Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Mental and Social Health Commons™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

University of Vermont

Discipline
Keyword
Publication Year
Publication
Publication Type

Articles 241 - 269 of 269

Full-Text Articles in Mental and Social Health

Parental Environments And Interactions With Conspecifics Alter Salinity Tolerance Of Offspring In The Annual Medicago Truncatula, Brenna M. Castro, Ken S. Moriuchi, Maren L. Friesen, Mounawer Badri, Sergey V. Nuzhdin, Sharon Y. Strauss, Douglas R. Cook, Eric Von Wettberg Sep 2013

Parental Environments And Interactions With Conspecifics Alter Salinity Tolerance Of Offspring In The Annual Medicago Truncatula, Brenna M. Castro, Ken S. Moriuchi, Maren L. Friesen, Mounawer Badri, Sergey V. Nuzhdin, Sharon Y. Strauss, Douglas R. Cook, Eric Von Wettberg

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

Summary: Based on expectations of the stress-gradient hypothesis for conspecific interactions, stress-sensitive genotypes may be able to persist in stressful environments when positive interactions between individuals occur under stressful environments. Additionally, we test how parental environmental effects alter responses to stress and outcomes of conspecific interactions in stress. While the stress-gradient hypothesis focuses on plant growth, earlier flowering may provide stress avoidance in short-lived organisms. We studied responses to soil salinity and conspecific neighbour using genotypes of Medicago truncatula (Fabaceae) originating from saline or non-saline environments, utilizing seeds from parental plants grown in saline or non-saline environments. During the early …

Go to article

Beyond Climate-Smart Agriculture: Toward Safe Operating Spaces For Global Food Systems, Henry Neufeldt, Molly Jahn, Bruce M. Campbell, John R. Beddington, Fabrice Declerck, Alessandro De Pinto, Jay Gulledge, Jonathan Hellin, Mario Herrero, Andy Jarvis, David Lezaks, Holger Meinke, Todd Rosenstock, Mary Scholes, Robert Scholes, Sonja Vermeulen, Eva Wollenberg, Robert Zougmoré Aug 2013

Beyond Climate-Smart Agriculture: Toward Safe Operating Spaces For Global Food Systems, Henry Neufeldt, Molly Jahn, Bruce M. Campbell, John R. Beddington, Fabrice Declerck, Alessandro De Pinto, Jay Gulledge, Jonathan Hellin, Mario Herrero, Andy Jarvis, David Lezaks, Holger Meinke, Todd Rosenstock, Mary Scholes, Robert Scholes, Sonja Vermeulen, Eva Wollenberg, Robert Zougmoré

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Agriculture is considered to be "climate-smart" when it contributes to increasing food security, adaptation and mitigation in a sustainable way. This new concept now dominates current discussions in agricultural development because of its capacity to unite the agendas of the agriculture, development and climate change communities under one brand. In this opinion piece authored by scientists from a variety of international agricultural and climate research communities, we argue that the concept needs to be evaluated critically because the relationship between the three dimensions is poorly understood, such that practically any improved agricultural practice can be considered climate-smart. This lack of …

Go to article

Payments For Ecosystem Services And The Fatal Attraction Of Win-Win Solutions, R. Muradian, M. Arsel, L. Pellegrini, F. Adaman, B. Aguilar, B. Agarwal, E. Corbera, D. Ezzine De Blas, J. Farley, G. Froger, E. Garcia-Frapolli, E. Gómez-Baggethun, J. Gowdy Jul 2013

Payments For Ecosystem Services And The Fatal Attraction Of Win-Win Solutions, R. Muradian, M. Arsel, L. Pellegrini, F. Adaman, B. Aguilar, B. Agarwal, E. Corbera, D. Ezzine De Blas, J. Farley, G. Froger, E. Garcia-Frapolli, E. Gómez-Baggethun, J. Gowdy

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

In this commentary we critically discuss the suitability of payments for ecosystem services and the most important challenges they face. While such instruments can play a role in improving environmental governance, we argue that over-reliance on payments as win-win solutions might lead to ineffective outcomes, similar to earlier experience with integrated conservation and development projects. Our objective is to raise awareness, particularly among policy makers and practitioners, about the limitations of such instruments and to encourage a dialogue about the policy contexts in which they might be appropriate. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Go to article

