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University of Montana

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Articles 31 - 60 of 74

Full-Text Articles in Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology

Analyzing Interactions Among Migratory Elk And Semi-Permeable Fences Amongst A Highly Fragmented Landscape On The Blackfeet Reservation, Landon J. Magee Jan 2021

Analyzing Interactions Among Migratory Elk And Semi-Permeable Fences Amongst A Highly Fragmented Landscape On The Blackfeet Reservation, Landon J. Magee

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Large scale fences pose a threat to ungulate movement on the Blackfeet Reservation. Since the beginning of the last decade, the Blackfeet Reservation has experienced intense habitat fragmentation in the northern regions of the reservation, particularly in prime elk habitat that is believed to be along a migration corridor. One source of fragmentation has been the erection of a semi-permeable fence associated with a large bison ranch. The purpose of this study was to preliminarily assess potential interactions of elk (Cervus canadensis) and the semi-permeable bison fence as a precursor for further study. I worked in collaboration with …

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Management And Conservation Of Westslope Cutthroat Trout In An Impacted, Connected River System, Troy Weant Smith Jan 2021

Management And Conservation Of Westslope Cutthroat Trout In An Impacted, Connected River System, Troy Weant Smith

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Westslope cutthroat trout Oncorhynchus clarkii lewisi (WCT) is a native species of high conservation value that historically exhibited partially migratory behavior throughout its range. Long-term persistence of WCT is threatened by human habitat modification, fragmentation, introduction of non-native species, and hybridization. As a result of these changes, remnant populations in Montana have shifted toward resident populations in headwater systems and away from migratory populations in larger connected river networks. This is compounded by the historic introduction of rainbow trout O. mykiss (RBT) that hybridize with WCT, especially in larger river habitats. Rock Creek in western Montana, USA was historically managed …

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Monitoring The Wetland Landscape: White-Faced Ibis (Plegadis Chihi) Breeding Habitat As A Model Assemblage, Shea P. Coons Jan 2021

Monitoring The Wetland Landscape: White-Faced Ibis (Plegadis Chihi) Breeding Habitat As A Model Assemblage, Shea P. Coons

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Wetlands structure landscape biodiversity by providing critical habitat to numerous fish and wildlife species. However, climate change, growing human populations, and shifting land use practices strain limited water supplies that sustain wetlands in the semi-arid western US. Conserving a wetland network with prominent value to wildlife is paramount to ensure future security of habitat and ecosystem processes. Here, I use white-faced ibis (Plegadis chihi; hereafter ‘ibis’) breeding colonies as a model system to identify and monitor a landscape-scale wetland network across the semi-arid western US. Ibis serve an important role in marking ecologically important wetland networks because they require a …

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Influence Of Livestock And Electrified Fences On Livestock Depredation And Habitat Selection By Grizzly Bears In The Mission Valley, Montana, Kari Lynn Eneas Jan 2020

Influence Of Livestock And Electrified Fences On Livestock Depredation And Habitat Selection By Grizzly Bears In The Mission Valley, Montana, Kari Lynn Eneas

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Balancing protection between livestock and carnivores has been a long-standing challenge in conservation. When encounters between carnivores and livestock or humans result in conflict or livestock depredation, the safety of both wildlife and humans are at risk. Reducing livestock depredation by grizzly bears (Ursus arctos horribilis) will be important as populations continue to recover and expand beyond public lands in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem. We used GPS locations from 8 female grizzly bears spanning 5 years in the Mission Valley, Montana, to evaluate the effect of livestock on habitat selection of grizzly bears. The Mission Valley is located on …

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Selection Of Forage And Avoidance Of Predation Risk By Partially Migratory Mule Deer, Collin Jeffrey Peterson Jan 2020

Selection Of Forage And Avoidance Of Predation Risk By Partially Migratory Mule Deer, Collin Jeffrey Peterson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Migration by ungulates has traditionally been thought of as a strategy that increases access to forage quality or reduces exposure to risk of predation, but the benefits of migration may be waning globally. In partially migratory populations, the persistence of both migrant and resident strategies is an intriguing ecological phenomenon, because migrants and residents often face contrasting fitness consequences. Partial migration is common in mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), a species that has experienced widespread declines across the western United States during recent decades. Mule deer seldom switch between migratory strategies throughout their lifetime, which may make them less resilient to …

