Life Sciences Commons^™

Fungal Planet Description Sheets: 1112–1181, P. W. Crous, D. A. Cowan, G. Maggs-Kölling, N. Yilmaz, E. Larsson, C. Angelini, T. E. Brandrud, J. D. W. Dearnaley, B. Dima, F. Dovana, Et Al.

Aspen Bibliography

Novel species of fungi described in this study include those from various countries as follows: Australia, Austroboletus asper on soil, Cylindromonium alloxyli on leaves of Alloxylon pinnatum, Davidhawksworthia quintiniae on leaves of Quintinia sieberi, Exophiala prostantherae on leaves of Prostanthera sp., Lactifluus lactiglaucus on soil, Linteromyces quintiniae (incl. Linteromyces gen. nov.) on leaves of Quintinia sieberi, Lophotrichus medusoides from stem tissue of Citrus garrawayi, Mycena pulchra on soil, Neocalonectria tristaniopsidis (incl. Neocalonectria gen. nov.) and Xyladictyochaeta tristaniopsidis on leaves of Tristaniopsis collina, Parasarocladium tasmanniae on leaves of Tasmannia insipida, Phytophthora aquae-cooljarloo from pond water, Serendipita whamiae as …

Criollo Cattle As A Strategy To Maintain Output Of Ecosystem Services Under A Changing Climate, Kari E. Veblen

Funded Research Records

No abstract provided.

Aspen Soils Retain More Dissolved Organic Carbon Than Conifer Soils In A Sorption Experiment, Antra Boča, Astrid R. Jacobson, Helga Van Miegroet

Aspen Bibliography

The effect tree species have on soil organic carbon (SOC) has been hotly debated but, so far, few clear patterns have emerged. One example of a differing tree species effect on SOC are aspen forests in North America, which have been found to have more stable SOC than adjacent conifer forest stands. An important source for the formation of stable organo-mineral complexes in soil is dissolved organic carbon (DOC). DOC concentrations in mineral soil are often higher under the thick O-horizons of conifer forests than under aspen forests, but this does not correspond to more stable mineral SOC. This suggests …

Sustaining Wildlife With Recreation On Public Lands: A Synthesis Of Research Findings, Management Practices, And Research Needs, Anna B. Miller, David King, Mary Rowland, Joshua Chapman, Monica Tomosy, Christina Liang, Eric S. Abelson, Richard L. Truex

All Publications

Humans and wildlife interact in multifaceted ways on public lands with both positive and negative outcomes for each group. When managed well, wildlife-based tourism and other forms of recreation can benefit conservation goals. Public lands planners and managers often must decide how to best manage recreational activities and wildlife habitats that overlap spatially and temporally. We conducted an extensive literature review and categorized recreational activity into five types based on the use of motorized equipment, season, and location (terrestrial vs. aquatic), expanding on findings summarized in prior reviews. Our findings provide a reference for public lands planners and managers who …

General Destabilizing Effects Of Eutrophication On Grassland Productivity At Multiple Spatial Scales, Yann Hautier, Pengfei Zhang, Michel Loreau, Kevin R. Wilcox, Eric W. Seabloom, Elizabeth T. Borer, Jarrett E.K. Byrnes, Sally E. Koerner, Kimberly J. Komatsu, Jonathan S. Lefcheck, Andy Hector, Peter B. Adler, Juan Alberti, Carlos A. Arnillas, Jonathan D. Bakker, Lars A. Brudvig, Miguel N. Bugalho, Marc Cadotte, Maria C. Caldeira, Oliver Carroll, Mick Crawley, Scott L. Collins, Pedro Daleo, Laura E. Dee, Nico Eisenhauer, Anu Eskelinen, Philip A. Fay, Benjamin Gilbert, Amandine Hansar, Forest Isbell, Johannes M.H. Knops, Andrew S. Macdougall, Rebecca L. Mcculley, Joslin L. Moore, John W. Morgan, Akira S. Mori, Pablo L. Peri, Edwin T. Pos, Sally A. Power, Jodi N. Price, Peter B. Reich, Anita C. Risch, Christiane Roscher, Mahesh Sankaran, Martin Schütz, Melinda Smith, Carly Stevens, Pedro M. Tognetti, Risto Virtanen, Glenda M. Wardle, Peter A. Wilfahrt, Shaopeng Wang