Risk Factors Associated With Clinical Malaria Episodes In Bangladesh: A Longitudinal Study, Ubydul Haque, Gregory E. Glass, Arne Bomblies, Masahiro Hashizume, Dipak Mitra, Nawajish Noman, Waziul Haque, M. Moktadir Kabir, Taro Yamamoto, Hans J. Overgaard Apr 2013

Risk Factors Associated With Clinical Malaria Episodes In Bangladesh: A Longitudinal Study, Ubydul Haque, Gregory E. Glass, Arne Bomblies, Masahiro Hashizume, Dipak Mitra, Nawajish Noman, Waziul Haque, M. Moktadir Kabir, Taro Yamamoto, Hans J. Overgaard

College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences Faculty Publications

Malaria is endemic to Bangladesh. In this longitudinal study, we used hydrologic, topographic, and socioeconomic risk factors to explain single and multiple malaria infections at individual and household levels. Malaria incidence was determined for 1,634 households in 54 villages in 2009 and 2010. During the entire study period 21.8% of households accounted for all (n = 497) malaria cases detected; 15.4% of households had 1 case and 6.4% had ≥2 cases. The greatest risk factors for malaria infection were low bed net ratio per household, house construction materials (wall), and high density of houses. Hydrologic and topographic factors were not …

Go to article

Forest Restoration And Parasitoid Wasp Communities In Montane Hawai'i, Rachelle K. Gould, Liba Pejchar, Sara G. Bothwell, Berry Brosi, Stacie Wolny, Chase D. Mendenhall, Gretchen Daily Mar 2013

Forest Restoration And Parasitoid Wasp Communities In Montane Hawai'i, Rachelle K. Gould, Liba Pejchar, Sara G. Bothwell, Berry Brosi, Stacie Wolny, Chase D. Mendenhall, Gretchen Daily

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Globally, most restoration efforts focus on re-creating the physical structure (flora or physical features) of a target ecosystem with the assumption that other ecosystem components will follow. Here we investigate that assumption by documenting biogeographical patterns in an important invertebrate taxon, the parasitoid wasp family Ichneumonidae, in a recently reforested Hawaiian landscape. Specifically, we test the influence of (1) planting configurations (corridors versus patches), (2) vegetation age, (3) distance from mature native forest, (4) surrounding tree cover, and (5) plant community composition on ichneumonid richness, abundance, and composition. We sampled over 7,000 wasps, 96.5% of which were not native to …

Go to article

Restoring Native Forest Understory: The Influence Of Ferns And Light In A Hawaiian Experiment, Rachelle K. Gould, Harold Mooney, Laura Nelson, Robert Shallenberger, Gretchen C. Daily Jan 2013

Restoring Native Forest Understory: The Influence Of Ferns And Light In A Hawaiian Experiment, Rachelle K. Gould, Harold Mooney, Laura Nelson, Robert Shallenberger, Gretchen C. Daily

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Ecological restoration is an increasingly important component of sustainable land management. We explore potential facilitative relationships for enhancing the cost-effectiveness of restoring native forest understory, focusing on two factors: (1) overstory shade and (2) possible facilitation by a fern (Dryopteris wallichiana), one of few native colonists of pasture in our montane Hawai'i study system. We planted 720 understory tree seedlings and over 4000 seeds of six species under six planting treatments: a full factorial combination of low, medium and high light, situating plantings in either the presence or absence of a mature fern. After three years, 75% of outplanted seedlings …

Go to article

New England's Community Forests: Comparing A Regional Model To Iccas, Martha West Lyman, Cecilia Danks, Maureen Mcdonough Jan 2013

New England's Community Forests: Comparing A Regional Model To Iccas, Martha West Lyman, Cecilia Danks, Maureen Mcdonough

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

This paper examines the ways in which some forms of community forests in the northeastern United States could be considered Indigenous Peoples' and Community Conserved Territories and Areas (ICCAs), based on the work conducted by the Community Forest Collaborative, a partnership of four non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the US. The Collaborative defined a Community Forest Model for northern New England, conducted research on the economic, social, community, and conservation values of the Community Forest Model and developed case studies on five community forest projects. Five key attributes of ICCAs were selected and used to compare with characteristics of the Collaborative's …

