understory

Forest fire prevention efforts will lessen carbon sequestration, add to greenhouse warming

...g, and the additional levels of fuel accumulation have not been that unusual; A wide range of fire reduction approaches, such as salvage logging, understory removal, prescribed fire and other techniques, can effectively reduce fire severity if used properly; Such fuel removal almost always reduces carb...

Isolated forest patches lose species, diversity

...r time we see an erosion of biodiversity," he says. To better catalog the changes at work, he and colleagues looked beyond the trees to the forest understory the shrubs, grasses and herbs covering the forest floor to witness how Wisconsin's forests are really faring. Their results, published online June 8...

Managing Douglas-fir forests for diversity

...in summer and warmth in the winter. The stands with hardwoods will provide hardwood seeds for wildlife food, and birds can use hardwood layers in the understory for nesting and foraging. Douglas-fir mortality from black stain root disease was greater where all hardwoods were removed than where some hardwoods ...

Fertilization intensifies competition for light and endangers plant diversity

...grees with some species growing much faster than before. Consequently, some understory species are overgrown by their faster growing neighbours, shaded and withou...established an ingenious experiment where they added artifical light to the understory of fertilized grasslands. This additional light countered the negative effe...

Danger lurks underground for oak seedlings

...tality rates that are threatening the resource base of the hardwood industry. "You see a lot of mature oaks, but you don't see a lot of oaks in the understory beneath the canopy. If you don't see them there, you won't see mature oaks in 20 to 30 years," Swihart said. "We are facing a period in our history th...

Another reason to drink a nice cup of shade-grown joe

... benefits. Now, the researchers have confirmed that notion through genetic analyses revealing recent colonization and extensive gene flow of native understory tree species in shade coffee farms of Chiapas, Mexico. The findings show that traditional coffee farms can maintain genetic connectivity with adjacent...

Shade coffee benefits more than birds

... immediately replanted with coffee bushes and canopy tree species, including nitrogen-fixing legumes and fruit trees. Since then, farmers have allowed understory trees such as Miconia to invade because they help prevent soil erosion. The trees spread into the farms when birds and bats carry their seeds from "...

Forest inventories in California include more than trees

...ies focused primarily on trees: how much timber was out there? Today's inventory is still about measuring and counting trees, but it also accounts for understory vegetation, down woody material, lichens, damage caused by insects and disease, and more. Whereas the original inventory design produced resource bu...

Forest inventories in Oregon include more than trees

...ies focused primarily on trees: how much timber was out there? Today's inventory is still about measuring and counting trees, but it also accounts for understory vegetation, down woody material, lichens, damage caused by insects and disease, and more. Whereas the original inventory design produced resource bu...

When it comes to forest soil, wildfires pack 1-2 punch

...tation and the study's lead investigator. "This study, covering over 300 acres, provided nearly 400 soil sampling points as well as extensive tree and understory plots to use in our analysis." Bormannalong with study co-author and Western Washington University professor Peter Homann and colleagues from the ...

understory in Biological Dictionary

Nostoc

...a usually found in colonies and in globose racks. It has a greenish to blackish color. It grows in creek beds, shallow streams, waterfalls, and moist understory in rain forests, in alkaline soil and water habitat. Colonies are velvety to the touch. Definition of nostoc from the Merriam-Webster Online Dict...