Forest Sciences Commons^™

How Can Agreements For Long-Term Land Access Achieve Multiple Goals?

Working Trees (USDA-NAC)

How can agreements for long-term land access achieve multiple goals?

Beginning and experienced farmers alike seek long-term access to land; however, many don’t have the funds to purchase land outright. Long-term leases and other land access arrangements allow the farmer to secure long-term land tenure without requiring a lot of money upfront.

Mediterranean House Geckos Exploit Novel Resources In A Recipient Lizard Assemblage, John M. Arnett, Connor S. Adams, Carmen G. Montana

Undergraduate Research Conference

A species’ ecological niche represents the environmental conditions needed for an individual to replace itself and is comprised of multiple resource axes (Pianka 2000 Evol. Ecol.).

One mechanism of establishment of non-native species is via exploitation of novel resources in recipient ecosystems through their unique functional traits (Schalk et al. 2018 Biol. Invas.).

Mediterranean House Geckos (Hemidactylus turcicus) are an exotic species introduced in urban areas across Texas, yet little is known about their resource use relative to native lizards.

We hypothesized that H. turcicus would exhibit low overlap in resource use in their habitat, dietary, and isotopic niches compared …

Working Trees Info: Can Innovative Land Access Strategies For Agroforestry Provide More Land Management Options?

Working Trees (USDA-NAC)

An agricultural lease is a private contract that grants someone (the farmer-tenant) a legal right to occupy and use the land of someone else (the landlord/landowner) for agricultural purposes. The long-term lease allows the farmer to secure long-term land tenure without requiring a lot of money upfront. Other long-term land access strategies include easements and licenses.

Long-term land access strategies are particularly key for farmers engaged in agroforestry ventures, as perennial woody crops inherently require extended time before becoming economically productive and can remain productive for a number of years.

Correcting Tree-Ring Δ13c Time Series For Tree-Size Effects In Eight Temperate Tree Species, Matthew A. Vadeboncoeur, Katie A. Jennings, Andrew P. Ouimette, Heidi Asbjornsen

All Materials

Stable carbon isotope ratios (δ¹³C) in tree rings have been widely used to study changes in intrinsic water-use efficiency (iWUE), sometimes with limited consideration of how C-isotope discrimination is affected by tree height and canopy position. Our goals were to quantify the relationships between tree size or tree microenvironment and wood δ¹³C for eight functionally diverse temperate tree species in northern New England, and to better understand the physical and physiological mechanisms underlying these differences. We collected short increment cores in closed-canopy stands and analyzed δ¹³C in the most recent 5 years of growth. …

An Apex Predator In Peril In The Western Lowlands Of Ecuador: Mapping The Population Distribution Of Harpy Eagles (Harpia Harpyja) In A Highly Deforested Region, Samuel Zhang

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The Harpy Eagle (Harpia harpyja) is a highly threatened bird of prey in Ecuador. While they are already elusive in the Ecuadorian Amazon, they are even lesser known in the coastal lowlands, and their existence is threatened by rapid deforestation. This study mapped their potential distribution by examining satellite images to find intact humid forest, their ideal habitat. Habitat areas were quantified using ImageJ. The only sites found to be adequate for sustaining Harpy Eagle populations were the primary forests in the vicinities of Reserva Ecológica Mache Chindul and Reserva Ecológica Cotacachi Cayapas. The two reserves are expected to be …

Smokejumper Magazine, April 2020, National Smokejumper Association

Smokejumper and Static Line Magazines

This issue of the National Smokejumper Association (NSA) Smokejumper Magazine contains the following articles: Message from the President; Fighting Fire in Tasmania; Wildfires and Global Warming: A Continuous Cycle of Destruction; Kooskia Days; NSA Scholarship Program Expanded-Take Advantage!; Moose Creek Memorial; Touching All Bases; West Yellowstone Airtanker Base Closure; Off the List; Pendleton Honors the Triple Nickles; Eric Schoenfeld Remembered; Odds and Ends; Alaska Cutters; Feeding the "Beast" with Fire, Money; North Cascades 2019 Reunion; The Run for the Top; National Smokejumper Reunion 2020 June 26-28, 2020 in Boise, Idaho; Sounding Off from the Editor; One Year After the Camp …

Cellulose Based Separator For High-Performance Lithium-Ion Batteries, Akshit Vaidya

