Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Integrating Management For Old-Growth Characteristics With Enhanced Carbon Storage Of Northern Hardwood-Conifer Forests, Sarah Eliot Ford

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Forest management practices emphasizing stand structural complexity are of interest across the northern forest region of the United States because of their potential to enhance carbon storage. Our research is nested within a long-term study evaluating how silvicultural treatments promoting late-successional forest characteristics affect aboveground biomass development in northern hardwood forests. We are testing the hypothesis that biomass development (carbon storage) will be greater in structural complexity enhancement (SCE) treatments when compared to conventional uneven-aged treatments. SCE treatments were compared against selection systems (single-tree and group) modified to retain elevated structure. Manipulations and controls were replicated across 2-hectare treatment units …

A Multiscale Analysis Of The Factors Controlling Nutrient Dynamics And Cyanobacteria Blooms In Lake Champlain, Peter D. F. Isles

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Cyanobacteria blooms have increased in Lake Champlain due to excessive nutrient loading, resulting in negative impacts on the local economy and environmental health. While climate warming is expected to promote increasingly severe cyanobacteria blooms globally, predicting the impacts of complex climate changes on individual lakes is complicated by the many physical, chemical, and biological processes which mediate nutrient dynamics and cyanobacteria growth across time and space. Furthermore, processes influencing bloom development operate on a variety of temporal scales (hourly, daily, seasonal, decadal, episodic), making it difficult to identify important factors controlling bloom development using traditional methods or coarse temporal resolution …

Earthworms In Vermont Forest Soils: A Study Of Nutrient, Carbon, Nitrogen And Native Plant Responses, Ryan Melnichuk

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Anthropogenic activities surrounding horticulture, agriculture and recreation have increased dispersal of invasive earthworms. The introduction of earthworms initiates many physical and chemical alterations in forest soils previously unoccupied by earthworms. Three trials were performed to assess the effects of earthworms on soil-water dynamics, C and N and defensive/storage compound production by a native plant.

The first trial was a greenhouse experiment, performed to assess the impact of two ecologically contrasting invasive earthworm species on percolate and evaporative soil water loss. Mesocosms were constructed to simulate a typical forest Entisol commonly penetrated by the species of interest, Lumbricus terrestris and Amynthas …

Impacts Of Forest Disturbance On Small Mammal Distribution, Allyson Lenora Degrassi

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Natural habitat in the eastern United States has diminished over the past century because of the effects of invasive species. Both plant and animal invaders can alter habitat structure and may decrease survival of native species. The degree to which an invasive species alters ecosystem function depends on the functional characteristics of affected species and the resulting cascading effects. The loss of important native species, such as foundation species, can potentially influence the structure and distribution of animal communities because of the foundation species' unique ecosystem roles. The foundation species concept is relatively new to the terrestrial ecology and the …