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The New Natural Distribution Area Of Aspen (Populus Tremula L.) Marginal Populations In Pasinler In The Erzurum Province, Turkey, And Its Stand Characteristics, Halil Bariş Özel, Sezgin Ayan, Serdar Erpay, Bojan Simovski

Aspen Bibliography

Background and Purpose: Genetic diversity is the basis for adaptation and survival of tree species under changing environmental conditions, representing the key issue of stability and productivity of forest ecosystems. This paper studies the marginal population characteristics and stand dynamics of aspen tree (Populus tremula L.) in natural, pure and mixed forest stands with Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.). These populations were observed on founding sites between Timarli Valley and Timan Plateau located in Pasinler in the Erzurum Province in Turkey.
Materials and Methods: Three replicated sample sites were established according to a randomised block design …

Dependence Of Aspen Stands On A Subsurface Water Subsidy: Implications For Climate Change Impacts, D. M. Love, M. D. Venturas, J. S. Sperry, P. D. Brooks, J. L. Pettit, Y. Wang, W. R. L. Anderegg, X. Tai, D. S. Mackay

Aspen Bibliography

The reliance of 10 Utah (USA) aspen forests on direct infiltration of growing season rain versus an additional subsurface water subsidy was determined from a trait- and process-based model of stomatal control. The model simulated the relationship between water supply to the root zone versus canopy transpiration and assimilation over a growing season. Canopy flux thresholds were identified that distinguished nonstressed, stressed, and dying stands. We found growing season rain and local soil moisture were insufficient for the survival of 5 of 10 stands. Six stands required a substantial subsidy (31–80% of potential seasonal transpiration) to avoid water stress and …

Phylogeographic Analyses Of A Widely Distributed Populus Davidiana: Further Evidence For The Existence Of Glacial Refugia Of Cool‐Temperate Deciduous Trees In Northern East Asia, Zhe Hou, Zhaoshan Wang, Zhanyang Ye, Shuhui Du, Shuya Liu, Jianguo Zhang

Aspen Bibliography

Despite several phylogeographic studies had provided evidence to support the existence of glacial refugia of cool‐temperate deciduous trees in northeast China, the species used in these studies were limited by the species ranges, which could not exclude the possibility that northern populations were the colonists from southern refugial populations during the last glacial maximum (LGM). Here, we estimated the nucleotide variation in Populus davidiana, a widespread species distributed in Eurasia. Three groups in northeast, central, and southwest China were constructed according to the simulation results from SAMOVA, composition of chloroplast haplotypes and structure results. We revealed that the northeast …

Responses Of Ornamental Grass And Grass-Like Plants To Saline Water Irrigation, Youping Sun, Alyssa Lanae Palmer

Plants, Soils, and Climate Faculty Publications

Ornamental grasses are popular in urban landscapes in Utah and the Intermountain West United States, one of the driest and fastest growing regions in the United States. This experiment evaluated the responses of five ornamental grass species [blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis), indian sea oats (Chasmanthium latifolium), ‘Blue Dune’ sand ryegrass (Leymus arenarius), pink muhly grass (Muhlenbergia capillaris), ‘Foxtrot’ fountain grass (Pennisetum alopecuroides)] and two ornamental grasslike species [fox sedge (Carex vulpinoidea), common rush (Juncus effusus)] to saline irrigation water in a greenhouse. Plants were irrigated weekly …

Interactions Between Biochar And Compost In Organic Winter Wheat Production And Soil Quality Under Dryland Conditions, Phearen Kit Miller

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Organic wheat grown under dryland conditions encounters challenges such as limited nutrients and water. Maintaining organic wheat production requires solutions to these problems in order to retain economic sustainability for the farmers.