Masters Theses

During the past two decades, lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have gained great success in the field of portable devices, and currently, are penetrating to the market of vehicles. Compared to the fast development of LIBs, little efforts have been dedicated to the separator, which is one of the most important components of LIBs. Primarily, the lithium-ion battery separator has two functions, one is to prevent direct contact between the positive and negative electrodes, and the other is to provide a path for effective ionic transportation. Currently, the separator market of LIBs is dominated by polyolefin materials such as polypropylene, polyethylene, and …

Trends In Protected Area Representation Of Biodiversity And Ecosystem Services In Five Tropical Countries, Rachel A. Neugarten, Kevin Moull, Natalia Acero Martinez, Luciano Andriamaro, Curtis Bernard, Leonardo Saenz, Et Al.

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

In late 2020, governments will set the next decade of conservation targets under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. Setting new targets requires understanding how well national protected area (PA) networks are spatially representing important areas for biodiversity and ecosystem services. We analyzed the representation of biodiversity priority areas (BPAs), forests, forest carbon stocks, non-timber forest products (NTFPs), and freshwater ecosystem services (FES) within terrestrial PA systems in Cambodia, Guyana, Liberia, Madagascar, and Suriname in 2003 and 2017. Four of the countries (all except Suriname) expanded their terrestrial PA networks during the study period. In all five countries, we found …

Smokejumper Obituary: Derry, Robert L. (Missoula 1943), National Smokejumper Association

Smokejumper Obituaries

No abstract provided.

Non-Native Spiders Change Assemblages Of Hawaiian Forest Fragment Kipuka Over Space And Time, Julien Pétillon, Kaїna Privet, George K. Roderick, Rosemary G. Gullespie, Don K. Price

Life Sciences Faculty Research

We assessed how assemblages of spiders were structured in small Hawaiian tropical forest fragments (Hawaiian, kipuka) within a matrix of previous lava flows, over both space (sampling kipuka of different sizes) and time (comparison with a similar study from 1998). Standardized hand-collection by night was carried out in May 2016. In total, 702 spiders were collected, representing 6 families and 25 (morpho-)species. We found that the number of individuals, but not species richness, was highly correlated with the area of sampled forest fragments, suggesting that kipuka act as separate habitat islands for these predatory arthropods. Species richness was significantly lower …

Effects Of A Regenerating Matrix On The Survival Of Birds In Tropical Forest Fragments, Jared D. Wolfe, Philip C. Stouffer, Richard O. Bierregaard Jr., David A, Luther, Thomas E. Lovejoy

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Background

Vast areas of lowland neotropical forest have regenerated after initially being cleared for agricultural purposes. The ecological value of regenerating second growth to forest-dwelling birds may largely depend on the age of the forest, associated vegetative structure, and when it is capable of sustaining avian demographics similar to those found in pristine forest.

Methods

To determine the influence of second growth age on bird demography, we estimated the annual survival of six central Amazonian bird species residing in pristine forest, a single 100 and a single 10 ha forest fragment, taking into consideration age of the surrounding matrix (i.e. …

Smokejumper Obituary: Mansisidor, Ramon J. "Ray" (Mccall 1946), National Smokejumper Association

Smokejumper Obituaries

No abstract provided.

Smokejumper Obituary: Lundgren, Rob (Associate 0000), National Smokejumper Association

Smokejumper Obituaries

No abstract provided.

Seed Size And Germination, Meredith Cobb, Michaela J. Woods, Ryan W. Mcewan

Five Rivers MetroParks Collaboration Data Archive

This dataset encompasses information related to predictors of seed germination from the species Carya laciniosa, Juglans cinerea, and Quercus rubra. Seed sizes were recorded prior to incubation in sand, vermiculite, or without media. Seeds were then germinated with time to germination recorded in this dataset.

A Phylogenomic Approach Reveals A Low Somatic Mutation Rate In A Long-Lived Plant., Adam J Orr, Amanda Padovan, David Kainer, Carsten Kulheim, Lindell Bromham, Carlos Bustos-Segura, William Foley, Tonya Haff, Ji-Fan Hsieh, Alejandro Morales-Suarez, Reed A Cartwright, Robert Lanfear

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Somatic mutations can have important effects on the life history, ecology, and evolution of plants, but the rate at which they accumulate is poorly understood and difficult to measure directly. Here, we develop a method to measure somatic mutations in individual plants and use it to estimate the somatic mutation rate in a large, long-lived, phenotypically mosaic Eucalyptus melliodora tree. Despite being 100 times larger than Arabidopsis, this tree has a per-generation mutation rate only ten times greater, which suggests that this species may have evolved mechanisms to reduce the mutation rate per unit of growth. This adds to a …

