Burning of Traditional Biofuels and the Global Methane Budget

Understanding biomass burning is important for understanding atmospheric carbon budgets. The two main types of biomass burning are wildfires, and the burning of traditional biofuels. Both types of biomass burning produce methane, among other gases. Satellites in space help quantify area burned from wildfires. However, it is much more difficult to quantify the burning of traditional biofuels, such as animal waste, fuelwood, charcoal, crop material, and peat. Therefore, limited information is available regarding these process, and how they contribute to human caused climate change. Here, we have developed a global inventory of methane emissions from the burning of traditional biofuels over a 15 year time span. Using information from the UN Energy Statistics Database, a global upper estimate of annual methane emissions from this type of biomass burning was calculated for the years 2001-2015. The equation had three components: the final energy consumption of each of the considered sources, in each country, for each year; the relative smoldering or flaming of that material when burned; and the emission factor for methane gas specific to each material. Results show it is evident that on a global scale, methane emissions from the burning of traditional biofuels are increasing over this time span. In fact, the upper estimate calculated suggests a 17.5% increase in global methane emissions from 2001-2015 from this type of biomass burning. Charcoal production and consumption are leading these increases, specifically in tropical regions. By 2015, the estimate suggests 17.5 Tg of methane is being emitted from the burning of traditional biofuels. Thus, methane emissions from burning traditional biofuels are not negligible when evaluating the global methane budget. This information is crucial when assessing methane emissions from other sources such as microbial sources and fossil fuels

Visualization using R to Support Scientific Research and Data Analysis

As technology continues to develop, scientists are gathering data at an accelerated pace. Yet in order for this data to be useful, scientists need to be able to make sense of these large quantities of data, glean crucial information, and highlight essential details. Therefore, it has become increasingly important to explore different avenues for displaying data, in order to successfully extend this information to the broader community. The goal of this project was to experiment with and evaluate the visualization capabilities of R. More specifically, to determine how the Shiny package within R can be used to create interactive visuals to express complex results. Additionally, the Plotly package allowed for the creation of interactive graphs in which the user can isolate variables to view desired information. Finally, the Shiny Dashboard package was critical in the organization of a user-friendly platform containing data in various formats. All of this information can now be applied to other projects in order to efficiently and effectively communicate the results to sponsors, policy makers, the next generation of scientists, and the broader community

BAAD: a Biomass And Allometry Database for woody plants

Understanding how plants are constructed—i.e., how key size dimensions and the amount of mass invested in different tissues varies among individuals—is essential for modeling plant growth, carbon stocks, and energy fluxes in the terrestrial biosphere. Allocation patterns can differ through ontogeny, but also among coexisting species and among species adapted to different environments. While a variety of models dealing with biomass allocation exist, we lack a synthetic understanding of the underlying processes. This is partly due to the lack of suitable data sets for validating and parameterizing models. To that end, we present the Biomass And Allometry Database (BAAD) for woody plants. The BAAD contains 259 634 measurements collected in 176 different studies, from 21 084 individuals across 678 species. Most of these data come from existing publications. However, raw data were rarely made public at the time of publication. Thus, the BAAD contains data from different studies, transformed into standard units and variable names. The transformations were achieved using a common workflow for all raw data files. Other features that distinguish the BAAD are: (i) measurements were for individual plants rather than stand averages; (ii) individuals spanning a range of sizes were measured; (iii) plants from 0.01–100 m in height were included; and (iv) biomass was estimated directly, i.e., not indirectly via allometric equations (except in very large trees where biomass was estimated from detailed sub‐sampling). We included both wild and artificially grown plants. The data set contains the following size metrics: total leaf area; area of stem cross‐section including sapwood, heartwood, and bark; height of plant and crown base, crown area, and surface area; and the dry mass of leaf, stem, branches, sapwood, heartwood, bark, coarse roots, and fine root tissues. We also report other properties of individuals (age, leaf size, leaf mass per area, wood density, nitrogen content of leaves and wood), as well as information about the growing environment (location, light, experimental treatment, vegetation type) where available. It is our hope that making these data available will improve our ability to understand plant growth, ecosystem dynamics, and carbon cycling in the world\u27s vegetation

Does shade improve light interception efficiency? A comparison among seedlings from shade-tolerant and -intolerant temperate deciduous tree species

• Here, we tested two hypotheses: shading increases light interception efficiency (LIE) of broadleaved tree seedlings, and shade-tolerant species exhibit larger LIEs than do shade-intolerant ones. The impact of seedling size was taken into account to detect potential size-independent effects on LIE. LIE was defined as the ratio of mean light intercepted by leaves to light intercepted by a horizontal surface of equal area. • Seedlings from five species differing in shade tolerance (Acer saccharum, Betula alleghaniensis, A. pseudoplatanus, B. pendula, Fagus sylvatica) were grown under neutral shading nets providing 36, 16 and 4% of external irradiance. Seedlings (1- and 2-year-old) were three-dimensionally digitized, allowing calculation of LIE. • Shading induced dramatic reduction in total leaf area, which was lowest in shade-tolerant species in all irradiance regimes. Irradiance reduced LIE through increasing leaf overlap with increasing leaf area. There was very little evidence of significant size-independent plasticity of LIE. • No relationship was found between the known shade tolerance of species and LIE at equivalent size and irradiance

Light and tree size influence belowground development in yellow birch and sugar maple

The effects of light and tree size on the root architecture and mycorrhiza of yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis Britton) and sugar maple (Acer saccharum Marsh) growing in the understory of deciduous forests in southern Qu

Mountain maple and balsam fir early response to partial and clear-cut harvesting under aspen stands of northern Quebec

This study is a component of the Sylviculture et am

Overstory influences on light attenuation patterns and understory plant community diversity and composition in southern boreal forests of Quebec

We have characterized overstory light transmission, understory light levels, and plant communities in mixedwood boreal forests of northwestern Quebec with the objective of understanding how overstory light transmission interacts with composition and time since disturbance to influence the diversity and composition of understory vegetation, and, in turn, the further attenuation of light to the forest floor by the understory. Overstory light transmission differed among three forest types (aspen, mixed deciduous-conifer, and old cedar-dominated), with old forests having higher proportions of high light levels than aspen and mixed forests, which were characterized by intermediate light levels. The composition of the understory plant communities in old forests showed the weakest correlation to overstory light transmission, although those forests had the largest range of light transmission. The strongest correlation between characteristics of overstory light transmission and understory communities was found in aspen forests. Species diversity indices were consistently higher in aspen forests but showed weak relationships with overstory light transmission. Light attenuation by the understory vegetation and total height of the understory vegetation were strongly and positively related to overstory light transmission but not forest type. Therefore, light transmission through the overstory influenced the structure and function of understory plants more than their diversity and composition. This is likely due to the strong effect of the upper understory layers, which tend to homogenize light levels at the forest floor regardless of forest type. The understory plant community acts as a filter, thereby reducing light levels at the forest floor to uniformly low levels

Distribution Patterns of E-Cadherin, Type VII Collagen and Fibronectin in Denture-Related Stomatitis: A Preliminary Study

The distribution of epithelial E-cadherin, basement membrane type VII collagen, and underlying connective tissues fibronectin were investigated immunohistochemically and compared in normal palatal mucosa and in denture-related stomatitis (DRS) derivatives using monoclonal antibodies.Biopsies of palatal mucosa were obtained from twelve patients enrolled in this study, 8 with type II DRS and 4 with healthy mucosa