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Dawkins, Glenys Heather Mary. "Plant pathogens and ecological succession." Thesis, Imperial College London, 1988. http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/8317.
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Edwards-Jones, Gareth. "Insect herbivore load and plant succession." Thesis, Imperial College London, 1988. http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/47046.
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Horton, Lindsey. "Intervention in succession a method for applying succession theory in landscape design with a focus on vegetation succession in western Washington /." Online access for everyone, 2005. http://www.dissertations.wsu.edu/Thesis/Spring2005/L%5FHorton%5F042805.pdf.
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Kahmen, Stefanie. "Plant trait responses to grassland management and succession." kostenfrei, 2004. http://www.opus-bayern.de/uni-regensburg/volltexte/2004/324/.
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Harper, Leah Wheelbarger. "Plant Biodiversity across Three Successional Stages in Forests of Southern Illinois." OpenSIUC, 2020. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/theses/2794.
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Since the time of European settlement, land-use history, management practices, the introduction of non-native invasive species (NNIS), and climate change have dramatically changed the successional pathways of Southern Illinois forests. Biodiversity is considered essential for ecosystem health and resiliency, so understanding the impact theses forest changes have on biodiversity is necessary to guide future management decisions. This study was conducted at Touch of Nature Environmental Center (TONEC) in Southern Illinois using the Shannon diversity index (H') to compare the levels of biodiversity in the overstory, shrub, seedling, and herbaceous layers across early, mid, and mature successional stages. Twenty plots were randomly placed within early, mid, and mature forest successional stages for a total of 60 plots. Four circular nested vegetation plots were recorded at each plot location. In the overstory plots (area 314.16 m2), woody stems above 6.5 cm diameter at breast height (dbh), age class, and crown were all recorded. In the shrub layer (area 28.27 m2), all woody stems between 2.5 and 6.5 cm dbh were recorded, while in the seedling layer (area 3.14 m2), all woody stems < 1 cm dbh were recorded. In the herbaceous layer, (area 1 m2) species were measured by percent cover. Shannon diversity index (H') was calculated for each plot. When vegetation layers were combined and mean H' within forest successional stages were compared, no differences were found. However, when successional stages were combined within each vegetation layer, the shrub layer had the least H' increasing to seedling, increasing again to overstory and herbaceous; these being equal. When breaking down the vegetation layers separately and comparing H' across successional stages within each, both the overstory and shrub layers had no difference. Early successional was the least diverse in seedling, rising to mid and mature, which were equal. The herbaceous layer showed an opposite trend with early having the highest H' decreasing to mid and decreasing again to mature. Finally looking at the differences across vegetation layers within early, mid, and mature successional stages. Early-successional had the most variability with the highest H' in herbaceous; this decreased progressively to overstory then to shrub and seedling, which were equal. In mid-successional plots, overstory, seedling, and herbaceous layers were equal with H' decreasing in shrub. In mature plots, all vegetation layers had the same H'. Across all vegetation layers, the highest percentage of NNIS was in early-successional, followed by mid, with notably less found in mature forest. Even in instances where H' values were the same, species composition across forest successional stages were quite different. While overall biodiversity is the same across successional stages, differences in H' can be seen when looking at the vegetation layers. Management should focus on removing NNIS in the early and mid-successional forests paying particular attention to the shrub layer, which has the overall lowest H' with the most dramatic differences in composition and the presence of NNIS across all successional stages. Also of concern is the low H' in the seedling layer in early-successional forest, which reduces the likelihood of successful regeneration of these hardwood stands in the future.
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Wood, David M. "Pattern and process in primary succession in high elevation habitats on Mount St. Helens /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 1987. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/5234.
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Piotrowski, Jeffrey Scott. "Succession of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi causes, consequences, and considerations /." CONNECT TO THIS TITLE ONLINE, 2007. http://etd.lib.umt.edu/theses/available/etd-05272008-134138/.
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McManus, Erin Michael. "Primary succession of lianas in an Amazonian floodplain forest /." Electronic thesis, 2003. http://etd.wfu.edu/theses/available/etd-11292003-151813/.
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Sugita, Shinya. "Palynological records of forest disturbance and development in the Mountain Meadows watershed, Mt. Rainier, Washington /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 1990. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/5130.
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Dahlgren, Johan Petter. "Linking plant population dynamics to the local environment and forest succession." Doctoral thesis, Stockholms universitet, Botaniska institutionen, 2008. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-8291.
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Linking environmental variation to population dynamics is necessary to understand and predict how the environment influences species abundances and distributions. I used demographic, environmental and trait data of forest herbs to study effects of spatial variation in environmental factors on populations as well as environmental change in terms of effects of forest succession on field layer plants. The results show that abundances of field layer species during forest succession are correlated with their functional traits; species with high specific leaf area increased more in abundance. I also found that soil nutrients affect vegetative and flowering phenology of the forest herb Actaea spicata. The effect of nutrients shows that a wider range of environmental factors than usually assumed can influence plant phenology. Moreover, local environmental factors affected also the demography of A. spicata through effects on vital rates. An abiotic factor, soil potassium affecting individual growth rate, was more important for population growth rate than seed predation, the most conspicuous biotic interaction in this system. Density independent changes in soil potassium during forest succession, and to a lesser extent plant population size dependent seed predation, were predicted to alter population growth rate, and thereby the abundance, of A. spicata over time. Because these environmental factors had effects on population projections, they can potentially influence the occupancy pattern of this species along successional gradients. I conclude that including deterministic, as opposed to stochastic, environmental change in demographic models enables assessments of the effects of processes such as succession, altered land-use, and climate change on population dynamics. Models explicitly incorporating environmental factors are useful for studying population dynamics in a realistic context, and to guide management of threatened species in changing environments.
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Santos, Gildomar Alves dos. "Overcoming barriers to plant succession in degraded cerrado vegetation in Brazil." Thesis, University of Aberdeen, 2014. http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=228005.
