Treesearch

Understanding the drivers of forest ecosystem response to major disturbance events is an important topic in forest ecology and ecosystem management. Because of the multiple elements included in most major disturbances such as hurricanes, fires, or landslides, it is often difficult to ascribe a specific driver to the observed response. This is particularly true for the long-term effects of hurricanes on forest ecosystem nutrient cycling. Hurricane disturbance opens the forest canopy by removing leaves and branches or snapping boles, and in so doing turns living biomass into debris that is...

Predation by coyotes (Canis latrans) on white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) neonates has led to reduced recruitment in many deer populations in southeastern North America. This low recruitment combined with liberal antlerless deer harvest has resulted in declines in some deer populations, and consequently, increased interest in coyote population control. We investigated whether neonate survival increased after coyote removal, whether coyote predation on neonates was additive to other mortality sources, and whether understory vegetation density affected neonate survival. We monitored...

The Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute (ALWRI) was conceived as an interagency partnership, and its founding in 1993 coincided with the creation of the National Biological Service (NBS), from the biological research programs and staff in the Department of the Interior. NBS research zoologist Steve Corn moved to Missoula to join the staff at ALWRI in 1996, at about the same time that NBS was merged into the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). USGS scientists in Montana were ultimately incorporated into the Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center (NOROCK). Dr. Corn retired in August 2014,...

Atraphaxis has approximately 25 species and a distribution center in Central Asia. It has been previously used to hypothesize an origin from montane forest. We sampled 18 species covering three sections within the genus and sequenced five cpDNA spacers, atpB-rbcL, psbK-psbI, psbAtrnH, rbcL, and trnL-trnF. BEAST was used to reconstruct phylogenetic relationship and time divergences, and S-DIVA and Lagrange were used, based on distribution area and ecotype data, for reconstruction of ancestral areas and events. Our results appear compatible with designation of three taxonomic sections within...

Establishing protection networks to ensure that biodiversity and associated ecosystem services persist under changing environments is a major challenge for conservation planning. The potential consequences of altered climates for the structure and function of ecosystems necessitates new and complementary approaches be incorporated into traditional conservation plans. The conterminous United States of America (CONUS) has an extensive system of protected areas managed by federal agencies, but a comprehensive assessment of how this network represents CONUS climate is lacking. We present a...

Stream water temperature (ts) is a critical water quality parameter for aquatic ecosystems. However, ts records are sparse or nonexistent in many river systems. In this work, we present an empirical model to predict ts at the site scale across the USA. The model, derived using data from 171 reference sites selected from the Geospatial Attributes of Gages for Evaluating Streamflow database, describes the linear relationship between monthly mean air temperature (ta) and ts. Multiple linear regression models are used to predict the slope (m) and intercept (b) of the ta–ts linear relation as a...

Many temperate deciduous forests are recovering from past logging, but the effects of logging legacies and environmental gradients on forest insect pollinators have not been well studied. In this study, we asked how pollinator abundance and community composition varied with distance from logging roads and elevation in old (logged >90 years ago) and young (logged 20–40 years ago) southern Appalachian forests. Insect pollinators were sampled at 15 previously logged sites along an elevation gradient at 5 distances from logging roads during summer 2010 and spring 2011 using pan traps. In...

Relationships between stream water and air temperatures are often modeled using linear or nonlinear regression methods. Despite a strong relationship between water and air temperatures and a variety of models that are effective for data summarized on a weekly basis, such models did not yield consistently good predictions for summaries such as daily maximum temperature. A good predictive model for daily maximum temperature is required because daily maximum temperature is an important measure for predicting survival of temperature sensitive fish. To appropriately model the strong relationship...

The ability to cultivate food is an innovation that has produced some of the most successful ecological strategies on the planet. Although most well recognized in humans, where agriculture represents a defining feature of civilization, species of ants, beetles, and termites have also independently evolved symbioses with fungi that they cultivate for food. Despite occurring across divergent insect and fungal lineages, the fungivorous niches of these insects are remarkably similar, indicating convergent evolution toward this successful ecological strategy. Here, we characterize the microbiota...

The walnut twig beetle, Pityophthorus juglandis Blackman (Scolytini: Pityophthorina), was initially described by Blackamn (1928) from specimens collected on black walnut (Juglans nigra L.) in Lone Mountain, New Mexico and Paradise, Arizona (Blackman, 1928; Cranshaw, 2011; LaBonte and rabaglia, 2012). There are no synonyms in the literature.