Natural regeneration responses to thinning and burning treatments in ponderosa pine forests and implications for restoration

Understanding naturally occurring pine regeneration dynamics in response to thinning and burning treatments is necessary not only to measure the longevity of the restoration or fuels treatment,but also to assess how well regeneration meets forest sustainability guidelines and whether natural regeneration is sufficient for maintaining a sustainable forest structure and composition.A synthesis review was carried out on the effects of mechanical thinning and prescribed burn treatments on natural pine regeneration response in frequent-fire ponderosa pine forests across the western United States.The focus was on site-specific variability in pine regeneration dynamics,temporal trends in regeneration presence and abundance,and response to treatment as described in the current literature using 29 studies that met our evidence-based review protocols.Data showed that the effects of thinning and burning treatments on regeneration depended on time since treatment.Mechanical thinning,prescribed burning,and thinning plus burn treatments all increased seedling density,but there was high variability among sites and studies.There were mixed results in the short-term(<10 years)with both increasing and decreasing regeneration,and a general increase in regeneration 11−20 years post-treatment.Some long-term studies(>20 years)concluded that stands can return to pre-treatment densities in terms of total trees per hectare and forest floor duff levels when there are no maintenance treatments applied.Several studies showed the average ponderosa pine seedling presence,survival and growth found in today’s forests to be at a high density;this combined with missed fire cycles could contribute to future fire risk and reduce the efficacy of maintaining fuel reduction goals.

Palatability of Water-Soluble Extracts of Protein Sources and Replacement of Fishmeal by a Selected Mixture of Protein Sources for Juvenile Turbot(Scophthalmus maximus)

Poor palatability is a limiting factor for replacing fishmeal with other protein sources in aquaculture. The water-soluble molecules with low molecular weights are the major determinants of the palatability of diets. The present study was conducted to investigate the palatability of water-soluble extracts from single protein source(single extract pellets) and the mixture of these extracts with different proportions(blended extract pellets) in juvenile turbot(Scophthalmus maximus). Then according to the palatability of blended extract pellets, an optimal mixture proportion was selected, and a new protein source made from raw protein materials with the selected proportion was formulated to replace fishmeal. Summarily, the palatability of single extract pellets for turbot was descendent from fishmeal to pet-food grade poultry by-product meal, wheat gluten meal, soybean meal, peanut meal, meat and bone meal, and corn gluten meal. Subsequently, according to the palatability of single extract pellets, 52 kinds of blended extract pellets were designed to test their palatability. The results showed that the pellets presented remarkably different palatability, and the optimal one was diet 52(wheat gluten meal: pet-food grade poultry by-product meal: meat and bone meal: corn gluten meal = 1:6:1:2). The highest ingestion ratio(the number of pellets ingested/the number of pellets fed) was 0.73 ± 0.03, which was observed in Diet 52. Then five isonitrogenous(52% crude protein) and isocaloric(20 k J g^(-1) gross energy) diets were formulated by replacing 0(control), 35%, 50%, 65% and 80% of fishmeal with No.52 blending proportion. After a 10-weeks feeding trial, a consistent feed intake was found among all replacement treatments. Replacement level of fishmeal up to 35% did not significantly influence final body weight, specific growth rate, feed efficiency ratio, and protein efficiency ratio of turbot. Therefore, the water-soluble extracts of protein sources play an important role in improving the palatability of non-fishmeal protein sources in aquafeed.