The Effects Of Isoprene Emission From Native And Invasive Trees On Local Air Quality, Aarti P. Mistry

DePaul Discoveries

Biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOC) are the second-most abundant reactive gasses emitted into the atmosphere by the biosphere. Isoprene is a BVOC produced by the process of photosynthesis from vegetation and is emitted from plant leaves. Isoprene is a hydrocarbon that combines with oxides of nitrogen in the atmosphere to create ozone in the troposphere, an air pollutant. Invasive trees alter ecosystems and affect native tree populations. Invasive tree species in the Chicagoland area are outcompeting native tree species and expanding rapidly. The effect of isoprene emissions on air quality is a well-researched area in the atmospheric science community, however ...

Defects Which Reduce Quality And Yield Of Oak-Hickory Stands In Southeastern Iowa, Charles M. Genaux, John G. Kuenzel

Research Bulletin (Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station)

Data from 753 sample trees, representative of conditions commonly encountered in forests of southeastern Iowa indicate that:

1. Volume loss from all types of defects averaged 8.5 percent of the total volume of trees in the merchantable size class, 5.2 percent of the total volume of large poles and 6.2 percent of the total volume of saplings.

2. In white oak, the most important species represented, the percentage of defective volume decreased with increasing diameter.

3. Slightly over 60 percent of the trees were partially defective from one or more causes.

4. In three out of every ...

Timber Talk, Vol. 55, No. 1, March 2017

Timber Talk: Nebraska Forest Industry Newsletter

In This Issue

Lumber Market Reports 1

Hardwood Lumber Prices 2

Hardwood Lumber Market History 3

Bringing Innovative Timber Construction to Nebraska 4

Using Biochar to Reduce Cattle Emissions 5

Nebraska Forest Industry Spotlight 6

Timber Appraisals 6

Nebraska Wood Energy Team Conducting Statewide Analysis 7

Trading Post 8

An Artificial Neural Network For Real-Time Hardwood Lumber Grading, Edward Thomas

USDA Forest Service / UNL Faculty Publications

Computerized grading of hardwood lumber according to NHLA rules would permit fast assessment of sawn lumber and the evaluation of potential edging and trimming operations to improve lumber value. More importantly, to enable optimization of the hardwood lumber sawing process, a fast means of evaluating the potential value of boards before they are sawn is necessary. As log and lumber scanning systems become prevalent and common, these needs become more pressing. From an automation perspective, the NHLA lumber grades are difficult to implement efficiently in a computer program. Exhaustive approaches that examine every potential cutting size and combination to determine ...

Interactions Between White-Tailed Deer Density And The Composition Of Forest Understories In The Northern United States, Matthew B. Russell, Christopher W. Woodall, Kevin M. Potter, Brian F. Walters, Grant M. Domke, Christopher M. Oswalt

USDA Forest Service / UNL Faculty Publications

Forest understories across the northern United States (US) are a complex of tree seedlings, endemic forbs, herbs, shrubs, and introduced plant species within a forest structure defined by tree and forest floor attributes. The substantial increase in white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus Zimmerman) populations over the past decades has resulted in heavy browse pressure in many of these forests. To gain an objective assessment of the role of deer in forested ecosystems, a region-wide forest inventory across the northern US was examined in concert with white-tailed deer density information compiled at broad scales. Results indicate that deer density may be an ...

Residential Building Energy Conservation And Avoided Power Plant Emissions By Urban And Community Trees In The United States, David J. Nowak, Nathaniel Appleton, Alexis Ellis, Eric Greenfield

USDA Forest Service / UNL Faculty Publications

Urban trees and forests alter building energy use and associated emissions from power plants by shading buildings, cooling air temperatures and altering wind speeds around buildings. Field data on urban trees were combined with local urban/community tree and land cover maps, modeling of tree effects on building energy use and pollutant emissions, and state energy and pollutant costs to estimate tree effects on building energy use and associated pollutant emissions at the state to national level in the conterminous United States. Results reveal that trees and forests in urban/community areas in the conterminous United States annually reduce electricity ...

Digital Preservation And Access Of Natural Resources Documents, David Kulhavy, R Philip Reynolds, Daniel Unger, Steven H. Bullard, Matthew W. Mcbroom

Faculty Publications

Digitization and preservation of natural resource documents were reviewed and the current status of digitization presented for a North American university. It is important to present the status of the digitation process for natural resources and to advocate for increased collections of digital material for ease of reference and exchange of information. Digital collections need to include both published documents and ancillary material for research projects and data for future use and interpretation. The methods in this paper can be applied to other natural resource collections increasing their use and distribution. The process of decision making for documents and their ...