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The goals of this research are to identify the major constraints to plant succession in degraded cerrado vegetation. The area selected for this research, is located on the right bank of the Araguaia River in Goias State (Brazil). Floristic composition survey, seed rain and soil seed bank assessments were conducted in four forest fragments and in a degraded area. Planted seedlings, Soil translocation, Seed translocation and Artificial perches were also investigated. Floristic composition survey showed a richness of 145 species for the whole area and absolute density of 623.89 individuals.ha-1 for the degraded area and a range from 1333.72 to 2247.27 individuals.ha-1 for forest fragments. Seed rain survey resulted in 87 species identified, and annual seed arrival was 2.36 seeds.m-2 for the degraded area and 103.75 seeds.m-2 to 236.25 seed.m-2 to forest fragments. Soil seedbank analysis found a richness of 33 species and 87% of germinated seeds were from non-woody plants. The mean seed density of woody plants was 0 for the degraded area and ranged from 25 seeds.m-2 to 257.50 seed.m2 for forest fragments. Introducing seedlings showed a seedling survival rate of 38% after 24 months observation. Enterolobium sp and Inga spp showed higher rates of growth and positive interaction with fertilizer. The application of Tanglefoot, showed no significant results in any treatment. Treatments with fertilizer had less herbivory registered. Luehea candicans showed higher rate of herbivory. Seedling mortality was lower in fenced blocks and indicated Inga spp with lowest rate. Amongst nucleation strategies Seed translocation recruited more individuals after two years, followed by perches and soil seed bank translocation, but perches recruited more different species and had the same rate for seedling survival when compared to seed rain translocation. The results from this study show that succession in degraded Cerrado may be constrained by biotic and abiotic barriers.
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Erickson, Heather E. "Nitrogen and phosphorus availability, ecosystem processes and plant community dynamics in boreal wetland meadows /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 1994. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/5590.
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Rye, Timothy A. "Long-term functional trait dynamics in abandoned agricultural fields /." View online, 2008. http://repository.eiu.edu/theses/docs/32211131428174.pdf.
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Harris, C. J. "Plant community change in the Montgomeryshire Canal in relation to succession theory." Thesis, University of Liverpool, 1988. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.384373.
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The water physico-chemistry, hydrology and plant communities in the Montgomeryshire Canal were examined for evidence of successional phenomena over a five year period and comparisons were made with previous studies. Plant communities changed in a manner which suggested that classical successional ideas were applicable to canals. The changes were readily distinguishable when a period of twenty years had passed but as the examined period was decreased the complexity of the sequence became more apparent. In a single year there were changes in the plant communities. A later stage of succession was indicated as the number of changes increased and the available energy and habitat niches were filled. Succession did not take place in a slow orderly manner but progressed as a series of jumps when the plants were released from inhibitory factors. These sudden changes were promoted by changes in the habitat due to climatic variation, removal of grazers or alterations in the water level. Where the most important inhibitory factors were unchanging, the succession proceeded to a climax community decided by those factors. The physico-chemical factors affecting the canal changed during the study period. The canal became more acidic due to the effects of a cold wet spring. The underwater light climate in un-navigated lengths was determined more by the amount of shade upon the water surface than by any other factor. Levels of suspended solids were relatively unimportant. Established plant communities showed a great resistance to change, despite being subjected to traumatic perturbations. Skim dredging of a site with a well established community structure did not change the course of the succession, but removed inhibiting factors such as anoxic material or grazing and promoted a more rapid change to reedswamp. In the .long term falling water levels had the same effect as raising of the bottom due to infill, but in the two routes towards a less aquatic system were different. Infill led to a moving band of depth sensitive plants whilst loss of water encouraged rapid creation of a reedswamp. The study confirmed that limited navigation is not detrimental to the species composition or the productivity. Eutrophication was a limiting factor creating an unique climax community.
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Murphy, Meghan Suzanne. "Edaphic controls over succession in former oak savanna, Willamette Valley, Oregon /." Connect to title online (Scholars' Bank), 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/1794/7887.
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Berglund, Linda. "Disturbance, nutrient availability and plant growth in phenol-rich plant communities /." Umeå : Dept. of Forest Vegetation Ecology, Swedish Univ. of Agricultural Sciences, 2004. http://epsilon.slu.se/s327.pdf.
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Maddams, C. J. "Acacia karoo and its effects on the succession of dune forests in the Eastern Shores, Kwazulu-Natal." Bachelor's thesis, University of Cape Town, 1997. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/25595.
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Acacia karoo arises following disturbance in the Dune Forests of Northern KwaZulu-Natal. Patches of A. karoo which had arisen as a result of the abandonment of fields by subsistence farmers in a dune forest matrix were studied. Previous authors have considered A. karoo to be part of a successional mechanism which leads towards a climax forest canopy (Mentis and Ellery, 1994; von Maltitz et al, 1996). This succession is questioned as a number of the conclusions of these authors were not verified by my own work. The present paradigm holds that the A. karoo is even aged and will senesce after 25 years, while recruitment does not occur in the patches. I find no evidence of canopy senescence and microhabitats within which recruitment of A. karoo occurred were identified. Further the introduction of other species in the patches is facilitated not through the A. karoo canopy but was shown to be facilitated by the presence of multi-stemmed canopy-trees of other species which had not been removed by the farmers. However, this introduction of other species into the patches was still limited, with certain species not found in even the very oldest patches (37 years old). No discernible chronosequence could be identified when comparing patches of different age, which casts doubt on the belief that these patches will eventually revert to climax dune forest.
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Satterlee, Sean R. "The Role of Native Diversity and Successional Processes on Communityinvasibility in Riparian Primary Forest." Youngstown State University / OhioLINK, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ysu1364824683.
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Keeton, William Scott. "Occurrence and reproductive role of remnant old-growth trees in mature Douglas-fir forests, southern Washington, Cascade Range /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/5479.