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Bottom-Up Herbivore-Plant Feedbacks Trump Trophic Cascades In A Wolf-Elk-Grassland System, Trevor C. Weeks Jan 2020

Bottom-Up Herbivore-Plant Feedbacks Trump Trophic Cascades In A Wolf-Elk-Grassland System, Trevor C. Weeks

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Top-down predator-prey effects that alter the abundance, biomass, or productivity of a population community across more than one link in a food web are referred to as trophic cascades. While these effects have been extensively studied in aquatic environments, fewer studies have examined trophic cascades in terrestrial ecosystems. And fewer still terrestrial studies have tested for trophic cascades between vertebrates and grassland vegetation. Across the globe, grassland plant biomass is driven by both precipitation and non-linear positive feedbacks between grazing and plant productivity, as predicted by the Intermediate Grazing Hypothesis. Yet little is known about the role that apex carnivores …

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Protecting Biodiversity On National Forests: The Evolution And Implementation Of Forest Planning Regulations, Anna Wearn Jan 2020

Protecting Biodiversity On National Forests: The Evolution And Implementation Of Forest Planning Regulations, Anna Wearn

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In 2012, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) promulgated new forest planning regulations that significantly altered national forest management. One of the most controversial and important advancements was the inclusion of what were meant to be stronger biodiversity protections. An analysis of USFS’s rationale in revising the biodiversity regulations provides insights into how to interpret the substantively and procedurally new ecosystem and species protections. Examining this regulatory history reveals three key changes to the manner in which national forests are required to manage and monitor biodiversity: 1) a greater reliance on science to inform planning, 2) a new emphasis on ecological …

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Food Web Effects Of Lake Trout (Salvelinus Namaycush) Invasion In Northwestern Montana, Charles Wainright Jan 2020

Food Web Effects Of Lake Trout (Salvelinus Namaycush) Invasion In Northwestern Montana, Charles Wainright

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Around the turn of the 20th century, lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) were widely introduced in several lakes and reservoirs outside their native range in western North America. Since then, lake trout have become problematic in many lakes where they were introduced, causing significant declines in popular sport fishes and native species, most notably federally protected bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus). Despite evidence that invasive fish can cause cascading trophic effects in aquatic communities, the impacts of lake trout introduction / invasion on aquatic food webs remain poorly understood. Moreover, native fish restoration programs tend to focus on suppression …

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Decoupled Diel Solutes: Linking Primary Production And Nitrate Uptake In A Montane Stream, Kimberly Bray Jan 2020

Decoupled Diel Solutes: Linking Primary Production And Nitrate Uptake In A Montane Stream, Kimberly Bray

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Tight coupling of surface water diel dissolved oxygen (DO) and nitrate-N (NO3-N) signals reflects stoichiometric demand of carbon and nitrogen in stream ecosystems. However, DO and NO3-N can become decoupled due to alternative drivers of diel solutes, resulting in conflicting estimates of stoichiometric and modeled NO3-N uptake. In this study, I measured benthic biomass, hydrology, and dissolved solutes in a montane stream located in western MT over a growing season (June-October 2019). Daily stream metabolism and NO3-N uptake were modeled using a single-station open-channel approach. Timing and amplitude of key diel signals …

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Tiger Monitoring In Bhutan Using Non-Invasive Genetic Tools, Tashi Dhendup Jan 2019

Tiger Monitoring In Bhutan Using Non-Invasive Genetic Tools, Tashi Dhendup

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Large carnivores are one of the most threatened group of animals in the world. They suffer from prey depletion, persecution by humans, and habitat loss and fragmentation which are extensively driven by anthropogenic activities. One such species is the tiger Panthera tigris. Tigers are found in thirteen countries in Asia and are protected across the range; however, tiger numbers have declined as an after effect of habitat loss, prey depletion and poaching. Human-induced changes have reduced the tiger's historical range to about 7% in which a little more than 3900 tigers are found. Most of these individuals currently exist …

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Population And Breeding Ecology Of Sagebrush Steppe Songbirds, Kayla Ann Ruth Jan 2019

