Environmental Health and Protection Commons^™

Hot But Not Dry: Modest Changes In Water Relations For An Epiphytic Bromeliad In A Tropical Dry Deciduous Forest, Saúl Hernández-Robinson, Eric A. Graham, Olivia Hernández-González, Roberth Us-Santamaría, José Luis Simá, Fernando Arellano-Martín, José Luis Andrade

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

Premise of research. Epiphytic bromeliads endure intense seasonal environmental changes in the canopy of dry tropical deciduous forests. The analysis of the physiological responses of these epiphytes to environmental changes can be useful in assessing their plasticity, vulnerability, and adaptations to such extreme habitats.

Methodology. We measured microenvironmental variables and water relations for plants of the epiphytic bromeliad Tillandsia brachycaulos in three microhabitats within the canopy of a dry tropical forest. We measured individual plants for seasonal and spatial differences in light, leaf temperature, osmotic potential, cell wall elasticity, and relative capacitance as indications of their physiological responses …

The Post-Wildfire Impact Of Burn Severity And Age On Black Carbon Snow Deposition And Implications For Snow Water Resources, Cascade Range, Washington, Ted M. Uecker, Susan D. Kaspari, Keith N. Musselman, S. Mckenzie Skiles

Geological Sciences Faculty Scholarship

Wildfires in the snow zone affect ablation by removing forest canopy, which enhances surface solar irradiance, and depositing light absorbing particles [LAPs, such as black carbon (BC)] on the snowpack, reducing snow albedo. How variations in BC deposition affects post-wildfire snowmelt timing is poorly known and highly relevant to water resources. We present a field-based analysis of BC variability across five sites of varying burn age and burn severity in the Cascade Range, Washington State, United States. Single particle soot photometer (SP2) analyses of BC snow concentrations were used to assess the impact of BC on snow albedo, and radiative …