Life Sciences Commons^™

Conservation Easements: A Tool For Preserving Wildlife Habitat On Private Lands, Robin M. Rotman, Sarah A. Brown, Michael A. Powell, Sonja A. Wilhelm Stanis

Faculty Publications

Conservation easements are an essential tool for conserving private lands, and they have great potential for enhancing wildlife habitat and biodiversity. Private land conservation in the United States is likely to increase in the coming years, in light of Executive Order No. 14,008, issued by President Joseph Biden on January 27, 2021, which set a goal of conserving at least 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030 (Executive Office of the President 2021). There is, therefore, a need to evaluate the effect of conservation easements on wildlife habitat and biodiversity and to make recommendations for further enhancing the effectiveness …

Biodiversity And You., Garth Woodruff

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Relationships Between Herbaceous Diversity And Biomass In Two Habitats In Arid Mediterranean Rangeland, Mohammad N. Alhamad, Brian P. Oswald, Mohammad M. Bataineh, Mohammad A. Alrababah, Mohammad M. Gharaibeh

Faculty Publications

Plant diversity patterns vary across the landscape. This study was conducted to answer the question: What is the pattern of species diversity (α and β) along an abstract productivity/cover gradient at two topographical positions (Wadi (a depression with overland flow) and hilltop) of a Mediterranean herbaceous plant community in Jordan? Results indicated that the less productive hilltop localities exhibited higher species richness than the more productive Wadi localities. Species richness exhibited a unimodal relationship with aboveground biomass within Wadis whereas a positive linear relationship was revealed for hilltops. Within Wadis, abundant species did not show a significant relationship with productivity …

Selection For Salt Tolerance In Tidal Freshwater Swamp Species: Advances Using Bald Cypress As A Model For Restoration (Chapter 14), David Creech

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Shorebird Breeding Biology In Wetlands Of The Playa Lakes, Texas, Usa, Warren C. Conway, Loren M. Smith

Faculty Publications

Wetlands in the Playa Lakes Region of Texas are important habitats for North American wintering waterfowl and migrant shorebirds. However, shorebird breeding biology has been overlooked in characterizing the region’s ecological importance. In 1998 and 1999, American Avocet (Recurvirostra americana), Black-necked Stilt ( Himantopus mexicanus ), Killdeer (Charadrius vociferous), and Snowy Plover (C. alexandrinus) breeding ecology were studied in playas, saline lakes, and riparian wetlands in the Playa Lakes Region of Texas. Chronology of nest initiation, clutch sizes, and hatching success for 298 Snowy Plover, 111 American Avocet, 43 Killdeer, and 26 Blacknecked Stilt …

Avian Use Of Chinese Tallow Seeds In Coastal Texas (Abstract), Warren C. Conway

Faculty Publications

The Chinese tallow tree (Sapium sebiferum) (Euphorbiaceae) was introduced into coastal Texas in the late 1800s and forms monotypic woodlands once naturalized. However, few studies have examined avian use of tallow seeds during fall migration in coastal Texas. We documented use of Chinese tallow seeds and compared foraging frequency on Chinese tallow seeds among permanent, summer, and winter residents and migrants. We also tested the hypothesis that Chinese tallow seed germination was enhanced by foraging activities of yellow-rumped warblers (Dendroica coronata), the most common species observed foraging on tallow seeds. During fall migration 1995 and 1996, …

Seed Security For Food Security, Mutizwa Mkute, Doreen Mnyulwa, Sarah Kimakwa

Faculty Publications

'Farmers' dependence on agro-companies for agricultural inputs has been growing in east and southern Africa and beyond. At the same time, local and indigenous knowledge about seed selection, saving and multiplying has been lost.

This manual for development workers outlines traditional and current methods of saving seed. It begins with some basic ground rules for working with communities. The second section gives a comprehensive guide to different ways of propagating plants and saving seed from a full range of common crops and trees. Finally, the third part offers a brief outline of the background history and the current issues and …

Life In A Pine Cone, David L. Kulhavy

Faculty Publications

This exercise focuses on a little-known microhabitat -- the pine cone. A pine cone's primary function is, of course, reproduction ... housing the seeds of the next generation of conifer trees. However, pine cones are also the basis of a food web that provides both resources and living space for a wide variety of small arthropod species. The procedure outlined below is designed to examine this microhabitat and compare its community diversity among different species of conifers and habitats.

The exercise is based on a 1985 paper, Life in a Pine Cone, by David L. Kulhavy, Robert S. Baldridge and …

Grounds For Argument: Local Understandings, Science, And Global Processes In Special Forest Products Harvesting, Thomas Love, Eric Jones

Faculty Publications

In posing the question "Where are the pickers?", Love and Jones suggest that the shifting paradigm in forestry is real and that academia is not leading the shift. Love and Jones illustrate the emergence of special forest products' legitimacy in competing uses of forests with their experience and research in mushroom harvesting in the Pacific Northwest.

Some Cultivated Plants In Ndumba, Eastern Highlands Province, Terence E. Hays

Faculty Publications

This paper reports on the cultivation and uses of 47 species of minor food crops and other useful plants in Habi'ina village, a Tairora speaking community in the Eastern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea.