Forest Biology Commons^™

Ecological Niche Modeling And Local Knowledge Predict New Populations Of Gymnocladus Assamicus A Critically Endangered Tree Species, Shaily Menon, Baharul I. Choudhury, M. Latif Khan, A. Townsend Peterson

Peer Reviewed Publications

Gymnocladus assamicus is a critically endangered tree species endemic to northeastern India. Local inhabitants traditionally used this species for a variety of purposes. However, rapid population declines led to the species being considered extinct, until fieldwork in 2004 to 2007 identified 14 discrete populations of 1 to 7 trees each. To overcome constraints on field surveys imposed by the region’s remoteness and rugged terrain, we targeted areas of further field inventories by estimating the potential distribution of the species. Ecological niche modeling enabled us to identify 26 sites which the model predicted to be highly suitable for the species’ occurrence. …

Predicting Global Change Effects On Forest Biomass And Composition In South-Central Siberia, Eric J. Gustafson, Anatoly Z. Shvidenko, Brian R. Sturtevant, Robert M. Scheller

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Multiple global changes such as timber harvesting in areas not previously disturbed by cutting and climate change will undoubtedly affect the composition and spatial distribution of boreal forests, which will, in turn, affect the ability of these forests to retain carbon and maintain biodiversity. To predict future states of the boreal forest reliably, it is necessary to understand the complex interactions among forest regenerative processes (succession), natural disturbances (e.g., fire, wind, and insects), and anthropogenic disturbances (e.g., timber harvest). We used a landscape succession and disturbance model (LANDIS-II) to study the relative effects of climate change, timber harvesting, and insect …

Distribution Of Dioecious Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus Virginiana) Along An Environmental Gradient In Ogallala, Ne., Taylor Sloey

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to study the sex distribution and energy allocation of dioecious Eastern Red Cedars (Juniperus virginiana) along an environmental resource gradient. The trees surveyed were growing in a canyon located at the University of Nebraska’s Cedar Point Biological Research Station in Ogallala, Nebraska. Due to the geography of this canyon, environmental factors necessary for plant growth should vary depending on the tree’s location within the canyon. These factors include water availability, sun exposure, ground slope, and soil nitrogen content, all of which are necessary for carbon acquisition.

Juniperus virginiana is a dioecious conifer. Dioecious …

Effects Of Experimental Freezing On Soil Nitrogen Dynamics In Soils From A Net Nitrification Gradient In A Nitrogen-Saturated Hardwood Forest Ecosystem, Frank S. Gilliam, Adam Cook, Salina Lyter

Biological Sciences Faculty Research

This study examined effects of soil freezing on N dynamics in soil along an N processing gradient within a mixed hardwood dominated watershed at Fernow Experimental Forest, West Virginia. Sites were designated as LN (low rates of N processing), ML (moderately low), MH (moderately high), and HN (high). Soils underwent three 7-day freezing treatments (0, –20, or –80 °C) in the laboratory. Responses varied between temperature treatments and along the gradient. Initial effects differed among freezing treatments for net N mineralization, but not nitrification, in soils across the gradient, generally maintained at LN < ML ≤ MH < HN for all treatments. Net N mineralization potential was higher following freezing at –20 and –80 °C than control; all were higher than at 0 °C. Net nitrification potential exhibited similar patterns. LN was an exception, with net nitrification low regardless of treatment. Freezing response of N mineralization differed greatly from that of nitrification, suggesting that soil freezing may decouple two processes of the soil N cycle that are otherwise tightly linked at our site. Results also suggest that soil freezing at temperatures commonly experienced at this site can further increase net nitrification in soils already exhibiting high nitrification from N saturation.

Research Poster: Tree Population Dynamics At Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge: Influences Of Environmental Stress And Disturbance, Sarah L. Karam, Peter J. Weisberg, Stephanie O. Sunderman

2010 Annual Nevada NSF EPSCoR Climate Change Conference

Research poster

Research Poster: Eco-Hydrological Pathways Inferred From Stable Isotopes In A Pinus Ponderosa And Pinus Monophylla Woodland Of The Sheep Range, Southern Great Basin, Usa, Kelli Hoover, Simon Poulson, Franco Biondi, Jeffrey Underwood

2010 Annual Nevada NSF EPSCoR Climate Change Conference

Research poster

Relationships Between Herbaceous Diversity And Biomass In Two Habitats In Arid Mediterranean Rangeland, Mohammad N. Alhamad, Brian P. Oswald, Mohammad M. Bataineh, Mohammad A. Alrababah, Mohammad M. Gharaibeh

Faculty Publications

Plant diversity patterns vary across the landscape. This study was conducted to answer the question: What is the pattern of species diversity (α and β) along an abstract productivity/cover gradient at two topographical positions (Wadi (a depression with overland flow) and hilltop) of a Mediterranean herbaceous plant community in Jordan? Results indicated that the less productive hilltop localities exhibited higher species richness than the more productive Wadi localities. Species richness exhibited a unimodal relationship with aboveground biomass within Wadis whereas a positive linear relationship was revealed for hilltops. Within Wadis, abundant species did not show a significant relationship with productivity …

