Dissertations / Theses: 'Fire ecology'

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Chau, Kam-chiu Lawrence. "The ecology of fire in Hong Kong /." Hong Kong : University of Hong Kong, 1994. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record.jsp?B18933798.

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Chau, Kam-chiu Lawrence, and 周錦超. "The ecology of fire in Hong Kong." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 1994. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B3123348X.

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Kozlowski, Donald F. "Pre-fire functional condition and post-fire channel changes in northern Nevada streams 1999-2001 fires /." abstract and full text PDF (free order & download UNR users only), 2007. http://0-gateway.proquest.com.innopac.library.unr.edu/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:1447637.

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De, Groot William J. "Fire ecology of Betula glandulosa Michx." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1998. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp02/NQ29028.pdf.

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Archibald, Robert D. "Fire and the persistence of tuart woodlands /." Access via publisher's site, 2006. http://wwwlib.murdoch.edu.au/adt/browse/view/adt-MU20071130.140115.

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Dufilho, Michael Stephen. "The Children's Forest Association fire ecology hike." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 2005. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/2935.

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This project provides a fire ecology lesson to accompany a hike for student groups from fourth through eighth grade. The lesson plan will acquaint students with the beneficial aspects of forest fires.

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Small, Erin D. "Fire Ecology in the Acadian Spruce-Fir Region and Vegetation Dynamics Following the Baxter Park Fire of 1977." Fogler Library, University of Maine, 2004. http://www.library.umaine.edu/theses/pdf/SmallED2004.pdf.

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Kodandapani, Narendran. "Fire regimes and their ecological effects in seasonally dry tropical ecosystems in the Western Ghats, India." Diss., Connect to online resource - MSU authorized users, 2006.

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Berkley, Evelyn L. "Temporal and spatial variability of fire occurrence in Western Oregon, A.D. 1200 to present /." view abstract or download file of text, 2000. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/uoregon/fullcit?p1402785.

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Thesis (M.S.)--University of Oregon, 2000.
Computer optical disc in pocket of back cover titled: Animated time series of fire occurrence in Western Oregon, A.D. 1200-2000. Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 107-110). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to UO users.

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McGinley, Susan. "Fire Management in the West: Research and Teaching of Fire Ecology in Arizona." College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ), 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/622227.

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Kraaij, Tineke. "Fire regimes in eastern coastal fynbos: drivers, ecology and management." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1008047.

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Conventional knowledge of fynbos fire ecology is based on the summer-autumn fire regimes of the western Cape Floral Kingdom (CFK) where the climate is Mediterranean. However, the climate in the eastern coastal-CFK is milder and rainfall occurs year-round, with presumed effects on fire regimes. The Garden Route National Park (GRNP) has recently been established in the region, in a landscape where indigenous forests, fire-prone fynbos shrublands and fire-sensitive plantations of invasive alien trees are interspersed. The park faces considerable challenges related to the management of fire, including significant pressure from the adjacent plantation industry to reduce wildfire hazard by burning fynbos at short intervals, and high levels of invasion by alien trees (largely Pinus species originating from plantations). This study sought to improve understanding of fire regimes in eastern coastal fynbos shrublands, and to provide guidelines for ecologically sound management of fire in the area. My approach entailed (i) an assessment of the context within which fire management was practiced during the past century; (ii) characterisation of the recent fire history and fire regime (1900–2010); (iii) characterisation of the seasonality of fire weather and lightning; (iv) estimation of minimum fire return intervals (FRIs) from juvenile periods and post-fire recruitment success of overstorey proteoids (non-sprouting, slow-maturing, serotinous Proteaceae); and (v) determination of the ecologically appropriate fire season from post-fire recruitment seasonality of proteoids. I established that historically, plantation protection enjoyed priority over fynbos conservation in the area that is now the GRNP. Fynbos close to plantations has most likely been compromised by frequent and low-intensity burning in the past, as well as by invasion by alien trees. In terms of area burnt (1900–2010), natural (lightning-ignited) fires dominated the fire regime, particularly in the east, whereas prescribed burning was relatively unimportant. Typical fire return intervals (FRIs; 8–26 years; 1980–2010) were comparable to those in other fynbos protected areas and appeared to be shorter in the eastern Tsitsikamma than in the western Outeniqua halves of the study area. Proteaceae juvenile periods (4–9 years) and post-fire recruitment success (following fires in ≥7 year-old vegetation) suggested that for biodiversity conservation purposes, FRIs should be no less than nine years in moist, productive fynbos. Increases in the total area burnt annually (since 1980) were correlated with long-term increases in average fire danger weather, suggesting that fire regime changes may be related to global change. Collectively, findings on the seasonality of actual fires and the seasonality of fire danger weather, lightning, and post-fire proteoid recruitment suggested that fires in eastern coastal fynbos are not limited to any particular season, and for this reason managers do not need to be concerned if fires occur in any season. The ecological requirements for higher fire intensity may nonetheless be constrained by a need for safety. I articulated these findings into ecological thresholds pertaining to the different elements of the fire regime in eastern coastal fynbos, to guide adaptive management of fire in the Garden Route National Park. I also recommended a fire management strategy for the park to address the aforementioned operational considerations within the constraints posed by ecological thresholds. Finally, I highlighted further research and monitoring needs.

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Vihnanek, Robert E. "The effects of slashburning on the growth and nutrition of young Douglas-fir plantations in some dry, salal-dominated ecosystems." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1985. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/25062.

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Twenty Douglas-fir plantations, ranging from 5 to 15 years old, were examined on the east side of Vancouver Island. In all areas studied, salal was the dominant ground cover, and was suspected of being a major competitor with trees for water and nutrients. In each plantation, part of the area has been burned and part was unburned. Stocking of planted Douglas-firs was found to be greater on the burned than on the unburned areas of 16 sites and height growth of planted Douglas-firs was greater on the burned than on the unburned areas of 18 sites. Some degree of nitrogen deficiency was inferred for 17 sites, but was not attributed to burning. Height and percent cover of salal was greater on unburned areas. Differences in height growth and percent cover of salal between burned and unburned areas were seen to be greatest where inferred burn severity was high. Browsing of Douglas-fir was more prevalent on burned areas but did not result in height growth being less than on adjacent unburned areas.
Forestry, Faculty of
Graduate

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Falk, Donald Albert. "Scaling rules for fire regimes." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/290135.

