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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Post-Den Emergence Behavior And Den Detection Of Polar Bears (Ursus Maritimus) In Northern Alaska And The Southern Beaufort Sea, Rusty Wade Robinson
Post-Den Emergence Behavior And Den Detection Of Polar Bears (Ursus Maritimus) In Northern Alaska And The Southern Beaufort Sea, Rusty Wade Robinson
Theses and Dissertations
Pregnant polar bears (Ursus maritimus) construct maternal dens out of snow in the autumn where they give birth to and raise altricial young. In recent years, there has been a decrease in polar sea ice extent and thickness, which has led to changes in denning behavior. One such change in the southern Beaufort Sea (SBS) is that polar bears are selecting maternal den sites on land, rather than on unstable sea ice. This change, coupled with expanding petroleum exploration along Alaska's North Slope, heightens the likelihood of bear-human interactions at maternal den sites. The purpose of this research …
Post-Fire Soil Water Repellency: Extent, Severity And Thickness Relative To Ecological Site Characteristics Within Piñon-Juniper Woodlands, Daniel Lewis Zvirzdin
Post-Fire Soil Water Repellency: Extent, Severity And Thickness Relative To Ecological Site Characteristics Within Piñon-Juniper Woodlands, Daniel Lewis Zvirzdin
Theses and Dissertations
Erosion and weed dominance often limit the recovery of burned piñon-juniper woodlands. Soil water repellency (SWR) is one factor that may contribute to this by increasing overland flow and impeding seedling establishment. In spite of these effects, the extent of SWR within piñon-juniper woodlands is unknown. In this study, the extent, severity and thickness of SWR were sampled across 41 1,000 m2 plots within three 2009 Utah wildfires. Predictive models of SWR were built from ecological site characteristic data collected at each site. Across the study, SWR was found at 37% of the points sampled. SWR extent was strongly related …