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Michel, James T. Helfield James M. "Seed rain and selected species germination and growth trials : implications for natural and augmented revegetation of post-dam Elwha River floodplain and reservoir sediments /." Online version, 2010. http://content.wwu.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/theses&CISOPTR=361&CISOBOX=1&REC=5.
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Naguit, Christian. "Evaluating the success of revegetated metalliferous mine tailings in Manitoba and Saskatchewan." Springer Link and Business Media, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/1993/23291.
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Revegetation is employed to mitigate the spread of mine tailings in the environment by ameliorating tailings with organics to promote plant cover. Revegetation has proven to be successful in establishing plant cover, but the long-term effects are largely unknown. A field study was conducted to evaluate the success of four artificially revegetated tailings from Manitoba by comparing plant cover and diversity. Central Manitoba, Flin Flon, and Thompson had moderate cover while cover was low in Lynn Lake. All four sites had low diversity and were composed of early-successional species. The results suggest that while current revegetation methods promote plant growth on tailings, it is currently difficult to determine if and how the vegetation will progress from a grass-legume community to a boreal forest. In addition, while various amounts of effort were invested into each site, the results indicate the degree of remediation does not affect overall success.
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Morris, Michael Roger. "The contribution of spawning pacific-salmon to nitrogen fertility and vegetation nutrition during riparian primary succession on an expansive floodplain of a large river." Diss., [Missoula, Mont.] : The University of Montana, 2008. http://etd.lib.umt.edu/theses/available/etd-09302008-151352/.
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Bailey, David E. "Wetland Vegetation Dynamics and Ecosystem Gas Exchange in Response to Organic Matter Loading Rates." W&M ScholarWorks, 2006. http://www.vims.edu/library/Theses/Bailey06.pdf.
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Bergquist, Jonas. "Influence by ungulates on early plant succession and forest regeneration in south Swedish spruce forests /." Umeå : Swedish Univ. of Agricultural Sciences (Sveriges lantbruksuniv.), 1998. http://epsilon.slu.se/avh/1998/91-576-5339-9.gif.
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Buzzard, Vanessa, Catherine M. Hulshof, Trevor Birt, Cyrille Violle, and Brian J. Enquist. "Re-growing a tropical dry forest: functional plant trait composition and community assembly during succession." WILEY-BLACKWELL, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/621413.
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1. A longstanding goal of ecology and conservation biology is to understand the environmental and biological controls of forest succession. However, the patterns and mechanisms that guide successional trajectories, especially within tropical forests, remain unclear. 2. We collected leaf functional trait and abiotic data across a 110-year chronosequence within a tropical dry forest in Costa Rica. Focusing on six key leaf functional traits related to resource acquisition and competition, along with measures of forest stand structure, we propose a mechanistic framework to link species composition, community trait distributions and forest structure. We quantified the community-weighted trait distributions for specific leaf area, leaf dry matter concentration, leaf phosphorus concentration, leaf carbon to nitrogen ratio and leaf stable isotopic carbon and nitrogen. We assessed several prominent hypotheses for how these functional measures shift in response to changing environmental variables (soil water content, bulk density and pH) across the chronosequence. 3. Increasingly, older forests differed significantly from younger forests in species composition, above-ground biomass and shifted trait distributions. Early stages of succession were uniformly characterized by lower values of community-weighted mean specific leaf area, leaf stable nitrogen isotope and leaf phosphorus concentration. Leaf dry matter concentration and leaf carbon to nitrogen ratio were lower during earlier stages of succession, and each trait reached an optimum during intermediate stages of succession. The leaf carbon isotope ratio was the only trait to decrease linearly with increasing stand age indicating reduced water use efficiency in older forests. However, in contrast with expectations, community-weighted trait variances did not generally change through succession, and when compared to null expectations were lower than expected. 4. The observed directional shift in community-weighted mean trait values is consistent with the 'productivity filtering' hypothesis where a directional shift in water and light availability shifts physiological strategies from 'slow' to 'fast'. In contrast with expectations arising from niche based ecology, none of the community trait distributions were over-dispersed. Instead, patterns of trait dispersion are consistent with the abiotic filtering and/or competitive hierarchy hypotheses.
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Aikio, S. (Sami). "Plant adaptive strategies in relation to variable resource availability, soil microbial processes and ecosystem development." Doctoral thesis, Oulun yliopisto, 2000. http://urn.fi/urn:isbn:9514256824.
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Plants have evolved various adaptive strategies for balancing the benefits and costs of having a high affinity for resources, plasticity of growth allocation and mycorrhizal symbiosis. The relative growth rates of mycorrhizal and non-mycorrhizal plants were modelled for stable and variable nutrient availability. Mycorrhizal plants had higher growth rates at low and non-mycorrhizal plants at high nutrient availability. Variation in nutrient availability reduced the growth rate of mycorrhizal plants due to a high affinity for nutrients. However, mycorrhizal plants may be able to buffer against external fluctuations and therefore experience less environmental variation than non-mycorrhizal plants. Non-mycorrhizal plants may even benefit from variation.
The optimal allocation of growth between shoot and roots depends on the availability of energy and nutrients. The optimisation model predicted that the requirement for phenotypic plasticity of shoot/root allocation is greatest in environments with low resource availability. Plants with a high affinity for resources required more plasticity in order to tolerate variation than plants with a low affinity. The model predicted a trade-off between the ability to deplete resources and the ability to tolerate resource fluctuations.
Changes in the availability and ratio of resources lead to changes in the structure and composition of vegetation during primary succession. The field study of the forested phases of the land uplift island Hailuoto showed a successional change in the vegetation from the dominance of bryophytes and deciduous dwarf shrubs to dominance by lichens and evergreen dwarf shrubs. The humus layer became thinner and the availability of nutrients declined, while the C/N ratio of soil organic matter increased during succession indicating a decline in the quality of organic matter. The increased soil respiration rate indicates a successional increase in the energetic costs of decomposing organic matter.