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Forest fire is a keystone ecological process in coniferous forests of southwestern North America. This dissertation examines a fire regime in the Jemez Mountains of northern New Mexico, USA, based on an original data set collected from Monument Canyon Research Natural Area (MCN). First, I examine scale dependence in the fire regime. Statistical descriptors of the fire regime, such as fire frequency and mean fire interval, are scale-dependent. I describe the theory of the event-area (EA) relationship, analogous to the species-area relationship, for events distributed in space and time; the interval-area (IA) relationship, is a related form for fire intervals. The EA and IA also allow estimation of the annual fire frame (AFF), the area within which fire occurs annually on average. The slope of the EA is a metric of spatio-temporal synchrony of events across multiple spatial scales. The second chapter concerns the temporal distribution of fire events. I outline a theory of fire interval probability from first principles in fire ecology and statistics. Fires are conditional events resulting from interaction of multiple contingent factors that must be satisfied for an event to occur. Outcomes of this kind represent a multiplicative process for which a lognormal model is the limiting distribution. I examine the application of this framework to two probability models, the Weibull and lognormal distributions, which can be used to characterize the distribution of fire intervals over time. The final chapter addresses the theory and effects of sample size in fire history. Analytical methods (including composite fire records) are used in fire history to minimize error in inference. I describe a theory of the collector's curve based on accumulation of sets of discrete events and the probability of recording a fire as a function of sample size. I propose a nonlinear regression method for the Monument Canyon data set to correct for differences in sample size among composite fire records. All measures of the fire regime reflected sensitivity to sample size, but these differences can be corrected in part by applying the regression correction, which can increase confidence in quantitative estimates of the fire regime.

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Balfour, Victoria Nairn. "The effect of forest fires on runoff rates the role of duff removal and surface sealing by vegetative ash, western Montana /." Diss., [Missoula, Mont.] : The University of Montana, 2007. http://etd.lib.umt.edu/theses/available/etd-12202007-181528/.

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Ford, Paulette Louise. "Scale, ecosystem resilience, and fire in shortgrass steppe." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/289192.

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Consideration of scale and ecosystem resilience is integral to any conceptual model of the effects of disturbance on ecosystems. Organisms, populations, communities, and ecosystems are differentially affected by disturbance based on the scale at which they occupy the landscape. Scale of observation influences perceptions about ecosystem resilience. There is no single correct scale at which ecological phenomena should be studied, and management decisions require the interfacing of phenomena that occur on very different scales of space and time. Fire disturbance affects a variety of ecosystem factors including nutrient cycling, species diversity, and population and community dynamics. My experimental research on fire in shortgrass steppe examined the effects of fire and season of fire on various components of shortgrass steppe at multiple spatial and temporal scales and organizational units. My experimental design was completely randomized, with 3 treatments, and 4 replicates per treatment. Treatments were dormant-season fire, growing-season fire, and unburned. Response variables were (1) ground cover; (2) microbiotic crust nitrogen fixation, and chlorophyll a content; and (3) species richness, abundance, and relative abundance of small mammals and arthropods. Microbiotic crust cover never differed significantly among treatments for all periods, however, acetylene reduction and chlorophyll a content of crusts differed significantly among treatments. Dormant-season fire-treated crusts had significantly lower rates of acetylene reduction than unburned crusts, while growing-season fire-treated crusts did not differ significantly from unburned or dormant-season fire-treated crusts. Dormant-season fire-treated crusts had significantly lower chlorophyll content than unburned crusts, while growing-season fire-treated crusts did not significantly differ from unburned or dormant-season fire treated-crusts. Initially, growing-season fire significantly reduced grass cover compared to unburned and dormant-season fire. Approximately 30 months later there were no significant differences in grass cover among treatments. Bare ground response was basically the inverse of grass cover response. The only significant differences in litter cover between treatments occurred immediately after the growing-season fire. Arthropod species richness differed significantly among treatments; growing-season fire plots had a significantly higher number of beetle species. However, overall beetle abundance did not significantly differ among treatments. Significant differences were never detected in overall rodent species richness or abundance among treatments.

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Manning, Nancy Denise. "Weaving stories around the old fire: Using heuristic inquiry as a path to personal and professional growth." CSUSB ScholarWorks, 2007. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/3295.

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The author of this thesis uses her own personal experience of the Old Fire that took place in the fall of 2003 in San Bernardino County to teach children ecological concepts, especially fire ecology using an art oriented methodology. Thus, heArts for the Forest was born incorporating ash from the burned forest into pottery and other art pieces to sell and raise money for reforestation efforts in the San Bernardino mountains.

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Johnson, Roxane Jeannette. "Effects of fire on Agave palmeri." Thesis, The University of Arizona, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/291511.

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I investigated the effects of prescribed fire on Agave palmeri , an important seasonal food source of the federally Endangered bat, Leptonycteris curasoae yerbabuenae. Three different treatments were randomly assigned to plots containing agaves within a burn unit: plots were burned with extant fuel, plots were left unburned, and plots were burned with an augmentation of fuel. Agaves were surveyed before the fires, immediately after the fires, and one and two years after the fires. Mortality and survivorship with the fuel load, agave size and the type of clusters in which the agaves grew. Agaves near mesquite and acacia trees or dead, dried agaves experienced higher mortality than agaves growing elsewhere. Agaves in plots with added fine fuels also had higher rates of mortality. One year post-fire, mortality was low in all treatments and recruitment was higher on augmented and burned plots than on unburned plots. Two years post-fire, mortality of small Agave palmeri was associated more strongly with rainfall than with fire treatment, while mortality of larger height classes of agaves exhibited a delayed response to fires.

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Maghran, Lauren A. "Recovery and Changes in Plant Communities from Two Large Fires in the Santa Catalina Mountains, Arizona, USA." Thesis, The University of Arizona, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/337365.

