Across much of the globe, fire is a major disturbance agent of forest and grassland communities. The removal of fire from previously fire-maintained ecosystems, which has occurred in many areas, changes species composition, favoring later less fire tolerant species over fire-adapted ones. A recent measured increase in the rate of hybridization between the fire-adapted shortleaf pine (Pinus echi...

Loblolly pine is by far the most important forest tree species in the South, with over 1 billion seedlings planted annually by forest industry and non-industrial private forest landowners (McKeand et al. 2003). Genetic gains from tree improvement programs have been large, since geographic and within-provenance variation for growth and adaptive traits in loblolly pine is very large. General tren...

INTRODUCTION In the southern United States, chemicals are an integral part of the management of bare-root nurseries. The rationale for using chemicals is based on economics as they can reduce hand labor, improve the use of valuable seed, and increase seedling performance. The cost of all chemicals associated with loblolly pine seedling production averages less than 0.2 cent per seedling. The co...

The Forest Biology Research Cooperative recently established a series of loblolly pine clonal trials known as CCLONES (Comparing Clonal Lines on Experimental Sites). There are three primary levels of genetic structure in this study (parental, full-sib family, clone) that strengthen the power of CCLONES for examining genetic mechanisms and interactions with cultural treatments and locations. A f...

Tree plantations represent an important component of the global carbon (C) cycle and are expected to increase in prevalence during 21st century. We examined how silvicultural approaches that optimize economic returns loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) affected accumulation C pools vegetation, detritus, mineral soil up 100 cm across pine’s natural range southeastern United States. Comparisons treatm...

Loblolly pine is by far the most important forest tree species in the South, with over 1 billion seedlings planted annually by forest industry and non-industrial private forest landowners (McKeand et al. 2003). Genetic gains from tree improvement programs have been large, since geographic and within-provenance variation for growth and adaptive traits in loblolly pine is very large. General tren...

An empirical investigation of stumpage price models and optimal harvest policies is conducted for loblolly pine plantations in the southeastern United States. The stationarity of monthly and quarterly series of sawtimber prices is analyzed using a unit root test. The statistical evidence supports stationary autoregressive models for the monthly series and for the quarterly series of opening mon...

Using loblolly pine, shortleaf pine, white oak, and northern red oak as examples, this paper considers the behavior of potential relative increment (PRI) models of optimal tree diameter growth under data uncertainty. Recommendations on initial sample size and the PRI iterative curve fitting process are provided. Combining different state inventories prior to PRI model development increased samp...