Snowmelt Patterns as Predictors of Post-fire Whitebark Pine Regeneration Densities on Mt. Washburn, Yellowstone National Park

Snowmelt Patterns as Predictors of Post-fire Whitebark Pine Regeneration Densities on Mt. Washburn, Yellowstone National Park PDF Author: Phillip E. Farnes
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Precipitation (Meteorology)
Languages : en
Pages : 16

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Book Description
In April 2002, a personnel services contract was initiated between Yellowstone National Park (Tom Olliff, Chief, Branch of Natural Resources) and Snowcap Hydrology to obtain necessary snow measurements to develop snowmelt patterns on permanent plots established on Mount Washburn after the 1988 fires. Information was to be provided to Dr. Diana Tomback to use in her study on the STATUS OF WHITEBARK PINE REGENERATION IN THE GREATER YELLOWSTONE AREA FOLLOWING THE 1988 FIRES: BURNED VS. UNBURNED FORESTS AND MESIC VS ZERIC CONDITIONS; ASSESSMENT OF BLISTER RUST INFECTION IN SEEDLINGS. This project was permitted under number YELL-2002-SCI-0205. Additional investigators on this project were Dr. Anna Schoettle, USFS Fort Collins, Colorado and Phil Farnes, Snowcap Hydrology, Bozeman, Montana. The results of 2002 were reported in SNOWMELT PATTERNS AS PREDICTORS OF POST-FIRE WHITEBARK PINE REGENERATION DENSITIES ON MOUNT WASHBURN, YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Snowmelt on Whitebark Pine Plots, Spring 2002 dated July 2002. --Excerpt from introduction.

Snowmelt Patterns as Predictors of Post-fire Whitebark Pine Regeneration Densities on Mt. Washburn, Yellowstone National Park

Snowmelt Patterns as Predictors of Post-fire Whitebark Pine Regeneration Densities on Mt. Washburn, Yellowstone National Park PDF Author: Phillip E. Farnes
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Precipitation (Meteorology)
Languages : en
Pages : 16

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Book Description
In April 2002, a personnel services contract was initiated between Yellowstone National Park (Tom Olliff, Chief, Branch of Natural Resources) and Snowcap Hydrology to obtain necessary snow measurements to develop snowmelt patterns on permanent plots established on Mount Washburn after the 1988 fires. Information was to be provided to Dr. Diana Tomback to use in her study on the STATUS OF WHITEBARK PINE REGENERATION IN THE GREATER YELLOWSTONE AREA FOLLOWING THE 1988 FIRES: BURNED VS. UNBURNED FORESTS AND MESIC VS ZERIC CONDITIONS; ASSESSMENT OF BLISTER RUST INFECTION IN SEEDLINGS. This project was permitted under number YELL-2002-SCI-0205. Additional investigators on this project were Dr. Anna Schoettle, USFS Fort Collins, Colorado and Phil Farnes, Snowcap Hydrology, Bozeman, Montana. The results of 2002 were reported in SNOWMELT PATTERNS AS PREDICTORS OF POST-FIRE WHITEBARK PINE REGENERATION DENSITIES ON MOUNT WASHBURN, YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Snowmelt on Whitebark Pine Plots, Spring 2002 dated July 2002. --Excerpt from introduction.

Patterns of Post-fire Regeneration of Whitebark Pine in the Greater Yellowstone Area

Patterns of Post-fire Regeneration of Whitebark Pine in the Greater Yellowstone Area PDF Author: Diana F. Tomback
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem
Languages : en
Pages : 26

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Analysis of Sapling Density Regeneration in Yellowstone National Park with Hyperspectral Remote Sensing Data

Analysis of Sapling Density Regeneration in Yellowstone National Park with Hyperspectral Remote Sensing Data PDF Author: Chris Potter
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Fire ecology
Languages : en
Pages : 8

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The density of lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) sapling regeneration was mapped in areas burned during the 1988 wildfires across Yellowstone National Park (YNP), Wyoming, USA. Hyperspectral image analysis and field measurements were combined across the entire YNP extent. Airborne Visible Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) image data from 2006 were used to compute ten different vegetation indices (VI). The ten VIs were combined to build multiple regression models for predicting and mapping post-fire sapling density. Four different forms of regression modeling were applied to derive the highest possible prediction accuracy (correlation coefficient of R2 = 0.83). Pine sapling regeneration 19 years after large-scale wildfires showed a high level of variability in patch density (ranging from 14/100 ha to 57/100 ha), whereas sapling density measured previously from the first decade following wildfire was more uniform (10/100 ha to 21/100 ha). The ecosystem-level clumpiness index showed major shifts in aggregation of different sapling density classes, and was consistent with an overall decrease in estimated sapling density of nearly 50% between 1998 and 2007. This analysis revealed important succession patterns and processes in post-fire forest regeneration for the Greater Yellowstone Area (GYA).

