Resource scarcity within a fragile state can lead to cooperation or within-state conflict. Cooperation is more likely when local peacebuilding mechanisms are part of a national peace framework. A new local peacebuilding mechanism, shared forest cooperatives (SFC), is proposed here. Designed to stabilize peace in rural communities, SFC refers to a network of local councils. Each council manages a living bank, namely annual dividends harvested from a forest ecosystem or other perennial plants. SFC’s backbone for managing forest dividends is Elinor Ostrom’s common-pool resource principles. Each SFC group relies on the backbone when choosing its own rights, rules and obligations. Ostrom’s monitoring principle of higher-level support, or polycentrism, presents difficulty for fragile states. Outside intervention covers binding decisions, technical expertise and hosting neutral space for face-to-face dialogue initially. SFC’s design, theory and practice draws from four elements: 1) where SFC fits within the current intervention practices, 2) SFC’s reliance on shared land usage and occupancy typical for most of the world’s nine most fragile states, namely Somalia, Yemen, South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad, Sudan, Afghanistan, Central African Republic and Syria, 3) adapting Elinor Ostrom’s common-pool resource principles for sharing each living bank’s dividends 4) better governance based on local peace council experiences. Elements are folded into a synthesis and its critique then policy implications. Socially fragile, SFC is proposed as a 2-for-1 mechanism for building peace in rural communities while minimizing forest loss.

Climate and land use changes together are altering the particle content of desert dust storms on regional and local scales. These storms now carry a wide variety of pollutants and pathogens arising from urbanization, industrialization, mass transportation, warfare, or aerosolized waste in locations worldwide where deserts are intertwined with built infrastructure, transportation centers, and high-density human habitation. Accordingly, the modern desert dust storm has an anthropogenic particle load which presumably sets it apart from pre-industrial dust storms. Evidence for how particle content for modern dust storms is changing over the Arabian Peninsula holds relevance because dust storms are now more frequent and more severe. Furthermore, the Arabian Peninsula has asthma rates which are the highest worldwide. How the modern desert dust storm contributes to asthma and human health is a nascent issue. Meanwhile, public health decisions can benefit from a climate × health framework for dust storms, as proposed here. An imperative is testing each dust storm’s particle content type, and for this, we propose the A-B-C-X model. Sampling a dust storm for its particle content data and then archiving samples for future analyses is advised. A storm’s particle content data, once combined with its atmospheric data, allows a particle’s source, transport, and deposition to be determined. In closing, the modern desert dust storm’s changing particle content has far-reaching consequences for public health, transboundary issues, and international climate dialog. Locally and regionally sourced particle pollution is a growing problem in deserts worldwide. Proposed here is a climate × health framework for studying how dust storm particles, entrained from both natural and engineered systems, may be contributing to declining human respiratory health.

Rain-mediated reproduction, or hydrophily, is present in only 0.1% higher plant taxa. Pinus spp. is included on this list so here we present a synthesis illustrating three roles for rain in pine reproductive biology: pollen transport, pollen delivery and pollination. Pine pollen has been shown to survive long-range transport beneath and inside rain clouds after which germination still occurs. Pine pollen is captured inside raindrops so rain delivers pine pollen back to the earth’s surface and this pollen can also germinate. Rain is the primary pollination mode for Pinus taeda. The pollination drop only appears later if rain does not fall. Pine pollen does not appear to burst into subpollen pieces (SPP) upon water contact. For these reasons, wind and rain are vectors of pollen transport, deposition and pollination. Accordingly, research gaps abound and we formulated these as three testable hypotheses: (1) wetted pollen has aerodynamic properties which deter transport, (2) rain delivers its own load of pollen and (3) rain contributes to long-distance gene flow among populations within a species. Rain acts as a fluid medium contributing to Pinus spp. reproduction.

