Peer Reviewed Publications From Class Projects

From 2001 to 2008, I coordinated the publication of 13 peer‐reviewed manuscripts stemming from group projects in a graduate‐level Advanced Forest Ecology class. The intention of the group projects was to immerse the students in actual forest ecology research and increase their professional development by personally involving them in the publication process. The student publications appeared in 11 different journals (American Midland Naturalist, Castanea, Dendrochronologia, Forest Ecology and Management, Journal of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Education, Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society, Natural Areas Journal, Northeastern Naturalist, Southeastern Geographer, and Tree‐Ring Research) and each group project had a unique publication history that varied depending upon the skill levels of the students (M.S. vs. Ph.D. students), discipline of the students, and motivation level of the students. Throughout this period, we only had two class projects that were never published and one manuscript that remains in review

Frequency of sprout-origin trees in pre-European settlement forests of the Southern Appalachian Mountains

We hypothesized that tree form, recorded in historical public land surveys would provide a valuable proxy record of regeneration patterns during early-European settlement of North Americaâ s eastern deciduous forest. To test this hypothesis, we tallied stem form from witness trees used in land survey records in the southern Appalachian Mountains from 13 counties spanning four physiographic provinces: Piedmont, Blue Ridge, Ridge and Valley, and Cumberland Plateau. A total of 3% of witness trees used in the land surveys were of sprout origin. American basswood (Tilia americana L.) exhibited the highest proportion of sprout-origin trees at 12%. Other overstory species with a high proportion of sprout-origin trees were hickory (Carya sp.), red maple (Acer rubrum L.), and sycamore (Platanus occidentalis L.), all with 6% of stems being from sprout-origin. The Blue Ridge had significantly more sprout-origin trees compared to the other three physiographic provinces. Forests in the southern Appalachian Mountains during the pre-European settlement period had a suite of disturbances that controlled their growth and regeneration; however, most of these disturbances did not result in large-scale tree mortality and therefore, sprouts were not an important source of regeneration.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author

Lack Of Gender Bias In Citation Rates Of Publications By Dendrochronologists: What is Unique About This Discipline?

Most academic disciplines have a gender bias that exists in the recognition of research publications: women’s publications are cited at lower rates than men’s publications. In this paper, we examined whether a similar gender bias existed for publications by dendrochronologists. Tree-ring research is a fairly small field where males outnumber females, and therefore the sample size was limited to 20 female dendrochronologists and 20 male dendrochronologists. It was determined that native language (English or non-native English speaker), current employment (government or academic), and gender of the first-author do not significantly influence a paper’s probability of being cited. However, years since dissertation completion was a good predictor of a paper’s citation rate. We suggest that the high productivity of female dendrochronologists and a pattern of co-authoring with male colleagues bring the work of females to the attention of their male colleagues and thus eliminate the gender bias in citation of women’s work common to other disciplines.This item is part of the Tree-Ring Research (formerly Tree-Ring Bulletin) archive. For more information about this peer-reviewed scholarly journal, please email the Editor of Tree-Ring Research at [email protected]

Radial growth changes following hemlock woolly adelgid infestation of eastern hemlock

International audience• Context Hemlock woolly adelgid (Adelges tsugae) is an invasive insect that is defoliating and killing eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) in the USA. • Aims We quantified changes in tree-ring growth rates and wood anatomy for living trees infested with hemlock woolly adelgid across six sites from Massachusetts (42°41′N) to Georgia (34°53′N) to identify growth responses of eastern hemlock that had survived infestation. • Methods Annual ring widths from infested eastern hem-locks were cross-dated and measured. Growth rates before and after infestation were compared. Two infested trees from Virginia were cut, and thin sections were prepared to identify changes in cell properties. • Results At three sites, trees experienced a significant de-crease in radial growth after hemlock woolly adelgid arrival; however, the other three sites showed no change or increase in growth. Latewood produced after hemlock woolly adelgid infestation had significantly smaller cells with reduced cell wall thickness compared to latewood prior to infestation. • Conclusion At half the sites where hemlock woolly adelgid infested eastern hemlock trees were sampled, radial growth increased or remained unchanged. This unexpected response may be due to reduced competition due to mortality of other eastern hemlocks or physiological compensatory responses of increased photosynthetic rate and increased water use efficiency experienced by eastern hemlock infested with hem-lock woolly adelgid

Development of a White Oak Chronology Using Live Trees and a Post-Civil War Cabin in South-Central Virginia

A 280-year old white oak chronology was developed for south-central Virginia to verify the timber harvesting and construction dates of a cabin located on the Reynolds Homestead Research Center. A plaque on the cabin stated that the logs were harvested in 1814. However, the outer rings of the logs dated to 1875 and 1876. From the land-use history of the area, the cabin was most likely constructed to house tenant farmers after the Civil War. Most of the periods of below average growth identified in the 280-year chronology were related to drought events. Correlations between the radial growth of the white oak with temperature and precipitation data from a local weather station were examined. Precipitation had more influence on radial growth than temperature, and significant correlations (p = 0.05) existed between radial growth and precipitation from the previous September, the current April, and the current June.This item is part of the Tree-Ring Research (formerly Tree-Ring Bulletin) archive. It was digitized from a physical copy provided by the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at The University of Arizona. For more information about this peer-reviewed scholarly journal, please email the Editor of Tree-Ring Research at [email protected]