Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons^™

Mixed Species Plantations: Prospects And Challenges, J Doland Nichols, Mila Bristow, Jerome K. Vanclay

Professor Jerome K Vanclay

About 2% of English-language literature on plantations deals with mixed-species plantations, but only a tiny proportion (<0.1%) of industrial plantations are polycultures. Small landholders are more innovative, with 12% of Australia’s farm forestry plantations under mixed-species plantings, and 80% of Queensland’s farm forestry as polycultures. We examine reasons for this discrepancy, and explore the history, silviculture and economics of polycultures. Financial analyses suggest that a yield stimulus of 10%, depending on product and rotation length, may be sufficient to offset increased costs associated with planting and managing a mixed-species plantation, a stimulus that has been demonstrated in many field …

Genetic Structure Of East Antarctic Populations Of The Moss Ceratodon Purpureus, L. J. Clarke, D. J. Ayre, Sharon A. Robinson

Sharon Robinson

The capacity of the polar flora to adapt is of increasing concern given current and predicted environmental change in these regions. Previous genetic studies of Antarctic mosses have been of limited value due to a lack of variation in the markers or non-specificity of the methods used. We examined the power of five microsatellite loci developed for the cosmopolitan moss Ceratodon purpureus to detect genetically distinct clones and infer the distribution of clones within and among populations from the Windmill Islands, East Antarctica. Our microsatellite data suggest extraordinarily high levels of variation reported in RAPD studies were artificially elevated by …

Mixed-Species Plantation Of Eucalyptus With Nitrogen Fixing Trees: A Review, David I. Forrester, Jürgen Bauhus, Annette L. Cowie, Jerome K. Vanclay

Professor Jerome K Vanclay

Mixed-species plantations of Eucalyptus with a nitrogen (N2) fixing species have the potential to increase productivity while maintaining soil fertility, compared to Eucalyptus monocultures. However, it is difficult to predict combinations of species and sites that will lead to these benefits. We review the processes and interactions occurring in mixed plantations, and the influence of species or site attributes, to aid the selection of successful combinations of species and sites. Successful mixtures, where productivity is increased over that of monocultures, have often developed stratified canopies, such that the less shade-tolerant species overtops the more shade-tolerant species. Successful mixtures also have …

Growth And Species Interactions Of Eucalyptus Pellita In A Mixed And Monoculture Plantation In The Humid Tropics Of North Queensland, Mila Bristow, Jerome K. Vanclay, Lyndon O. Brooks, Mark Hunt

Professor Jerome K Vanclay

This study investigated whether mixed-species designs can increase the growth of a tropical eucalypt when compared to monocultures. Monocultures of Eucalyptus pellita (E) and Acacia peregrina (A) and mixtures in various proportions (75E:25A, 50E:50A, 25E:75A) were planted in a replacement series design on the Atherton Tablelands of north Queensland, Australia. High mortality in the establishment phase due to repeated damage by tropical cyclones altered the trial design. Effects of experimental designs on tree growth were estimated using a linear mixed effects model with restricted maximum likelihood analysis (REML). Volume growth of individual eucalypt trees were positively affected by the presence …

Forest Dynamics In Flood Plain Forests In The Peruvian Amazon: Effects Of Disturbance And Implications For Management, Gustav Nebel, Lars Peter Kvist, Jerome K. Vanclay, Hector Vidaurre

Professor Jerome K Vanclay

Forest dynamics were studied from 1993 to 1997 for individuals > 10 cm DBH in nine 1 ha permanent sample plots. They were established in natural flood plain forests located on the lower Ucayali river in the Peruvian Amazon. After inventories of three plots in each of three forest types, a light and a heavy felling treatment were applied to each of the two plots, while a third plot was kept untreated. Average annual stem mortality and recruitment rates in the untreated plots were among the highest observed in neotropical rain forests: mortality 2.2-3.2% per year, recruitment 3.0-4.6% per year. Dead …

Experiment Designs To Evaluate Inter- And Intra-Specific Interactions In Mixed Plantings Of Forest Trees, Jerome K. Vanclay

