Life Sciences Commons^™

Exploring The Impact Of Invasive On Grassland Diversity: A Study In Montana, Ella Gaffney

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

For the capstone project with the University of Montana Davidson Honors College, I investigated the diversity index of grassland and rangeland plots across the state of Montana. My study, conducted from June to August 2023, includes data collected by my team. The purpose of this research project was testing the hypothesis that the diversity index decreases in plots containing invasive grass species.

During the summer of 2023, the Spatial Analysis Lab surveyed over 1000 plots in rangelands and grasslands across the state of Montana to locate an invasive grass, Ventenata dubia. Data collected includes species identification, ocular estimates of …

Keeping What You Sow: Intellectual Property Rights For Plant Breeders And Seed Growers, Paulina B. Jenney

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Over the last 150 years, the food system in the present-day United States has undergone a transformational restructuring, from a diversified, decentralized, network of farmers and seed growers, to one in which the majority of crop production is controlled by a few industrial corporations. The consolidation of power has been under-girded by the application of intellectual property rights (IPR)—especially utility patents—to plant varieties and genetic traits, which are leveraged to exclude small-scale seed growers from accessing quality germplasm. Patents and restrictive licensing agreements recapitulate colonial structures by appropriating common and traditionally community-held resources for profit, and by creating reliance on …

Applying Resource Selection Probability Function (Rspf) To Understand Floral Resource Use By A Common Bumble Bee, Bombus Vancouverensis, Rebekah Brassfield

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Bumble bees (Hymenoptera: Bombus) are important pollinators in temperate ecosystems worldwide with seasonal caste variations involving queens, workers, and drones. Like all organisms, they must meet their nutrient requirements for successful growth and development by using several floral resources over time. When resource use is in greater proportion to its abundance on a landscape, that use is considered selective. To examine resource use within the context of abundance, a resource selection probability function (RSPF) was applied to examine floral resource use through a flowering season by a common bumble bee, Bombus vancouverensis. The RSPF framework was used to examine 1) …

Collaborative Conservation And Backcountry Weed Control: A Case Study Of The Great Burn Proposed Wilderness, Christopher James Prange

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Noxious weeds have become a management priority on public lands in the United States. Managing invasive weed populations in natural areas with complex ecosystems presents issues that need a systems-wide approach over long temporal and spatial scales. This broad-scale problem increasingly demands collaborative efforts. While collaborative conservation has become a tool in natural resource management during the 21^st century, it is less commonly applied in weed control in backcountry wilderness areas. Programs that have been initiated are understudied. Accordingly, this research was conducted through semi-structured interviews to gather perspectives of weed professionals involved in a collaborative backcountry weed program …

Ethnobotany Interpretive Signs At The Fort Missoula Native Plant Garden, Magalloway E. Gammons

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

This is a series of 11 ethnobotany interpretive signs for the Fort Missoula Native Plant Garden. The signs contain the name, identification information, Salish ethnobotanical uses, and an illustration of each plant. Names are listed in Latin, Salish, and common English. Featured plants: Ribes aureum, Prunus virginiana, Sambucus cerulea, Lewisia rediviva, Pinus ponderosa, Populus trichocarpa, Cornus sericea, Juniperus scopulorum, Mahonia repens, and Amelanchier alnifolia.

Impact Of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi On Conyza Canadensis Drought Responses And Possible Mechanisms, Kian G.M. Speck, Ylva Lekberg, Anna Sala

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

• Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are important plant mutualists that can facilitate plant responses to various environmental stressors, such as drought. A plant that may benefit from AMF-induced drought tolerance is Conyza canadensis due to its ability to thrive in dry conditions and its high colonization rate. However, no studies have researched C. canadensis in this context and the exact mechanisms of AMF-induced drought tolerance are still unknown.
• To better understand if and how AMF facilitate drought response in C. canadensis, we conducted a greenhouse experiment comparing the response of mycorrhizal and non-mycorrhizal plants to three watering levels. We measured …

An Exploration Of Ethnobotanically Significant Plants To The Native American Tribes Of Montana, Margaret Magee

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Ethnobotany is the study of the human uses of plants; for the Native Tribes of Montana these uses refer to everything from food, to ceremony, to medicine and everything in between. As a collaboration with the Payne Family Native American Center Ethnobotanical gardens, I conducted research on the various plants and their uses that are of particular significance to the 11 Tribes and 7 reservations across the state of MT. I collected information from first-hand experience working as an intern at the ethnobotanical garden, through discussions lead by Native ethnobotanists, and through extensive exploration of literature and plant identification manuals. …

