Analysis of red spruce (Picea rubens) regeneration in Pocahontas, Randolph, and Tucker counties, West Virginia

Three red spruce communities in the Central Appalachians of West Virginia were accessed temporally over a period of 10 to 11 years and by forest zones (i.e. hardwood, ecotone, red spruce zones). These communities experienced an increasing density of red spruce over time across all forest zones. Red spruce was successfully establishing and expanding across the ecotone into the hardwood forest zone. The greatest increase of red spruce was seen in the more disturbed and earlier successional sites, whereas the less disturbed red spruce community experienced the least change. The red spruce populations in this study were thriving and increasing the density of red spruce seedlings, advanced regeneration and trees across the spruce-hardwood ecotone as well as under the surrounding hardwood canopy. Red spruce seedling densities were found to be greater with increased cover of bryophytes and coarse woody debris, while densities are reduced with increasing cover of Dryopteris spp

Technical Bulletins: New EPA Regulations Limit Cost Overruns to 5%

This Technical Bulletin discusses a new regulation announced by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which made all Wastewater Grants subject to a 5% overrun rule, effective February 10, 1986

The Distribution and Paleoecological Interpretation of Cornulites in the Waynesville Formation (Upper Ordovician) of Southwestern Ohio

Author Institution: Department of Geology, Wittenberg University, Springfield, Ohio and Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PennsylvaniaSeventeen species of marine invertebrates collected from the Upper Ordovician Waynesville Formation of southwestern Ohio were found encrusted by Cornulites, a presumed tubicolous annelid worm. Encrustation was interpreted as symbiotic in cases where the cornulitid tubes exhibited preferred orientation upon the exoskeleton of the host. This situation may reflect cornulitid utilization of feeding currents generated or employed by the host species. Symbiotic attachments of Cornulites were encountered most commonly on several species of brachiopods, but were also observed on a pelecypod, a monoplacophoran, two species of bryozoa, and questionably on a gastropod and nautiloid. Post-mortem encrustation of a host by Cornulites was inferred either from random orientation of the cornulitid tubes or from attachment in a manner or position incompatible with the functional morphology of the host species. Cornulites was found in post-mortem association with brachiopods, bryozoans, and a trilobite. In this situation the host species presumably provided, after death, a suitably hard substrate for cornulitid larval attachment. Symmetrically positioned cornulitid clusters on a specimen of Cyrtolites sp. cf. C. ornatus Conrad supports the accepted, but unproven, interpretation of bilaterally developed mantle-cavity organs in cyclomyan monoplacophorans

The role of sampling methodology and site selection on myxomycete data from the Neotropics

Myxomycete sporocarps are practical units that can be used to study the effect of environmental issues such as climate change, urbanization, and natural disasters on microorganisms. Recent scientific literature lacks empirical approaches to understand the impacts of sampling design and site selection on the data obtained in myxomycete field surveys. The present investigation was designed to generate useful data for the evaluation of methodological approaches. Myxomycetes were studied for two years in a tropical premontane wet forest in Costa Rica using two different sampling strategies and several collecting sites to evaluate potential differences in the results. Field collections were used to generate the dataset due to their usefulness for monitoring purposes. Sampling strategies had a smaller impact on the reported structure and composition of obtained species assemblages than site selection, but a combination of both clearly maximized the effort and provided the best results during the field surveys. Functional variables of the forest with direct influence on the myxomycete life cycle such as tree diameter and leaf litter depth impacted the results synergically. Simulations of surveys at two different levels of effort were compared with total yearly efforts and results showed that revisiting sampling sites maximized the field effort. Results demonstrated that the variability of sporocarp production in tropical forests should be considered in the design of long-term field experiments on myxomycetes.Universidad de Costa Rica/[570-B8-006]/UCR/Costa RicaUCR::Vicerrectoría de Investigación::Unidades de Investigación::Ingeniería::Instituto Investigaciones en Ingeniería (INII)UCR::Sedes Regionales::Sede del Atlántico::Recinto de Paraíso::Finca Experimental Interdisciplinaria de Modelos Agroecológicos (FEIMA

Creative Approach to Evaluating: The Tri-Fold Display Example

One benefit in working for Extension is the educator\u27s ability to be creative. However, creativity and evaluation typically are not two words an Extension educator uses in the same sentence. This article highlights one creative evaluation strategy used at a youth wildlife camp. The evaluation strategy utilizes a tri-fold display allowing participants the ability to showcase what they learned. From their showcase, the Extension educator can use simple evaluation techniques to determine the most significant item learned. An extra bonus is that these participants use these tri-folds in communities to tell others about their experiences building critical life skills

Generation of myxomycete data from three discrete experiments using moist chamber cultures in a Neotropical forest

The moist chamber technique is widely used in ecological research on myxomycetes. However, limited assessments on the usefulness of the technique have been carried out using empirical data. In the present study, three discrete experiments were carried out in a tropical forest in Costa Rica with the main objective of providing meaningful parameters for the design of future studies in similar environments. All three experiments showed that results could be maximized for representativeness by designing studies that purposedly target ecological components of the studied system. In a comparison of recorded data at three heights above the forest ground, a significantly higher number of records and species were observed in the higher vertical partitions, suggesting that collecting research material from the ground, in this ecological setting, reduces the probability of recording the highest species diversity. However, the ground level was associated with a high number of records and species within the genus Didymium, offering relevant information for studies targeting this genus. Similarly, based on effort, results from the present study suggest that a collecting effort designed to record system variability represents a superior cost-benefit situation for synecological studies than a more intense effort designed only for a limited spatial or temporal space, which in turn would reduce the ecological significance of the resultant dataUniversidad de Costa Rica/[570-B8-006]/UCR/Costa RicaUCR::Vicerrectoría de Investigación::Unidades de Investigación::Ingeniería::Instituto Investigaciones en Ingeniería (INII)UCR::Sedes Regionales::Sede del Atlántico::Recinto de Paraíso::Finca Experimental Interdisciplinaria de Modelos Agroecológicos (FEIMA

