Invasive herbivores can dramatically impact the nitrogen (N) economy of native hosts. In deciduous species, most N is stored in stem tissues, while in evergreen conifer species N is stored in needles, making them potentially more vulnerable to herbivory. In eastern forests of the USA, the long-lived, foundational conifer eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) is under the threat of extirpation by t...

The alterations to the expressions of metal transporter genes can induce ion uptake maintain cell homeostasis when concentrations are low. Metallothioneins (MTs) a class low molecular mass (4-8 kDa), cysteine (Cys)-rich proteins that bind metals via thiol groups their Cys residues. Studies on MT gene in higher plants, such as conifers, limited. White spruce (Picea glauca) is North American nati...

Intensive livestock grazing was an important cause of reduction in surface fire occurrence in many Western forests. This effect occurred primarily during the late 1800s and early decades of the 1900s. Very large herds of sheep, goats, cattle and horses removed the grass cover in under stories of ponderosa pine and mixed conifer forests. In 1890, for example, there were more than 5 million sheep...

High tree mortality due to drought and insects often is assumed to increase fire severity once ignition occurs. In 2002-2003, coniferous forests in the San Bernardino Mountains, California experienced a significant tree mortality event due to drought and an outbreak of western pine beetles (Dendroctonus brevicomis). In October 2003, fire burned approximately 5,860 ha of conifer forest types in ...

The conifer needle scale, Nuculaspis abietis (Schrank) emerged as an important pest of conifers in the Kelardasht region of Mazandaran province, Iran, in the late 1990’s. This pest feeds on conifer needles and twigs causing needle drop and branch desiccation. Its discovery in Kelardasht in Mazandaran Province necessitated a local quarantine of conifers in the genera Picea, Abies, and Pinus. We ...

The isolation of intact, functional RNA from conifer spp. is not easy, especially from those tissues that are heavily lignified and characterized by a low number of living cells. An efficient procedure for isolating RNA from combined wood and bark tissues of conifers was developed based on a protocol optimized for the extraction of RNA from pollen and one for the isolation of RNA from woody ste...

We quantified the taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversity of fungi associated with dead moss tissues conifer needles in a forest-tundra ecotone sub-Arctic region, Quebec, Canada. detected 615 operational taxonomic units, total, 84 families 97% sequence similarity by metabarcoding internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS1) region nuclear ribosomal DNA. Saprotrophs were dominant functional gu...