Treesearch

Field-collected boards showing visual signs of damage by the western drywood termite, Incisitermes minor, were searched with a portable acoustic emission (AE) device. Depending on cross-sectional size, boards were either searched with a flat sensor that was hot-melt-glued to the wood surface or a subsurface sensor that wasthreaded 20 mm into the wood. The number of AE-monitored locations varied with length; however, at least three 1-minute AE recordings were collected for each board. In total, 108 boards were treated to control termites with 1 of 5 different treatment methods. These boards...

Mast seeding, the synchronous production of large crops of seeds, has been frequently documented in oak species. In this study we used several North American oak data-sets to quantify within-stand (10 km) synchrony in mast dynamics. Results indicated that intraspecific synchrony in seed production always exceeded interspecific synchrony and was essentially constant over distances ranging from 100 m to 10 km. Asynchrony between species was at least partially attributable to differences in the endogenous dynamics in seed production caused by the varying numbers of years (1 or 2) required to...

Widespread forest decline in remote areas of the Carpathian Mountains has been linked to air pollution from urban and industrial regions. Besides injuring plant tissues directly, pollutants may deposit to soils and water, drastically changing susceptible ecosystems. Researcher Andrzej Bytnerowicz has developed effective methods for assessing air quality over wildlands.

I greatly appreciate you inviting me to provide the welcome address at this important conference. The following are a few observations I have made regarding the symposium topic and the presentations to be made. There is widespread public recognition of the positive contributions to the quality of life resulting from participation in outdoor recreation. The general public links recreation to overall happiness, family unity, health, improved educational opportunities, deterrence to crime and substance abuse. Outdoor recreation is a pervasive leisure-time “use” across the nation (although...

Purpose of Study This paper demonstrates how a Benefits-Based Management paradigm has been useful in guiding management plan development for an internationally significant natural resource – the Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area (GGNCA) in Colorado. Through a program of survey research, a database on benefits desired by various stakeholder groups was created. It was utilized to assist in describing the current state of production of the GGNCA for recreation experiences, and as a basis for articulating the likely results of different planning scenarios for the resource. As a case...

Dominant species have long been appreciated for their role in determining ecosystem attributes such as vegetation structure, successional patterns, soil characteristics, hydrology, and productivity. Exotic species may reach such high densities that they become community dominants, and it is in this role that exotics pose the greatest threat to native ecosystems. Four commonly observed patterns related to species dominance and their implications for understanding exotic invasions are discussed: the importance of scale in relationships between dominance and diversity, the positive correlation...

Salamanders are cryptic and, though largely unrecognized as such, extremely abundant vertebrates in a variety of primarily forest and grassland environments, where they regulate food webs and contribute to ecosystem resilience-resistance (= stability) in several ways: (a) As mid-level vertebrate predators, they provide direct and indirect biotic control of species diversity and ecosystem processes along grazer and detritus pathways; (b) via their migrations, they connect energy and matter between aquatic and terrestrial landscapes; (c) through association with underground burrow systems,...