Go to article

Quantifying Temporal Change In Biodiversity: Challenges And Opportunities, Maria Dornelas, Anne E. Magurran, Stephen T. Buckland, Anne Chao, Robin L. Chazdon, Robert K. Colwell, Tom Curtis, Kevin J. Gaston, Nicholas J. Gotelli, Matthew A. Kosnik, Brian Mcgill, Jenny L. Mccune, Hélène Morlon, Peter J. Mumby, Lise Øvreås, Angelika Studeny, Mark Vellend Jan 2013

Quantifying Temporal Change In Biodiversity: Challenges And Opportunities, Maria Dornelas, Anne E. Magurran, Stephen T. Buckland, Anne Chao, Robin L. Chazdon, Robert K. Colwell, Tom Curtis, Kevin J. Gaston, Nicholas J. Gotelli, Matthew A. Kosnik, Brian Mcgill, Jenny L. Mccune, Hélène Morlon, Peter J. Mumby, Lise Øvreås, Angelika Studeny, Mark Vellend

College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Publications

Growing concern about biodiversity loss underscores the need to quantify and understand temporal change. Here, we review the opportunities presented by biodiversity time series, and address three related issues: (i) recognizing the characteristics of temporal data; (ii) selecting appropriate statistical procedures for analysing temporal data; and (iii) inferring and forecasting biodiversity change. With regard to the first issue, we draw attention to defining characteristics of biodiversity time series-lack of physical boundaries, unidimensionality, autocorrelation and directionality-that inform the choice of analytic methods. Second, we explore methods of quantifying change in biodiversity at different timescales, noting that autocorrelation can be viewed as …

Go to article

Monetary And Fiscal Policies For A Finite Planet, Joshua Farley, Matthew Burke, Gary Flomenhoft, Brian Kelly, D. Forrest Murray, Stephen Posner, Matthew Putnam, Adam Scanlan, Aaron Witham Jan 2013

Monetary And Fiscal Policies For A Finite Planet, Joshua Farley, Matthew Burke, Gary Flomenhoft, Brian Kelly, D. Forrest Murray, Stephen Posner, Matthew Putnam, Adam Scanlan, Aaron Witham

Peer-Reviewed Studies

Current macroeconomic policy promotes continuous economic growth. Unemployment, poverty and debt are associated with insufficient growth. Economic activity depends upon the transformation of natural materials, ultimately returning to the environment as waste. Current levels of economic throughput exceed the planet's carrying capacity. As a result of poorly constructed economic institutions, society faces the unacceptable choice between ecological catastrophe and human misery. A transition to a steady-state economy is required, characterized by a rate of throughput compatible with planetary boundaries. This paper contributes to the development of a steady-state economy by addressing US monetary and fiscal policies. A steady-state monetary policy …

Go to article

Land Use Adaptation To Climate Change: Economic Damages From Land-Falling Hurricanes In The Atlantic And Gulf States Of The Usa, 1900-2005, Asim Zia Jul 2012

Land Use Adaptation To Climate Change: Economic Damages From Land-Falling Hurricanes In The Atlantic And Gulf States Of The Usa, 1900-2005, Asim Zia

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

Global climate change, especially the phenomena of global warming, is expected to increase the intensity of land-falling hurricanes. Societal adaptation is needed to reduce vulnerability from increasingly intense hurricanes. This study quantifies the adaptation effects of potentially policy driven caps on housing densities and agricultural cover in coastal (and adjacent inland) areas vulnerable to hurricane damages in the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal regions of the U.S. Time series regressions, especially Prais-Winston and Autoregressive Moving Average (ARMA) models, are estimated to forecast the economic impacts of hurricanes of varying intensity, given that various patterns of land use emerge in the Atlantic …

Go to article

Ecosystem Services: The Economics Debate, Joshua Farley Jul 2012

Ecosystem Services: The Economics Debate, Joshua Farley

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

The goal of this paper is to illuminate the debate concerning the economics of ecosystem services. The sustainability debate focuses on whether or not ecosystem services are essential for human welfare and the existence of ecological thresholds. If ecosystem services are essential, then marginal analysis and monetary valuation are inappropriate tools in the vicinity of thresholds. The justice debate focuses on who is entitled to ecosystem services and the ecosystem structure that generates them. Answers to these questions have profound implications for the choice of suitable economic institutions. The efficiency debate concerns both the goals of economic activity and the …

