Rhizosphere interactions are an understudied component of citrus production. This is even more important in Florida flatwood soils, which pose significant challenges in achieving sustainable and effective fruit production due to low natural fertility...
Florida, USA, has 215 endemic or near-endemic plant species, most of which are found in scrubland and pine flatwood habitats and some of which are globally threatened or endangered. Florida is also one of the most rapidly urbanizing states in the Uni...
Pine flatwoods forests in the southeastern US have experienced severe wildfires over the past few decades, often attributed to fuel load build-up. These forest communities are fire dependent and require regular burning for ecosystem maintenance and h...
Uneven-aged silvicultural approaches are increasingly utilized as efficient management strategies for economic and ecological sustainability of forest resources, including in the southeastern United States where there is interest in converting intens...
Remote sensing using Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) satellite imagery is increasingly used for mapping wildland fire burned area and burn severity, owing to its frequency of collection, relatively high resolution, and availability free of charge. Howev...
The response of soil microbial communities to management practices is composite, as it depends on the various environmental factors which contribute to a shift in the microbial communities. In this study we explored the impact of combinations of soil...
Longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) ecosystems have been reduced dramatically throughout their range. Prescribed burning is considered the best way to restore and maintain plant communities associated with longleaf pine, but little is known about its eff...
Huanglongbing (HLB), which is believed to be caused by the phloem-restricted bacterium Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CLas), has decimated Florida’s citrus production. Grapefruit production has declined 75%, mandarin 78%, and sweet orange 5...
Huanglongbing (HLB) disease has caused a severe decline in citrus production globally over the past decade. There is a need for improved nutrient regimens to better manage the productivity of HLB-affected trees, as current guidelines are based on hea...
Geographically isolated wetlands provide a critical habitat for pond-breeding amphibians, a taxa of broad conservation concern. Global wetland loss and degradation has made restoration essential for amphibian conservation. Restoration goals typically...
Managing forests for multiple ecosystem services such as timber, carbon, and biodiversity requires information on ecosystem structure and management characteristics. National forest inventory data are increasingly being used to quantify ecosystem ser...
Remote sensing monitoring of crop growth began from airborne photography to assist in crop pest management and has evolved into monitoring from satellites, manned aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and ground-based systems for crop production...
Supplying high-quality fresh sweetpotato roots to the consumer requires sorting the roots by quality and removing culls deemed unsuitable for fresh markets at packing facilities. The sorting operation is traditionally performed by manual labor. This...
Potassium (K) fertilization is a crucial component of sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) production. The basis for K fertilizer recommendations in sweet potato production varies greatly and relies on studies conducted in the late 1950s–1970s. Ch...
We evaluated even- and uneven-aged silvicultural options for slash pine (Pinus elliottii Engelm.) using empirical data and the Forest Vegetation Simulator (FVS) model. Data were collected from a mature unthinned slash pine plantation in a flatwoods s...
Soil biological properties are important for the stabilization and preservation of a good soil structure. Management practices can affect the diversity and population of microorganisms, which could beneficially change soil properties and promote a mo...
The application of remote sensing, which is non-destructive and cost-efficient, has been widely used in crop monitoring and management. This study used a built-in multispectral imager on a small unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to capture multispectral...
Chinese tallow is a non-native invasive tree expanding in range and abundance throughout the southern United States. Several biogeographical studies mapping tallow distribution and examining key underlying environmental factors relied on the U.S. For...
Accurate prediction of sweet potato yield is crucial for effective crop management. This study investigates the use of vegetation indices (VIs) extracted from multispectral images acquired by a small unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) throughout the growi...
The metabolic diversity of soil microbiota embodies diverse functional capabilities that support ecosystem resilience, driving essential biogeochemical processes and facilitating the optimization of sustainable agricultural systems. Integrating cover...
Fire is a multi-scale process that is an important component in determining ecosystem age structures and successional trajectories across forested landscapes. In order to address questions regarding fire effects over large spatial scales and long tem...
Drought, ultraviolet-B (UV-B), and nitrogen stress are significant constraints for sweetpotato productivity. Their impact on plant growth and development can be acute, resulting in low productivity. Identifying phenotypes that govern stress tolerance...
To achieve the optimal and diverse utilization of cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) plant residues in various agricultural, industrial, and environmental applications, the chemical composition of cotton biomass tissues across different plant parts (e.g., s...