Academic literature on the topic 'Silene spaldingii'

Populations at the periphery of a species range are thought to be less viable than those in the center because they are at the limit of their ecological tolerances. Plant population viability is determined primarily by mortality and recruitment, thus knowing differences in vital rates between central and peripheral populations is key to understanding range limits. Silene spaldingii S. Watson is a long-lived iteroparous plant that occurs throughout the eastern Columbia Plateau region of eastern Washington and adjacent Idaho and Oregon and is disjunct in northwest Montana. I recorded the fate of mapped S. spaldingii plants annually for 10 years in four populations, two from eastern Washington and two from Montana. Recruitment averaged three times higher and relatively constant at two central populations in Washington compared with two peripheral sites in Montana. Mortality was three times higher at one of the central populations compared with the remaining three sites due to vole predation. Vole activity was observed at the second central population but came too late in the study to be certain that it resulted in mortality. Vole predation was not observed in the peripheral populations. My results suggest that peripheral populations of S. spaldingii may only be able to persist as long as predation or other sources of mortality remain low and that intrinsic low and variable recruitment rates coupled with predation may help define the eastern range margin of this species.

-Charles V. Carnegie, W. Jeffrey Bolster, Black Jacks: African American Seamen in the age of sail. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1997. xiv + 310 pp.-Stanley L. Engerman, Wim Klooster, Illicit Riches: Dutch trade in the Caribbean, 1648-1795. Leiden: KITLV Press, 1998. xiv + 283 pp.-Luis Martínez-Fernández, Emma Aurora Dávila Cox, Este inmenso comercio: Las relaciones mercantiles entre Puerto Rico y Gran Bretaña 1844-1898. San Juan: Editorial de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, 1996. xxi + 364 pp.-Félix V. Matos Rodríguez, Arturo Morales Carrión, Puerto Rico y la lucha por la hegomonía en el Caribe: Colonialismo y contrabando, siglos XVI-XVIII. San Juan: Editorial de la Universidad de Puerto Rico y Centro de Investigaciones Históricas, 1995. ix + 244 pp.-Herbert S. Klein, Patrick Manning, Slave trades, 1500-1800: Globalization of forced labour. Hampshire, U.K.: Variorum, 1996. xxxiv + 361 pp.-Jay R. Mandle, Kari Levitt ,The critical tradition of Caribbean political economy: The legacy of George Beckford. Kingston: Ian Randle, 1996. xxvi + 288., Michael Witter (eds)-Kevin Birth, Belal Ahmed ,The political economy of food and agriculture in the Caribbean. Kingston: Ian Randle; London: James Currey, 1996. xxi + 276 pp., Sultana Afroz (eds)-Sarah J. Mahler, Alejandro Portes ,The urban Caribbean: Transition to the new global economy. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1997. xvii + 260 pp., Carlos Dore-Cabral, Patricia Landolt (eds)-O. Nigel Bolland, Ray Kiely, The politics of labour and development in Trinidad. Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago: The Press University of the West Indies, 1996. iii + 218 pp.-Lynn M. Morgan, Aviva Chomsky, West Indian workers and the United Fruit Company in Costa Rica, 1870-1940. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1996. xiii + 302 pp.-Eileen J. Findlay, Maria del Carmen Baerga, Genero y trabajo: La industria de la aguja en Puerto Rico y el Caribe hispánico. San Juan: Editorial de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, 1993. xxvi + 321 pp.-Andrés Serbin, Jorge Rodríguez Beruff ,Security problems and policies in the post-cold war Caribbean. London: :Macmillan; New York: St. Martin's, 1996. 249 pp., Humberto García Muñiz (eds)-Alex Dupuy, Irwin P. Stotzky, Silencing the guns in Haiti: The promise of deliberative democracy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997. xvi + 294 pp.-Carrol F. Coates, Myriam J.A. Chancy, Framing silence: Revolutionary novels by Haitian women. New Brunswick NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1997. ix + 200 pp.-Havidán Rodríguez, Walter Díaz, Francisco L. Rivera-Batiz ,Island paradox: Puerto Rico in the 1990's. New York: Russel Sage Foundation, 1996. xi + 198 pp., Carlos E. Santiago (eds)-Ramona Hernández, Alan Cambeira, Quisqueya la Bella: The Dominican Republic in historical and cultural perspective. Armonk NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1996. xi + 272 pp.-Ramona Hernández, Emilio Betances ,The Dominican Republic today: Realities and perspectives. New York: Bildner Center for Western Hemisphere studies, CUNY, 1996. 205 pp., Hobart A. Spalding, Jr. (eds)-Bonham C. Richardson, Eberhard Bolay, The Dominican Republic: A country between rain forest and desert. Wekersheim, FRG: Margraf Verlag, 1997. 456 pp.-Virginia R. Dominguez, Patricia R. Pessar, A visa for a dream: Dominicans in the United States. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1995. xvi + 98 pp.-Diane Austin-Broos, Nicole Rodriguez Toulis, Believing identity: Pentecostalism and the mediation of Jamaican ethnicity and gender in England. Oxford NY: Berg, 1997. xv + 304 p.-Mary Chamberlain, Trevor A. Carmichael, Barbados: Thirty years of independence. Kingston: Ian Randle Publishers, 1996. xxxv + 294 pp.-Paul van Gelder, Gert Oostindie, Het paradijs overzee: De 'Nederlandse' Caraïben en Nederland. Amsterdam: Bert Bakker, 1997. 385 pp.-Roger D. Abrahams, Richard D.E. Burton, Afro-Creole: Power, Opposition, and Play in the Caribbean. Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press, 1997. x + 297 pp.-Roger D. Abrahams, Joseph Roach, Cities of the dead: Circum-Atlantic performance. New York NY: Columbia University Press, 1996. xiii + 328 pp.-George Mentore, Peter A. Roberts, From oral to literate culture: Colonial experience in the English West Indies. Kingston, Jamaica: The Press University of the West Indies, 1997. xii + 301 pp.-Emily A. Vogt, Howard Johnson ,The white minority in the Caribbean. Princeton NJ: Markus Wiener, 1998. xvi + 179 pp., Karl Watson (eds)-Virginia Heyer Young, Sheryl L. Lutjens, The state, bureaucracy, and the Cuban schools: Power and participation. Boulder CO: Westview Press, 1996. xiii + 239 pp.

