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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Roosting Behavior, Habitat Use, And Relative Abundance Of The Northern Long-Eared Bat (Myotis Septentrionalis) Following Arrival Of White-Nose Syndrome To Mammoth Cave National Park, Marissa M. Thalken Jan 2017

Roosting Behavior, Habitat Use, And Relative Abundance Of The Northern Long-Eared Bat (Myotis Septentrionalis) Following Arrival Of White-Nose Syndrome To Mammoth Cave National Park, Marissa M. Thalken

Theses and Dissertations--Forestry and Natural Resources

White-Nose Syndrome (WNS; Pseudogymnoascus destructans) is responsible for the regional population collapse of many cave-hibernating bat species, including the northern long-eared bat (Myotis septentrionalis), in eastern United States and Canada. I evaluated roosting behavior, habitat selection, and landscape-scale distribution of roosts of the northern long-eared bat during spring emergence and the early maternity season in Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky, USA, from 2015 to 2016. Logistic regression analysis comparing habitat features of roosts with random plots indicated selection of roosts reflected the costs of energetic demands by sex and reproductive status. Relative abundance of local bat species …


Managing Upland Oak Forests With Disturbance And The Implications For Non-Native Species Invasions, Devin E. Black Jan 2017

Managing Upland Oak Forests With Disturbance And The Implications For Non-Native Species Invasions, Devin E. Black

Theses and Dissertations--Forestry and Natural Resources

Natural and anthropogenic disturbances have influenced forest stand structure and affected species compositions within forests for millennia. Disturbances such as fire, severe weather events, and forest management practices may result in significantly reduced tree biomass. Thus, these disturbances may lower canopy closure and stem density in support of forest management goals, such as open oak woodland restoration, or promote an increase in species richness within the forest understory. However, these types of disturbance may also produce the unwanted consequence of opening pathways for the invasion of non-native species. Once established, these non-native species may threaten native plant communities and biodiversity. …


Establishment Of American Chestnuts On Surface Mined Lands In Appalachian Coalfields Region, Michael E. French Jan 2017

Establishment Of American Chestnuts On Surface Mined Lands In Appalachian Coalfields Region, Michael E. French

Theses and Dissertations--Forestry and Natural Resources

American chestnut (Castanea dentata (Marsh.) Borkh.) was an dominant hardwood throughout eastern North America until the introduction of an exotic fungus (Cryphonectria parasitica (Murr.) Barr) in the early 20th century devastated American chestnut populations. Chestnuts that have been bred for blight resistance have recently become available for testing. Due to the overlap of American chestnut’s natural range and the Appalachian coalfields region, the potential establishment of founder populations of blight-resistant chestnuts on reclaimed coal surface mines has recently gained attention. This work examined chestnut establishment on a surface mine in eastern Kentucky to assess factors controlling early …


Vegetation Response To Repeated Prescribed Burning And Varied Wildfire Severity In Upland Forests On The Cumberland Plateau, Kentucky, Zachary W. Poynter Jan 2017

Vegetation Response To Repeated Prescribed Burning And Varied Wildfire Severity In Upland Forests On The Cumberland Plateau, Kentucky, Zachary W. Poynter

Theses and Dissertations--Forestry and Natural Resources

As a result of decades of fire suppression, oaks (Quercus L.) and other disturbance-dependent tree species are experiencing widespread regeneration failure. Today, fire takes the form of relatively low to moderate intensity prescribed fire, used to restore fire adapted ecosystems, and wildfires which often vary in severity. I investigated long-term changes to forest structure and composition in response to repeated prescribed burning followed by an extended period of no fire. Burning reduced total basal area, midstory stem density and sapling stem density. However, the fire-free interval significantly increased sapling layer stem densities of oaks and competitor species. This research …


Altitude- And Sex-Specific Variation In Roosting Ecology And Thermoregulation Of Myotis Lucifugus In Yellowstone National Park, Alexandra C. Slusher Jan 2017

Altitude- And Sex-Specific Variation In Roosting Ecology And Thermoregulation Of Myotis Lucifugus In Yellowstone National Park, Alexandra C. Slusher

Theses and Dissertations--Forestry and Natural Resources

Fifty-nine female and six male little brown myotis (Myotis lucifugus) were radio-tagged during the summers of 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 in Yellowstone National Park. The grand models for daily maximum skin temperature (F98,154 = 1.55, P = 0.007), daily minimum skin temperature (F98,154 = 1.33, P = 0.05), and daily variation in skin temperature (F98,154 = 1.56, P = 0.006) were significant across roost type and reproductive condition class for adult females. Roosts were classified into Types A (warmest roosts), B (roosts with largest daily temperature variance), and C (stable and cool roosts) depending …


Survival And Cause-Specific Mortality Of A Southeastern Kentucky Deer Population, Caleb Anderson Haymes Jan 2017

Survival And Cause-Specific Mortality Of A Southeastern Kentucky Deer Population, Caleb Anderson Haymes

Theses and Dissertations--Forestry and Natural Resources

White-tailed deer are one of the most sought after game species in Kentucky. While much of the Commonwealth boasts high deer populations, those in southeast Kentucky are viewed as relatively low compared to other regions, even after a decade of restrictive doe harvest and multiple years of population supplementation via translocation. We studied survival and cause specific mortality of a local population of deer near the Redbird District of the Daniel Boone National Forest in Clay and Leslie County, Kentucky from January 2014 - January 2017. We estimated female annual survival at 0.89 (CI: 0.88-0.87), with an overall 3-year survival …


An Investigation Of Tree Growth And Woody Vegetation Colonization On A 19 Year-Old Forestry Reclamation Site, Wesley T. Dement Jan 2017

An Investigation Of Tree Growth And Woody Vegetation Colonization On A 19 Year-Old Forestry Reclamation Site, Wesley T. Dement

Theses and Dissertations--Forestry and Natural Resources

Survival, growth and biomass accumulation of 19 year-old trees planted on an Appalachian surface mine site were evaluated to determine the effect of spoil grading and surface amendment treatments. Three spoil grading treatments (loose-dump, strike-off and graded control) were established to create a range of operationally feasible spoil compaction capable of impacting tree establishment and growth. Likewise, three surface amendment treatments (straw/manure mulch, hardwood bark mulch and control) were applied to determine their effects on tree development. Trees grown under low-compaction grading treatment levels (strike-off and loose-dump) consistently outperformed trees planted in a high-compaction control treatment. Loose-dump preparation resulted in …


Initial Understory Response To Gap-Based Regeneration Methods For Mature Upland Oak Forests, Clinton Patrick Patterson Jan 2017

Initial Understory Response To Gap-Based Regeneration Methods For Mature Upland Oak Forests, Clinton Patrick Patterson

Theses and Dissertations--Forestry and Natural Resources

Problems with oak regeneration, and concerns by environmental and conservation organizations, are driving interest in longer rotations and in reproduction methods that retain the overstory for an extended time period. Clearcutting and shelterwood regeneration methods are providing mixed results for oak seedling development and recruitment due to the increased abundance of shade tolerant midstory species. The irregular group shelterwood (Femelschlag) system has been used in Central Europe to address these issues, and may provide the basis for a gap-based system in the Central Hardwood Forest Region. This study examines the two-year effects of a gap-based regeneration method featuring …