Mill Creek Management Plan, Joey A. Gentry

Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences

The goal of this study is to conduct a management plan for the Mill Creek property. This will be obtained through meeting the landowner objectives concerning: wildlife with habitat enhancements, recreation locations, and the forest growth potential pertaining to different areas of the property. This plan will also offer suggestions and guidelines to maximize the use of the property. Including a collection of flora, fauna, and health related issues in the appendices for identification. The site condition on the property is very poor, and as a result the growth rate for this area is slow. It is recommended that the …

Forest Resources Institute, Arthur Temple College Of Forestry And Agriculture

eBooks

No abstract provided.

Understory Vegetative Diversity Of Post-Thinned Pine Plantations Treated With Fertilizer, Fire And Herbicide In East Texas, Brian P. Oswald, Dean W. Coble, R R. Botting, Ken W. Farrish, James E. Van Kley

Faculty Publications

This study assessed biodiversity in the understory of two pine plantations where different management tools (fertilizer, prescribed burning, and herbicide application) were utilized. During three growing seasons, species, percent cover, and number of individuals, and physical characteristics were recorded. Responses to treatment were examined based on comparison of species richness, evenness, diversity, and importance. Two years after treatment, fertilized plots showed a decline in species richness, evenness, and diversity. Prescribed burning and herbicide treatments increased species richness but decreased species evenness, resulting in no change in diversity index. Herbicide treatment reduced the importance of dominant shrubs and increased the importance …

Development And Characterization Of 16 Microsatellite Markers For The Louisiana Pine Snake, Pituophis Ruthveni, And Two Congeners Of Conservation Concern, Matthew Kwiatkowski, Christopher M. Somers, Ray G. Poulin, D. Craig Rudolph, Jessica Martino, Tracey D. Tuberville, Cris Hagen, Stacey L. Lance

Faculty Publications

We isolated and characterized 16 microsatellite loci from the Louisiana pine snake, Pituophis ruthveni. Loci were screened in 24 individuals from locations throughout its distribution in Louisiana and Texas. The number of alleles per locus ranged from 4 to 12, observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.200 to 0.875, and the probability of identity ranged from 0.043 to 0.298. We examined cross-species amplification at these loci in P. catenifer (bullsnakes and gopher snakes) and P. melanoleucus (pine snakes). These new markers provide tools for examining the conservation genetics of this species complex. Louisiana pine snakes face numerous threats: population densities are extremely …

2010 Western Mensurationists’ Conference, David Affleck, John Goodburn, Christopher Keyes, Renate Bush

JFSP Research Project Reports

The 2010 Western Mensurationists’ Conference in Missoula, MT, drew together forest scientists and land managers with primary expertise in the measurement and modeling of forest resources. The meeting provided an opportunity to focus the collective technical expertise of this group on crossdisciplinary conifer crown modeling issues that are of increasing importance to existing and emerging forest management strategies in western North America. Thus, a special invited session on conifer crown modeling results and opportunities was added to the conference agenda together with a participatory workshop on crown modeling needs and challenges. Funding was provided by the Joint Fire Science Program …

The Role Of Adaptive Capacity In Creating Fire-Adapted Human Communities, Pamela J. Jakes, Matthew S. Carroll, Travis B. Paveglio, Soren Newman

JFSP Research Project Reports

In this research we sought answers to the question: What are the social characteristics and conditions of human communities that promote adaptive capacity for wildfire? The Quadrennial Fire Review (USDA and USDI 2009) promotes a goal of “achieving fire-adapted communities” in the wildland urban interface (WUI), and identifies metrics for determining whether a community is fire-adapted. While these metrics address some of the biophysical conditions necessary for fire-adapted human communities, they offer little insight into the social elements that promote or sustain adaptive capacity. Adaptive capacity refers to the individual and collective resources, capabilities, and actions that alleviate the risk …

The Communicative Construction Of Safety In Wildland Firefighting, Jody Jahn, Linda Putnam, Anne Black

JFSP Research Project Reports

This document is a summary of a mixed methods dissertation that examined the communicative construction of safety in wildland firefighting. For the dissertation, I used a twostudy mixed methods approach, examining the communicative accomplishment of safety from two perspectives: high reliability organizing (Weick, Sutcliffe, & Obstfeld, 1999), and safety climate (Zohar, 1980). In Study One, 27 firefighters from two functionally similar wildland firefighting crews were interviewed about their crew-level interactions involved in implementing safety rules and firefighting tasks. These critical incident narratives (Flanagan, 1954; Gremler, 2004) were compared to extract workgroup level similarities and differences in interaction patterns relating to …

