Correction to: Restrictions on natural regeneration of storm‑felled spruce sites by silver birch (Betula pendula Roth) through limitations in fructification and seed dispersal

European Journal of Forest Research - The article “Restrictions on natural regeneration of storm-felled spruce sites by silver birch (Betula pendula Roth) through limitations in...     

A Large‐scale,Rapid Public Health Response to Rabies in an Organ Recipient and the Previously Undiagnosed Organ Donor

This article describes and contrasts the public health response to two human rabies cases: one organ recipient diagnosed within days of symptom onset and the transplant donor who was diagnosed 18 months post‐symptom onset. In response to an organ‐transplant‐related rabies case diagnosed in 2013, organ donor and recipient investigations were conducted by multiple public health agencies. Persons with potential exposure to infectious patient materials were assessed for rabies virus exposure. An exposure investigation was conducted to determine the source of the organ donor's infection. Over 100 persons from more than 20 agencies spent over 2700 h conducting contact investigations in healthcare, military and community settings. The 564 persons assessed include 417 healthcare workers [5.8% recommended for post‐exposure prophylaxis (PEP)], 96 community contacts (15.6% recommended for PEP), 30 autopsy personnel (50% recommended for PEP), and 21 other persons (4.8% recommended for PEP). Donor contacts represented 188 assessed with 20.2% recommended for PEP, compared with 5.6% of 306 recipient contacts recommended for PEP. Human rabies cases result in substantial use of public health and medical resources, especially when diagnosis is delayed. Although rare, clinicians should consider rabies in cases of encephalitis of unexplained aetiology, particularly for cases that may result in organ donation.     

Towards assessing the sustainability of European logging operations

The forest-based sector has been at the forefront in operationally implementing the sustainability concept, its associated principles and indicators for sustainable forest management. Several methods have been developed to study environmental impacts of forestry activities, but none of the existing tools address all the dimensions of sustainability along the whole forest wood chain (FWC) in a balanced way. Consequently, the decision was made to develop a tool for sustainability impact assessment (ToSIA), the modelling framework for sustainability impact assessment of FWCs. The objective of the EU Project Eforwood was to develop ToSIA, a decision support tool. Within ToSIA, a FWC is modelled as a number of interconnected processes. For each process, a range of economic, environmental and social indicators and their respective values are calculated, thus representing the three pillars of sustainability. By this method, the multifunctionality of forests can be assessed and supply chains can be compared with respect to sustainability. Sensitivity analysis and scenario techniques can be applied to learn about the effect of expected changes to the structure of the chain, the material flows and the indicator values. In order to provide the tool with information about forest and logging operations, data were collected at two fundamental levels: (1) a regional level with case studies in Scandinavia, Iberia and Baden-Württemberg and (2) a European level with a case study that reflects conditions in the 27 countries of the European Union. This paper describes and details the harvesting and logging processes for the European countries. The results are displayed for each of the three regional case studies as well as aggregated to five principal areas in Europe: Eastern, Northern, Western, Central and Southwest Europe.     

Influence of fumigation with high concentrations of ozone gas on postharvest gray mold and fungicide residues on table grapes

To control postharvest decay, table grapes are commercially fumigated with sulfur dioxide. We evaluated ozone (O₃) fumigation with up to 10,000 μL L^?1 of ozone for up to 2 h to control postharvest gray mold of table grapes caused by Botrytis cinerea. Fumigation for 1 h with 2500 or 5000 μL L^?1 of ozone were equal in effectiveness. Both treatments reduced postharvest gray mold among inoculated ‘Thompson Seedless’ grapes by approximately 50% when the grapes were examined after storage for 7 d at 15 °C following fumigation. In a similar experiment, ‘Redglobe’ grapes were stored for 28 d at 0.5 °C following fumigation for 1 h with 2500 or 5000 μL L^?1 of ozone. Both treatments were equal in effectiveness, but inferior to fumigation with 10,000 μL L^?1. Ozone was effective when grapes were inoculated and incubated at 15 °C up to 24 h before fumigation. The cluster rachis sustained minor injuries in some tests, but berries were never harmed. Ozone was applied in three combinations of time and ozone concentration (10,000 μL L^?1 for 30 min, 5000 μL L^?1 for 1 h, and 2500 μL L^?1 for 2 h) where each had a constant concentration × time product (c × t) of 5000 μL L^?1 × h. The effectiveness of each combination was similar. The incidence of gray mold was reduced by approximately 50% among naturally inoculated, organically grown ‘Autumn Seedless’ and ‘Black Seedless’ table grapes, and by 65% among ‘Redglobe’ table grapes, when they were fumigated with 5000 μL L^?1 ozone for 60 min in a commercial ozone chamber and stored for 6 weeks at 0.5 °C. Residues of fenhexamid, cyprodinil, pyrimethanil, and pyraclostrobin were reduced by 68.5, 75.4, 83.7, and 100.0%, respectively, after a single fumigation of table grapes with 10,000 μL L^?1 ozone for 1 h. Residues of iprodione and boscalid were not significantly reduced. Ozone is unlikely to replace sulfur dioxide treatments in conventional grape production unless its efficacy is improved, but it could be an acceptable technology to use with grapes marketed under “organic” classification, where the use of SO₂ is prohibited, or if SO₂ use were to be discontinued.     

