scholarly journals Exposure of Protected and Unprotected Forest to Plant Invasions in the Eastern United States

Forests ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 723 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kurt Riitters ◽  
Kevin Potter ◽  
Basil Iannone ◽  
Christopher Oswalt ◽  
Qinfeng Guo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Invasive Plants ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Scale Up ◽  
Sustainable Use ◽  
Plant Invasions ◽  
Forest Area ◽  
Forest Site ◽  
Eastern United States ◽  
Forest Protection

Research Highlights: We demonstrate a macroscale framework combining an invasibility model with forest inventory data, and evaluate regional forest exposure to harmful invasive plants under different types of forest protection. Background and Objectives: Protected areas are a fundamental component of natural resource conservation. The exposure of protected forests to invasive plants can impede achievement of conservation goals, and the effectiveness of protection for limiting forest invasions is uncertain. We conducted a macroscale assessment of the exposure of protected and unprotected forests to harmful invasive plants in the eastern United States. Materials and Methods: Invasibility (the probability that a forest site has been invaded) was estimated for 82,506 inventory plots from site and landscape attributes. The invaded forest area was estimated by using the inventory sample design to scale up plot invasibility estimates to all forest area. We compared the invasibility and the invaded forest area of seven categories of protection with that of de facto protected (publicly owned) forest and unprotected forest in 13 ecological provinces. Results: We estimate approximately 51% of the total forest area has been exposed to harmful invasive plants, including 30% of the protected forest, 38% of the de facto protected forest, and 56% of the unprotected forest. Based on cumulative invasibility, the relative exposure of protection categories depended on the assumed invasibility threshold. Based on the invaded forest area, the five least-exposed protection categories were wilderness area (13% invaded), national park (18%), sustainable use (26%), nature reserve (31%), and de facto protected Federal land (36%). Of the total uninvaded forest area, only 15% was protected and 14% had de facto protection. Conclusions: Any protection is better than none, and public ownership alone is as effective as some types of formal protection. Since most of the remaining uninvaded forest area is unprotected, landscape-level management strategies will provide the most opportunities to conserve it.

scholarly journals Rabies Surveillance Identifies Potential Risk Corridors and Enables Management Evaluation

Viruses ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 1006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy J. Davis ◽  
Kathleen M. Nelson ◽  
Jordona D. Kirby ◽  
Ryan Wallace ◽  
Xiaoyue Ma ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Potential Risk ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Habitat Type ◽  
The United States ◽  
Management Program ◽  
United States Department ◽  
Eastern United States ◽  
Management Actions ◽  
Health Surveillance Data

Intensive efforts are being made to eliminate the raccoon variant of rabies virus (RABV) from the eastern United States and Canada. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Wildlife Services National Rabies Management Program has implemented enhanced rabies surveillance (ERS) to improve case detection across the extent of the raccoon oral rabies vaccination (ORV) management area. We evaluated ERS and public health surveillance data from 2006 to 2017 in three northeastern USA states using a dynamic occupancy modeling approach. Our objectives were to examine potential risk corridors for RABV incursion from the U.S. into Canada, evaluate the effectiveness of ORV management strategies, and identify surveillance gaps. ORV management has resulted in a decrease in RABV cases over time within vaccination zones (from occupancy ( ψ ¯ ) of 0.60 standard error (SE) = 0.03 in the spring of 2006 to ψ ¯ of 0.33 SE = 0.10 in the spring 2017). RABV cases also reduced in the enzootic area (from ψ ¯ of 0.60 SE = 0.03 in the spring of 2006 to ψ ¯ of 0.45 SE = 0.05 in the spring 2017). Although RABV occurrence was related to habitat type, greater impacts were associated with ORV and trap–vaccinate–release (TVR) campaigns, in addition to seasonal and yearly trends. Reductions in RABV occupancy were more pronounced in areas treated with Ontario Rabies Vaccine Bait (ONRAB) compared to RABORAL V-RG®. Our approach tracked changes in RABV occurrence across space and time, identified risk corridors for potential incursions into Canada, and highlighted surveillance gaps, while evaluating the impacts of management actions. Using this approach, we are able to provide guidance for future RABV management.

scholarly journals Characteristics of Information Available on Fire and Invasive Plants in the Eastern United States

Fire Ecology ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 57-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corey L. Gucker ◽  
Kris Zouhar ◽  
Jane Kapler Smith ◽  
Katharine R. Stone
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Invasive Plants ◽  
Eastern United States

scholarly journals Landscape correlates of forest plant invasions: A high-resolution analysis across the eastern United States

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 274-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kurt Riitters ◽  
Kevin Potter ◽  
Basil V. Iannone ◽  
Christopher Oswalt ◽  
Songlin Fei ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
High Resolution ◽  
Plant Invasions ◽  
Eastern United States ◽  
High Resolution Analysis ◽  
Resolution Analysis

scholarly journals Multilocus PCR Assays Elucidate Vegetative Incompatibility Gene Profiles of Cryphonectria parasitica in the United States

