Treesearch
Displaying 11,941 - 11,950 of 65,182 Publications- Background: Forests in urban landscapes differ from their rural counterparts in ways that may alter vector-borne disease dynamics. In urban forest fragments, tick-borne pathogen prevalence is not well characterized; mitigating disease risk in densely-populated urban landscapes requires understanding ecological factors that affect pathogen prevalence. We trapped blacklegged tick (Ixodes scapularis) nymphs in urban forest fragments on the East Coast of the United States and used multiplex real-time PCR assays to quantify the prevalence of four zoonotic, tick-borne pathogens. We used Bayesian...AuthorsSolny A. Adalsteinsson, W. Gregory Shriver, Andrias Hojgaard, Jacob L. Bowman, Dustin Brisson, Vince D'Amico, Jeffrey J. BulerKeywordsSourceParasites & VectorsYear2018
- Machine learning has come a long way in recent decades due to huge increases in computing power and the availability of robust public platforms for statistical analysis (e.g., R Core Team 2016). Machine learning techniques have benefited from advances in statistical learning and vice versa (Hastie et al. 2009; Slavakis et al. 2014), resulting in impressive applications of big data in imaging, astronomy, medicine, finance and to a lesser extent in ecology (Van Horn and Toga 2014; Zhang and Zhao 2015; Belle et al. 2015; Hussain and Prieto 2016; Hampton et al. 2013). A healthy relationship...AuthorsAnantha M. PrasadSourceIn: Humphries, Grant; Magness, Dawn R.; Huettmann, Falk, eds. Machine Learning for Ecology and Sustainable Natural Resource Management. Switzerland: Springer Nature: 123-139.Year2018
- Given the State of South Carolina’s ongoing water planning efforts, in this study we evaluated seasonal and annual potential evapotranspiration (PET) using measured Class A pan evaporation and three widely used estimation methods for the State with three distinct physiographic regions (Coastal, Piedmont, and Mountainous). The methods were temperature-based Hargreaves-Samani (H-S), radiation-based Priestley-Taylor (P-T), and fully process-based Penman-Monteith (P-M). The objectives of the study were to: (a) describe seasonal and temporal distribution of PET by all methods, and (b) quantify...AuthorsDevendra M. Amatya, A. Muwamba, S. Panda, T.J. Callahan, S. Harder, C.A. PellettSourceJournal of South Carolina Water ResourcesYear2018
- Genetic improvement through breeding is one of the key approaches to increasing biomass supply. This paper documents the breeding progress to date for four perennial biomass crops (PBCs) that have high output–input energy ratios: namely Panicum virgatum (switchgrass), species of the genera Miscanthus (miscanthus), Salix (willow) and Populus (poplar). For each crop, we report on the size of germplasm collections, the efforts to date to phenotype and genotype, the diversity available for breeding and on the scale of breeding work as indicated by number of attempted crosses. We also report on...AuthorsJohn Clifton-Brown, Antoine Harfouche, Michael D. Casler, Huw Dylan Jones, William J. Macalpine, Donal Murphy-Bokern, Lawrence B. Smart, Anneli Adler, Chris Ashman, Danny Awty-Carroll, Catherine Bastien, Sebastian Bopper, Vasile Botnari, Maryse Brancourt-Hulmel, Zhiyong Chen, Lindsay V Clark, Salvatore Cosentino, Sue Dalton, Chris Davey, Oene Dolstra, Iain Donnison, Richard Flavell, Joerg Greef, Steve Hanley, Astley Hastings, Magnus Hertzberg, Tsai-Wen Hsu, Lin S. Huang, Antonella Iurato, Elaine Jensen, Xiaoli Jin, Uffe Jørgensen, Andreas Kiesel, Do-Soon Kim, Jianxiu Liu, Jon P. McCalmont, Bernard G. McMahon, Michal Mos, Paul Robson, Erik J. Sacks, Anatolii Sandu, Giovanni Scalici, Kai Schwarz, Danilo Scordia, Reza Shafiei, Ian Shield, Gancho Slavov, Brian J. Stanton, Kankshita Swaminathan, Gail Taylor, Andres F. Torres, Luisa M. Trindade, Timothy Tschaplinski, Gerald A. Tuskan, Toshihiko Yamada, Chang Yeon Yu, Ronald S. Zalesny Jr., Junqin Zong, Iris LewandowskiKeywordsSourceGCB BioenergyYear2018
