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Natural And Anthropogenic Drivers Of Tree Evolutionary Dynamics, Brandon M. Lind

Theses and Dissertations

Species of trees inhabit diverse and heterogeneous environments, and often play important ecological roles in such communities. As a result of their vast ecological breadth, trees have become adapted to various environmental pressures. In this dissertation I examine various environmental factors that drive evolutionary dynamics in threePinusspecies in California and Nevada, USA. In chapter two, I assess the role of management influence of thinning, fire, and their interaction on fine-scale gene flow within fire-suppressed populations of Pinus lambertiana, a historically dominant and ecologically important member of mixed-conifer forests of the Sierra Nevada, California. Here, I find evidence …

Implications Of Introduced Mule Deer On Santa Catalina Island, California : Their Impacts, Population Ecology, And Management, Thad A. Manuwal

Theses and Dissertations

A small group of mule deer were introduced to Santa Catalina Island in the early
1930s. The mule deer population increased through the 1940s and 1950s and remains widespread and abundant today. Large browsing ungulates are not native to Santa Catalina Island and there is concern that nonnative mule deer are damaging endemic trees and shrubs on the island when foraging. This study was designed to develop quantitative information on diets, foraging behavior, movements, and population biology of mule deer on Catalina Island.

Diet analysis indicated mule deer are consuming a wide variety of native and
endemic plants found on …