NC State
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A national-scale study of U.S. forests found strong relationships between the diversity of native tree species and the number of nonnative pests that pose economic and ecological threats to the nation’s forests. “Every few years we get a new exotic insect or disease that comes in and is able to do a number on…
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Conservation goals range anywhere from aesthetics to survival. Among the most important of those is ensuring that an ecosystem is resilient to disturbances and provides as many different functions as possible. According to an assessment by a USDA Forest Service cooperating researcher, those qualities can be quantified using two metrics: rarity and evolutionary…
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Forests are constantly changing with weather, disturbance, and conversion to other land uses, but how do we know if year-to-year changes are just a one-off or part of a larger shift? Annual summaries of forest health are key to our understanding, say the editors and authors that produced Forest Health Monitoring: National Status, Trends, and…
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Each year, a special issue of Discover magazine highlights the top 100 science stories of the previous year. Ranked number 59 on the most recent list is a story based on research coauthored by Kevin Potter, a North Carolina State University scientist cooperating with the Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center. Potter and colleagues from…
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Below the surface of the forest floor, tiny fungi in the soil are feeding on sugars in tree roots while also providing an important ecosystem service: helping trees absorb soil nutrients necessary for growth and survival. Researchers have found that certain types of these mycorrhizal fungi, as they are known, may also determine the…
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Hemlocks are under attack. U.S. Forest Service scientists and their partners are working to save the native conifers from the hemlock wooly adelgid (HWA), an invasive insect from Japan. Carolina hemlock (Tsuga caroliniana) trees can survive HWA infestation for a decade or more but often die within four years. Carolina hemlocks grow in tiny, isolated…
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Where can you go to find an eastern hemlock tree? Although threatened by the hemlock woolly adelgid, eastern hemlock has an extensive range. Hemlock’s range encompasses great variability in the environment and genetic variability in the species. Hemlock often grows in cool, humid areas. In the southern Appalachians, the graceful conifer often grows at the…
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Insects, diseases, droughts, and fire threaten forests. Each year, the U.S. Forest Service assesses threats facing the nation’s forests. Forest managers, scientists, and decision-makers rely on the annual reports. The Southern Research Station of the U.S. Forest Service recently published the 2016 Forest Health Monitoring report. The report is the 16th in the annual series,…
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After analyzing extensive data collected on 86 tree species in the eastern U.S., researchers found that most trees have been shifting their ranges westward or northward in response to temperature and precipitation changes. Scientists from Purdue University, North Carolina State University, and the U.S. Forest Service collaborated on the study, which was recently published in…
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What do water locust, Texas walnut, chalk maple, pyramid magnolia, two-wing silver bell, and butterbough all have in common? They’re among the U.S. tree species most vulnerable to climate change, according to a study by North Carolina State University (NCSU) and the U.S. Forest Service. The Forest Service Forest Health Protection program sponsored the…
Kevin Potter Ecology 