Forest Sciences Commons^™

Ninety-Two Years Of Tree Growth And Death In A Second-Growth Coast Redwood Forest, Benjamin Iberle

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Mature second-growth coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) forests are an important and uncommon resource in the redwood region. Development of second-growth redwood forests beyond rotation age (~50 years) is not well understood. Continuous long-term data are especially lacking, considering that the maximum possible age of second-growth stands is now over 150 years. Two permanent observation plots in Arcata, CA, established in 1923 by Woodbridge Metcalf and last measured in 1990, provide a unique opportunity to examine the development of coast redwood forest regenerating after logging in ~1880. We surveyed the Metcalf plots using modern methods and assembled a complete …

Climate And Bark Beetle Effects On Forest Productivity — Linking Dendroecology With Forest Landscape Modeling, Alec M. Kretchun, E. Louise Loudermilk, Robert M. Scheller, Matthew Hurteau, Soumaya Belmecher

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

In forested systems throughout the world, climate influences tree growth and aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP). The effects of extreme climate events (i.e., drought) on ANPP can be compounded by biotic factors (e.g., insect outbreaks). Understanding the contribution of each of these influences on growth requires information at multiple spatial scales and is essential for understanding regional forest response to changing climate. The mixed conifer forests of the Lake Tahoe Basin, California and Nevada, provide an opportunity to analyze biotic and abiotic influences on ANPP. Our objective was to evaluate the influence of moisture stress (climatic water deficit, CWD) and …

Simulated Data And Code For Analysis Of Herpetofauna Response To Forest Management In The Missouri Ozarks, Christopher T. Rota, Alexander J. Wolf, Rochelle B. Renken, Robert A. Gitzen, Debby K. Fantz, Robert A. Montgomery, Matthew G. Olson, Larry D. Vangilder, Joshua J. Millspaugh

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

We present predictor variables and R and Stan code for simulating and analyzing counts of Missouri Ozark herpetofauna in response to three forest management strategies. Our code performs four primary purposes: import predictor variables from spreadsheets; simulate synthetic response variables based on imported predictor variables and user-supplied values for data-generating parameters; format synthetic data for export to Stan; and analyze synthetic data.

The Changes In Woodlot Land Cover From 1988 To 2006 Within Private/Farmland In Hancock County, Ohio, Louis C. Birchall

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The amount of woodlots in Ohio have dramatically decreased since the introduction of settlers into the State. The removal of forest for open space, urban areas, fuel and resources was key to this change. Since the development of the economy to a more service based industry in recent years, woodlots have begun to return in certain areas. This research shows the change in woodlot patterns in Hancock County, Ohio from 1988 to 2006.

The analysis was done by classifying the data into 'woodlot' and 'other land use' by using image segmentation and manual editing processes. Accuracy checks were conducted on …

Quantifying Effects Of Quaking Aspen Silvicultural Treatments On Aspen Regeneration And Residual Growth, Philip W. Williams

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Many quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) populations are in decline across the western United States, a trend likely driven by ongoing climate change and past management that has led to increased competition with conifers. Restoration of aspen is a management goal potentially achievable through active forest management, but treatment effects on regeneration and residual growth have not been comprehensively studied. This project examined if removal of competing conifers altered aspen regeneration density, ungulate browsing, and residual adult aspen diameter growth using a control-impact study design. Sampling occurred at the Burnt Fork (ten treatments, four controls) and Bandy (seven treatments, four controls) …

Context-Dependent Seed Dispersal By A Scatter-Hoarding Corvid, Mario B. Pesendorfer, T. Scott Sillett, Scott A. Morrison, Alan C. Kamil

Avian Cognition Papers

1. Corvids (crows, jays, magpies and nutcrackers) are important dispersers of large-seeded plants. Studies on captive or supplemented birds suggest that they flexibly adjust their scatter-hoarding behavior to the context of social dynamics and relative seed availability. Because many corvid-dispersed trees show high annual variation in seed production, context-dependent foraging can have strong effects on natural corvid scatter-hoarding behavior.

