#History of fire and drought shapes the ecology of California, past and futurefire season has arrived in California with vengeance in this third year of extended drought for the state.
As force of destruction and renewal fire has a long and intimate history with the ecology of California.
Ecological scientists will discuss aspects of that history in detail at the upcoming 99th Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of America on August 10--15th 2014.
Big fires today are not outside the range of historical variation in size said Jon Keeley an ecologist based in Three Rivers Cal. with the U s. Geological Survey's Western Ecological Research center and a Fellow of the Ecological Society.
when we talk about wildfire in California we are talking about two very different fire regimes in two different ecosystems:
The chaparral shrublands of southern California and similar sagebrush ecosystems in the Great Basin are adapted not to the kind of frequent fire typical of the mountain conifer forests in California.
Fires in the lower elevation ecosystems are always crown fires which kill most of the vegetation.
In the millennia before humans arrived these ecosystems burned at intervals of 100 to 130 years.
These lower elevation ecosystems experienced unprecedented fire frequency in the last century with fire returning to the same area every 10 to 20 years altering the ecology of the landscape.
In Southern California lower elevation ecosystems have burned more frequently than ever before. I think it's partly climate
To Keeley this means that prescribed fires in lower elevation ecosystems now have entirely different consequences for the regional ecology than they did
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Daniel Nicodemo professor of ecology and beekeeping at the Universidade Estadual Paulista in Dracena Brazil and lead author of the study states These insecticides affect the nervous system of pest
The above story is provided based on materials by University of Illinois College of Agricultural Consumer and Environmental sciences.
and other animals said Adam Morris a Phd student in the School of Environmental sciences and lead author of the study published recently in Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry.
This makes good sense in an ecological sense Robinson said because threats often come in bunches. The fact that the researchers observed these effects in two species that diverged 300 million years ago makes the findings even more compelling Robinson said.
and forests in U s a special section of the September issue of Forest Ecology and Management available online now assesses the interactions among fire climate change
Chelcy Miniat from the U s. Forest Service Monique Rocca from Colorado State university and Robert Mitchell (now deceased) from the Joseph W. Jones Ecological Research center--started the project by organizing teams of scientists from the Forest Service
and a synthesis of what is known about the effects of fire on forest ecosystem services such as water quantity and quality air quality and biodiversity.
Long-lived ecosystems such as forests are particularly vulnerable to the comparatively rapid changes in the climate system.
Disturbances like windthrow and forest fires are part of the natural dynamics of forest ecosystems and are not therefore a catastrophe for the ecosystem as such.
However these disturbances have intensified considerably in recent decades which increasingly challenges the sustainable management of forest ecosystems says Rupert Seidl BOKU Vienna the principal researcher involved in the study.
The authors show that damage caused by forest disturbance has increased continuously over the last 40 years in Europe reaching 56 million cubic meters of timber per year in the period 2002--2010.
in order to keep sustaining the diverse set of ecosystem services provided to society in the future the study concludes.
When subsistence practices have long histories they are more likely to sustain ecosystem stability he says.
In some parts of Australia where Aboriginal people no longer are burning the bush ecologists are recording rapid declines in threatened species
and hunting regimes in remote communities and incorporate this traditional ecological practice into future management protocols.
or indirectly over time in ways that alter each other's evolution--an ecological mechanism that he says explains how moderate levels of burning by the Martu actually bolsters kangaroo populations.
In fact they see humans as part of a larger ecosystem that has spiritual components--the dreamtime place of creation where ancestors roamed.
So perhaps it's not surprising to them it has positive results for the ecosystem.
while building carbon storage and improving production efficiency on their lands said Stephen Ogle associate professor in CSU's Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability and senior scientist at the Natural resource Ecology Laboratory (NREL).
They recently published the study Ecological consequences of shifting the timing of burning tallgrass prairie in the peer-reviewed scientific journal PLOS ONE.
Biological sciences the study builds the evolutionary framework for future ecological and genetics research of insects Kawahara said.
Caitlin Jacobs a University of Florida master's student in wildlife ecology and conservation conducted the study in
The new carbon map also reveals Perã's extremely high ecological diversity and it provides the critical input to studies of deforestation and forest degradation for conservation land use and enforcement purposes.