Managing Forest Disturbances: Effects On Mule Deer And Plant Communities In Montana's Northern Forests, Teagan Ann Hayes

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) are frequently the focus of population and habitat management in the western United States. Land and wildlife managers use disturbance to reset forests to earlier successional stages and improve the quality and quantity of forage available to mule deer. However, the effects of management practices on nutrition and selection vary widely, so the implementation of management practices raises ecological as well as management-related concerns. This work investigated how disturbance from wildfire, prescribed fire, and timber harvest influences the spatial and temporal distribution of nutritional resources in mule deer summer range, and therefore, how the …

Recovering Our Roots: The Importance Of Salish Ethnobotanical Knowledge And Traditional Food Systems To Community Wellbeing On The Flathead Indian Reservation In Montana., Mitchell Rose Bear Don't Walk

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis provides a culturally-comprehensive review of the plants utilized for food in the Bitterroot Salish tribe of northwestern Montana. As part of the larger Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CS&KT) of the Flathead Indian Reservation, the Bitterroot Salish historically utilized hundreds of plants for food, medicine and hygiene. This thesis aims to highlight food plants and their important cultural components. The information herein is a combination of history, ethnography, linguistics, ethnobotany, and first-hand experience with the current Salish community to provide a holistic framework of understanding traditional food plants today. A comprehensive plant list is provided with Latin, Salish …

Conflicting Hydraulic Effects Of Xylem Pit Structure Relate To The Growth-Longevity Tradeoff In A Conifer Species, Beth Roskilly

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Consistent with a ubiquitous life history tradeoff, trees exhibit a negative relationship between growth and longevity among and within species. However, the mechanistic basis of this life history tradeoff is not well understood. In addition to tradeoffs among multiple traits based on resource allocation conflicts, life history tradeoffs may arise from tradeoffs based on single traits under opposing selection. While a myriad of factors likely contribute to the growth-longevity tradeoff in trees, we hypothesized that conflicting functional effects of xylem structural traits contribute to the growth-longevity tradeoff. We tested this hypothesis by examining the extent to which xylem morphological traits …

Does Timing Of Herbicide Use Influence Rates Of Germination Or Seedling Biomass Of Native Plants Used For Restoration?, Christine Mcmanamen

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Invasive plants can negatively impact native grasslands by changing their species composition, productivity, and function. Managers commonly use herbicides as a control method; however, this practice can lead to secondary invasion by other non-native invasive plants, unless measures are taken to promote natives. Because of this, managers often seed native plants after spraying herbicides. There is evidence, however, that chemical control of invasive plants may reduce the effectiveness of subsequent seed-addition treatments, but there is currently little quantitative information on optimal timing between spraying and seeding or on variation in herbicide sensitivity among native plants commonly used in seed mixes. …

¬Multilocus Phylogeny Of The Lichen Family Megasporaceae, Tim B. Wheeler

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The lichen symbiosis is one of the oldest studied mutualisms; in fact, Frank and De Bary coined the term "symbiosis" while studying lichens (Frank, 1877; De Bary 1879). The widespread, stable association between the mycobiont and photobiont in lichens offers an ideal system for the study of co-evolution. The recent application of molecular data to lichens has begun to unveil the complexities involved in these associations (Upreti et al. 2015, Spribille et al. 2016). Lichenized fungi make up a huge fraction of fungal diversity (Nash 2008), yet very little is known of their genetic diversity. Fungal taxonomy is notoriously difficult …

Nitrogen Pulses And Competition Between Native And Invasive Plant Species, Nicolas Matallana, Mandy L. Slate, Ragan M. Callaway

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Variation in the timing and size of resource fluctuations can influence how plants grow, allocate biomass, and reproduce. Resources are sometimes made available in relatively continuous, reliable pulses while other times they are temporally separated and unpredictable. Native and invasive plant species are thought to respond differently to resource fluctuations, or pulses, which can influence competitive outcomes. The “Fluctuating Resource Hypothesis” predicts that resource fluctuations benefit invasive species more than native species, potentially because many invaders are highly effective at rapidly capturing resources. In a field setting, we examined the effects of varying nitrogen pulses on competition between exotic invasive …

Responding To Soil Fungal Communities: A Look At Interactions Between Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi And The Common Yellow Monkeyflower, Mariah Mcintosh

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

The obligate fungal mutualists arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) colonize the roots approximately 80% of vascular plants, generally thought to provide mineral nutrition, pathogen protection, or drought resistance to plants in exchange for photosynthetic carbon. Because of the ecological and evolutionary significance of these interactions, much work has been done to understand this symbiosis at the community level. However, much remains to be understood about how AMF affect plant fitness on an individual level. In this study, we took advantage of the tractability of the emerging model species Mimulus guttatus, the common yellow monkeyflower, to identify genetic differences in how …