Research on biochar and compost have been conducted globally. Despite well known benefits of compost on soil and crop production, few organic farmers apply compost to their fields. Research on biochar is still new. Biochar is charcoal created from pyrolyzing agricultural material under conditions of low oxygen and high heat. Many studies claim that biochar is a valuable soil amendment for improving organic production and reducing environmental pollution …

A Simple Metabolic Switch May Activate Apomixis In Arabidopsis Thaliana, David Alan Sherwood

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Apomixis, asexual or clonal seed production in plants, can decrease the cost of producing hybrid seed and enable currently open pollinated crops to be converted to more vigorous and higher yielding hybrids that can reproduce themselves through their own seed. Sexual reproduction may be triggered by a programmed stress signaling event that occurs in both the meiocyte, just prior to meiosis, and later in the egg just prior to embryo sac maturation. The prevention of stress signaling and the activation of a pro-growth signal prior to meiosis triggered apomeiosis, the first half of apomixis. The same approach was used prior …

Estimating Actual Evapotranspiration From Stony-Soils In Montane Ecosystems, Kshitij Parajuli, Scott B. Jones, David G. Tarboton, Gerald N. Flerchinger, Lawrence E. Hipps, L. Niel Allen, Mark S. Seyfried

Plants, Soils, and Climate Faculty Publications

Quantification of evapotranspiration (ET) is crucial for understanding the water balance and for efficient water resources planning. Agricultural settings have received most attention regarding ET measurements while less knowledge is available for actual ET (ET_A) in natural ecosystems, many of which have soils containing significant amounts of stones. This study is focused on modelling ET_A from stony soil, particularly in montane ecosystems where we estimate the contribution of stone content on water retention properties in soil. We employed a numerical model (HYDRUS-1D) to simulate ET_A in natural settings in northern Utah and southern Idaho during the …

Comparison Of Space-Plant Versus Sward Plot Selection In Thickspike Wheatgrass (Elymus Lanceolatus), Joseph G. Robins, Kevin B. Jensen

Forage and Range Research Laboratory Publications

Thickspike wheatgrass (Elymus lanceolatus [Scribn. & J.G. Sm.] Gould) is an important native perennial grass species used for rangeland revegetation in North America. Plant breeding efforts relying on space‐plant evaluations have resulted in limited improvement in this species. The purpose of this study was to characterize the performance of thickspike wheatgrass half‐sib families under space‐plant and sward plot evaluations, estimate the correlation between measured traits in both evaluation settings, and determine the validity of selecting thickspike wheatgrass for rangeland revegetation in the nontarget environment space‐plant plots. The study included 50 thickspike wheatgrass half‐sib families and five commercial cultivars and experimental …

Manure Application Timing Drives Energy Absorption For Snowmelt On An Agricultural Soil, Melanie N. Stock, Francisco J. Arriaga, Peter A. Vadas, Krishnapuram G. Karthikeyan

Plants, Soils, and Climate Faculty Publications

Reducing agricultural runoff year-round is important, in particular during snowmelt events on landscapes that receive wintertime applications of manure. To help inform manure guidelines, process-level data are needed that link management scenarios with the complexity of snowmelt, hence runoff. Albedo and radiative energy fluxes are strong drivers of thaw, but applying these mechanistic measurements across multiple, plot-scale management treatments over time presents a logistical challenge. The objective of this study was to first develop a practical field approach to estimate winter albedo in plot-scale field research with multiple management scenarios. The second objective was to quantify the radiative drivers of …

Use Of Auto-Germ To Model Germination Timing In The Sagebrush-Steppe, William C. Richardson, Dallin R. Whitaker, Kyler P. Sant, Nicholas S. Barney, Ryan S. Call, Bruce A. Roundy, Zachary T. Aanderud, Matthew D. Madsen

Articles

Germination timing has a strong influence on direct seeding efforts, and therefore is a closely tracked demographic stage in a wide variety of wildland and agricultural settings. Predictive seed germination models, based on soil moisture and temperature data in the seed zone are an efficient method of estimating germination timing. We utilized Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) to create Auto‐Germ, which is an Excel workbook that allows a user to estimate field germination timing based on wet‐thermal accumulation models and field temperature and soil moisture data. To demonstrate the capabilities of Auto‐Germ, we calculated various germination indices and modeled germination …