Nutrients mediate both direct and indirect trophic interactions. Indirect interactions of nutrient cycling are not explicit in continuous time models. A transformation to a discrete time model was shown to make the indirect interactions explicit as transition probabilities and allowed their dynamic contribution to be evaluated with an elasticity analysis. The importance of indirect interactions was greater in tundra than temperate forest and increased with the rate of nutrient cycling.
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Condon, Lea A. "Landscape analysis of post-burn succession in a Great Basin pinyon-juniper woodland." abstract and full text PDF (free order & download UNR users only), 2007. http://0-gateway.proquest.com.innopac.library.unr.edu/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:1447617.
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Grimm, Günter Albin. "Vegetation succession on glacier forelands in the Jostedalsbreen region and Jotunheimen, south-central Norway." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2000. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:aedabc31-7022-4666-8121-7379b1bc4998.
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In this study four different aspects of primary successions on glacier forelands in South-Central Norway are investigated. First, general vegetation and environment trends, which have been observed by other scientists, were studied on two forelands. It is shown that the two selected forelands (one low- and one high-altitude foreland, Nigardsbreen and Storbreen, respectively) differ in the speed of vegetation cover change and in the overall species richness developed over the last 250 years since deglaciation. This is attributed to differences in the severity of the environment between the two forelands. Some support for an early peak in the number of species was found for the Nigardsbreen foreland, whereas the Storbreen foreland shows no significant trend in the development of species richness. Life-forms and soil-depth change on both forelands in the predicted manner. A novel approach for the use of Ellenberg indicator values for the estimation of pH-values from the existent vegetation shows highly significant correlations between predicted pH values and trends measured for similar terrain ages from a study by Messer (1988). Investigation at two different scales indicated that small-scale disturbances (< 100 m) may influence the mosaic of the environment, which affects the results of the chronosequence approach. By using a strict geometrical sampling design more variable conditions entered the analyses than with the stratified random sampling schemes adopted by others, such as Matthews (1979b). Some loss in the power of analysing the data occurred, but the results are still consistent with hypotheses about primary succession on glacier forelands. Second, new aspects of the temporal development and successional change of plant communities were investigated on the same two forelands. There is some evidence of succession from a pioneer community to the local climax community of the surrounding area for both forelands. There is also support for the correlation of timedependent environmental variables with the successional development of plant communities. A new application of Ellenberg indicator values in ordinations was assessed for its value in estimating average environmental conditions derived from the vegetation. As with the previous analyses, investigation of community development at two different scales supported the importance of sampling scale on the analysis of succession data. Third, spatially explicit analyses of distribution patterns of dominant woody species was developed as a means to investigate processes and formulate hypotheses about primary succession on glacier forelands. The data for this part of the study was collected on five glacier forelands, three low-altitude (Nigardsbreen, Austerdalsbreen and Bødalsbreen) and two high-altitude (Storbreen and Høgvaglbreen). Pattern descriptors including perimeter/area index, autocorrelation measures and fractal dimensions, support the hypothesis of differential colonisation of wind and animaldispersed species. Even more convincing is the result that low- and high-altitude forelands show significant differences in the patterns exhibited by wind and animals dispersed species. This result is thought to be related to the differences in environmental severity affecting the establishment of colonising species. Finally, logit modelling of the distributions of dominant woody species provides insights into the sampling effort needed to gather enough data for meaningful analyses. It also leads to the identification of important factors influencing the distribution of those species.
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Ainsworth, Alison. "Interactive influences of wildfire and nonnative species on plant community succession in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park /." Connect to this title online, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/1957/4504.
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Llambi, Cartaya Luis Daniel. "Old-field succession in the high tropical Andes : ecophysiology, local spatial interactions and plant community development." Thesis, University of York, 2002. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/9863/.
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McCollom, Jean Margaret 1945. "Forest structure and succession over a ten year period in six undisturbed South Florida plant communities." Thesis, The University of Arizona, 1990. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/277807.
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Data were collected on woody vegetation for 10 years in 6 undisturbed plant communities including slash pine forest, wet prairie, hardwood hammock, edge and interior old-growth cypress forests, and freshwater marsh at National Audubon Society's Corkscrew Swamp Sancturary in South Florida. Forested communities all showed a trend toward greater successional maturity. Numbers and total basal areas generally decreased over the 10 year period for early successional species and tropical species affected by the 1982 freeze in hammock and edge cypress communities. Otherwise, total basal areas steadily increased for all species in the forested communities. Initially the slash pine forest contained only canopy pine, but hardwoods entered the sites 3-4 years after fire and continued to increase in number throughout the study. Woody vegetation in the two marsh communities were less stable, partially due to fire. Fire and hydrologic conditions had measureable impacts on community structure and growth patterns.
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Ruggles, Thomas Alan. "Plant communities on reclaimed surface mines in Northeast Ohio: Effects of succession and nitrogen-fixing autumn olive." Kent State University / OhioLINK, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1574681631819824.
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Hannon, Gina E. "The use of plant macrofossils and pollen in the palaeoecological reconstruction of vegetation /." Alnarp : Swedish Univ. of Agricultural Sciences (Sveriges lantbruksuniv.), 1999. http://epsilon.slu.se/avh/1999/91-576-5640-1.pdf.
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Camp, Ann Elizabeth. "Predicting late-successional fire refugia from physiography and topography /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 1995. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/5556.
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Larkin, Claire Cecilia. "Effects of Common Disturbances on Composition and Succession in Coppice Plant Communities on Eleuthera, the Bahamas: Conservation Implications." Miami University / OhioLINK, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1280606889.
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Ricart, Raleigh Dean. "Drivers of plant diversity and distribution in a northern hardwood forest - interacting effects of biotic and abiotic factors." The Ohio State University, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1555258314195712.