Professor Jerome K Vanclay

A review of three mixed-species trials reveals the utility of competition indices for evaluating inter- and intra-specific interactions between trees, the desirability of experiments that span a range of tree spacing and composition to inform calibration of these competition indices, the need for extremes of species composition and stand density to calibrate response surfaces, and the far-reaching impact of edge-effects. Experiment layouts commonly used for mixed-species trials in forestry (such as replacement series) rarely provide a strong basis to calibrate competition indices and response surfaces. Alternative designs involving systematic changes in species composition may offer a better basis for calibrating …

Octopus Insularis (Octopodidae), Evidences Of A Specialized Predator And A Time-Minimizing Hunter, Tatiana S. Leite, Manuel Haimovici, Jennifer A. Mather

Sentience Collection

Shallow-water octopuses have been reported as major predators of motile species in benthonic marine communities, capturing their prey by different foraging techniques. This study assessed for the first time the feeding ecology, foraging behavior, and defensive strategy during foraging, including the use of body patterns, to construct a general octopus foraging strategy in a shallow water-reef system. Octopus insularis was studied in situ using visual observations and video recordings. The diet included at least 55 species of crustaceans (70%), bivalves (17.5%), and gastropods (12.5%); however, only four species accounted for half of the occurrences: the small crabs Pitho sp. (26.8%) …

The Very Basics Of Sustainability - An Alternative Viewpoint (Slides With Audio) (Large File! To Speed Up Download, Right-Click On "Download" Link To Save To Own Pc.), Jim Mcgovern

Other resources

This presentation sets out the very basics of ‘sustainability’, although a definition of sustainability is not attempted. Some of the very basics are the context in which the Earth and humankind exist in space and time, the Earth’s climate, the Earth’s population and humankind’s options and choices. The author advocates keeping an open mind on all available options, including the use of oil, gas, coal, tar sands, carbon capture and sequestration, nuclear power etc., as well as the technologies that are more widely considered ‘green’. The author also argues that, in addressing the challenges that humankind faces, globally concerted effort …

Effects Of Selection For Cooperation And Attention In Dogs, Márta Gácsi, Paul Mcgreevy, Edina Kara, Ádám Miklósi

Cooperative Behavior Collection

Background: It has been suggested that the functional similarities in the socio-cognitive behaviour of dogs and humans emerged as a consequence of comparable environmental selection pressures. Here we use a novel approach to account for the facilitating effect of domestication in dogs and reveal that selection for two factors under genetic influence (visual cooperation and focused attention) may have led independently to increased comprehension of human communicational cues.

Method: In Study 1, we observed the performance of three groups of dogs in utilizing the human pointing gesture in a two-way object choice test. We compared breeds selected to work while …

E-Science @ Umass: Anticipating And Supporting E-Science Activities At The University Of Massachusetts, Maxine G. Schmidt, Rebecca Reznik-Zellen

Maxine G Schmidt

In March of 2008 an Ad Hoccommittee of Science Librarians from the University of Massachusetts Five Campus System convened to discuss the challenges of e-science and prepare the Libraries for their role in e-science initiatives. Three primary outcomes intended to support e-science activities emerged from the work of the Ad Hoc committee.

Nevada Interagency Volunteer Program: Helping Hands Across Public Lands – Phase Ii: Annual Progress Report, Period Covering July 1, 2008 - June 30, 2009, Margaret N. Rees

Get Outdoors Nevada

• From July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009 the Volgistic database has increased the number of records by 20% containing a total 6,226 records at the end of this period.
• Website activity this year averaged 63,590 hits per month, with an average of 5,290 pages viewed per month.
• The IVP team presented a summary of their accomplishments to the SNAP board.
• The team attended 13 community outreach events resulting in 2,501 direct contacts and 394 new mailing list records.
• How to Succeed with Volunteers training was held for SNAP personnel.
• The IVP team met with four SNAP teams to develop …

Incorporating Fairness Motives Into The Impulse Balance Equilibrium And Quantal Response Equilibrium Concepts: An Application To 2x2 Games, Alessandro Tavoni