It should ignite the imaginations of ecologists and earth scientists and provide a road map for decision makers.
JÃ rg Schibler head of the research groups for Integrative Prehistoric and Archaeological Science (IPAS) from the Department Environmental science at the University of Basel.
and Life sciences with a joint appointment in the UA Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.
and it depends on healthy forest ecosystems. Boerboom: The timing of this study is actually very good
#Fire ecology manipulation by California native culturesbefore the colonial era 100000s of people lived on the land now called California
Frank Lake an ecologist with the U s. Forest Service's Pacific Southwest Station will lead a field trip to the Stone Lake National Wildlife Refuge during the Ecological Society of America's 99th Annual
Lake will also host a special session on a sense of place sponsored by the Traditional Ecological Knowledge section of the Ecological Society that will bring representatives of local tribes into the Annual Meeting to share their cultural and professional experiences working on tribal natural resources issues.
Fire exerts a powerful effect on ecosystems including the quality and quantity of water available in watersheds in part by reducing the density of vegetation.
Lake thinks that understanding tribal use of these forest environments has context for and relevance to contemporary management and restoration of endangered ecosystems and tribal cultures.
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The UI research paper Roles of climate and agricultural practices in discharge changes in an agricultural watershed in Iowa can be found in the April 15 online edition of Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment.
In consequence it could help developing concepts minimizing negative effects on the lives of animals and the ecological system by reducing light sources in specific regions.
Light possibly has impact on the entire ecological system of the woodsmore light may also affect other living beings in the Viennese Forests.
The researchers collected data on a wide variety of ecological variables that could affect gloomy scale populations including habitat characteristics the temperature at each tree site and the abundance of predators and parasitoids.
and other pest species. The research on scale insect abundance is published in Urban warming trumps natural enemy regulation of herbivorous pests which is forthcoming from the journal Ecological Applications.
The Ecological Applications study's findings are also consistent with an earlier study from Frank's lab that found another scale insect species is more abundant at warmer temperatures due to increased survival rates.
and Christian Giardina of the U s. Forest Service used an expansive whole-ecosystem study the first of its kind on tropical montane wet forests in Hawaii to sort through the many processes that control soil
and the aggregate response examined before an understanding of ecosystem carbon balance in a warmer world can be achieved.
and ecosystems said NHAES researcher Adrienne Kovach research associate professor of natural resources at UNH. New england cottontails have been declining for decades.
The majority of research on New england cottontails has come out of UNH much of it under the leadership of John Litvaitis professor of wildlife ecology who has studied the New england cottontail for three decades.
Kovach's research expands on this knowledge by using DNA analysis to provide new information on the cottontail's status distribution genetic diversity and dispersal ecology.
This research which was funded in part by the NH Agricultural Experiment Station is presented in the article A multistate analysis of gene flow for the New england cottontail an imperiled habitat specialist in a fragmented landscape in the journal Ecology and Evolution.
and water resources and maintaining the health of the orchard ecosystem. According to Rom the study has implications for sustainably
This is a key piece of research that has demonstrated how effective bioacoustics techniques can be for providing ecological data.
and first author of the paper published online today in the journal Ecology Letters. The study of woodrats also known as packrats raises two concerns according to Kohl and the study's senior author Denise Dearing a professor and chair of biology:
and ecologists and land managers are concerned he says. Farmers are interested in getting their sheep and goats to eat juniper.
However in many cases this results in increased scarcity of water resources and puts a burden on ecosystems.
That appears to be the case according to Brad Herrick arboretum ecologist and research program manager.
Data on tongue lengths can help ecologists understand and predict the behavior resilience and invasiveness of bee populations.
Bartomeus will explain the equation and the usefulness of tongue length data for ecology at the 99th Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of America in Sacramento Cal. this August during the Pollination I oral session on Thursday
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and the University of Cologne who simulated ecological and social factors in a computer model. The negative effects of climate change can to a certain extent be offset by an increased herd mobility write the researchers in a recent issue of the journal Global Environmental Change.
It can be used anywhere where the dynamics of ecosystem services are linked closely to people's livelihoods.
