Fire activity, in terms of intensity, frequency, and total area burned, is expected to increase with a changing climate. A challenge for landscape-level assessment of fire effects, often termed burn severity, is that current remote sensing assessments provide very little information regarding tree/vegetation physiological performance and recovery, limiting our understanding of fire effects on e...

Maize stalk fibres can be used as fillers in natural rubber composites replacing expensive and non-biodegradable inorganic fillers. Maize stalk fibres were chemically modified with acetic anhydride (acetylation) to enhance their compatibility with the hydrophobic rubber polymer matrix. The fibre was characterised using FTIR showing a spectrum with a well defined peak at 1742 cm -1 (attributed t...

Reciprocal pollination was made between Lilium nobilissimum and L. regale. Pollen tubes reached the base of style within 144 h after pollination, but no mature seeds were obtained in either cross combination. Explants, or ovules-with-placental-tissue excised from each carpel 30 and 40 days after pollination (DAP), were cultured on a medium composed of major salts of B-5 macronutrient (Gamborg, ...

The bacterium Xylella fastidiosa is a plant pathogen with a history of economically damaging introductions of subspecies to regions where its other subspecies are native. Genetic evidence is presented demonstrating the introduction of two new taxa into Central America and their introgression into the native subspecies, X. fastidiosa subsp. fastidiosa. The data are from 10 genetic outliers detec...

Abstract. Logistic regression models used to predict tree mortality are critical to post-fire management, planning prescribed burns and understanding disturbance ecology. We review literature concerning post-fire mortality prediction using logistic regression models for coniferous tree species in the western USA. We include synthesis and review of: methods to develop, evaluate and interpret log...

Angiosperms evolved and diversified during the Cretaceous period. Early angiosperms were short-stature weedy plants thought to have increased fire frequency and mortality in gymnosperm forest, aiding their own expansion. However, no explorations have considered whether the range of novel fuel types that diversified throughout the Cretaceous also altered fire behaviour, which should link more st...

We examined the effects of prescribed fire on white pine (Pinus strobus) advance regeneration in small experimental plots in mixed hardwood-pine forests in southwestern Virginia during the fall and spring. Fires killed all newly germinated seedlings in both spring and fall. Saplings (ranging from 0.7 3.4 m in height) all suffered some degree of crown scorch, but sapling survival was higher on p...