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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Environmental And Adaptive Buffers That Mediate The Response Of Subalpine Ecosystems To Environmental Change, Lafe G. Conner
Environmental And Adaptive Buffers That Mediate The Response Of Subalpine Ecosystems To Environmental Change, Lafe G. Conner
Theses and Dissertations
This document reports the results of 4 studies of subalpine ecosystem ecology, describing ways that spatial heterogeneity in soils and plant communities mediate ecosystem responses to environmental change. Ecosystem responses to environmental change are also mediated by regional climate patterns and interannual variability in weather. In the first chapter we report the results of an experiment to test for the mediating effects of associational resistance in a forest community that experienced wide-spread beetle kill. We found that Engelmann spruce were more likely to survive a beetle outbreak when growing in low densities (host dilution) and not through other types of …
Small Mammals In Portions Of Great Basin National Park Susceptible To Groundwater Withdrawal: Diversity And Stable Isotope Perspectives, Bryan T. Hamilton
Small Mammals In Portions Of Great Basin National Park Susceptible To Groundwater Withdrawal: Diversity And Stable Isotope Perspectives, Bryan T. Hamilton
Theses and Dissertations
To support population growth in Las Vegas, Nevada, large scale increases in groundwater pumping are planned across the state. This pumping could affect riparian areas in Great Basin National Park by lowering groundwater levels, reducing stream flows, and xerifying riparian vegetation. Great Basin National Park (GBNP) is mandated to manage its resources unimpaired for future generations. Loss of biodiversity is unacceptable under this mandate. If groundwater levels are reduced beyond a threshold, aquatic and riparian diversity would be lost, but the effects on small mammal communities are less clear. To provide baseline information and to consider the effects of groundwater …