Forest understories across the northern United States (US) are a complex of tree seedlings, endemic forbs, herbs, shrubs, and introduced plant species within a forest structure defined by tree and forest floor attributes. The substantial increase in white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus Zimmerman) populations over the past decades has resulted in heavy browse pressure in many of these fores...

Litter decomposition is an enzymatically-complex process that is mediated by a diverse assemblage of saprophytic microorganisms. It is a globally important biogeochemical process that can be suppressed by anthropogenic N deposition. In a northern hardwood forest ecosystem located in Michigan, USA, 20 years of experimentally increased atmospheric N deposition has reduced forest floor decay and i...

Prescribed fires are likely to re-emit atmospherically deposited mercury (Hg), and comparison of soil Hg storage in areas affected by prescribed fire to that in similar unburned areas may provide cross-validating estimates of atmospheric Hg deposition. Prescribed fires are common in the southeastern United States (US), a region of relatively high Hg deposition compared to the rest of the US, an...

Forest floor food webs play pivotal roles in carbon cycling, but they are rarely considered in models of carbon fluxes, including soil carbon dioxide emissions (respiration), under climatic warming. The indirect effects of invertebrates on heterotrophic (microbial and invertebrate) respiration through interactions with microbial communities are significant and will be altered by warming. Howeve...

Logistic regression equations of prescribed fire mortality were developed for white fir (Abies concolor [Gord. and Glend.] Lindl.), sugar pine (Pinus lambertiana Dougl.), ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Laws.), incense-cedar (Calocedrus decurrens [Torr.] Floren.), and giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum [Lindley] Buchholz) in the southern Sierra Nevada, California. A total of 1025 trees wer...

Meeting the challenge of mapping peatlands with remotely sensed data O. N. Krankina, D. Pflugmacher, M. Friedl, W. B. Cohen, P. Nelson, and A. Baccini Oregon State University, Department of Forest Science, 321 Richardson Hall, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA Boston University, Department of Geography and Environment, 675 Commonwealth Ave., 4th Floor, Boston, MA 02215, USA Forestry Sciences Laboratory,...

Islands can serve as model systems for understanding how biological invasions affect native species. Here we examine the negative effects of mesopredator mammals on bird richness at Anchieta Island, an 826 ha offshore island in the coast of Brazil. Anchieta Island has the highest density of mammals of the entire Atlantic forest, especially nest predators such as marmosets and coatis, introduced...

Our study focused on radiocaesium (137Cs) partitioning in forests, three vegetation periods after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident. 137Cs distribution in forest components (organic and mineral soil layers as well as tree compartments: stem, bark, needles, branches and roots) was measured for two Japanese cedar stand ages (17 and 33 years old). The results showed that around 85...

Relatively intense burning has been suggested as a possible alternative to the restoration of pre-European settlement forest conditions and fire regime in mixed conifer forests, in contrast to thinning of trees and light prescribed burning. In 1993 a management-ignited fire in a dense, never-harvested forest in Grand Canyon National Park escaped prescription and burned with greater intensity an...

Nitrous oxide emissions from a beech forest floor measured by eddy covariance and soil enclosure techniques M. Pihlatie, J. Rinne, P. Ambus, K. Pilegaard, J. R. Dorsey, Ü. Rannik, T. Markkanen, S. Launiainen, and T. Vesala Department of Physical Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland Biosystems Department, Risø National Laboratory, Roskilde, Denmark CNR – ESPM – Ecosystem science, University...