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Groff, Cyd Roman. "Forest succession and tree dispersion patterns on a Connecticut traprock ridge : ten years after fire at Onion Mountain /." View abstract, 2000. http://library.ctstateu.edu/ccsu%5Ftheses/1588.html.
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Thesis (M.A.)--Central Connecticut State University, 2000.Thesis advisor: Kim A. Wilson. " ... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Biology." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 56-62).
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Jnawali, Dipak Raywadee Roachanakanan. "Application of individual based forest GAP model for Sal forest in Nepal /." Abstract, 2008. http://mulinet3.li.mahidol.ac.th/thesis/2551/cd414/4937419.pdf.
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Ishii, Hiroaki. "A canopy perspective of community dynamics of an old-growth Pseudotsuga-Tsuga forest /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/5573.
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Garratt, Iain Michael Ronald. "The assessment of variable buffer zones to manage rocky ridges in Johannesburg, Gauteng / I.M.R. Garratt." Thesis, North-West University, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10394/18.
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Pilling, Mark Andrew. "Probabilistic cellular automata and competition across tropic levels." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 2001. http://www.manchester.ac.uk/escholar/uk-ac-man-scw:124385.
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This thesis investigates a resource driven probabilistic cellular automata (PCA) model of plant competition in terms of local interactions, spatial distributions, and invasion. The model also incorporates herbivores and carnivores and examines their effect on plant populations and community structure. Comparisons are drawn between the model, field studies and other mathematical models. Chapter 1 provides a background of relevant concepts from plants and animal ecology, details a number of mathematical models used in this field and describes the model relevant models and results in the literature. It concludes with a comparison of the features of the most germane models and field studies. Chapter 2 primarily focuses on plants, argues for the model we have chosen, recaptures previous results which are similar to some natural phenomena, and makes a preliminary investigation of community behaviour and disturbance. It then describes the effect of introducing biomass for plants on species behaviour, and their spatial distributions. Chapter 3 deals with competition between different species, and aspects of invasion. Coexistence between functionally different plants can occur, join count statistics and measures for patch location on the torus are developed and applied. Chapter 4 derives a generalised probabilistic model for ruderal monocultures, finds numerical solutions for these and investigates models for vegetatively growing species of plants. Chapter 5 examines the population effects of herbivory (i.e. importance of spatial correlation of disturbance) and analogies to competitor-stress tolerator-ruderal (CSR) primary plant types, as well as plant successional rates and factors affecting community composition. Equilibrium species composition corresponded to CSR theory when plant immigration was introduced. Chapter 6 investigates the basic effects of carnivory, and discusses parallels between probabilistic cellular automata and field studies.
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Klinka, Karel. "Plant diversity in old-growth and second-growth stands in the coastal rainforests of British Columbia." Forest Sciences Department, University of British Columbia, 1997. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/652.
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One of the human activities impacting biodiversity is the cutting of old-growth forests. In response to the controversy surrounding the cutting of old-growth in the coastal rainforest of BC, the Ministries of the Environment and Forests have produced biodiversity guidelines that are to be applied when manipulating stands in the provincial forest.
This study augments these guidelines by investigating the diversity differences between second-growth and old-growth forests in relation to site quality. We demonstrate how standlevel plant diversity differs between 40-year-old and old-growth stands in the Very Wet Coastal Western Hemlock subzone (CWHvm) on Vancouver Island. This information is intended to provide foresters with an understanding of the effects of age, disturbance and site quality on stand-level plant diversity, thereby allowing for informed professional management decisions.
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Lejon, Anna G. C. "Ecosystem response to dam removal." Doctoral thesis, Umeå universitet, Institutionen för ekologi, miljö och geovetenskap, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-55586.
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This thesis aims to improve our understanding of how riverine ecosystems respond to dam removal. Riverine and particularly riparian ecosystems are among the most variable and important features of all landscapes. They connect landscape elements both longitudinally and laterally, and are governed by processes such as flooding, erosion and deposition that create dynamic, diverse and heterogeneous habitats. In fact, riparian zones are among the world’s most species-rich habitats. Worldwide there are millions of dams that fragment stream and river systems, regulate flows and degrade ecosystems. Dams impact freshwater, marine and terrestrial ecosystems and threaten biodiversity by disrupting organism movements and energy flows in the landscape. An important upstream effect of dams is inundation of habitats and development of new shorelines around impounded areas. Effects downstream of dams are mainly caused by changed hydrological regimes and retention of organic and inorganic materials in reservoirs, leading to reduced transport and dispersal of for example seeds to reaches downstream. The removal of dams create expectations that biota will eventually recover. We have studied a number of dam removal projects in Sweden. Our experimental results showed that following dam removal, newly exposed soils in former impoundments were rapidly colonized by pre-removal species. Their species richness increased slightly with time and their species composition indicated a slow change towards that in the reference site. In addition, the vegetation in formerly impounded areas showed a direction of change from lentic riparian plants (high proportion of aquatics) towards lotic ones, consisting of native perennials typical of free-flowing streams. We also found that the apprehensions that former impoundments would turn into pools of mud did not come true; in fact, a process towards more pristine channel morphology was observed. After removal there was erosion and downstream transport of sediment. We found only minor effects on macroinvertebrate communities. For example, a few species decreased over the years, suggesting that dam removal in itself might cause a temporary disturbance. This highlights the importance of long-term studies after dam removal, and also the importance of comparisons with pre-removal conditions and stretches unaffected by dams. Thorough documentation of executed dam removal projects and distribution of the results and experiences are tremendously important in the planning process of future decommissioning projects. Also, our experiences have taught us that in order to attain a successful dam removal it is important to involve stakeholders such as non-governmental organizations and local inhabitants in the process.
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Duran, Alain. "Effects of Multiple Ecological Drivers on Recruitment and Succession of Coral Reef Macroalgal Communities." FIU Digital Commons, 2013. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/905.