Threat Avoidance Behavior and Land Use of the Northern Bobwhite in the Rolling Plains of Texas

Northern bobwhites (Colinus virginianus) are an economically important species for several regions within the state of Texas. Bobwhites, along with their fiscal importance, fill a key role within the ecosystem as an r-selected common prey species. However, throughout the past few decades, bobwhite populations have plummeted to record lows. Currently many studies are investigating possible causes behind this precipitous decline, but efforts to discover better land management practices that provide preferred habitat for bobwhites should not be abandoned. Current landscape recommendations related to bobwhite escape cover stem from data collected on anthropogenic threats to bobwhites (i.e., coveys flushed by human disturbance). Bobwhites have a multitude of non-anthropogenic threats in the wild, and the existing data may lack important information regarding threat-specific avoidance behavior. Predation is a primary cause of bobwhite mortality, and we focused on bobwhite anti-predatory behavior and resulting land-use strategies with an ultimate goal of providing management recommendations to increase bobwhite survival. We designed and conducted an experiment to investigate not only bobwhite responses to anthropogenic threats, but also their responses to common natural predators. We investigated bobwhite behavioral and use of cover actions in response to 4 threat types: researchers, hunters, raptors, and nocturnal mammals. We collected data from January through March in 2010 and from November 2010 through March 2011. We measured characteristics of bobwhite flushing behavior, flight speed, and land and vegetative use when presented with specific threats. We located radio-marked coveys and conducted a walk-through for the researcher threat, if necessary, to cause the birds to flush. The hunter and raptor threats were conducted similarly with introduction of pointing dogs and shotgun blasts for the hunting scenario, and introduction of a trained northern goshawk (Accipiter gentilis) to give chase to bobwhites in the raptor scenario. We followed the same methods as the researcher treatment when creating the nocturnal mammal treatment, but conducted the test at night and followed the birds’ flight with a thermal imaging scope. There was a significant difference in landing cover among threat types with bobwhites selecting shrubs for landing cover when pursued by a raptor (P , 0.0001), whereas they showed no selection for shrubs when flushed by the other threat types. Bobwhites landed in live oak (Quercus virginianus) mottes and hackberry (Celtis reticulata) shrubs with the highest frequency, followed closely by wolfberry (Lycium barbarum), lote bush (Ziziphyus obtusifolia), and Englemann’s pricklypear (Opuntia engelmannii) when escaping the raptorial threat, These 5 species accounted for 49% of all shrubs used (19 total species) as escape cover in the raptor treatment. Obstructive vegetative height was higher at landing sites when bobwhites were presented with a raptor (P , 0.0001) or hunter (P 1⁄4 0.033) threat; however, bobwhites displayed no selection for obstructive vegetative height when presented with a researcher or nocturnal mammal threat. Further analyses will include modeling environmental and experimental parameters to find likely predictors of bobwhite threat avoidance behaviors, such as flushing speed, flight speed, and flight distance; behaviors that arguably affect energy expenditure and may interact with bobwhite health and predator avoidance capabilities. Our results suggest that land management recommendations based solely on anthropogenic threats may be insufficient to enable successful bobwhite escape strategies from raptors. Considering the availability and ‘integrity’ of shrubs as escape cover from raptors when contemplating brush management plans may enhance bobwhite management. We expect to provide threat-specific land management recommendations for bobwhites related to shrub species and density as well as grass density with continued analysis of these data

Mapping Ecotourism Learning : Using Concept Maps to Evaluate Visitor Learning During an Informal Boat-based Sea Life Viewing Program

Tourism is an ever-growing economic force across the world, the United States, Oregon, and on the Oregon Coast. In Oregon alone, the tourism industry had an economic impact in the state of $7.9 billion in 2006, up from$6.9 billion in 2004 (OTC, 2007). Though economically beneficial, tourism can be controversial, with concerns about overuse of resources and harm to the environment (Miller, 1993). Thus, ecotourism, a subset of tourism in which the goal is sustainability, and of which education is a vital component, has grown in popularity (Orams, 1999). Whale watching, which is sometimes considered to be an ecotourism activity (and which definitely can be, under the right circumstances), is at least a $1 billion industry worldwide and grew at an average of 12% per year from 1991 to 1998 (Hoyt, 2001). Boat-based whale watching makes up 72% of all whale watching related tourism activity (Hoyt, 2001), creating a prime opportunity for the marriage of boat-based marine educational endeavors & nature-based ecotourism. Marine Discovery Tours (MDT), a boat-based excursion company in Newport, Oregon, has been working since 1993 to develop its own ecotourism product incorporating whales and other sea life. As a corporation, profitability is a primary goal, and sustainability has been infused within the product as a means of meeting that goal, as well as the goals of conservation minded owners and staff to foster stewardship of coastal resources by educating and entertaining its customers (Mathews, 2007; personal communication). But how does one measure the success of those goals? And, in general within a free choice learning environment, what strategies need to be in place to market and deliver the product successfully in order to bring in new customers and maintain a strong customer repeat base? How important is the education aspect of the product versus the entertainment aspect to meeting those goals? This study does not necessarily address all of these issues. It looks briefly at customer expectations and satisfaction, with a few findings related to marketing the product, but the overall focus is the aspect of educating the customer