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1
Hathaway, John Lusk. "wild|life: A Forest for the People." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2012. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/1430.
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The photographer discusses the work in wild | life: a forest for the people, his Master of Fine Art exhibition held at the Slocumb Galleries, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee from March 12 through March 23, 2012. The exhibition consists of 24 large-scale color archival Inkjet prints representing a large body of work that examines the human experience through viewing public and private land and land use within or tangential to the Cherokee National Forest. A complete catalogue of the wild ife exhibit is included at the end of the thesis. Historical and contemporary influences are discussed in regard to how they pertain formally and conceptually to Hathaway’s work. Included are photographs from Carleton Watkins, the Archives of Appalachia, Joel Sternfeld, and Jeff Whetstone as well as literary and critical influences from poets Albert Camus and John Szarkowski.
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Näslund, Eriksson Lisa. "Forest-Fuel Systems : Comparative Analyses in a Life Cycle Perspective." Doctoral thesis, Mittuniversitetet, Institutionen för teknik och hållbar utveckling, 2008. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:miun:diva-206.
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Forest fuels can be recovered, stored and handled in several ways and these different ways have different implications for CO2 emissions. In this thesis, comparative analyses were made on different forest-fuel systems. The analyses focused on the recovery and transport systems. Costs, primary energy use, CO2 emissions, storage losses and work environment associated with the use of forest fuel for energy were examined by using systems analysis methodology in a life cycle perspective. The bundle system showed less dry-matter losses and lower costs than the chip system. The difference was mainly due to more efficient forwarding, hauling and large-scale chipping. The potential of allergic reactions by workers did not differ significantly between the systems. In difficult terrain types, the loose material and roadside bundling systems become as economical as the clearcut bundle system. The stump and small roundwood systems showed the greatest increase in costs when the availability of forest fuel decreased. Stumps required the greatest increase in primary energy use. Forest fuels are a limited resource. A key factor is the amount of biomass recovered per hectare. Combined recovery of logging residues, stumps and small roundwood from thinnings from the same forest area give a high potential of reduced net CO2 emissions per hectare of forest land. Compensation fertilization becomes more cost-effective and the primary energy use for ash spreading becomes low – about 0,25‰. The total amount of available forest fuel in Sweden is 66 TWh per year. This would cost 1 billion €2007 to recover and would avoid 6.9 Mtonne carbon if fossil coal were replaced. In southern Sweden almost all forest fuel is obtainable in high-concentration areas where it is easy to recover. When determining potential CO2 emissions avoidance, the transportation distance was found to be less important than the other factors considered in this work. The type of transportation system did not have a significant influence over the CO2 avoided per hectare of forest land. The most important factor analysed here was the type of fossil fuel (coal, oil or natural gas) replaced together with the net amount of biomass recovered per hectare of forest land. Large-scale, long-distance transportation of biofuels from central Sweden has the potential to be cost-effective and also attractive in terms of CO2 emissions. A bundle recovery system meant that more biomass per hectare could be delivered to end-users than a pellet system due to conversion losses when producing pellets.
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Vaidya, Anand Prabhakar. "The Origin of the Forest, Private Property, and the State: The Political Life of India's Forest Rights Act." Thesis, Harvard University, 2014. http://dissertations.umi.com/gsas.harvard:11654.
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This dissertation tracks the creation and implementation of India's 2006 Forest Rights Act or FRA, a landmark law that for the first time grants land rights to the millions who live without them in the country's forests. I follow the law in relation to the forest rights movement that has been central in lobbying for, drafting, and implementing it in order to examine both how the movement has shaped the law's meaning as well as how contests and alliances over the law's text and meaning have transformed the many movements citing and using the law. Drawing on ethnographic and archival research, I track the law from contests over its drafting in New Delhi to contests over its meaning in Ramnagar, a North Indian village. Ramnagar was settled by landless forest dwellers organized by forest rights activists, and its continued but still precarious existence is premised on a claim to land through the Act. I show that the meaning of the FRA was contested at every stage through collective action oriented around what Bakhtin (1982) terms `chronotopes,' the joint depiction of time, place, and characters in language. By diagnosing contemporary injustice through a depiction of the past and pointing to a just future to be brought about through the action of a collective, political movements and identifications form around and act through chronotopes. The movements enacting the Forest Rights Act have critically seized upon what one bureaucrat involved in its drafting called its `word traps,' words or phrases in the text with apparently uncontroversial literal meanings that in fact allow the law to be read through the political chronotopes of political parties or movements. By attending to the relationship between the legal text, its chronotopic deployment, and collective action, my project provides new ways to understand laws in political practice and language in political practice.Anthropology
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Schulze, Mark D. "Ecology and behavior of nine timber tree species in Pará, Brazil : links between species life history and forest management and conservation /." View online version of this title, 2003. http://etda.libraries.psu.edu/theses/approved/WorldWideIndex/ETD-436/index.html.
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Volicer, Nadine (Nadine M. ). "Life in the woods : production and consumption of the urban forest." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/70101.
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Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2012.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
Page 203 blank. Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 199-202).
The use of wood is fraught with paradox. Wood as a building material is embraced for its naturalness, while the cutting of trees is indicted as a destruction of nature. Wood is lauded for its structural properties and visual appearance, but challenged for its lack of durability and dimensional stability; all traits tied to the original tree. The controversial field of transgenics further complicates matters as scientists now work to genetically modify trees for improved yield and performance. Many environmentalists argue that the risk of infecting native tree populations is too great, while others see potential for sparing native populations by using purpose-grown alternatives. Both camps claim to be working to halt global climate change. How can we locate today's wood industry within this disparity? Dilemmas inherent to wood use are entangled with conflicting attitudes towards nature. The urban forest is uniquely poised to address this debate through an opportunity to intersect nature and industry within the public realm. Phasing phytoremediation, timber and biomass production over time, the strategy of this thesis is to co-opt a network of underutilized and contaminated parcels in Boston's developing Innovation District as a system of productive landscapes. Transgenic trees are here considered as a means of stretching a given species' function and yield, and offer new opportunities for design. Initial years of tree growth provide plots that double as public green space while improved parcels are open for future development. On one such plot, the project envisions a wooden architecture that accounts for its own material, energy, and even the soil upon which it is built. By integrating systems of production and consumption into the public life of the city, the relationship between people and natural resources can be reestablished; the paradox made public
by Nadine Volicer.
M.Arch.
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Szedlmayer, Stephen T. "Early life history of weakfish Cynoscion regalis (Bloch and Schneider)." W&M ScholarWorks, 1988. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd/1539791567.
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Juvenile weakfish Cynoscion regalis, life history was studied in the York River estuary, Virginia. to verify daily aging methods of juvenile fish, both male and female adults were induced to spawn by injection of 200 IU Human chorionic gonadotropin/Kg wet weight. Subsequent larval and juvenile fish were reared up to 275 days with wild plankton and a daily rotating diet of squid, liver, Anchoa mitchilli, and Menidia menidia. Otoliths and scales were examined for daily microincrements patterns. Otolith ring counts were highly variable (31% varied by &>& 15% among 3 counts). Two problems were evident: (1) Microincrements frequently split to form two increments; and (2) Otoliths from a size series of fish (6.12-13.1 mm) indicated that weakfish otoliths grew by bud formation rather than concentric deposition. Scale circuli showed little variation between counts (99.5% of 2 counts from an individual scale were the same). Daily scale deposition was suggested by rearing up to 100 days, after which ring deposition was less than daily, however further research is needed because only one fish was reared past 25 days. The advantages of scale circuli counting over otolith increment counting were increased precision and ease of preparation. Field samples were collected weekly from the York River channel, at night using a 4.9 m, 1.5 mm cod end, trawl, during the weakfish nursery period (Aug-Oct 1983). The new technique of daily aging by scales, was applied to 845 of 922 weakfish collected. Counts ranged from 3 to 100 circuli/scale. Three cohorts were defined from the 1983 0-age fish. Growth rates estimated from scales (0.76-1.13 mm/d) were similar to those from length frequencies (1.0-1.2 mm/d). Analysis of covariance showed a significant difference (0.05 level) in growth rates among cohorts and among stations, but third order interactions (station, cohort, growth rate) were not detected. Mortality/migration rates estimated from decline in mean catch were significantly different between cohorts 1 and 2 (0.05 level, t-test). Weakfish were first abundant as new recruits at the river mouth, and moved upriver as they grew. In the fall a reverse migration occurred. Birthdate frequency by station and date indicated that different cohorts used different areas of the York River.