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The study evaluated the effects of herbivory pressure, nutrient availability and potential propagule supply on recruitment and succession of coral reef macroalgal communities. Recruitment and succession tiles were placed in a nutrient-herbivory factorial experiment and macroalgal abundances were evaluated through time. Proportional abundances of macroalgal form-functional groups on recruitment and succession tiles were similar to field established communities within treatments, evidencing possible effects of adult macroalgae as propagule supply. Macroalgal abundance of recruitment tiles increased with nutrient loading and herbivory reduction combined whereas on succession tiles nutrient loading increased abundance of articulated-calcareous only when herbivores were excluded. Macroalgal field established communities were only affected by herbivory reduction.
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Bouchet, Diane. "Succession écologique et influence de la fauche dans des communautés végétales de talus routiers en région méditerranéenne française." Thesis, Montpellier, 2016. http://www.theses.fr/2016MONTT119.
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Les mesures de végétalisation ou de restauration écologique nécessitent de comprendre les mécanismes qui sous-tendent les changements de composition et de structure de la végétation au cours de la succession écologique. Des perturbations, d’intensité et fréquence variables, naturelles ou causées par l’Homme, agissent souvent en interaction sur la dynamique temporelle de la végétation. Cependant, l’influence d’une perturbation récurrente combinée aux changements écologiques au cours de la succession est restée peu étudiée jusqu’à présent.Les communautés végétales de talus routiers représentent un modèle pertinent pour étudier cette problématique. L’historique d’aménagement et de gestion des talus est particulièrement bien renseigné ; on a donc une connaissance précise de l’âge des communautés et de leur régime de perturbation par la fauche. Les talus routiers fournissent ainsi un plan quasi-expérimental in situ permettant l’étude des processus qui affectent l’assemblage des communautés au cours de la succession sous l’influence d’une perturbation récurrente.L’objectif principal de cette étude est de caractériser la dynamique successionnelle initiée par la mise en place d’un talus routier en région méditerranéenne et de déterminer les processus écologiques et les facteurs environnementaux influençant cette dynamique. On s’intéresse en particulier à l’influence de la fauche récurrente sur cette dynamique.Pour cela, nous avons étudié la composition floristique et la diversité des traits fonctionnels (traits foliaires et de phénologie de floraison principalement) de la végétation de talus routiers de l’Hérault (France). Chaque talus inclut une partie fauchée et une partie non fauchée, l’ensemble formant une chronoséquence sur près de 70 ans.L’analyse des variations taxonomiques entre les communautés végétales de talus routiers montre un large remplacement des espèces au cours de la succession. Ce turnover floristique est associé à des changements fonctionnels au sein des communautés. Ces derniers sont structurés par des filtres environnementaux qui influent (1) sur la synchronie de floraison entre espèces au sein des communautés au cours du temps et (2) sur la diversité de combinaisons de traits fonctionnels entre communautés d’âge similaire. Ces changements de filtres environnementaux au cours du temps semblent liés à des changements pédologiques et à l’augmentation de l’hétérogénéité spatiale des conditions de lumière et de température (avec la fermeture progressive de canopée). La fauche altère les trajectoires floristiques et fonctionnelles, notamment en provoquant un ralentissement du changement de stratégie d’utilisation des ressources au cours de la succession par rapport à la trajectoire naturelle, sans fauche. De plus, cette perturbation récurrente induit une augmentation de la diversité taxonomique et fonctionnelle au sein des communautés alors qu’elle la réduit entre communautés d’âge similaire. Finalement, la fauche agit comme un filtre environnemental supplémentaire sur l’assemblage des communautés au cours de la succession et induit une homogénéisation de la végétation entre communautés d’âge similaire.Les conclusions de cette étude contribuent à la connaissance écologique fondamentale. En termes d’implications pour la gestion des communautés végétales de talus routiers, nos conclusions suggèrent, entre autres, que l’association de végétation fauchée et non fauchée au sein des mêmes sites pourrait servir d’habitat pour une plus grande diversité de faune associée. Cette association permettrait de plus d’avoir un rendu paysager agréable aux usagers de la route, tout en garantissant une bonne visibilité pour la sécurité routièreThe success of revegetation or ecological restauration highly depends on our knowledge of mechanisms underlying changes in composition and structure of the vegetation along the ecological succession. Natural or human-induced disturbances of varying intensity and frequency often occur simultaneously to influence vegetation temporal dynamics. However, the influence of a recurrent disturbance combined with ecological changes along plant succession remains poorly documented.Plant communities growing on road slopes are particularly appropriate to study this issue. Construction work and management history are well documented, so that the age of the vegetation and its disturbance regime by mowing can be precisely informed. Thus, road slopes plant communities represent an in situ quasi-experimental framework particularly adapted to study processes affecting community assembly along the ecological succession under the influence of a recurrent disturbance.The principal objective of this study is to characterise the successional dynamic initiated after road slope construction in the Mediterranean area, and to identify the ecological processes and environmental factors influencing this dynamic. We particularly focused on the influence of recurrent mowing on this dynamic.We studied the floristic composition and the diversity of functional traits (mainly leaf traits and flowering phenology traits) in a 70-year long chronosequence of French Mediterranean (Hérault, France) road slopes, each including both mown and unmown vegetation.The analysis of taxonomical variations between road slopes plant communities reveals a large species turnover along the ecological succession. This floristic turnover relates with functional changes within communities. These functional changes are structured by environmental filters influencing flowering synchrony within communities on one hand, and the diversity of a combination of functional traits between communities of similar age on the other hand. These environmental filters changing along the succession relate with changing soil parameters and increasing spatial heterogeneity of light and temperature conditions with canopy closure.Mowing alters floristic and functional trajectories along the succession, notably through the decrease of speed in resource-use strategy changes along the succession in mown communities compared to unmown communities. In addition, this recurrent disturbance increases taxonomic and functional diversity within communities, while it decreases taxonomic and functional turnover between communities of the same age. Finally, mowing acts as an additional environmental filter on community assembly along the succession and homogenises vegetation between communities of the same age.The conclusions of this study provide basic knowledge in ecology. It also has implications for the management of road slopes plant communities in the perspective of their revegetation after construction work. Our conclusions suggest, amongst others, that combining mown and unmown vegetation could provide habitats for a higher diversity of associated fauna. In addition, it would allow vegetation to be pleasant to road users, while still ensuring a good visibility for road safety
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Niemelä, M. (Marika). "Biotic interactions and vegetation management on coastal meadows." Doctoral thesis, University of Oulu, 2009. http://urn.fi/urn:isbn:9789514291234.
