Contents 1. Introduction 2. The unique character of forestry planting stock 2.1 Nursery-cultured planting stock 2.2 Wildings 3. The role of forest nurseries in forest management 4. Does the nursery affect the planting stock? 5. Types of nurseries 5.1 Bareroot nurseries 5.2 Container nurseries 5.3 A combination of container and bareroot nursery culture 6. Establishing a new nursery 6.1 Economic ...

The current range of ecological habitats occupied by a species reflects a combination of the ecological tolerance of the species, dispersal limitation, and competition. Whether the current distribution of a species accurately reflects its niche has important consequences for the role of ecological niche modeling in predicting changes in species ranges as the result of biological invasions and c...

Projected increasing demands for timber coupled with reduced harvests on public lands have led to concern among some forest policymakers regarding the adequacy of future U.S. timber supplies. One question concerns the likelihood that prevailing market incentives will induce industrial and nonindustrial private landowners to intensify forest management. We develop empirical models of historical ...

Two schools of thought exist regarding the planting of bare-root seedlings. One school favors the “pull-up” method where the seedling is pulled-up 3 to 10 cm after placing the roots in the planting hole. Although this action purportedly straightens the taproot, data are lacking to show this extra step actually improves field performance. Pulling the seedling up usually results in the root-colla...

Soil nutrients and microbial communities are the two key factors in revegetation of barren environments. Ecological stoichiometry plays an important role in ecosystem function and limitation, but the relationships between above- and belowground stoichiometry and the bacterial communities in a typical karst region are poorly understood. We used pepino (Solanum muricatum) to examine the stoichiom...

This study used panel data models with spatial error correlation to analyze private tree planting in the US South from 1955 to 2003. Controlling for statewide, fixed effects allows us to disentangle the effect of spatial interaction from that of state heterogeneity and omitted variables. The results show that there is significant spatial interdependence among the southern states in private tree...

BACKGROUND As a key strategy for mitigating global climate change, bioenergy production by reducing CO2 emissions plays an important role in ensuring sustainable development. However, land-use change by converting natural ecosystems into energy crop field could create a carbon debt at the beginning. Thus, the potential carbon debt calculation is necessary for determining a promising bioenergy c...

Limited water resources restrict winter wheat grain yield and quality in the Huang-Huai-Hai Plain of North China, and establishing optimal planting patterns according to crop water requirements is the key factor for achieving rational water use. In this paper, 4 planting patterns were applied, namely, uniform row (30 cm; traditional pattern), wide (40 cm)-narrow (20 cm) row, furrow (double line...

BACKGROUND There is widespread interest in biofuel crops as a solution to the world's energy needs, particularly in light of concerns over greenhouse-gas emissions. Despite reservations about their adverse environmental impacts, no attempt has been made to quantify actual, relative or potential invasiveness of terrestrial biofuel crops at an appropriate regional or international scale, and thei...

This study set out to investigate the trends of agriculturally-relevant rainfall characteristics among small-scale farmers in the rainfall-sensitive dry savanna agro-ecological zone of northern Ghana. Interviews are used to identify characteristics of rainfall which are deemed by the farmers as important in their food production. Time series daily rainfall data from 1960-2007 is then used to id...