Forest Sciences Commons^™

Adaptive Variation And Introgression Of A Constans-Like Gene In North American Red Oaks, Jennifer F. Lind-Riehl, Oliver Gailing

Michigan Tech Publications

Oaks provide a model system to study maintenance of species identity by divergent selection since they maintain morphological differences and ecological adaptations despite interspecific hybridization. The genome of closely related interfertile oak species was shown to be largely homogeneous, with a few genomic areas exhibiting high interspecific differentiation possibly as result of strong divergent selection. Previously, a genic microsatellite was identified as under strong divergent selection, being nearly fixed on alternative alleles in the two interfertile North American red oak species: Quercus rubra L. and Quercus ellipsoidalis E.J. Hill. Further genotyping in two other red oak species—Quercus velutina Lam. and …

Bird Response To Land Use Change In Northern Argentina, David J. Flaspohler

TechTalks

Land use change is responsible for changes in wildlife populations including declines for many species. When one land cover type is converted into another for forestry, agriculture or pasture, some bird species are harmed while others may be favored. Understanding how biodiversity responds to land use change is essential to allowing us to anticipate and respond to management options and economic drivers of change. We studied the response of a diverse bird community in an historically grassland portion of northern Argentina, where eucalyptus plantations are expanding rapidly to support timber, pulp and incipient bioenergy industries. Plantations contained the fewest bird …

The Forest Biomaterials Initiative At Michigan Tech And Across Michigan, Mark Rudnicki

TechTalks

The first statewide effort for a broad, cradle-to-cradle perspective of forest biomaterials originated at the MTU School of Forest Resources in 2012 and held a statewide meeting in Traverse City in 2013. The biomaterials initiative is currently a MTU university wide initiative, and is proceeding with development of educational and research programs that are envisioned to span most schools and colleges at MTU. Because of the work done in Traverse City and subsequent meetings, the Michigan Forest Biomaterials Institute (MiFBI) has evolved into an independent nonprofit with an expansive mission to enhance quality of life in Michigan by fostering sustainable …

Critical Review Of The Millennium Project In Nepal, Ashma Vaidya, Audrey L. Mayer

College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science Publications

“Our Common Future” harmonized development policies around a new sustainable development (SD) paradigm, and experts also emphasize the importance of a democratic and equitable approach to define and achieve sustainable development. However, SD targets and indicators are often defined by a suite of experts or a few stakeholder groups, far removed from on-the-ground conditions. The most common expert-led development framework, the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), promoted one set of targets and indicators for all developing countries. While progress towards these targets was routinely reported at the national scale, these targets may not reflect context-specific sustainable development. We evaluated …

Assisted Tree Migration In North America: Policy Legacies, Enhanced Forest Policy Integration, And Climate Change Adaptation, Adam Wellstead, Michael Howlett

Department of Social Sciences Publications

The weight of much expert forest management opinion is that issues such as climate change can be effectively addressed only if forest policy-making moves from a purely sectoral focus and undergoes a shift to a more integrated multi-issue, multi-sector policy-making process. This is because credible adaptation policies in the sector require greatly enhanced multi-sectoral policy integration if they are to succeed. But this requirement may be beyond the capacity of many countries to deliver. This article explores the integration challenges faced by forest policy-making in Canada and the United States and uses the case of Assisted Tree Migration (ATM) to …

Failure To Communicate: Inefficiencies In Voluntary Incentive Programs For Private Forest Owners In Michigan, Mark. D. Rouleau, Jennifer F. Lind-Riehl, Miranda N. Smith, Audrey L. Mayer

College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science Publications

Coordinating forest management across thousands of nonindustrial private forest (NIPF) owners is a difficult yet necessary task for state land management agencies. Voluntary Incentive Programs (VIPs) can coordinate the decentralized activities of these owners in return for services or financial incentives. However, many VIPs typically have low enrollment. Our study investigates the implementation of VIPs to increase forest management coordination among NIPFs in Michigan. We present findings from 20 semi-structured interviews with leaders of state and local land management organizations, and government officials at state natural resource agencies, and contrast their answers with those recorded from 37 interviews of NIPF …