Crop Water Stress Index Of An Irrigated Vineyard In The Central Valley Of California, John H. Prueger, Christopher K. Parry, William P. Kustas, Joseph G. Alfieri, Maria M. Alsina, Héctor Nieto, Tiffany G. Wilson, Lawrence E. Hipps, Martha C. Anderson, Jerry L. Hatfield, Fen Gao, Lynn G. Mckee, Andrew Mcelrone, Nurit Agam, Sebastian A. Los

Plants, Soils, and Climate Faculty Publications

Water-limiting conditions in many California vineyards necessitate assessment of vine water stress to aid irrigation management strategies and decisions. This study was designed to evaluate the utility of a Crop Water Stress Index (CWSI) using multiple canopy temperature sensors and to study the diurnal signature in the stress index of an irrigated vineyard. A detailed instrumentation package comprised of eddy covariance instrumentation, ancillary surface energy balance components, soil water content sensors and a unique multi-canopy temperature sensor array were deployed in a production vineyard near Lodi, CA. The instrument package was designed to measure and monitor hourly growing season turbulent …

Urban Agriculture And Small Farm Water Use: Case Studies And Trends From Cache Valley, Utah, Tyler Pratt, L. Niel Allen, David E. Rosenberg, Andrew A. Keller, Kelly Kopp

Publications

The landscape of water in Utah is changing due to population growth, conversion of agricultural land to urban development, and increasing awareness of water scarcity. At the same time, Utah is experiencing a growing number of urban and small farms, but knowledge of water use in this sector is limited. Better understanding of what occurs at the field level on urban and small farms can aid state water use estimates and conservation efforts, and assist farmers in moving towards wiser water management. For the 2015 growing season, we performed irrigation evaluations for 24 urban and small farms in Cache Valley, …

Relative Salt Tolerance Of 22 Pomegranate (Punica Granatum) Cultivars, Youping Sun, Genhua Niu, Joseph G. Masabni, Girisha Ganjegunte

Plants, Soils, and Climate Faculty Publications

A greenhouse experiment was conducted to determine the relative salt tolerance of pomegranate (Punica granatum) cultivars. Twenty-two pomegranate cultivars were irrigated weekly with a saline solution at an electrical conductivity (EC) of 10.0 dS·m–1 for 4 weeks and subsequently with a saline solution at an EC of 15.0 dS·m–1 for another 3 weeks (salt treatment). Another group of uniform plants was watered with a nutrient solution without additional salts at an EC of 1.2 dS·m–1 (control). No visual foliar salt damage (leaf burn, necrosis, or discoloration) was observed during the entire experimental period; however, salt treatment impacted pomegranate growth negatively, …

Vegetation, Hydrologic, And Erosion Responses Of Sagebrush Steppe 9 Yr Following Mechanical Tree Removal, Christopher Jason Williams, Frederick B. Pierson, Patrick R. Kormos, Osama Z. Al-Hamdan, Sayjro K. Nouwakpo, Mark A. Weltz

Articles

Land managers across the western United States are faced with selecting and applying tree-removal treatments on pinyon (Pinus spp.) and juniper (Juniperus spp.) woodland-encroached sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) rangelands, but current understanding of long-term vegetation and hydrological responses of sagebrush sites to tree removal is inadequate for guiding management. This study applied a suite of vegetation and soil measures (0.5 − 990 m²), small-plot rainfall simulations (0.5 m²), and overland flow experiments (9 m²) to quantify the effects of mechanical tree removal (tree cutting and mastication) on vegetation, runoff, and erosion at …

Innovation In Rangeland Monitoring: Annual, 30 M, Plant Functional Type Percent Cover Maps For U.S. Rangelands, 1984-2017, Matthew O. Jones, Brady W. Allred, David E. Naugle, Jeremy D. Maestas, Patrick Donnelly, Loretta J. Metz, Jason Karl, Rob Smith, Brandon Bestelmeyer, Chad Boyd, Jay D. Kerby, James D. Mciver