End-Grain Of 10 North American Hardwoods, Lopes Dercilio Verly Junior, Greg W. Burgreen, Edward D. Entsminger

CFR Publications

This technical note determines the feasibility of using an InceptionV4_ResNetV2 convolutional neural network (CNN) to correctly identify hardwood species from macroscopic images. The method is composed of a commodity smartphone fitted with a 14× macro lens for photography. The end-grains of ten different North American hardwood species were photographed to create a dataset of 1709 images. The stratified 5-fold cross-validation machine-learning method was used, in which the number of testing samples varied from 341 to 342. Data augmentation was performed on-the-fly for each training set by rotating, zooming, and flipping images. It was found that the CNN could correctly identify …

Chromosomal Distribution Of Genes Conferring Tolerance To Abiotic Stresses Versus That Of Genes Controlling Resistance To Biotic Stresses In Plants, Richard R.-C. Wang

Forage and Range Research Laboratory Publications

Tolerance to abiotic stresses caused by environmental conditions can prevent yield loss in crops for sustaining agricultural productivity [1]. Resistance to biotic stresses caused by diseases and insects can prevent or reduce yield loss in crops [2]. For each crop or plant species, there are many abiotic threats, such as changes in temperature, soil salinity/alkalinity, water shortage, and soil contaminants, as well as biotic challenges from pathogens (bacteria, viruses, and fungi), insects, and nematodes. Plants need to possess genes conferring tolerance to these abiotic stresses to adapt to the changing environment, due to global climate changes, in which they are …

Genetic Parameters Of Growth And Adaptive Traits In Aspen (Populus Tremuloides): Implications For Tree Breeding In A Warming World, Chen Ding, Andreas Hamann, Rong-Cai Yang, Jean S. Brouard

Aspen Bibliography

Aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx) is a widespread commercial forest tree of high economic importance in western Canada and has been subject to tree improvement efforts over the past two decades. Such improvement programs rely on accurate estimates of the genetic gain in growth traits and correlated response in adaptive traits that are important for forest health. Here, we estimated genetic parameters in 10 progeny trials containing >30,000 trees with pedigree structures based on a partial factorial mating design that includes 60 half-sibs, 100 full-sib families and 1,400 clonally replicated genotypes. Estimated narrow-sense and broad-sense heritabilities were low for height …

Regeneration Dynamics Of Great Basin Bristlecone Pine In Southern Nevada, Philip J. Burton, Jesy Simons, Steve Brittingham, Daniel B. Thompson, Darin W. Brooks, Lawrence R. Walker

Library Faculty Research

Great Basin bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva D.K. Bailey) is an important and long-lived tree species found at high elevations in the interior southwest of the United States, but little is known about its regeneration requirements and response to disturbance. We conducted extensive surveys of seedling regeneration and environmental attributes of regeneration sites in undisturbed forest dominated by this species in the Spring Mountains of southern Nevada. Additional surveys tallied new seedling densities and site attributes 4 years after a wildfire in the same area. Seedlings, saplings, and juvenile trees were less abundant than adult trees in the unburned forest, and …

Influence Of Forest-To-Silvopasture Conversion And Drought On Components Of Evapotranspiration, Adam P. Coble, Alexandra R. Contosta, Richard G. Smith, Nathan W. Siegert, Matthew A. Vadeboncoeur, Katie A. Jennings, Anthony J. Stewart, Heidi Asbjornsen

Natural Resources & the Environment

The northeastern U.S. is projected to experience more frequent short-term (1-2 month) droughts interspersed among larger precipitation events. Agroforestry practices such as silvopasture may mitigate these impacts of climate change while maintaining economic benefits of both agricultural and forestry practices. This study evaluated the effects of forest-to-silvopasture (i.e., 50% thinning) conversion on the components of evapotranspiration (transpiration, rainfall interception, and soil evaporation) during the growing season of 2016. The study coincided with a late-summer drought throughout the northeastern U.S., which allowed us to also evaluate the effects of forest-to-silvopasture conversion on drought responses of multiple tree species, including Pinus strobus, …