Integration of continuous biofumigation with Muscodor albus with pre-cooling fumigation with ozone or sulfur dioxide to control postharvest gray mold of table grapes

An integrated approach was evaluated that combined biological and chemical fumigation of table grapes to control postharvest gray mold caused by Botrytis cinerea. After fumigation of the grapes with ozone or sulfur dioxide during pre-cooling, the fruit were then exposed to continuous biofumigation by the volatile-producing fungus Muscodor albus during storage. Biofumigation was provided by in-package generators containing a live grain culture of the fungus. This grain formulation of M. albus survived the initial ozone or sulfur dioxide fumigation, but sulfur dioxide reduced its production of isobutyric acid, an indicator of the production of antifungal volatiles. Gray mold incidence was reduced among inoculated ‘Autumn Seedless’ grapes from 91.7 to 19.3% by 1 h fumigation with 5000 μL L^?1 ozone, and further reduced to 10.0% when ozone fumigation and M. albus biofumigation were combined. The natural incidence of gray mold among organically grown ‘Thompson Seedless’ grapes after 1 month of storage at 0.5 °C was 31.0%. Ozone fumigation and M. albus biofumigation reduced the incidence of gray mold to 9.7 and 4.4, respectively, while the combined treatment reduced gray mold incidence to 3.4%. The use of commercial sulfur dioxide pads reduced the incidence to 1.1%. The combination of ozone and M. albus controlled decay significantly, but was less effective than the standard sulfur dioxide treatments. Although less effective than sulfur dioxide treatment, ozone and M. albus controlled decay significantly, and could be alternatives to sulfur dioxide, particularly for growers complying with organic production requirements.     

Canopy effects on vegetation caused by harvesting and regeneration treatments

This paper reviews the primary effects of canopy on understorey vegetation to provide insight into the management of the canopy space to benefit tree regeneration. Site conditions, like nutrient and water availability, overstorey conditions, e.g. tree species, and canopy density, are important determinants of ground vegetation. An investigation of canopy effects is concerned about how the canopy trees modify site conditions. As canopy density may be deliberately modified during regeneration treatments, the effect of canopy density on individual species in the herbaceous layer and tree regeneration is important. This autecological perspective focuses on the successional traits of species to help understand species differences in fecundity, survival, density and growth. From a synecological perspective, the importance of successional traits for the outcome of competition between species arising from differences in canopy densities is highlighted. This review shows that moderately dense canopies may favour tree regeneration over aggressive shade-intolerant graminoids or forbs. This is particularly true for shade-tolerant and intermediate shade-tolerant tree species. To better understand and utilise this phenomenon, research should try to identify and isolate different canopy effects.     

Exploratory multi-criteria analysis in sustainability impact assessment of forest-wood chains: the example of a regional case study in Baden–Württemberg

Sustainability impact assessment (SIA) is a prospective, integrated assessment approach for potential impacts of policy actions. Multi-criteria analysis (MCA) can be used to facilitate a multi-indicator evaluation in this framework in order to foster rational and transparent decision-making processes for SIA. Based on the outputs of the EFORWOOD project, this paper presents an exploratory MCA to a regional forest-wood chain (FWC) in Baden–Württemberg. This assessment is based on a set of sustainability indicators at process level for a baseline year 2005, reference futures ‘A1’ and ‘B2’ following the definition of the IPCC and a bio-energy scenario implanted into the reference future ‘A1’. The indicator values were calculated by the process tool ToSIA. It is demonstrated how time steps for parts of the regional FWC (forest management, harvest and transport to the mill gate) can be evaluated, as well as the outcomes of different scenarios for a time period. For this purpose, a novel software tool, ToSIA-MCA, is used to calculate relative sustainability impact rating (SIR) based on a PROMETHEE II algorithm. Further, we performed uncertainty analysis to test the stability of ranking results in the absence of real preference information with regard to uncertainty in indicator data. By comparing different indicator weighting patterns, the sensitivity of SIR calculation was further tested. The exploratory MCA outcomes are critically evaluated against the background of assumptions, and data used in the regional case, and an outlook is given on the importance to gain stronger stakeholder involvement in real-life applications.     

Impact of bark wounds on sapwood in Norway spruce and silver fir

Bark wounds by damage during harvesting are a serious problem in forestry due to fungi infection and wood deterioration. This paper presents results of an investigation about the influence of the wounds on the internal structure of such injured stems. In an experiment, bark wounds were artificially created at the stem base of Norway spruce [Picea abies (L.) Karst.] and silver fir (Abies alba Mill.). 2 years later, the injured stems along with undamaged controls were cut and the trunk portion below breast height subjected to computer tomographic (CT) analysis. Analysis of the CT-images revealed a substantial impact of wounding on sapwood properties in spruce: directly adjacent to the wound surface in all examined trees, a large disturbance zone was detected affecting on average 17% of the potential sapwood area. With increasing distance from the wound, the size of this disturbance zone diminished, but was still detectable in all trees at breast height ca. 1 m above the bark wound.