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Eutrophication is a widespread environmental change that usually reduces the stabilizing effect of plant diversity on productivity in local communities. Whether this effect is scale dependent remains to be elucidated. Here, we determine the relationship between plant diversity and temporal stability of productivity for 243 plant communities from 42 grasslands across the globe and quantify the effect of chronic fertilization on these relationships. Unfertilized local communities with more plant species exhibit greater asynchronous dynamics among species in response to natural environmental fluctuations, resulting in greater local stability (alpha stability). Moreover, neighborhood communities that have greater spatial variation in plant species …

Simulated Fire Behavior And Fine-Scale Forest Structure Following Conifer Removal In Aspen-Conifer Forests In The Lake Tahoe Basin, Usa, Justin P. Ziegler, Chad M. Hoffman, Brandon M. Collins, Jonathan W. Long, Christa M. Dagley, William Mell

Aspen Bibliography

Quaking aspen is found in western forests of the United States and is currently at risk of loss due to conifer competition at within-stand scales. Wildfires in these forests are impactful owing to conifer infilling during prolonged fire suppression post-Euro-American settlement. Here, restoration cuttings seek to impact wildfire behavior and aspen growing conditions. In this study, we explored how actual and hypothetical cuttings with a range of conifer removal intensity altered surface fuel and overstory structure at stand and fine scales. We then simulated wildfires, examining fire behavior and effects on post-fire forest structures around aspen trees. We found that …

Drought- Conditioning Of Quaking Aspen (Populus Tremuloides Michx.) Seedlings During Nursery Production Modifies Seedling Anatomy And Physiology, Joshua L. Sloan, Owen T. Burney, Jeremiah R. Pinto

Aspen Bibliography

In the western US, quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) regenerates primarily by root suckers after disturbances such as low to moderate severity fires. Planting aspen seedlings grown from seed may provide a mechanism to improve restoration success and genetic diversity on severely disturbed sites. However, few studies have examined the use of container-grown aspen seedlings for restoration purposes from both the outplanting and nursery production perspective. Thus, the purpose of this novel study was to examine how alterations in irrigation levels during nursery production across three seed sources would impact seedling performance attributes on harsh, dry outplanting sites. Irrigation …

Patterns For Populus Spp. Stand Biomass In Gradients Of Winter Temperature And Precipitation Of Eurasia, Vladimir Andreevich Usoltev, Baozhang Chen, Seyed Omid Reza Shobairi, Ivan Stepanovich Tsepordey, Viktor Petrovich Chasovskikh, Shoaib Ahmad Anees

Aspen Bibliography

Based on a generated database of 413 sample plots, with definitions of stand biomass of the genus Populus spp. in Eurasia, from France to Japan and southern China, statistically significant changes in the structure of forest stand biomass were found, with shifts in winter temperatures and average annual precipitation. When analyzing the reaction of the structure of the biomass of the genus Populus to temperature and precipitation in their transcontinental gradients, a clearly expressed positive relationship of all components of the biomass with the temperature in January is visible. Their relationship with precipitation is less clear; in warm climate zones, …

Herbivores At The Highest Risk Of Extinction Among Mammals, Birds, And Reptiles, Trisha B. Atwood, Shaley A. Valentine, Edd Hammill, Douglas J. Mccauley, Elizabeth M. P. Madin, Karen H. Beard, William D. Pearse

Ecology Center Publications

As a result of their extensive home ranges and slow population growth rates, predators have often been perceived to suffer higher risks of extinction than other trophic groups. Our study challenges this extinction-risk paradigm by quantitatively comparing patterns of extinction risk across different trophic groups of mammals, birds, and reptiles. We found that trophic level and body size were significant factors that influenced extinction risk in all taxa. At multiple spatial and temporal scales, herbivores, especially herbivorous reptiles and large-bodied herbivores, consistently have the highest proportions of threatened species. This observed elevated extinction risk for herbivores is ecologically consequential, given …

What Is The Storage Effect, Why Should It Occur In Cancers, And How Can It Inform Cancer Therapy?, Anna K. Miller, Joel S. Brown, David Basanta, Nancy Huntly