A Global View Of Aspen: Conservation Science For Widespread Keystone Systems, Paul C. Rogers, Bradley D. Pinno, Jan Šebesta, Benedicte R. Albrectsen, Guoqing Li, Natalya Ivanova, Antonín Kusbach, Timo Kuuluvainen, Simon M. Landhäusser, Hongyan Liu, Tor Myking, Pertti Pulkkinen, Zhongming Wen, Dominik Kulakowski

Geography

Across the northern hemisphere, six species of aspen (Populus spp.) play a disproportionately important role in promoting biodiversity, sequestering carbon, limiting forest disturbances, and providing other ecosystem services. These species are illustrative of efforts to move beyond single-species conservation because they facilitate hundreds of plants and animals worldwide. This review is intended to place aspen in a global conservation context by focusing on the many scientific advances taking place in such biologically diverse systems. In this manner, aspen may serve as a model for other widespread keystone systems where science-based practice may have world implications for biodiversity conservation. In many …

Determination Of Timeliness Cost Using Method Of Average Workability Robability Based On Reliability Function Of Farm Tractors, Mohammad Poozesh, Javad Tarighi

Emirates Journal for Engineering Research

There is an optimum time for implementing field operation of a crop in each region. If the operation were accomplished sooner or later, it might cause a reduction in yield quantity and quality that is named timeliness cost. The purpose of this study is to survey the timeliness cost of harvesting operation of sugar cane based on reliability function of MF285 tractors operating in Debal Khazaei Agro-Industry Co. in Khuzestan, a province of Iran. MF285 tractors have low reliability in Iran, and due to their low reliability have an uncertainty in implementation of farm operation, though it is not …

Integrating Wildlife Conservation Into Ecosystem Service Payments And Carbon Offsets: A Case Study From Costa Rica, Jared D. Wolfe, Pablo Elizondo

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Wildlife conservation is challenged by the expensive and cost prohibitive strategy of directly purchasing land to protect habitat at the landscape scale. An alternative mechanism used to protect habitat includes payments for ecosystem‐services (PES), where farmers and landowners are paid to manage their lands for a particular ecological service. Some of these easements are used to conserve a diversity of resources (i.e., water, soil, nutrient cycling, and biodiversity); however, the largest PES easement programs focus on carbon sequestration and are sold on international carbon markets as offsets. Here, we demonstrate that successfully protecting vulnerable habitat for wildlife can be achieved …

Assessing The Ecosystem Services Of Various Types Of Urban Green Spaces Based On I-Tree Eco, Peihao Song, Gunwoo Kim, Audrey L. Mayer, Ruizhen He, Guohang Tian

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Urban green spaces play a crucial role in maintaining urban ecosystem sustainability by providing numerous ecosystem services. How to quantify and evaluate the ecological benefits and services of urban green spaces remains a hot topic currently, while the evaluation is barely applied or implemented in urban design and planning. In this study, super-high-resolution aerial images were used to acquire the spatial distribution of urban green spaces; a modified pre-stratified random sampling method was applied to obtain the vegetation information of the four types of urban green spaces in Luohe, a common plain city in China; and i-Tree Eco model was …

Smokejumper Obituary: Eaton, John William "Bill" (Redding 1963), National Smokejumper Association

Smokejumper Obituaries

No abstract provided.

Modeling Post-Fire Successional Trajectories Under Climate Change In Interior Alaska Using Landis Ii, Shelby A. Weiss

Systems Science Friday Noon Seminar Series

Alaska boreal forest ecosystems are experiencing a greater frequency of wildfire relative to the region’s historic fire regime. These increases in fire frequency, as well as annual burned area, increase the probability of forests re-burning within shorter intervals than were experienced historically. Such changes to the fire regime have the potential to shift successional trajectories in this ecosystem. To better understand potential changes in vegetation composition following short-interval, repeat fires, we are using LANDIS-II, a forest landscape model, to simulate changes in forest composition in response to climate change and increasing fire frequency. This seminar will include a description of …

Smokejumper Obituary: Brophy, William B. (Cave Junction 1956), National Smokejumper Association

Smokejumper Obituaries

No abstract provided.

Smokejumper Obituary: Miller, Ralph Menno (Mccall 1945), National Smokejumper Association

Smokejumper Obituaries

No abstract provided.

Smokejumper Obituary: Meili, Harold W. (Cave Junction 1952), National Smokejumper Association

Smokejumper Obituaries

No abstract provided.

Smokejumper Obituary: Cromwell, Richard D. (Missoula 1968), National Smokejumper Association

Smokejumper Obituaries

No abstract provided.