Life Sciences Commons^™

An Approach For Using Soil Surveys To Guide The Placement Of Water Quality Buffers, Mike Dosskey, Matthew J. Helmers, Dean E. Eisenhauer

USDA Forest Service / UNL Faculty Publications

Vegetative buffers may function better for filtering agricultural runoff in some locations than in others because of intrinsic characteristics of the land on which they are placed. The objective of this study was to develop a method based on soil survey attributes that can be used to compare soil map units for how effectively a buffer installed in them could remove pollutants from crop field runoff. Three separate models were developed. The surface runoff models for sediment and for dissolved pollutants were quantitative, based mainly on slope, soil, and rainfall factors of the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE), and …

Blanding’S Turtle (Emydoidea Blandingii): A Technical Conservation Assessment, Justin D. Congdon, Douglas A. Keinath

USDA Forest Service / UNL Faculty Publications

Blanding’s turtles (Emydoidea blandingii) are secure in Nebraska, and they range from being vulnerable to threatened, or endangered throughout most of the rest of their distribution. In Region 2, they have not been reported from Kansas, they are extremely rare in South Dakota, and they occupy wetlands in the northern half of Nebraska. The largest population known within the range of Blanding’s turtles is at Valentine National Wildlife Refuge, Nebraska.

The core habitat of Blanding’s turtles has an aquatic component that consists of a permanent wetland and a suite of other, usually smaller and more temporary, wetlands such …

Molecular Characterization Of Fusarhm Oxysporum And Fusarium Commune Isolates From A Conifer Nursery, Jane E. Stewart, Mee-Sook Kim, Robert L. James, R. Kasten Dumroese, Ned B. Klopfenstein

USDA Forest Service / UNL Faculty Publications

Fusarium species can cause severe root disease and damping-off in conifer nurseries. Fusarium inoculum is commonly found in most container and bareroot nurseries on healthy and diseased seedlings, in nursery soils, and on conifer seeds. Isolates of Fusarium spp. can differ in virulence; however, virulence and colony morphology are not correlated. Forty-one isolates of Fusarium spp., morphologically indistinguishable from F. oxysporum, were collected from nursery samples (soils, healthy seedlings, and diseased seedlings). These isolates were characterized by amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) and DNA sequencing of nuclear rDNA (internal transcribed spacer including 5.8s rDNA), mitochondrial rDNA (small subunit [mtSSU]), …

Perennial Crops For Bio-Fuels And Conservation, Gregory Ruark, Scott J. Josiah, Don Riemenschneider, Timothy Volk

USDA Forest Service / UNL Faculty Publications

Perennial woody crops have the potential to contribute significantly to the production of bio-fuels while simultaneously helping to provide a wide range of conservation benefits. Among these benefits are increased biological diversity in the landscape, conservation of soil and water resources, maintenance of forest ecosystem productivity and health, contribution to the global carbon cycle, and provision of socioeconomic benefits. Short rotation woody crops, like hybrid poplar and willow, grow rapidly and can reach 15-25 feet in height after only three years. Currently, non-irrigated yields can be sustained at about 5 dry tons/acre/year and are increasing as plant breeding, nutrient management, …

Wildlife And Invertebrate Response To Fuel Reduction Treatments In Dry Coniferous Forests Of The Western United States: A Synthesis, David S. Pilliod, Evelyn L. Bull, Jane L. Hayes, Barbara C. Wales

USDA Forest Service / UNL Faculty Publications

This document is part of the Fuels Planning: Science Synthesis and Integration Project, a pilot project initiated by the USDA Forest Service to respond to the need for tools and information useful for planning site-specific fuel (vegetation) treatment projects. The information addresses fuel and forest conditions of the dry inland forests of the Western United States: those dominated by ponderosa pine, Douglas-fir, dry grand fir/white fir, and dry lodgepole pine potential vegetation types. Information was developed primarily for application at the stand level and is intended to be useful within this forest type regardless of ownership. Portions of the information …

When Reintroductions Are Augmentations: The Genetic Legacy Of Fishers (Martes Pennanti) In Montana, Ray S. Vinkey, Michael K. Schwartz, Kevin S. Mckelvey, Kerry R. Foresman, Kristine L. Pilgrim, Brian J. Giddings, Eric C. Lofroth

USDA Forest Service / UNL Faculty Publications

Fishers (Martes pennanti) were purportedly extirpated from Montana by 1930 and extant populations are assumed to be descended from translocated fishers. To determine the lineage of fisher populations, we sequenced 2 regions of the mitochondrial DNA genome from 207 tissue samples from British Columbia, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Montana. In northwestern Montana, fishers share haplotypes with samples from the upper Midwest and British Columbia; in west-central Montana, we detected haplotypes found in British Columbia samples, but also detected a control region and cytochrome-b haplotype not found in source populations. Based on the unique haplotypes found in west-central Montana, …