Population And Breeding Ecology Of Sagebrush Steppe Songbirds, Kayla Ann Ruth

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Sagebrush steppe is one of the most threatened ecosystems in North America. Domestic livestock grazing is the dominant land use of sagebrush steppe across the west. Rest-rotation grazing systems can be a conservation management tool, most recently, by the Natural Resource Conservation Service - Sage Grouse Initiative (SGI). The goal of SGI is to encourage private landowners to use a livestock grazing regime that maintains or improves habitat for greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus), as well as improve rangeland productivity. Songbirds are biological indicators that can assess the health of sagebrush steppe. Avian adult density estimates are often used …

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Colloidal And Truly Dissolved Metal(Loid)S In Wastewater Lagoons And Their Removal With Floating Treatment Wetlands, Lauren Sullivan Jan 2019

Colloidal And Truly Dissolved Metal(Loid)S In Wastewater Lagoons And Their Removal With Floating Treatment Wetlands, Lauren Sullivan

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Climate change is predicted to cause continuing declines in late-season streamflow, thus increasing the relative contribution of wastewater effluent to surface water flows. Wastewater effluent represents a critical point source of metal and metalloid contamination to aquatic ecosystems and wastewater lagoons are the most common wastewater treatment system in the rural United States. Although the fraction of total wastewater metals and metalloids in "dissolved" forms (defined here asnm) likely drives the potential for negative effects on receiving waters, this broad operational definition lumps truly dissolved solutes (nm) with small colloids and nanomaterials (1-450 nm; hereafter colloids). This size distinction may …

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Camera Traps In Wildlife Research: Through My Lens, Bryson P. Allen Jan 2018

Camera Traps In Wildlife Research: Through My Lens, Bryson P. Allen

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Wildlife species can be difficult to study because they can have very large ranges and can be wary of observers. Researchers have been using camera traps in recent decades as a way to study wildlife behavior and population metrics. Here I explore the history of these tools in wildlife biology, their possible applications, and limitations.

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Bottom-Up And Top-Down Controls On Food Webs In Headwater Streams, Miriam O. Bayer Jan 2018

Bottom-Up And Top-Down Controls On Food Webs In Headwater Streams, Miriam O. Bayer

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Headwater streams account for 70% of stream channel length in the USA and are important as hotspots of nutrient uptake and native biodiversity. Biofilm, the mixed auto- and heterotrophic microbial community covering stream substrates, is where the majority of nutrient processing occurs, and forms the base of stream food webs, particularly in heavily shaded, oligotrophic streams. Both bottom-up (e.g., nutrients, light) and top-down (i.e., consumption) processes are known to affect periphyton, the autotrophic component of biofilm, but little is known about what controls the biofilm community as a whole. Top-down effects are common in streams, where fish are often the …

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Avian Community Responses To Bison Grazing In North American Intermountain Grasslands, Danielle A. Fagre Jan 2018

Avian Community Responses To Bison Grazing In North American Intermountain Grasslands, Danielle A. Fagre

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Grassland and shrubland songbird species are a guild of conservation concern in North America. Many of these species have experienced severe population declines, due to habitat loss and land use change. This makes the conservation and management of remaining habitat of crucial importance for this guild. Grazing by large herbivores is an ecosystem process in grassland systems, and in North America, one of the major historic grazers was the Plains bison (Bison bison). Bison are considered ecosystem engineers, because they modify habitat to be more or less suitable for other species, such as grassland and shrubland songbirds. Bison …

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Nitrogen Pulses And Competition Between Native And Invasive Plant Species, Nicolas Matallana, Mandy L. Slate, Ragan M. Callaway Jan 2017

Nitrogen Pulses And Competition Between Native And Invasive Plant Species, Nicolas Matallana, Mandy L. Slate, Ragan M. Callaway

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Variation in the timing and size of resource fluctuations can influence how plants grow, allocate biomass, and reproduce. Resources are sometimes made available in relatively continuous, reliable pulses while other times they are temporally separated and unpredictable. Native and invasive plant species are thought to respond differently to resource fluctuations, or pulses, which can influence competitive outcomes. The “Fluctuating Resource Hypothesis” predicts that resource fluctuations benefit invasive species more than native species, potentially because many invaders are highly effective at rapidly capturing resources. In a field setting, we examined the effects of varying nitrogen pulses on competition between exotic invasive …

