Considerations And Challenges For Oak-Pine Woodland Restoration In The Southern Appalachians, Armin Weise

All Dissertations

Appalachian forests in the southeastern United States are composed of fire-adapted communities. These have historically been burned by native Americans and by lightning-ignited fires, causing widespread ignitions across the landscape for millennia that have shaped the forest and the species within it. Many of the more xeric oak-pine forest systems in the region were more akin to woodlands with open midstories, understocked canopies, and a diverse understory layer of herbaceous species and shrubs. With the decline of Native Americans due to disease and forced removal, fire across the landscape declined, a trend compounded by fire-suppression policies put forth by the …

Regional Forecasting Of Southern Pine Beetle Outbreaks In The Southeastern Usa Using Spbom1 With Artificial Intelligence-Based Modeling, Ebere L. Anozie

All Dissertations

Southern pine beetle (SPB; Dendroctonus frontalis) outbreaks are among the most damaging biological disturbances affecting pine forests of the southeastern United States, capable of causing extensive tree mortality, economic losses, and reduced ecosystem resilience. This dissertation evaluated and advanced predictive approaches for SPB outbreak forecasting by integrating systematic review, geospatial modeling, comparative model evaluation, and artificial intelligence-based prediction. First, a systematic review of SPB predictive tools from 1978 to 2024 showed that modeling has evolved from statistical, climatic, and mechanistic approaches to remote sensing, GIS, machine learning, hybrid modeling, and decision-support systems, although many tools remain limited by scale …

Silviculture For Coastal Forest Resilience: Promoting Forest Regeneration And Managing Invasive Plant Species, Ryan Bohannon

All Dissertations

Coastal forests of the southern United States and the ecosystem services they provide are threatened by an intensifying and interacting suite of disturbances associated with global change. Silvicultural strategies such as enrichment planting, invasive plant management, and browse mitigation treatments can enhance the resilience and adaptive capacity of forests to these threats by promoting sustainable regeneration and recruitment dynamics. To improve our understanding of coastal forest disturbance regimes and their impacts on forest stand dynamics, I conducted a systematic literature review of maritime forest disturbance ecology and identified coastal storms, ungulate browsing pressure, and invasive plants as primary disturbances shaping …

Planting Oak Seedlings For Forest Regeneration, Ryan Bohannon

Forestry and Natural Resources

Oaks are an important component of forests across the Southeast and are favored for a variety of objectives, including the provision of wildlife habitat and timber. Planting oak seedlings can be an effective practice for promoting successful oak regeneration in managed forests. This publication provides forest landowners and managers with practical recommendations for oak enrichment planting, including species and seedling selection, seedling care, planting techniques, and post-planting practices to promote survival and growth.

Basics Of Forest Certification: A Primer For Forest Owners, Miah Maye Pormon, Joan U. Ureta, Marzieh Motallebi, Barry Graden

Forestry and Natural Resources

Forest certification promotes sustainable forest management, enhances market access for forest products, and improves ecosystem services. This article addresses forest owners’ hesitations in certifying their forest lands by providing information on the importance and requirements of the three biggest certification systems in the Southern U.S. This study can serve as a resource to raise awareness towards forest certification systems and encourage greater participation among forest landowners.

Forest Overstory Mortality & Recruitment Patterns Eight Years Following Wildfire In The Southern Appalachians, Ruth Cumberland

All Theses

In this study, we investigated patterns of forest overstory mortality and recruitment eight years after wildfire in a large wildfire site the Southern Appalachians, a topic that has not been thoroughly investigated to date. With evidence that pre-fire drought promotes post-fire mortality through impaired physiological function and increased fuel consumption, unknown patterns following wildfire are important to study under shifting climate and land-use conditions. In Chapter 1, three areas of interest were investigated: (a) functional group mortality response to wildfire effects, (b) temporal differences in early (1-3 years) and late (5-8 years) periods of delayed forest overstory mortality patterns following …

Integrating Incentive Design And Spatial Prioritization For Climate-Smart Forestry Adoption In South Carolina, United States, Miah Maye Pormon

All Dissertations

Forests provide essential ecosystem services, including carbon sequestration, water regulation, timber production, and habitat provision. However, increasing development pressures and land-use changes threaten forest persistence and long-run ecosystem service provision. Climate-smart forestry (CSF) practices, such as improved forest management and extended rotation, offer opportunities to enhance carbon storage, forest resilience, and economic livelihoods. The effectiveness of these practices depends on forest owners’ participation and the strategic allocation of financial resources or incentives. This dissertation develops an integrated framework that combines behavioral economic analysis and mapping to improve the design of current incentive programs. The first chapter employs the Contingent Valuation …

Ecological And Social Resilience In Wildfire-Prone Communities, Melissa Burnett

All Theses

Climate projections suggest extreme weather variability, introducing extremely wet years, followed by years with extreme drought. These weather conditions are creating fire weather conducive to increasing wildfires across the southeast over the next century, which can have extreme ecological consequences. The Appalachian Mountains historically had some of the highest fire frequencies in North America but have been subjected to decades of fire suppression and prevention policies, resulting in an environment subject to more high-severity wildfires. The fall of 2016 was one of the driest seasons on record in this region and resulted in intense and destructive fires in the southeastern …

Restoring A Longleaf Pine Savanna In The Wiregrass Gap: Community Responses To Post-Harvest Slash Manipulation, Eva Purcell

All Theses

Now reduced to just a fraction of their historical range, Longleaf pine savannas in the southeastern United States are home to a wide array of species, some of which are threatened or endemic. These characteristics have inspired widespread restoration initiatives in recent decades, accompanied by an expanding literature on how management techniques affect restoration outcomes. However, research is lacking in a unique region of longleaf pine’s range, where the dominant fire-carrying grasses are different: the Wiregrass Gap. This study investigated the effects of three different slash manipulation treatments on restoration outcomes of a Wiregrass Gap longleaf pine savanna. Specifically, we …