Ecology Center Publications

Intratumor heterogeneity is a feature of cancer that is associated with progression, treatment resistance, and recurrence. However, the mechanisms that allow diverse cancer cell lineages to coexist remain poorly understood. The storage effect is a coexistence mechanism that has been proposed to explain the diversity of a variety of ecological communities, including coral reef fish, plankton, and desert annual plants. Three ingredients are required for there to be a storage effect: (1) temporal variability in the environment, (2) buffered population growth, and (3) species-specific environmental responses. In this article, we argue that these conditions are observed in cancers and that …

Genomic Insights Into Speciation History And Local Adaptation Of An Alpine Aspen In The Qinghai–Tibet Plateau And Adjacent Highlands, Jia-Lang Li, Lin-Ling Zhong, Jing Wang, Tao Ma, Kang-Shan Mao, Lei Zhang

Aspen Bibliography

Natural selection serves as an important agent to drive and maintain interspecific divergence. Populus rotundifolia Griff. is an alpine aspen species that mainly occurs in the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP) and adjacent highlands, whereas its sister species, P. davidiana Dode, is distributed across southwest and central to northeast China in much lower altitude regions. In this study, we collected genome resequencing data of 53 P. rotundifolia and 42 P. davidiana individuals across their natural distribution regions. Our population genomic data suggest that the two species are well delimitated in the allopatric regions, but with hybrid zones in their adjacent region in …

Aspen Next Generation: Conversations From Southern Colorado And Northern New Mexico, Dan Binkley, Bill Romme

Aspen Bibliography

Aspen trees and forests are especially important in the Rocky Mountains. Aspens add beauty to landscapes, foster high diversity and productivity of understory plants, provide for the habitat needs of many species of animals, and moderate fire behavior. There is a perception that aspen trees and stands are not regenerating well in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico; cohorts of trees younger than a few decades are scarce, at least in some areas. The next generation of aspen in the southern Rockies will be influenced by land use decisions, including harvesting, fire policy and management, and browsing by livestock and …

Protecting Endangered Species In The Usa Requires Both Public And Private Land Conservation, Niall G. Clancy, John P. Draper, J. Marshall Wolf, Umarfarooq A. Abdulwahab, Maya Cassidy Pendleton, Soren Brothers, Janice Brahney, Jennifer M. Weathered, Edd Hammill, Trisha B. Atwood

Ecology Center Publications

Crucial to the successful conservation of endangered species is the overlap of their ranges with protected areas. We analyzed protected areas in the continental USA to assess the extent to which they covered the ranges of endangered tetrapods. We show that in 80% of ecoregions, protected areas offer equal (25%) or worse (55%) protection for species than if their locations were chosen at random. Additionally, we demonstrate that it is possible to achieve sufficient protection for 100% of the USA’s endangered tetrapods through targeted protection of undeveloped public and private lands. Our results highlight that the USA is likely to …

Towards More Realistic Estimates Of Dom Decay In Streams: Incubation Methods, Light, And Non-Additive Effects, Julia E. Kelso, Emma J. Rosi, Michelle A. Baker

Ecology Center Publications

Dissolved organic matter (DOM) is the largest pool of organic matter in aquatic ecosystems and is a primary substrate for microbial respiration in streams. However, understanding the controls on DOM processing by microbes remains limited, and DOM decay rates remain largely unconstrained. Many DOM decay rates are quantified with bioassays in dark bottles, which may underestimate DOM decay in streams because these bioassays do not include a benthic zone and do not account for abiotic factors of DOM loss, such as photodegradation and volatilization. We measured decay of labile and semi-labile DOM over 3 d in experimental streams and bottle …

Compensatory Recruitment, Dynamic Habitat, And Selective Gear Present Challenges To Large-Scale Invasive Species Control, Timothy E. Walsworth, Kevin Landom, Jereme Gaeta

Ecology Center Publications

Control of long‐established invasive species to aid threatened native species presents major logistic and economic challenges. Invasive common carp (Cyprinus carpio ) recently accounted for over 90% of the fish biomass in Utah Lake (Utah, USA), driving many undesired changes to ecosystem structure. Carp control efforts have removed >12,000 tons of carp from the system over 10 yr. However, the impact of recent removal efforts on carp population structure and dynamics remains unclear. We develop an integrated age‐structured population model incorporating carp harvest data with independent standardized monitoring data to evaluate population‐level consequences of the removal effort and evaluate …