Ecological Studies Of Wolves On Isle Royale, 2015-2016, Rolf O. Peterson, John A. Vucetich

Ecological Studies of Wolves on Isle Royale

Annual Report 2015-2016

Bottom-Up Ggm Algorithm For Constructing Multilayered Hierarchical Gene Regulatory Networks That Govern Biological Pathways Or Processes, Sapna Kupari, Wenping Deng, Chathura J. Gunasekara, Vincent Chiang, Huann-Sheng Chen, Hairong Wei, Et. Al.

Michigan Tech Publications

Background: Multilayered hierarchical gene regulatory networks (ML-hGRNs) are very important for understanding genetics regulation of biological pathways. However, there are currently no computational algorithms available for directly building ML-hGRNs that regulate biological pathways.

Results: A bottom-up graphic Gaussian model (GGM) algorithm was developed for constructing ML-hGRN operating above a biological pathway using small- to medium-sized microarray or RNA-seq data sets. The algorithm first placed genes of a pathway at the bottom layer and began to construct an ML-hGRN by evaluating all combined triple genes: two pathway genes and one regulatory gene. The algorithm retained all triple genes where a regulatory …

Evaluation Of Social License For The Forest Products Industry In Houghton County, Michigan, Will Lytle

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This research investigates how the local community grants social license to the forest products industry in Houghton County, Michigan. Interviews were conducted with industry and community stakeholders using a snowball sampling method to understand perspectives on the social license continuum. The viability of supply chains and individual industry sectors associated with forest resources in the county are largely governed by macroeconomics. However, there is a very local component that allows individual corporations to operate within the community. The data analysis, based on the interviews, focuses on understanding local perceptions of natural resource management and community relations. The results reflect social …

Effectiveness Of Emerald Ash Borer (Agrilus Planipennis) Trap Placement In Relation To Forest Edges, Karen Cladas

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Agrilus planipennis, Fairmaire (Order Coleoptera: Family Burprestidae), an invasive insect to North America has caused mortality and decline of millions of Fraxinus trees since its discovery in 2002. A study to evaluate purple prism trap effectiveness in low-to-moderate beetle densities in relation to road proximity and basal area of Fraxinus species was conducted in northern Michigan in 2013 and 2014. Transects of traps were established at set distances from roads during A. planipennis flight season. Analysis indicated a significant relationship between road proximity and trap effectiveness, with traps established on the road edge out-performing traps established in the forest interior. …

Effects Of Wildfire And Post-Fire Salvage Logging On Rill Networks And Sediment Delivery In California Forests, Will Olsen

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Wildfires can increase soil erosion by orders of magnitude over rates in unburned forests and negatively impact aquatic resources. Rill erosion is a dominant erosion and sediment transport mechanism in burned forests, and hydrologically connected rills can form networks on burned hillslopes. At the swale scale (< 10,000 m²), little is known about how rill networks develop under different burn severities over time, their relationship with sediment yields, and the effect of post-fire salvage logging on rill networks and sediment yields.

The first study assessed rill networks and sediment yields in three burn severities in the inland Coast Range of …

Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi Of Northern White Cedar (Thuja Occidentalis L.): Habitat Effects On Fungal Communities And Inoculum Effects On Plant Growth On Acid Peat Soils, Guswarni Anwar

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The relationship of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi with northern white cedar (NWC) was examined from the perspective of both fundamental questions about habitat specificity in the root fungal community, as well as applied questions regarding AM fungal efficacy in NWC restoration in peat soils. I performed two experiments testing the effects of AM fungi on survival, growth, and nutrition of NWC seedlings; and one molecular study to determine the habitat effects on community composition of NWC root-associated fungi. First, a greenhouse AM inoculation experiment was conducted in factorial combination with fertilization and liming to examine conditional effectiveness of AM fungal …