Treesearch

In Elliot and Flanagan (2023), the interrill and rill soil erodibility of 36 cropland soils was reported, along with correlations among soil erodibility and other soil properties, and equations to estimate erodibility from readily measured soil properties. Early versions of the Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) model had linked interrill detachment rate to the square of the rainfall intensity and an interrill soil erodibility constant Ki1. By the time the WEPP model was released for general use in 1995, the developers had changed the interrill detachment rate to be a function of the...

A study was carried out to compare runoff and erosion from natural rainfall on plots that had been treated with prescribed fire to unburned plots on a sagebrush-steppe rangeland in Southeast Idaho, U.S. Prescribed fire on rangeland sites is intended to maintain healthy shrub-steppe ecosystems but sometimes results in undesirable consequences such as increased runoff and soil erosion. Information is lacking on plot-scale erosion studies from natural precipitation in this ecosystem. Such plot-scale studies are needed to better understand sediment sources (uplands or channels) to support the...

This work developed a precipitation-based forest exposure indicator that identified warm season (May-Sept.) changed conditions between the multidecadal wet cycle from 1940s-1999 and dry cycle from 2000-2021 for the conterminous USA. Changed moisture conditions were validated for disturbance connection by assessing bark beetle and wildfire disturbance spatial records by severity of dry exposure. Results indicated 2-fold increase in wildfire and bark beetle disturbances from 2017-2022, respectively, for western U.S. locations with highest dry exposure classes vs. where dry exposure was...

The management of biodiversity on arid landscapes can be challenging: Arid landscapes are often highly vulnerable to environmental and land-use changes. Moreover, these landscapes are home to rare and endemic species which are difficult to monitor. Environmental DNA sampling - the inference of species presence from genetic material in the environment - using high-throughput quantitative PCR (HT-qPCR) panels may be an efficient, cost-effective monitoring tool when multiple, taxonomically diverse taxa are of conservation concern. We validated and applied a HT-qPCR panel to detect ten native,...

Understanding how species distributions and associated habitat are impacted by natural and anthropogenic disturbance is central for the conservation of rare forest carnivores dependent on subalpine forests. Canada lynx at their range periphery occupy subalpine forests that are structured by large-scale fire and insect outbreaks that increase with climate change. In addition, the Southern Rocky Mountains of the western United States is a destination for winter recreationists worldwide with an associated high degree of urbanization and resort development. We modeled habitat for a reintroduced...

Long‐distance acoustic signals mediate important social interactions between animals, and the structure of the environment can influence sound transmission to affect communication distance. Anthropogenic disturbances such as fire suppression alter forest structure and can potentially affect acoustic interactions by altering sound attenuation patterns. In the spruce‐fir and mixed‐conifer forests of the Pinaleño Mountains, Arizona, USA, that harbor endangered Mount Graham red squirrels (Tamiasciurus fremonti grahamensis), numerous historical anthropogenic disturbances have altered forest...

Accurate taxonomy is fundamental to the study and conservation of biodiversity. Because of their morphological similarities, most brook and river lampreys in western North America have been placed in the genus Lampetra along with lampreys from Eurasia and eastern North America. However, molecular-based phylogenetic studies dating back several decades indicate that lampreys from Pacific drainages are genetically distinct from Atlantic Lampetra. Reviewing previous phylogenetic analysis of two mitochondrial and two nuclear genes for Northern Hemisphere lampreys, we assign these western North...

Recreation managers across the U.S. from both federal, state, and local agencies are often faced with the complex task of distributing recreational opportunities in areas where use is limited for one reason or another. Whether these opportunities are for limited campsites, backcountry hiking, multi-night river floats, or vehicle entry to an area with limited parking, managers must determine how to fairly and equitably distribute, or allocate, these opportunities among the public. Calls for an allocation framework were first voiced as use limits began to be implemented at an increasing rate...

Effective conservation requires a variety of perspectives that center on different ways of knowing. Disciplinary diversity and inclusion (DDI) offers an important means of integrating different ways of knowing into pressing conservation challenges. However, DDI means more than multiple disciplinary approaches to conservation; cognitive diversity and epistemic justice are key. In 2020, the Disciplinary Inclusion Task Force was formed via a grassroots movement of the Society for Conservation Biology (SCB) to assess the extent of DDI and to chart a path to increase DDI. First, we assessed...

Fire and drought are expected to increase in frequency and severity in temperate forests due to climate change. To evaluate whether drought increases the likelihood of post-fire tree mortality, we used a large database of tree survival and mortality from 32 years of wildland fires covering four dominant western North American conifers. We used Bayesian hierarchical modeling to predict the probability of individual tree mortality after fire based on species - Pinus contorta (lodgepole pine), Abies concolor (white fir), Pseudotsuga menziesii (Douglas-fir), and Pinus ponderosa (ponderosa...