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In mountains throughout western North America, large, mixed-severity fires produce a mosaic of low and high tree mortality. Following wildfire, plant communities may recover to their pre-fire state, or may remain altered in composition and structure. In this study I quantified the extent to which fire severity influenced post-fire vegetation composition and structure in comparison to pre-fire states in the Santa Catalina Mountains, Arizona, USA. I used a stratified random design that sampled plots across ecological units and fire severity classes. Tree diameter at breast height (DBH), shrub cover, and seedling and sapling density was recorded by species in five plant communities: oak/pinyon/juniper woodland on hills landscapes of mixed lithology; Madrean pine-oak forest/woodland on granite, gneiss, or metasedimentary rock; Madrean oak/conifer/manzanita on rock outcrops; ponderosa pine forest on granite, gneiss, and similar rocks; and mixed conifer forest on metasedimentary landscapes. Subsets of these data were then used to reconstruct overstory vegetation present when the Bullock (2002) and Aspen (2003) fires occurred. Data from a 1984 pre-fire study was used to substantiate the overstory reconstruction and to determine shrub understory components. I tested the hypothesis that tree mortality was a determinant of post-fire shrub cover, and calculated post-fire importance values (IVs) of tree and shrub components. Ordination and non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMS) of IVs confirmed that overstory reconstruction aligned with 1984 field surveys. Tree mortality was a predictor of post-fire shrub cover, but only with certain species in specific ecological units. Ordinations indicated that tree composition in post-fire plots has diverged from that in pre-fire plots in all but the oak/ pinyon/juniper community. Ordination of shrub components indicated novel configurations of post-fire communities, including association of pre-fire mixed conifer elements with oak woodland elements. The intermixing of tree species in mid- and higher-elevation communities with those historically confined to lower elevation community types suggests that recent fires has disrupted vegetation inertia and initiated novel ecological change. The re-structuring observed within these community types are in agreement with projections that disturbance and climate change will interact to facilitate the spread of lower elevation species to higher elevation zones. Fire x climate interactions may therefore trigger long-lasting changes to ecosystem structure in ways not predicted by models of fire-effects or climate-effects occurring in isolation from each other.

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Landmann, Tobias. "A case study for Skukuza : estimating biophysical poperties of fires using EOS-MODIS satellite data ; a field and remote sensing study to quantify burnt area and fire effects in South African semi-arid savannas /." Aachen : Shaker-Verl, 2004. http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/fy0708/2006485603.html.

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Predmore, Stephen Andrew. "Presettlement vegetation and fire in Escambia and Covington counties, Alabama." Auburn, Ala., 2005. http://repo.lib.auburn.edu/2005%20Summer/master's/PREDMORE_STEPHEN_32.pdf.

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Ives, Christopher M. "Fire moss as a tool for post-wildfire ecosystem restoration." Thesis, Northern Arizona University, 2016. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10129633.

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Increasingly large and severe fires across the western United States are creating difficult challenges for land managers. Despite the wide usage of current post-fire hillslope treatments, their effectiveness varies. Some research even shows negative impacts, such as the spread of invasive species.

The use of select post-fire colonizing mosses or “fire moss” is a promising post-fire stabilization treatment and longer-term restoration tool that has never been investigated for use in high severity burned environments. Fire mosses possess traits that make them ideal candidates for restoration purposes such as: universal distribution, desiccation tolerance, high water holding capacity, and soil aggregation ability. Fire mosses also are apparently succeeded by vascular plants. Harnessing the restoration power of fire mosses, finding ways to bring them to additional critical post-fire sites, and hastening their arrival on scene could provide a valuable service not currently being utilized. Our research addresses the basic questions surrounding the effectiveness of fire mosses in post-fire stabilization and restoration since there is no know prior work in this field. Field experiments were conducted to determine if fire moss could be grown on post-fire sites. Results show that inoculation increased moss growth by nine times and moss cover was an order of magnitude greater on high severity burned plots than either moderate or unburned plots. Subsequently, greenhouse experiments were conducted to find optimal growth conditions under which an inoculum supply source could be grown for field application. Results show that greatest moss growth occurred under five and seven day per week watering schedules, with fire moss Bryum argenteum constituting a majority of overall moss growth in the less frequent watering schedules suggesting that this moss would be the best candidate for use in marginal fire moss habitat (lower elevation, drier, and more exposed sites). Additionally, mosses Funaria hygrometrica and Ceratodon purpureus grew more prolifically in sample units with ash, while the opposite was true for Bryum argenteum, suggesting that future research should be conducted on the underlying mechanism. Overall, fire moss showed promise as a plausible restoration material, leading us toward future research given its potential to avoid problems caused by other hillslope treatments.

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Negreiros, Gustavo Hees de. "Understanding and modeling ecological processes controlling flammability in seasonally dry evergreen forests of the Brazillian Amazon /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/5528.

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Wills, Cameron. "Effects of repeated fire on the savanna / forest boundary." Bachelor's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/26506.

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Savanna and forest/thicket can exist as alternate stable states, among others, determined by fire ecology feedbacks. Bush encroachment has become an ever-increasing trend converting grassland and savanna biomes to forest/thicket. A severe firestorm occurred in the Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Game Reserve in north-eastern South Africa in September 2008. The fire penetrated closed thicket areas and opened up the landscape. The main aim of this study was to investigate whether repeated fire, following such an extreme fire event, could trigger a biome or regime shift; in this case from forest/thicket to savanna. Fire spread is determined by grassy fuel loads, primarily grass biomass in these ecosystems, and the fire weather at the time of the fire. Grass biomass was found to have significantly accumulated (p=0.0002) in the thicket areas in just three growing seasons since 2008, which allowed fires to burn the area again in 2012. In the 2012 fires, fire intensity, measured by char height on woody stems increased in relation to the increase in grass biomass up to a point after which increasing grass biomass had no effect. The 2012 fires were able to penetrate areas opened up by the 2003 firestorm despite high canopy cover created by tree resprouting. Tree mortality was cumulative with repeated burning (21% mortality post 2008 increasing to 47% mortality in 2012). This was linked to the vigour of post 2008 resprouting with much higher mortality of trees in 2012 that had few (<4) resprouting stems. Thus, this study indicates that, a fire regime of sufficient frequency and intensities could potentially cause a vegetation state shift from forest/thicket to savanna. Therefore, this may provide management options for wildlife parks and protected areas.