2. We investigated how seed availability and social dynamics affected scatter-hoarding in the island scrub jays (Aphelocoma insularis). We quantified rates of scatter-hoarding behavior and territorial defense of 26 colormarked birds over a three-year period with variable acorn crops. …

Diseases Of Trees In The Great Plains, Aaron D. Bergdahl, Alison Hill, Gerard C. Adams, Rachel A. Allison, John A. Appel, John Ball, James T. Blodgett, Kelly S. Burns, Whitney Cranshaw, Kelsey L. Dunnell, Mark L. Gleason, Mark O. Harrell, Thomas C. Harrington, Marcus B. Jackson, William R. Jacobi, Jennifer Juzwik, Megan M. Kennwlly, Les Koch, Jared M. Leboldus, Phillip A. Mason, Douglas L. Mcnew, Judith O'Mara, Hayley M. Nelson, Nicole Opbroek, Michael E. Ostry, Scott C. Redlin, Glen R. Stanosz, Laurie J. Stepanek, Ned Tisserat, Timothy C. Todd, James A. Walla, James J. Worrall, Simeon Wright

United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Hosts, distribution, symptoms and signs, disease cycle, and management strategies are described for 84 hardwood and 32 conifer diseases in 56 chapters. Color illustrations are provided to aid in accurate diagnosis. A glossary of technical terms and indexes to hosts and pathogens also are included.

Scope

The purpose of this handbook is to assist users in diagnosing tree diseases and reducing their impact. Included are the most damaging diseases, along with some that are the subject of frequent inquiry although of minor importance. The diseases included were those encountered primarily on trees in conservation plantings such as windbreaks, farmstead plantings, …

A Case For Untrammeledness As The Foundational Goal Of Wilderness Management, Robert A. Mcglothlin

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis addresses the quandary faced by wilderness managers in a time of heightening anthropogenic change, who are tasked with the conflicting goals of leaving wilderness untrammeled from management control, while simultaneously maintaining natural conditions free from human influence. I explain how this debate between conflicting management goals reflects a deeper rift between two competing philosophical paradigms of wilderness stewardship, which I term the Naturalness- paradigm and the Untrammeledness-paradigm. The Naturalness-paradigm embraces a techno-centric view of wilderness stewardship that exalts the role of managers in shaping wilderness ecosystems, whose persistence it considers to be dependent upon human provisioning. The Untrammeledness-paradigm …

Twenty-Five Year Response Of The Herbaceous Layer Of A Temperate Hardwood Forest To Elevated Nitrogen Deposition, Frank S. Gilliam, Nicole Turrill Welch, Anne Hockenberry Phillips, Jake H. Billmyer, William T. Peterjohn, Zachariah K. Fowler, Christopher A. Walter, Mark B. Burnham, Jeffrey D. May, Mary Beth Adams

Biological Sciences Faculty Research

Increasing rates of atmospheric deposition of nitrogen (N) present a novel threat to the biodiversity of terrestrial ecosystems. Many forests are particularly susceptible to excess N given their proximity to sources of anthropogenic N emissions. This study summarizes results of a 25-yr treatment of an entire central Appalachian hardwood forest watershed via aerial applications of N with a focus on effects of added N on the cover, species richness, and composition of the herbaceous layer. Research was carried out on two watersheds of the Fernow Experimental Forest (FEF), West Virginia. The long-term reference watershed at FEF (WS4) was used as …

Toward Building Collaborative Capacity: Assessment Of Service Delivery In Makati Homeville, Laguna, Philippines, Christie C. Amores, Nelson Jose Vincent B. Querijero