Alessandro Tavoni

Substantial evidence has accumulated in recent empirical works on the limited ability of the Nash equilibrium to rationalize observed behavior in many classes of games played by experimental subjects. This realization has led to several attempts aimed at finding tractable equilibrium concepts which perform better empirically; one such example is the impulse balance equilibrium (Selten, Chmura, 2008), which introduces a psychological reference point to which players compare the available payoff allocations. This paper is concerned with advancing two new, empirically sound, concepts: equity-driven impulse balance equilibrium (EIBE) and equity-driven quantal response equilibrium (EQRE): both introduce a distributive reference point to …

Loss Of Shoaling Preference For Familiar Individuals In Captive-Reared Crimson Spotted Rainbowfish Melanotaenia Duboulayi, Erin Kydd, Culum Brown

Sentience Collection

Captive-reared rainbowfish Melanotonia duboulayi showed no preference for familiar individuals in an experiment examining shoaling preferences. Fortnightly re-examination of the shoaling preferences of the captive-reared population showed that the lack of preference for familiar individuals did not alter over an 8 week period. The same experiment performed on laboratory-reared offspring raised in isolated groups for 8 months since hatching also showed no preference for shoals consisting of familiar individuals. In contrast, trials performed on a wild population of M. duboulayi found a strong preference for familiar shoalmates, a result that is consistent with previous studies. The lack of shoaling preferences …

Interagency Science And Research: Final Project Report, Jennell M. Miller, Craig J. Palmer, Margaret N. Rees

Interagency Science and Research Strategy

The major accomplishment of this project was the development of the SNAP Science and Research Strategy: an 11-chapter document designed to integrate and coordinate scientific research programs in Southern Nevada and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of these programs. The Strategy is intended to inform and guide SNAP agencies in identifying and articulating highest priority science and research needs, sharing resources and funds from other sources, and eliminating redundancy between research programs within their focus areas. The major focus areas of the Strategy are Fire, Invasive Species, Watersheds and Landscapes, Biodiversity, Cultural Resources, Historic Content, Recreation, Land Use, and Education. …

Adult-Young Ratio, A Major Factor Regulating Social Behaviour Of Young: A Horse Study, Alice De Boyer Des Roches, Martine Hausberger

Social Behavior Collection

Background: Adults play an important role in regulating the social behaviour of young individuals. However, a few pioneer studies suggest that, more than the mere presence of adults, their proportions in social groups affect the social development of young. Here, we hypothesized that aggression rates and social cohesion were correlated to adult-young ratios. Our biological model was naturally-formed groups of Przewalski horses, Equus f. przewalskii, varying in composition.

Methodology/Principal Findings: We investigated the social interactions and spatial relationships of 12 one- and two-yearold Przewalski horses belonging to five families with adult-young ratios (AYR) ranging from 0.67 to 1.33. We found …

E-Science @ The University Of Massachusetts, Maxine G. Schmidt, Rebecca Reznik-Zellen, Raquel Rivera, Cecilia P. Mullen

Maxine G Schmidt

e-Science @ the University of Massachusetts Abstract: What is e-Science and how can libraries and librarians support it? The University of Massachusetts takes a proactive approach to support network-enabled research on its campuses and provides examples where e-Science is already at work. Statement: “e-Science” is a term commonly used to describe research in a networked environment, a growing trend not only in the sciences, but the arts and humanities as well. e-Science creates both opportunities and challenges for academic libraries. The opportunities lie in leveraging the basic skill set that libraries and librarians already possess: the knowledge of and practical …

Landscape Ecology Of Large Fires In Southwestern Forests, Usa, Sandra L Haire

Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014

The recent increase in large fires in southwestern forests has prompted concern regarding their ecological consequences. Recognizing the importance of spatial patterns in influencing successional processes, I asked: (1) How do large fires change plant communities?; (2) What are the implications of these changes for ponderosa pine forests?; and (3) What is the relationship of fire severity to gradients of climate, fuels, and topography? To address the first two questions, I studied succession in the woody plant community at two sites that burned in high-severity fire: La Mesa fire in northern New Mexico (1977) and Saddle Mountain in northern Arizona …

Human Predators Outpace Other Agents Of Trait Change In The Wild, Chris T. Darimont, Stephanie M. Carlson, Michael T. Kinnison, Paul C. Paquet, Thomas E. Reimchen, Christopher C. Wilmers

