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Conservation Insights For Endemic Alpine Plants (Nabalus Spp.) Facing Global Environmental Change, Kristen Haynes
Conservation Insights For Endemic Alpine Plants (Nabalus Spp.) Facing Global Environmental Change, Kristen Haynes
Dissertations and Theses
Amid the current global biodiversity crisis spurred by anthropogenic environmental changes, determining conservation priorities and the extinction vulnerability of rare taxa are tasks of critical importance. Organisms can avoid environmental change-induced extinction through three possible response modes: evolutionary adaptation, migration (range shift), and tolerance through phenotypic plasticity. In this dissertation, I leveraged transplant experiments and population genomics to assess the ability of rare alpine rattlesnake-roots (Nabalus spp.) to adapt, migrate, and/or tolerate environmental change. I also employed these same techniques to define conservation units and priorities within two endemic alpine taxa (Nabalus boottii and Nabalus trifoliolatus var. nanus) and ...
Fine-Scale Microclimatic Controls On Soil Carbon Dioxide Fluxes In A Northern Hardwood Forest, Will Saunders
Fine-Scale Microclimatic Controls On Soil Carbon Dioxide Fluxes In A Northern Hardwood Forest, Will Saunders
Dissertations and Theses
Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from soil are typically the largest carbon flux from forest ecosystems to the atmosphere, representing a significant biogenic source of greenhouse gases. Although the temperature and moisture sensitivities of the respiration processes underlying soil CO2 fluxes are well studied, the impacts of a changing climate on these abiotic controls and the resulting soil flux responses are unresolved. Using in-situ continuous measurements of soil microclimate at sites with contrasting hydrology, this study assessed the temperature and moisture dependence of soil CO2 fluxes within hardwood forests of the Adirondack Mountains in northern New York State (USA). During the ...