Life Sciences Commons^™

Genetic Markers And Tree Properties Predicting Wood Biorefining Potential In Aspen (Populus Tremula) Bioenergy Feedstock, Sacha Escamez, Kathryn M. Robinson, Mikko Luomaranta, Madhavi Latha Gandla, Niklas Mähler, Zakiya Yassin, Thomas Grahn, Gerhard Scheepers, Lars-Göran Stener, Stefan Jansson, Leif J. Jönsson, Nathaniel R. Street, Hannele Tuominen

Aspen Bibliography

Background Wood represents the majority of the biomass on land and constitutes a renewable source of biofuels and other bioproducts. However, wood is recalcitrant to bioconversion, raising a need for feedstock improvement in production of, for instance, biofuels. We investigated the properties of wood that affect bioconversion, as well as the underlying genetics, to help identify superior tree feedstocks for biorefining.

Results We recorded 65 wood-related and growth traits in a population of 113 natural aspen genotypes from Sweden (https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.gtht76hrd). These traits included three growth and field performance traits, 20 traits for wood chemical composition, 17 traits for wood anatomy …

Less Fuel For The Next Fire? Short-Interval Fire Delays Forest Recovery And Interacting Drivers Amplify Effects, Kristin H. Braziunas, Nathan G. Kiel, Monica G. Turner

Aspen Bibliography

As 21st-century climate and disturbance dynamics depart from historic baselines, ecosystem resilience is uncertain. Multiple drivers are changing simultaneously, and interactions among drivers could amplify ecosystem vulnerability to change. Subalpine forests in Greater Yellowstone (Northern Rocky Mountains, USA) were historically resilient to infrequent (100–300 year), severe fire. We sampled paired short-interval (<30-year) and long-interval (>125-year) post-fire plots most recently burned between 1988 and 2018 to address two questions: (1) How do short-interval fire, climate, topography, and distance to unburned live forest edge interact to affect post-fire forest regeneration? (2) How do forest biomass and fuels vary following short-interval versus long-interval severe fires? …

Moderate Plant–Soil Feedbacks Have Small Effects On The Biodiversity–Productivity Relationship: A Field Experiment, Josephine Grenzer, Andrew Kulmatiski, Leslie Forero, Anne Ebeling, Nico Eisenhauer, Jeanette Norton

Wildland Resources Student Research

Plant–soil feedback (PSF) has gained attention as a mechanism promoting plant growth and coexistence. However, most PSF research has measured monoculture growth in greenhouse conditions. Translating PSFs into effects on plant growth in field communities remains an important frontier for PSF research. Using a 4-year, factorial field experiment in Jena, Germany, we measured the growth of nine grassland species on soils conditioned by each of the target species (i.e., 72 PSFs). Plant community models were parameterized with or without these PSF effects, and model predictions were compared to plant biomass production in diversity–productivity experiments. Plants created soils that changed subsequent …

Plant-Soil Feedbacks Help Explain Biodiversity-Productivity Relationships, Leslie E. Forero, Andrew Kulmatiski, Josephine Grenzer, Jeanette M. Norton

Wildland Resources Student Research

Species-rich plant communities can produce twice as much aboveground biomass as monocultures, but the mechanisms remain unresolved. We tested whether plant-soil feedbacks (PSFs) can help explain these biodiversity-productivity relationships. Using a 16-species, factorial field experiment we found that plants created soils that changed subsequent plant growth by 27% and that this effect increased over time. When incorporated into simulation models, these PSFs improved predictions of plant community growth and explained 14% of overyielding. Here we show quantitative, field-based evidence that diversity maintains productivity by suppressing plant disease. Though this effect alone was modest, it helps constrain the role of factors, …

A Synthesis Of The Effects Of Cheatgrass Invasion On Us Great Basin Carbon Storage, R. Chelsea Nagy, Emily J. Fusco, Jennifer K. Balch, John T. Finn, Adam Mahood, Jenica M. Allen, Bethany A. Bradley

Articles

1. Non-native, invasive Bromus tectorum (cheatgrass) is pervasive in sagebrush ecosystems in the Great Basin ecoregion of the western United States, competing with native plants and promoting more frequent fires. As a result, cheatgrass invasion likely alters carbon (C) storage in the region. Many studies have measured C pools in one or more common vegetation types: native sagebrush, invaded sagebrush and cheatgrass-dominated (often burned) sites, but these results have yet to be synthesized.
2. We performed a literature review to identify studies assessing the consequences of invasion on C storage in above-ground biomass (AGB), below-ground biomass (BGB), litter, organic soil and total …

