Restoration Of A Wet Longleaf Pine (Pinus Palustris) Savanna In Southeast Louisiana: Burning Toward Reference Conditions, 2015 University of New Orleans
Restoration Of A Wet Longleaf Pine (Pinus Palustris) Savanna In Southeast Louisiana: Burning Toward Reference Conditions, Alex K. Entrup
University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations
This study quantifies the changes in vegetation composition and structure of a fire-excluded Pinus palustris (longleaf pine) wetland savanna restoration site in southeastern in comparison to a proximate contemporary reference site. The restoration site was invaded by hardwood species and off-site pines, and never underwent extensive soil disturbance. The restoration treatments involved logging across portions of the site and the reintroduction of fire across the entire site. All species present in 10m2 quadrats were recorded prior to treatment and throughout the 17 year study at reference and treatment sites. The community composition of both logged and unlogged sites converged …
Mycorrhizal Roots In A Temperate Forest Take Up Organic Nitrogen From 13c- And 15n-Labeled Organic Matter, 2015 University of New Hampshire
Mycorrhizal Roots In A Temperate Forest Take Up Organic Nitrogen From 13c- And 15n-Labeled Organic Matter, Matthew A. Vadeboncoeur, Andrew P. Ouimette, Erik A. Hobbie
Earth Systems Research Center
Background and Aims
The importance of the uptake of nitrogen in organic form by plants and mycorrhizal fungi has been demonstrated in various ecosystems including temperate forests. However, in previous experiments, isotopically labeled amino acids were often added to soils in concentrations that may be higher than those normally available to roots and mycorrhizal hyphae in situ, and these high concentrations could contribute to exaggerated uptake.
Methods
We used an experimental approach in which we added 13C-labeled and 15N-labeled whole cells to root-ingrowth cores, allowing proteolytic enzymes to release labeled organic nitrogen at a natural rate, as …
Southeastern Monochamus And Their Interactions With Healthy Shortleaf Pine Trees And Associated Ips Grandicollis Bark Beetles, 2015 University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
Southeastern Monochamus And Their Interactions With Healthy Shortleaf Pine Trees And Associated Ips Grandicollis Bark Beetles, Matthew Walker Ethington
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
Insects in the genus Monochamus are medium to large-sized, wood-boring beetles whose primary hosts in the Northern Hemisphere are pine trees. These beetles interact with both conifer hosts and associated insects throughout their life history. Past research has demonstrated that Monochamus are saprophagic, but recent findings show that they may colonize healthy pine trees. To determine if southeastern Monochamus could colonize healthy pines, adult Monochamus were attracted to healthy shortleaf pine trees from May to September, 2014, using host volatiles, Ips bark beetle kairomones, and congeneric pheromones. Subsequent development of oviposited eggs from 18 host trees was monitored. The results …
Demography And Disease Of The Rare Shrub Buckleya Distichophylla (Santalaceae) In Northeastern Tennessee, 2015 East Tennessee State University
Demography And Disease Of The Rare Shrub Buckleya Distichophylla (Santalaceae) In Northeastern Tennessee, William Seth Ratliff
Undergraduate Honors Theses
Piratebush (Buckleya distichophylla (Nutt.) Torr.) is a rare, hemiparasitic shrub with the only extant populations in western North Carolina, northeastern Tennessee, and southwestern Virginia. The preferred natural hosts of piratebush, Carolina and eastern hemlocks, have seen sharp declines over the last decade due to the invasive hemlock woolly adelgid. Virginia pine, another important host of piratebush, is also susceptible to disease, specifically Cronartium appalachianum, a rust fungus for which piratebush is the secondary host. This study described and analyzed current demographic parameters of three Tennessee piratebush populations. Additionally, spatial patterns of disease and demographic characters were analyzed. These …
Density-Dependent Survival In The Larval Stage Of An Invasive Insect: Dispersal Vs. Predation, 2015 University of Massachusetts Amherst
Density-Dependent Survival In The Larval Stage Of An Invasive Insect: Dispersal Vs. Predation, Adam A. Pepi
Masters Theses
1. The success of invasive species is often thought to be due to release from natural enemies. This hypothesis relies on the assumption that species are regulated by top-down forces in their native range and implies that species are likely to be regulated by bottom-up forces in the invasive range. Neither of these assumptions has been consistently supported with insects, a group which include many highly destructive invasive pest species.
