editorial selectedpapersfromnafew2009downloads.hindawi.com/journals/ijfr/2010/423509.pdfterry l....

Hindawi Publishing CorporationInternational Journal of Forestry ResearchVolume 2010, Article ID 423509, 2 pagesdoi:10.1155/2010/423509

Editorial

Selected Papers from NAFEW 2009

Terry L. Sharik1 and J. P. Hamish Kimmins2

1 Department of Wildland Resources, College of Natural Resources, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84322, USA2 Department of Forest Science, Faculty of Forestry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z4

Correspondence should be addressed to Terry L. Sharik, [email protected]

Received 18 February 2010; Accepted 18 February 2010

Copyright © 2010 T. L. Sharik and J. P. Hamish Kimmins. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative CommonsAttribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work isproperly cited.

Our understanding of the ecology and management of NorthAmerican forests is rapidly evolving as a result of novelapproaches to their study, many of which are the resultsof emerging technologies. The biennial North AmericanForest Ecology Workshop series attempts to capture theseapproaches and highlight the ways in which they expand ourunderstanding of forest systems. The ten papers appearingin this issue were drawn from the 7th and most recentworkshop, held in June 2009, in which there were over 150presentations.

The first paper in this special issue attempts to providean overview of emerging themes in the ecology and manage-ment of North American Forests based on all presentationsand follow-up discussions at the workshop and concludeswith future research needs. The second paper describes thecarbon flux of down woody materials in forests of theNorthcentral U.S. using recent data from the USDA ForestService’s Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Program andexemplifies the utility of a network of permanent plots formonitoring change over large spatial scales and long timeperiods. The study described in the third paper is a nicesequel to the second in that it uses FIA data to demonstratechanges in the population levels of an understory treein eastern North America threatened by an introducedpathogen, among other causes. The authors point out thatsuch data can be used to validate the findings of multiplesmall-scale studies and to generate hypotheses for testing atsmaller scales, thereby reinforcing a workshop-wide call forthe study of forest ecosystems at multiple scales.

The fourth paper describes a rapid assessment methodfor extending the use of Reineke’s stand density index (SDI),originally developed for even-aged, monotypic stands, to

mixed species stands in the Northeastern U.S, utilizing pointsampling in combination with wood specific gravity toharmonize the density of individual species. The fifth paperapplies SDI in combination with tree diameter distributionsto characterize complex forest stands in the Florida Keys,which in turn are used as reference sites or standards forrestoring forest structure in Everglades tree islands. The sixthpaper describes the application of a fairly recently devisedenvironmental variable, Landform Index, in predicting thesite index of mesophytic tree species in the SouthernAppalachians, in turn reflecting the quality of these sitesrelative to the production of tree biomass.

The seventh through ninth papers address some dimen-sion of fire as a disturbance agent in North Americanforests. The first of these and the seventh paper in thespecial issue is said to represent the first attempt to developa comprehensive model for predicting fire-induced slashpine mortality in pine forests of the Florida Keys, whichin turn may provide insights into the management of thesesites through the use of prescribed fire. The situation iscomplicated by storm surges and associated increases insubstrate salinity, which differ in their effect on the structureof slash pine-dominated forests compared to fire, and maybe increasingly important with climate-change-mediatedincreases in the frequency and intensity of tropical stormsand in sea level rise. The eighth paper examines the effectsof soil temperature during fire on the survival of seeds ofherbaceous perennials and woody shrubs in Florida sandpine ecosystems and suggests that small-scale variation insoil surface temperatures is important in the regenerationof these species. The ninth paper reports on the results oflaboratory studies aimed at determining the physiological

2 International Journal of Forestry Research

effects of short-duration smoke exposure on six species ofhardwoods and conifers native to the Intermountain West,a phenomenon that has been little studied in the past.Inconclusive with respect to effects on growth or secondarydefense compound production in these species, it points tothe need for research on the effects of longer-term exposureto smoke.

The tenth and final study examines the potential effectsof global increases in the intensity and complexity of radiofrequency background on forest decline, using tremblingaspen seedlings as a model. Preliminary in nature, theresults point to the need for more robust studies of apotentially significant anthropogenically induced impact onforest ecosystems.

Terry L. SharikJ. P. Hamish Kimmins

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