Aim Humans influence species distributions by modifying the environment and by dispersing species beyond their natural ranges. Populations of species that have established in disjunct regions of the world may exhibit trait differentiation from native populations due to founder effects and adaptations to selection pressures in each distributional region. We compared multiple native, expansive and introduced populations of a sin...

Nine multipurpose silvicultural treatments, formulated as a synthesis of recently implemented prescriptions offered by forest managers, were simulated to evaluate their effectiveness at enhancing fire resistance. The Forest Vegetation Simulator was applied, within the BioSum Framework, on over 3,000 Forest Inventory and Analysis plots representing 5 million hectares of dry mixed conifer forests in eastern Washington and Oregon...

Using an adaptation of Forest Inventory and Analysis’s BioSum framework, which models prospective management of forested landscapes using forest inventory data, we tested several fire-resistance-promoting restoration treatments, implemented with tethered cut-to-length harvest systems, for effectiveness and economic feasibility in the dry national forests of southern Oregon and northern California. Treatments elevated fire resi...

Leucaena leucocephala (leucaena) is an important agroforestry tree of tropics and subtropics due to its protein rich foliages, ability to grow on poor soils, and high level of tolerance to various stresses including drought and diseases. We hypothesized that leucaena have a unique set of genes which confer tolerance to various abiotic and biotic stresses and these genes are either absent or not expressed in other legumes that...

7Massive fires in Indonesian peatlands in the 1990s and in eastern Russian peatlands in 2002 and last year have highlighted the need to manage forests overlying peat deposits, as well as converted peat forests and open peatlands. Peat or peaty soils, contain 65% or more of partially decayed vegetation, can burn freely or underground. They cover some 10 percent of worldwide forests and contain 25 percent of all terrestrial carb...

The United States needs many different types of forests: some managed for wood products plus other benefits, and some managed for nonconsumptive uses and benefits. The objective of reducing global greenhouse gases (GHG) requires increasing carbon storage in pools other than the atmosphere. Growing more forests and keeping forests as forests are only part of the solution, because focusing solely on the sequestration benefits of...

We examine the accuracy of tree height estimates obtained via light detection and ranging (LiDAR) in a temperate rainforest characterized by complex terrain, steep slopes, and high canopy cover. The evaluation was based on precise top and base locations for > 1,000 trees in 45 plots distributed across three forest types, a dense network of ground elevation recordings obtained with survey grade equipment, and LiDAR data from hi...

Sudden oak death, a disease associated with the pathogen Phytophthora ramorum, has a large number of shrub and tree host species. Three of the tree species most susceptible to mortality from the disease, California black oak (Quercus kelloggii), coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia), and tanoak (Lithocarpus densiflorus), are estimated to predominate by basal area on 1.52 (±0.10) million ac in 12 counties that currently are under...

The ongoing expansion of human populations into wildland areas dominated by flammable vegetation, and the concomitant increased frequency of uncontrolled wildfires that result in losses of property and human lives, has raised new questions about the optimal level of fire protection. The morphing of the problem conception from minimizing costs plus losses of natural resources to responding to the concerns of people whose homes...