Articles

Innovations in machine learning and cloud‐based computing were merged with historical remote sensing and field data to provide the first moderate resolution, annual, percent cover maps of plant functional types across rangeland ecosystems to effectively and efficiently respond to pressing challenges facing conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services. We utilized the historical Landsat satellite record, gridded meteorology, abiotic land surface data, and over 30,000 field plots within a Random Forests model to predict per‐pixel percent cover of annual forbs and grasses, perennial forbs and grasses, shrubs, and bare ground over the western United States from 1984 to 2017. Results were …

Resilience And Resistance In Sagebrush Ecosystems Are Associated With Seasonal Soil Temperature And Water Availability, Bruce A. Roundy, Jeanne C. Chambers, David A. Pyke, Richard F. Miller, Robin J. Tausch, Eugene W. Schupp, Benjamin Rau, Trevor Gruell

Articles

Invasion and dominance of exotic grasses and increased fire frequency threaten native ecosystems worldwide. In the Great Basin region of the western United States, woody and herbaceous fuel treatments are implemented to decrease the effects of wildfire and increase sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) ecosystem resilience to disturbance and resistance to exotic annual grasses. High cover of the exotic annual cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) after treatments increases fine fuels, which in turn increases the risk of passing over a biotic threshold to a state of increased wildfire frequency and conversion to cheatgrass dominance. Sagebrush ecosystem resilience to wildfire and resistance …

Resilience And Resistance In Sagebrush Ecosystems Are Associated With Seasonal Soil Temperature And Water Availability, Bruce A. Roundy, Jeanne C. Chambers, David A. Pyke, Richard F. Miller, Robin J. Tausch, Eugene W. Schupp, Ben Rau, Trevor Gruell

Ecology Center Publications

Invasion and dominance of exotic grasses and increased fire frequency threaten native ecosystems worldwide. In the Great Basin region of the western United States, woody and herbaceous fuel treatments are implemented to decrease the effects of wildfire and increase sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) ecosystem resilience to disturbance and resistance to exotic annual grasses. High cover of the exotic annual cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) after treatments increases fine fuels, which in turn increases the risk of passing over a biotic threshold to a state of increased wildfire frequency and conversion to cheatgrass dominance. Sagebrush ecosystem resilience to wildfire and resistance …

Spatial And Temporal Changes In Ecosystem Carbon Pools Following Juniper Encroachment And Removal, Heather L. Throop, Kate Lajtha

Articles

Proliferation of woody plants is a predominant global land cover change of the past century, particularly in dryland ecosystems. Woody encroachment and its potential impacts (e.g., livestock forage, wildlife habitat, hydrological cycling) have led to widespread brush management. Although woody plants may have substantial impacts on soils, uncertainty remains regarding woody encroachment and brush management influences on carbon (C) pools. Surface C pools (shallow soils and litter) may be particularly dynamic in response to encroachment and brush management. However, we have limited understanding of spatiotemporal patterns of surface C responses or how surface pools respond relative to aboveground C, litter, …

The Importance Of Marine Predators In The Provisioning Of Ecosystem Services By Coastal Plant Communities, Trisha B. Atwood, Edd Hammill

Ecology Center Publications

Food web theory predicts that current global declines in marine predators could generate unwanted consequences for many marine ecosystems. In coastal plant communities (kelp, seagrass, mangroves, and salt marsh), several studies have documented the far-reaching effects of changing predator populations. Across coastal ecosystems, the loss of marine predators appears to negatively affect coastal plant communities and the ecosystem services they provide. Here, we discuss some of the documented and suspected effects of predators on coastal protection, carbon sequestration, and the stability and resilience of coastal plant communities. In addition, we present a meta-analysis to assess the strength and direction of …

Aspen Recruitment In The Yellowstone Region Linked To Reduced Herbivory After Large Carnivore Restoration, Luke E. Painter, Robert L. Beschta, Eric J. Larsen, William J. Ripple