Go to article

Early Developmental Responses To Seedling Environment Modulate Later Plasticity To Light Spectral Quality, Eric J.B. Von Wettberg, John R. Stinchcombe, Johanna Schmitt Mar 2012

Early Developmental Responses To Seedling Environment Modulate Later Plasticity To Light Spectral Quality, Eric J.B. Von Wettberg, John R. Stinchcombe, Johanna Schmitt

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

Correlations between developmentally plastic traits may constrain the joint evolution of traits. In plants, both seedling de-etiolation and shade avoidance elongation responses to crowding and foliage shade are mediated by partially overlapping developmental pathways, suggesting the possibility of pleiotropic constraints. To test for such constraints, we exposed inbred lines of Impatiens capensis to factorial combinations of leaf litter (which affects de-etiolation) and simulated foliage shade (which affects phytochrome-mediated shade avoidance). Increased elongation of hypocotyls caused by leaf litter phenotypically enhanced subsequent elongation of the first internode in response to low red:far red (R:FR). Trait expression was correlated across litter and …

Go to article

Conservation And Livelihoods: Identifying Trade-Offs And Win-Wins, Brendan P. Fisher Jan 2012

Conservation And Livelihoods: Identifying Trade-Offs And Win-Wins, Brendan P. Fisher

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Go to article

Randomization Tests For Quantifying Species Importance To Ecosystem Function, Nicholas J. Gotelli, Werner Ulrich, Fernando T. Maestre Dec 2011

Randomization Tests For Quantifying Species Importance To Ecosystem Function, Nicholas J. Gotelli, Werner Ulrich, Fernando T. Maestre

College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Publications

1. Quantifying the contribution of different species to ecosystem function is an important challenge. We introduce simple randomization tests (and software) for quantifying the average effect of species on ecosystem variables measured in multiple plots with and without the presence of a particular species. These randomization tests formalize the analysis of uncontrolled 'natural experiments' and quantify species effects in standardized deviation units. 2.We tested the method with data on ecosystem function in biological soil crust assemblages of lichens in semi-arid gypsum outcrops in central Spain. In sixty-three 50cm×50cm sample plots, we measured the presence and percentage cover of 17 species …

Go to article

Underestimating The Costs Of Conservation In Southeast Asia, David P. Edwards, Brendan Fisher, Xingli Giam, David S. Wilcove Dec 2011

Underestimating The Costs Of Conservation In Southeast Asia, David P. Edwards, Brendan Fisher, Xingli Giam, David S. Wilcove

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Go to article

The Limits To Prediction In Ecological Systems, Brian Beckage, Louis J. Gross, Stuart Kauffman Nov 2011

The Limits To Prediction In Ecological Systems, Brian Beckage, Louis J. Gross, Stuart Kauffman

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

Predicting the future trajectories of ecological systems is increasingly important as the magnitude of anthropogenic perturbation of the earth systems grows.We distinguish between two types of predictability: the intrinsic or theoretical predictability of a system and the realized predictability that is achieved using available models and parameterizations. We contend that there are strong limits on the intrinsic predictability of ecological systems that arise from inherent characteristics of biological systems. While the realized predictability of ecological systems can be limited by process and parameter misspecification or uncertainty, we argue that the intrinsic predictability of ecological systems is widely and strongly limited …

Go to article

Heating Up The Forest: Open-Top Chamber Warming Manipulation Of Arthropod Communities At Harvard And Duke Forests, Shannon L. Pelini, Francis P. Bowles, Aaron M. Ellison, Nicholas J. Gotelli, Nathan J. Sanders, Robert R. Dunn Oct 2011

Heating Up The Forest: Open-Top Chamber Warming Manipulation Of Arthropod Communities At Harvard And Duke Forests, Shannon L. Pelini, Francis P. Bowles, Aaron M. Ellison, Nicholas J. Gotelli, Nathan J. Sanders, Robert R. Dunn

