticated Fuelbeds And Fuel Treatment Effectiveness In Southeastern Us Pine Ecosystems., L N. Kobziar, Alan J. Long, Wayne C. Zipperer, Jesse K. Kreye

JFSP Research Project Reports

Mechanical fuels treatments are being widely used in fire prone ecosystems where fuel loading poses a hazard, yet little research examining fuel dynamics, fire behavior, and ecological effects exists, especially in the southeastern US. In order to broaden our understanding of these treatments, effects of mechanical mastication ("mowing") were examined in a common pine ecosystem of the southeastern US Coastal Plain, where the post-mastication fuel environment is unique among ecosystems where mastication is being employed. Foliar litter dominates surface fuels after understory mastication in palmetto/gallberry pine flatwoods, however rapid recovery of shrubs quickly regains control over fire behavior. Treatments were …

Assessing The Compatibility Of Fuel Treatments, Wildfire Risk, And Conservation Of Northern Spotted Owl Habitats And Populations In The Eastern Cascades: A Multi-Scale Analysis., Martin G. Raphael, Paul Hessburg, Rebecca Kennedy, John Lehmkuhl, Bruce G. Marcot, Robert Scheller, Peter Singleton, Thomas Spies

JFSP Research Project Reports

National Forests in the dry forest provinces on the east-side of the Oregon and Washington Cascades have been managed under the guidelines of local Forest Plans and the Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP), both of which specify large areas of late-successional reserves (LSRs). In contrast, the recently-released USDI Fish and Wildlife Service Revised Recovery Plan (RRP) for the Northern Spotted Owl (NSO) calls for development of dynamic and shifting mosaics in the dry forests, and retention of LSRs in moist forests of eastern Cascades of Oregon and Washington, to address NSO habitat and wildfire concerns. Our objectives in this study were …

Archiving Data For The National Fire And Fire Surrogate Study (Ffs), James Mclver

JFSP Research Project Reports

This final report describes the results of the project ‘Archiving Data for the National Fire and Fire Surrogate study (FFS)’, which was funded by the Joint Fire Science Program ($9,982; Project 12-­‐04-­‐ 01-­‐7) under Task Statement RFA 2012-­‐4 (Dataset Archival Task). To complete this project, we gathered, documented, and archived the complete dataset for the National Fire and Fire Surrogate study, including pre-­‐treatment data, and post-­‐treatment data collected through four years after treatment. The FFS was originally funded by the JFSP in spring 2000 and was completed in spring 2006, at which time a final report was submitted. The study …

Characterizing Crown Biomass And Crown Profiles In Conifer Forests Of The Interior Northwest, David Affleck, Carl Seielstad, John Goodburn, Lloyd Queen, Robert Keane

JFSP Research Project Reports

Detailed and accurate models of conifer crown biomass and its distribution are needed for a range of forest management and planning applications, ranging from fuels treatment designs to forest carbon inventory and monitoring. This project focused on the development and integration of novel data collection strategies and analytical methods to better inform crown biomass and fuels estimation for coniferous forests in the interior northwest. Crown biomass data were collected for 7 important conifer species across the interior northwest using randomized branch sampling strategies, and terrestrial laser scanning was used to characterize crown profiles and internal heterogeneity. Results highlight (1) the …

Consequences Of Alternative Response Strategies To Wildland Fires In The Northern Rockies And Southwest In 2007 And 2008., Carol Miller, Aldo Leopold

JFSP Research Project Reports

This project addressed JFSP project announcement FA-FRA09-001, and the task statement “Trade-off assessments of AMR decisions”. The project evaluated the consequences of alternative responses to 2007 and 2008 wildland fires in three wilderness areas. Specifically, it examined alternative initial response strategies and what could have happened if ignitions had been allowed to burn. Consequences were quantified in terms of area and type of area burned, days of fire activity, and impact on landscape scale fire risk. Situational factors were also examined for their influence on the response strategy and outcome. Simulations of three case study extended duration fires were also …

Crown Fire Behavior Characteristics And Prediction In Conifer Forests: A State-Of-Knowledge Synthesis, Martin E. Alexander Dr., Miguel G. Cruz Dr., Nicole M. Vaillant, David L. Peterson

JFSP Research Project Reports

Joint Fire Science Program (JFSP) project 09-S-03-1 was undertaken in response to JFSP Project Announcement No. FA-RFA09-0002 with respect to a synthesis on extreme fire behavior or more specifically a review and analysis of the literature dealing with certain features of crown fire behavior in conifer forests in the United States and adjacent regions of Canada. The key findings presented are organized along nine topical areas: types of crown fires; crown fire initiation; crown fire propagation; crown fire rate of spread; crown fire intensity and flame zone characteristics; crown fire area and perimeter growth; crown fire spotting activity; models, systems, …