In the canyon grasslands of Garden Creek Ranch Preserve in Idaho, where the threatened plant Silene spaldingii occurs and invasion by the exotic species Centaurea solstitialis and Bromus tectorum is proceeding rapidly, I examined environmental and community patterns of site invasion, and evaluated the apparent influence of invasion on Silene population vigor. In addition, two separate lightning fires at the preserve presented the opportunity to examine the short-term influence of late-season fire on this species and its associated bunchgrass plant community. I found that Silene-supporting sites most often invaded by exotics were on relatively gentle slopes that received more incident radiation. This pattern may relate, in part, to light requirements of Centaurea solstitialis. Invaded sites were also typically at higher elevations, which may indicate they were moister and therefore more productive. The plant communities in invaded Silene-supporting sites were similar to plant communities in uninvaded sites, although invaded sites tended to have greater legume and exotic annual grass cover. Exotic species invasion did not appear to influence negatively the vigor of Silene populations, as indicated by similar plant height and comparable levels of flowering, fruit and seed set in invaded and uninvaded populations. The similarity in Silene vigor between invaded and uninvaded sites may reflect a moderating influence of site productivity in invaded populations, or may indicate that mature Silene plants and the exotic species partition space or resources differently, potentially reducing competition between them. However, Silene recruitment may be limited by competition from weeds; my data did not allow a rigorous test of this possibility. Fire apparently decreased cover of Festuca idahoensis and increased cover of Lupinus sericeus in the first year after burning, while cover of Pseudoroegneria spicata, exotic grasses, and most other forb species did not differ between burned and unburned areas. Silene cover and abundance within populations were similar before and after fire. Burning did not appear to influence levels of flowering, change the number of flowers or capsules produced per stem, or alter the number of seeds per capsule. Burning decreased plant size slightly, and decreased the proportion of flowers that matured to seed-filled capsules. Silene and the plant communities that support this species appear well suited to late season fire, however the response to burning in other seasons or at higher frequencies remains unknown in this study area.
Graduation date: 2003