Digital Commons Network^™

Mapping The Treasure State: What States Can Learn From Redistricting In Montana, Caitlin Boland Aarab, The Honorable Jim Regnier

Montana Law Review

No abstract provided.

Suitable Days For Plant Growth Disappear Under Projected Climate Change: Potential Human And Biotic Vulnerability, Camilo Mora, Iain R. Caldwell, Jamie M. Caldwell, Micah R. Fisher, Brandon M. Genco, Steven W. Running

Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences Faculty Publications

Ongoing climate change can alter conditions for plant growth, in turn affecting ecological and social systems. While there have been considerable advances in understanding the physical aspects of climate change, comprehensive analyses integrating climate, biological, and social sciences are less common. Here we use climate projections under alternative mitigation scenarios to show how changes in environmental variables that limit plant growth could impact ecosystems and people. We show that although the global mean number of days above freezing will increase by up to 7% by 2100 under “business as usual” (representative concentration pathway [RCP] 8.5), suitable growing days will actually …

Sunlight Mediated Seasonality In Canopy Structure And Photosynthetic Activity Of Amazonian Rainforests, Jian Bi, Yuri Knyazikhin, Sungho Choi, Taejin Park, Jonathan Barichivich, Philippe Ciais, Rong Fu, Sangram Ganguly, Forrest Hall, Thomas Hilker, Alfredo R. Huete, Matthew O. Jones, John S. Kimball, Alexei I. Lyapustin, Matti Mottus, Ramakrishna R. Nemani, Shilong Piao, Benjamin Poulter, Scott R. Saleska, Sassan S. Saatchi, Liang Xu, Liming Zhou, Ranga B. Myneni

Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group Publications

Resolving the debate surrounding the nature and controls of seasonal variation in the structure and metabolism of Amazonian rainforests is critical to understanding their response to climate change. In situ studies have observed higher photosynthetic and evapotranspiration rates, increased litterfall and leaf flushing during the Sunlight-rich dry season. Satellite data also indicated higher greenness level, a proven surrogate of photosynthetic carbon fixation, and leaf area during the dry season relative to the wet season. Some recent reports suggest that rainforests display no seasonal variations and the previous results were satellite measurement artefacts. Therefore, here we re-examine several years of data …

Risky Research Business: Mathematics Education Research On The Margins, Erika C. Bullock

The Mathematics Enthusiast

Although we would like to believe that decisions about what research to conduct and how to conduct it are based solely on researcher interest and societal need, the reality is that external political and disciplinary factors do play a role. Scientifically based research (SBR) is one example of external political pressures that shape researcher choice both directly and indirectly. Additionally, disciplines like mathematics education operate under hidden curricula that have the potential to marginalize particular research foci. The purpose of this paper is to consider the implications of such a narrow focus on a young mathematics education researcher’s choices about …

Understanding Risk Through Board Games, Joshua T. Hertel

The Mathematics Enthusiast

In this article, I describe a potential avenue for investigating individual’s understanding of and reactions to risk using the medium of board games. I first discuss some challenges that researchers face in studying risk situations. Connecting to the existing probabilistic reasoning literature, I then present a rationale for using board games to model these situations. Following this, I draw upon intuition and dual-process theory to outline an integrated theoretical perspective for such investigations. The article concludes with two vignettes demonstrating how this perspective might be used to analyze thinking about risk in a board game setting.

A Comparison Of Plot-Based Satellite And Earth System Model Estimates Of Tropical Forest Net Primary Production, Cory C. Cleveland, Philip Taylor, K. Dana Chadwick, Kyla Dahlin, Christopher E. Doughty, Yadvinder Malhi, W. Kolby Smith, Benjamin W. Sullivan, William R. Wider, Alan R. Townsend

Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences Faculty Publications

Net primary production (NPP) by plants represents the largest annual flux of carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the atmosphere to the terrestrial biosphere, playing a critical role in the global carbon (C) cycle and the Earth’s climate. Rates of NPP in tropical forests are thought to be among the highest on Earth, but debates about the magnitude, patterns, and controls of NPP in the tropics highlight uncertainty in our understanding of how tropical forests may respond to environmental change. Here, we compared tropical NPP estimates generated using three common approaches: (1) field-based methods scaled from plot-level measurements of plant …

University Of Montana Commencement Program, 2015, University Of Montana--Missoula. Office Of The Registrar

University of Montana Commencement Programs, 1898-2020

Commencement program from the University of Montana.

Montana Kaimin, April 22, 2015, Students Of The University Of Montana, Missoula

Montana Kaimin, 1898-present

Student newspaper of the University of Montana, Missoula.

