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Life Sciences Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

2009

University of Montana

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Articles 1 - 3 of 3

Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Controls Over Leaf Litter Decomposition In Wet Tropical Forests, William R. Wieder, Cory C. Cleveland, Alan R. Townsend Jan 2009

Controls Over Leaf Litter Decomposition In Wet Tropical Forests, William R. Wieder, Cory C. Cleveland, Alan R. Townsend

Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences Faculty Publications

Tropical forests play a substantial role in the global carbon (C) cycle and are projected to experience significant changes in climate, highlighting the importance of understanding the factors that control organic matter decomposition in this biome. In the tropics, high temperature and rainfall lead to some of the highest rates of litter decomposition on earth, and given the near-optimal abiotic conditions, litter quality likely exerts disproportionate control over litter decomposition. Yet interactions between litter quality and abiotic variables, most notably precipitation, remain poorly resolved, especially for the wetter end of the tropical forest biome. We assessed the importance of variation …


Assemblage Of Hymenoptera Arriving At Logs Colonized By Ips Pini (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) And Its Microbial Symbionts In Western Montana, Celia K. Boone, Diana Six, Steven J. Krauth, Kenneth F. Raffa Jan 2009

Assemblage Of Hymenoptera Arriving At Logs Colonized By Ips Pini (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) And Its Microbial Symbionts In Western Montana, Celia K. Boone, Diana Six, Steven J. Krauth, Kenneth F. Raffa

Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences Faculty Publications

Colonization of a tree by bark beetles and their symbionts creates a new habitat for a diverse assemblage of arthropods, including competing herbivores, xylophages, fungivores, saprophages, predators, and parasitoids. Understanding these assemblages is important for evaluating nontarget effects of various management tactics and for subsequently evaluating how changes in climate, the presence of invasive species, and altered forestry practices and land-use tenure may affect biodiversity. We characterized the assemblage of hymenopterans attracted to logs of ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa C. Lawson (Pinaceae)) colonized by the bark beetle Ips pini (Say) and its microbial symbionts. In one experiment, the composition and …


Transport Of Fungal Symbionts By Mountain Pine Beetles, K. P. Bleiker, S. E. Potter, C. R. Lauzon, Diana Six Jan 2009

Transport Of Fungal Symbionts By Mountain Pine Beetles, K. P. Bleiker, S. E. Potter, C. R. Lauzon, Diana Six

Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences Faculty Publications

The perpetuation of symbiotic associations between bark beetles (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) and ophiostomatoid fungi requires the consistent transport of fungi by successive beetle generations to new host trees. We used scanning electron microscopy and culture methods to investigate fungal transport by the mountain pine beetle (MPB), Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins. MPB transports its two main fungal associates, Grosmannia clavigera (Robinson-Jeffrey and Davidson) Zipfel, de Beer and Wingfield and Ophiostoma montium (Rumbold) von Arx, in sac-like mycangia on the maxillary cardines as well as on the exoskeleton. Although spores of both species of fungi were observed on MPB exoskeletons, often in pits, …