2. Winter moth (Operophtera brumata) is an invasive defoliator in North America that appears to be regulated by mortality in the larval stage in its invasive range. To …
The Effect Of Disturbance And Freshwater Availability On Lower Florida Keys’ Coastal Forest Dynamics, 2015 Florida International University
The Effect Of Disturbance And Freshwater Availability On Lower Florida Keys’ Coastal Forest Dynamics, Danielle E. Ogurcak
FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Coastal forest retreat in the Florida Keys during the 20th century has been attributed to a combination of sea level rise and hurricane storm surge impacts, but the interactions between these two disturbances leading to forest decline are not well understood. The goal of my research was to assess their effects over a period spanning more than two decades, and to examine the relationships between these press and pulse disturbances and freshwater availability in pine rockland, hardwood hammock, and supratidal scrub communities. Impacts and recovery from two storm surges, Hurricanes Georges (1998) and Wilma (2005), were assessed with satellite-derived …
Timber Talk, Vol. 53, No .4, November 2015, 2015 University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Timber Talk, Vol. 53, No .4, November 2015
Timber Talk: Nebraska Forest Industry Newsletter
In This Issue
Lumber Market News ...........................1
Hardwood Lumber Price Trends—Green..................................2
Hardwood Lumber Price Trends—Kiln Dried...........................2
Sun-dried Lumber.................................3
NFS Forest Products Program...............4
Milling Railroad Ties in Nebraska........4
A Closer Look at Edgers........................5
Nebraska Forest Industry Spotlight......7
The Trading Post....................................8
Plant Index Card For Rubus Parviflorus,Western Thimbleberry, 2015 Linfield University
Plant Index Card For Rubus Parviflorus,Western Thimbleberry, Jane Claire Dirks-Edmunds
Jane Claire Dirks-Edmunds Documents
This is one example of a research card used by Dr. Jane Claire Dirks-Edmunds. Dirks-Edmunds used these cards to catalog the plants, animals, and insects at her Saddleback Mountain research site during the 1950s. This card has notes on Rubus parviflorus (thimbleberry) a part of the Rosaceae (rose) family.
Landscape Position Influences Microbial Composition And Function Via Redistribution Of Soil Water Across A Watershed, 2015 University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Landscape Position Influences Microbial Composition And Function Via Redistribution Of Soil Water Across A Watershed, Zhe Du, Diego Andrés Riveros-Iregui, Ryan T. Jones, Timothy R. Mcdermott, John E. Dore, Brian L. Mcglynn, Ryan E. Emanuel, Xu Li
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications
Subalpine forest ecosystems influence global carbon cycling. However, little is known about the compositions of their soil microbial communities and how these may vary with soil environmental conditions. The goal of this study was to characterize the soil microbial communities in a subalpine forest watershed in central Montana (Stringer Creek watershed within the Tenderfoot Creek Experimental Forest) and to investigate their relationships with environmental conditions and soil carbonaceous gases. As assessed by tagged Illumina sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene, community composition and structure differed significantly among three landscape positions: high upland zones (HUZ), low upland zones (LUZ), and riparian …
Timber Talk, Vol. 53, No. 3, September 2015, 2015 University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Timber Talk, Vol. 53, No. 3, September 2015
Timber Talk: Nebraska Forest Industry Newsletter
In This Issue
Lumber Market News ...........................1
Hardwood Lumber Price Trends—Green..................................2
Hardwood Lumber Price Trends—Kiln Dried...........................2
Open for Business..................................3
U.S. Pumps out More Pellets.................4
Should I Buy a Sawmill.........................5
Nebraska Forest Industry Spotlight......7
The Trading Post....................................8
Timber Sales...........................................8
Climate-Suitable Planting As A Strategy For Maintaining Forest Productivity And Functional Diversity, 2015 Portland State University
Climate-Suitable Planting As A Strategy For Maintaining Forest Productivity And Functional Diversity, Matthew Joshua Duveneck, Robert M. Scheller
Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations
Within the time frame of the longevity of tree species, climate change will change faster than the ability of natural tree migration. Migration lags may result in reduced productivity and reduced diversity in forests under current management and climate change. We evaluated the efficacy of planting climate-suitable tree species (CSP), those tree species with current or historic distributions immediately south of a focal landscape, to maintain or increase aboveground biomass, productivity, and species and functional diversity. We modeled forest change with the LANDIS-II forest simulation model for 100 years (2000–2100) at a 2-ha cell resolution and five-year time steps within …
Individual Tree Measurements From Three-Dimensional Point Clouds, 2015 University of Maine - Main
Individual Tree Measurements From Three-Dimensional Point Clouds, Elias Ayrey
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This study develops and tests novel methodologies for measuring the attributes of individual trees from three-dimensional point clouds generated from an aerial platform. Recently, advancements in technology have allowed for the acquisition of very high resolution three-dimensional point clouds that can be used to map the forest in a virtual environment. These point clouds can be interpreted to produce valuable forest attributes across entire landscapes with minimal field labor, which can then aid forest managers in their planning and decision making.
