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- Comparison of benthic macroinvertebrate assessment methods along a salinity gradient in headwater streamsPence, Rachel A.; Cianciolo, Thomas R.; Drover, Damion R.; McLaughlin, Daniel L.; Soucek, David J.; Timpano, Anthony J.; Zipper, Carl E.; Schoenholtz, Stephen H. (Springer, 2021-12-01)Benthic macroinvertebrate community assessments are used commonly to characterize aquatic systems and increasingly for identifying their impairment caused by myriad stressors. Yet sampling and enumeration methods vary, and research is needed to compare their abilities to detect macroinvertebrate community responses to specific water quality variables. A common assessment method, rapid bioassessment, uses subsampling procedures to identify a fixed number of individual organisms regardless of total sample abundance. In contrast, full-enumeration assessments typically allow for expanded community characterization resulting from higher numbers of identified organisms within a collected sample. Here, we compared these two sampling and enumeration methods and their abilities to detect benthic macroinvertebrate response to freshwater salinization, a common stressor of streams worldwide. We applied both methods in headwater streams along a salinity gradient within the coal-mining region of central Appalachia USA. Metrics of taxonomic richness, community composition, and trophic function differed between the methods, yet most metrics exhibiting significant response to SC for full-enumeration samples also did for rapid bioassessment samples. However, full-enumeration yielded taxonomic-based metrics consistently more responsive to the salinization gradient. Full-enumeration assessments may potentially provide more complete characterization of macroinvertebrate communities and their response to increased salinization, whereas the more cost-effective and widely employed rapid bioassessment method can detect community alterations along the full salinity gradient. These findings can inform decisions regarding such tradeoffs for assessments of freshwater salinization in headwater streams and highlight the need for similar research of sampling and enumeration methodology in other aquatic systems and for other stressors.
- Cost-Share Funding for EAB Treatment in Virginia's Urban ForestsStewart, Peter; Wiseman, P. Eric (Tree Care Industry Association, 2019-11-01)Urban forests often act as incubators for new populations of invasive pests and pathogens. Because major cities are global-trade and transportation hubs, non-native forest pests frequently arrive and escape to nearby trees after stowing away inside plant material or cargo crates. Additionally, the abundance of defenseless, native tree species, street-tree monocultures and stressed trees common in urban forests provides susceptible hosts for these newly arriving pests.
- Deep Learning for Forest Plantation Mapping in Godavari Districts of Andhra Pradesh, IndiaMore, Snehal; Karpatne, Anuj; Wynne, Randolph H.; Thomas, Valerie A. (Virginia Tech, 2019-08)Small-area forest plantations play a vital role in the socioeconomic well-being of farmers in Southeast Asia. Most plantations are established on former agricultural land, often on land less suitable for agriculture. Plantations that are converted from natural forest have adverse impacts on biodiversity. Mapping small-area plantations is thus important to understand the dynamics of forest cover in Southeast Asia and to study the social, economic, and ecological effects of this important land cover and land use change. While the small size of forest plantations makes it difficult to detect them using moderate resolution satellite sensors, the problem is exacerbated by the high degree of mixing between plantations, surrounding vegetation, and other land covers, which often show variegated responses in satellite signals across space and time. In this paper, we study the problem of mapping small-area forest plantations in East and West Godavari districts of Andhra Pradesh, India using deep learning methods. Remotely sensed cloud-free data from the Harmonized Landsat Sentinel-2 S10 product were classified using a pixel-level neural network and training data labeled using a field-based survey in concert with expert aerial photo interpretation. We compare the performance of deep learning methods with a baseline random forest classifier in our study region of 21543 sq. km over a period of 3 years and analyze the differences in the results across land cover classes and seasons.