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Dahl, Fredrik Willebrand Tomas. "Life and death of the mountain hare in the boreal forest of Sweden /." Umeå : Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 2005. http://diss-epsilon.slu.se/archive/00000829/.
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Thesis (doctoral)--Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 2005.Appendix includes reproductions of five papers and manuscripts, two co-authored with Tomas Willebrand. Includes bibliographical references. Also issued electronically via World Wide Web in PDF format; online version lacks appendix of papers.
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Dahl, Fredrik. "Life and death of the mountain hare in the boreal forest of Sweden /." Umeå : Dept. of Animal Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 2005. http://epsilon.slu.se/200548.pdf.
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Lusk, Laura. "Forest Change and Balsam Woolly Adelgig Infestation in High Elevation Forests of Mt. Mitchell, North Carolina." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2009. https://dc.etsu.edu/honors/1.
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The Black Mountain range of western North Carolina supports some of the most extensive, but threatened high elevation forests in the southern Appalachians. Of particular note, the insect pathogen, balsam woolly adelgid (Adelges piceae Ratzeburg) has been present on Mt. Mitchell for over fifty years. In anticipation of potential changes in forest composition, vegetation surveys were first conducted in 1966 on nine one-acre plots near the summit of Mt. Mitchell. These plots were re-surveyed in 1978, 1985 and 2002. The purpose of this study was to re-census those plots and use those data to analyze long-term trends in forest composition for fir, spruce-fir, and spruce-fir-hardwood forest types. Since the 1960s and 1970s, all three forest types have experienced a transition away from an understory with a preponderance of Fraser fir (Abies fraseri (Pursh) Poir.) seedlings and saplings, to forests with higher densities of canopy and sub-canopy fir. Canopy red spruce (Picea rubens Sarg.) has similarly increased in density in the fir and spruce-fir types but declined in the spruce-fir-hardwood forest type. In all types, there has been a sharp decline in hardwood seedlings/saplings since a hardwood seedling explosion in 1978. The current analyses indicate that fir and spruce-fir forests have regenerated since the most severe die-offs and that each forest type will experience future impacts from balsam woolly adelgid but these will occur in a non-synchronous pattern.
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Shrestha, Prativa. "CARBON LIFE-CYCLE AND ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF FOREST CARBON SEQUESTRATION AND WOODY BIOENERGY PRODUCTION." UKnowledge, 2013. http://uknowledge.uky.edu/forestry_etds/14.
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Sequestering carbon in standing biomass, using woody bioenergy, and using woody products are the three potential ways to utilize forests in reducing greenhouse gases (GHGs) and mitigating climate change. These forestry related strategies are, however, greatly influenced by the existing markets and market based policies. This study focuses on the first two forest strategies. It investigates the combined impact of carbon and woody bioenergy markets on two different types of forests in the US – oak dominated mixed hardwood forests in the Central Hardwood Forests Region and loblolly pine forests in the southeastern US. A modification of the Harman model was used for the economic analysis of carbon sequestration and harvesting woody biomass for bioenergy. A forest carbon life-cycle assessment was used to determine the carbon emissions associated with management of forests and harvesting of wood products. Results from this study indicate that carbon payments and woody bioenergy production increase the land expectation value (LEV) for both forest types.
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Alarcón, Eddy. "Biodiversity of Insects from the Syrphidae and Carabidae Families in Three Ecological Niches (Forest, Forest Boarder, and Farming Area) in Three Communities of the Coroico Municipality, Nor Yungas, La Paz." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2008. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/5327.
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Today, biodiversity is one of the most studied disciplines because it encompasses all species of plants, animals, and microorganisms that exist and act within an ecosystem. In recent decades, biodiversity has been degrading rapidly due to the simplification of agricultural systems, and the irrational use of pesticides that alter the normal function of ecosystems. Within nature, each insect population is attacked by one or more natural enemies. In this investigation, during a six month period from June to December 2006, the biodiversity of predatory insects from the syrphidae and carabidae families was determined in three ecological niches of three communities with two posed risks (Malaise and Pitfall) for the Carabidae family and one (Malaise) for the Syrphidae family. This investigation presents the differences in composition of morphospecies from three ecological niches in three communities of the yungas of La Paz. In total, we recorded 67 morphospecies from the Carabidae family in a population of 1107 individuals and 38 morphospecies from the Syrphidae family in a population of 1333 individuals. From the data above, it was found that the most diverse community was San Juan de la Miel with 33 morphospecies from the Syrphidae family and 42 morphospecies from the Carabidae family. However, in the case of the Syrphidae family, a smaller quantity of individuals found were related to the other communities whereas in the case of the Carabidae family, a larger quantity of individuals found were related. The similarity indices show only around 8-15% between the different ecological niches and communities which is relatively low and indicates that dominant species exist in these ecological niches, whether in the forest or in cultivated areas. The Carabids are insects similar to beetles, coming in varied sizes and colors, with dark and bright metallic colors being the most prominent. The family contains between 20,000 and 30,000 known species. The Syrphids are similar to dipterous insects, coming in different sizes and colors. Generally, black and yellow, or a combination of both similar to bees, are the most predominant colors. The family contains around 5,400 known species. The Carabids and Syrphids are very important in the biodiversity of ecosystems as well as in ecology because they regulate the pest populations through predation. In addition, when they are adults, they pollinate crops thus reducing the use of petrochemical insecticides. The area studied has a good diversity of species due to the geomorphology of the site. It has small patches of crops and fallow land surrounded by forests that allow the maintenance of its diversity, which is very important for the balance of ecosystems.
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Busse, Nielsen Anders. "Understanding and communicating forest stand structures : lifting barriers for nature-based forest management." Hørsholm : Forest & Landscape, 2006. http://www.sl.kvl.dk/upload/flr36.pdf.
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Langer, Marco. "The effect of native forest dynamics upon the arrangements of species in oak forests-analysis of heterogeneity effects at the example of epigeal arthropods." Bachelor's thesis, Universität Potsdam, 2011. http://opus.kobv.de/ubp/volltexte/2011/5558/.
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The heterogeneity in species assemblages of epigeal spiders was studied in a natural forest and in a managed forest. Additionally the effects of small-scale microhabitat heterogeneity of managed and unmanaged forests were determined by analysing the spider assemblages of three different microhabitat structures (i. vegetation, ii. dead wood. iii. litter cover). The spider were collected in a block design by pitfall traps (n=72) in a 4-week interval. To reveal key environmental factors affecting the spider distribution abiotic and biotic habitat parameters (e.g. vegetation parameters, climate parameters, soil moisture) were assessed around each pitfall trap. A TWINSPAN analyses separated pitfall traps from the natural forest from traps of the managed forest. A subsequent discriminant analyses revealed that the temperature, the visible sky, the plant diversity and the mean diameter at breast height as key discriminant factors between the microhabitat groupings designated by the TWINSPAN analyses. Finally a Redundant analysis (RDA) was done revealing similar environmental factors responsible for the spider species distribution, as a good separation of the different forest types as well as the separation of the microhabitat groupings from the TWINSPAN.
Overall the study revealed that the spider communities differed between the forest types as well as between the microhabitat structures and thus species distribution changed within a forest stand on a fine spatial scale. It was documented that the structure of managed forests affects the composition of spider assemblages compared to natural forests significantly and even small scale-heterogeneity seems to influence the spider species composition.Um die Anpassungsfähigkeit von Organismen, bei sich ändernden Umweltbedingungen, sicher zu stellen, spielt die Erhaltung der Biologischen Vielfalt auf allen ökosystemaren Ebenen eine entscheidende Rolle. Eben diese Anpassungsfähigkeit kann durch waldbauliche Maßnahmen einschränkt werden, und zur Instabilität des Systems führen. Daher kommt der Untersuchung von aus der Nutzung genommenen Naturwaldzellen eine immer größere Bedeutung zu. Einerseits um die potentiell natürliche Diversität in Naturwäldern mit der in Wirtschaftswäldern zu vergleichen, andererseits um die ökologischen Zusammenhänge in einer natürlichen Waldentwicklung zu verstehen. Ziel diese Studie war es eben diese natürlichen Waldynamiken auf das Artengefüge von Spinnen (Araneae) zu untersuchen. Dabei sollte Mithilfe eines experimentellen Fangdesigns, auch der kleinräumige Einfluss von Strukturheterogenität untersucht werden.
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Moura, Antonio Christian de Andrade. "The capuchin monkey and the Caatinga dry forest : a hard life in a harsh habitat." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2005. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/251951.