Multi-Scale Spatio-Temporal Analysis Of Brown Bear Habitat In Northern Iberia: A Large Landscape Conservation Planning Perspective, Alma D. Pacheco

UM Graduate Student Research Conference (GradCon)

Problem Statement

The distributions of brown bears in northern Iberia are mainly found in protected areas but they also extend beyond protected boundaries. Since brown bears need large continuous areas of habitat with sufficient availability of preferred foods, escape cover and den sites; it’s important to map brown bear habitats at a landscape level to further examine their connectivity and fragmented habitats. The major problems for brown bear recovery and management in the northern Iberian Peninsula is the lack of identified linkages (one means of achieving connectivity) between subpopulations, and barriers (fragmentation-natural or anthropogenic) that divide them. Brown bear habitats …

Which Wolf, Which Trap? Socially Constructing Wolves And Trapping In Western Montana, Andrew Myers

UM Graduate Student Research Conference (GradCon)

In 2011, after nearly forty years of federal protection, gray wolves were removed from the Endangered Species List in Montana and their management entrusted to Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks. For some, wolves are critical to ecosystem health and an essential part of nature, for others they are a symbol of government overreach threatening their livelihoods and cultural values. The implementation of annual trapping seasons as a method to reduce perceived negative impacts from a growing wolf population has further inflamed an already embroiled debate. The purpose of this research was to investigate various meanings of wolves and wolf trapping …

Acknowledging Sampling Bias In Species Distribution Modelling: Predicting Botrychium Sp. Habitat In Lincoln County, Montana, Annalisa Ingegno

UM Graduate Student Research Conference (GradCon)

INTRODUCTION : Over 70 % of Botrychium in Montana are considered “Species of Concern” by the Montana Natural Heritage Program, meaning they are in jeopardy of extirpation due to habitat destruction, limited range, or small population size.¹² Thus, developing an effective conservation plan for Montana that maintains current Botrychium sp. diversity and preserves their distribution is critical.^{5, 4} Unfortunately, Botrychium sp. periodically abstain from producing aboveground fronds due to their symbiosis with arbuscular mycorrhiza, complicating long-term data collection strategies.^{9, 8, 4} Ergo, Botrychium sp. make an ideal candidate for a species distribution model (SDM) because it can …

Crown Of The Continent And The Greater Yellowstone Magazine - Spring 2015, University Of Montana, Missoula

Crown of the Continent and the Greater Yellowstone Magazine

Table of Contents: Understanding Yellowstone's Past to Understand the Future -- By the Seat of Their Pants -- The Yellowstone River & Yellowstone Lake Part II -- Exploring Yellowstone: Part three -- Purple Gold -- The Art That Created The Park -- Book Review -- Steamboats on Flathead Lake -- Whitewater Daredevils -- The Blackfoot Valley...Guess Who's Coming to Dinner -- Silent, Sacred and Wild -- Something Sacred -- Towns of the Front -- Book Review -- Everything You Wanted To Know About An Ecosystem But Were Afraid To Ask -- Consider the Wild Raspberry -- Field Notes

April 2015 News Releases, University Of Montana--Missoula. Office Of University Relations

University of Montana News Releases, 1928, 1956-present

No abstract provided.

Montana Kaimin, March 12, 2015, Students Of The University Of Montana, Missoula

Montana Kaimin, 1898-present

Student newspaper of the University of Montana, Missoula.

Race, Power, And Education In Early America, John Frederick Bell

Education's Histories

Craig Steven Wilder. Ebony and Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of America's Universities. New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2013. 423 pp. $30.00.

Montana Kaimin, February 25, 2015, Students Of The University Of Montana, Missoula

Montana Kaimin, 1898-present

Student newspaper of the University of Montana, Missoula.

Quantifying Environmental Limiting Factors On Tree Cover Using Geospatial Data, Johnathan A. Greenberg, Maria J. Santos, Solomon Z. Dobrowski, Vern C. Vanderbilt, Susan L. Ustin

Forest Management Faculty Publications

Environmental limiting factors (ELFs) are the thresholds that determine the maximum or minimum biological response for a given suite of environmental conditions. We asked the following questions: 1) Can we detect ELFs on percent tree cover across the eastern slopes of the Lake Tahoe Basin, NV? 2) How are the ELFs distributed spatially? 3) To what extent are unmeasured environmental factors limiting tree cover? ELFs are difficult to quantify as they require significant sample sizes. We addressed this by using geospatial data over a relatively large spatial extent, where the wall-to-wall sampling ensures the inclusion of rare data points which …

Psci 227.01: Issues In Global Public Health, Peter Koehn

University of Montana Course Syllabi

No abstract provided.

Psci 522.01: Human Resource Management, Sara R, Rinfret

University of Montana Course Syllabi

No abstract provided.

Jrnl 105x.80: Global Current Events - Honors, Larry Abramson

University of Montana Course Syllabi

No abstract provided.

January 2015 News Releases, University Of Montana--Missoula. Office Of University Relations

University of Montana News Releases, 1928, 1956-present

No abstract provided.