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Response Of Amphibian And Invertebrate Communities To Wetland Mitigation In The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, Leah K. Swartz Jan 2017

Response Of Amphibian And Invertebrate Communities To Wetland Mitigation In The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, Leah K. Swartz

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Wetlands play a critical role in supporting freshwater biodiversity and ecosystem services, but human activities have resulted in large-scale loss and degradation of these habitats across the globe. To offset the decline of wetland area, mitigation wetlands are now frequently constructed, but their ability to replace the functions of natural habitats, including providing habitat for native fauna, remains uncertain. A recent highway reconstruction project in northwestern Wyoming caused impacts to and the destruction of multiple natural wetlands. To mitigate this loss, new wetlands were constructed along the highway corridor. To evaluate the performance of these created wetlands relative to reference …

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Coupling Biophysical Complexity And Forest Metabolism In A Floodplain Landscape, Peter Davis Jan 2017

Coupling Biophysical Complexity And Forest Metabolism In A Floodplain Landscape, Peter Davis

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Floodplains are biophysically complex systems that are considered among the most productive and biodiverse ecosystems on Earth. Until recently, quantitative assessment of the relationship between complexity and terrestrial production has been constrained by technological limitation. To address how floodplain biophysical complexity and ecosystem function are related, I employed remote sensing, GIS, and spatial analyses to quantify and couple metrics of complexity and terrestrial production, as well as explore the relationship among complexity, vegetation structural diversity, and terrestrial primary productivity. The study site is a 6.75-km by 1.75-km portion of the Bitterroot River floodplain near Carlton, MT upon which 551 sample …

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How Do Stream Confluences Influence Aquatic Invertebrate Taxonomic And Functional Diversity?, Jeremy Brooks Jan 2017

How Do Stream Confluences Influence Aquatic Invertebrate Taxonomic And Functional Diversity?, Jeremy Brooks

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Aquatic communities, species that live and interact with each other, each have a unique composition and function (i.e collection of decomposers, predators, and grazers). Broad ecological theory provides a variety of models that can predict communities and their functions across riverscapes. For example, the River Continuum Concept (RCC) explains general shifts in stream communities and their function along longitudinal (upstream to downstream) gradients, but it fails to consider the more narrow effects of tributaries and confluences. Conversely, dendritic stream networks theory helps explain the potential role of river confluences and how they connect communities, but fails to explain general longitudinal …

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Understanding Patterns And Drivers Of Alaskan Fire-Regime Variability Across Spatial And Temporal Scales, Tyler J. Hoecker Jan 2017

Understanding Patterns And Drivers Of Alaskan Fire-Regime Variability Across Spatial And Temporal Scales, Tyler J. Hoecker

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Boreal forest and tundra ecosystems are globally important because the mobilization of large carbon stocks, and changes in energy balance could act as positive feedbacks to ongoing climate warming. In Alaska, wildfire is a key driver of ecosystem structure and function, and therefore fire strongly determines the feedbacks between high-latitude ecosystems and the larger Earth system. The paleoecological record from Alaska reveals the sensitivity of fire regimes to climatic and vegetation change over centennial to millennial time scales, highlighting increased burning with warming and/or increased landscape flammability associated with large-scale vegetation changes. This thesis focuses on two studies aimed at …

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Assessing Stream Channel Restoration: The Phased Recovery Framework, Jacob M. Dyste Jan 2017

Assessing Stream Channel Restoration: The Phased Recovery Framework, Jacob M. Dyste

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Channel reconfiguration projects command a large portion of stream restoration resources, while long-term monitoring and research is severely underfunded and rarely implemented. This has led to a limited knowledge base about ecological response and efficacy. Although channel reconfiguration projects are being implemented to restore biological function to lotic systems, the document responses are highly variable and little evidence has shown these projects are reaching their target goals. I predicted the inconsistent response to these projects is the result of disturbance-induced successional processes and catchment-scale water quality impairment. To address how these endogenous and exogenous factors influence stream response to channel …

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Influence Of Fine Sediment On Arctic Grayling (Thymallus Arcticus) Egg Survival And Spawning Habitat Suitability, Ian R. Anderson Jan 2016