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This thesis explores the seemingly simple problem of how a rainforest-dwelling primate, Cebus apella libidinosus, manages to survive in the Caatinga dry forest of north-eastern Brazil, a harsh habitat that poses a series of extreme ecological challenges for survival. Albeit a simple question, it unfolds into more complex questions regarding how ecological pressures might drive brain evolution and intelligence in primates. Although there is no "best" hypothesis to explain the evolutionary brain enlargement in higher primates, fine-grained analyses of ecology, such as those presented here provide insights into how different species deal with ecological problems that might require cognitive solutions. Capuchin monkeys are an ideal model for this inquiry. They occupy diverse habitats, and they have proven to be a cognitive puzzle. They are the only monkey to approach great apes in their ability to use tools, but apparently lack the prerequisite mental capability to understand cause and effect. The Caatinga dry forest poses a series of ecological challenges for mammals in general and primates in particular, and these are detailed in this thesis. This is the first general study of mammalian abundance and distribution in Caatinga habitats, with special reference to Cebus. I present several innovative methods for assessing plant and invertebrate biodiversity, as regards foods for the Cebus. The study population of capuchin monkeys faced more frequent and longer periods of food scarcity than does any other known capuchin population. However, the Cebus in the Caatinga circumvent the ecological constraints of low plant food availability through their proficient foraging style (destructive foraging) and through their cognitive abilities, reflected in this population's extensive and intelligent use of technology. I suggest that Old World monkeys and capuchin monkeys have undergone differential selective pressures, with 'Machiavellian intelligence' being a more prominent aspect in the brain evolution of baboons and macaques, while extractive foraging was a more important selective pressure for capuchin monkeys. The evolutionary brain enlargement observed in hominids is suggested to be a legacy of extractive foraging and that capuchin monkeys are excellent models for understanding the factors leading to brain enlargement. This thesis is concluded as an endeavour into understanding the selective forces and concatenation of events that culminated with the evolutionary brain enlargement seen in the hominins.
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Kingston, Steven R. "Life on the edge, the role of habitat selection on vole density near forest boundaries." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1997. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/tape16/PQDD_0006/MQ33398.pdf.
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Blake, Karry L. "Life and times in a late formative and classic period swamp forest in Chiapas, Mexico." Online access for everyone, 2008. http://www.dissertations.wsu.edu/Thesis/Spring2008/K_Blake_032708.pdf.
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Sandin, Gustav. "Life cycle assessment in the development of forest products : Contributions to improved methods and practices." Doctoral thesis, Bioraffinaderi och energi, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:ri:diva-30234.
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The prospect of reducing environmental impacts is a key driver for the research and development (R&D) of new forest products. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is often used for assessing the environmental impact of such products, e.g. for the purpose of guiding R&D. The aim of this thesis is to improve the methods and practices of LCA work carried out in the R&D of forest products. Six research questions were formulated from research needs identified in LCA work in five technical inter-organisational R&D projects. These projects also provided contexts for the case studies that were used to address the research questions. The main contributions of the research are as follows: Regarding the planning of LCA work in inter-organisational R&D projects, the research identified four characteristics that appear to be important to consider when selecting the roles of LCAs in such projects: (i) the project’s potential influence on environmental impacts, (ii) the degrees of freedom available for the technical direction of the project, (iii) the project’s potential to provide required input to the LCA, and (iv) access to relevant audiences for the LCA results. Regarding the modelling of future forest product systems, it was found that (i) it is important to capture uncertainties related to the technologies of end-of-life processes, the location of processes and the occurrence of land use change; and (ii) the choice of method for handling multi-functionality can strongly influence results in LCAs of forest products, particularly in consequential studies and in studies of relatively small co-product flows. Regarding the assessment of environmental impacts of particular relevance for forest products, it was found that using established climate impact assessment practices can cause LCA practitioners to miss environmental hot-spots and make erroneous conclusions about the performance of forest products vis-à-vis non-forest alternatives, particularly in studies aimed at short-term impact mitigation. Also, a new approach for inventorying water cycle alterations was developed, which made it possible to capture catchment-scale effects of forestry never captured before. To connect the LCA results to global challenges, a procedure was proposed for translating the planetary boundaries into absolute product-scale targets for impact reduction, e.g. to be used for evaluating interventions for product improvements or for managing trade-offs between impact categories.
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Zapata, Mayta Edwin. "Diversity of insects from the Vespidae family in three ecological niches (forest, forest border, and agricultural area) in six communities in the Coroico and Coripata municipalities, department of La Paz." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2009. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/5455.
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The Vespidae family (order Hymenoptera) is comprised of 4500 species of wasps in 268 genera and 7 subfamilies. These wasps prey upon a wide range of insects, including Lepidopteran caterpillars. Because of their low prey specificity, the use of Vespid wasps in biological control programs is limited. However, in their natural habitat, they play a role in controlling populations of some pest species. This study was conducted in six different communities in the department of La Paz within the municipalities of Coroico and Coripata. Three ecological niches were selected in each community: 1) the forest, 2) the edge of the forest and 3) a crop producing area. In each study unit, three Malaise traps were set up on a 14 day collection cycle from June to December 2007. Over the six month study period, we collected a total of 772 individuals and identified 36 different morphospecies from the six communities. The most abundant genera collected were Protopolybia sp., Mischocyttarus sp., and an unidentified genus (morphospecies #2) which had the greatest abundance of individuals in all of the different ecological niches. The niche factor did not have a significant influence on species diversity in the three ecological niches studied. Generally, this group of wasps is found in all three ecological niches.
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Mincolla, Joseph Anthony. "Early Career Development Processes of Women and Men Resource Managers in the USDA Forest Service." DigitalCommons@USU, 1988. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/7425.
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The purpose of this study was to understand the similarities and differences in the early careers of women and men resource managers in Regions 4 and 6 of the U.S. Forest Service (FS). Since the early family socialization of boys and girls has been shown to differ, it was hypothesized that differences would also be found in the early career goals of men and women and in their ability to fit into an organization like the Forest Service, experience personal satisfaction, and become contributing, productive members.
Although more similarities than differences were observed, women had slightly different definitions of two important career goals: service to an important cause and becoming a competent manager. Both men and women possessed similar career goals and were experiencing similar levels of early career success. Immediate supervisors on first permanent FS assignment had a much stronger influence on the early careers of the women in the study.
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Thompson, Lily. "Forest edges enhance mate-finding in the European gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar." VCU Scholars Compass, 2014. http://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/606.
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Understanding movement capabilities of individuals within a landscape is essential to identifying the effects of habitat boundaries on species abundances, ranges, and spread rates. Movement barriers due to habitat fragmentation may reduce mate-finding ability in some species, particularly in heterogeneous landscapes containing low-density populations. This study focuses on the effects of habitat type and edge on mate-finding in an invasive defoliator, the European gypsy moth. Adult European gypsy moth males locate mates by following pheromones released by flightless females. Reduced mate-finding was expected in fields and near forest edges based on geographic variation in invasion rates and pheromone plume dynamics. A male release-recapture experiment using female-baited traps in fields, at forest edges, and in the forest interior showed that mate-finding was highest at forest edges, reduced in fields, and lowest within the forest interior. This suggests that forest edges and moderate habitat fragmentation enhance mate-finding in the gypsy moth.
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Burke, Michael Andrew. "A life cycle carbon balance for electricity produced from forest residues : a British Columbian case study." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/35854.
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This study estimated the annual life cycle carbon emissions for a hypothetical bioenergy combustion process that generates electricity from forest residues in northern British Columbia. Net annual carbon dioxide emissions were calculated for the process life cycle, which identified and quantified each CO₂ emission source along the bioenergy supply chain. The sources identified included soil carbon, harvesting machinery, chipping, transportation, and biomass combustion. Emissions that were avoided as a result of this process were also calculated.
This thesis highlighted the importance of utilizing complete accounting methodology when calculating emissions from energy processes and emphasized that the blanket assumption that all biomass is carbon neutral should not be made. While combustion emissions from the biomass source utilized in this study can be considered to be carbon neutral, a sensitivity analysis showed that emissions could increase by more than 275% if the forest residues were disposed of differently in the business-as-usual scenario. In addition, net process emissions were reduced by over 80% when it was assumed that there were no significant soil carbon emissions. Consequently, bioenergy typically appears more environmentally attractive than it actually is because combustion emissions are generally treated as carbon neutral and upstream emissions, such as from soil carbon, are not typically attributed to residues.
