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Articles 1 - 10 of 10
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Opening The Black Box: Soil Microbial Communities In Field-Based Plant-Soil Feedback Experiments, Julia Kate Aaronson
Opening The Black Box: Soil Microbial Communities In Field-Based Plant-Soil Feedback Experiments, Julia Kate Aaronson
All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023
Plant-soil feedback is a process through which plants modify the properties of their associated soils, affecting their growth. PSF can play a key role in regulating plant growth and communities including altering plant invasion, rarity, and abundance. However, our understanding of the soil organisms that drive these plant growth responses is limited. Most studies treat soils as a ‘black box’ and do little to reveal which specific microbes or microbial communities may be responsible. This chapter examines two recent large PSF field experiments conducted in Minnesota, USA, and Jena, Germany. These experiments revealed that plants altered their soils, changing subsequent …
Overcoming Barriers To Aquatic Plant Restoration: Addressing Gaps In Species Identification And Planting Techniques In The Intermountain West, Kate A. Sinnott
Overcoming Barriers To Aquatic Plant Restoration: Addressing Gaps In Species Identification And Planting Techniques In The Intermountain West, Kate A. Sinnott
All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023
Aquatic ecosystems provide many critical and economically valuable benefits, including drinking water, food, recreational opportunities, and water supply for irrigation and agriculture. However, the health of these systems has been severely impacted by human activities such as pollution, land conversion, and introductions of harmful species. Restoring native aquatic plants can help reverse this damage and reestablish benefits, though it is not a common practice. With an objective to increase capacity for aquatic plant restoration in the Intermountain West, I identified and addressed two major barriers: 1) a lack of confidence in aquatic species identification among wetland professionals, and 2) underdeveloped …
Influence Of Hydrologic History On Nitrogen Cycling In Lake Sediments, Emily Jainarain
Influence Of Hydrologic History On Nitrogen Cycling In Lake Sediments, Emily Jainarain
All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023
Water quality is declining in freshwater lakes around the world due to environmental change and anthropogenic activities that threaten the physical, ecological, and geochemical integrity of freshwater ecosystems. Excess N and P in lakes can cause eutrophication, a major driver of water quality impairment that leads to excessive algal growth, or harmful algal blooms (HABs), and poses risks to recreation, fisheries, and public drinking water. Water level fluctuations in lakes are expected to become more frequent and intense as climate change increases periods of drought and alters precipitation patterns, and fluctuations may stimulate biogeochemical reactions in littoral sediments that add …
A Statewide Evaluation Of Fuel Treatment Effectiveness In Altering Wildfire Outcomes On Public Lands In Utah, Jamela Charmaine Thompson
A Statewide Evaluation Of Fuel Treatment Effectiveness In Altering Wildfire Outcomes On Public Lands In Utah, Jamela Charmaine Thompson
All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023
Fuel treatments are land management activities that reduce living and dead flammable materials on the landscape to mitigate undesirable wildfire behavior and effects. Common treatments in the western United States include mechanical methods such as thinning and mastication, prescribed burns, and chemical methods, such as herbicide application. Treatments usually have multiple objectives, including reducing fire intensity, protecting natural and cultural resources, slowing or disrupting a potential future fire’s path, supporting ecosystem health, and reestablishing low to mid severity fire cycles in ecosystems. Although treatments can potentially modify fire behavior and ecological health, they generally cannot prevent fires from igniting, eliminate …
A Mechanistic Examination Of Interspecific Competition Between Wild And Domestic Herbivores, Courtney Check
A Mechanistic Examination Of Interspecific Competition Between Wild And Domestic Herbivores, Courtney Check
All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023
Large herbivores, such as mule deer and cattle have similar life histories and likely compete for resources. However, quantifying the extent to which these species compete and the specific resources they compete for has proved challenging. My research examines if cattle influence deer abundance and behavior due to competition for forage, competition for shade, and/or by affecting the predation risk of deer. Using a grid of autonomous trail cameras, I was able to determine if cattle abundance influences local deer abundance in relation to specific resources and habitat features. Using GPS data from collared deer, I was also able to …