Our results emphasize the fact that the form of pastoralism practised by nomadic herdsmen enables sustainable use of sensitive ecosystems
and that the ecosystems are resilient enough when used in this way to adapt to changes in rainfall
and Bonn Germany climatologists hydrologists geographers rangeland ecologists and ethnologists spent 12 years investigating the consequences of climate
Their data on rainfall fluctuations and on the productivity and regenerative capacity of pasture vegetation formed the basis for the ecological part of the model.
Fisher is the Claude W. Hibbard Collegiate Professor of Paleontology a professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental sciences and a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.
and is responsible for catastrophic ecological impacts on islands. A new study published in the open access journal Neobiota examines
and dangers of the introduction of the yellow crazy ant to the uniqueendemic ecosystem of the mature palm forest of the Vallã e de Mai a UNESCO World Heritage Site on the Seychelles.
The palm forest of Vallã e de Mai is a unique ecosystem containing many endemic species including the iconic coco de mer palm Lodoicea maldivica.
Impacts of invasive ants can include direct effects such as displaced local species and indirect effects on key ecological functions such as frugivory pollination and seed dispersal.
Although the impacts and ecology of A. gracilipes have been documented well in degraded habitats in the Seychelles little is known about this ant's invasion potential in endemic palm forest ecosystems.
This habitat represents one of the last island palm forest ecosystems in the world and hosts many species that are endemic to Praslin
The current restricted distribution of A. gracilipes in this ecosystem combined with lower abundance of endemic fauna in the invaded area highlight the need for further research.
A research team led by Michael Jenkins associate professor of forest ecology found that a 17-yearlong Indiana Department of Natural resources policy of organizing hunts in state parks has spurred successfully the regrowth of native tree seedlings herbs
Because our actions have made the natural world the way it is we have an obligation to practice stewardship to maintain ecological balance.
But when deer are overabundant they start to have undeniable negative impacts on the ecosystem.
 The role of humans in the spread of invasive insects such as the emerald ash borer and Asian longhorned beetle is established well according to the study's lead author Frank Koch a research ecologist with the Forest Service
The research by Nigel Raine a professor in Guelph's School of Environmental sciences and Richard Gill of Imperial College London was published today in The british Ecological Society's journal Functional Ecology.
The above story is provided based on materials by University of Illinois College of Agricultural Consumer and Environmental sciences (ACES.
Diet analyses are central to the study of avian trophic ecology and can be an important conservation tool.
Authors point out that these results suggest that individual diet variation within populations is likely to have important ecological and evolutionary implications.
and availability but it also provides new interesting data to studies centred on changes in the habitats and ecosystems where the Bonelli's Eagle one of the most representative--and threatened--raptor species of the Mediterranean region lives.
Ministry of Ecology Energy Sustainable Development and the Sea among other institutions. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Universidad de Barcelona.
To Nieh whose research has focused on the evolution of communication strategies among bees eavesdropping is part of the information web the signals and cues that surround animals and play a key role in shaping ecosystems.
but suggests how these strategies can affect the ecology of plant communities. Such strategies affect not only the individuals directly involved but also broader ecological interactions between the food-gatherers and their food Lichtenberg says.
This is particularly important for animals such as the bees I studied because their movements determine plant pollination.
#A case study of manta rays and lagoonsdouglas Mccauley a new assistant professor in UC Santa barbara's Department of Ecology Evolution and Marine Biology does fieldwork in one of the most isolated places in the world--Palmyra Atoll.
and his colleagues chose to study the ecology of Manta alfredi. Manta rays are classified as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature
or even assess it we need to learn some basic things about their ecology. So we did just that.
We used high-resolution animal tracking tools to describe in as much detail as we could the ecology of the mantas
Because we were trying to produce a more complete picture of manta ray ecology we had to use a toolkit that pulled out different fleeting pictures
if decision-makers pay attention to ecosystem structure composition and dynamics. They shouldnâ##t base everything on a single statistic such as the total land area occupied by forest especially
The loss of these species breaks the delicate balance of coral ecosystems and allows algae on
which are one of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet. Caribbean reefs spanning a total of 38 countries are vital to the region's economy.
despite their enormous ecological and economic value says Jerker Tamelander head of the UNEP coral reef unit.