In a British Columbian context, utilizing forest residues for bioenergy may usefully increase the provincial energy supply without incurring significant new emissions. This thesis showed that the emissions from harvesting, chipping and transporting residues are only a fraction of the emissions already produced by burning the forest residues. In addition, this thesis proposes that although utilizing forest residues for bioenergy will not result in any new soil carbon emissions, a portion of the soil emissions already incurred should be allocated to forest residues if they are used for bioenergy. Using this full emission accounting methodology, a bioenergy combustion process utilizing forest residues from the Mackenzie area of northern British Columbia would produce approximately 164 kilograms of carbon dioxide per megawatt-hour of electricity, which is significantly less than electricity produced from both coal (721 – 996 kgCO₂/MWh) and natural gas electricity (500 kgCO₂e/MWh).
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Mundy, Jo-Anne Shirley. "Life cycle assessment of UK forest products : evaluation of environmental profiles and analysis of their communication." Thesis, Imperial College London, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/11845.
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Horner, Kimberley Jane. "The diversity of arthropods in the surface soil layers of an old-growth redwood forest." Scholarly Commons, 1993. https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/2249.
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The abundance and diversity of arthropods present in the surface soil layers at various forest sites in northern California were investigated, primarily at two old-growth redwood forest sites in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park and Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. A wide variety of arthropods were found, including representatives of Araneae, Pseudoscorpiones, Opiliones, Acarina, Isopoda, Diplopoda, Chilopoda, Symphyla, Pauropoda, Protura, Diplura, Collembola, Thysanoptera, Hemiptera, Coleoptera, Diptera, and Hymenoptera. Arthropod densities were significantly higher in the wet than in the dry period, indicating seasonal variation in surface densities of soil arthropods. The densities of arthropods in soils collected from beneath coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) and western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) trees were not significantly different.
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Hegeman, Ericka E. "Modeling freshwater mussel distribution in relation to biotic and abiotic habitat variables in the Middle Fork John Day River, Oregon." DigitalCommons@USU, 2012. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/1274.
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The habitat requirements of western freshwater mussels, Anodonta, Gonidea, and Margaritifera, remain unclear despite their imperiled status. Freshwater mussels provide a series of ecosystem services including habitat enhancement, substratum stabilization, nutrient cycling, and water clarification, which makes their loss from aquatic ecosystems particularly detrimental. To improve the efficacy of restoration actions targeting these organisms, I used random forest modeling to investigate the biotic and abiotic factors influencing mussel density and distribution throughout a 55-kilometer (km) segment of the Middle Fork John Day River (MFJDR), in northeastern Oregon. Data was collected to characterize the occurrence of mussels with respect to the hierarchical, hydrogeomorphic structure of habitat within reaches of varying valley confinement and channel units nested within these reaches. Data regarding functional habitat features were also included to ensure that models included the wide range of characteristics that mussels need from their environment. By collecting data at both the reach and channel unit scale, I was able to investigate how mussel densities and distributions vary with spatial scale and other biophysical parameters. Throughout the study area, Margaritifera density exhibited a unimodal distribution with respect to river km, while Anodonta and Gonidea density showed a negative relationship with river km and exhibited higher densities downstream. The large scale, longitudinal trends of Margaritifera were related to hydrogeomorphic characteristics at the reach scale, while less than half of the longitudinal variation in Anodonta and Gonidea were explained by hydrogeomorphic and water quality parameters. At the channel unit scale, all mussel genera responded to the patchy variation in physical habitat characteristics, particularly habitat factors that indicated more stable parts of the channel. Overall, physical habitat characteristics such as woody debris, emergent aquatic vegetation, coarse substratum, and channel morphology were more important than hydraulic, biotic, and chemical variables. These results suggest that at both the reach and channel unit scales, mussel density and distribution are influenced by high flow refugia and the hierarchical structuring of hydrogeomorphic habitat characteristics. These results will assist mussel restoration efforts by providing specific guidance about the types of physical habitat conditions that are suitable for mussels.
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Tessema, Mekbeb E. "Forest Resource Access, Dependency, and Vulnerability in Southeast and Southcentral Alaska." DigitalCommons@USU, 2011. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/1075.
Full textAbstract:
Rural communities in the western U.S. and Alaska are highly dependent upon surrounding publicly-owned forests for various economic and non-economic values. Historically, limited data has hampered the understanding of such community-resource linkages. As a result, community interests may not be adequately considered in forest management plan development and policy formulation. Addressing this imbalance is an important issue for the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), particularly as it shifts from timberdominated goals to a more holistic ecosystem-based form of management.
This study seeks to understand community-resource use linkages, dependency, and vulnerability surrounding the Chugach and Tongass NFs using place-level socioeconomic data from the 2000 U.S. Census in combination with permit data from the USFS’s Timber Information Management Data System (TIM) and Special Use Data System (SUDS).
Information on permittees’ activities on forestland and socioeconomic profiles of permittee’s community-of-origin are found to be valuable, not only for forest management and planning purposes, but also for community-level social assessment. An examination of 2007 permit data found that a majority of permit holders were local residents. These communities are found to be dependent on the two forests for various types of activities and are thus more likely to be vulnerable to changes in forest management and policies.
The analysis also identified some limitations that may affect the quality of permit data and its potential use in community impact assessments. Despite these limitations of permit data, the methodologies utilized here demonstrate how TIM and SUDS data, in combination with U.S. Census data, could be used to describe Alaska residents’ socioeconomic profiles for communities located in close proximity to the Tongass and Chugach NFs. Such information can assist USFS managers in deriving community-level estimates of forest resource use, degree of dependency, and vulnerability to the likely impacts of alternatives management approaches.
Finally, recommendations are given to improve data recording, maintenance, and use in order to better understand communities that are dependent on forest resources in both the Chugach and Tongass NFs, and to specifically identify those communities potentially vulnerable to changes in forest management policies.
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Sharp, Jennifer. "Sulfur Accumulation in Xylem Tissue of Forest Trees from Kentucky & Tennessee & Its Relation to Yearly Growth." TopSCHOLAR®, 1988. https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/2843.
Full textAbstract:
The levels of sulfur present in xylem tissue of Quercus alba (white oak) show a statistically significant increase from 1970 to 1983. This increase was found in trees from three different sites in Kentucky and Tennessee. The levels of sulfur present in Tsuga canadensis (hemlock) show a statistically significant increase from 1955 to 1970. Sensitivity, growth response to the tree's environment, decreased in oaks from 1933 to 1968 but increased slightly in hemlocks during the same time period. The data tend to support a direct relationship between increasing sulfur levels and a reduction in growth. Physiological and ecological studies of the impact of sulfur on trees should be continued to investigate all aspects of sulfur dioxide damage.
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Oye, Brian Koji. "Changes in the Vertical Stratification of Neotropical Nymphalidae at Forest Edges in Relation to Light and Temperature Conditions." Scholarly Commons, 2021. https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/3747.
Full textAbstract:
The composition of neotropical fruit-feeding nymphalid butterflies assemblages often varies by location and stratum within a forest. Recent work has shown that vertical stratification in particular may serve as barrier to gene flow, indicating the potential role vertical stratification may play in evolution. At forest edges, the distinction between assemblages has been described to decrease, with species considered to be canopy specialists descending to the forest understory. The similarity in light conditions between the canopy and understory strata at edges or disturbed habitat is hypothesized to be responsible for this phenomenon. We conducted a study using standardized sampling to document and quantify this edge effect, characterize edge and forest strata, and estimate the relative contributions of temperature and light conditions on nymphalid stratification. We found strong evidence of an edge effect in butterflies and confirmed strong differences in light and temperature showing that the edge understory differs little from forest canopy conditions. However, analyses here did not clearly implicate temperature or light in causing changes in neotropical nymphalid vertical stratification at forest edges.
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Zimmerman, Michael Lee. "The Effects of Prescribed Fire on the Herbaceous Layer in the Southern Appalachian Mountains." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2006. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/2209.
Full textAbstract:
Prescribed fire in the southern Appalachians is a frequently used and controversial forest management practice. Research is limited on the effects of prescribed fire in the mesic southern Appalachians, where many of Tennessee's rare and regionally endemic plant species occur. This study examined the effects of prescribed fire on the herbaceous layer. Field work was conducted on six previously burned sites within the Cherokee National Forest in northeast Tennessee. Complimentary non-burned sites were selected based on similarity of physical characteristics and forest structure. The numbers of herbaceous species and individuals and the total numbers of species and individuals were determined and used to compare burned and unburned forest. Following prescribed fires there were significant reductions in the number of herbaceous species and individuals. Species with myrmecochorous (ant-dispersed) seeds were markedly reduced on burned sites. Despite considerable variation among sites, the negative impact of fire on forest herbs was clearly evident.