Characterization Of Legacy Sediment Variations In Accretion And Carbon Dynamics Following Dam Removal In A Recently Restored Tidal Freshwater Wetland, Melissa J. Davis, Christopher D. Gatens, Edward R. Crawford, Arif Sikder

Rice Rivers Center Research Symposium

Damming disrupts the natural flow of sediment to adjoining water bodies resulting in the accumulation of Legacy Sediments (LS). While the impact of LS inputs has been well investigated in lotic Mid-Atlantic piedmont stream restorations, (i.e. milldam removal 1,2,3,4,5,), there have been few studies investigating LS following dam removal in low-gradient coastal plain streams. The objectives of this study were to quantify spatial and temporal variations of LS characteristics in a low-gradient tidal stream restoration within the lower James River watershed. Secondary objectives were to assess the current temporal and spatial variability in sediment deposition ...

Finding Nondestructive Parameters For Root-To-Shoot Ratios In Douglas-Fir, Grand Fir, And Redwood Saplings In Northwest California For Biomass And Carbon Storage Estimates, Walter A. Kast

Theses

ABSTRACT

FINDING NONDESTRUCTIVE PARAMETERS FOR ROOT-TO-SHOOT RATIOS IN DOUGLAS-FIR, GRAND FIR, AND REDWOOD SAPLINGS IN NORTHWEST CALIFORNIA FOR BIOMASS AND CARBON STORAGE ESTIMATES

Walter A. Kast

There is a need for better understanding of how woody biomass is allocated above and belowground and how this allocation might differ among tree species. In this field of research, investigators face challenges such as the laborious task of removing trees from the soil with destructive sampling, and the cleaning, drying, and weighing of belowground biomass (BGB). Therefore, researchers and practitioners most often rely on existing models to predict BGB from easily-measurable aboveground variables ...

Structural Integrity And Physical Properties Of Ponderosa Pine Over Time After Death Between Vectors Of Mortality, Edward J. O'Donnell

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In an era of accelerated climate change, with persistent and increasing disturbance on our landscapes it is important to increase our knowledge of how these natural disturbances effect our lands. This study investigated the changes that take place in ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) stems after death when killed by mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) and by fire. Trees killed by mountain pine beetle as well as trees killed by fire were sampled and separated into two age classes, those dead 0-4 years and those dead 4+ years. Data was gathered on the modulus of rupture, modulus of elasticity, specific gravity ...

Models Of Forest Inventory For Istanbul Forest Using Airborne Lidar And Spaceborne Imagery, Mustafa Kagan Ozkal

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Active remote sensing technology (LiDAR) and passive remote sensing technology (Pleiades and Göktürk-2 satellites) were used to find a meaningful relationship between ground data and remote sensing instruments for Istanbul Forest, Turkey. Two dominant species in the field, oak (deciduous trees) and maritime pine (coniferous trees), were researched. There were 86 plots total, 41 for maritime pine and 45 for oak. Three diameter at breast height (DBH) thresholds were studied. Trees of any DBH (DBH≥0.1 cm), trees ≥8 cm DBH thresholds and, trees ≥10 cm DBH thresholds. Both satellite image metrics were derived from Grey Level Co-occurrence Measures ...

A Mixed-Methods Study On Female Landowner Estate Planning Objectives, Rebekah Zimmerer

Masters Theses May 2014 - current

The majority of the forested land in New England is owned by private landowners, a large number of whom are at or above retirement age. In the coming decades these landowners are going to be making decisions about what happens to their land once they no longer own it. Female landowners specifically play a critical role in the long-term planning and decision-making process. Women generally have a longer life expectancy than men and assess their level of confidence and financial stability in ways that differ from men. This difference in perception influences the decisions they make about their land. Despite ...

1979 Lilley Cornett Woods Overstory Data, Ryan W. Mcewan, Julia I. Chapman, Robert N. Muller

Data Files: Permanent Plot Data for Woody Vegetation

Data collected in 1979 on the overstory in the Big Everidge Hollow portion of the Lilley Cornett Woods Appalachian Ecological Research Station in southeastern Kentucky. Data key is provided in a supplemental file.

Accompanying photo by Julia I. Chapman.