Journal of Public Affairs and Development

This study assessed the service delivery in Makati Homeville (MH), Calauan in Laguna, Philippines. Specifically, it analyzed the perceived strength of the collaborative capacity of the Makati Social Welfare and Development-Extension Office (MSWD-EO) in the areas of accountability, outcomes, delivery and alignment, and proposed mechanisms by which service delivery can be scaled up to ensure sustainability. The Collaborate and United Nations Development Programme's Collaborative Capacity Framework was adopted to examine key areas of public service delivery where collaboration could be strengthened to ensure better outcomes. The perceived strength was measured by computing the mean scores of respondents' numerical rating for …

The Relative Importance Of Tree And Stand Properties In Susceptibility To Spruce Beetle Outbreak In The Mid-20th Century, Felicia Bakaj, Nathan Mietkiewicz, Thomas T. Veblen, Dominik Kulakowski

Geography

Tree susceptibility to potentially lethal agents is determined not only by attributes of individual trees, but also by neighborhood effects at a range of scales. For example, effects of disturbances on individual trees are often contingent on the size, configuration, and other properties of neighboring trees. Wildfires can modify postfire properties of individual trees as well as of entire forest stands, both of which can affect subsequent ecological processes, including subsequent disturbances. In recent years, much has been learned about how disturbances interact, but numerous questions concerning underlying mechanisms remain unresolved. For example, the relative importance of forest properties at …

Not Only Climate: Interacting Drivers Of Treeline Change In Europe, Dominik Kulakowski, Ignacio Barbeito, Alejandro Casteller, Ryszard J. Kaczka, Peter Bebi

Geography

Treelines have long been recognized as important ecotones and likely harbingers of climate change. However, over the last century many treelines have been affected not only by global warming, but also by the interactions of climate, forest disturbance and the consequences of abrupt demographic and economic changes. Recent research has increasingly stressed how multiple ecological, biophysical, and human factors interact to shape ecological dynamics. Here we highlight the need to consider interactions among multiple drivers to more completely understand and predict treeline dynamics in Europe.

Fire Severity Controlled Susceptibility To A 1940s Spruce Beetle Outbreak In Colorado, Usa, Dominik Kulakowski, Thomas T. Veblen, Peter Beb

Geography

The frequency, magnitude, and size of forest disturbances are increasing globally. Much recent research has focused on how the occurrence of one disturbance may affect susceptibility to subsequent disturbances. While much has been learned about such linked disturbances, the strength of the interactions is likely to be contingent on the severity of disturbances as well as climatic conditions, both of which can affect disturbance intensity and tree resistance to disturbances. Subalpine forests in western Colorado were affected by extensive and severe wildfires in the late 19th century and an extensive and severe outbreak of spruce beetle (Dendroctonus rufipennis) in the …

Soil Organic Matter Distribution In A Douglas-Fir-Tanoak Forest, Humboldt County, California, Hollie A. Ernest

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Soil carbon (C) affects the active gases in the atmosphere, nutrient cycling, and diversity of flora and fauna. Soil organic matter (SOM) is partially comprised of C, and a widely-accepted ratio of 0.58 organic carbon (OC) to organic matter (OM) is used to measure soil C on a landscape scale. However, this ratio varies according to vegetation, depth, hydrology, and may lead to miscalculations of soil C and SOM estimates. Soil C and SOM are inherently complex and it is not completely understood which environmental factors have the most influence in their formation, which occurs on a time scale of …

Forest Stand Structure And Primary Production In Relation To Ecosystem Development, Disturbance, And Canopy Composition, Cynthia M. Scheuermann

Theses and Dissertations

Temperate forests are complex ecosystems that sequester carbon (C) in biomass. C storage is related to ecosystem-scale forest structure, changing over succession, disturbance, and with community composition. We quantified ecosystem biological and physical structure in two forest chronosequences varying in disturbance intensity, and three late successional functional types to examine how multiple structural expressions relate to ecosystem C cycling. We quantified C cycling as wood net primary production (NPP), ecosystem structure as Simpson’s Index, and physical structure as leaf quantity (LAI) and arrangement (rugosity), examining how wood NPP-structure relates to light distribution and use-efficiency. Relationships between structural attributes of biodiversity, …