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Abstract
Conservation of rare habitats and species are central elements in the management of semi-natural grasslands of high biodiversity. Understanding the impacts of various abiotic and biotic interactions and management methods on threatened species is fundamental to their conservation. In the present study, effects of competition, plant parasitism, grazing and mowing were studied at the community level in Bothnian Bay coastal meadows and in greenhouse. This was the first time when the impacts of various biotic interactions on the critically endangered creeping alkali grass (Puccinellia phryganodes) have been explored in detail in one of its rare occurrences in the boreal vegetation zone in Europe. In addition, questions related to ecological and economical sustainability of cattle grazing on coastal meadows were examined.
Puccinellia phryganodes was found to suffer severely from competition with taller graminoids. Simulated and actual grazing by greylag goose, Anser anser, as well as infection by a hemiparasitic plant, Odontites litoralis, were found to indirectly benefit P. phryganodes by decreasing the competitive advantage of its competitors. In spite of the relatively intensive grazing by greylag goose in the field, P. phryganodes experienced a drastic decrease during four years in the grazed experimental quadrats and simultaneously the proportion of the taller graminoids increased substantially. Primary succession of coastal meadow vegetation was found to progress rapidly and continuous formation of suitable open habitats is therefore crucial for the subordinate species. Mowing was found to be an effective management method for some threatened plant species in coastal meadows, but not for P. phryganodes, which would probably benefit more, for example, from livestock grazing. Both lightly and rather intensively managed large open meadows could provide optimal habitats for the critically endangered lesser white fronted goose (Anser erythropus) as well as for the greylag goose.
The relatively low and variable yield of the coastal meadow vegetation compared to that of cultivated grasslands sets limits how management by cattle grazing can be implemented. Key factors for both the biodiversity management and livestock production in coastal meadows are timing of the grazing season, intensity of grazing and selection of suitable types of animals.
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Forbes, Bruce Cameron. "Anthropogenic tundra disturbance and patterns of response in the eastern Canadian Arctic." Thesis, McGill University, 1993. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=41196.
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The literature of disturbance ecology reveals that, under present climatic conditions, non-native plants have little or no role in high arctic tundra revegetation. Rather, it has been suggested that indigenous flora, especially long-lived perennial graminoids, are crucial to recovery. However, few long-term data are available on past impacts within productive sedge-meadows in the High Arctic, and none which consider the non-vascular flora.This thesis combines biogeographical and patch dynamics perspectives to focus on $ geq$21 yr of natural and assisted recovery of vegetation and soils from a wide range of dated anthropogenic surface disturbances at three Canadian Arctic sites. Empirical, experimental and archival investigations were made among climatically similar, but widely disjunct, coastal lowlands of contrasting geologies on Baffin, Devon, and Cornwallis Islands. These data encompass minerotrophic and oligotrophic wetlands in which the vascular floras show minimal differentiation yet the sampled bryofloras share only 31.8% of their total taxa. The occurrences chosen for study are representative of the most widespread, small-scale human impacts in the North, including vehicular, pedestrian, construction, and pollution disturbances.
It was determined that rutting from even a single passage of a tracked vehicle in summer resulted in significant reductions in species richness and biomass. On slopes $ geq$2$ sp circ$, these same small ruts have drained large areas of peatlands, a serious cumulative impact. Long-term effects of drainage include the local extinction of populations of Sphagnum spp. and rhizomatous vascular aquatics, and changes in the chemistry and thermal regime of drained mineral soils. Other effects include significant changes in biomass and the concentrations of macronutrients in the leaves of dominant species. These effects were magnified in peatlands drained where multi-pass vehicle movements occurred.
Species richness displayed an inverse relationship with trampling intensity and the soils of heavily trampled ground remained severely compacted after 21 years. These patches were dominated by dense swards of ruderal grasses. Nutrient concentrations in the leaves of the latter and other colonizing and surviving species tended to increase with trampling intensity. Trampled patches and archaeological sites appeared selectively grazed by several herbivores. Although humans initiated the disturbances within these patches, it is the animals which are responsible for many of the dynamics of patch change over the long-term.
Classification and ordination procedures revealed linkages between the floristic associations of trampled meadows on Baffin Island and archaeological sites on Devon and Cornwallis Islands. One critical implication is that even low levels of human impact may give rise to ruderal plant communities which are extremely persistent. These patches are poor in terms of species richness, but contribute to habitat heterogeneity at the landscape level and comprise preferred forage for local vertebrate herbivores.
Archaeological excavation and restoration revealed that at least some stores of viable seed exist in both mesic and wet tundra soils and point to the importance of initial floristic composition (sensu Egler 1954). From a long-term perspective, the data establish that mesic tundra vegetation and soils are easily disturbed and recover much more slowly than their low arctic counterparts under similar disturbance regimes.
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Corriveau, Brit Madelaine. "The effects of natural and anthropogenic disturbances on the structure and composition of early-successional plant communities in the Interior Cedar-Hemlock (ICH) zone of southern British Columbia." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/2285.