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Trusty, Paul Evan. "Impact of severe fire on ectomycorrhizal fungi of whitebark pine seedlings." Thesis, Montana State University, 2009. http://etd.lib.montana.edu/etd/2009/trusty/TrustyP0509.pdf.

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Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) is a threatened keystone species in subalpine zones of Western North America critical to watersheds and maintenance of high elevation biodiversity. Pine nuts are an important food for wildlife including grizzly bears. Whitebark pine stands have experienced losses up to 90% due to white pine blister rust, mountain pine beetles and replacement due to fire suppression. Active management strategies include letting natural fires burn or applying prescribed fires to clear understory fir, stimulate seedling regeneration and provide openings for nutcrackers to plant seeds. However, post-fire plantings of rust-resistant seedlings have low survival rates. This study evaluated the impact of fire on the mycorrhizal fungi which are obligate mutualists with whitebark pine and to address management concerns. The 2001 Fridley fire burned a portion of a mature whitebark pine forest and a year later 20,000 seedlings were planted. After four years, natural and planted seedlings, on the burn and controls in the adjacent unburned forest were well colonized by mycorrhizal fungi (>90%) although a portion may be nursery E-strain. The severe burn reduced mycorrhizal diversity 27% on natural and planted seedlings and caused a significant shift in mycorrhizal species (determined by ITS sequencing, principal component analysis and multidimensional scaling). Seedlings in the burn (natural and planted) were dominated by Pseudotomentella nigra, Wilcoxina species and Amphinema byssoides while natural seedlings in unburned forest hosted mainly Cenococcum geophilum and Piloderma byssinum. Differences were minimal between planted and natural seedlings in the burn, but roots of planted pines retained the container shape. The functional significance of a species shift to seedling survival is not yet known. Seedlings in all treatments hosted suilloid fungi (Rhizopogon, Suillus) important in pine establishment. A greenhouse bioassay of burned and unburned soils using nursery seedlings did not reflect the full diversity found in the field study, but did reveal suilloid fungi indicating that bioassays can be used as a pre-planting assessment tool for this group. Despite high mycorrhization and availability of suilloids, seedling survival was low (22-42%) suggesting the timing/type of mycorrhization and/or other biotic/abiotic factors are a concern.

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Bauer, John M. "Fire history and stand structure of a central Nevada pinyon-juniper woodland." abstract and full text PDF (free order & download UNR users only), 2006. http://0-gateway.proquest.com.innopac.library.unr.edu/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:1436023.

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Wilson, Barbara Anne. "The effects of vegetation, fire and other disturbance factors on small mammal ecology and conservation." Click here to access, 1990. http://tux.lib.deakin.edu.au/adt-VDU/public/adt-VDU20051111.135542.

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Thesis (Ph.D.)--Deakin University, Victoria, 1990.
Submitted to the Dept. of Biological Sciences of the School of Sciences, Deakin University. Appendices are separately published papers. Bibliography: leaves 274-302.

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Shrestha, Hari Ram. "Post-fire recovery of carbon and nitrogen in sub-alpine soils of South-eastern Australia /." Connect to thesis, 2009. http://repository.unimelb.edu.au/10187/6963.

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The forests of south-eastern Australia, having evolved in one of the most fire-prone environments in the world, are characterized by many adaptations to recovery following burning. Thus forest ecosystems are characterized by rapid regenerative capacity, from either seed or re-sprouting, and mechanisms to recover nutrients volatilized, including an abundance of N2 fixing plants in natural assemblages. Soil physical, chemical and biological properties are directly altered during fire due to heating and oxidation of soil organic matter, and after fire due to changes in heat, light and moisture inputs. In natural ecosystems, carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) lost from soil due to fires are recovered through photosynthesis and biological N2 fixation (BNF) by regenerating vegetation and soil microbes.
This study investigated post-fire recovery of soil C and N in four structurally different sub-alpine plant communities (grassland, heathland, Snowgum and Alpine ash) of south-eastern Australia which were extensively burnt by landscape-scale fires in 2003. The amount and isotopic concentration of C and N in soils to a depth of 20 cm from Alpine ash forest were assessed five years after fire in 2008 and results were integrated with measurements taken immediately prior to burning (2002) and annually afterwards.
Because the historical data set, comprised of three soil samplings over the years 2002 to 2005, consisted of soil total C and N values which were determined as an adjunct to 13C and 15N isotopic studies, it was necessary to establish the accuracy of these IRMS-derived measurements prior to further analysis of the dataset. Two well-established and robust methods for determining soil C (total C by LECO and oxidizable C by the Walkley-Black method) were compared with the IRMS total C measurement in a one-off sampling to establish equivalence prior to assembling a time-course change in soil C from immediately pre-fire to five years post-fire. The LECO and IRMS dry combustion measurements were essentially the same (r2 >0.99), while soil oxidizable C recovery by the Walkley-Black method (wet digestion) was 68% compared to the LECO/IRMS measurements of total C. Thus the total C measurement derived from the much smaller sample size (approximately 15 mg) combusted during IRMS are equivalent to LECO measurement which require about 150 mg of sample.
Both total C and N in the soil of Alpine ash forests were significantly higher than soils from Snowgum, heathland and grassland communities. The ratio of soil NH4+ to NO3- concentration was greater for Alpine ash forest and Snow gum woodland but both N-fractions were similar for heathland and grassland soils. The abundance of soil 15N and 13C was significantly depleted in Alpine ash but both isotopes were enriched in the heathland compared to the other ecosystems. Abundance of both 15N and 13C increased with soil depth.
The natural abundance of 15N and 13C in the foliage of a subset of non-N2 fixing and N2 fixing plants was measured as a guide to estimate BNF inputs. Foliage N concentration was significantly greater in N2 fixers than non-N2 fixers while C content and 13C abundance were similar in both functional groups. Abundance of 15N was depleted in the N2 fixing species but was not significantly different from the non-N2 fixers to confidently calculate BNF inputs based on the 15N abundance in the leaves.
The total C pool in soil (to 20 cm depth) had not yet returned to the pre-fire levels in 2008 and it was estimated that such levels of C would be reached in another 6-7 years (about 12 years after the fire). The C and N of soil organic matter were significantly enriched in 15N and 13C isotopes after fire and had not returned to the pre-fire levels five years after the fire. It is concluded that the soil organic N pool can recover faster than the total C pool after the fire in the Alpine ash forests.

