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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Assessing Red Spruce (Picea Rubens) Restoration Potential Under Current And Future Predicted Climate Change In Virginia, Christian Brown May 2022

Assessing Red Spruce (Picea Rubens) Restoration Potential Under Current And Future Predicted Climate Change In Virginia, Christian Brown

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Global climate change threatens many species across the planet. High-elevation species, such as red spruce (Picea rubens), face significant and immediate threats from climate change. Red spruce has faced anthropogenic disturbances for over a century and is only recently beginning to regenerate across its range, making it an ideal restoration candidate. Ecological niche modeling has become a common method of identifying the suitable habitat of a species, providing vital information to land managers carrying out restoration efforts. In this study ecological niche models were used in a novel way, predicting distribution and habitat suitability separately to determine the …


Changes In Light Levels With Loss Of Eastern Hemlock (Tsuga Canadensis) At A Southern Appalachian Headwater Stream: Implications For Brook Trout (Salvelinus Fontinalis), Leigh A. Siderhurst May 2010

Changes In Light Levels With Loss Of Eastern Hemlock (Tsuga Canadensis) At A Southern Appalachian Headwater Stream: Implications For Brook Trout (Salvelinus Fontinalis), Leigh A. Siderhurst

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

The exotic invasive insect, hemlock woolly adelgid (Adelges tsugae Annand), is causing mortality in eastern hemlocks (Tsuga canadensis [L.] Carr.) throughout the eastern U. S. Hemlocks are being replaced by hardwood species that cannot fill the structural and functional role of hemlock in forest ecosystems. Because hemlocks produce dense shade, their loss may increase understory light levels. In the southern Appalachians, increases in understory light could cause changes in stream ecosystems because riparian hemlocks may help maintain cool stream temperatures for cold water species such as brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis). I studied changes in light levels with eastern hemlock decline …