A study of 50 sugar maples {Acer saccharum) along Gates Mills Boulevard in Gates Mills, Ohio, showed that a tree's sap-sugar concentration tended to increase with decreasing tree health and increasing soil salt concentration. Relative tree health was determined by growth ring analysis. Salt concentration in soil was determined by measuring soil extract conductivity. Extract conductivity correla...

Seedlings of 11 species of forest maples (Acer L.) were grown outdoors from budburst to senescence under three light regimes: ‘gap centre under clear skies ’ (approx. 20% open sky irradiance; red:far-red ratio ̄ 1±12) ; ‘gap centre under cloudy skies ’ (1±5%, ratio ̄ 1±03) ; and ‘gap edge’ (2±5%, ratio ̄ 0±6). Seedlings grown under the gap centre (clear sky) regime had significantly greater height...

Forests of northeastern North America have been exposed to anthropogenic acidic inputs for decades, resulting in altered cation relations and disruptions to associated physiological processes in multiple tree species, including sugar maple (Acer saccharum Marsh.). In the current study, the impacts of calcium (Ca) and aluminum (Al) additions on mature sugar maple physiology were evaluated at the...

To understand the phylogenetic relationships and evolution of the powdery mildew genus Sawadaea (Ascomycota: Erysiphaceae), obligate parasitic fungi of maples, we performed molecular phylogenetic analyses based on 47 ITS and ten 28S rDNA sequences. Seven major clades of Sawadaea, each represented by powdery mildew specimens collected from a single or a small number of closely related sections o...

We examined reassembly of winning and losing tree species, species traits including shade and fire tolerance, and associated disturbance filters and forest ecosystem types due to rapid forest change in the Great Lakes region since 1850. We identified winning and losing species by changes in composition, distribution, and site factors between historical and current surveys in Minnesota's mixed a...

1. Neonate evergreen bagworms, Thyridopteryx ephemeraeformis (Haworth) (Lepidoptera: Psychidae), disperse by dropping on a strand of silk, termed silking, and ballooning on the wind. Larvae construct silken bags with fragments of plant foliage. This species is highly polyphagous, feeding on more than 125 species of woody plants of 45 families. The larvae commonly infests juniper (Juniperus spp....

Permanent plot records ranging from 13 to 42 years in duration were used to study understory development in four upland oak forests in Massachusetts and New York. All tracts have a dense understory of shade-tolerant species dominated by red maple (Acer rubrum L.) but sparse representation of oak saplings. Mortality rates for red maple have been low compared to other species, and maples have inc...