Aspen Bibliography

Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) recruitment during the 1980s–90s was suppressed by Rocky Mountain elk (Cervus canadensis) herbivory on winter ranges in the Yellowstone region, and saplings (young aspen taller than 2 m) were rare. Following the 1995–96 reintroduction of gray wolves (Canis lupus), browsing decreased and sapling recruitment increased in Yellowstone National Park. We compared aspen data from inside the park to data collected in three winter ranges outside the park. For most areas, the percentage of young aspen browsed annually was 80–100% in 1997–98, decreasing to 30–60% in 2011–15. Sapling recruitment was inversely …

Effects Of Stand Structure, Browsing, And Biophysical Conditions On Regeneration Following Mountain Pine Beetle In Mixed Lodgepole Pine And Aspen Forests Of The Southern Rockies, Kristen A. Pelz, Frederick W. Smith

Aspen Bibliography

Aspen (Populus tremuloides) and lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta var. latifolia) co-occur in the southern Rocky Mountains (USA), where mountain pine beetle (MPB, Dendroctonus ponderosae) has caused extensive lodgepole pine mortality since the late 1990s. Both species excel in post-disturbance high-light environments, but lodgepole pine has generally been thought to establish poorly on undisturbed seedbeds, and aspen suckering may be inhibited by intact aspen overstory. We ask whether lodgepole pine and aspen will regenerate in sufficient quantities to revegetate these forests. We visited a random sample of aspen and lodgepole pine stands across the affected landscape …

Mobile Elements Shape Plastome Evolution In Ferns, Tanner A. Robison, Amanda L. Grusz, Paul G. Wolf, Jeffrey P. Mower, Blake D. Fauskee, Karla Sosa, Eric Schuettpelz

Biology Faculty Publications

Plastid genomes display remarkable organizational stability over evolutionary time. From green algae to angiosperms, most plastid genomes are largely collinear, with only a few cases of inversion, gene loss, or, in extremely rare cases, gene addition. These plastome insertions are mostly clade-specific and are typically of nuclear or mitochondrial origin. Here, we expand on these findings and present the first family-level survey of plastome evolution in ferns, revealing a novel suite of dynamic mobile elements. Comparative plastome analyses of the Pteridaceae expose several mobile open reading frames that vary in sequence length, insertion site, and configuration among sampled taxa. Even …

Generalist And Specialist Mite Herbivores Induce Similar Defense Responses In Maize And Barley But Differ In Susceptibility To Benzoxazinoids, Huyen Bui, Robert Greenhalgh, Alice Ruckert, Gunbharpur S. Gill, Sarah Lee, Ricardo A. Ramirez, Richard M. Clark

Biology Faculty Publications

While substantial progress has been made in understanding defense responses of cereals to insect herbivores, comparatively little is known about responses to feeding by spider mites. Nevertheless, several spider mite species, including the generalist Tetranychus urticae and the grass specialist Oligonychus pratensis, cause damage on cereals such as maize and wheat, especially during drought stress. To understand defense responses of cereals to spider mites, we characterized the transcriptomic responses of maize and barley to herbivory by both mite species, and included a wounding control against which modulation of defenses could be tested. T. urticae and O. pratensis induced highly …

Low-Tech Riparian And Wet Meadow Restoration Increases Vegetation Productivity And Resilience Across Semiarid Rangelands, Nicholas L. Silverman, Brady W. Allred, John Patrick Donnelly, Teresa B. Chapman, Jeremy D. Maestas, Joseph Michael Wheaton, Jeff White, David E. Naugle

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

Restoration of riparian and wet meadow ecosystems in semiarid rangelands of the western United States is a high priority given their ecological and hydrological importance in the region. However, traditional restoration approaches are often intensive and costly, limiting the extent over which they can be applied. Practitioners are increasingly trying new restoration techniques that are more cost‐effective, less intensive, and can more practically scale up to the scope of degradation. Unfortunately, practitioners typically lack resources to undertake outcome‐based evaluations necessary to judge the efficacy of these techniques. In this study, we use freely available, satellite remote sensing to explore changes …

Silage Corn Hybrid Response To Row Width And Plant Density In The Intermountain West, Mark A. Pieper