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Conedera, Marco [Verfasser], and C. [Akademischer Betreuer] Kramer. "Implementing fire history and fire ecology in fire risk assessment : the study case of Canton Ticino (southern Switzerland) / Marco Conedera. Betreuer: C. Kramer." Karlsruhe : KIT-Bibliothek, 2009. http://d-nb.info/1014099269/34.

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Minor, John Jesse, and John Jesse Minor. "Anthropogenic Influences on Fire Regimes and Post-Fire Ecological Communities in an Arizona Sky Island." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/626366.

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As an ecological disturbance agent, wildfire is highly responsive to spatial and temporal variables. At the landscape scale, the spatiotemporal characteristics of fire are influenced by climate, which is non-stable and subject to oscillations, and by weather, which affects the intensity of burning and the severity of fire effects over short time periods. Like wildfire, vegetation communities and fuels are similarly influenced and modified by climate and weather, which configure not only the type of burning possible at any given time, but also the fire effects produced by burning. Furthermore, ignition sources, both natural and anthropogenic, vary over space and time, whether they are from natural ignitions in response to weather and climate factors, and anthropogenic ignitions, which are much less constrained. Within a given physiographic setting, the spatiotemporal conditions of wildfire can be understood as fire regimes, which can be expressed in terms of typical fire frequency, season of burning, ignition source, duration, fire size, patch size, fire rotation, and return interval. As a dynamic assemblage, vegetation communities, combustible fuels, ignition sources, and fire regimes are arrayed over topographic features at landscape scales. Humans are able to affect various and multiple components of this dynamic assemblage. Humans have the most direct control over ignitions, both in terms of adding ignitions to the weather and climate-modulated background of natural ignitions, or by suppressing anthropogenic ignitions and suppressing fires that do start. Humans can also manipulate vegetation communities and fuel complexes, either promoting or diminishing the chance for fires to burn and spread. Humans have far less control over weather and climate, although the enhanced greenhouse effect is beginning to be expressed in terms of climate change and unusually extreme weather, including weather variables that drive fire growth and spread, including low humidity, high temperatures, and increased winds. The objectives of this dissertation were to: (1) investigate the influences of several waves of human occupation on temporal fire regime characteristics in the Chiricahua Mountains across major topographic settings and forest types, and to detect cessation of widespread, low-intensity wildfire in specific locations; (2) account for the mechanisms by which the U.S. state has managed fires by managing anthropogenic ignitions, which has contributed to long-term deviation in formerly frequent fire regimes; (3) examine the effects from the return of large and severe wildfire following decades of fire prevention and suppression by categorizing the ecological trajectories of montane forests following mixed-severity reburning; and (4) understand how the post-disturbance recovery of burned areas is influenced by the response of shrub species to variations in fire severity, with the post-fire regeneration strategies of shrub species driving differences in patch structure and total cover. Major findings and contributions of this research include identifying distinct anthropogenic influences on temporal fire regime characteristics in several forest types in an Arizona Sky Island, including shortened fire frequencies during times of conflict between Apaches and colonizing forces. We found that periods of conflict with Spanish and later American militaries exerted an influence on fire frequencies, with higher-elevation forests burning more frequently than pre-Apache periods or during episodes of peacetime. We also find that single-tree fires, which are likeliest to express anthropogenic ignitions, do not significantly correspond to multi-year patterns in climate (Appendix A). We found that the U.S. state used Smokey Bear and other wildfire prevention media as a pyropolitical instrument aimed at simultaneously managing people, landscapes, and flammable forests, in the process binding proper fire behavior to notions of citizenship, territory, and ecology. The wildfire prevention campaign, with Smokey Bear as its avatar, was successful because it remained flexible in the face of social, economic, and environmental change within the United States, but the ultimate result of this success is an environmental feedback loop by which fire prevention and suppression produce the need for ever-greater state response (Appendix B). We found that mixed-severity reburning has differential effects on various structural and demographic components of vegetation communities, with trees, shrubs, and regeneration responding differently according to plant functional traits. Although the effects of recent disturbance tend to overwrite prior disturbance, mixed severity fire produces different response in plant communities than single events. Repeated high and moderate severity fire suppress tree regeneration and shift the community to shrub dominance, with recovery in pine-oak vegetation types dominated by resprouting species and by resprouting species in mixed conifer. Unburned areas contain different vegetation communities, with pine-oak forests increasing the proportions of fire-intolerant species typical of mixed conifer, as well as oaks and other potentially shrubby species growing as trees (Appendix C). Finally, we found that the proportion of the landscape dominated by shrub cover and the structure of shrub patches is influenced strongly by fire severity, with high severity burns producing the largest shrub patches as well greater area:stem ratios. Unburned areas have the lowest amount of shrub cover, and shrub patches tend to be single-stemmed, indicating that sufficiently long fire-free periods can produce monopodial trees that would otherwise grow in shrub form. The effects of antecedent disturbance can be seen in shrub patch structure, suggesting that the organizing effects of fire can persist for decades (Appendix D). Together, this body of work underscores the means by which human activities interact with the natural world to produce historic fire regimes, and the ecological communities that arise following long periods of fire regime disruption.

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Teague, Kara Elizabeth. "Environmental ramifications of the fire ecology of slash pine (Pinus elliottii) a study of population dynamics and dispersal following a fire event /." [Tampa, Fla. : s.n.], 2003. http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/SFE0000089.

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Dolan, Corrine, and Alix Rogstad. "Living with Wildfire in Arizona." College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ), 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/146928.