- The study goal was to develop automated user-friendly remote-sensing based evapotranspiration (ET) estimation tools: (i) artificial neural network (ANN) based models, (ii) ArcGIS-based automated geospatial model, and (iii) executable software to predict pine forest daily ET flux on a pixel- or plot average-scale. Study site has had long-term eddy-flux towers for ET measurements since 2006. Cloud-free Landsat images of 2006−2014 were processed using advanced data mining to obtain Principal Component bands to correlate with ET data. The regression model’s r2 was 0.58. The backpropagation...AuthorsS. Panda, Devendra M. Amatya, R Jackson, Ge Sun, A. NoormetsKeywordsSourceWaterYear2018
- Insects are important components of forest ecosystems representing most of the biological diversity and affecting virtually all processes. Some phytophagous species occasionally become so abundant that they threaten ecological, economic, social, and aesthetic values. The western pine beetle (Dendroctonus brevicomis) is a major disturbance in ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests throughout much of the western United States. A notable outbreak, regarded by some as among the most severe for this species of bark beetle, occurred in southern California in the early 2000s. What is known...AuthorsChristopher J. FettigSourceJournal of Forestry. 117(2): 138-143Year2018
- Many studies around the globe have identified plant production facilities as major sources of plant pathogens that may be released in the wild, with significant consequences for the health and integrity of natural ecosystems. Recently, a large number of soilborne and waterborne species belonging to the plant pathogenic genus Phytophthora have been identified for the first time in California native plant production facilities, including those focused on the production of plant stock used in ecological restoration efforts. Additionally, the same Phytophthora species present in production...AuthorsMatteo Garbelotto, Susan J. Frankel, Bruno ScanuSourceCalifornia Agriculture. 72(4): 208-216Year2018
- As the need for woody biomass continues to develop, so do the techniques and technologies that are used to harvest it. This paper discussed the potential for the woody biomass market in the United States with regards to alternative factors that could be used to decrease planting and harvesting costs. Small-scale harvesting machines such as skid-steer loaders were used for harvesting small tracts of land where residual damage, small diameter wood, and transport costs contribute to high overall costs. In addition to small-scale machines, adaptations in planting methods, using the FlexStandTM,...AuthorsMarissa “Jo” Daniel, Tom Gallagher, Timothy McDonald, Brian Via, Dana MitchellKeywordsSourceProceedings of the 41st annual meeting of the council on forest engineering; Revolutionary traditions, innovative industries. July 15-18, 2018. Williamsburg, VA.Year2018
- Although resilience thinking is increasingly popular and attractive among restoration practitioners, it carries an abstract quality that hinders effective application. Because resilience and its components are defined differently in social and ecological contexts, individual managers or stakeholders may disagree on the definition of a system's state, occurrence of a state change, preferred state characteristics, and appropriate methods to achieve success. Nevertheless, incentives and mandates often force managers to demonstrate how their work enhances resilience. Unclear or conflicting...AuthorsClare E. Aslan, Brian Petersen, Aaron B. Shiels, William Haines, Christina LiangSourceRestoration Ecology. 26(6): 1032-1038Year2018
- The ability to isolate and purify pathogens is important for the study of infectious disease. A protocol for isolating Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), a lethal pathogen of amphibians, has been available for over a decade, but the method relies on sacrificing infected animals. We validated a non-lethal protocol for Bd isolation that uses biopsy punches from toe webbing to collect skin samples from live amphibians in remote field locations. We successfully isolated Bd from the Cascades frog Rana cascadae and found a positive association between Bd infection and probability of Bd growth...AuthorsKJ Cook, J Voyles, HV Kenny, Karen L. Pope, J. Piovia-ScottKeywordsSourceDiseases of Aquatic Organisms. 129(2): 159-164Year2018