Predicted changes in climate have raised concerns about potential impacts on terrestrial forest ecosystem productivity, biogeochemical cycling, and the availability of water resources. This review summarizes characteristics of drought typical to the major forest regions of the United States, future drought projections, and important features of plant and forest community response to drought. Re...

We characterized pit and mound (PM) topography resulting from catastrophic wind in the Coweeta Basin, and located 48 PMs a across a variety of forest types. Our measurements included pit length, width, and depth; and mound height, thickness, and width. Species of fallen trees were identified, and DBH (diameter at breast height, 1.37 m) was measured for biomass determination. We identified five ...

The winter roost-site selection of most North American foliage-roosting bats is relatively unknown. We examined winter roost-site selection of Seminole bats (Lasirrrus seminolus) in the Lower Coastal Plain of South Carolina during January 2004. Seminole bats used a variety of day-roost structures including the canopy of overstory hardwood trees, hanging vines, pine needle clusters suspended fro...

Forests in Fukushima and neighboring prefectures accumulated atmospheric fallout of radioactive materials after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident. We investigated the initial behavior of Cs deposited in coniferous forest plantations. Furthermore, we conducted in-situ measurements of radioactivity in coniferous and broadleaf forest canopies. The results of this study demonstrate...

We compared the species composition of seedlings germinated on ten recently abandoned Formica polyctena nests with plant active and forest floor around nests. Compared to no plants at all, when were inhabited, 12 different vascular after their abandonment. Four them myrmecochorous, which two occurred only After abandonment, ant activity ceases, water content increases, decomposition organic nes...

Bryophytes are a dominant and functionally important component of the forest floor vegetation in boreal forests, yet little is known about the fungal diversity associated with these abundant plants. Using molecular identification, we document an ecologically and phylogenetically diverse array of fungi associated with the living parts of three widespread and abundant boreal forest bryophytes, i....

Wild leek, an endangered plant species of Eastern North America, grows on forest floors and greens up to approximately three weeks before the trees it is typically found under, temporarily allowing it to be observed through the canopy by remote sensing instruments. This paper explores the accuracy with which wild leek can be mapped with a low-flying UAV. Nadir video imagery was obtained using a...

Our understanding of how saprotrophic and mycorrhizal fungi interact to re-circulate carbon and nutrients from plant litter and soil organic matter is limited by poor understanding of their spatiotemporal dynamics. In order to investigate how different functional groups of fungi contribute to carbon and nitrogen cycling at different stages of decomposition, we studied changes in fungal communit...

The effects of traffic frequency and skid trail slope on dry bulk density, litter mass and rutting are examined. Treatments included a combination of four different traffic frequencies (3, 7, 14, and 20 passes of a rubber skidder) and three levels of slope ( 20%.) The results showed that dry bulk density, rut depth and soil displacement increased with the increase of traffic frequency and slop...