A global COVID-19 pandemic, rising asthma and allergies, along with climate change impacting storm intensity and frequency, point to an urgent need to unify U.S. atmospheric biology research. To this end, we briefly define atmospheric biology, summarize its fragmented history, and then outline how to unify the field to provide benefits for the U.S. science community and its citizens. Atmospheric biology refers to the study of concentrations, sources, sinks, transformation, and impacts of airborne microorganisms inclusive of pollen, fungal spores, algae, lichens, bacteria, viruses, cellulose fibers, and other biomolecules or fragments of cells. Here our focus is biological particles, both respirable (PM10) and systemic (PM2.5). Due to its interdisciplinary dependencies and broadness of scales from nanometers to kilometers, atmospheric biology research is highly fragmented in the U.S. science community. It lacks shared paradigms and common vocabulary. This deficit calls for recognizing atmospheric biology as a research community in its own right, thereby linking human health to climate change. We need to recognize atmospheric biology's importance to national security and science diplomacy. Advanced atmospheric biology research is being conducted in Europe, Russia, and China, not in the United States.

Raindrops brim with pollen even when there is no ambient local pollen. How does this nonlocal pollen get inside rain? The likely answer is long-range transport beneath or inside clouds. To test this hypothesis, we captured rain-delivered pollen on Ocracoke Island, NC, USA over a 12-day interval before local pine pollen release then reconstructed its trajectory and its atmospheric exposure conditions. Findings were as follows: four rain episodes yielded a total of 632 pollen grains of which 6.7% germinated. To find pollen sources, we first identified pollen-releasing forested areas using a predictive heat sum equation for each rain episode. Next, we constructed the backward trajectory for air parcels carrying rain-delivered pollen from those forests using the MLDP atmospheric transport and dispersion model. Nonlocal sources were located at distances up to 300 km from Ocracoke Island and distances lessened with each successive episode. Below-cloud transport time was 8 and 17 h for Episodes A and B, respectively. Pollen grains were exposed to harsh atmospheric conditions during below-cloud transport, yet some grains still germinated. Atmospheric turbulence patterns changed for each episode, so distance from pollen source was poorly correlated with pollen transport time. Pollen germination was not closely correlated with either distances or transport time. In-cloud transport was more likely for pollen sampled during Episodes C and D. Pine pollen, although rarely allergenic, brings fresh insights into how atmospheric events can trigger human respiratory distress.

How pollen shapes forests and forestry can be illustrated using Siberia’s boreal forests which have historically produced some of the highest pollen concentrations in the Northern Hemisphere. Pollen’s contributions are categorized as follows: 1) forests and timber, 2) nontimber products and services and 3) emerging research at the forest-atmosphere interface. Examples are drawn from Pinus sylvestris (Scots pine), Pinus sibirica (Siberian stone pine) and Pinus koreansis (Korean pine). Pine pollen is not only vital to timber and nontimber products but it serves as a well-studied model system for atmospheric studies.

Pollen release by Northern Hemisphere pine forests is well-documented yet little is known about its atmospheric layering. At what altitudes are these atmospheric layers and how do they influence pollen dispersal? To answer this, pollen concentrations were analysed using radiosonde soundings and LiDAR imagery over the Pamlico Sound, a large marine body at 35.4062 degrees N, 76.3259 degrees W between coastal of North Carolina, USA and its barrier islands. Pollen sampled over the sound ranged from 11 to 861 pollen m(-3). During daylight, the planetary boundary layer (PBL) height was 1932 m and it was capped by a warm, dry inversion from 2015 to 3072 m. Similarly, PBL height was estimated at 2000 m using a CALIPSO LiDAR image. Mixed-phase clouds could form above the PBL starting at 5650 m where temperatures were less than -13.5 degrees C and wind speeds exceeded 29.8 m s(-1). During cooler night hours, the PBL height dropped to 724 m and its inversion cap also dropped to 1027-1904 m. Strong westerly winds with a low vertical shear drove pollen across water on a cloudless sunny day. Wind speeds below the PBL stayed strong at night while rising relative humidity influenced pollen deposition. Structuring atmospheric layers during pollen dispersal provided more understanding of how long-distance pollen is dispersed at a land-atmosphere interface.