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Mrosek, Thorsten. "Development and testing of a criteria and indicators system for sustainable forest management at the local level : case study at the Haliburton Forest & Wild Life Reserve Ltd., Canada /." Frankfurt am Main [u.a.] : Lang, 2005. http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/fy0601/2005044067.html.
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Haus, Sylvia. "Climate impact of the sustainable use of forest biomass in energy and material system : a life cycle perspective." Doctoral thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för byggd miljö och energiteknik (BET), 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-69561.
Full textAbstract:
Human society releases greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere while providing housing, heat, mobility and industrial production. Man-made greenhouse gas emissions are the main causes of climate change, coming mainly from burning fossil fuels and land-use changes. Sustainably managed forests play an important role in climate change mitigation with the prospect of sustainably providing essential materials and services as part of a low-carbon economy, both through the substitution of fossil-intensive fuels and material and through their potential to capture and store carbon in the long-term perspective. The overall aim of this thesis was to develop a methodology under a life cycle perspective to assess the climate impact of the sustainable use of forest biomass in bioenergy and material systems. To perform this kind of analysis a methodological framework is needed to accurately compare the different biological and technological systems with the aim to minimize the net carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere and hence the climate impact. In such a comparison, the complete energy supply chains from natural resources to energy end-use services has to be considered and are defined as the system boundaries. The results show that increasing biomass production through more intensive forest management or the usage of more productive tree species combined with substitution of non-wood products and fuels can significantly reduce global warming. The biggest single factor causing radiative forcing reduction was using timber to produce wood material to replace energy-intensive construction materials such as concrete and steel. Another very significant factor was replacing fossil fuels with forest residues from forest thinning, harvest, wood processing, and post-use wood products. The fossil fuel that was replaced by forest biomass affected the reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, with carbon-intensive coal being most beneficial to replace. Over the long term, an active and sustainable management of forests, including their use as a source for wood products and bioenergy allows the greatest potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
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Wojcikiewicz, John. "Indirect effects between deer, mice, and the gypsy moth in a forest community." VCU Scholars Compass, 2014. http://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/620.
Full textAbstract:
White-tailed deer are ecosystem engineers that dramatically alter forest understory vegetation. Consequently, deer can impact many species in a forest through both direct and indirect effects. One species that deer may indirectly affect is the gypsy moth, whose pupae are preyed upon by the white-footed mouse. Through alterations to understory habitat of mice, deer may reduce mouse predation on gypsy moth pupae. In this study, I tested for indirect effects of deer on the gypsy moth by comparing mouse abundance, vegetation properties, and predation on pupae inside, and outside, of long-term deer exclosures. Overall, I did not find evidence for indirect effects of deer on the gypsy moth. There was little effect of the exclosures on mouse abundance, predation rates, and habitat measures. High mouse abundances, which likely resulted from a large acorn mast the previous year, may be obscuring indirect effects that would be detected at lower mouse abundances.
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Burchfield, David Richard. "Assessment of Great Basin Bristlecone Pine (Pinus longaeva D.K. Bailey) Forest Communities Using Geospatial Technologies." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2021. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/9184.
Full textAbstract:
Great Basin bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva D.K. Bailey) is a keystone species of the subalpine forest in the Great Basin and western Colorado Plateau ecoregions in Utah, Nevada, and California. Bristlecone pine is also the world's longest-lived non-clonal organism, with individuals occasionally reaching ages up to 5,000 years old. Because of its longevity, bristlecone pine contains an important proxy record of climate data in its growth rings. Despite its ecological and scientific importance, bristlecone pine's distribution and associated environmental drivers are poorly understood. Geospatial technologies, including unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), remote sensing, geographic information systems (GIS), and spatial modeling techniques can be used to quantify and characterize biotic and abiotic factors that constrain the fundamental and realized niches of bristlecone pine and other subalpine forest species. In Chapter 1, we describe workflows and important technical and logistical considerations for collecting aerial imagery in mountainous areas using small UAS, enabling high-quality remotely sensed datasets to be assembled to study the ecology of subalpine forests. In Chapter 2, we discuss a unique outlier population of bristlecone pine found in the Stansbury Mountains, Utah. We used GIS to delineate boundaries for five small stands of bristlecone pine and examined two competing hypotheses that could explain the species' presence in the range: 1) that the current population is a relict from the Pleistocene, or 2) that long-distance dispersal mechanisms led to bristlecone pine's migration from other mountain ranges during or after the warming period of the Pleistocene/Holocene transition. Potential migration routes and barriers to migration were considered in our effort to understand the dynamics behind the presence of this unique disjunct population of bristlecone pine. Chapter 3 describes a comprehensive mapping effort for bristlecone pine across its entire distribution. Using data from historic maps, vegetation surveys, herbarium records, and an online ecological database, we compiled nearly 500 individual map polygons in a public-facing online GIS database representing locations where bristlecone pine occurs. Using these occurrence data, we modeled the suitable habitat of the species with Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt), examining the relative importance of 60 environmental variables in constraining the species distribution. A probability map was generated for bristlecone pine, and the environmental variables were ranked in order of their predictive power in explaining the species distribution. We found that January mean dewpoint temperature and February precipitation explained over 80% of the species distribution according to the MaxEnt model, suggesting that the species favors drier air conditions and increased snowfall during winter months. These three studies demonstrate that geospatial tools can be effectively used to quantify and characterize the habitat of bristlecone pine, leading to improved management and conservation of the species in the face of multiple threats, including mountain pine beetle (MPB), white pine blister rust (WPBR), and possible habitat constriction due to climate change.
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Schmidt, Pieter, Siegfried Lewark, Jiří Remeš, and Norbert Weber. "Forests for University Education: Examples and Experiences: Proceedings of the SILVA Network Conference, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences, Prague." Technische Universität Dresden, 2019. https://tud.qucosa.de/id/qucosa%3A33621.
Full textAbstract:
Forests play a crucial role in preserving terrestrial biodiversity, producing renewable raw materials, and in reducing the scale and impact of climate change. Proper forest management is therefore crucial for today's society.
For these reasons, forestry education is no less important because its aim is to educate highly qualified professionals capable of meeting current challenges. Forestry education has already had a relatively rich history, in many European countries over 100, even 200 years.
A very important role in forestry education has always been played by the forest itself, which has been the place of teaching and the largest research laboratory. However, given the rapid advances in science and technology development, it is necessary to redefine the place and importance of the forest for university forestry education at present.
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Gabrilevskaja-Bernat, Ana. "Miško rodiklių sąsajos su gyvenimo kokybe." Master's thesis, Lithuanian Academic Libraries Network (LABT), 2014. http://vddb.library.lt/obj/LT-eLABa-0001:E.02~2014~D_20140616_111616-53961.
Full textAbstract:
Baigiamajame darbe tiriami ryšiai tarp miškingumo, miškų pasiekiamumo, rekreacinės paskirties (2B) grupės miškų ir gyvenimo kokybės parametrų.
Darbo objektas – Lietuvos savivaldybių (išskyrus Neringos miesto savivaldybę) rodikliai.
Darbo tikslas – nustatyti miško rodiklių ir gyvenimo kokybės sąsajas Lietuvos savivaldybių lygmenyje.
Darbo metodai – darbe vertinti Lietuvos savivaldybių miškų, gyvenimo kokybės (oro kokybės, sveikatingumo, gimstamumo, nusikalstamumo), kiti, galimai sąlygojantys gyvenimo kokybę, rodikliai. Tyrimui naudoti 2008-2013 m. Lietuvos statistikos departamento, Valstybinės miškų tarnybos, Higienos instituto sveikatos informacijos centro duomenys. Atskirai analizuojami ir palyginami Lietuvos miestų ir rajonų savivaldybių rodikliai. Miškų pasiekiamumo rodiklis savivaldybėms nustatytas taikant GIS technologijas, duomenų apdorojimui ir atvaizdavimui naudota Microsoft Excel programa, STATISTICA programinis paketas, daugiamatės statistikos metodas – RDA (ReDundancy analysis).
