Silviculture is increasingly being applied in ways that go beyond traditional timber management objectives. Across the National Forest System, on other public lands, and increasingly on private lands as well, foresters are working with professional colleagues and landowners to develop innovative silvicultural prescriptions designed to meet diverse resource management objectives. Some of those i...

Despite its essential role in the delivery of ecosystem services, forest soil biodiversity experiences pressures, especially anthropogenic origin. Forest management can harm or support biodiversity, depending on decisions taken, but currently generally overlooks soils. Management considerably depend public opinion, that often conflicts with foresters' viewpoint and differs from what is ecologic...

Coarse woody debris (CWD) is recognized as an important component of British Columbia’s forest ecosystems linked to biodiversity and ecosystem processes. CWD represents high centers of biological interaction and energy exchange, symbolizing in many ways the complexity of forest ecosystems. Our research on lichens and bryophytes demonstrates that many species are either partially or entirely dep...

Cuttings from a single American sycamore clone were rooted and grown under four levels of artificial shade: 27, 45, 72 and 100 percent of full sunlight to learn more about the ecological role of this species in deciduous forests of the Southern Appalachians. After 132 days, leaf angle, leaf area, leaf thickness, stomatal frequency and size, and dry matter production of the leaves, stem, and roo...

BACKGROUND Modelling plant growth allows us to test hypotheses and carry out virtual experiments concerning plant growth processes that could otherwise take years in field conditions. The visualization of growth simulations allows us to see directly and vividly the outcome of a given model and provides us with an instructive tool useful for agronomists and foresters, as well as for teaching. Fu...