2015 ◽  
Vol 81 (17) ◽  
pp. 5736-5742 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dylan P. G. Short ◽  
Mark Double ◽  
Donald L. Nuss ◽  
Cameron M. Stauder ◽  
William MacDonald ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Virus Transmission ◽  
The United States ◽  
Cryphonectria Parasitica ◽  
Chestnut Blight ◽  
Eastern United States ◽  
Vegetative Incompatibility ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Primer Sets

ABSTRACTChestnut blight is a devastating disease ofCastaneaspp. Mycoviruses that reduce virulence (hypovirulence) of the causative agent,Cryphonectria parasitica, can be used to manage chestnut blight. However, vegetative incompatibility (vic) barriers that restrict anastomosis-mediated virus transmission hamper hypovirulence efficacy. In order to effectively determine the vegetative incompatibility genetic structure ofC. parasiticafield populations, we have designed PCR primer sets that selectively amplify and distinguish alleles for each of the six known diallelicC. parasiticavicgenetic loci. PCR assay results were validated using a panel of 64 European tester strains with genetically determinedvicgenotypes. Analysis of 116C. parasiticaisolates collected from five locations in the eastern United States revealed 39 uniquevicgenotypes and generally good agreement between PCR and tester strain coculturing assays in terms ofvicdiversity and genotyping. However, incongruences were observed for isolates from multiple locations and suggested that the coculturing assay can overestimate diversity at the six knownvicloci. The availability of molecular tools for rapid and precisevicgenotyping significantly improves the ability to predict and evaluate the efficacy of hypovirulence and related management strategies.

Mowing Any Time after Midsummer Can Manage Japanese Stiltgrass

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela L. Shelton
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Seed Production ◽  
Invasive Plants ◽  
Control Method ◽  
The Other ◽  
Effective Control ◽  
Eastern United States ◽  
Management Guidelines ◽  
Japanese Stiltgrass ◽  
Number Of Stems

AbstractJapanese stiltgrass is one of the most aggressive, rapidly spreading invasive plants in the eastern United States. Management guidelines state that mowing can help manage Japanese stiltgrass but that mowing is most effective when done late in the season after the plants begin to flower and before they set seed. In this study, I tested the effectiveness of mowing at three different times between mid-June and early September in 2009 and 2010, as well as mowing twice in 1 yr and for two consecutive years. The effectiveness of mowing Japanese stiltgrass was determined by measuring percentage of cover, biomass, seed production, and the number of stems in the summer following mowing. All mowing treatments significantly reduced percentage of cover, biomass, seed production, and the number of Japanese stiltgrass stems the following year. In 2009, all of the mowing treatments significantly reduced biomass, percentage of cover, and seed production. The latest mow, at the end of August, resulted in a slightly greater reduction of cleistogamous seeds. In 2010, the earliest mowing treatment, in mid-June, did not reduce cover and biomass as much as the other mowing treatments. Overall, these results suggest that mowing can be an effective control method for Japanese stiltgrass and that mowing any time after June should be effectively equivalent, although later mowing may provide some marginal advantage.

scholarly journals Climate change projected to reduce prescribed burning opportunities in the south-eastern United States

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (9) ◽  
pp. 764
Author(s):  
John A. Kupfer ◽  
Adam J. Terando ◽  
Peng Gao ◽  
Casey Teske ◽  
J. Kevin Hiers
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Prescribed Burning ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Greenhouse Gas Emission ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Global Climate Models ◽  
Eastern United States ◽  
The South ◽  
South Eastern

Prescribed burning is a critical tool for managing wildfire risks and meeting ecological objectives, but its safe and effective application requires that specific meteorological criteria (a ‘burn window’) are met. Here, we evaluate the potential impacts of projected climatic change on prescribed burning in the south-eastern United States by applying a set of burn window criteria that capture temperature, relative humidity and wind speed to projections from an ensemble of Global Climate Models under two greenhouse gas emission scenarios. Regionally, the percentage of suitable days for burning changes little during winter but decreases substantially in summer owing to rising temperatures by the end of the 21st century compared with historical conditions. Management implications of such changes for six representative land management units include seasonal shifts in burning opportunities from summer to cool-season months, but with considerable regional variation. We contend that the practical constraints of rising temperatures on prescribed fire activities represent a significant future challenge and show that even meeting basic burn criteria (as defined today) will become increasingly difficult over time, which speaks to the need for adaptive management strategies to prepare for such changes.

Science, Politics, and the Pandemic

2020 ◽  
Vol 119 (820) ◽  
pp. 303-309
Author(s):  
J. Nicholas Ziegler
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Biomedical Research ◽  
Scale Up ◽  
Political Leadership ◽  
The United States ◽  
Scientific Advice ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Effective Policy ◽  
Scientific Expertise ◽  
The Uk

Comparing the virus responses in Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States shows that in order for scientific expertise to result in effective policy, rational political leadership is required. Each of these three countries is known for advanced biomedical research, yet their experiences in the COVID-19 pandemic diverged widely. Germany’s political leadership carefully followed scientific advice and organized public–private partnerships to scale up testing, resulting in relatively low infection levels. The UK and US political responses were far more erratic and less informed by scientific advice—and proved much less effective.

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