Expressive Arts As A Means Of Increasing Well-Being In Children, Danielle L. Barnes-Smith, Jordan Frotz, Hanasara Ito, Johannah Kohorst, Emily Vascimini

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

The purpose of this research is to discover the extent to which expressive arts increase well-being in children. Expressive arts are being defined here as theatre, dance, art, and creative writing. Well-being is defined as self-efficacy and self-worth. The project was carried out in a four-week expressive arts program designed to teach fifth grade elementary school students a variety of artistic disciplines (i.e. theatre, dance, art, and creative writing). Both before and after the workshop, the students completed measures of self-worth and self-efficacy; these measures were used to identify changes in students from the beginning of the program to the …

The Effect Of Spatial Patterns Of Soil Hydraulic Conductivity And Depth On Local And Hillslope Scale Shallow Water Table Dynamics, Casey E. Ryan

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Much research in forested headwater catchments has focused on the role of topography for organizing subsurface flow and the hydrologic connectivity of upland flow paths to stream networks. However, little work has been conducted to evaluate how localized and hillslope scale patterns of hydraulic conductivity and soil depth contribute to spatial patterns of water table duration, magnitude, and connectivity. I monitored shallow groundwater dynamics in wells distributed across a 1st order hillslope in the Lubrecht Experimental Forest, Montana. Additionally, I collected in-situ measurements of soil saturated hydraulic conductivity and soil depth at 10m intervals across the study hillslope and compared …

Off The Court, Onto The Farm, Arza E. Hammond

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This work contains two separate but connected stories about developing a relationship with something larger than myself. Reaching the end of my basketball career forced me to examine my relationship with the great game of basketball and my role in it. After ending my hoops career, I spent a summer working and living on a small, organic farm. The lessons I learned from the game helped me to develop a meaningful relationship with the farm and to find a reciprocal role with the land I lived and worked on.

Paleoindian Predictive Model For Yellowstone National Park, Matthew R. Nelson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The Greater Yellowstone Region was a destination for nomadic hunter-gatherers for at least 12,000 years. Archaeological sites representing the whole spectrum of time, cultures, and activities, have been found throughout the region. Within Yellowstone National Park a number of Paleoindian projectile points and other related cultural materials have been recorded, however, only a handful of buried Paleoindian sites have been identified and excavated. Considering the nature of the archaeological record in the area, some interesting questions surface about the value of the information recorded on the Paleoindian sites. In terms of Yellowstone National Park (YNP) Paleoindian archaeology, is it possible …

Factors Affecting Plant Responses To Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi And Soil Fungal Communities, Lauren Priestman Waller

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi are ancient mutualists that associate with the majority of plants. However, the factors that influence how much a plant benefits from AM fungi, or the factors that influence other root-associated fungi are unclear. I examined how plant traits related to nutrient availability can explain variation in AMresponsiveness and whether native species differ from exotics in these relationships. Leaf mass per unit of area (LMA) correlated positively with mycorrhizal growth responsiveness (MGR) and root colonization (RC) among native species. This indicates that native species with more conservative traits more strongly benefit, and benefit from, AM fungi. Furthermore, …

Alpine Experiments: The National Parks And The Development Of Skiing In The American West, Jeffrey T. Meyer

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In 1886, the U.S. Army mounted cavalry soldiers on skis to patrol the winter landscape of Yellowstone National Park. Prior to Yellowstone's skiing soldiers, the U.S. government had no formal relationship with skiing. In Yellowstone, the Army initiated the U.S. government's intimate and enduring relationship with skiing in the American West. When the National Park Service (NPS) took over the management of Yellowstone, the government's involvement with western skiing transferred over to the NPS. Upon its creation in 1916, the NPS inherited a national park system primarily carved from the high western mountains and embraced the promotion of recreational skiing …

On The Map, But Off The Grid: Perceptions Of Authenticity In Polebridge, Montana, William Klaczynski

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

The Historical And Cultural Landscape Of The Missoula Valley During The 19th And 20th Centuries, Mary Bobbitt

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Archaeological case studies can be used as microcosms for understanding questions related to landscape transformations and climate change throughout the arid American West. The early 19^th century marked a time when significant changes began to take place in the Missoula Valley due to influences of European exploration and settlement in the region. By incorporating multiple sources from a variety of disciplines and using a theoretical framework grounded in landscape theory, this research examines the ways in which humans have altered ecosystem structure, function, and transformations in the region over time, and specifically over the past 200 years. Historic General …

(Re)Localizing Finland’S Foodshed: Grassroots Movements In Food Distribution And Urban Agriculture, Sophia E. Albov

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Finland’s agricultural landscape and food production systems have deep societal roots and intimate connections to the Finnish cultural identity. The thesis explores this cultural heritage through an examination of grassroots food distribution networks rapidly diffusing across Finland and an examination of urban agricultural practices in the capital city of Helsinki. This thesis aims to address the following questions: (1) What is the role of grassroots food distribution networks in Finland, and to what extent are they creating alternative farmer-consumer linkages that support eating local? (2) How is urban agriculture structured and organized in Helsinki and within the broader context of …