Space Use And Relative Habitat Selection For Immature Green Turtles Within A Caribbean Marine Protected Area, Lucas P. Griffin, Brian J. Smith, Michael S. Cherkiss, Andrew G. Crowder, Clayton G. Pollock, Zandy Hillis-Starr, Andy J. Danylchuk, Kristen M. Hart

Wildland Resources Student Research

Background

A better understanding of sea turtle spatial ecology is critical for the continued conservation of imperiled sea turtles and their habitats. For resource managers to develop the most effective conservation strategies, it is especially important to examine how turtles use and select for habitats within their developmental foraging grounds. Here, we examine the space use and relative habitat selection of immature green turtles (Chelonia mydas) using acoustic telemetry within the marine protected area, Buck Island Reef National Monument (BIRNM), St. Croix, United States Virgin Islands.

Results

Space use by turtles was concentrated on the southern side of …

Western Bumble Bee: Declines In The Continental United States And Range-Wide Information Gaps, Tabitha A. Graves, William M. Janousek, Sarah M. Gaulke, Amy C. Nicholas, Douglas A. Keinath, Christine M. Bell, Syd Cannings, Richard G. Hatfield, Jennifer M. Heron, Jonathan B. Koch, Helen L. Loffland, Leif L. Richardson, Ashley T. Rohde, Jessica Rykken, James P. Strange, Et Al.

Wildland Resources Student Research

In recent decades, many bumble bee species have declined due to changes in habitat, climate, and pressures from pathogens, pesticides, and introduced species. The western bumble bee (Bombus occidentalis), once common throughout western North America, is a species of concern and will be considered for listing by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). We attempt to improve alignment of data collection and research with USFWS needs to consider redundancy, resiliency, and representation in the upcoming species status assessment. We reviewed existing data and literature on B. occidentalis, highlighting information gaps …

Extreme Rainfall Events Alter The Trophic Structure In Bromeliad Tanks Across The Neotropics, Gustavo Q. Romero, Nicholas A. C. Marino, A. Andrew M. Macdonald, Régis Céréghino, M. Kurtis Trzcinski, Dimaris Acosta Mercado, Céline Leroy, Bruno Corbara, Vinicius F. Farjalla, Ignacio M. Barberis, Olivier Dézerald, Edd Hammill, Trisha B. Atwood, Gustavo C. O. Piccoli, Fabiola Ospina Bautista, Et Al.

Ecology Center Publications

Changes in global and regional precipitation regimes are among the most pervasive components of climate change. Intensification of rainfall cycles, ranging from frequent downpours to severe droughts, could cause widespread, but largely unknown, alterations to trophic structure and ecosystem function. We conducted multi-site coordinated experiments to show how variation in the quantity and evenness of rainfall modulates trophic structure in 210 natural freshwater microcosms (tank bromeliads) across Central and South America (18°N to 29°S). The biomass of smaller organisms (detritivores) was higher under more stable hydrological conditions. Conversely, the biomass of predators was highest when rainfall was uneven, resulting in …

Investigating The Dynamics Of Elk Population Size And Body Mass In A Seasonal Environment Using A Mechanistic Integral Projection Model, Shelly Lachish, Ellen E. Brandell, Meggan E. Craft, Andrew P. Dobson, Peter J. Hudson, Daniel R. Macnulty, Tim Coulson

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Environmentally mediated changes in body size often underlie population responses to environmental change, yet this is not a universal phenomenon. Understanding when phenotypic change underlies population responses to environmental change is important for obtaining insights and robust predictions of population dynamics in a changing world. We develop a dynamic integral projection model that mechanistically links environmental conditions to demographic rates and phenotypic traits (body size) via changes in resource availability and individual energetics. We apply the model to the northern Yellowstone elk population and explore population responses to changing patterns of seasonality, incorporating the interdependence of growth, demography, and density-dependent …

Long-Term Soil Productivity Study: 25-Year Vegetation Response To Varying Degrees Of Disturbance In Aspen-Dominated Forest Spanning The Upper Lake States, Miranda T. Curzon, Brian J. Palik, Anthony W. D'Amato, Julia Schwager