Ash forests in North America and Eurasia are rapidly being lost to two invasive alien species: the emerald ash borer and Chalara ash dieback fungus. We argue that better regulatory policy and science-based intervention can help slow losses, and recommend an international consortium to coordinate science-based intervention.

Pine pollen dispersal has been well-studied over a century due to its ubiquity, robust shape and unusual longevity; this knowledge can be brought to bear on forest population genetics applications and gene conservation programs for pines and other high-latitude wind-pollinated species. Dispersal models are shifting towards meso-scale transport processes so I assert here that this shift in transport scale is important to population genetics assumptions inherent to gene conservation decision-making. Support comes from the following: (1) aerodynamic properties for pollen is more akin to spores than seeds. (2) Gradient-free dispersal is typical of pollen transported at meso-scale distances. (3) Importance of vertically uplifted pollen on meso-scale transport has been overlooked and its interaction with atmospheric processes is not yet understood. (4) A fraction of pine pollen retains its capacity for germination and seed fertilization after meso-scale transport. These findings raise the question of whether forest fragmentation aligns with genetics theory of small populations; this question shapes ex situ and in situ collections. The shift to meso-scale transport of pine pollen can re-shape forest gene conservation decision-making about ex situ and in situ collection strategies.

Forest pollen is a heavy contributor to atmospheric bioaerosols during spring months. This is important because bioaerosols make up 25% of the atmospheric aerosols shaping cloud formation, precipitation and ultimately climate. To test this premise, we drew from available literature, a meta-analysis of 25 forest pollen reports and a comparative analysis of Zea mays versus Pinus taeda pollen. Using available literature, we showed forest pollen grains are not too large or too few in the atmosphere and that some types are prone to bursting into subpollen particles (SPP). High forest pollen concentrations were consistent in the meta-analysis of 25 forest pollen reports from 1937 to 2014 at Northern Hemisphere latitudes ranging from 33 degrees N to 64 degrees N. In eight reports, pollen concentrations exceeded 104 grains m(-3) for birch (Betula spp.), spruce (Picea spp.), pines (Pinus spp.) and alder (Alnus spp.). Southern Hemisphere forests had low forest pollen concentrations. Pinus taeda, as a woody perennial species, produced more pollen by three orders of magnitude when compared to Zea mays which serves as the current source of generalized global pollen emissions for general circulation models. Pinus taeda alone accounted for 3.3 Tg y(-1) of the world's current estimate of global pollen emissions although its land area occupies only 0.2% of the world's forests. Forest pollen, whether intact and burst, is shown here to have the capacity for altitudinal ascent, atmospheric residency and long-distance transport. Thus forest pollen is concluded to be a substantial contributor to atmospheric bioaerosols for higher latitudes during spring in the Northern Hemisphere. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Fossil evidence from Metasequoia-dominated forests continue to inform us as to how forests have responded to past climate change. As such, these Metasequoia findings and those of other high-latitude Northern Hemisphere forest tree species set rigorous standards for considering the case study of a Southern Hemisphere conifer, Fitzroya cupressoides. Tree ring analyses, fossils, glacial geology, and molecular evidence together piece together a remarkable case study. Fitzroya cupressoides, a site-specific endemic, persisted within its current range in Chile throughout the Late Pleistocene, surviving glaciers, volcanoes, and earthquakes. Here, we present a review for this Fitzroya case study, which is followed by a synthesis of research questions which could elucidate how forest species persisted locally over the course of Quaternary climate change. 