Search results for "FOREST"
showing 10 items of 3780 documents
Impact of forest management on threatened epiphytic macrolichens: Evidence from a Mediterranean mixed oak forest (Italy)
2019
Abstract: Forest management practices may heavily affect epiphytic cryptogams. This study was conceived in March 2016, as soon as we were informed about an authorized logging for timber within a Mediterranean mixed oak forest in Tuscany (central Italy), which threatened a large population of the forest macrolichen Lobaria pulmonaria (L.) Hoffm., composed of hundreds of fertile thalli. Lobaria pulmonaria is often used as an ecological indicator of high quality habitats hosting rare lichens, and in general, cryptogams worthy of conservation. The species has suffered a general decline throughout Europe as a consequence of air pollution and intensive forest management, and currently it is red-l…
Guidelines for risk management in forest planning – what is risk and when is risk management useful?
2018
Managing forest resources occurs under various sources of uncertainty. Depending on the management problem, this uncertainty may have a substantial impact on the quality of the solution. As our knowledge on the sources and magnitude of uncertainty improves, integrating this knowledge into the development of management plans becomes increasingly useful, as additional information can improve the decision-making process. This adjustment requires a fundamental shift in how planning problems are viewed: instead of interpreting risk management as a technique needed only for addressing problems with natural hazards, risk management should be an integral part of most planning problems. Managing ri…
Value of information in multiple criteria decision making: an application to forest conservation
2019
Abstract Developing environmental conservation plans involves assessing trade-offs between the benefits and costs of conservation. The benefits of conservation can be established with ecological inventories or estimated based on previously collected information. Conducting ecological inventories can be costly, and the additional information may not justify these costs. To clarify the value of these inventories, we investigate the multiple criteria value of information associated with the acquisition of improved ecological data. This information can be useful when informing the decision maker to acquire better information. We extend the concept of the value of information to a multiple crite…
Potential of using data assimilation to support forest planning
2017
Uncertainty in forest information typically results in economic and ecological losses as a consequence of suboptimal management decisions. Several techniques have been proposed to handle such uncertainties. However, these techniques are often complex and costly. Data assimilation (DA) has recently been advocated as a tool that may reduce the uncertainty, thereby improving the quality of forest planning results. It offers an opportunity to make use of all new sources of information in a systematic way and thus provides more accurate and up-to-date information to forest planning. In this study, we refer to literature on handling uncertainties in forest planning, as well as related literature…
Dispersal ecology of deadwood organisms and connectivity conservation
2016
Limited knowledge of dispersal for most organisms hampers effective connectivity conservation in fragmented landscapes. In forest ecosystems, deadwood-dependent organisms (i.e., saproxylics) are negatively affected by forest management and degradation globally. We reviewed empirically established dispersal ecology of saproxylic insects and fungi. We focused on direct studies (e.g., mark-recapture, radiotelemetry), field experiments, and population genetic analyses. We found 2 somewhat opposite results. Based on direct methods and experiments, dispersal is limited to within a few kilometers, whereas genetic studies showed little genetic structure over tens of kilometers, which indicates long…
Fragmentation-related patterns of genetic differentiation in pedunculate oak (<i>Quercus robur</i>) at two hierarchical scales
2016
Populations at speciesâ range margins are expected to show lower genetic diversity than populations at the core of the range. Yet, long-lived, widespread tree species are expected to be resistant to genetic impoverishment, thus showing comparatively high genetic diversity within populations and low differentiation among populations. Here, we study the distribution of genetic variation in the pedunculate oak ( L.) at its range margin in Finland at two hierarchical scales using 15 microsatellite loci. At a regional scale, we compared variation within versus among three oak populations. At a landscape scale, we examined genetic structuring within one of these populations, growing on an islan…
Celery (Apium graveolens L.) performances as subjected to different sources of protein hydrolysates
2020
The vegetable production sector is currently fronting several issues mainly connected to the increasing demand of high quality food produced in accordance with sustainable horticultural technologies. The application of biostimulants, particularly protein hydrolysates (PHs), might be favorable to optimize water and mineral uptake and plant utilization and to increase both production performance and quality feature of vegetable crops. The present study was carried out on celery plants grown in a tunnel to appraise the influence of two PHs, a plant-derived PH (P-PH), obtained from soy extract and an animal PH (A-PH), derived from hydrolyzed animal epithelium (waste from bovine tanneries) on yi…
Use of sewage sludge compost and Trichoderma asperellum isolates to supress Fusarium wilt of tomato
2002
It has been reported that plant growth media amended with composted bark suppress Fusarium wilts whereas media amended with composted municipal sludge aggravate this disease. However, in this study, a compost prepared from vegetable and animal market wastes, sewage sludge and yard wastes showed a high ability to suppress Fusarium wilt of tomato caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici race 1. The ability of this compost to suppress Fusarium wilt of tomato was compared with that of a peat mix (peat:vermiculite, 1:1 v/v) and a naturally suppressive soil from Chateaurenard, France. The compost and the soil from Chateaurenard were highly suppressive, whereas the peat mix was highly condu…
Cause and duration of mustard incorporation effects on soil-borne plant pathogenic fungi
2009
International audience; Two fungal plant pathogens, Rhizoctonia solani AG 2-2 and Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. lini, were studied in relation to general responses of soil fungi and bacteria following incorporation of Brassica juncea. Our aim was to understand to what extent the changes in the biological and physicochemical characteristics of the soil could explain the effects on the studied pathogens and diseases, and to determine the temporal nature of the responses. Short-term effects of mustard incorporation (up to 4 months) were investigated in a microcosm experiment, and compared with a treatment where composted plant material was incorporated. In a field experiment, the responses were fol…
Shifts in the structure of rhizosphere bacterial communities of avocado after Fusarium dieback
2021
The rhizosphere microbiome is critical for plant growth and protection against plant pathogens. However, rhizosphere microbial communities are likely to be restructured upon plant infection by fungal pathogens. Our objective was to determine the shifts in rhizosphere bacterial communities of avocado trees (Persea americana Mill.) after Fusarium dieback (FD), a disease triggered by the symbiotic fungi of invasive ambrosia beetles (Euwallacea kuroshio and Euwallacea sp. nr. fornicatus), using 16S rDNA gene amplicon sequencing and a culture-dependent approach. Rhizosphere soil samples were collected from five asymptomatic and five FD-symptomatic avocado trees in a Californian orchard. Sequence…