The research could have far-reaching implications for how we manage agricultural land and native ecosystems.
In a paper published in the scientific journal New Phytologist plant ecologist Nishanth Tharayil and graduate student Mioko Tamura show that invasive plants can accelerate the greenhouse effect by releasing carbon stored in soil into the atmosphere.
and ecosystems to facilitate the storage of carbon could be dramatic. In their study Tamura and Tharayil examined the impact of encroachment of Japanese knotweed and kudzu two of North america's most widespread invasive plants on the soil carbon storage in native ecosystems.
They found that kudzu invasion released carbon that was stored in native soils while the carbon amassed in soils invaded by knotweed is more prone to oxidation
Climate change is causing massive range expansion of many exotic and invasive plant species. As the climate warms kudzu will continue to invade northern ecosystems
Converting diverse forest ecosystems to these single-crop monocultures degrades or destroys wildlife habitat. Oil palm plantations also have been associated with dangerous and abusive conditions for laborers.
Although we previously documented carbon emissions from land use conversion to oil palm we were stunned by how these oil palm plantations profoundly alter freshwater ecosystems for decades said study co-author
and team leader Lisa M. Curran a professor of ecological anthropology at Stanford and a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.
because this study is one of the first to examine the oil palm's effects on freshwater ecosystems.
and diverse smallholder agricultural lands to oil palm plantations may be almost as harmful to stream ecosystems as clearing intact forests.
Very few protections for such non-intact forest ecosystems exist. According to Curran extensive land conversion to oil palm plantations could lead to a perfect storm combining the crop's environmental effects with those from a massive El Niã o-associated drought.
This could cause collapse of freshwater ecosystems and significant social and economic hardships in a region Curran said.
Southampton's Dr Abhishek Tiwary who is based within the Centre for Environmental sciences and Dr Prashant Kumar from the University of Surrey found that heritage buildings built from limestone
Southampton's Dr Abhishek Tiwary who is based within the Centre for Environmental sciences and Dr Prashant Kumar from the University of Surrey found that heritage buildings built from limestone
#More carbohydrates make trees more resistant to droughthow well tropical trees weather periods of drought depends on the carbohydrates stored as revealed by a novel experiment conducted by an international team of researchers headed by ecologists from the University of Zurich in contribution
An international research team headed by Michael O'brien an ecologist at the University of Zurich is now studying
Mathematically modeling species dispersaldispersal is an ecological process involving the movement of an organism or multiple organisms away from their birth site to another location
An important topic in ecology and evolutionary biology dispersal can either be directed random or. Random movement as the name indicates describes dispersal patterns that are unbiased
In ecology ideal free distribution refers to the way in which organisms distribute themselves among patches proportional to the amount of resources available in each patch.
Changing vegetationthe researchers have studied also the impact of these moth invasions on the northern birch forest ecosystem.
and ecosystems Seneviratne explains. Even though the rise in average global temperatures has stagnated in recent years there has been an increase in extreme heat events over land areas.
in the U s. since the 1980s according to a new study by ecologists. Last year a pair of researchers linked the drop in the populations of grassland bird species such as the upland sandpiper and the Henslow's sparrow to insecticide use rather than to a rapid decline of grasslands a more commonly accepted theory.
and U s. Department of agriculture researchers now believe that the loss of habitat continues to be the best explanation said Jason M. Hill a postdoctoral research associate in ecosystem science and management Penn State.
Conservation Reserve Program contracts are not being renewed said J. Franklin Egan research ecologist USDA-Agricultural research service who worked with Hill.
Hill and Egan also worked with Glenn E. Stauffer a postdoctoral scholar in forest resources and Duane R. Diefenbach adjunct professor of wildlife ecology both of Penn State.
Located in northwest Montana adjacent to Glacier national park the 2. 4 million-acre Flathead Forest is a strategic part of the stunning and ecologically diverse Crown of the Continent Ecosystem.
and connects large landscapes that have high topographic and ecological diversity. Such a strategy will provide a range of options for animal movements as conditions change.
and beneficial for the survival of African elephants explained first author Robert Pringle a Princeton assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology.