Biometrics derived from point clouds are often generated on a plot level, with estimates spanning many meters (rather than …
Population Dynamics And Ecophysiology Of Fraser Fir (Abies Fraseri) In The High Elevation Forests In The Southern Appalachian Mountains, 2015 University of Tennessee - Knoxville
Population Dynamics And Ecophysiology Of Fraser Fir (Abies Fraseri) In The High Elevation Forests In The Southern Appalachian Mountains, Steven Douglas Kaylor
Doctoral Dissertations
Dominated by the endemic Fraser fir (Abies fraseri), the high-elevation forests of the Southern Appalachians are one of the most endangered ecosystems in the United States, and the future of these forests remains uncertain. Fraser fir is showing signs of decline in health and increased mortality throughout its range, possibly due to multiple environmental stresses.
Using twenty years of forest monitoring data, this dissertation documents change in forest structure and species composition in high-elevation red spruce-Fraser fir forests in southern Appalachia and generates predictions of future forest change. Additionally, it quantifies physiological measures of carbon fixation, storage and …
The Effect Of Drought On Stomatal Conductance In The Biosphere 2 Rainforest, 2015 University of Vermont
The Effect Of Drought On Stomatal Conductance In The Biosphere 2 Rainforest, Justin Gay, Joost Van Haren
STAR Program Research Presentations
Drought is a major climate change concern for the Earth’s rainforests; however little is currently known about how these forests and individual plants will respond to water stress. At the individual level, the ability of plants to regulate their stomatal conductance is an important preservation mechanism that helps to cool leaves, regulate water loss, and uptake carbon dioxide. At the ecosystem level, transpiration in rain forests is a major contributor to the feedback loop that returns moisture to the atmosphere for continued rains. Nearly 60% of atmospheric moisture in the Amazon rain forests has been traced back to origins of …
Environmental Forcing Does Not Induce Diel Or Synoptic Variation In The Carbon Isotope Content Of Forest Soil Respiration, 2015 University of Utah
Environmental Forcing Does Not Induce Diel Or Synoptic Variation In The Carbon Isotope Content Of Forest Soil Respiration, Steven J. Hall, D. R. Bowling, J. E. Egan
Steven J. Hall
Recent studies have examined temporal fluctuations in the amount and carbon isotope content (δ13C) of CO2 produced by the respiration of roots and soil organisms. These changes have been correlated with diel cycles of environmental forcing (e.g., sunlight and soil temperature) and with synoptic-scale atmospheric motion (e.g., rain events and pressure-induced ventilation). We used an extensive suite of measurements to examine soil respiration over 2 months in a subalpine forest in Colorado, USA (the Niwot Ridge AmeriFlux forest). Observations included automated measurements of CO2 and δ13C of CO2 in the soil efflux, the soil gas profile, and forest air. There …
Radiocarbon Isotopic Classification Of Deep Tropical Forest Soils, 2015 University of Tennessee - Knoxville
Radiocarbon Isotopic Classification Of Deep Tropical Forest Soils, Brooke Butler, Karis J. Mcfarlane, Jennifer Pett-Ridge, Katherine A. Heckman
STAR Program Research Presentations
Tropical forest soils have an important role in global carbon (C) stocks. Small changes in the cycling of C could drastically affect atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations and active cycling of carbon in a forest community. Currently, little is understood of how tropical forest soils will respond to the increasing global temperatures. To examine the effects of warming/ drought on losses of older versus younger soil C pools, we implemented radiocarbon (14C) isotopic characterization of various soil plot samples and depths from the Luquillo Experimental Forest, Puerto Rico. 14C was measured using Accelerated Mass Spectrometry (AMS) from catalytically condensed carbon …