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Wildfire is the primary natural disturbance in Interior Cedar-Hemlock (ICH) forests, and since the mid-20th century, forest harvesting (clearcutting, in this case) has become the primary anthropogenic disturbance type. Forest management in British Columbia is currently governed by a paradigm that maintains that biological diversity can be preserved by utilizing forest harvesting regimes that closely mimic "natural" disturbance regimes, but a question remains as to how closely these regimes mimic wildfire disturbances. More specifically, how do clearcutting and wildfires compare in their effects on the structure and composition of early-successional ICH plant communities? This study compares vegetation structure, composition, relative abundance and diversity among 39 sites that experienced either a stand-replacing fire or a clearcut within the last 40 years. Sites of different ages and disturbance types were located within the wet cool ICHwkl and very-wet cool ICHvk I biogeoclimatic variants near Revelstoke, B.C. For each site, overstory structural characteristics (tree and snag diameters, basal area and density), overstory composition, and surface fuels (volume of coarse woody debris (CWD)) were assessed. Understory vegetation percent cover, species richness, composition and diversity were also determined. Linear regression analysis was used to examine differences in each of these variables between disturbance types, over time. The trends in structural legacies (especially snag and CWD dynamics) varied greatly between wildfire and clearcut sites. Compared to burned sites, clearcut sites exhibited patterns of accelerated succession in several characteristics (overstory tree regeneration, vegetation cover and understory species richness) due to planting treatments and pre-disturbance relicts. Understory species composition also varied between disturbances, with clearcut sites containing more shade-tolerant survivors initially. Both disturbance types had similar levels of floristic diversity during early succession. These results suggest that clearcut harvesting may not emulate stand-replacing fires in terms of impact on early ICH plant succession in any aspect but diversity. However, it is unclear if these early-successional differences will continue through time. There is a need for further research in this ecosystem, as well as any other ecosystems where emulation silviculture is applied, in order to confirm that silvicultural effects mimic those of natural disturbance regimes.
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King, Jessica. "The succession of a contaminated floodplain: reclaiming the West Bottoms." Kansas State University, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/2097/15683.
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Master of Landscape Architecture or Regional and Community PlanningDepartment of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning
Timothy Keane
Kansas City is expecting a 25% growth in population by 2050. This design proposal promotes West Bottoms as a potential area to house some of the new population, and more importantly supply a live and work community for these people. West Bottoms is also home to major industry in Kansas City as well as an up and coming art culture. West Bottoms has great potential for a community that allows the existing and new population to be a part of a live-work-play community with the vacancies in the area. The projected population growth is expected to promote sprawl, further increasing the average driving time to the city. West Bottoms currently has few connections to the downtown and offers few reasons to come to the area. These connections are mainly major bridges or highways. Another issue West Bottoms faces is flooding problems from OK Creek and Turkey Creek, which lead into the Kansas and Missouri Rivers. Finally, post and present industrial soil contamination threatens the groundwater. When mixed with flooding concerns, this contamination is potentially harmful for the health of downstream cities. Drawing inspiration from travels, Kansas City charm, plants, art, and water storage, case studies were researched. Themes from each case study were quantified. These themes paired with inventory and analysis of the West Bottoms provided the basis for the design proposed here. The successional design of the area will progress from a contaminated landscape to a landscape that holds floodwater. The final design holds all of the stormwater from the 100 year 1, 2, 3, 6, 12, and 24 hour rain events. The final design incorporates areas of learning, a variety of paths and seating, a live-work-play community, clean and creative industry, and an art culture that sustains the excitement for the timeline of succession. Overtime this landscape will evolve into a new destination for Kansas City using an integrated solution remediating the soil and holding flood waters as an amenity for the new population.
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Reinecke, Michiel Karl. "Spontaneous succession of riparian vegetation and aquatic macroinvertebrates along the Silvermine River, South Africa, after fire and clearing of exotic plant species." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/6171.
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Includes abstractIncludes bibliographical references (leaves 124-133).
Spontaneous succession, as a method to restore degraded riverine habitats, was assessed for three different components of the Silvermine River ecosystem over one year. These were the state of the physical habitats (biotopes) available to aquatic organisms, changes in the community composition of riparian vegetation, and changes to aquatic macroinvertebrate assemblages present in the river. Data were collected during two successive summer-sampling periods (200 I and 2002) at three study sites along the river. Site I was situated in the mountain stream zone, while Sites 2 and 3 were situated in the foothills. Changes in the riverine ecosystem and its associated habitats were compared to reference condition data for each of the three components from each study site. There were no large changes to the macro-channel banks of the river over the one year study, other than where a meander cut-off occurred at Site 2. Changes over the year in the proportions of flow at the three sites revealed a lack of faster-flow types, which would normally characterise mountain stream and foothill reaches, at all three study sites. Measurements of the proportions of substratum types at the three sites revealed there was an unusually high proportion of fine substratum types present. In the foothills, this was attributed to erosion of the unstable bank at Site 2, which continued to deposit an excess of fine sediment that was transported downstream. In the vegetation study, most species that came to dominate the mountain stream (Site I) and the foothill (Sites 2 and 3) riparian communities emerged from the seed bank within the first two years after the fire. Thus, using the presence or absence of characteristic riparian vegetation species it is possible to determine whether there is a need to augment the recovery process after two years. The aquatic macroinvertebrate communities of the mountain stream differed clearly from those in the foothill. The differences were attributed to a combination of the channel type and the longitudinal position of the sites along the river, both of which dictated the physical habitats available. There were clear differences in the potential for recovery at each of the three study sites. It was shown that non-intervention will not support successful recovery in the short to medium term for any of the measured three components of this river. A blanket policy of non-intervention cannot address site-specific differences, be they natural or artificial, which pose different challenges to restoration. There were zonal differences in the availability of substrata and flow types. There were also other differences that were attributed to water abstraction and the presence of different woody exotic trees. Recovery of the mountain stream was being hampered by the presence of the reservoir and the history of water abstraction while recovery of the foothill was being retarded by erosion from the massive sediment deposit at Site 2. Plans to restore the river, that took into account these inter-site differences, were proposed.