Gateway takeaways

The Morton Arboretum's latest best practices, training materials, and research papers related to topics interpreted at the Gateway to Tree Science

For more information on tree care, visit the Plant Clinic.  For more information on scientific publications ask a librarian at the Arboretum’s Sterling Morton Library or search the library’s ACORN database.

Best tree care practices for your backyard and community

The Morton Arboretum publishes tree care advice for homeowners and community members to apply to their own landscapes that is based on research in horticulture and arboriculture. Here are a few key resources:

• Advice on selecting trees from the nursery and best planting techniques
• Find a tree to fit your site with the Arboretum’s online tree selector
• Diseases and insect you should be aware of to keep your trees and shrubs healthy
• Advice on caring for trees, shrubs, perennials, ground covers, and entire landscapes
• Inspiration and advice for the private landowner interested in protecting and planting oaks
• Invasive buckthorn and honeysuckle are hurting our native forests, here’s what to plant instead
• Visit the Plant Clinic and the Chicago Region Trees Initiative

Training for tree care professionals

The scientists at The Morton Arboretum and their colleagues apply their research to develop training and advice for tree care professionals. Here are some of those recent contributions:

• The Practical Science of Planting Trees
• International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) Best Management Practices - Tree Planting
• ISA Best Management Practices - Root Management
• ISA Best Management Practices - Soil Management
• Meeting the Challenges of Urban Forest Sustainability
• Restoration Pruning of Storm Damaged Trees
• Root Management: An Introduction

The science behind best tree care practices

Arboretum scientists publish articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals to report results of their research.  Once research is reviewed and discussed by the larger scientific community, best tree care recommendations can be published for industry, homeowners, and community members (examples featured in links above).

Arboriculture

• Management of tree root systems in urban and suburban settings I: A review of soil influence on root growth
• Management of tree root systems in urban and suburban settings II: A review of strategies to mitigate human impacts
• Structural pruning effects on stem and trunk strain in wind
• Mature tree transplanting: science supports best management practice
• A rapid urban site index for assessing the quality of street tree planting sites
• Tree species suitability to bioswales and impact on the urban water budget

Urban Forestry and Ecology

• Distribution of forest ecosystems over two centuries in a highly urbanized landscape
• Homogenization of plant diversity, composition, and structure in North American urban yards
• Variation in urban forest productivity and response to extreme drought across a large metropolitan region
• Chicago Wilderness region urban forest vulnerability assessment and synthesis

Conservation of threatened species and ecosystems

Building coalitions and raising awareness of species’ conservation status and best practices in conservation genetics.

• The Red List of US Oaks
• The Red List of Fraxinus
• North American Botanic Garden Strategy for Plant Conservation, 2016-2020
• Responsible RAD: Striving for best practices in population genomic studies of adaptation
• Optimal sampling of seeds from plant populations for ex-situ conservation of genetic biodiversity, considering realistic population structure
• Quantitative evaluation of hybridization and the impact on biodiversity conservation
• Keeping all the PIECES: Phylogenetically informed ex situ conservation of endangered species

Oak tree of life

The Arboretum’s research into the evolutionary relationships of oaks.  We can’t protect species we cannot name.  Research into the evolutionary relationships among trees is fundamental to conserving the Earth’s biodiversity.

• Sympatric parallel diversification of major oak clades in the Americas and the origins of Mexican species diversity
• Uncovering the genomic signature of ancient introgression between white oak lineages (Quercus)
• The role of diversification in community assembly of the oaks (Quercus L.) across the continental U.S.
• A nuclear DNA barcode for eastern North American oaks and application to a study of hybridization in an Arboretum setting

Climate change

Arboretum scientists work on addressing climate change in urban areas and studying climate change effects on forested ecosystems.

• The Chicago Region’s urban forest: an assessment of its vulnerability to climate change
• Forest adaptation resources: climate change tools and approaches for land managers
• A framework for adapting urban forests to climate change
• Emergent climate and CO2 sensitivities of net primary productivity in ecosystem models do not agree with empirical data in temperate forests of eastern North America
• Drought timing and local climate determine the sensitivity of eastern temperate forests to drought

Soil, root, and forest ecology

Processes below ground provide information key to understanding forested ecosystems.

• Special issue in Plant & Soil
• Prescription side effects: Long-term, high-frequency controlled burning enhances nitrogen availability in an Illinois oak-dominated forest
• Determination of death dates of coarse woody debris of multiple species in the central hardwood region (Indiana, USA)
• Resources stoichiometry and the biogeochemical consequences of nitrogen depostion in a mixed deciduous forest
• Global patterns in fine-root decomposition: climate, chemistry, mycorrhizal association and woodiness
• Community-level economics spectrum of fine-roots of fine-roots driven by nutrient limitations in subalpine forests
• How are nitrogen availability, fine-root mass, and nitrogen uptake related empirically? Implications for models and theory
• Determination of death dates of coarse woody debris of multiple species in the central hardwood region (Indiana, USA)

Coming soon, more online resources for Green Professionals:

The Arboretum is also developing a series of online resources that will help illustrate and explain some of the tree care best practices highlighted in the Gateway to Tree Science. These resources will focus on three main themes: Selecting a tree, planting techniques, and caring for and maintaining trees. In addition to providing a deeper dive into the reasons these best practices are in place, these resources will also include tools to help you explain some of these concepts to other people, whether they're employees, clients, or homeowners.