1 Forest History Society & National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent), Durham, NC, USA 2 University of Chile, Santiago, Chile 3 Collaboration supported in part by the Fulbright Chile Commission * Corresponding author (e-mail: claire-williams@fulbrightmail.org) 102 Jpn. J. Histor. Bot. Vol. 19 Nos. 1–2 moved southward, away from the Arctic Circle. But this is not the case (Premoli et al., 2000; Moore, 2000). South American temperate forests have no parallel to the Northern Hemisphere paradigm (Markgraf et al., 1995; Moore, 2000). To show this, we present the case study of Fitzroya cupressoides, its taxonomy, life history, and Quaternary records, then end with a brief synthesis of future research direction. This case study brings fresh insights into how forests responded to climate change in the past. Taxonomy, present-day range, life history, and ecology 1.Taxonomy Fitzroya cupressoides (Molina) I. M. Johnst. belongs to a monotypic genus within Cupressaceae sensu lato, the same family as Metasequoia. Charles Darwin chose its scientific name in honor of Captain Robert Fitzroy of the HMS Beagle, but its common name is lahuán in the Mapuché language or alercé in the Spanish language. More recently this tree has become known as South American redwood because its rotresistant wood has a beautiful grain resembling that of redwood. Like some of the redwood species, Fitzroya cupressoides is polyploid. Polyploidy is unusual among conifers. Most conifers, including Metasequoia glyptostroboides, are diploid, yet Fitzroya cupressoides is reportedly polyploid (2n = 4x = 44 chromosomes) (Hair & Beuzenberg, 1958). Its polyploidy status needs to be confirmed using a larger sample from the entire species’ range (Ahuja, 2009), because this condition can vary among populations. Polyploidy can affect seed and pollen viability, but also bears on how to correctly interpret molecular marker data. 2. Present-day range Fitzroya cupressoides has a narrow distribution which runs across the three parallel north-south landforms of Chile into Argentina. The first landform is the Cordillera de la Costa, a densely forested cloud-covered range of low mountains which parallels the Pacific Ocean. Here, Fitzroya occurs at latitudes of 39°50’ to 42°35’S, especially within the Valdivian rain forest. Next is the Central Valley Depression, where Fitzroya occurs between 41°30’ and 41°50’S; this is a low-lying region characterized by volcanic ash and glacial moraines. Third is the Andes Mountains range which runs parallel to the Pacific Ocean along the other side of the Central Valley Depression. Here, Fitzroya’s range occurs between 41°30’ and 43°30’S. The Andes Mountains range is the nexus for glacier formation, volcanoes, and seismic activity; many of the highest mountains are volcanoes. Below them, northeast of Puerto Montt, is Chile’s Lake District. The Lake District has a well-defined glacial geology along with a wealth of late Pleistocene fossil data (Heusser, 1966; Parker & Donoso, 1993; Veblen et al., 1999), which have led to late Quaternary reconstruction. From here, the range of Fitzroya cupressoides extends over the other side of the Andes, into Argentina, where it extends only between 40°57’ and 42°45’S (Kitzberger et al., 2000). 3. Life history Fitzroya’s reproductive biology is poorly understood. This is not surprising given the difficulty of studying large, reproductively mature organisms which have tiny strobili and even smaller pollen grains. Both female cones and male strobili are only 5 mm in length (Grosfeld & Barthelemy, 2001), while its spheroidal pollen is only 26 to 36 μm in diameter (Heusser, 1966). Despite this difficulty, Fitzroya reproduction was recently tallied within a 3-ha area of Nahuel Huapi National Park in Argentina (Grosfeld & Barthelemy, 2001). The species is decidedly dioecious. Of those classified as either maleor female-bearing, only one tree out of 533 produced both male and female strobili in each of the three years of observation (Grosfeld & Barthelemy, 2001). All of these Fitzroya cupressoides adults had low reproduction rates across the three years of observation. Roughly 75% of the femalebearing trees had low numbers of strobili and ovulate cones, while 79.5% of the male-bearing trees also had low numbers of strobili (Grosfeld & Barthelemy, 2001). Seed and pollen viability were not determined in this study. Viability is the link between reproduction and poor natural regeneration of Fitzroya cupressoides (i.e., Veblen et al., 1999; Smith-Ramirez, 2007). Regeneration is not related to the method of timber harvest (Smith-Ramirez, 2007), but Fitzroya seedlings seem to thrive after a major disturbance. Fitzroya seedlings appear after a major disturbance such as volcanic ash deposition, lava flows, and landslides (Donoso et al., 1993; Parker & Donoso, 1993). 4. Ecology The species thrives only in waterlogged sites which have mean annual precipitation of 2000 to 4000 mm. As such, it is regarded as a sensitive indicator of climate change (Roig et al., 2001). Among these wet areas is the dense Valdivian evergreen rain forest (40°40’ to 43°20’S), where the oldest specimens of Fitzroya cupressoides reach a diameter of 4 to 5 m and a height

