Ryan Helcoski

Utah State University | USU · Department of Wildland Resources

As the climate changes, warmer spring temperatures are causing earlier leaf-out1–3 and commencement of CO2 uptake1,3 in temperate deciduous forests, resulting in a tendency towards increased growing season length3 and annual CO2 uptake1,3–7. However, less is known about how spring temperatures affect tree stem growth8,9, which sequesters carbon in...

As the climate changes, warmer spring temperatures are causing earlier leaf-out1–6 and commencement of net carbon dioxide (CO2) sequestration2,4 in temperate deciduous forests, resulting in a tendency towards increased growing season length1,4,5,7–9 and annual CO2 uptake2,4,10–14. However, less is known about how spring temperatures affect tree ste...

Tree rings provide an invaluable long‐term record for understanding how climate and other drivers shape tree growth and forest productivity. However, conventional tree‐ring analysis methods were not designed to simultaneously test effects of climate, tree size, and other drivers on individual growth. This has limited the potential to test ecologica...

Exotic forest insects and pathogens (EFIP) have become regular features of temperate forest ecosystems, yet we lack a long-term perspective on their net impacts on tree mortality, carbon sequestration, and tree species diversity. Here, we analyze 3 decades (1987–2019) of forest monitoring data from the Blue Ridge Mountains ecoregion in eastern Nort...

As climate change drives increased drought in many forested regions, mechanistic understanding of the factors conferring drought tolerance in trees is increasingly important. The dendrochronological record provides a window through which we can understand how tree size and traits shape growth responses to droughts. We analyzed tree‐ring records for...

Microplastics are a complex group of ubiquitous environmental contaminants of emerging concern. These particles degrade slowly, release plasticizers, and can be transferred between trophic levels. In aquatic systems, they have been identified suspended in the water column, along shorelines, and within sediment. However, the abundance and distributi...

1.The climate sensitivity of forest ecosystem woody productivity (ANPPstem ) influences carbon cycle responses to climate change. For the first time, we combine long-term annual growth and forest census data of a diverse temperate broadleaf deciduous forest, seeking to resolve whether ANPPstem is primarily moisture- or energy-limited and whether cl...

The collection of tree-ring data from living trees is widespread and highly valuable in ecological and dendro-climatological research, yet there is concern that coring injures trees, potentially contributing to mortality. Unlike resinous conifers that can quickly compartmentalize wounds, less decay-resistant angiosperms may face more pronounced ris...

Ecosystem service analysis aims to expand the accounting of human values for nature, yet frequently ignores or obfuscates a category of human values with potentially large magnitude, namely nonuse or passive use values. These values represent the satisfaction derived from the protection or restoration of species, habitats and wilderness areas, even...