- Effect of silvopasture system on fearfulness and leg health in fast-growing broiler chickensPaneru, Bidur; Pent, Gabriel J.; Nastasi, Shawna; Downing, Adam K.; Munsell, John F.; Fike, John H.; Jacobs, Leonie (2023-02)A silvopasture system intentionally integrates trees, forages, and livestock, allowing dual land use. These systems can provide high-quality habitat for broiler chickens; however, such systems have not been widely adopted by the broiler industry in the United States. The objective of this study was to examine the effect of silvopasture versus open pasture access on fearfulness and leg health in fast-growing broiler chickens. A total of 886 mixed-sex Ross 708 chicks in Experiment 1 (Exp 1) and 648 chicks in Experiment 2 (Exp 2) were housed in coops and had access to 16 (Exp 1) or 12 (Exp 2) 125m2 silvopasture plots (x̄ = 32% canopy cover) or open pasture plots (no canopy cover) from day 24 of age. Fearfulness was measured using a tonic immobility test (tonic immobility duration), and leg health was assessed by quantifying footpad dermatitis, hock burns, gait, and performing a latency-to-lie test on days 37-39 of age. Birds in the silvopasture treatment were less fearful than birds in the open pasture treatment. Overall, birds in both silvopasture and open pasture systems had excellent leg health. Silvopasture birds had lower footpad dermatitis scores than open pasture birds. Silvopasture birds tended to have worse gait than open pasture birds in Exp 1, but not in Exp 2. Hock burn scores and latency-to-lie did not differ between treatments in Exp 1 or Exp 2. Raising birds in silvopasture reduced fear and improved footpad health compared to birds raised in open pastures, which indicates that silvopasture systems provide some benefits for affective state and leg health in fast-growing broilers.
- Fire in Eastern North American Oak Ecosystems: Filling the GapsVarner, J. Morgan; Arthur, Mary A.; Clark, Stacy L.; Dey, Daniel C.; Hart, Justin L.; Schweitzer, Callie J. (2016-08-01)This special issue of Fire Ecology is focused on the fire ecology of eastern USA oak (Quercus L.) forests, woodlands, and savannas. The papers were presented as part of the Fifth Fire in Eastern Oak Forests Conference in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA, in 2015. The topic of fire in Eastern oak ecosystems is one that has received insufficient interest from the broader fire ecology community. Specific papers in this issue address the historical role of fire in the region, the response and adaptations of plant and animal species to fire and fuels treatments, and the future of these important ecosystems under a future of global change. We hope that this issue provokes future research on the past, present, and future of fire in eastern North American oak ecosystems.
- Going Virtual: What we Learned from the Ecological Forecasting Initiative Research Coordination Network Virtual WorkshopPeters, Jody A.; Thomas, R. Quinn (Wiley, 2021-04)
- Greening the city: are we bringing foresters to the table?Wiseman, P. Eric; Day, Susan D. (Society of American Foresters, 2018-06-15)
- Modeling Forest Stand Dynamics, Growth and YieldBurkhart, Harold E. (MDPI, 2021-11-11)The world’s forests are diverse and serve myriad purposes; however, regardless of the management objective, reliable models of forest stand dynamics, growth and yield are required [...]
- The NEON Ecological Forecasting ChallengeThomas, R. Quinn; Boettiger, Carl; Carey, Cayelan C.; Dietze, Michael C.; Johnson, Leah R.; Kenney, Melissa A.; McLachlan, Jason S.; Peters, Jody A.; Sokol, Eric R.; Weltzin, Jake F.; Willson, Alyssa; Woelmer, Whitney M. (Wiley, 2023-04)
- Recommendations for University Tree-Care ProgramsSchmitt-Harsh, Mikaela L.; Wiseman, P. Eric (Association of Physical Plant Administrators, 2019-11-18)
- SMA 2019 Urban Tree of the YearBassuk, Nina; Wiseman, P. Eric; Kucharski, Todd; Martin, Keith (Society of Municipal Arborists, 2019-01-07)
- The socioecohydrology of rainwater harvesting in India: understanding water storage and release dynamics across spatial scalesVan Meter, Kimberly J.; Steiff, Michael; McLaughlin, Daniel L.; Basu, Nandita B. (Copernicus Publications, 2016)Rainwater harvesting (RWH), the small-scale collection and storage of runoff for irrigated agriculture, is recognized as a sustainable strategy for ensuring food security, especially in monsoonal landscapes in the developing world. In south India, these strategies have been used for millennia to mitigate problems of water scarcity. However, in the past 100 years many traditional RWH systems have fallen into disrepair due to increasing dependence on groundwater. This dependence has contributed to accelerated decline in groundwater resources, which has in turn led to increased efforts at the state and national levels to revive older RWH systems. Critical to the success of such efforts is an improved understanding of how these ancient systems function in contemporary landscapes with extensive groundwater pumping and shifted climatic regimes. Knowledge is especially lacking regarding the water-exchange dynamics of these RWH tanks at tank and catchment scales, and how these exchanges regulate tank performance and catchment water balances. Here, we use fine-scale, water-level variation to quantify daily fluxes of groundwater, evapotranspiration (ET), and sluice outflows in four tanks over the 2013 northeast monsoon season in a tank cascade that covers a catchment area of 28 km2. At the tank scale, our results indicate that groundwater recharge and irrigation outflows comprise the largest fractions of the tank water budget, with ET accounting for only 13–22% of the outflows. At the scale of the cascade, we observe a distinct spatial pattern in groundwater-exchange dynamics, with the frequency and magnitude of groundwater inflows increasing down the cascade of tanks. The significant magnitude of return flows along the tank cascade leads to the most downgradient tank in the cascade having an outflow-to-capacity ratio greater than 2. At the catchment scale, the presence of tanks in the landscape dramatically alters the catchment water balance, with runoff decreasing by nearly 75%, and recharge increasing by more than 40 %. Finally, while water from the tanks directly satisfies ~40% of the crop water requirement across the northeast monsoon season via surface water irrigation, a large fraction of the tank water is “wasted”, and more efficient management of sluice outflows could lead to tanks meeting a higher fraction of crop water requirements.