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226 pp.
UACE Firewise publications (8 total)
The Living with Wildfire in Arizona educational materials synthesize the most recent scientific and technically known information available on fire ecology for the ecosystems of Arizona, including mixed conifer forests, ponderosa pine forests, pinyon-juniper and oak woodlands, chaparral, grasslands and desert scrub, and riparian areas. The materials are meant to educate homeowners living in the wildland urban interface areas as to the natural function of fire in each ecosystem and what significant changes have impacted fire behavior over time. Information includes the natural role of fire, how and why fire behavior has changed over time, and the role that humans play in affecting that change in protecting themselves and their property.

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Prichard, Susan J. "Spatial and temporal dynamics of fire and vegetation change in Thunder Creek watershed, North Cascades National Park, Washington /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/5601.

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Oakley, Brian B. "The ecology and biogeography of the Ceanothus-Frankia symbiosis in California /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/5589.

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Abolt, Rena Ann Peck 1968. "Fire histories of upper elevation forests in the Gila Wilderness, New Mexico via fire scar and stand age structure analyses." Thesis, The University of Arizona, 1997. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/278601.

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Fire scar analysis to identify fire events and stand age structure analysis to identify fire effects on survivorship of trees were used to reconstruct surface and crown fire regimes in upper elevation forests of the Gila Wilderness, NM. Fire regimes varied across forest type, but not necessarily across elevation. Prior to the twentieth century, (from 1706 to 1904), the mean return interval for large fires was 8 years. During the twentieth century, (from 1904 to 1995), the mean fire return interval for large fires was 46 years. The virtual end of historically frequent fire regimes due to livestock grazing and fire suppression since the turn of the century has affected successional pathways of forest types across elevations, favoring later successional forest species and structures.

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Keifer, MaryBeth 1963. "Age structure and fire disturbance in the southern Sierra Nevada subalpine forest." Thesis, The University of Arizona, 1991. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/278045.

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I used age structure to examine the role of fire disturbance and climate on the population dynamics of the subalpine forest in the southern Sierra Nevada. I cored trees on ten 0.1 ha plots (3300-3400 m elevation) that varied in species composition, from single-species foxtail pine (Pinus balfouriana) or lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta, var. murrayana), to mixed-species stands of both pines. Crossdating was used to produce accurate dates of tree recruitment and fire events. Age structure varied by plot species composition: lodgepole pine recruitment pattern is pulsed, sometimes forming single-cohort patches in response to fire; foxtail pine plots have a more steady pattern of recruitment; mixed-species plots show an intermediate recruitment pattern. Fire may maintain a species composition mosaic in the subalpine forest. Foxtail pine regeneration may increase in areas opened by fire, although not immediately following fire. Low-intensity fire may spread over areas larger than previously reported under certain conditions in the subalpine zone. In addition, unusually frequent, extreme, and/or extended periods of drought may severely limit subalpine tree regeneration. Growing season frost events and grazing before 1900 may also have affected trees establishing in the subalpine zone.

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Díaz, Avalos Carlos. "Space-time analysis of forest fires /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 1998. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/6375.

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Catry, Filipe Xavier. "Fire effects on forest species in mediterranean basin ecosystems: ecology and management." Doctoral thesis, ISA, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/6151.

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Charpentier, Jessica E. "Wildland Fire Disturbance - Recovery Dynamics in Upland Forests at Acadia National Park, Maine." Antioch University / OhioLINK, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=antioch1589622211058728.

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Rana, Dangi Sadikshya. "Recovery of soil microbial communities after disturbance fire and surface mining /." Laramie, Wyo. : University of Wyoming, 2008. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1663059791&sid=1&Fmt=2&clientId=18949&RQT=309&VName=PQD.

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Jacobs, Karen Marie. "Fire and vegetation history of the last 2000 years in Jackson Hole, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming." Thesis, Montana State University, 2007. http://etd.lib.montana.edu/etd/2007/jacobs/JacobsK0507.pdf.

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Owusu-Afriyie, Kennedy. "Forest fire incidence, damage and control measures in Ghana." Thesis, Available from the University of Aberdeen Library and Historic Collections Digital Resources, 2008. http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?application=DIGITOOL-3&owner=resourcediscovery&custom_att_2=simple_viewer&pid=26030.

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Landmann, Tobias. "A case study for Skukuza : estimating biophysical properties of fires using EOS-MODIS satellite data : a field and remote sensing study to quantify burnt area and fire effects in South African semi-arid savannas /." Aachen : Shaker, 2004. http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/fy0708/2006485603.html.

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Zalatan, Rebecca. "Dendroecological analysis of successional dynamics after fire in the Shakwak Trench, southwest Yukon Territory." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/6416.

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This study investigates the succession following fire in a relatively dry area of the boreal forest, the Shakwak Trench, southwest Yukon. The postfire successional regime is determined by an analysis of age structure and composition of tree populations in stands of different ages. The dendroecological approach used in this study is based on the sampling of one plot in each of 11 fires ranging from A.D. 1844--1998. Picea glauca established 0--4 years after fire and reached a period of maximum establishment after 20--40 years. Populus tremuloides was generally recruited immediately after fire and was no longer present after approximately 20 years, at which point, the Picea glauca began to dominate. Salix spp. were found in all stages of succession, but decreased in abundance through time. Five chronologies that were developed from ring-width measurements of the older Picea glauca trees depict similar growth-ring patterns, suggesting a large-scale climate influence on all sites in the region. There is a weak relation between the variability of the tree-ring chronology and the establishment of Picea glauca seedlings. Regeneration of tree species after fire is primarily driven by biological influences rather than climatological ones.

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Assal, Timothy J. "The ecological legacies of drought, fire, and insect disturbance in western North American forests." Thesis, Colorado State University, 2016. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3746145.

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Temperate forest ecosystems are subject to various disturbances including insect agents, drought and fire, which can have profound effects on the structure of the ecosystem for many years after the event. Impacts of disturbance can vary widely, therefore an understanding of the legacies of an event are critical in the interpretation of contemporary forest patterns and those of the near future. The primary objective of this dissertation was to investigate the ecological legacies of drought, beetle outbreak and ensuing wildfire in two different ecosystems. A secondary objective of my research, data development, was motivated by a lack of available data which precluded ecological investigation of each disturbance.