Nonindigenous Pests and Biological Invasions Collection

The observable traits of wild populations are continually shaped and reshaped by the environment and numerous agents of natural selection, including predators. In stark contrast with most predators, humans now typically exploit high proportions of prey populations and target large, reproductive-aged adults. Consequently, organisms subject to consistent and strong ‘harvest selection’ by fishers, hunters, and plant harvesters may be expected to show particularly rapid and dramatic changes in phenotype. However, a comparison of the rate at which phenotypic changes in exploited taxa occurs relative to other systems has never been undertaken. Here, we show that average phenotypic changes in 40 …

Quantitative And Qualitative Assessment Of The Response Of Foals To The Presence Of An Unfamiliar Human, Michela Minero, Maria Vittoria Tosi, Elisabetta Canali, Françoise Wemelsfelder

Sentience Collection

This work aimed to apply a combined qualitative and quantitative approach to the interpretation of an on-farm behaviour test for horses, and to examine whether 1 month of handling would affect the response of yearlings to an unfamiliar stationary human in their home environment. Throughout a 1-month period, 14 Thoroughbred Yearlings (16 ± 0.22 months old) that had formerly experienced minimal contact with humans, were handled daily for about 45 min. The yearlings were tested twice, just before and just after the handling period. The behaviour of the horses during the tests was both video-recorded and directly recorded by the …

Life-Centered Ethics And The Human Future In Space, Michael Noah Mautner

Chemistry Publications

In the future, human destiny may depend on our ethics. In particular, biotechnology and expansion in space can transform life, raising profound questions. Guidance may be found in Life-centered ethics, as biotic ethics that value the basic patterns of organic gene/protein life, and as panbiotic ethics that always seek to expand life. These life-centered principles can be based on scientific insights into the unique place of life in nature, and the biological unity of all life. Belonging to life then implies a human purpose: to safeguard and propagate life. Expansion in space will advance this purpose but will also raise …

Welfare Assessment: Correlations And Integration Between A Qualitative Behavioural Assessment And A Clinical/Health Protocol Applied In Veal Calves Farms, Marta Brscic, Françoise Wemelsfelder, Elena Tessitore, Flaviana Gottardo, Giulio Cozzi, Cornelis G. Van Reenen

Agribusiness Collection

This study is aimed at finding correlations and possible integration among Qualitative Behavioural assessment (QBA) and a specific protocol of clinical/health evaluation. Both welfare assessment methods were based on direct animal observation and were applied in 24 Italian veal calves farms at 3 weeks (wks) of rearing. Principal component analysis (PCA) summarized 20 QBA descriptors on two main components (PC1 and PC2) with eigenvalues above 4 and explaining 29.6 and 20.3% of the variation respectively. PCA on residuals obtained after correcting for housing condition yielded highly similar results, indicating that the rearing environment of the calves was not an important …

Distress Or Suffering: What Should Be Measured To Determine Animal Well-Being?, Ian J. H. Duncan

Sentience Collection

It is generally accepted that all the vertebrates and some of the invertebrates (those with large neural ganglia such as the cephalopods) are capable of subjective experiences. Amongst those experiences are the subjective, affective states, sometimes called 'feelings' or 'emotions'. The strong negative feelings are often lumped together as 'suffering' and the positive feelings as 'pleasure'. I have argued for many years that animal welfare/well-being is completely dependent on what the animal feels (Duncan, 1993, 1996, 2002). An animal's well-being is decreased by experiencing suffering and increased by experiencing pleasure. It's as simple as that.

Distress In Animals: Its Recognition And A Hypothesis For Its Assessment, David B. Morton

Sentience Collection

This essay deals with the recognition of non-painful emotional experiences in animals, how they relate to animal wellbeing and animal welfare, and how they can be assessed, monitored and mitigated. While it is written often from a mammalian perspective, the general principles will apply to all animals that are sentient.