Habitat Use By Spruce Grouse In A Fragmented System, 2015 Northern Michigan University
Habitat Use By Spruce Grouse In A Fragmented System, Laurel A. Hill
All NMU Master's Theses
The spruce grouse is a boreal obligate species that has been protected in Michigan since 1915 (Ammann 1963). Despite protection, the status of spruce grouse is uncertain in Michigan and other parts of the Midwest, and there have been few attempts at large-scale surveys or monitoring (Williamson et al. 2008). I studied a population of spruce grouse near the southern edge of their range on the Yellow Dog Plains in Marquette County, Michigan.
I investigated fecal pellet counts as a possible method to assess spruce grouse presence and habitat use. My results validated the use of fecal pellet occurrence as …
Two Hundred Years Of Forest Change: Effects Of Urbanization On Tree Species Composition And Structure, 2015 Butler University
Two Hundred Years Of Forest Change: Effects Of Urbanization On Tree Species Composition And Structure, Rebecca W. Dolan
Rebecca W. Dolan
Despite their importance, the dynamics of urban floras are not well understood and quantitative historical data are rare. The current study used three data sets for trees in Indianapolis/Marion County, Indiana, U.S., to document change over 200 years to the original beech-maple forest and to examine future implications of contemporary tree planting efforts in light of these changes. Data on tree composition and size collected before significant settlement in the early 1800s are compared with recent surveys of trees in remnant natural areas and with trees found on city streets and rights-of-way. All the species recorded in historical surveys are …
Evaluation Of A Waistband For Attaching External Radiotransmitters To Anurans, 2015 University of Maine - Main
Evaluation Of A Waistband For Attaching External Radiotransmitters To Anurans, Luke Alexander Groff, Amber Pitt, Robert Baldwin, Aram J K Calhoun, Cynthia Loftin
Publications
Radiotelemetry provides fine-scale temporal and spatial information about an individual's movements and habitat use; however, its use for monitoring amphibians has been restricted by transmitter mass and lack of suitable attachment techniques. We describe a novel waistband for attaching external radiotransmitters to anurans and evaluate the percentages of resulting abrasions, lacerations, and shed transmitters. We used radiotelemetry to monitor movements and habitat use of wood frogs (Lithobates sylvaticus) in 2006 and 2011–2013 in Maine, USA; American toads (Anaxyrus americanus) in 2012 in North Carolina, USA; and, wood frogs, southern leopard frogs (L. sphenocephalus), and green frogs (L. clamitans) in 2012 …
Is Chir Pine Displacing Banj Oak In The Central Himalaya? Socioeconomic Implications For Local People And The Conservation Of Oak Forest Biodiversity, 2015 University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
Is Chir Pine Displacing Banj Oak In The Central Himalaya? Socioeconomic Implications For Local People And The Conservation Of Oak Forest Biodiversity, Ankush Nautiyal
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
Various studies have suggested that chir pine (Pinus roxburghii) is replacing banj oak (Quercus leucotrichophora) in the Central Himalaya. Five sites with three different types of forests (banj oak, chir pine and mixed oak-pine) were sampled to compare the diversity of their vegetation and to assess the impact of this ongoing conversion on biodiversity. Soil samples collected from oak and pine forests were analyzed and compared. In addition, dendrochronology was used to obtain age estimates of chir pine and to understand the growth response of this species to precipitation. Also, samples of ectomycorrhizal fungi were collected in the form of …