Drivers And Feedbacks Of The Fire-Grazing Interaction In The Northern Great Plains, Jacob E. Powell

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The fire-grazing interaction is well studied in mesic grasslands worldwide, but research is lacking in semiarid systems. In addition, the fire-grazing interaction reduces the invasion of exotic forage species in mesic grasslands by increasing the scale of grazing selection and may be a tool to control invasive plants in other grasslands. We examined the principal drivers and feedbacks of the fire-grazing interaction on the strength of cattle grazing selection, forage quantity and quality, and vegetation structure and composition in two pastures in northeast Montana at The Nature Conservancy’s Matador Ranch. We also determined the influence of time since fire, within …

Molecular Diversity Of Foliar Fungal Endophytes In Relation To Defense Strategies And Disease In Whitebark Pine, Lorinda Bullington

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

An invasive fungal pathogen, Cronartium ribicola (the causative agent of white pine blister rust) infects and kills whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) throughout the western US. Blister rust has decreased whitebark pine populations by over 90% in some areas. Whitebark pine, a keystone species, has been proposed for listing under the Endangered Species Act in the U.S., and the loss of this conifer is predicted to have severe impacts on forest composition and function in high elevations. Hundreds of asymptomatic fungal species live inside whitebark pine tissue, and recent studies suggest that these fungi can influence the frequency and …

Long-Term Impacts Of Fuel Treatments On Tree Growth And Aboveground Biomass Accumulation In Ponderosa Pine Forests Of The Northern Rocky Mountains, Kate A. Clyatt

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In western North America, many low-elevation, dry forest types historically experienced frequent, low-severity fires. However, European settlement and fire suppression policies have contributed to over a century of fire exclusion, substantially altering forest structure and composition. There is considerable interest in restoring fire resilient characteristics to these forests through fuel reduction treatments. One limitation of current research on the impacts of fuel treatments is treatment longevity, as few studies have been able to quantify long-term responses to commonly applied treatments. This research evaluated tree growth and aboveground biomass responses 23 years after treatment in two silvicultural installations with different underburning …

The Effects Of Compost And Polyacrylamide Hydrogel On The Re-Vegetation Of Eroded Southern Aspects In The Western Rangeland, Allison R. Klocke, David A. Stein

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

MPG Ranch is a conservation-oriented organization in Montana’s Bitterroot valley. Since 2010, MPG has annually planted between 5,000 and 10,000 shrubs and trees with the goal of restoring native plant communities, beautifying the landscape, and providing habitat and forage for wildlife. Plant survival has been lowest on degraded south facing slopes, likely due to a combination of erosion and high solar radiation, which have left the soil with low nutrient content, soil moisture, and high soil temperatures. To resolve these issues, we partnered with MPG to test whether soil amendments can be used to increase plant establishment on degraded hillslopes. …

Positive Interactions In Temperate And Tropical Alpine Plant Communities: The Role Of Facilitation In Species-Specific Interactions, Invasion, And Landscape-Scale Distribution, Nicole Hupp

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Decadal Scale Responses Of Soil And Ecosystem Processes To Forest Restoration In Rocky Mountain Conifer Forests, Peter Ganzlin

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Decades of fire suppression have left much of the forest in the intermountain western United States exceedingly dense, and forest restoration techniques – including thinning and prescribed fire – are increasingly being used in an attempt to mitigate the potentially disastrous effects of severe wildfire, to enhance tree growth and regeneration, and to stimulate soil nutrient cycling. While many of the short-term effects of forest restoration have been established, the long-term effects on soil biogeochemical and ecosystem processes are largely unknown. In this thesis I present two manuscripts documenting and synthesizing these long-term impacts. The first chapter focuses on the …

An Assessment Of Biochar Amended Soilless Media For Nursery Propagation Of Northern Rocky Mountain Native Plants, Clarice P. Matt

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

A study was conducted to better inform nursery practitioners of the potential benefits of biochar application in common nursery media for native plant propagation. Biochar – a carbon-rich, recalcitrant charred organic co-product of the bioenergy pyrolysis process – has emerged as a promising potential replacement for various components of soilless media, namely peat, perlite, and vermiculite, in nursery seedling propagation. A strong conceptual basis exists for biochar as a nursery media amendment, but empirical data on biochar-based plant propagation is limited. This greenhouse study examined the effects of biochar displacement of standard soilless nursery media at rates of 0%, 15%, …