Darbo rezultatai. Miškingumas turi sąsajų su sveikatingumu ir oro kokybę miestų savivaldybėse. Nustatytas ryšys tarp miškingumo ir taršos anglies monoksidu patvirtina, kad miškingumas teigiamai veikia urbanizuotos teritorijos orą, kartu ir gyventojų sveikatą. Labiau miškingose miestų savivaldybėse gyventojai mažiau lankosi medicinos įstaigose, rečiau pasitaiko insultų atvejai. Miškų pasiekiamumas labiau sąlygoja gyvenimo kokybę miestų savivaldybėse, nei miškingumas. Nustatytas stiprus... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]Thesis investigated connections between the parameters of the forest cover, forests accessibility, recreational (2B) group forests and quality of the life. Subject of the research – Lithuanian municipalities (except the town of Neringa municipality) indicators. Aim of the research – to identify the connection between forests’ characteristics and quality of the life on the level of Lithuanian municipalities. Methodology – in the work forests of Lithuanian municipalities, quality of the life (air quality, wellness, birthrate, criminality), other potentially influencing the quality of the life indicators were assessed. For the study data from Statistics Lithuania, National Forest Service, Hygiene Institute Health Information Centre form 2008-2013 year period were used. Separately Lithuanian cities and districts indicators were analyzed and compared. Forest accessibility index for municipalities was determined using GIS technology, data processing and visualization was done using Microsoft Excel programme, STATISTICA software package and multivariate statistical method - RDA (ReDundancy analysis). Results. Forest cover has connections with wellness and air quality in cities’ municipalities. Determined link between the forest cover and carbon monoxide emissions confirms that forest cover has the positive effect on the air of urban areas, herewith on the inhabitant's health. In more forested urban municipalities inhabitants less visit clinics, less were paralytic stroke. Forests... [to full text]
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Wulf, Monika, and Thilo Heinken. "Colonization of recent coniferous versus deciduous forest stands by vascular plants at the local scale." Universität Potsdam, 2008. http://opus.kobv.de/ubp/volltexte/2010/4608/.
Full textAbstract:
Questions:
1. Are there differences among species in their preference for coniferous vs. deciduous forest?
2. Are tree and shrub species better colonizers of recent forest stands than herbaceous species?
3. Do colonization patterns of plant species groups depend on tree species composition?
Location:
Three deciduous and one coniferous recent forest areas in Brandenburg, NE Germany.
Methods:
In 34 and 21 transects in coniferous and deciduous stands, respectively, we studied the occurrence and percentage cover of vascular plants in a total of 150 plots in ancient stands, 315 in recent stands and 55 at the ecotone. Habitat preference, diaspore weight, generative dispersal potential and clonal extension were used to explain mechanisms of local migration. Regression analysis was conducted to test whether migration distance was related to species’ life-history traits.
Results:
25 species were significantly associated with ancient stands and ten species were significantly more frequent in recent stands. Tree and shrub species were good colonizers of recent coniferous and deciduous stands. In the coniferous stands, all herbaceous species showed a strong dispersal limitation during colonization, whereas in the deciduous stands generalist species may have survived in the grasslands which were present prior to afforestation.
Conclusions:
The fast colonization of recent stands by trees and shrubs can be explained by their effective dispersal via wind and animals. This, and the comparably efficient migration of herbaceous forest specialists into recent coniferous stands, implies that the conversion of coniferous into deciduous stands adjacent to ancient deciduous forests is promising even without planting of trees.
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Slade, Eleanor M. "The effects of tropical forest management on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2007. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:d4689410-3c13-4e92-9f35-e4abe0d8e0ac.
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The Effects of Tropical Forest Management on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning Eleanor M. Slade 1. Between 35 % and 50 % of all closed-canopy tropical forest has been lost, and the rate of deforestation continues to increase throughout the tropics. Despite a wealth of literature on the effects of tropical forest disturbance on the diversity and composition of a variety of taxa, there is still no clear consensus on the value of disturbed forests for biodiversity. 2. If forest management practises are to be sustainable in the long-term they should maintain both biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (the interactions and processes of the ecosystem), as well as a timber harvest. However, few studies have investigated the extent to which ecosystem functioning is reduced in logged forests. The effects of different logging intensities on a variety of taxa, and the ecosystem processes with which they are associated, were assessed in the Danum Valley Conservation Area in Sabah (Malaysian Borneo). 3. Even under high logging intensities, the forests of Sabah appear to have been managed in a way that maintains timber yields in the short-term. However, other aspects of forest structure had been affected, which could have important consequences ecologically, and for the long-term sustainability of timber harvests. 4. Combining field studies with manipulative experiments allows assessment of the impacts of species changes associated with habitat modification on measures of ecosystem functioning. Dung beetle (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) functional group richness and composition were manipulated in a series of field experiments. Certain functional groups and species were found to have a greater impact on ecosystem functioning than others; nevertheless a full complement of species was needed to maintain full ecosystem functioning. 5. Dung beetles appeared to be relatively robust to changes in forest structure associated with selective logging, but species richness was reduced with high-intensity logging. There was a corresponding decrease in ecosystem functioning (dung and seed removal) with a decrease in species richness, and a decrease in the biomass of large nocturnal tunnellers, suggesting that although some species are dominant, rare species are also needed to preserve full ecosystem functioning. 6. A complex interaction between birds and ants resulted in reduced herbivory of seedlings of the important timber tree, Parashorea malaanonan, in some instances. However, this interaction was not affected by either selective or high intensity logging. Seedfall of P. malaanonan, was reduced in logged forest compared to primary forest. Despite insect seed predation being higher in primary forest, there was still successful recruitment during a non-mast year. Parasitism of insect-predated seeds was found to be inversely density dependent, and was higher in logged forest where seed predation was lower. 7. The results of this thesis suggest that the forests of Sabah appear to be being logged under a management system that is compatible with sustainable timber management, but not necessarily sustainable forest management. Low intensity selective logging seems to preserve much of the original forest structure, biodiversity and ecosystem functioning compared to logging at higher intensities. However, ecosystem processes were variable in their response to logging, suggesting that management decisions should be based on the consideration of multiple taxa and processes.
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Van, Scoyoc Matthew W. "A QUANTITATIVE APPROACH TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF ECOLOGICAL SITES AND STATE-AND-TRANSITION MODELS." DigitalCommons@USU, 2014. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/3075.
Full textAbstract:
The interaction of land-use and climate can cause non-linear “state” changes in ecosystems, characterized by persistent differences in structure and function. Changes in land-use and climate on the Colorado Plateau may be driving many ecosystems toward undesired states where energy-intensive measures are required to return to previous states. Landscape classification systems based on “ecological potential” offer a robust framework to evaluate ecological conditions. Ecological sites are a popular landscape classification system based on long-term ecological potential and are widely used throughout the western US. Ecological sites have been described extensively for rangelands and woodlands on DOI Bureau of Land Management lands; however, they have yet to be described on USDA Forest Service (USFS) lands. In this thesis, I describe a statistical approach to ecological site delineation and the development of state-and-transition models, diagrams that illustrate ecosystem dynamics and responses to disturbances. In Chapter 2, I used a large inventory dataset and multivariate statistical procedures to classify plots based on life zone, soils, and potential vegetation, effectively delineating statistical ecological site-like groups. Most of the statistical ecological sites matched ecological sites already described by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Additionally, I described one new ecological site that has not been described by the NRCS in the Colorado Plateau region. In Chapter 3, I examined empirical evidence for alternative states in mountain ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Lawson & C. Lawson) and upland piñon-juniper ecosystems. Using multivariate statistical procedures, I found that plots cluster into groups consistent with generalized alternative states identified in a priori conceptual models. Additionally, I showed that ponderosa pine clusters were true alternative states and piñon-juniper clusters were not true alternative states because they were confounded by similarities in climate. Ponderosa pine clusters were differentiated by overstory ponderosa pine density and corresponded to three states: current potential, high fuel load, and reduced overstory. These results illustrate the range of ecosystem variability that is present throughout the study area and present evidence for alternatives states caused by historical land-use. This project is the first to propose ecological sites and state-and-transition models on USFS lands in this region. These techniques could be applied to areas that do not have formally described ecological sites and state-and-transition models and could help identify ecological sites that may have been overlooked using other means of delineation. Additionally, these methods can be used to evaluate the range of ecological variability throughout an area of interest and to improved understanding of ecosystem dynamics.
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Sathre, Roger. "Life-Cycle Energy and Carbon Implications of Wood-Based Products and Construction." Doctoral thesis, Mittuniversitetet, Institutionen för teknik, fysik och matematik, 2007. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:miun:diva-50.