I studied the effects of drought on deciduous and coniferous forest along a forest-shrubland ecotone in the southern portion of the Wyoming Basin Ecoregion. The results show that forests in the region have experienced high levels of cumulative drought related mortality over the last decade. Negative trends were not consistent across forest type or distributed randomly across the study area. The patterns of long-term trends highlight areas of forest that are resistant, persistent or vulnerable to severe drought.

In the second thread of my dissertation, I used multiple lines of evidence to retrospectively characterize a landscape scale mountain pine beetle disturbance from the 1970s in Glacier National Park. The lack of spatially explicit data on this disturbance was a major data gap since wildfire had removed some of the evidence from the landscape. I used this information to assess the influence of beetle severity on the burn severity of subsequent wildfires in the decades after the outbreak. Although many factors contribute to burn severity, my results indicate that beetle severity can positively influence burn severity of wildfire. This is likely due to the change in forest structure in the decades after the outbreak and not as a direct result of tree mortality from the outbreak. The long-term perspective of this study suggests that ecological legacies of high severity disturbance may continue to influence subsequent disturbance for many years after the initial event. This work also provides insight on future disturbance interactions associated with the recent mountain pine beetle outbreak that has impacted tens of millions of hectares in western North America over the last two decades.

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Ludwig, Sarah. "Fire severity effects on nutrient dynamics and microbial activities in a Siberian larch forest." Thesis, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2016. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10146125.

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High-latitude ecosystems store large amounts of carbon in soil organic matter and are among the most vulnerable to climate change. In particular, fire severity and frequency are increasing in boreal ecosystems, and these events are likely to have direct and indirect effects on climate feedbacks via increased emission of carbon (C) from soil and changes in vegetation composition, respectively. In this study we created experimental burns of three severities in the northeastern Siberian arctic, near Cherskiy, RU, and quantified dissolved C, nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P), and microbial respiration and extracellular enzyme activities at 1-day, 8-days, and 1-year post-fire.

Our objective was to determine how fire affects C, N, and P pools, soil microbial processes, and how these effects scale across severity and time since fire. We found labile C and nutrients increased immediately post-fire, but appeared similar to unburned controls within a week. Phosphorus alone remained elevated through 1-year post-fire. Leucine aminopeptidase activities initially increased with fire severity, but by 1-year, activities decreased with fire severity at a rate an order of magnitude faster. Fire severity suppressed phosphatase and ?-glucosidase activities at all time points. Soil respiration was reduced by half in high severity plots 1-year post-fire, while net rates of N mineralization increased by an order of magnitude. We found that changes in soil C and nutrient pools, soil respiration, and net N mineralization rates responded in a threshold-fashion to fire severity, although P was uncoupled from C and N by changing at a distinct severity threshold. Extracellular enzyme activities and edaphic variables scaled linearly with fire severity. The interaction of threshold and linear response curves to fire severity may help explain the variability across studies in soil microbial community responses to fire. Microbial communities recovering from more severe fires have the possibility to decrease future ecosystem C losses through reduced respiration. The changing fire regime in permafrost ecosystems has the potential to alter soil microbial community dynamics, the retention of nutrients, and the stoichiometry of C, N, and P availability.

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Bale, Adam M. Guyette Richard P. "Fire effects and litter accumulation dynamics in a montane longleaf pine ecosystem." Diss., Columbia, Mo. : University of Missouri--Columbia, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10355/6553.

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The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on October 16, 2009). Thesis advisor: Dr. Richard P. Guyette. Includes bibliographical references.

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Taylor, Alan H., Valerie Trouet, Carl N. Skinner, and Scott Stephens. "Socioecological transitions trigger fire regime shifts and modulate fire–climate interactions in the Sierra Nevada, USA, 1600–2015 CE." NATL ACAD SCIENCES, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/622527.

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Large wildfires in California cause significant socioecological impacts, and half of the federal funds for fire suppression are spent each year in California. Future fire activity is projected to increase with climate change, but predictions are uncertain because humans can modulate or even override climatic effects on fire activity. Here we test the hypothesis that changes in socioecological systems from the Native American to the current period drove shifts in fire activity and modulated fire-climate relationships in the Sierra Nevada. We developed a 415-y record (1600-2015 CE) of fire activity by merging a treering-based record of Sierra Nevada fire history with a 20th-century record based on annual area burned. Large shifts in the fire record corresponded with socioecological change, and not climate change, and socioecological conditions amplified and buffered fire response to climate. Fire activity was highest and fire-climate relationships were strongest after Native American depopulation-following mission establishment (ca. 1775 CE)-reduced the self-limiting effect of Native American burns on fire spread. With the Gold Rush and EuroAmerican settlement (ca. 1865 CE), fire activity declined, and the strong multidecadal relationship between temperature and fire decayed and then disappeared after implementation of fire suppression (ca. 1904 CE). The amplification and buffering of fire-climate relationships by humans underscores the need for parameterizing thresholds of human-vs. climate-driven fire activity to improve the skill and value of fire-climate models for addressing the increasing fire risk in California.

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Black, Kathleen Miles. "Red fox ecology and interactions with piping plovers on Fire Island, New York." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2021. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/102663.