Semiochemicals In The Natural History Of Southern Pine Beetle Dendroctonus Frontalis Zimmermann And Their Role In Pest Management, B. T. Sullivan

United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

The southern pine beetle, Dendroctonus frontalis Zimmermann is generally considered to be one of the most significant biotic mortality agents of pines within North America, with a range stretching from New England to eastern Texas and from Arizona south to Nicaragua. As with other aggressive pine beetles, it relies on semiochemicals for coordinating the mass attacks necessary for colonization of healthy pines. Over the past 50 years its chemical ecology has received extensive study aimed at development of effective and practical semiochemical-based management strategies which might replace the destructive and costly techniques in practice. I review the literature on the …

A Forest Vulnerability Index Based On Drought And High Temperatures, David Mildrexler, Zhiqiang Yang, Warren B. Cohen, David M. Bell

United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Increasing forest stress and tree mortality has been directly linked to combinations of drought and high temperatures. The climatic changes expected during the next decades – large increases in mean temperature, increased heat waves, and significant long-term regional drying in the western USA – will likely increase chronic forest stress and mortality. The aim of this research is to develop and apply a new forest vulnerability index (FVI) associated with drought and high temperatures across the Pacific Northwest region (PNW; Oregon and Washington) of the USA during the MODIS Aqua era (since 2003). Our technique incorporates the alterations to canopy …

Contributing Factors For Drought In United States Forest Ecosystems Under Projected Future Climates And Their Uncertainty, Charles H. Luce, James M. Vose, Neil Pederson, John Campbell, Connie Millar, Patrick Kormos, Ross Woods

United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Observations of increasing global forest die-off related to drought are leading to more questions about potential increases in drought occurrence, severity, and ecological consequence in the future. Dry soils and warm temperatures interact to affect trees during drought; so understanding shifting risks requires some understanding of changes in both temperature and precipitation. Unfortunately, strong precipitation uncertainties in climate models yield substantial uncertainty in projections of drought occurrence. We argue that disambiguation of drought effects into temperature and precipitation-mediated processes can alleviate some of the implied uncertainty. In particular, the disambiguation can clarify geographic diversity in forest sensitivity to multifarious drivers …

Pronghorn Habitat Suitability In The Texas Panhandle, Nathan P. Duncan, Samantha S. Kahl, Shawn S. Gray, Christopher J. Salice, Richard D. Stevens

United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Habitat quality is an important factor that can greatly affect wildlife populations. Pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) habitat in the Texas Panhandle, USA has been lost through growth of human settlements and agricultural lands. We determined the most pertinent environmental variables affecting habitat selection using multiple methods, including a search of peer-reviewed literature, expert opinion ranking, and habitat suitability modeling. We determined quality and extent of pronghorn habitat in the Texas Panhandle using the MAXENT modeling environment to build a presence-only habitat suitability model based on global positioning system (GPS) locations collected via aerial surveys. Our habitat suitability model indicated …

Improved Bulk Density Of Bamboo Pellets As Biomass For Energy Production, Zhijia Liu, Bingbing Mi, Zehui Jiang, Benhua Fei, Zhiyong Cai, Xing'e Liu

United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

To the best of our knowledge, there is the lack of sufficient information concerning bamboo pellets. In the preliminary research, bamboo pellets showed a low bulk density which could not meet requirement of Pellet Fuels Institute Standard Specification for Residential/Commercial Densified (PFI). To improve its bulk density, pellets were manufactured using mixtures of bamboo and pine particles and the properties were investigated. It was found that adding pine particles to bamboo particles was an effective way to improve bulk density of bamboo pellets. When adding 40% pine particles to bamboo particles, bulk density of pellets increased from 0.54 …