UNLABELLED PREMISE OF THE STUDY Pine pollen (Pinus spp.), along with other atmospheric particles, is dispersed by the water cycle, but this mode of dispersal requires cloud-pollen interactions that depend on taxon-specific biological properties. In the simplest form of this dispersal, pine pollen ascends vertically to altitudes of 2 to 6 km, where a fraction is captured by mixed-phase cloud formation. Captured pollen accretes into frozen droplets, which ultimately descend as rain, snow, or hail. Whether Pinus pollen can still germinate after its exposure to high-altitude freezing is pertinent to (1) how forests adapt to climate change and (2) potential gene flow between genetically modified plantation species and their conspecific relatives. • METHODS To address this question, pollen from four Old World and two New World Pinus species were subjected to immersion freezing, a common cloud formation mode, under laboratory conditions. • KEY RESULTS Some pollen grains immersed at -20°C for 15, 60, or 120 min in either a dehydrated or a water-saturated state were still capable of germination. After exposure, dehydrated pine pollen had higher germination (43.3%) than water-saturated pollen (7.6%). • CONCLUSIONS Pine pollen exposed to freezing during cloud formation can still germinate, raising the question of whether rain-delivered live pollen might be linked to rain-facilitated pollination. Dispersal of live pine pollen via cloud formation and the water cycle itself deserves closer study.

Long-distance dispersal (LDD) theory requires a method for marking live LDD pollen. Such a method must complement more intensive sampling methods inclusive of molecular cytogenetics, proteomics and genomics. We developed a new method for marking live Pinus taeda pollen using two dyes, rhodamine 123 and aniline blue, dissolved in a sucrose solution. Marked and unmarked pollen were compared with respect to in vitro germination, storage, terminal velocity, and in vivo pollen tube penetration of ovules. We found that: (1) both types of marked pollen retained their capacity for germination, (2) both types of marked pollen had similar aerodynamic properties when compared to unmarked pollen controls, (3) marked pollen retained its germination capacity for 48 h, and (4) of the marked pollen, only the aniline-marked pollen penetrated ovules during pollination. Germination declined rapidly for both types of marked pollen after 48 h and before 37 days at −20°C storage, while unmarked pollen lots retained 93% germination at all stages. This method for marking live P. taeda pollen is feasible for tracing LDD pollen only if released and deposited within 48 h of dye treatment.

Viability of long-distance pollen links ecological models to the genetic structure of forest tree populations, determining how forests will adapt to climate change and how far genes flow from genetically modified (GM) pine plantations. Addressing this landscape-scale inquiry is feasible when the pollen source, the delivery system, and the receiver field can be made explicit. To this end, I measured long-distance pollen germination along a 160-km transect along the North Carolina coastline, including 45000 ha of mature Pinus taeda plantations and barrier islands. Using this system, I tested three hypotheses: (1) pine pollen germinates after dispersal on meso-scale distances, (2) sodium chloride exposure reduces germination of pollen captured over open saltwater, and (3) viable pine pollen is present at high altitudes before local peak pollen shed. The experimental findings are as follows: pine pollen had germination rates of 2 to 57% after dispersal at distances from 3 to 41 km, sodium chloride solutions mildly reduced P. taeda pollen germination, and viable pine pollen grains were captured at an altitude of 610 m. GM pine plantings thus have a potential to disperse viable pollen at least 41 km from the source. Wind and rainfall, as integral parts of regional atmospheric systems, together exert a powerful influence on the genetic structure of forest tree populations.