Impacts Of Eutrophication On Benthic Invertebrates & Fish Prey Of Birds In Farmington And Bear River Bays Of Great Salt Lake, Trip Armstrong, Wayne A. Wurtsbaugh

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

Farmington Bay’s watershed is primarily in the heavily populated metropolitan Salt Lake City, and consequently, it receives approximately 50% of its inflow from nutrient‐ rich wastewater releases. The high nutrient loads make it eutrophic and reducing the loading has been suggested to reduce blooms of toxic cyanobacteria. However, the bay also supports thousands of wading birds and waterfowl, and there is concern that reducing nutrient inflows might reduce the production of bottom‐dwelling insects and other invertebrates that the birds rely upon.

Effects Of Seed Coating And Water Level On Alkali Bulrush Germination And Biomass, Anders Hart, Emily Martin

Research on Capitol Hill

Alkali bulrush (Bolboschoenus maritimus) is an important plant species in Great Salt Lake (GSL) wetlands. GSL managers are interested in restoring alkali bulrush following the removal of the invasive grass Phragmites australis. However, low moisture availability may hinder alkali bulrush germination, especially in light of continuing water diversions from GSL tributaries and ongoing climate change.

Surfactant seed coatings have aided the germination of upland plant species in restoration projects by increasing the water available for seeds. However, these coatings have not been tested on wetland species. In the project, we tested the effect of a surfactant seed …

Climate-Induced Gradients Of Populus Sp. Forest Biomass On The Territory Of Eurasia, Usoltev Vladimir Andreevich, Omid Shobairi, Chasovskikh Viktor Petrovich

Aspen Bibliography

On the basis of the compiled database in a number of 413 sample plots with determinations of forest biomass of the genus Populus sp. on the territory of Eurasia from France to southern China and Japan statistically significant transcontinental decreasing of stem, above ground and total biomass as in the direction from northern temperate to subequatorial zonal belt and in the direction from the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to the continentality pole in Siberia is established. Unlike wood story, understory biomass in these directions has not decreased, and increasing. The root: shoot ratio increases in the range between northern temperate …

Utilizing National Agriculture Imagery Program Data To Estimate Tree Cover And Biomass Of Piñon And Juniper Woodlands, April Hulet, Bruce A. Roundy, Steven L. Petersen, Stephen C. Bunting, Ryan R. Jensen, Darrell B. Roundy

Articles

With the encroachment of piñon (Pinus ssp.) and juniper (Juniperus ssp.) woodlands onto sagebrush steppe rangelands, there is an increasing interest in rapid, accurate, and inexpensive quantification methods to estimate tree canopy cover and aboveground biomass. The objectives of this study were 1) to evaluate the relationship and agreement of piñon and juniper (P-J) canopy cover estimates, using object-based image analysis (OBIA) techniques and National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP, 1-m pixel resolution) imagery with ground measurements, and 2) to investigate the relationship between remotely-sensed P-J canopy cover and ground-measured aboveground biomass. For the OBIA, we used eCognition® Developer …

Most Soil Trophic Guilds Increase Plant Growth: A Meta-Analytical Review, Andrew Kulmatiski, Andrew Anderson-Smith, Karen H. Beard, Stephen Doucette-Riise, Michael Mazzacavallo, Nicole E. Nolan, Ricardo A. Ramirez, John R. Stevens

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Trophic cascades are important drivers of plant and animal abundances in aquatic and aboveground systems, but in soils trophic cascades have been thought to be of limited importance due to omnivory and other factors. Here we use a meta-analysis of 215 studies with 1526 experiments that measured plant growth responses to additions or removals of soil organisms to test how different soil trophic levels affect plant growth. Consistent with the trophic cascade hypothesis, we found that herbivores and plant pathogens (henceforth pests) decreased plant growth and that predators of pests increased plant growth. The magnitude of this trophic cascade was …

A History Of Woodland Dynamics In The Owyhee’S: Encroachment, Stand Closure, Understory Dynamics, And Tree Biomass, Rick Miller, Jaime Ratchford, Dustin Johnson

Reports

Piñon and juniper woodlands in the cold desert of the Intermountain West occupy over 44.6 million acres (Miller and Tausch 2001). These woodlands are commonly associated with sagebrush communities forming a mosaic of shrub-steppe and woodland across the region. Numerous studies have documented the recent expansion (since the late 1800’s) of these woodlands that has resulted in the replacement of shrub-steppe communities. Recent debate has challenged the degree of expansion in terms of percent of new areas occupied by trees and the increase in total population of piñon and juniper since the late 1800’s. Various interest groups have become concerned …