Survey Of Phytophagous Insects And Foliar Pathogens In China For A Biocontrol Perspective On Kudzu, Pueraria Montana Var. Lobata (Willd.) Maesen And S. Almeida (Fabaceae), Jiang-Hua Sun, Zhu-Dong Liu, Kerry O. Britton, Ping Cai, David Orr, Judith Hough-Goldstein

USDA Forest Service / UNL Faculty Publications

A three-year survey of kudzu foliage, seed, stems, and roots for associated phytophagous insects was conducted to establish basic information about the insect communities that kudzu harbors in China and to assess the abundance, diversity and damage caused by these insects. Diseases of kudzu were also surveyed in southern China. A total of 116 phytophagous insect species in 31 families and 5 orders were collected from kudzu in China, in six feeding guilds: foliage, sap, stem, terminal, seed and root feeders. The impact of foliage feeders varied from site to site and year to year, and over the course of …

Biology And Biological Control Of Leafy Surface, Rob Bourchier, Rich Hansen, Rodney Lym, Andrew Norton, Denise Olsen, Carol Bell Randall, Mark Schwarzlander, Luke Skinner

USDA Forest Service / UNL Faculty Publications

Leafy spurge (Euphorbia esula L.) is an exotic, deep-rooted, perennial weed native to Europe and Asia. It was first reported in the United States in Newbury, Massachusetts, in 1827, where it likely established from contaminated soil left from ship ballasts. This invasive weed quickly spread westward across North America, accelerated by multiple reintroductions from contaminated crop seed including oat (Avena fatua L.), smooth brome (Bromus inermis Leyss.) and alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) brought by European settlers. Leafy spurge is now abundant on the northern Great Plains of the United States and the prairie provinces of Canada, …

Nonnative Invasive Plants Of Southern Forests, James H. Miller

USDA Forest Service / UNL Faculty Publications

Invasions of nonnative plants into forests of the Southern United States continue to go unchecked and unmonitored. Invasive nonnative plants infest under and beside forest canopies and dominate small forest openings, increasingly eroding forest productivity, hindering forest use and management activities, and degrading diversity and wildlife habitat. Often called nonnative, exotic, nonindigenous, alien, or noxious weeds, they occur as trees, shrubs, vines, grasses, ferns, and forbs. This book provides information on accurate identification and effective control of the 33 nonnative plants and groups that are currently invading the forests of the 13 Southern States, showing both growing and dormant season …

Invasive Species Management: Ensuring The 'Cure' Is Not Worse Than The Condition, Sharlene E. Sing, Robert K.D. Peterson, Bruce D. Maxwell

USDA Forest Service / UNL Faculty Publications

The challenge in effectively managing invasive species arises out of our subjective response to the problem: 1) these species do not belong in our ecosystems; and 2) their impact on our ecosystems will be negative. These visceral responses typically dove-tail into the fundamental management objective: get rid of it! Society promotes the idea that good management is timely, and the best approach is to catch an invasive species before it reaches exponential population growth and becomes widespread. Although this is a sound approach, multiple examples illustrate that it is not universally applicable. Exotic species that are intentionally introduced either for …

Lark Bunting (Calamospiza Melanocorys): A Technical Conservation Assessment, Diane L. H. Neudorf, Rebecca A. Bodily, Thomas G. Shane

USDA Forest Service / UNL Faculty Publications

The Global and U.S. National Heritage Programs give the lark bunting (Calamospiza melanocorys) a conservation ranking of G5 and N5 respectively, which indicates that the species is widespread and secure. The Canadian National Heritage Program designates the lark bunting as N4, which indicates the species is uncommon but apparently secure with some cause for concern over the longterm (NatureServe 2005). The lark bunting is a Management Indicator Species on the Pawnee National Grassland, which is managed by the Rocky Mountain Region (Region 2) of the USDA Forest Service (USFS). A recent study suggests that lark bunting populations on …

Trees And Ice Storms: The Development Of Ice Storm–Resistant Urban Tree Populations (Second Edition), Richard J. Hauer, Jeffrey O. Dawson, Les P. Werner

USDA Forest Service / UNL Faculty Publications

Severe ice storms occur every year in the United States and Canada, particularly in the midwestern and eastern regions of the United States. Along with fires and wind, ice storms are a frequent and major natural disturbance factor in eastern deciduous forests. Likewise ice storms are responsible for deaths and injuries of people and cause dramatic damage and tree loss to urban forests. Ice storms annually result in millions of dollars in loss, and potentially billions of dollars in losses for extreme and widespread ice storms. Damage to electric distribution systems, blocked roadways, and property damage from fallen trees and …