Examining site productivity and fertility when intercropping giant miscanthus and loblolly pine

Paper presented at the 12th North American Agroforesty Conference, which was held June 4-9, 2011 in Athens, Georgia.In Ashton, S. F., S.W. Workman, W.G. Hubbard and D.J. Moorhead, eds. Agroforestry: A Profitable Land Use. Proceedings, 12th North American Agroforestry Conference, Athens, GA, June 4-9, 2011.There is a growing interest in the production of dedicated biomass crops to be utilized as feedstock for bioenergy production. Perrennial grasses have been identified as attractive feedstock. Wide row spacing of loblolly pine plantations allows dedicated energy crops to be planted between tree rows through a practice known as intercropping. Utilizing between-row growing space for bioenergy feedstock production may maximize economic and biomass output from the land early in the rotation while still maintaining the long term production of traditional forest products.Ryan Heiderman (1), Jose Stape (1), Zakiya Leggett (2), Ron Gehl (3), and Eric Sucre (2) ; 1. Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC. 2. Weyerhaeuser Company (Southern Timberlands R&D), New Bern, NC. 3. Department of Soil Science, North Carolina State University, Mills River, NC.Includes bibliographical references

Spectro-photometric close pairs in GOODS-S: major and minor companions of intermediate-mass galaxies

(Abriged) Our goal here is to provide merger frequencies that encompass both major and minor mergers, derived from close pair statistics. We use B-band luminosity- and mass-limited samples from an Spitzer/IRAC-selected catalogue of GOODS-S. We present a new methodology for computing the number of close companions, Nc, when spectroscopic redshift information is partial. We select as close companions those galaxies separated by 6h^-1 kpc < rp < 21h^-1 kpc in the sky plane and with a difference Delta_v <= 500 km s^-1 in redshift space. We provide Nc for four different B-band-selected samples. Nc increases with luminosity, and its evolution with redshift is faster in more luminous samples. We provide Nc of M_star >= 10^10 M_Sun galaxies, finding that the number including minor companions (mass ratio >= 1/10) is roughly two times the number of major companions alone (mass ratio >= 1/3) in the range 0.2 <= z < 1.1. We compare the major merger rate derived by close pairs with the one computed by morphological criteria, finding that both approaches provide similar merger rates for field galaxies when the progenitor bias is taken into account. Finally, we estimate that the total (major+minor) merger rate is ~1.7 times the major merger rate. Only 30% to 50% of the M_star >= 10^10 M_Sun early-type (E/S0/Sa) galaxies that appear z=1 and z=0 may have undergone a major or a minor merger. Half of the red sequence growth since z=1 is therefore unrelated to mergers.Comment: Accepted in A&A. 14 pages, 6 figures, 8 tables. We have tested the method with a local, volume-limited spectroscopic sample

Species-Specific, Site-Sensitive Stand Carrying Capacity Models and Future Climate Forecasting for Pacific Northwest Conifer Forests

Maximum stand density index (SDIMAX) models were developed for important Pacific Northwest conifers of western Oregon and Washington, USA, based on site and species influences and interactions. Inventory and monitoring data from numerous federal, state and private forest management groups were obtained throughout the region to ensure a wide coverage of site characteristics. These observations include information on tree size, number and species composition. The effects and influence on the self-thinning frontier of plot-specific factors, such as climate, topography, soils and geology, as well as species composition, were evaluated based on geographic location using a multistep modelling approach. The influence of climatic variables was explored further in the context of potential future climate scenarios. Future climate projections based on global circulation models under different representative concentration pathways were utilized in a space-for-time substitution within an ensemble learning model to understand potential shifts, both magnitude and direction, in modelled SDIMAX. Further issues of model sensitivity to both spatial errors associated with input plot locations, as well as diameter cutoffs and calculations, were explored. The regional model of site-specific SDIMAX will support forest managers in decision making regarding density management and species selection to more efficiently utilize site resources toward healthy, productive forests.doctoral, Ph.D., Natural Resources -- University of Idaho - College of Graduate Studies, 2021-0