Quantifying Greenhouse Gas Exchange And Ecosystem Services In Ecosystems Managed For Nature-Based Solutions Using Eddy Covariance, Remote Sensing, And Models, Lucas Clay

All Dissertations

As global temperatures rise due to climate change, nature-based solutions are increasingly being used to restore nature and to remove carbon from the atmosphere. Nature-based solutions draw on methodologies such as ecological forestry and improved forest management to reduce emissions and maximize resilience. These protocols are still in their infancy and additional measurements and case studies are important to optimizing these protocols. Herein this dissertation we describe multiple measurement methodologies for both greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and for ecosystem services. In coastal wetland ecosystems, the need for GHG measurements is paramount to understanding the ability of these ecosystems to reduce …

Evaluation Of Subjective And Objective Workload Of Forestry Professionals, Hasini L. M. Mapatunage

All Theses

The Southern United States accounts for about 40% of the productive timberland of the country and is known as the wood basket of the United States. Timber logging is an important contributor to South Carolina’s economy. Feller-buncher, skidder and loader operators play a vital role in the timber industry of South Carolina. However, their job is far from easy, especially as there are only a few members of a logging crew. They have to operate complex heavy machinery in challenging terrains while ensuring the efficient harvesting of timber, which demands extraordinary skills, precision, and better decision-making, leading to excessive mental …

Assessing Equitable Distribution Of The Urban Tree Canopy At The Neighborhood Scale In Greenville, South Carolina., April Riehm

All Theses

We are living in an era that necessitates adaptation and resilience. The Earth is warming. Our climate has changed (EPA, 2016). Our planet is also rapidly urbanizing. It is predicted that 68% of people will live in cities by 2050. The City of Greenville is a rapidly growing city in South Carolina that has been losing its tree canopy to development(City of Greenville, 2023). The Urban Tree Canopy (UTC) is a community asset that provides many quality-of-life benefits including improved air quality, stormwater management, carbon sequestration, mental and physical well-being, increased mobility and access, aesthetics, a reduction in energy costs, …

Logging In The Southeastern Us: Facing Challenges, Finding Opportunities, Shubhechchha Khadka

All Theses

The logging businesses, a crucial component of the wood supply chain, face shifting dynamics with various challenges and opportunities. Focusing on North and South Carolina, this study analyzes surveys and interviews to explore the logging business challenges and pathways to sustainable growth in the Southeastern United States.

In South Carolina, our findings indicate a shift towards more medium-sized businesses with a decrease in small and large logger, the entry of some younger loggers in the industry, and a notable rise in educational qualifications among loggers. Simultaneously, there is a decrease in the intergenerational transfer of logging businesses, coupled with escalated …

Patterns And Drivers Of Wiregrass Gap Longleaf Pine (Pinus Palustris Mill.) Woodland Succession As Part Of Restoration Efforts, Armin Weise

All Theses

Longleaf Pine (Pinus palustris) communities are widespread throughout the Southeastern United States with a dominant understory vegetation of wiregrass (Aristida spp.) in most of its range. A small area in central South Carolina that is naturally free of wiregrass is called the “Wiregrass Gap”. Here, the understory vegetation is dominated by bluestems grasses (Andropogon spp. and Schizachyrium spp.) which drive the disturbance regime of frequent low-intensity fire. The successful establishment of these grasses is key for longleaf pine woodland restoration efforts in this region, but few resources detail the ecological drivers at play that enable successful restoration in these longleaf …

Immediate Response Of Bats To Prescribed Fire And Impact Of Experiences On Women's Self-Image In Natural Resources Professions, Zebria Hicks

All Theses

To inform use of prescribed fire management practice in the southeastern US, we studied its impact on bats, which are important and at-risk species. We evaluated if prescribed fire had a positive, neutral, or negative effect on bat activity in the two weeks following the burns. We recorded bat activity after prescribed burns in February and March 2022 in northwestern South Carolina in select hardwood and pine stands and control sites ≥ 500 m from burn boundaries. We measured insect abundance, canopy cover, basal area, and understory density at each site. We recorded 687 passes during our 45-day study period. …

Assessing Recreational User Impacts, Motivations, And Knowledge On The Spread Of Invasive Plant Species In A Managed, Multiple-Use Forest Ecosystem, Crystal Strickland

All Theses

The spread of invasive plants is ecologically and economically detrimental to native ecosystems, animals, and humans. Recreation is one factor that may influence plant dispersal. The impacts of recreation on invasive plant spread are multifaceted and include the physical act of spreading and transporting seeds and vegetation to new areas on clothes, pets, and equipment, as well as the social aspect of outreach and education. Therefore, I used a multifaceted approach to assess the impact of human trafficked areas where recreational activities frequently occur on four known invasive plant species in the Clemson Experimental Forest (CEF) in South Carolina: Microstegium …

Effects Of Prescribed Fire Seasonality On Forest Structure And Bird Populations In The Southern Appalachians, Allison Melcher

All Theses

Decades of fire suppression have contributed to the loss of historical ecosystems and to the decline of wildlife populations throughout the Southern Appalachian region. Recognizing the importance of fire in enhancing habitat and wildlife diversity, forest managers in recent years have begun implementing fire as a management tool to recover traditional disturbance regimes. Most of these burns take place during the dormant season, but some research has indicated dormant season burns are not effective in restoring ecosystem heterogeneity, and there has been a push to expand the use of fire into the growing season. However, much is still unknown about …