Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 3 of 3
Full-Text Articles in Plant Biology
Plant Community Responses To Interactive Anthropogenic Disturbances Along A Natural-Wildland-Urban Gradient And Undergraduate Students’ Attitudes Toward Disturbances, Mali M. Hubert
Doctoral Dissertations
Anthropogenic disturbances are defined as any change caused by human activity that alters biodiversity. Wildfire and urbanization disturbances are among the most influential on the landscape because of their individual and interactive properties. Areas deemed wildland-urban interfaces (WUI; area where environment intermingles with human-built structures) are increasing near protected lands because of human population growth and movement, which often facilitates fire ignitions by humans. Houses that are adjacent to or overlap with wildland vegetation can complicate protection of urban development and wildlands from fires. The expansion of the WUI due to population growth will exacerbate fire risk, which can ultimately …
The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly: Pollinators As Vectors Of Mummy Berry Disease In Highbush Blueberry, Matthew Boyer
The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly: Pollinators As Vectors Of Mummy Berry Disease In Highbush Blueberry, Matthew Boyer
Doctoral Dissertations
Background: Many plants must balance the need for pollination services with mediating the risk of pollinator-vectored pathogens. Vaccinium corymbosum, highbush blueberry, is negatively affected by an insect-vectored, fungal plant pathogen, Monilinia vaccinii-corymosi (MVC), the cause of mummy berry disease, in which the asexual spore mimics pollen grains and is transferred from blighted tissue to flowers via pollinators, resulting in inedible, hardened fruits. Highbush blueberry plants require outcrossed pollen for maximum yield and fecundity. Therefore, yield of blueberry plants rely on a balance between adequate pollination service and disease avoidance. Approach: To explore the relationship between pollinator community and infection …
Spatiotemporal Dynamics In A Lower Montane Tropical Rainforest, Robert Michael Lawton
Spatiotemporal Dynamics In A Lower Montane Tropical Rainforest, Robert Michael Lawton
Doctoral Dissertations
Disturbance in a forest’s canopy, whether caused by treefall, limbfall, landslide, or fire determines not only the distribution of well-lit patches at any given time, but also the ways in which the forest changes over time. In this dissertation, I use a 25 year record of treefall gap formation find a novel and highly patterned process of forest disturbance and regeneration, providing a local mechanism by examining the factors that influence the likelihood of treefall. I then develop a stochastic cellular automaton for disturbance and regeneration based on the analysis of this long term data set and illustrate the potential …