Life Sciences Commons^™

Numerical Techniques For Classifying Forest Communities In The Tennessee Valley, Dennis Michael Mccarthy

Doctoral Dissertations

The main objectives of this study were:

1. To develop a series of vegetational classification systems based on the floristics of community strata, overstory structural functional features, and environmental parameter of a region typical of the temperate Tennessee Valley;

2. To examine the suitability of these classification systems for the complex forests of the Tennessee Valley;

3. To develop numerical tools for evaluating classification suitability;

4. To use these tools to seek out natural discontinuities in vegetational patterns.

To achieve these goals six multivariate cluster analysis programs were examined. Preliminary tests brought out undesirable properties in four of them, however, …

Movements And Activities Of The Black Bear (Ursus Americanus) In The Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Alton Louis Eubanks

Masters Theses

This study was conducted on the Tennessee side of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park west of U.S. 441. The region is mountainous, with diverse habitats and considerable variation in temperature and precipitation. The major objectives were to describe bear movements and activities using radioisotopes and radiotelemetry, to determine diel activity patterns, and to evaluate selected radioisotopes as possible feces tags.

In September of 1974, two penned bears were injected with ⁶⁰Co or ¹³⁴Cs. Results of an earlier study using ¹⁰⁹Cd and ¹⁴⁴Ce were evaluated. All isotopes appear unsatisfactory as suitable feces tags.

From June through …

Comparison Of Fish And Benthic Faunal Compositions In Polluted And Pristine Forks Of A Mountain River, Lynn Betson Starnes

Masters Theses

The little Pigeon River in Sevier County, Tennessee presents a near ideal situation for the study of the effects of domestic sewage on species composition in a mountain river. The little Pigeon system has two principal components, the West and Middle Prongs. The West Prong is polluted by municipal effluent from Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, while the Middle Prong remains relatively pristine. Physicgraphically, the two prongs are strikingly similar. The great similarity of natural physical and chemical water quality parameters presents an opportunity to use the pristine prong as a control for the study of changes, probably resulting from pollution, …