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Evaluation Of Merra Land Surface Estimates In Preparation For The Soil Moisture Active Passive Mission, Yonghong Yi, John S. Kimball, Lucas A. Jones, Rolf H. Reichle, Kyle C. Mcdonald

Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group Publications

The authors evaluated several land surface variables from the Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) product that are important for global ecological and hydrological studies, including daily maximum (T_max) and minimum (T_min) surface air temperatures, atmosphere vapor pressure deficit (VPD), incident solar radiation (SW_rad), and surface soil moisture. The MERRA results were evaluated against in situ measurements, similar global products derived from satellite microwave [the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for Earth Observing System (EOS) (AMSR-E)] remote sensing and earlier generation atmospheric analysis [Goddard Earth Observing System version 4 (GEOS-4)] products. …

The Forgotten Stage Of Forest Succession: Early-Successional Ecosystems On Forest Sites, Mark E. Swanson, Jerry F. Franklin, Robert L. Beschta, Charles M. Crisafulli, Dominick A. Dellasala, Richard L. Hutto, David B. Lindenmaver, Frederick J. Swanson

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Early-successional forest ecosystems that develop after stand-replacing or partial disturbances are diverse in species, processes, and structure. Post-disturbance ecosystems are also often rich in biological legacies, including surviving organisms and organically derived structures, such as woody debris. These legacies and post-disturbance plant communities provide resources that attract and sustain high species diversity, including numerous early-successional obligates, such as certain woodpeckers and arthropods. Early succession is the only period when tree canopies do not dominate the forest site, and so this stage can be characterized by high productivity of plant species (including herbs and shrubs), complex food webs, large nutrient fluxes, …

An Ecosystem-Scale Model For The Spread Of A Host-Specific Forest Pathogen In The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, Jaclyn A. Hatala, Michael C. Dietze, Robert L. Crabtree, Katherine Kendall, Diana Six, Paul R. Moorcroft

Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences Faculty Publications

The introduction of nonnative pathogens is altering the scale, magnitude, and persistence of forest disturbance regimes in the western United States. In the high-altitude whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) forests of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE), white pine blister rust (Cronartium ribicola) is an introduced fungal pathogen that is now the principal cause of tree mortality in many locations. Although blister rust eradication has failed in the past, there is nonetheless substantial interest in monitoring the disease and its rate of progression in order to predict the future impact of forest disturbances within this critical ecosystem.

This …

Puma Dispersal Ecology In The Central Rocky Mountains, Jesse R. Newby

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The structuring of populations within a metapopulation, connected through dispersal, is important to basic and applied ecology. However, a considerable gap exists in our knowledge of the influence landscape heterogeneity has on dispersal and its consequences. We examined landscape effects on dispersal and its consequences for puma (Puma concolor) populations using data from three separate populations in the Central Rocky Mountains including the Northern Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (NGYE), the Southern Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (SGYE) and the Garnet Mountains of Montana. We found human-induced mortality reduced inter-population vital rates with population consequences. The NGYE population was dependent largely on immigration for …

Fifty Years On The Fringe: Murray Bookchin And The American Revolutionary Tradition, 1921-1971, Aaron David Hyams

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Hyams, Aaron, M.A., Spring 2011 History Fifty Years on the Fringe: Murray Bookchin and the American Revolutionary Tradition 1921-1971 Chairperson: Dr. Michael Mayer Murray Bookchin was an American revolutionary and political theorist born in New York City in 1921. His career as both an activist and a theorist through the thirties, forties, fifties and sixties, made him an active participant and influential voice for both the American Old Left, and the New Left. Writing for Contemporary Issues, a left wing journal edited by Josef Weber, Bookchin became an important part of the schismatic Left, a loose conglomeration of Marxist and …

Multiscale Effects Of Forest Roads On Black Bears (Ursus Americanus), Benjamin S. Jimenez

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

As the vast network of roads continues to expand across the continent, so too does the necessity to understand the associated ecological effects. To appropriately assess the impacts of these roads on wildlife it is necessary to evaluate how they affect ecological processes at multiple spatial and temporal scales. In particular, where hunting is associated with road access, roads may induce heightened behavioral responses. I assessed the effects of forest roads on habitat selection and activity patterns of a population of black bears (Ursus americanus) in the Coeur d’Alene Mountains of northern Idaho, USA. This black bear population is exposed …

Experimental Litterfall Manipulation Effects On Soil Bacterial Community Structure And Soil Carbon Cycling In A Wet Tropical Forest, Jonathan Winston Leff

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Global changes such as increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations or climate change are likely to drive shifts in plant-derived carbon (C) inputs to terrestrial ecosystems via changes in litterfall and plant net primary production (NPP). However, the effects of shifting detrital C inputs on belowground microbial community function, C cycling and fluxes remain largely unknown, especially in tropical forest ecosystems. To investigate how shifts in bacterial community composition resulting from differences in C availability affect organic matter decomposition and how soil C pools and fluxes respond to shifts in C inputs, I utilized an in situ litter manipulation experiment …