The Holy grail in ecology is these win-win situations where we can preserve wildlife in a way that is beneficial to human livelihoods Pringle said.
As more African savanna is converted into pasture the proliferation of the Sodom apple may only get worse Pringle said which means that the presence of elephants to eat it may become more vital to the ecosystem and livestock.
The Sodom apple thrives on ecological mayhem such as the stress of overgrazing put on the land Pringle said:
Ricardo Holdo a savanna ecologist and assistant professor of biological sciences at the University of Missouri said that the researchers present enough data to potentially determine the amount of pastureland that wild Sodom-apple eaters would be able to keep free of
or goes extinct and another species steps in to fulfill the same ecological role This consideration helps ecologists predict the overall effect of extinction on an entire ecosystem.
and we need to understand to what extent these threatened animals have unique ecological functions. The majority of studies on functional redundancy have been conducted in aquatic systems
The Princeton-led study is made more robust by being unusually long by ecology standards he said--the researchers observed similar patterns year after year.
A big part of the reason we don't understand functional redundancy very well in terrestrial ecosystems is
Pringle worked with Corina Tarnita a Princeton mathematical biologist and assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology as well as with collaborators from the University of Wyoming the University of Florida the University of California-Davis the Mpala Center
Honeybees and bats are key to the ecosystem. One of every three bites of food in America is related to honeybee pollination according to the United states Department of agriculture.
Minnesota Forest Ecosystem Vulnerability Assessment and Synthesis was published by the U s. Forest Service's Northern Research Station
As species distribution and abundance shift due to climate change interspecific differences in leaf-out timing may affect ecosystem processes such as carbon water
Leaf-out phenology affects a wide variety of ecosystem processes and ecological interactions and will take on added significance as leaf-out times increasingly shift in response to warming temperatures associated with climate change the study said.
There is however relatively little information available on the factors affecting species differences in leaf out phenology.
and we by uniting people from different countries have the opportunity to conserve a species not to mention an ecosystem and a landscape that is larger than all of Montana and Nebraska combined.
and an Ecological Society of America SEEDS Undergraduate Research Fellowship (funded by the National Science Foundation).
and the longest dry season among tropical ecosystems worldwide Dwomoh explained. Since the 1970s temperatures have increased
The results of the study by Thomas Newsome and William Ripple in the Oregon State university Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society were published in the Journal of Animal Ecology by The british Ecological Society.
whether the dingo can provide positive ecological benefits. Where dingoes have been removed the impacts of introduced red foxes
and Americans can learn from the ecological role of the dingo Newsome said. As coyotes have expanded in North america they have become a major cause of concern for the livestock industry.
This study gives us a whole other avenue to understand the ecological effects of wolves on landscapes
He and his colleagues have shown that the removal of top predators can cause dramatic shifts within ecosystems.
This along with its keystone ecological status and ability to adapt to marginal terrain make Eucalyptus an excellent focus for expanding our knowledge of the evolution and adaptive biology of perennial plants.
These trees appear to be a very interesting alternative for the forestry sector in view of the modifications ecosystems are undergoing
because it had suffered ecological disaster during the mid-20th century: acid rain as a result of the local nickel smelting industry.
The area is part of the boreal ecosystem: a vast subarctic climate system that rings round most of the top of the Northern hemisphere--full of huge ancient forests vital to the carbon cycle of Earth.
It accounts for the role of ecological dynamics in shaping the future direction of natural capital stocks
These are the findings of an experiment on almond trees conducted in California by the Freiburg ecologist Prof.
Our specific motivation is to learn where to best target agricultural efforts to slow global warming said Phil Robertson director of MSU's Kellogg Biological Station Long-term Ecological Research Program and senior
if their ecosystem is suffering from local climate stressors like hypoxia and acidification said the study's lead author Marie Delorenzo Ph d. NOAA environmental physiology
and environmental resource agencies as they manage the use of mosquito control pesticides near their coastal ecosystems.
Clams and oysters are also important for the coastal ecosystem because they filter water improving water quality
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