Full textAbstract:
Forests can be an important element of an overall strategy to limit the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) that contributes to climate change. As an integral part of the global carbon cycle, forests remove CO2 from the atmosphere as they grow, and accumulate carbon in tree biomass. Using wood products made from sustainably managed forests can reduce net CO2 emission by substituting in place of fossil fuels and energy-intensive materials. In this thesis the mechanisms by which wood product substitution can affect energy and carbon balances are studied. These include: the energy needed to manufacture wood products compared with alternative materials; the avoidance of industrial process carbon emission from e.g. cement manufacture; the use of wood by-products as biofuel to replace fossil fuels; and the physical storage of carbon in forests and wood materials. A methodological framework is first developed by integrating knowledge from the fields of forestry, industry, construction, and energy. A life cycle perspective is employed encompassing the entire product chain from natural resource acquisition to material disposal or reuse. Analytical challenges that are addressed include the functional unit of comparison, the fossil reference system, land use issues of wood vs. non-wood materials, and the diverse phases of the product life cycle. The methodology is then applied to two multi-storey wood-framed buildings in Sweden and Finland, compared with two functionally equivalent buildings with reinforced concrete structural frames. The results show that less primary energy is needed to produce the wood-framed buildings than the concrete-frame buildings. CO2 emission is significantly lower for the wood-frame buildings, due to reductions in both fossil fuel use and cement calcination process emission. The most important single factor affecting the energy and carbon balances is the use of biomass by-products from the wood product chain as biofuel to replace fossil fuels. Over the life cycle of the wood-framed buildings, the energy of biomass residues from forest operations, wood processing, construction and demolition is greater than the energy inputs to produce the materials in the buildings. Realisation of this benefit is facilitated by integrating and optimising the biomass and energy flows within the forestry, industrial, construction, energy, and waste management sectors. Different forest management regimes are studied in an integrated carbon analysis to quantify the carbon flows and stocks associated with tree biomass, soils, and forest products. Intensified forest management that produces greater quantities of biomass leads to net CO2 emission benefits by augmenting the potential to substitute for fossil fuels and non-wood materials. The increased energy use and carbon emission required for the more intensive forest management, as well as the slight reduction in soil carbon accumulation due to greater removal of forest residues, are more than compensated for by the emission reduction due to product substitution. Carbon stock changes in forests and wood materials can be temporarily significant, but over the building life cycle and forest rotation period the stock change becomes insignificant. In the long term, the active and sustainable management of forests, including their use as a source for wood products and biofuels, allows the greatest potential for reducing net CO2 emission. Implementation issues related to the wider use of wood-based materials to reduce energy use and carbon emission are also explored. An analysis of the effects of energy and taxation costs on the economic competitiveness of materials shows that the cost of energy for material processing, as a percentage of the total cost of finished material, is lower for wood products than for other common non-wood building materials. Energy and carbon taxation affects the cost of wood products less than other materials. The economic benefit of using biomass residues to substitute for fossil fuels also increases as tax rates increase. In general, higher taxation of fossil fuels and carbon emission increases the economic competitiveness of wood construction. An analysis of added value in forest product industries shows that greater economic value is added in the production of structural building materials than in other uses of forest biomass. Co-production of multiple wood-based products increases the total value that is added to the biomass produced on an area of forest land. The results show that production of wood-based building material is favoured economically by climate change mitigation policies, and creates high added value within forest product industries.Skogsresurser kan utgöra en viktig del i en strategi för att begränsa koncentrationen av koldioxid (CO2) i atmosfären och därmed begränsa klimatförändringarna. Skog tar upp CO2 från atmosfären när den växer och kolet lagras i trädens biomassa. Trädprodukter från hållbart brukade skogar kan minska nettoutsläppen av CO2 genom att de kan ersätta fossilt bränsle och energiintensiva material. I denna avhandling studeras faktorer som påverkar energi- och kolbalanser när träprodukter ersätter alternativa produkter. Signifikanta faktorer är den energi som behövs för att framställa träprodukter jämfört med alternativa produkter, utsläpp av CO2 från industriella processer som vid cementproduktion, ersättning av fossilt bränsle med trärester samt lagring av kol i skog och träprodukter. En metodik har utvecklats för att studera dessa faktorer genom att integrera ämneskunskaper från byggkonstruktion, energi, industri och det skogliga området. Den bygger på ett livscykelperspektiv och innefattar hela material- och produktkedjor från naturresurs till avfall eller återanvändning av material eller produkter. De metodikfrågor som varit i fokus är den funktionella enheten för jämförelser, det fossila referenssystemet, utnyttjande av skogmark vid produktion av träprodukter samt produktens olika faser under en livscykel. Metodiken har sedan använts för att jämföra ett svenskt och ett finskt flervåningshus i trä med två funktionellt likvärdiga hus med betongstomme. Resultaten visade att det behövs mindre primärenergi för att tillverka trähuset än betonghuset. Energin som kan utvinnas från biprodukter under en träbyggnads livscykel – från skogsskötsel, förädling, konstruktion och rivning – är större än den energi som krävs för att tillverka byggnadsmaterialet i byggnaden. Nettoutsläppen av CO2 från både fossil primärenergi och cementkalcinering är också väsentligt lägre för trähuset, men användningen av biprodukter från skogsavverkning, träförädlingskedjan och rivningsvirke för att ersätta fossilt bränsle har störst påverkan på kolbalansen. För att fullt ut tillgodogöra sig biprodukters potentiella fördelar krävs att de olika sektorerna för skogsbruk, industri, konstruktion, energi och avfallshantering integreras och optimeras med avseende på energi- och materialflöden. Olika skogsskötselmetoder har analyserats för att kvantifiera de flöden och den lagring av kol som sker i biomassa, mark och träprodukter. Intensifierat skogsbruk gav mindre utsläpp av CO2 per ha skogsmark, eftersom potentialen ökade för att ersätta fossila bränslen och energiintensiva material. Denna substitutionseffekt kompenserade mer än väl för den ökning i energianvändning och de utsläpp av CO2 som den intensivare skogsskötseln medförde, inklusive för den minskning av lagrat kol i marken som uttaget av skogsrester medförde. Lagring av kol i skogar och träprodukter kan vara intressant i ett kort tidsperspektiv, men under en byggnads livscykel och ett skogsbestånds rotationsperiod har den liten betydelse. I längden uppnås den största minskningen av CO2-utsläpp genom en aktiv och hållbar skogsskötsel med uttag av skogsresurser för användning till träprodukter och energi. I denna avhandling studerades också hur användningen av träprodukter påverkas av energi- och miljöskatter. En analys av energi- och skattekostnadernas effekt på konkurrenskraften för trämaterial visade att energikostnaden är lägre för trämaterial än för andra vanliga byggmaterial. Energi- och koldioxidskatter påverkar träprodukter i mindre utsträckning än produkter i andra material. De ekonomiska fördelarna av att använda biomassa som ersättning för fossila bränslen ökar också med höjda skatter. Konkurrensfördelarna för träkonstruktioner ökar därför generellt i takt med högre skatt på fossila bränslen och CO2-utsläpp. En analys av förädlingsvärdet hos skogsprodukter visade på en större värdeökning vid produktion av byggnadsmaterial än för andra biomassebaserade produkter. Samproduktion av flera träprodukter ökade det totala värdet hos biomassan per skogsareal. Resultaten visade att produktion av träbaserade byggnadsmaterial får ekonomiska fördelar av klimatpolitiska åtgärder och att sådan produktion har ett högt förädlingsvärde för industrierna i träbranschen.
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Crifo, Camilla. "VARIATIONS IN ANGIOSPERM LEAF VEIN DENSITY HAVE IMPLICATIONS FOR INTERPRETING LIFE FORM IN THE FOSSIL RECORD." Miami University / OhioLINK, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1375987428.
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Goodrich-Stuart, Ellen. "Forest Net Primary Production Resistance Across a Gradient of Moderate Disturbance." VCU Scholars Compass, 2014. http://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/627.
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The global carbon (C) balance is vulnerable to disturbances that alter terrestrial C uptake and loss. Moderate disturbances that kill or defoliate only a subset of canopy trees such as insect defoliation, drought, and age-related senescence are increasing in extent and frequency; yet, little is known about the effect of moderate disturbance on forest production and the mechanisms sustaining or supporting the recovery of the C cycle across a range of moderate disturbance severities. We used a broad plot-scale gradient of upper canopy tree mortality within a large manipulation of forest disturbance to: 1) quantify how aboveground wood net primary production (ANPPw) responds to a range of moderate disturbance severities and; 2) identify the primary mechanisms supporting ANPPw resistance or resilience following moderate disturbance. We found that ANPPw was highly resistant to moderate disturbance, with production levels sustained following the senescence of 9 to > 60 % of the upper canopy tree basal area. As upper canopy gap fraction increased with rising disturbance severity, greater light availability to the subcanopy enhanced leaf-level C uptake and the growth of this formerly light-limited canopy stratum, compensating for upper canopy production losses. As a result, whole-ecosystem production efficiency (ANPPw/LAI) increased at high levels of disturbance severity and leaf area loss. These findings provide a mechanistic explanation for sustained ANPPw across the disturbance gradient, in which the physiological and growth enhancement of undisturbed vegetation was proportional to the level of disturbance severity. Our results have important ecological and management implications, showing that moderate disturbances may minimally alter ecosystem functions such as C storage.