Aspen Bibliography

Installations of the Long-Term Soil Productivity Study were established in northern Minnesota and Michigan at the Chippewa, Ottawa, and Huron-Manistee National Forests (NFs) in the early 1990s and have since provided a wealth of data for assessing the response of aspen-dominated forest ecosystems to varying levels of organic matter removal and soil compaction. An assessment of 25-year standing woody biomass indicates that neither whole-tree harvest nor whole-tree harvest combined with forest floor removal reduced forest productivity on silt-loam soils compared with conventional, stem-only harvest; however, moderate and heavy compaction did negatively impact aspen biomass and stem densities. In contrast, whole-tree …

Analysis Of Movement Recursions To Detect Reproductive Events And Estimate Their Fate In Central Place Foragers, Simona Picardi, Brian J. Smith, Matthew E. Boone, Peter C. Frederick, Jacopo G. Cecere, Diego Rubolini, Lorenzo Serra, Simone Pirrello, Rena R. Borkhataria, Mathieu Basille

Ecology Center Publications

Background

Recursive movement patterns have been used to detect behavioral structure within individual movement trajectories in the context of foraging ecology, home-ranging behavior, and predator avoidance. Some animals exhibit movement recursions to locations that are tied to reproductive functions, including nests and dens; while existing literature recognizes that, no method is currently available to explicitly target different types of revisited locations. Moreover, the temporal persistence of recursive movements to a breeding location can carry information regarding the fate of breeding attempts, but it has never been used as a metric to quantify recursive movement patterns. Here, we introduce a method …

Migratory Behavior And Winter Geography Drive Differential Range Shifts Of Eastern Birds In Response To Recent Climate Change, Clark S. Rushing, J. Andrew Royle, David J. Ziolkowski Jr, Keith L. Pardieck

Ecology Center Publications

Over the past half century, migratory birds in North America have shown divergent population trends relative to resident species, with the former declining rapidly and the latter increasing. The role that climate change has played in these observed trends is not well understood, despite significant warming over this period. We used 43 y of monitoring data to fit dynamic species distribution models and quantify the rate of latitudinal range shifts in 32 species of birds native to eastern North America. Since the early 1970s, species that remain in North America throughout the year, including both resident and migratory species, appear …

Random Encounter And Staying Time Model Testing With Human Volunteers, Laura Garland, Eric Neilson, Tal Avgar, Erin Bayne, Stan Boutin

Ecology Center Publications

Ecology and management programs designed to track population trends over time increasingly are using passive monitoring methods to estimate terrestrial mammal densities. Researchers use motion‐sensing cameras in mammal studies because they are cost‐effective and advances in statistical methods incorporate motion‐sensing camera data to estimate mammal densities. Density estimation involving unmarked individuals, however, remains challenging and empirical tests of statistical models are relatively rare. We tested the random encounter and staying time model (REST), a new means of estimating the density of an unmarked population, using human volunteers and simulated camera surveys. The REST method produced unbiased estimates of density, regardless …

Linking Population Dynamics To Ecosystems: Identifying The Drivers Of Plant Productivity To Improve Rangeland Management., Robert Shriver

Funded Research Records

No abstract provided.

Global Co2 Emissions From Dry Inland Waters Share Common Drivers Across Ecosystems, P. S. Keller, N. Catalán, D. Von Schiller, H. -P. Grossart, M. Koschorreck, B. Obrador, M. A. Frassl, N. Karakaya, N. Barros, J. A. Howitt, C. Mendoza-Lera, A. Pastor, G. Flaim, R. Aben, T. Riis, M. I. Arce, G. Onandia, J. R. Paranaíba, A. Linkhorst, R. Del Campo, A. M. Amado, S. Cauvy-Fraunié, Soren Brothers, Et Al.

