Treesearch

Understanding fossil fuel displacement benefits of wood energy use is essential for tracking national forest-sector sustainability metrics. Using a cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment (LCA) approach, this study presents a transparent and replicable framework to estimate the avoided GHG emissions associated with wood energy use across the residential, commercial, industrial, and electric power sectors from 1949 to 2024. The results show wood energy use is estimated to have cumulatively avoided 13,545 million tonnes CO2e, and 111 to 243 million tonnes CO2e annually between 1949 and 2024,...

Environmental beta attenuation monitors (EBAMs) are commonly used to measure 1-hour average particulate matter concentrations in smoke from prescribed fires and wildfires. Because relative humidity (RH) can artificially inflate particulate matter concentrations, EBAMs are equipped with an internal heater that activates when ambient RH reaches a specified setpoint. Most studies address high PM2.5 concentration conditions, where the EBAM is well documented to perform quite well on an hourly basis (R2 of 0.95). In prescribed fire applications, however, increases in PM2.5 concentrations are...

The return of gray wolves (Canis lupus) to the Northern Rocky Mountain (NRM) region of the United States since the 1990s is often hailed as a conservation success story. However, this success has not been without controversy, including the pervasive idea that the ‘wrong’ wolf was reintroduced from Canada. The claim that so-called ‘Canadian super-wolves’ are a non-native and hyper-violent subspecies is then utilized to justify violence against and lethal control of wolf populations and to stymie conservation efforts. Within the field of taxonomy, delineating between subspecies is complicated...

Jack pine budworm (JPBW), Choristoneura pinus pinus, is a major defoliator in Canada, yet remains absent from theoretical discourse on outbreak synchrony, despite sharing key life history traits with the archetypal “cross-scale” pest, spruce budworm (C. fumiferana). JPBW has primarily been studied in host-rich landscapes, raising questions about its behavior in host-sparse regions.We asked whether scale-crossing JPBW outbreaks are contingent on host density, and whether reduced outbreak incidence in host-sparse landscapes reflects synchronized or desynchronized population limitation.We...

Accurate taxonomy, including species identification and naming, underpins ecological inference, yet taxonomic information in ecological datasets is often inconsistently recorded or weakly standardized. With the increasing integration of ecological datasets across taxa and regions, datasets with poor taxonomic practices can hinder data exchange and propagate errors. We propose 10 rules to improve the storage and management of taxonomic information in ecological datasets. These rules draw on our experiences in plant ecology and taxonomy, but the conclusions may be generalized to other...

Two Sphagnum species thought to be extinct in Puerto Rico were rediscovered. The current distribution range of these species is substantially reduced compared to the historical distribution based on herbarium records. We contribute notes on S. perichaetiale and S. trinitense distribution, habitat, and a checklist of associated plant species. A key to the three extant Sphagnum species found in Puerto Rico is presented along with suggestions for conservation efforts to preserve S. perichaetiale and S. trinitense. The habitat where the species are found, white sand wetlands, is rare in Puerto...

In this study, we used coniferous and non-coniferous hosts to assess the pathogenicity of a Fusarium annulatum isolate derived from southwestern white pine (Pinus strobiformis), along with F. commune isolates derived from coniferous and herbaceous, non-conifer hosts. All isolates of both Fusarium spp. were found to be pathogenic to conifer hosts. For the tested non-coniferous hosts, F. commune isolates were found to be pathogenic to both rice and tomato, whereas F. annulatum was pathogenic to rice and potentially less aggressive on tomato. To investigate the molecular basis of pathogenicity...

Urban forests are multifunctional social-ecological systems that can contribute to both climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation. However, management of urban forests for these objectives are often studied independently. Knowing which measures can be used to assess multiple objectives could enable integrated monitoring efforts and subsequently increase potentials for synergies in management. We compared the use of forest composition metrics in studies focused on carbon storage ( n = 109) and avian diversity ( n = 158) extracted from a published systematic literature map....

Agrilus species (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) often oviposit in bark cracks and crevices to protect their eggs from natural enemies and unfavorable conditions, making field detection of eggs and associated parasitism challenging. Burlap-ribbon traps, which mimic tree bark texture, have been shown to induce emerald ash borer (EAB), Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire, to lay eggs on covered ash (Fraxinus sp.) surfaces. We evaluated these traps for detecting eggs of EAB and its congener bronze birch borer (Agrilus anxius Gory), as well as associated egg parasitism, using ash trees exhibiting different...

For decades, foresters have sought cost-effective ways to remove the leftover twigs, branches, and boles—the “waste” of forest operations and fuels treatments—and transform them into a usable resource. Slash piles can be left alone, burned, or used. If left in place, slash piles may fuel the next wildfire or obstruct replanting efforts. Disposal via burning is relatively inexpensive but comes with risk, smoke, and increasingly, shorter burn windows. Before slash can be transported and processed into energy or bioproducts, land managers must inventory and measure the piles. These are often...