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Dislich, Claudia [Verfasser], and Björn [Akademischer Betreuer] Reineking. "The role of life history traits for coexistence and forest recovery after disturbance : a modelling perspective ; towards a better understanding of species-rich forests / Claudia Dislich. Betreuer: Björn Reineking." Bayreuth : Universitätsbibliothek Bayreuth, 2012. http://d-nb.info/102192475X/34.
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Leach, Mellssa Anne. "Images of propriety : the reciprocal constitution of gender and resource use in the life of a Sierra Leonean forest village." Thesis, SOAS, University of London, 1990. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.321198.
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Vaughan, Angus A. "Discharge-Suspended Sediment Relations: Near-channel Environment Controls Shape and Steepness, Land Use Controls Median and Low Flow Conditions." DigitalCommons@USU, 2016. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/5191.
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We analyzed recent total suspended solids (TSS) data from 45 gages on 36 rivers throughout the state of Minnesota. Watersheds range from 32 to 14,600 km2 and represent a variety of distinct settings in terms of topography, land cover, and geologic history. Our study rivers exhibited three distinct patterns in the relationship between discharge and TSS: simple power functions, threshold power functions, and peaked or negative power functions. Differentiating rising and falling limb samples, we generated sediment rating curves (SRC) of form TSS = aQb, Q being normalized discharge. Rating parameters a and b describe the vertical offset and steepness of the relationships. We also used the fitted SRCs to estimate TSS values at low flows and to quantify event-scale hysteresis.
In addition to quantifying the watershed-average topographic, climatic/hydrologic, geologic, soil and land cover conditions, we used high-resolution lidar topography data to characterize the near-channel environment upstream of gages. We used Random Forest statistical models to analyze the relationship between basin and channel features and the rating parameters. The models enabled us to identify morphometric variables that provided the greatest explanatory power and examine the direction, form, and strength of the partial dependence of the response variables on individual predictor variables. The models explained between 43% and 60% of the variance in the rating curve parameters and determined that Q-TSS relation steepness (exponent) was most related to near-channel morphological characteristics including near-channel local relief, channel gradient, and proportion of lakes along the channel network. Land use within the watershed explained most variation in the vertical offset (coefficient) of the SRCs and in TSS concentrations at low flows.
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Raftery, David Jonathon. "Competition, conflict and cooperation : an ethnographic analysis of an Australian forest industry dispute." Title page, contents and abstract only, 2000. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09ARM/09armr139.pdf.
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Bibliography: leaves 135-143. An anthropological analysis of an industrial dispute that occurred within the East Gippsland forest industry, 1997-1998 and how the workers strove to acheive better working conditions for themselves, and to share in the wealth they had created.
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Auten, Steve R. "Mortality Assessment of Redwood and Mixed Conifer Forest Types in Santa Cruz County Following Wildfire." DigitalCommons@CalPoly, 2012. https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/878.
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On August 12, 2009, the Lockheed Fire ignited the west slope of the Santa Cruz Mountains burning approximately 7,819 acres. Foresters and other land managers were left with challenging decisions on how to evaluate tree mortality. Big Creek Lumber Company, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly)’s Swanton Pacific Ranch (SPR), and other resource professionals familiar with this region teamed up to develop a method for evaluating damage and thereby mortality for redwood, California nutmeg, live oak, tanoak, California bay, Pacific madrone, big leaf maple, Douglas-fir, Monterey pine, and knobcone pine. Quantitative damage criteria were used to design three Mortality Assessment models (MA), divided into three diameter at breast height classes (1-8.9, 9-16.9, >17 inches), for all tree species. These models were compared against pre-fire data from 82, one-fifth acre fixed plots from SPR’s Continuous Forest Inventory. Since the initial evaluation using the new MA in Fall 2009, each of the 2,877 trees were re-evaluated in Spring 2010 and Spring 2011 to determine if initial evaluations from the MA in 2009 were correct. To date, predictions to determine individual tree mortality using the Mortality Assessment models have been 89.3% correct.
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Hansen, William R. "The research and development of an assessment instrument for measuring the spiritual growth of Forest Hill Baptist Church, Longview, Texas." Online full text .pdf document, available to Fuller patrons only, 2002. http://www.tren.com.
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Lee, Rebecca Irene. "Dendrochronological Methods to Examine Plant Competition with Changing Fire Regimes in Desert and Forest Ecosystems." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2019. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/8708.
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Human activities are changing wildfire regimes globally through ignition, spread of invasive species, fire suppression, and climate change. Because of this, ecosystems are experiencing novel fire regimes that may alter plant growth and patterns of succession. Annual growth rings are one metric that can track changes in tree and shrub growth patterns over time in response to changing fire frequency. In Chapter 1 we explored the effects of fire on resprouting native shrubs in the Mojave Desert. Fires are becoming increasingly frequent due to the spread of highly flammable invasive grasses in the region. We monitored growth and fruit production of Larrea tridentata D.C. (creosote bush) on burned and unburned transects from three independent 2005 wildfires. Even though creosote has a high fire mortality rate, we found that resprouting creosote produced 4.7 times the amount of fruit and had stems that grew nearly twice as fast compared to creosote in unburned areas. Our data suggest that creosote can resprout after fire and thrives in its growth rates and reproduction in post-fire environments. In Chapter 2 we used annual Basal Area Increment to investigate how fire suppression has altered facilitation and competition interactions through stages of succession in mixed aspen-conifer forests. We found that aspen had lower growth rates in mixed aspen-conifer stands compared to aspen dominant stands. We also found that aspen growing with an associated fir tree due to facilitation had increasingly lower growth rates over time than those growing independently. Fir trees in mixed stands were facilitated over time by associated aspen trees while fir trees growing in association and independently in aspen stands showed no statistical difference from each other but grew better than independent fir trees in mixed stands. Our data suggest that restoring a more frequent fire regime will balance competitive interactions between aspen and conifer in subalpine forests.
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Gagan, Alison Baird. "The Effects of Prescribed Fire on Millipede and Salamander Populations in a Southern Appalachian Deciduous Forest." [Johnson City, Tenn. : East Tennessee State University], 2002. http://etd-submit.etsu.edu/etd/theses/available/etd-1108102-114822/unrestricted/abgrevision.pdf.
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Heinken, Thilo, and Eckart Winkler. "Non-random dispersal by ants : long-term field data versus model predictions of population spread of a forest herb." Universität Potsdam, 2009. http://opus.kobv.de/ubp/volltexte/2010/4648/.
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Myrmecochory, i.e. dispersal of seeds by ants towards and around their nests, plays an important role in temperate forests. Yet hardly any study has examined plant population spread over several years and the underlying joint contribution of a hierarchy of dispersal modes and plant demography. We used a seed-sowing approach with three replicates to examine colonization patterns of Melampyrum pratense, an annual myrmecochorous herb, in a mixed Scots pine forest in northeastern Germany. Using a spatially explicit individualbased (SEIB) model population patterns over 4 years were explained by short-distance transport of seeds by small ant species with high nest densities, resulting in random spread. However, plant distributions in the field after another 4 years were clearly deviating from model predictions. Mean annual spread rate increased from 0.9 m to 5.1 m per year, with a clear inhomogeneous component. Obviously, after a lag-phase of several years, non-random seed dispersal by large red wood ants (Formica rufa) was determining the species’ spread, thus resulting in stratified dispersal due to interactions with different-sized ant species. Hypotheses on stratified dispersal, on dispersal lag, and on non-random dispersal were verified using an extended SEIB model, by comparison of model outputs with field patterns (individual numbers, population areas, and maximum distances). Dispersal towards red wood ant nests together with seed loss during transport and redistribution around nests were essential features of the model extension. The observed lag-phase in the initiation of non-random, medium-distance transport was probably due to a change of ant behaviour towards a new food source of increasing importance, being a meaningful example for a lag-phase in local plant species invasion. The results demonstrate that field studies should check model predictions wherever possible. Future research will show whether or not the M. pratense–ant system is representative for migration patterns of similar animal dispersal systems after having crossed range edges by long-distance dispersal events.
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Prendergast, Neil Douglas. "Life in the Land: The Story of the Kaibab Deer." Connect to this document online, 2005. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=miami1122651902.
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Thesis (M.A.)--Miami University, Dept. of History, 2005.Title from first page of PDF document. Document formatted into pages; contains [1], ii, 89 p. : maps. Includes bibliographical references (p. 70-89).