Life Sciences Commons^™

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 …

Effect Of Foliage And Root Carbon Quantity, Quality, And Fluxes On Soil Organic Carbon Stabilization In Montane Aspen And Conifer Stands In Utah, Antra Boča

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Soil organic carbon (SOC) positively affects many soil properties (e.g., fertility and water holding capacity), and the amount of carbon (C) in soil exceeds the amount in the atmosphere by about three times. Forest soils store as much C as is found in trees. Tree species differ in their effect on SOC pools. Quaking aspen forests in the Western US often store more stable SOC in the mineral soil than nearby conifers. During the last decades a decline in aspen cover, often followed by conifer encroachment, has been documented. A shift from aspen to conifer overstories may negatively affect the …

Comparison Of Water Dynamics In Aspen And Conifer: Implications For Ecology Water Yield Augmentation, Eric Martin Lamalfa

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Differences in water dynamics between deciduous aspen (Populus tremuloides) and co-occurring evergreen conifer species in the Northern Rocky Mountains result from complex physical and biological interactions. A comprehensive evaluation of individual water transfer mechanisms was used to elucidate the relative importance of several components of the hydro logic cycles of aspen and conifer, and determine which water transfer mechanisms have potential to cause differences in net water yield.

Adjacent aspen and conifer stands were monitored to determine snow accumulation and ablation (snow survey), soil moisture recharge (capacitance probes), snowpack sublimation (sublimation pan), transpiration period (thermal dissipation probes), and …