Big Fish And More Of Them: Salmonid Habitat Availability, Quality, And Use Across Multiple Scales Within A River-Reservoir System, John S. Mclaren V
Big Fish And More Of Them: Salmonid Habitat Availability, Quality, And Use Across Multiple Scales Within A River-Reservoir System, John S. Mclaren V
All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023
Reservoirs and their associated rivers provide water for agricultural and municipal uses, ecological benefits for fish and wildlife, and associated recreational activity. However, in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem climate change and population growth are putting pressure on water quality and supply, potentially damaging the unique and economically important coldwater trout habitat that these systems support. In this study, the author investigates the impact of changing water quality and supply on trout habitat quality, quantity, and selection to assist conservation goals in the Henry’s Fork Watershed in eastern Idaho. The study found that higher availability of cold-water refuge habitat in Island …
Cross-Boundary Stewardship In Protected Area Centered Ecosystems: Perceptions Of Success And Characteristics Of Cooperative Engagement, Ryan D. Tarver
Cross-Boundary Stewardship In Protected Area Centered Ecosystems: Perceptions Of Success And Characteristics Of Cooperative Engagement, Ryan D. Tarver
All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023
The legal boundaries of protected areas, such as national parks are established and enforced by humans. Therefore, jurisdictional boundaries are ultimately have human meaning but not necessarily ecological relevance as natural phenomena such as watersheds and wildlife habitat often extend beyond a jurisdictional boundary. When considering the extent of natural system, we find that protected areas only make up part of a given ecosystem. The result is a large expanse of lands that fall under a various ownership types that include both publicly and privately designated tracts of land. This presents a management challenge when attempting to manage at the …
Opportunities And Challenges For Cooperative Extension Becoming A Major Actor In Climate Change Mitigation And Adaptation, Dakoeta R. Pinto
Opportunities And Challenges For Cooperative Extension Becoming A Major Actor In Climate Change Mitigation And Adaptation, Dakoeta R. Pinto
All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023
Addressing climate change in the United States is an increasingly complex issue that requires social and technological changes throughout the country, which the Cooperative Extension System (Extension) can influence. Based at land-grant universities, their goals are to bring relevant science and innovation to the people of the United States. For a successful low-carbon transition, there are certain elements of society that must be influenced by innovators like Extension. Extension’s historical roots in agriculture prevail today with most of their programming focusing on this sector. However, there is a movement within Extension to expand their programmatic efforts to address more contemporary …
From Mountain Streams To Urban Rivers: An Assessment Of Microplastic Sources And Characteristics, Macy Gustavus
From Mountain Streams To Urban Rivers: An Assessment Of Microplastic Sources And Characteristics, Macy Gustavus
All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023
Plastic products are produced and discarded at an alarming rate. Bottles, bags, toys, and clothing break down into tiny plastic pieces called microplastics, ranging in size from an eraser on the top of a pencil to smaller in size than a red blood cell. Microplastics are becoming so common in the environment that they travel in the atmosphere, rivers, and ocean currents in ways that are similar to other types of Earth Systems Cycles (i.e., the water cycle). In this study, we explored microplastic sources and sinks in a freshwater river system and how seasonal changes in discharge affect how …
Regeneration Of Quaking Aspen And Understory Vegetation Change After Fire Risk Reduction Treatment, Allison M. Trudgeon
Regeneration Of Quaking Aspen And Understory Vegetation Change After Fire Risk Reduction Treatment, Allison M. Trudgeon
All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023
Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) is a keystone species that, when coexisting with conifers (i.e., seral aspen), often undergoes stand-replacing disturbances to sustain long term vigor. Historically, mixed-to-high severity fire reduced fuels and regenerated aspen, but such disturbances have become less common in recent decades. This has often led to high fuel loading, and many seral aspen stands are at now risk of an unpredictable, high-severity fire, posing a threat to development in the wildland-urban-interface. The lack of a commercial market for aspen, and the risk of conducting prescribed fire, means there are few alternate management options. This has …