Long-term Influence of Commercial Thinning on Spruce-Fir Forests

This study investigates long-term influences of pre-commercial thinning (PCT) and commercial thinning (CT) treatments in spruce-fir forests, a key forest type in northeastern North America. Utilizing repeated measurements from replicated experimental research sites (n=15) in Maine, both stand- and tree-level responses to contrasting CT with and without prior PCT (NoPCT) have been quantified. In addition, an in-depth economic analysis, exploring the impact of different thinning treatments, associated costs, merchantability specifications, varying timber and carbon prices, and discount rates, on net present value (NPV) has been carried out using both measured and projected data. Thinning treatments at nine PCT sites combined various CT entry timings (immediate, 5-, and 10-year delay) and removal intensities (0, 33, and 50%), while the six NoPCT sites tested various thinning methods (low, crown, and dominant) and intensities. Stand-level analysis revealed the most effective CT to be immediate (i.e., no delay) in PCT stands, and low thinning in NoPCT stands, enhancing tree response, sawlog volume, and stand value. Tree-level analysis showed significant growth increases in basal area, merchantable volume, and aboveground carbon in thinned NoPCT stands for balsam fir (BF), while red spruce (RS) showed more moderate increases. Similarly, thinned PCT stands resulted in growth increases for both BF and RS. In addition, CTs were effective in reducing height-diameter ratio which is expected to enhance tree stability, while also preserving live crown ratio, and increasing growth efficiency. Economic analysis highlighted the strong influence on NPV of discount rates and price paid for sawlogs, studwood and carbon offsets. For example, a stand with no PCT history, a 40-50% CT generated the highest peak NPV at 2% discount rate without carbon offsets, while the NPV was maximized by doing no thinning when an offset revenue of $25 (MT CO2e)-1 was included. In PCT stands, earlier CT exhibited higher NPV than delayed CT. Driven by different tree- and stand-level responses to PCT and/or CT, decision-making should consider multiple factors due to complex interactions among costs, prices, interest rates, and market conditions. This comprehensive analysis supports decision-making by revealing how different thinning treatments affect growth, yield, and economics in spruce-fir forests

Proceedings of the 27th Southern Forest Tree Improvement Conference

Papers and abstracts from the 27th Southern Forest Tree Improvement Conference held at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma on June 24-27, 2003

Stable isotope dendroclimatology at Forfjorddalen in northwestern Norway.

Climate change has become a key issue for the 21st century and producing future climatic scenarios has become a priority. However, to model future climate scenarios successfully and to understand their implications it is important to have a clear picture of past climate. Stable isotopes from tree rings may have the potential to reconstruct past climate at all temporal frequencies. This thesis presents a reconstruction of temperature (AD 1394- 2001) and precipitation (AD 1765-2001) from Forfjorddalen in northwest Norway based on and delta13C and delta18O, respectively. Tree cores were dated and the annual growth rings cut and extracted to alpha-cellulose, measurements of delta13C and delta18O and were then made. Corrected delta13C[pin] was calibrated with temperature (r = 0.71) and delta18O with precipitation (r = 0.57). A conceptual model of the relationship between delta13C and delta18O and temperature and precipitation is presented to explain a period of non-linearity in the relationship between delta13C and temperature. The delta13C temperature reconstruction suggests periods with warmer summer temperatures than the late twentieth century during the mid 18th and early 17th centuries; the coldest periods occur in the early 15th and late 19th centuries. This reconstruction compares favorably with long Scandinavian temperature records form Tornedalen (AD 1802) and Uppsala (AD 1722) and a recent tree-ring density based reconstruction from Tornetrask. It also exhibits much greater multi-decadal variability than the previous, ring-width based, Forfjorddalen temperature reconstruction. A precipitation reconstruction (AD 1765 to 2001) shows wet conditions during the late 18th and early 19th centuries followed by a dry period in the late 19th century, becoming wetter again through the 20th century. Spatial field correlations demonstrate the potential for proxy data from Forfjorddalen to reconstruct climate on a regional scale; combination with data from Tornetrask yields correlations > r=0.70 with much of northwestern Scandinavian temperature

A Geography of Resistance

Despite it's apparent nostalgia for the village ideal, America's literary modernism largely dispels the romantic antagonism between small-town community and mass society. Drawing from the theories of Jean-Luc Nancy, I advance the notion that community was produced by capitalist society, not destroyed by it. Modulating between a regional and local focus, my readings of American modernists (such as Gertrude Stein, Marianne Moore, William Faulkner, Willa Cather, Sherwood Anderson, Jean Toomer and Hart Crane) elucidate the ways in which writers contradicted their explicit bemoaning of lost community by acknowledging loss as consonant with community as such. Focusing on how emergent technologies in communication and transportation repositioned writers in relation to themselves and each other, I coin the term "mass geography" in order to describe the social flux that enthused hinterlands and small-towns after the war, thereby disrupting the notion that American community is sustained by shared identity, ontological integrity or physical rootedness

Probing herb induced liver injury (HILI) using population data and computational phyto-analysis