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Corn (Zea mays L.) hectarage has increased rapidly in Utah and Idaho in recent years due to expansion of the dairy industry, but little is known about corn production practices that optimize yield and quality of silage corn in semi-arid irrigated cropping systems. The objective of this study was to determine the dry matter yield and quality effects of corn hybrids grown in different plant densities and row widths in the Intermountain West. Field experiments were conducted under irrigation in 2015 and 2016 at locations near North Logan, Utah and Jerome, Idaho. The experimental design was a randomized complete …

Utilizing Legumes To Improve Production And Nutritive Value Of Intermountain West Pastures, Jacob T. Briscoe

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Pastures in the Intermountain Western United States mainly consist of cool-season grasses which lack production without supplemental nitrogen. Legumes provide nitrogen at reduced cost compared to nitrogen fertilizer. There is a need for proven methods of inter-seeding legumes into existing cool-season grass pastures as well as knowledge of how animals prefer legumes to grasses and how the nutritive value of forages change throughout the growing season. This research provides a resource for effective integration of legumes into pastures of the Intermountain West. Alfalfa, birdsfoot trefoil, and cicer milkvetch were inter-seeded into existing cool-season grass pastures following pretreatments of light tillage, …

Pharmacologically Induced Meiosis Apomeiosis Interconversions In Boechera, Arabidopsis And Vigna, Lei Gao

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Apomixis is a clonal propagation method that produces offspring identical to the mother plant. With this feature, superior traits could be maintained over generations. However, our knowledge about apomixis is limited. In this study, we analyzed several apomictic Boechera embryologically to learn the details of apomixis. Meanwhile, we designed chemical treatments to successfully induce sex in apomictic plants and apomixis in sexual plants. Our experiments suggest that sex and apomixis coexist in plants and that sexual and apomictic reproduction are switchable by treating with specific chemicals.

El Niño-Southern Oscillation Complexity, Axel Timmermann, Soon-Il An, Jong-Seong Kug, Fei-Fei Jin, Wenju Cai, Antonietta Capotondi, Kim Cobb, Matthieu Lengaigne, Michal J. Mcphaden, Malte F. Stuecker, Karl Stein, Andrew T. Wittenberg, Kyung-Sook Yun, Tobias Bayr, Han-Ching Chen, Yoshimitsu Chikamoto, Et Al.

Plants, Soils, and Climate Faculty Publications

El Niño events are characterized by surface warming of the tropical Pacific Ocean and weakening of equatorial trade winds that occur every few years. Such conditions are accompanied by changes in atmospheric and oceanic circulation, affecting global climate, marine and terrestrial ecosystems, fisheries and human activities. The alternation of warm El Niño and cold La Niña conditions, referred to as the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), represents the strongest year-to-year fluctuation of the global climate system. Here we provide a synopsis of our current understanding of the spatio-temporal complexity of this important climate mode and its influence on the Earth system.

Fitness Consequences Of Interspecific Nesting Associations Among Cavity-Nesting Birds, James C. Mouton, Thomas E. Martin

Aspen Bibliography

Interspecific aggregations of prey may provide benefits by mitigating predation risk, but they can also create costs if they increase competition for resources or are more easily detectable by predators. Variation in predation risk and resource availability may influence the occurrence and fitness effects of aggregating in nature. Yet tests of such possibilities are lacking. Cavity-nesting birds provide an interesting test case. They compete aggressively for resources and experience low nest predation rates, which might predict dispersion, but across 19 years of study we found that they commonly aggregate by sharing nest trees. Tree sharing was more common when aspen …

Removal Of Invasive Plants From Pando Exclosure 2018, Marc Coles-Ritchie

Aspen Bibliography

On July 10-11, 2018 volunteers and staff from Great Old Broads for Wilderness and Grand Canyon Trust removed invasive plants from the Pando exclosure, a fenced portion of the Pando Clone aspen forest adjacent to Fish Lake, in Central Utah. This area has been fenced to restore a portion of the Pando Clone that has been lacking recruitment for decades, by protecting young aspen from browsing by deer and cattle. We have been removing invasive species for five years from this exclosure.

The 2018 trip included 10 women and one staffer of Great Old Broads for Wilderness, from the states …