Treesearch

Genetic techniques are frequently used to sample and monitor wildlife populations. The goal of these studies is to maximize the ability to distinguish individuals for various genetic inference applications, a process which is often complicated by genotyping error. However, wildlife studies usually have fixed budgets, which limit the number of geneticmarkers available for inclusion in a study marker panel. Prior to our study, a formal algorithm for selecting a marker panel that included genotyping error, laboratory costs, and ability to distinguish individuals did not exist. We developed a...

Metapopulation ecology has historically been rich in theory, yet analytical approaches for inferring demographic relationships among local populations have been few. We show how reverse-time multi-state capture­recapture models can be used to estimate the importance of local recruitment and interpopulation dispersal to metapopulation growth. We use 'contribution metrics' to infer demographic connectedness among eight local populations of banner-tailed kangaroo rats, to assess their demographic closure, and to investigate sources of variation in these contributions. Using a 7 year dataset,...

Sunflower family (Asteraceae). Limestone hawksbeard is a native perennial forb with one or two stems arising from a taproot. Plants are 30-70cm tall and basal leaves are 10-40 cm long, pinnatifid, with a fairly broad, undivided midstrip and entire or dentate segments. Plants are densely or sparsely gray-tomentulose. There are 10-60 heads per plant that are 7-12 flowered. The involucre is 10-12 mm high, tomentulose-puberulent, and the outer bracts are less than half as long as the mostly 7or 8 outer ones. The corollas are yellow, 14-30 mm long and the achenes are 5.5-9 mm long, mostly...

Conservation in urban areas faces growing financial challenges and inadequate stakeholder involvement. Conservation psychology can mitigate these challenges in many ways. One way is through conservation volunteerism, if we attend to and capitalize on volunteers' motivations. Conservation volunteerism significantly contributes to ecological knowledge acquisition, and public education and awareness of conservation issues. In this study, we explored volunteers' motivations and how those motivations influence frequency of participation in urban conservation activities. We found that volunteers'...

Open-pollinated progeny tests of American sycamore (Platanus occidentalis L.), which included 55 open-pollinated families selected from several prior Westvaco progeny tests and seed orchards and six control-pollinated families were established in 2002 and 2003. The half-sibling families were planted at two sites in western Kentucky and southeastern Missouri. The six full-sibling families, generated from selections based on exhibition of parental disease resistance and susceptibility to a variety of diseases, were also planted near Stoneville, MS at the US Forest Service Center for Bottomlan...

Mortality and crown dieback of quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) were extensive on the Williams Ranger District, Kaibab National Forest in northern Arizona. We collected data from a random sample of 48 aspen sites to determine the relationship of predisposing site and stand factors and contributing agents to ramet mortality. Mortality of overstory (P10.1 cm DBH) aspen stems averaged 50% (44% by basal area). Pine-oak type aspen stands suffered greater basal area mortality (57%) than stands in mixed conifer type (38%). An average of 48% of live overstory aspen stems had >33% crown dieback,...

We used snow-tracking surveys to determine the probability of detecting Canada lynx Lynx canadensis in known areas of lynx presence in the northern Rocky Mountains, Montana, USA during the winters of 2006 and 2007. We used this information to determine the minimum number of survey replicates necessary to infer the presence and absence of lynx in areas of similar lynx density (approximately 2.8 lynx/100 km2) with confidence. The probability of detecting lynx in mountainous habitats that support resident populations was 0.80-0.99 when surveys were conducted on an 838 km2 grid with 10 km of...

Wildfires characterized by large areas of high severity are increasingly occurring in ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa P. & C. Lawson) forests of the Southwest to extents that are out of the natural range of variability. Managers are now routinely applying thinning and/or burning treatments to reduce fire severity. To investigate the effects of pre-fire treatments and fire severity on post-fire vegetation recovery, we re-measured established plots on the 2002 Rodeo-Chediski Fire on the White Mountain Apache Tribal (WMAT) lands eight years post-fire and the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest...

The ability to identify wood decay fungi is an important skill for an arborist. Knowing which fungus is colonizing a tree can be used to better assess the type, amount, and position of decay in the tree, and its subsequent effects on wood strength. Distinguishing species of fungi that colonize sapwood, heartwood, or roots can provide information to improve the quality of the risk assessment. For example, sapwood decaying agents colonize areas of the trunk that have been wounded or injured by other agents, but do not usually penetrate deeply into the wood. Climbing a sapwood-degraded tree...

Turkey has one of the richest floras in the northern hemisphere as it is located at the convergence of 3 phytogeographical regions: Euro-Siberian, Mediterranean, and Irano-Turanian. This is reflected in the high number of plant taxa, particularly plant families that have truffles associated with them. The forests of these regions are dominated by ectomycorrhizal families including Pinaceae, Fagaceae, Betulaceae, Cistaceae, Salicaceae, and Malvaceae. There is a long history of mycological exploration in Turkey, with hundreds of papers published since 1915 (Solak et al., 2007; Türkoglu et...