Ecology Center Publications

Many inland waters exhibit complete or partial desiccation, or have vanished due to global change, exposing sediments to the atmosphere. Yet, data on carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from these sediments are too scarce to upscale emissions for global estimates or to understand their fundamental drivers. Here, we present the results of a global survey covering 196 dry inland waters across diverse ecosystem types and climate zones. We show that their CO₂ emissions share fundamental drivers and constitute a substantial fraction of the carbon cycled by inland waters. CO₂ emissions were consistent across ecosystem types and climate …

Recent Hybrids Recapitulate Ancient Hybrid Outcomes, Samridhi Chaturvedi, Lauren K. Lucas, C. Alex Buerkle, James A. Fordyce, Matthew L. Forister, Chris C. Nice, Zachariah Gompert

Ecology Center Publications

Genomic outcomes of hybridization depend on selection and recombination in hybrids. Whether these processes have similar effects on hybrid genome composition in contemporary hybrid zones versus ancient hybrid lineages is unknown. Here we show that patterns of introgression in a contemporary hybrid zone in Lycaeides butterflies predict patterns of ancestry in geographically adjacent, older hybrid populations. We find a particularly striking lack of ancestry from one of the hybridizing taxa, Lycaeides melissa, on the Z chromosome in both the old and contemporary hybrids. The same pattern of reduced L. melissa ancestry on the Z chromosome is seen in two …

Genotyping-By-Sequencing And Ecological Niche Modeling Illuminate Phylogeography, Admixture, And Pleistocene Range Dynamics In Quaking Aspen (Populus Tremuloides), Justin C. Bagley, Neander M. Heming, Eliécer E. Gutiérrez, Upendra K. Devisetty, Karen E. Mock, Andrew J. Eckert, Steven H. Strauss

Ecology Center Publications

Populus tremuloides is the widest‐ranging tree species in North America and an ecologically important component of mesic forest ecosystems displaced by the Pleistocene glaciations. Using phylogeographic analyses of genome‐wide SNPs (34,796 SNPs, 183 individuals) and ecological niche modeling, we inferred population structure, ploidy levels, admixture, and Pleistocene range dynamics of P. tremuloides, and tested several historical biogeographical hypotheses. We found three genetic lineages located mainly in coastal–Cascades (cluster 1), east‐slope Cascades–Sierra Nevadas–Northern Rockies (cluster 2), and U.S. Rocky Mountains through southern Canadian (cluster 3) regions of the P. tremuloides range, with tree graph relationships of the form ((cluster 1, …

Social And General Intelligence Improves Collective Action In A Common Pool Resource System, Jacob Freeman, Jacopo A. Baggio, Thomas R. Coyle

Ecology Center Publications

On a planet experiencing global environmental change, the governance of natural resources depends on sustained collective action by diverse populations. Engaging in such collective action can only build upon the foundation of human cognition in social–ecological settings. To help understand this foundation, we assess the effect of cognitive abilities on the management of a common pool resource. We present evidence that two functionally distinct cognitive abilities, general and social intelligence, improve the ability of groups to manage a common pool resource. Groups high in both forms of intelligence engage in more effective collective action that is also more consistent, despite …

Estimating Population Abundance With A Mixture Of Physical Capture And Pit Tag Antenna Detection Data, Mary M. Conner, Phaedra E. Budy, Richard A. Wilkison, Michael Mills, Peter D. Mackinnon, Mark C. Mckinstry

Ecology Center Publications

The inclusion of passive interrogation antenna (PIA) detection data has promise to increase precision of population abundance estimates (Nˆ ). However, encounter probabilities are often higher for PIAs than for physical capture. If the difference is not accounted for, Nˆ may be biased. Using simulations, we estimated the magnitude of bias resulting from mixed capture and detection probabilities and evaluated potential solutions for removing the bias for closed capture models. Mixing physical capture and PIA detections (pdet) resulted in negative biases in Nˆ . However, using an individual covariate to model differences removed bias and improved precision. From a case …

How Climate Impacts The Composition Of Wolf-Killed Elk In Northern Yellowstone National Park, Christopher C. Wilmers, Matthew C. Metz, Daniel R. Stahler, Michel T. Kohl, Chris Geremia, Douglas W. Smith

Ecology Center Publications

1. While the functional response of predators is commonly measured, recent work has revealed that the age and sex composition of prey killed is often a better predictor of prey population dynamics because the reproductive value of adult females is usually higher than that of males or juveniles.
2. Climate is often an important mediating factor in determining the composition of predator kills, but we currently lack a mechanistic understanding of how the multiple facets of climate interact with prey abundance and demography to influence the composition of predator kills.
3. Over 20 winters, we monitored 17 wolf packs in Yellowstone National Park …