Resources, Not Kinship, Determine Social Patterning In The Territorial Gunnison’S Prairie Dog (Cynomys Gunnisoni), J. L. Verdolin, C. N. Slobodchikoff

Sentience Collection

In this study, we describe patterns of relatedness in Gunnison’s prairie dog (Cynomys gunnisoni) social groups. Kin selection is often cited as a mechanism for the evolution and maintenance of social groups, and Gunnison’s prairie dog females are occasionally described as being strongly philopatric. Overall, randomization tests revealed that females within territorial groups were not more closely related to each other than expected at random. A similar pattern was found among males and between males and females, indicating that there was no sex-biased dispersal occurring in these populations. Ecological variables measured in this study, such as food abundance and food …

What Is New On The Animal Protection Radar?, John Hadidian

Animal Welfare Collection

American attitudes toward wildlife have often been cast as falling within an urban/rural dichotomy that separates protectionist from utilitarian value orientations. Long held as a major challenge to wildlife managers the urban/rural dichotomy may be yielding to change as new attitude and value orientations arise from direct conflicts people have with wild animals as well as from a generational disenfranchisement of young people who lack direct experience with the outdoors. Both may loom as larger challenges for the future and shift the focus of once opposing interests more toward efforts to establish cooperation. Currently, much of the disagreement over wildlife …

Landscape Heterogeneity And Marine Subsidy Generate Extensive Intrapopulation Niche Diversity In A Large Terrestrial Vertebrate, Chris T. Darimont, Paul C. Paquet, Thomas E. Reimchen

Population Distribution and Habitat Collection

1 Inquiries into niche variation within populations typically focus on proximate ecological causes such as competition. Here we examine how landscape heterogeneity and allochthonous (marine) subsidy might ultimately generate intrapopulation niche diversity.

2 Using stable isotope analysis, we detected extensive terrestrial–marine isotopic niche variation among subpopulations, social groups, and individual grey wolves (Canis lupus) that occupy a spatially heterogeneous landscape in coastal British Columbia comprising a mainland area and adjacent archipelago.

3 The inner island subpopulation exhibited the widest isotopic niche in the population, consuming extensive terrestrial and marine resources. Mainland and outer island subpopulations occupied comparatively narrow …

Predatory Senescence In Ageing Wolves, Daniel R. Macnulty, Douglas W. Smith, John A. Vucetich, L. David Mech, Craig Packer

USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

It is well established that ageing handicaps the ability of prey to escape predators, yet surprisingly little is known about how ageing affects the ability of predators to catch prey. Research into long-lived predators has assumed that adults have uniform impacts on prey regardless of age. Here we use longitudinal data from repeated observations of individually-known wolves (Canis lupus) hunting elk (Cervus elaphus) in Yellowstone National Park to demonstrate that adult predatory performance declines with age and that an increasing ratio of senescent individuals in the wolf population depresses the rate of prey offtake. Because this ratio fluctuates independently of …

Long Daily Movements Of Wolves, Canis Lupus, During Pup Rearing, L. David Mech, H. Dean Cluff

USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

Wolves, Canis lupus, on Ellesmere Island traveled a daily round-trip distance of 40.2 km from their den to a landfill during July 2008, plus an undetermined distance hunting after leaving the landfill. Although long travels by Wolves are well known, this appears to be the first documentation of long daily movements by Wolves rearing pups.

Problems With The Claim Of Ecotype And Taxon Status Of The Wolf In The Great Lakes Region, Matthew A. Cronin, L. David Mech

USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

Koblmuller et al. (2009) analyzed molecular genetic data of the wolf in the Great Lakes (GL) region of the USA and concluded that the animal was a unique ecotype of grey wolf and that genetic data supported the population as a discrete wolf taxon. However, some of the literature that the researchers used to support their position actually did not, and additional confusion arises from indefinite use of terminology. Herein, we discuss the problems with designation of a wolf population as a taxon or ecotype without proper definition and assessment of criteria.

Koblmuller et al. (2009) wrote ‘The GL …

How Fast Is The World's Center Of Co2 Emissions Moving Eastwards?, Nicole Andréa Mathys, Grether Jean-Marie

Nicole Andréa Mathys

Borrowing from physics the concept of center of mass and applying it to the distribution of CO2 anthropogenic sources provided by the EDGAR data base, we can draw on the Earth’s surface the trajectory of the world’s pollution center of gravity over the 1970-2005 period. It is strongly heading to the East, and more so than GDP, which suggests that Asian production is getting more CO2 intensive than Western production.