Forest biotechnology is moving on a separate path, away from U.S. agbiotech business models. Now is the time to define its research charter broadly defined to the benefit of more of the world's forests, well beyond its current focus on intensively managed GE forest plantations. This became evident when forest biotechnology officially took a separate path during the UN's Food and Agricultural Organization's AgBiotech Conference held in Guadalajara Mexico in March 2-6, 2010. My aims here are twofold: 1) to map forest biotechnology's path away from U.S. agbiotech business models although its momentum can be traced to forestry's long timelines, a feature notably absent in agriculture, and 2) to broadly defined its research charter, a research charter defined here as forest biotechnology sensu law. I propose that forest biotechnology's narrow focus on planting GE plantations be exchanged in favor of a research charter which emphasizes policy-relevant climate change research, basic research, and even molecular manufacturing. In recognition of its separate path from agbiotech models, forest biotechnology sensu lato should focus on both naturally regenerated and planted tropical forests.

Prologue.- Glossary.- Section I. Conifer Reproductive Biology Overview. 1. Introducing Conifers.- 2. The Diplohaplontic Life Cycle.- Section II. Consequences of Heterospory. 3. Separate Female and Male Meioses.- 4. The Female Gametophyte Inside in the Ovule.- 5. The Male Gametophyte Enclosed in a Pollen Wall.- 6. Synchrony: Pollination and Fertilization.- 7. Syngamy, Embryo Development and Seed Dispersal.-Section III. Mating System Dynamics: Form and Chance. 8. The Dynamic Wind-Pollinated Mating System.- 9. The Embryo Lethal System.- Index.-

Conifers are cone-bearing seed plants with an ancient evolutionary history. Opening with an introduction to Australia's Wollemi pine, one finds that modern conifer taxa (seven families, 71 genera, 620+ species) are persistent Mesozoic relics. As such, their evolutionary history begins with the terrestrial invasion of land plants and the greening of the earth, the rise of the Paleozoic forest and the Jurassic plant diet of herbivorous dinosaurs. All modern conifers, not just Wollemi pine (Wollemia nobilis), are living fossils. Conifers have persisted despite continental drift, climate oscillations, volcanism and the rapid spread of angiosperms. Modern conifers, as a whole, are distributed worldwide although a few regions of the world such as China, Mexico and New Caledonia have high concentrations of conifer taxa. Although many conifer species have large, wide-ranging census populations, others such Wollemi pine are critically endangered. Vestiges of the ancient conifer diaspora can be seen in the fossilized Metasequoia-dominated forests in Canadian High Arctic and from the endemic Da Lat ecosystem in Vietnam which includes the flat-leaved Pinus krempfii. Conifers are among the oldest extant seed plant lineage and their peculiar reproductive biology holds clues about seed plant evolution.

Better knowledge of aerobiological properties of pollen clouds is needed for pines and other woody perennials because these properties shape the predictive accuracy of spatially explicit pollen dispersal models. Four properties were experimentally measured in this study using processed Pinus taeda L. (loblolly pine) pollen as well as pollen concentration and viability data collected from an 18-year-old P. taeda plantation. Results showed that P. taeda pollen had a settling or terminal velocity value of 2.1 cm·s–1; that daytime pollen count from a plantation was sparse, reaching a maximum of 1480 grains·m–3 at peak pollen shed; and that pollen concentration showed no vertical gradient above or below the plantation’s canopy. Pollen sampled above and within the canopy had comparable germination rates. Surprisingly, a low concentration of viable Pinus spp. pollen was present during nighttime. Study results added further to the idea that P. taeda pollen has a higher nuisance value than either Zea mays L. (maize) or Agrostis stolonifera L. (creeping bentgrass) pollen because of its low terminal velocity value, persistent viability, and perennial production.