Influence Of Forest Composition On Understory Cover In Boreal Mixedwood Forests Of Western Quebec, Sonia Legare, Yves Bergeron, David Pare

Aspen Bibliography

Forest overstory composition influences both light and nutrient availability in the mixed boreal forest. The influence of stand composition on understory cover and biomass was investigated on two soil types (clay and till deposits). Four forest composition types were considered in this study: aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.), paper birch (Betula papyrifera Marsh.), jack pine (Pinus banksiana Lamb.) and a mixture of balsam-fir (Abies balsamea (L.) Mill.) and white spruce (Picea glauca (Moench) Voss). The cover of all understory species was recorded while the biomass of two important and ubiquitous species was measured: mountain maple (Acer spicatum Lam.) of the shrub …

Carbon Allocation And Partitioning In Aspen Clones Varying In Sensitivity To Tropospheric Ozone, M.D. Coleman, R.E. Dickson, J.G. Isebrands, D.F. Karnosky

Aspen Bibliography

No abstract provided.

Aboveground Biomass And Production From 1938 To 1984 For Four Aspen Plots In Northern Lower Michigan, T.W. Jurik, G.M. Briggs, D.M. Gates

Aspen Bibliography

No abstract provided.

Natural Variation In Merchantable Stem Biomass And Volume Among Clones Of Populus Tremuloides Michx, G.A. Lehn, K.O. Higginbotham

Aspen Bibliography

No abstract provided.

Clone Expansion And Competition Between Quaking And Bigtooth Aspen Suckers After Clearcutting, Donald A. Perala

Aspen Bibliography

The ability of quaking and bigtooth aspens (Populus tremuloids Michx., P. grandidentata Michx.) to vegetatively regenerate dense stands of root sprouts (suckers) is well documented (Brinkman and Roe 1975). Tens of thousands of suckers per hectare are commonly produced when stands are killed by fire or removed by clearcutting.

Estimating Plant Biomass For Undergrowth Species Of Northeastern Minnesota Forest Communities, L.F. Ohmann, D.F. Grigal, L.L. Rogers

Aspen Bibliography

Knowledge of the plant biomass comprising a forest community is important to many aspects of multiple-use management. Direct measurement of biomass, however, is expensive and time-consuming to under-take each time biomass information would be useful. Fortunately, other measurements that can be made in the field less expensively or more easily can be used for estimating biomass.

The Wood And Bark Biomass And Production Of Populus Tremuloides, Abies Lasiocarpa And Picea Engelmannii In Northern Utah, George L. Zimmerman

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Thirty-two engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii) ranging in d.b.h. from 9.4 to 84.6 cm, twenty subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa) with d.b.h.'s from 8.1 to 58.8 cm, and twenty aspen (Populus tremuloides) ranging in d.b.h. from 4.5 to 48.2 cm. were destructively sampled in Northern Utah to construct wood and bark biomass and production prediction equations for above and below ground parts. These prediction equations were then applied to stand table data from 20 x 25 meter plots representing a sere that changes from subalpine meadow to aspen to fir to a 'climax' stand of spruce. …

The Influence Of Climate On Biomass And Mineralomass Of A Crested Wheatgrass Community In Northern Utah, Randall S. Shinn

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Aboveground biomass, litter biomass and root biomass of a crested wheatrgrass (Agropyron desertorum [Fisch.] Schult.) dominated community were inventoried in the fall of 1971, 1972, and 1973. In addition, energy, nitrogen, fats and ash determinations were made on the materials collected in 1972 and 1973.

The sampling methods used generated data sufficiently precise to detect significant differences (α = .10) among biomass components among years. The chemical contents of the components were similar in the fall of 1972 and the fall of 1973 despite the large differences in growing season precipitation.

A simple linear regression formula was generated from …

A Study Of Root Biomass In An Engeimann Spruce-Subalpine Fir Stand In Northern Utah, Larry O. Gadt

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Biomass of roots in the top 6 inches of soil profile was measured . This weight was then used in a stepwise multiple regression to test correlations between root biomass and above ground merisurational parameters.

Total biomass of all roots was 9822 ± 2810 pounds per acre oven dry. Spruce roots weighed 4417 ± 997 pounds per acre; of this spruce roots less than 0.125 inch diameter weighed 2023 ± 347 pounds per acre and biomass of spruce roots greater than 0.125 inch diameter was 2394 ± 8S3 pounds per acre. Total fir roots weighed Sl56 ± 2687 pounds per …