College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Publications

1.Recent observations indicate that climatic change is altering biodiversity, and models suggest that the consequences of climate change will differ across latitude. However, long-term experimental field manipulations that directly test the predictions about organisms' responses to climate change across latitude are lacking. Such experiments could provide a more mechanistic understanding of the consequences of climate change on ecological communities and subsequent changes in ecosystem processes, facilitating better predictions of the effects of future climate change. 2.This field experiment uses octagonal, 5-m-diameter (c.22m 3) open-top chambers to simulate warming at northern (Harvard Forest, Massachusetts) and southern (Duke Forest, North Carolina) hardwood …

Go to article

The High Costs Of Conserving Southeast Asia's Lowland Rainforests, Brendan Fisher, David P. Edwards, Xingli Giam, David S. Wilcove Aug 2011

The High Costs Of Conserving Southeast Asia's Lowland Rainforests, Brendan Fisher, David P. Edwards, Xingli Giam, David S. Wilcove

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Mechanisms that mitigate greenhouse-gas emissions via forest conservation have been portrayed as a cost-effective approach that can also protect biodiversity and vital ecosystem services. However, the costs of conservation - including opportunity costs - are spatially heterogeneous across the globe. The lowland rainforests of Southeast Asia represent a unique nexus of large carbon stores, imperiled biodiversity, large stores of timber, and high potential for conversion to oil-palm plantations, making this region one where understanding the costs of conservation is critical. Previous studies have underestimated the gap between conservation costs and conversion benefits in Southeast Asia. Using detailed logging records, cost …

Go to article

Subsurface Characterization Of Groundwater Contaminated By Landfill Leachate Using Microbial Community Profile Data And A Nonparametric Decision-Making Process, Andrea R. Pearce, Donna M. Rizzo, Paula J. Mouser Jun 2011

Subsurface Characterization Of Groundwater Contaminated By Landfill Leachate Using Microbial Community Profile Data And A Nonparametric Decision-Making Process, Andrea R. Pearce, Donna M. Rizzo, Paula J. Mouser

College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences Faculty Publications

Microbial biodiversity in groundwater and soil presents a unique opportunity for improving characterization and monitoring at sites with multiple contaminants, yet few computational methods use or incorporate these data because of their high dimensionality and variability. We present a systematic, nonparametric decision-making methodology to help characterize a water quality gradient in leachate-contaminated groundwater using only microbiological data for input. The data-driven methodology is based on clustering a set of molecular genetic-based microbial community profiles. Microbes were sampled from groundwater monitoring wells located within and around an aquifer contaminated with landfill leachate. We modified a self-organizing map (SOM) to weight the …

Go to article

Governance Informatics: Managing The Performance Of Inter-Organizational Governance Networks, Christopher Koliba, Asim Zia, Brian H.Y. Lee May 2011

Governance Informatics: Managing The Performance Of Inter-Organizational Governance Networks, Christopher Koliba, Asim Zia, Brian H.Y. Lee

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

This article introduces an informatics approach to managing the performance of inter-organizational governance networks that are designed to create, implement and evaluate public policies and the range of activities undertaken by practicing public administrators. We label this type of information flow process management "governance informatics" and lay out a range of theoretical constructs that may be used to collect, categorize, and analyze performance in inter-organizational governance networks. We discuss how governance informatics may be able to assess and re-design the accountability and transparency regimes of information flows in inter-organizational governance networks. The integration of a governance informatics-driven performance management system …

Go to article

Cross-Scale Value Trade-Offs In Managing Social-Ecological Systems: The Politics Of Scale In Ruaha National Park, Tanzania, Asim Zia, Paul Hirsch, Alexander Songorwa, David R. Mutekanga, Sheila O'Connor, Thomas Mcshane, Peter Brosius, Bryan Norton Jan 2011

Cross-Scale Value Trade-Offs In Managing Social-Ecological Systems: The Politics Of Scale In Ruaha National Park, Tanzania, Asim Zia, Paul Hirsch, Alexander Songorwa, David R. Mutekanga, Sheila O'Connor, Thomas Mcshane, Peter Brosius, Bryan Norton

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

Management of social-ecological systems takes place amidst complex governance processes and cross-scale institutional arrangements that are mediated through politics of scale. Each management scenario generates distinct cross-scale trade-offs in the distribution of pluralistic values. This study explores the hypothesis that conservation-oriented management scenarios generate higher value for international and national scale social organizations, whereas mixed or more balanced management scenarios generate higher value for local scale social organizations. This hypothesis is explored in the management context of Ruaha National Park (RNP), Tanzania, especially the 2006 expansion of RNP that led to the eviction of many pastoralists and farmers. Five management …