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Red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) have been identified as a key predator of the threatened piping plover (Charadrius melodus) along the U.S. Atlantic coast. However, little is known about coastal red fox ecology, making it difficult to create effective red fox management strategies in these settings. Here, we quantify aspects of red fox population, spatial, and dietary ecology and interactions with threatened piping plovers on Fire Island, New York. We conducted remote camera surveys, scat and sign surveys, den monitoring, and GPS tracking of red foxes on the island in 2015–2018. We used these data to estimate red fox occupancy, reproduction, survival, and population density. We used GPS data to investigate red fox space use, habitat selection, and responses to piping plover nest exclosure setup, pre-hatch pipping, and hatching. We used fecal dietary analyses and data from den prey item surveys to quantify the frequency of piping plover predation and to identify major prey items of red foxes on the island. Red fox occupancy remained high even after substantial decreases in abundance, population density, annual reproduction, and seasonal survival following 2 sarcoptic mange outbreaks. Within their home ranges, red foxes selected areas that were closer to vegetation during the daytime and twilight hours, but farther from vegetation at night. We did not find clear evidence that red foxes in our study area keyed in on piping plover nest exclosure setup, pipping, or hatching at the spatial scales considered in our comparisons, although fox penetration of and digging at exclosures was an issue in 2015 at Smith Point County Park. Items from Orders Rodentia (rodents, 43% of scats), Coleoptera (beetles, 38%), and Decapoda (crabs and other crustaceans, 29%) were most frequently found in 293 red fox scats examined. Skates (Family Rajidae, 89% of dens with food items) and Atlantic surf clams (Spisula solidissima, 67%) were found most frequently outside of dens. We did not find any identifiable piping plover remains in red fox scats or outside of dens. Our results suggest that direct interactions between red foxes and piping plovers during our study period and in our study area were less frequent than expected, but concurrent work by collaborators documented that the trap success of red foxes was negatively related to piping plover reproductive output during our study period. Lethal removal of red foxes is unlikely to eliminate them from shorebird nesting areas unless complete eradication of foxes from the island can be achieved. We recommend strategic vegetation management in and around piping plover nesting areas to reduce daytime resting areas and hunting cover for red foxes, and continued use of nest exclosures. We also recommend further investigation into indirect impacts of red foxes on piping plover populations, and into the possibility that anthropogenic food resources could be subsidizing the island's red fox population.
Doctor of Philosophy
Red foxes have been identified as a key predator of the piping plover, a small migratory shorebird that breeds along the U.S. Atlantic coast and is considered 'threatened' (at risk of becoming endangered and eventually disappearing) within the United States. The lack of information about red fox ecology in coastal settings has been a challenge for wildlife biologists tasked with reducing predation on piping plovers. We investigated red fox ecology, behavior, and interactions with piping plovers on Fire Island, New York. We used trail cameras, collected scat (feces), monitored dens, and tracked red foxes on the island with global positioning system (GPS) collars in 2015–2018. We used these data to estimate red fox distribution, litter sizes, survival rates, and population sizes. We used GPS data to estimate red fox territory sizes, describe habitat selection, and investigate responses to piping plover nest exclosure setup, pipping (a period before hatching during which chicks vocalize inside the eggs), and hatching. We dissected red fox scats and recorded prey items found outside of dens to determine what red foxes on the island were eating. The proportion of each study area used by red foxes remained high even after substantial decreases in abundance, population density, annual reproduction, and seasonal survival following 2 parasitic disease (sarcoptic mange) outbreaks. Within their territories, red foxes selected areas that were closer to vegetation during the daytime and twilight hours but farther from vegetation at night. We did not find clear evidence that red foxes in our study area keyed in on piping plover nest exclosure setup, pipping, or hatching, although fox penetration of and digging at exclosures was an issue in some years at a site not included in those comparisons. Rodents, beetles, and crustacean remains were found most frequently in red fox scats. Skates and surf clams were found most frequently outside of dens. We did not find any identifiable piping plover remains in red fox scats or outside of dens. Our results suggest that that direct interactions between red foxes and piping plovers may be less frequent than previously believed, but concurrent work by collaborators documented that the trap success of red foxes was negatively related to piping plover reproductive output during our study period. Lethal removal of red foxes is unlikely to eliminate red foxes from shorebird nesting areas unless all foxes on the island are removed. We recommend strategic vegetation removal in and around piping plover nesting areas to reduce daytime resting spots and hunting cover for red foxes, and continued use of nest exclosures. We also recommend further investigation into indirect impacts of red foxes on piping plover populations, and into the possibility that anthropogenic food resources could be subsidizing the island's red fox population.

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Dittler, Matthew Jason. "Ecology of Root-Feeding Insect Assemblages in Fire-Manipulated Longleaf Pine-Wiregrass Ecosystems." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/50858.

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Root-feeding insects can have top-down influence on vegetative composition and ecosystem processes; however, they may respond to bottom-up factors such as soil resources, site productivity, and disturbance. My research addressed the following questions: (1) Do disturbance (fire), vegetative composition, soil resources, and fine root standing mass influence the structure of root-feeding insect assemblages? (2) What types of roots do root-feeding insects eat, and do they forage selectively? (3) Do root-feeding insects influence fine root productivity? To address these questions, I studied root-feeding insect assemblages in longleaf pine wiregrass (Pinus palustris-Aristida stricta) ecosystems of southwestern Georgia, U.S.A. On a random basis, study sites were burned at least every other year (B), or left unburned (UB) for about 9 years. Fine root productivity and root-feeding insect abundances were sampled repeatedly across 54 random plots in UB and B sites. In Chapter 2, I characterized spatial and temporal patterns of root-feeding insect abundance, understory plant composition, soil resource availability, and fine root standing mass within each plot. Insect population densities were low overall, but abundance, patchiness, and diversity were greater in UB sites. Abundance patterns were significantly related to vegetative composition. In Chapter 3, I quantified the diet of root-feeding insects by measuring the natural abundance of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) stable isotopes in insects and fine roots. Using 13C abundance, I examined the contribution of warm season grass roots to insect diet, relative to the proportion of warm season grass roots within adjacent root standing crop samples; 15N abundance was used to detect omnivory. Overall, insects appeared to be non-selective herbivores and omnivores that may alter foraging behavior to maintain a mixed diet (i.e. reducing or increasing warm season grass consumption when its abundance was high or low, respectively). The extent of omnivory varied within and among taxa. In Chapter 4, I estimated the top-down influence of root-feeding insects on fine root productivity by comparison of ingrowth cores with or without an insecticide treatment. I detected a weak positive effect of herbivores on the productivity of non-grass fine roots (< 10% of fine root productivity).
Ph. D.

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Weigel, Timothy J. "Assessing post-fire reseeding potential using Bureau of Land Management criteria in northeastern Nevada a spatial modeling approach /." abstract and full text PDF (free order & download UNR users only), 2007. http://0-gateway.proquest.com.innopac.library.unr.edu/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:1446450.

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Fire ecology'

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