A Proposal To Improve Performance Of The Forest Vegetation Simulator - Fire And Fuels Extension, Dave C. Cawrse, Michael G. Van Dyke, Nicolas Nicholas L. Crookston, Donald Robinson, Sarah Beukema

JFSP Research Project Reports

The Forest Vegetation Simulator (FVS) and its associated Fire and Fuels Extension (FFE) have been used to provide information required by larger software systems like the Interagency Fuels Treatment - Decision Support System (IFT-DSS). Interacting with FVS in an automated fashion has been difficult, and simulations with very large numbers of stands, such as those necessary for landscape analyses for fire planning, could take a significant amount of time to process. This project was designed to: (A) develop a requirements document considering Service Oriented Architecture and how that may apply to FVS, and how FVS will be used interactively; (B) …

Assessment Of Canopy Fuel Loading Across A Heterogeneous Landscape Using Lidar, Kenneth L. Clark, Nicholas Skowronski, Michael Gallagher, Nicholas Carlo, Michael Farrell, Melanie R. Maghirang

JFSP Research Project Reports

Our research used light detection and ranging (LiDAR) systems coupled with sequential harvesting of Pitch pine (Pinus rigida Mill.) to quantify canopy fuels in three dimensions across a large, heterogeneous landscape impacted by multiple wildfires, prescribed burns and insect defoliation events. We used a three-tiered approach; 1) calibration of upward sensing profiling LiDAR data with sequential harvesting of 20 x 20 meter plots to quantify the mass of foliage, branches and stems in Pitch pine canopies in 1-meter height layers, 2) scaling results to the landscape scale using previously-published relationships between upward sensing and downward sensing scanning LiDAR systems in …

Annual Brome Biocontrol After Wildfire Using A Native Fungal Seed Pathogen, Susan E. Meyer, Phil S. Allen, Julie Beckstead, Michael Gregg, Heidi Newsome, Kathleen Harcksen, Gary Kidd, Glenn Paulsen, Karen Prentice, Dana Quinney, David Wilderman, Stephanie Carlson, Suzette Clement, Duane Smith, Thom Stewart, Katie Merrill, Keith Merrill, Kedra Foote, Stephen Harrison, Kelly Bergen, Brian Connelly, Trevor Davis, Sandra Dooley, Michael Huck, Laura Street, Lauren Miller

JFSP Research Project Reports

A major problem in post-fire restoration of semi-arid shrublands dominated by annual bromes is the presence of carryover seed banks that cannot be controlled using conventional methods. These seeds can provide significant competition for seeded species in the years following treatment. We investigated the feasibility of using a naturally occurring seed pathogen, the ascomycete Pyrenophora semeniperda, as a biocontrol organism for eliminating this carryover seed bank. We carried out the necessary technology development to create and apply field inoculum to cheatgrass- or red brome-infested areas (both burned and unburned) at six sites located in three states across two years of …

Changes In Vegetation And Fuels Due To The Warm Fire On The Kaibab National Forest, Melissa A. Mcmaster, Andrea Thode, Brian Brost, Matthew Williamsen, Ethan Aumack, Dave Mertz

JFSP Research Project Reports

Fire is a significant and essential disturbance in ponderosa pine ecosystems but the management and the re-introduction of fire across the landscape is a difficult task for land managers. In this study we worked with land managers, stakeholders and researchers to examine the effects of a large wildfire on the Kaibab Plateau in northern Arizona. We analyzed litter and duff depth, downed woody debris and understory vegetation responses to low and high burn severity and assessed the response of the understory vegetation to seeding with Lolium perenne ssp. multiflorum in high severity burn areas. To assist land managers in future …

Continued Evaluation Of Post-Fire Recovery And Treatment Effectiveness For Validation Of The Ermit Erosion Model, Peter R. Robichaud, William J. Elliot, Joseph W. Wagenbrenner, Sarah A. Lewis, Louise E. Ashmun, Peter M. Wohlgemuth, Robert E. Brown

JFSP Research Project Reports

The use and cost of post-fire emergency stabilization treatments continues to grow. To help maximize the impact of these treatments, many assessment teams use the Erosion Risk Management Tool (ERMiT) erosion model to predict postfire erosion and mitigation effects. However, despite several completed JFSP projects, the long-term effects of these treatments remain unknown, and the ERMiT model has not been validated. Long-term post-fire erosion and runoff data on a variety of mulches and erosion barriers were collected using 12 existing sites throughout the Western U.S. The agricultural straw and wood strand mulch treatments were very effective at reducing erosion and …

Effectiveness Of Fuel Treatments For Mitigating Wildfire Severity: A Manager‐Focused Review And Synthesis, Philip N. Omi, Erik J. Martinson Mr.

JFSP Research Project Reports

The 2008 Request for Applications from the Joint Fire Science Program called for a synthesis of the extant literature that addresses the effectiveness of fuel treatments. We employed a four‐pronged approach to address this task, including several scoping exercises with land managers, a literature review, a meta‐analysis, and development of an online pictorial database.