Go to article

Scientific Instruments For Climate Change Adaptation: Estimating And Optimizing The Efficiency Of Ecosystem Service Provision, Ferdinando Villa, Ken Bagstad, Gary Johnson, Brian Voigt Jan 2011

Scientific Instruments For Climate Change Adaptation: Estimating And Optimizing The Efficiency Of Ecosystem Service Provision, Ferdinando Villa, Ken Bagstad, Gary Johnson, Brian Voigt

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Adaptation to the consequences of climate change can depend on efficient use of ecosystem services (ES), i.e. a better use of natural services through management of the way in which they are delivered to society. While much discussion focuses on reducing consumption and increasing production of services, a lack of scientific instruments has so far prevented other mechanisms to improve ecosystem services efficiency from being addressed systematically as an adaptation strategy. This paper describes new methodologies for assessing ecosystem services and quantifying their values to humans, highlighting the role of ecosystem service flow analysis in optimizing the efficiency of ES …

Go to article

Incorporating Systems Thinking And Sustainability Within Civil And Environmental Engineering Curricula At Uvm, Nancy J. Hayden, Donna M. Rizzo, Mandar M. Dewoolkar, Lalita Oka, Maureen Neumann Jan 2011

Incorporating Systems Thinking And Sustainability Within Civil And Environmental Engineering Curricula At Uvm, Nancy J. Hayden, Donna M. Rizzo, Mandar M. Dewoolkar, Lalita Oka, Maureen Neumann

College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences Faculty Publications

As part of an NSF Department Level Reform (DLR) grant, the civil and environmental engineering programs at the University of Vermont (UVM) incorporated systems thinking and a systems approach to engineering problem solving within their programs. A systems thinking approach regards social, environmental and economic factors as necessary components of the problem solution. Because it is a whole systems approach it also encompasses sustainability. We have integrated systems thinking in the following ways; 1) new material has been included into key courses (e.g. the first-year introductory and senior design courses), 2) a sequence of three related environmental and transportation systems …

Go to article

Enhanced Detection Of Groundwater Contamination From A Leaking Waste Disposal Site By Microbial Community Profiles, Paula J. Mouser, Donna M. Rizzo, Gregory K. Druschel, Sergio E. Morales, Nancy Hayden, Patrick O'Grady, Lori Stevens Dec 2010

Enhanced Detection Of Groundwater Contamination From A Leaking Waste Disposal Site By Microbial Community Profiles, Paula J. Mouser, Donna M. Rizzo, Gregory K. Druschel, Sergio E. Morales, Nancy Hayden, Patrick O'Grady, Lori Stevens

College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences Faculty Publications

Groundwater biogeochemistry is adversely impacted when municipal solid waste leachate, rich in nutrients and anthropogenic compounds, percolates into the subsurface from leaking landfills. Detecting leachate contamination using statistical techniques is challenging because well strategies or analytical techniques may be insufficient for detecting low levels of groundwater contamination. We sampled profiles of the microbial community from monitoring wells surrounding a leaking landfill using terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) targeting the 16S rRNA gene. Results show in situ monitoring of bacteria, archaea, and the family Geobacteraceae improves characterization of groundwater quality. Bacterial T-RFLP profiles showed shifts correlated to known gradients of …

Go to article

Conclusions About Niche Expansion In Introduced Impatiens Walleriana Populations Depend On Method Of Analysis, Lisa Mandle, Dan L. Warren, Matthias H. Hoffmann, A. Townsend Peterson, Johanna Schmitt, Eric J. Von Wettberg Dec 2010

Conclusions About Niche Expansion In Introduced Impatiens Walleriana Populations Depend On Method Of Analysis, Lisa Mandle, Dan L. Warren, Matthias H. Hoffmann, A. Townsend Peterson, Johanna Schmitt, Eric J. Von Wettberg

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

Determining the degree to which climate niches are conserved across plant species' native and introduced ranges is valuable to developing successful strategies to limit the introduction and spread of invasive plants, and also has important ecological and evolutionary implications. Here, we test whether climate niches differ between native and introduced populations of Impatiens walleriana, globally one of the most popular horticultural species. We use approaches based on both raw climate data associated with occurrence points and ecological niche models (ENMs) developed with Maxent. We include comparisons of climate niche breadth in both geographic and environmental spaces, taking into account differences …