Molecular Diversity Of Foliar Fungal Endophytes In Relation To Defense Strategies And Disease In Whitebark Pine, Lorinda Bullington 5474413

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

An invasive fungal pathogen, Cronartium ribicola (the causative agent of white pine blister rust) infects and kills whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) throughout the western US. Blister rust has decreased whitebark pine populations by over 90% in some areas. Whitebark pine, a keystone species, has been proposed for listing under the Endangered Species Act in the U.S., and the loss of this conifer is predicted to have severe impacts on forest composition and function in high elevations. Hundreds of asymptomatic fungal species live inside whitebark pine tissue, and recent studies suggest that these fungi can influence the frequency and severity ...

Influence Of Prescribed Burning On Upland Soil Properties In Mark Twain National Forest, Southeast Missouri Ozarks, Megan Lynn Hente

MSU Graduate Theses

In the Mark Twain National forest there is a collaborative effort to restore parts of the forest to its original shortleaf pine-oak woodland areas by using a combination of silviculture and prescribed fire. The purpose of this project is to assess the effects of prescribed burning on upland forest and soil physical properties that influence erosion processes across a gradient of burned sites of different ages and unburned sites. A combination of geospatial, field, laboratory, statistical (one-way ANOVA) and modeling (USLE) methods were used to assess the effects of prescribed burns on forest and soil characteristics in Big Barren Creek ...

Timber Talk, Vol. 54, No. 4, December 2016

Timber Talk: Nebraska Forest Industry Newsletter

In This Issue

Lumber Market Reports 1

Hardwood Lumber Prices 2

Note from the Editor - EAB Meeting Discussion 3

THE CHALLENGE - Using Forest Residues from Forest Operations 4

2016 Tax Tips Bulletin Available 4

Nebraska Forest Industry Spotlight 5

Alaska Airlines’ first flight with biofuel made from forest residuals 7

The Four “P’s” of Marketing Your Small Sawmill Business 7

Trading Post 8

Modeling And Forecasting The Influence Of Current And Future Climate On Eastern North American Spruce-Fir (Picea-Abies) Forests, Caitlin Andrews

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The spruce-fir (Picea-Abies) forest type of the Acadian Region is at risk of disappearing from the United States and parts of Canada due to climate change and associated impacts. Managing for the ecosystem services provided by this forest type requires accurate forecasting of forest metrics across this broad international region in the face of the expected redistribution of tree species. This analysis linked species specific data with climate and topographic variables using the nonparametric random forest algorithm, to generate models that accurately predicted changes in species distribution due to climate change. A comprehensive dataset, consisting of 10,493,619 observations ...

Effects Of Prescribed Fire On The Forest Structure And Composition At Land Between The Lakes National Recreation Area, Ky, Miranda Thompson

Honors College Theses

With a regular fire regime present on the landscape, open canopies and herbaceous understories characterize oak forests in western Kentucky. However, a long period of fire suppression has changed the structure and composition of many forests in the Southeast. Forest managers at Land Between the Lakes have started using prescribed fire in an attempt to replicate aspects of a natural fire regime and increase the amount of open oak woodlands and savannas in the area. The prescribed fires in our study area were conducted during the dormant season and are very low intensity ground fires.

To understand how prescribed fire ...

Comparison Of Four Harvesting Systems In A Loblolly Pine Plantation, John Klepac, Dana Mitchell

Professional Agricultural Workers Journal

Abstract

Felling and skidding operations were monitored while clearcut harvesting a 12-acre area of a 14-year old loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) plantation. The study area contained 465 trees per acre for trees 2.0 inches Diameter at Breast Height (DBH) and larger with a Quadratic Mean Diameter (QMD) of 7.26 inches. Two feller-bunchers (tracked and rubber-tired) and two skidders (conventional and large capacity) were paired to create four different harvesting systems which were randomly assigned to 3-acre units for evaluation of production rates and costs. Each system was balanced to determine the number of machines needed to minimize the ...

The Importance Of Rivers In Protected Areas: Macroinvertebrate Sampling Reveals The Impact Of Humans And Highways On Water Quality, Marie-Claire Harrison

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The water quality and level of contamination of two rivers in a cloud forest ecosystem in the Mejía region of Ecuador, the Tupí River and the Pilatón River were assessed through benthic macroinvertebrate sampling at various sites along the rivers. Many different biological indices were then used to assess water quality at each site. Pollution in the form of grey water, black water, and petroleum negatively impacted the water quality of the both rivers as they pass through the town of La Esperie. Differences in river structure and size also played a role in determining the prevalence of certain benthic ...