Despite the ‘natural’ origin of herbal medicines, they can cause adverse effects such as hepatotoxicity, which has led to regulatory action including market withdrawal. This study aimed to explore herb-hepatotoxicity associations and to identify a common pharmacophore among the phytoconstituents of implicated herbs. Data from the United States adverse event reporting system (AERS) (2004-2011) were analysed retrospectively for herb-hepatotoxicity associations using disproportionality analysis. Chemical constituents in identified hepatotoxic herbs were examined for a common pharmacophore and validated against a set of known hepatotoxic and non-hepatotoxic compounds. Significant herb-liver injury associations (p<0.05) were found for 15 herbs including kava, valerian and black cohosh. Analysis of specific adverse reaction groupings revealed new information: HILI with immune features was significantly associated with seven herbs including kava, evening primrose and valerian. Pharmacophore analysis revealed a 3-point hypothesis with 1 hydrogen bond acceptor, 1 hydrogen bond donor and 1 hydrophobic group that gained a high survival score, high selectivity and high specificity relative to other hypotheses. This hypothesis may be a clue to a common toxicity pathway shared by these herbs. Further research is required to investigate whether a causal relationship exists between the implicated herbs and liver injury and to identify the toxicity mechanisms

Pictorial space in relationship to beliefs and cognitive structures : the Ixion room, the Bardi chapel, the Nymphéas

Ma recherche consiste à examiner l'espace pictural de trois œuvres provenant de trois périodes distinctes de l'histoire de l'art afin de démontrer que l'art participe, d'une part, d'un modèle culturel spécifique et, d'autre part, de données perceptivo-spatiales universellement partagées qui relient entre eux des individus soumis à des expériences historiquement très distinctes. Le corpus se compose de la salle dédiée à Ixion datant de la fin de l'empire romain, vers le premier siècle après Jésus-Christ; des fresques de Giotto exécutées pour la chapelle Bardi au début du XIVe siècle, donc à la fin du Moyen-Âge et au début de la Renaissance; et des Nymphéas de Monet, œuvre commencée à la fin du XIXe et terminée au début du XXe siècle. La méthodologie utilisée dans la présente thèse pourrait être qualifiée d'analyse multiple niveau des éléments suivants de la perception : 1) les catégories de croyances de premier ordre, ou croyances primaires, qui sont sous-jacentes à toutes les autres croyances et jouent un rôle important dans la production de toutes les œuvres d'art. Les croyances primaires comprennent les croyances physiologiques et perceptuelles, et la sous-catégorie des croyances multi-sensorielles; 2) les catégories de croyances de second ordre ou croyances conceptuelles; les croyances philosophiques, spirituelles et religieuses, les croyances scientifiques (relativement au système optique), les croyances mathématiques et les croyances médicales (relativement au corps humain) sont des croyances conceptuelles. Les croyances conceptuelles peuvent englober un domaine de la connaissance, ce qui est le cas pour les cinq croyances qui servent ici d'arrière-plan à l'analyse des trois œuvres d'art choisies. J'avance que la production et la réception des œuvres d'art, et dans ce cas particulier de l'espace pictural, supposent non seulement un rapport multi-sensoriel, mais qu'elles sont également liées à l'acquisition de croyances qui influent sur la formation et la réception des représentations de l'espace pictural qui s'opèrent conjointement avec la navigation du corps humain dans l'espace du réel. Les représentations étudiées ici ont été intentionnellement choisies parce qu'elles étreignent de façon manifeste la structure architecturale qui les soutient, et à cause de leur intégration dans cette structure de soutien aux fins d'étendre la dimension spatiale et les processus par lesquels nous nous situons dans cette dimension. La présente thèse vise à démontrer que perception et conception sont, dans un sens, le miroir l'une de l'autre, un miroir qui existe chez l'artiste et chez le spectateur. C'est la base même de leur cohérence, ou commensurabilité, et le moyen par lequel la signification que nous pouvons attribuer à une œuvre donnée réussit à nous convaincre de son autorité. J'ai cherché à démontrer que la représentation de l'espace pictural n'est pas une simple affaire de conventions, ni une histoire quelconque de progrès, et certainement pas une question de style. Elle repose en fait sur les croyances, ces fragiles mais tenaces éléments qui s'associent à l'occasion à ce que nous considérons comme un savoir convaincant. L'artiste et le spectateur fusionnent sur l'axe de la croyance, et un acte de persuasion devient un acte d'interprétation.\ud ______________________________________________________________________________ \ud MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : histoire de l'art, peinture, espace pictural, perception, conception, croyances

Acorns in human subsistence

The aim of the thesis is to examine the use of acorns in human subsistence and to relate this to the interpretation of acorn remains from archaeological sites. The worldwide archaeological record of acorn finds is first reviewed, and archaeologists' interpretations of past uses of acorns are discussed. The ethnographic record of acorn use is next examined, with emphasis on similarity and variability within and between regions. Particular attention is paid to food-processing and detoxification techniques. An examination of the biological and ecological characteristics of acorns and oak trees follows, with emphasis on those factors which make them a useful resource, and, conversely, those factors which might bias against their use. Factors affecting the availability of acorns, and their nutritional qualities are considered. Interpretations which have been made in the archaeological literature about acorn use are then re-examined in the light of the available archaeological, ethnographic, and biological data. Problems with the nature of the available data, and their use, are discussed, and the potential for a more critical approach to the use and interpretation of such sources of data is examined. Consideration is given to the extent to which taphonomic factors, relating to either cultural or natural processes, may influence the representation and interpretation of acorns in archaeological sites. Finally, the implications that the study of one potentially important wild plant-food resource may have for general models of past human subsistence are discussed