Go to article

Nutrient Enrichment Enhances Hidden Differences In Phenotype To Drive A Cryptic Plant Invasion, Christine Holdredge, Mark D. Bertness, Eric Von Wettberg, Brian R. Silliman Nov 2010

Nutrient Enrichment Enhances Hidden Differences In Phenotype To Drive A Cryptic Plant Invasion, Christine Holdredge, Mark D. Bertness, Eric Von Wettberg, Brian R. Silliman

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

Many mechanisms of invasive species success have been elucidated, but those driving cryptic invasions of non-native genotypes remain least understood. In one of the most successful cryptic plant invasions in North America, we investigate the mechanisms underlying the displacement of native Phragmites australis by its Eurasian counterpart. Since invasive Phragmites' populations have been especially prolific along eutrophic shorelines, we conducted a two-year field experiment involving native and invasive genotypes that manipulated nutrient level and competitor identity (inter- and intra-genotypic competition) to assess their relative importance in driving the loss of native Phragmites. Inter-genotypic competition suppressed aboveground biomass of both native …

Go to article

Protecting Degraded Rainforests: Enhancement Of Forest Carbon Stocks Under Redd+, David P. Edwards, Brendan Fisher, Emily Boyd Sep 2010

Protecting Degraded Rainforests: Enhancement Of Forest Carbon Stocks Under Redd+, David P. Edwards, Brendan Fisher, Emily Boyd

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

The likely Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) mechanism includes strategies for the enhancement of forest carbon stocks. Recent concerns have been expressed that such enhancement, or restoration, of forest carbon could be counterproductive to biodiversity conservation, because forests are managed as "carbon farms" with the application of intensive silvicultural management that could homogenize diverse degraded rainforests. Restoration increases regeneration rates in degraded forest compared to naturally regenerating forest, and thus could yield significant financial returns for carbon sequestered. Here, we argue that such forest restoration projects are, in fact, likely to provide a number of benefits to biodiversity …

Go to article

How Anthocyanin Mutants Respond To Stress: The Need To Distinguish Between Stress Tolerance And Maximal Vigour, Eric J. Von Wettberg, Maureen L. Stanton, Justen B. Whittall May 2010

How Anthocyanin Mutants Respond To Stress: The Need To Distinguish Between Stress Tolerance And Maximal Vigour, Eric J. Von Wettberg, Maureen L. Stanton, Justen B. Whittall

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

Background: Anthocyanins are produced by plants in response to diverse stresses. Mutants that block the anthocyanin biosynthetic pathway (ABP) at various steps can easily be compared across numerous abiotic stresses. Hypothesis: Anthocyanins or their precursors are required for stress tolerance. Thus, ABP loss-of-function mutants should have proportionately lower fitness than wildtype plants under stress, compared with benign conditions. In contrast, a decrease in maximal vigour - the general capacity for growth and fecundity - should be most pronounced under benign conditions that allow luxuriant growth by the most vigorous genotypes. Tests: Determine whether, under stressful conditions, ABP loss-of-function mutants have …

Go to article

Fire Effects On Demography Of The Invasive Shrub Brazilian Pepper (Schinus Terebinthifolius) In Florida Pine Savannas, Jens T. Stevens, Brian Beckage Jan 2010

Fire Effects On Demography Of The Invasive Shrub Brazilian Pepper (Schinus Terebinthifolius) In Florida Pine Savannas, Jens T. Stevens, Brian Beckage

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

Fire is a common disturbance in savanna ecosystems that may either facilitate or impede non-native plant invasions. Although fire can create recruitment opportunities for non-native plants, it can also prevent their invasion if it exerts strong negative effects on their demographic processes. Some savannas may, therefore, be able to resist invasion provided the natural, frequent-fire regime remains intact. We examined the effects of fire on the demography of the invasive shrub Brazilian pepper, Schinus terebinthifolius Raddi., which is invading fire-prone slash pine savannas of southern Florida. We studied survivorship, growth, and reproduction of low-density populations of Brazilian pepper in a …

Go to article

First Prev