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Trees have evolved to time flowering to maximize outcrossing, minimize exposure to damaging frosts, and synchronize development with soil moisture and nutrient availability. Understanding the environmental cues that influence the timing of reproductive budburst will be important for predicting how flowering phenology of trees will change with a changing climate, and aid in the time-sensitive management of seed orchards. We examined how temperature influenced the timing of female flowering of coastal Douglas-fir with over 4500 flowering observations of trees from 12 sites across western Oregon and Washington. We predicted flowering dates by modifying chilling and forcing effectiveness functions from a model of vegetative budburst of Douglas-fir. We also examined whether genetic variation in Douglas-fir influenced the relationships between chilling and forcing accumulations using flowering observations from two common-garden experiments with trees from 60 populations from a diverse range of climates. Our reproductive budburst model predicted the day of flowering within an average of five days of the observed flowering dates across all sites and years. Fewer hours of forcing temperatures were required for flowering on sites that had experienced high chilling. Warmer temperatures in the future will likely result in earlier flowering on sites which currently have high chilling; however, sites which currently experience low chilling may display no change or possibly even a delay in flowering. Douglas-fir genotypes from different geographic regions flowered in the same order from year to year in common gardens, indicating that both temperature and genetic variation influence flowering. Genetic variation in flowering dates was more strongly related to summer drought of seed source locations than to cold winters. Knowledge of the environmental cues and genetic variation in timing of flowering can help predict how future changes in temperature under various climate models could change flowering time across the range of coastal Douglas-fir. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding tree mortality after fires can be used to improve planning of prescribed burning and post-burning salvage logging. This study aims to assess the effects of burning season, fire severity and tree size on the evolution of post-burning mortality of pine species with different fire resistance traits. In 2013, two paired plots (1 ha each) were burned, one in spring and the other in fall, in two mixed-stands of P. sylvestris and P. nigra, and the fire severity and tree size variables were measured. Mortality was assessed individually in a total of 933 pines during the following 3 years post-burning. We modeled the initial (1 year post-burning) and delayed (3 years post-burning) tree mortality using Firth logistic regression and Conditional Inference trees. The probability of dying after burning was lower in P. nigra than in P. sylvestris confirming that P. nigra has higher fire-resistance compared to the moderate fire-resistance of P. sylvestris . Initial mortality was slightly higher for pines burned in spring than for those burned in fall; however, after 3 years the proportion of pines that had died after the fall burns was higher than that after the spring burns. Nevertheless, for the two periods modeled, the likelihood of a pine dying was significantly higher in spring than in fall given a certain level of crown scorch. This suggests that pines with damaged crowns were more likely to die when burning occurred during periods of active growth. However, the higher fire severities at the base of the trees that occurred during the fall burns compared to the spring burns are probably the cause of the higher rates of delayed tree mortality. Higher likelihood of mortality in trees burned in fall, with higher percentages of white ashes in the stem base suggest basal stem girdling as a cause of delayed pine mortality. We can conclude that crown damage is more detrimental when burning occurs during the growth season, while longer combustion times during fall burns may have caused the higher delayed pine mortality in comparison with spring burns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Spring tree phenology was delayed in stream gorges relative to uplands. • Invertebrate biomass was equally distributed between uplands and stream gorges. • Invertebrate biomass did not exhibit a strong seasonal peak timed to tree leaf-out. • Songbird density was equally distributed between uplands and stream gorges. • Avian species richness was highest in stream gorge habitat. Climate change is altering patterns of resource availability and this may have negative effects on insectivorous forest birds in the US upper Midwest. As invertebrate life cycle phenology shifts due to earlier spring leaf-out, nesting birds are vulnerable to phenological mismatches between food supply and demand. Areas with complex topography, and thus a variety of thermal and humidity conditions, may support a greater variety of plant and invertebrate phenological rates and stages within close proximity than are found in areas with simple topography. However, the extent and magnitude of this phenomenon is unclear, as is the degree to which topographic position may influence the ability of species to persist during extreme conditions. We examined the effects of topographic position on the phenology of a tri-trophic forest system over two years from spring through mid-summer. We hypothesized that in cool microsites the likelihood of trophic mismatches and late season food shortages is lower than in warm microsites. At 70 sites in the Baraboo Hills, part of the Driftless Area of the US Midwest, we recorded leaf-out timing of over 700 deciduous trees, measured weekly changes in invertebrate biomass on understory foliage, and conducted bird point counts to assess avian species richness and density. In stream gorges, cooler temperatures were associated with slight but significant delays in leaf-out timing of canopy and understory deciduous trees relative to upland sites. At all sites, invertebrate biomass was distributed relatively evenly across the study period, in contrast to other temperate zone sites where phenological mismatches have been reported between birds and their invertebrate prey. Invertebrate biomass was similar in stream gorges and uplands in both study years. Insectivorous bird species richness was greater in stream gorges than in the surrounding upland forest during both seasons and was positively related to Lepidoptera larvae biomass in the understory. Among eight abundant insectivorous bird species, density was similar in uplands and stream gorges, among four species density was higher in uplands, and density of two species was higher in stream gorges. These results suggest that insectivorous birds within this study area are unlikely to experience trophic mismatches, and that despite having cooler microclimates and higher avian species richness, stream gorges did not provide more invertebrate food resources than uplands under the climate conditions of the years in which we sampled this tri-trophic system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]