Influence Of Fine Sediment On Arctic Grayling (Thymallus Arcticus) Egg Survival And Spawning Habitat Suitability, Ian R. Anderson

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

The Arctic grayling (Thymallus arcticus) is a freshwater salmonid that is found in clear, cold waters throughout the northern regions of North America. Arctic grayling are still widespread in Alaska and Canada but have declined substantially in their two historic, disjunct southern populations in the contiguous United States. One of these populations was found in the AuSable River in Michigan and went extinct in the mid-1900s (Vincent 1962) while the other, found in the Upper Missouri River drainage in Montana, now inhabits a small portion of its historical range (Nelson 1954). Currently, only two native populations of Arctic …

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Baseline Study Of Recovering Headwater Streams In The Sapphire Mountains, Western Montana, Morgan Vinyard Jan 2016

Baseline Study Of Recovering Headwater Streams In The Sapphire Mountains, Western Montana, Morgan Vinyard

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Many riparian areas in the western United States have been degraded by grazing and logging. In the year 2000, the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) re-initiated an effort to identify and characterize reference streams, or least impacted streams in each region of the state. In Montana’s Bitterroot Valley, most streams have been impacted by grazing, irrigation, and timber production. The Montana DEQ has not been able to identify reference streams in the Sapphire Mountains on the east side of this valley. MPG Ranch, located on the west-facing slopes of the Sapphire Mountains and purchased in 2009 by a conservation-minded …

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Spatio-Temporal Analysis Of Ungulate Browsing On Willow (Salix Spp.) Communities Within The Northern Range Of Yellowstone, Donald L. Belile Jr. Jan 2016

Spatio-Temporal Analysis Of Ungulate Browsing On Willow (Salix Spp.) Communities Within The Northern Range Of Yellowstone, Donald L. Belile Jr.

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Variation in ungulate browsing intensity on willow (Salix spp.) communities across Yellowstone’s northern range has been attributed to various biophysical factors including climate, topography, and predators. These studies were conducted without a long-term browsing dataset; they lacked a spatially extensive sampling design, and did not include dynamic snow characteristics known to affect ungulate mobility, habitat selection, and foraging strategies. We therefore focused on snow, an extreme landscape level disturbance that places nutritional stress on ungulates during the winter when most browsing on shrubs occurs. We applied a non-destructive sampling method by consecutively recording whether stem leaders were browsed between …

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Synthesis Of Satellite Microwave Observations For Monitoring Global Land-Atmosphere Co2 Exchange, Lucas Alan Jones Jan 2016

Synthesis Of Satellite Microwave Observations For Monitoring Global Land-Atmosphere Co2 Exchange, Lucas Alan Jones

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This dissertation describes the estimation, error quantification, and incorporation of land surface information from microwave satellite remote sensing for modeling global ecosystem land-atmosphere net CO2 exchange. Retrieval algorithms were developed for estimating soil moisture, surface water, surface temperature, and vegetation phenology from microwave imagery timeseries. Soil moisture retrievals were merged with model-based soil moisture estimates and incorporated into a light-use efficiency model for vegetation productivity coupled to a soil decomposition model. Results, including state and uncertainty estimates, were evaluated with a global eddy covariance flux tower network and other independent global model- and remote-sensing based products.

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A Fatty Acid Based Bayesian Approach For Inferring Diet In Aquatic Consumers, Aaron W. E. Galloway, Michael T. Brett, Gordon W. Holtgrieve, Eric J. Ward, Ashley P. Ballantyne, Carolyn W. Burns, Martin J. Kainz, Doerthe C. Muller-Navarra, Jonas Persson, Joseph L. Ravet, Ursula Strandberg, Sami J. Taipale, Gunnel Alhgren Jun 2015

A Fatty Acid Based Bayesian Approach For Inferring Diet In Aquatic Consumers, Aaron W. E. Galloway, Michael T. Brett, Gordon W. Holtgrieve, Eric J. Ward, Ashley P. Ballantyne, Carolyn W. Burns, Martin J. Kainz, Doerthe C. Muller-Navarra, Jonas Persson, Joseph L. Ravet, Ursula Strandberg, Sami J. Taipale, Gunnel Alhgren

Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences Faculty Publications

We modified the stable isotope mixing model MixSIR to infer primary producer contributions to consumer diets based on their fatty acid composition. To parameterize the algorithm, we generated a ‘consumer-resource library’ of FA signatures of Daphnia fed different algal diets, using 34 feeding trials representing diverse phytoplankton lineages. This library corresponds to the resource or producer file in classic Bayesian mixing models such as MixSIR or SIAR. Because this library is based on the FA profiles of zooplankton consuming known diets, and not the FA profiles of algae directly, trophic modification of consumer lipids is directly accounted for. To test …

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A Comparison Of Plot-Based Satellite And Earth System Model Estimates Of Tropical Forest Net Primary Production, Cory C. Cleveland, Philip Taylor, K. Dana Chadwick, Kyla Dahlin, Christopher E. Doughty, Yadvinder Malhi, W. Kolby Smith, Benjamin W. Sullivan, William R. Wider, Alan R. Townsend May 2015

A Comparison Of Plot-Based Satellite And Earth System Model Estimates Of Tropical Forest Net Primary Production, Cory C. Cleveland, Philip Taylor, K. Dana Chadwick, Kyla Dahlin, Christopher E. Doughty, Yadvinder Malhi, W. Kolby Smith, Benjamin W. Sullivan, William R. Wider, Alan R. Townsend

Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences Faculty Publications

Net primary production (NPP) by plants represents the largest annual flux of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere to the terrestrial biosphere, playing a critical role in the global carbon (C) cycle and the Earth’s climate. Rates of NPP in tropical forests are thought to be among the highest on Earth, but debates about the magnitude, patterns, and controls of NPP in the tropics highlight uncertainty in our understanding of how tropical forests may respond to environmental change. Here, we compared tropical NPP estimates generated using three common approaches: (1) field-based methods scaled from plot-level measurements of plant …

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Abundance, Density, And Opinions About Columbian Black-Tailed Deer, Whidbey Island, Washington, Robert P. Wingard Jan 2015

Abundance, Density, And Opinions About Columbian Black-Tailed Deer, Whidbey Island, Washington, Robert P. Wingard

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Obtaining reliable knowledge is the first step towards properly managing wildlife species. Columbian black-tailed deer (Odocoileus hemionus columbianus) on Whidbey Island, Washington have not been the subject of study, and little is known about the population, or the opinion of resident’s of Whidbey Island towards the deer population. However, wildlife managers suggest deer on the island may be overabundant or over social carrying capacity. Given the lack of empirical knowledge about the deer population or human opinions towards deer on Whidbey Island, I designed research to determine the abundance and density of Columbian black-tailed deer on Whidbey Island, …

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Decadal Scale Responses Of Soil And Ecosystem Processes To Forest Restoration In Rocky Mountain Conifer Forests, Peter Ganzlin Jan 2015

Decadal Scale Responses Of Soil And Ecosystem Processes To Forest Restoration In Rocky Mountain Conifer Forests, Peter Ganzlin

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Decades of fire suppression have left much of the forest in the intermountain western United States exceedingly dense, and forest restoration techniques – including thinning and prescribed fire – are increasingly being used in an attempt to mitigate the potentially disastrous effects of severe wildfire, to enhance tree growth and regeneration, and to stimulate soil nutrient cycling. While many of the short-term effects of forest restoration have been established, the long-term effects on soil biogeochemical and ecosystem processes are largely unknown. In this thesis I present two manuscripts documenting and synthesizing these long-term impacts. The first chapter focuses on the …

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Use Of Airborne Digital Imagery To Examine Floodplain Complexity At Varying Discharges, Katelyn P. Driscoll Jan 2015

Use Of Airborne Digital Imagery To Examine Floodplain Complexity At Varying Discharges, Katelyn P. Driscoll

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Floodplains are composed of aquatic and terrestrial habitats that are frequently reshaped by hydrologic processes operating at various spatial and temporal scales. I hypothesized that floodplain habitat complexity is maximized at intermediate discharges because small changes in flow result in substantial aquatic habitat changes and extreme discharges are associated with a decreased habitat heterogeneity. Between April and September 2014, I collected ultra-high resolution digital multispectral imagery of the Clark Fork River, Montana taken on 6 dates between early spring and fall. Following image mosaicking into a single image, unsupervised classification of the spectral reflectance was used to identify and quantify …

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