- Soil water repellency after wildfires in the Blue Ridge Mountains, United StatesChen, Jingjing; Pangle, Luke A.; Gannon, John P.; Stewart, Ryan D. (CSIRO Publishing, 2020-08-12)It is not well understood if wildfires induce soil water repellency in broadleaf deciduous forests, such as those endemic to the Blue Ridge Mountains of the eastern United States. In 2016, widespread wildfires provided an opportunity to study soil water repellency in this region. We selected sites in four locations with low to moderate burn severities, along with unburned controls. We estimated soil water repellency using water drop penetration time measurements from the surface (i.e. ash or organic) layer to ∼5 cm within the underlying mineral layer. Two months after the fires, water repellency was detected in all locations and was greater in more severely burned sites. One location had the greatest water repellency in surface ash (frequency of occurrence: 68-74%), whereas the other locations showed greatest repellency at the ash-mineral interface (40-96%). Unburned soils rarely showed repellency (0-18%). Burned soils also exhibited water repellency 1 year post fire. The study results suggest that combustion of non-resinous foliage within litter layers can cause water repellency in deciduous forests, meaning that this condition is not exclusive to coniferous and dryland forests. The duration of impact depends on fire severity, and may enhance overland flow and sediment transport in affected landscapes.
- Virtual Growing Pains: Initial Lessons Learned from Organizing Virtual Workshops, Summits, Conferences, and Networking Events during a Global PandemicMeyer, Michael F.; Ladwig, Robert; Dugan, Hilary A.; Anderson, Alyssa; Bah, Abdou R.; Boehrer, Bertram; Borre, Lisa; Chapina, Rosaura J.; Doyle, Chris; Favot, Elizbaeth J.; Flaim, Giobanna; Forsberg, Philip; Hanson, Paul C.; Ibelings, Bas W.; Isles, Peter; Lin, Fang-Pang; Lofton, Dendy; Moore, Tadhg N.; Peel, Sara; Peters, Jody A.; Pierson, Don; de Senerpont Domis, Lisette N.; Schloss, Jeffrey A.; Shikhani, Muhammed; Smagula, Amy P.; Stockwell, Jason D.; Thomas, Perry; Thomas, R. Quinn; Tietjen, Todd; Weathers, Kathleen C. (Wiley, 2021-02-01)For many, 2020 was a year of abrupt professional and personal change. For the aquatic sciences community, many were adapting to virtual formats for conducting and sharing science, while simultaneously learning to live in a socially distanced world. Understandably, the aquatic sciences community postponed or canceled most in-person scientific meetings. Still, many scientific communities either transitioned annual meetings to a virtual format or inaugurated new virtual meetings. Fortunately, increased use of video conferencing platforms, networking and communication applications, and a general comfort with conducting science virtually helped bring the in-person meeting experience to scientists worldwide. Yet, the transition to conducting science virtually revealed new barriers to participation whereas others were lowered. The combined lessons learned from organizing a meeting constitute a necessary knowledge base that will prove useful, as virtual conferences are likely to continue in some form. To concentrate and synthesize these experiences, we showcase how six scientific societies and communities planned, organized, and conducted virtual meetings in 2020. With this consolidated information in hand, we look forward to a future, where scientific meetings embrace a virtual component, so to as help make science more inclusive and global.
- What's the Big Deal about Big Trees? Reflections and Perspectives on the Virginia Big Tree ProgramWiseman, P. Eric (2020-05-22)
- Wood utilization in Virginia's interface forestlands and urban forestsWiseman, P. Eric (Virginia Forestry Association, 2018-02-13)