After the Fires

After the Fires PDF Author: Linda L. Wallace
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300127758
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
Americans currently choose their president through the electoral college, an extraordinarily complex mechanism that may elect a candidate who does not receive the most votes. In this provocative book, George Edwards III argues that, contrary to what supporters of the electoral college claim, there is no real justification for a system that might violate majority rule. Drawing on systematic data, Edwards finds that the electoral college does not protect the interests of small states or racial minorities, does not provide presidents with effective coalitions for governing, and does little to protect the American polity from the alleged harms of direct election of the president. In fact, the electoral college distorts the presidential campaign so that candidates ignore most small states and some large ones and pay little attention to minorities, and it encourages third parties to run presidential candidates and discourages party competition in many states. Edwards demonstrates effectively that direct election of the president without a runoff maximizes political equality and eliminates the distortions in the political system caused by the electoral college.

The Influence of Fire Interval and Climate on Successional Patterns in Yellowstone National Park

The Influence of Fire Interval and Climate on Successional Patterns in Yellowstone National Park PDF Author: Tania Schoennagel
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Climate ecology
Languages : en
Pages : 198

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Landscape Patterns of Sapling Density, Leaf Area, and Aboveground Net Primary Production in Postfire Lodgepole Pine Forests, Yellowstone National Park (USA)

Landscape Patterns of Sapling Density, Leaf Area, and Aboveground Net Primary Production in Postfire Lodgepole Pine Forests, Yellowstone National Park (USA) PDF Author: Monica Goigel Turner
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Fire ecology
Languages : en
Pages : 25

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Causes and implications of spatial variability in postfire tree density and understory plant cover for patterns of aboveground net primary production (ANPP) and leaf area index (LAI) were examined in ninety 11-year-old lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta var. latifolia Engelm.) stands across the landscape of Yellowstone National Park (YNP), Wyoming, USA. Field studies and aerial photography were used to address three questions: (1) What is the range and spatial pattern of lodgepole pine sapling density across the burned Yellowstone landscape and what factors best explain this variability? (2) How do ANPP and LAI vary across the landscape and is their variation explained by abiotic factors, sapling density, or both? (3) What is the predicted spatial pattern of ANPP and LAI across the burned Yellowstone landscape? Stand density spanned six orders of magnitude, ranging from zero to 535,000 saplings ha?1, and it decreased with increasing elevation and with increasing distance from unburned forest (r2=0.37). Postfire densities mapped from 1:30,000 aerial photography revealed that 66% of the burned area had densities less than 5000 saplings ha?1 and approximately 25% had densities greater than 10,000 saplings ha?1; stand density varied spatially in a fine-grained mosaic. New allometric equations were developed to predict aboveground biomass, ANPP, and LAI of lodgepole pine saplings and the 25 most common herbaceous and shrub species in the burned forests. These allometrics were then used with field data on sapling size, sapling density, and percent cover of graminoid, forb, and shrub species to compute stand-level ANPP and LAI. Total ANPP averaged 2.8 Mg ha?1y?1 but ranged from 0.04 to 15.12 Mg ha?1y?1. Total LAI averaged 0.80 m2 m?2 and ranged from 0.01 to 6.87 m2 m?2. Variation in ANPP and LAI was explained by both sapling density and abiotic factors (elevation and soil class) (ANOVA, r2=0.80); abiotic variables explained 51%?54% of this variation. The proportion of total ANPP contributed by herbaceous plants and shrubs declined sharply with increasing sapling density (r2=0.72) and increased with elevation (r2=0.36). However, total herbaceous productivity was always less than 2.7 Mg ha?1 y?1, and herbaceous productivity did not compensate for tree production when trees were sparse. When extrapolated to the landscape, 68% of the burned landscape was characterized by ANPP values less than 2.0 Mg ha?1y?1, 22% by values ranging from 2 to 4 Mg ha?1y?1, and the remaining 10% by values greater than 4 Mg ha?1y?1. The spatial patterns of ANPP and LAI were less heterogeneous than patterns of sapling density but still showed fine-grained variation in rates. For some ecosystem processes, postfire spatial heterogeneity within a successional stage may be similar in magnitude to the temporal variation observed through succession.

The Ecological Implications of Fire in Greater Yellowstone

The Ecological Implications of Fire in Greater Yellowstone PDF Author: Jason M. Greenlee
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Botany
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Twenty-four Years After the Yellowstone Fires

Twenty-four Years After the Yellowstone Fires PDF Author: Monica Goigel Turner
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biomass
Languages : en
Pages : 14

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Book Description
Disturbance and succession have long been of interest in ecology, but how landscape patterns of ecosystem structure and function evolve following large disturbances is poorly understood. After nearly 25 years, lodgepole pine ( Pinus contorta var. latifolia) forests that regenerated after the 1988 Yellowstone Fires (Wyoming, USA) offer a prime opportunity to track the fate of disturbance-created heterogeneity in stand structure and function in a wilderness setting. In 2012, we resampled 72 permanent plots to ask (1) How have postfire stand structure and function changed between 11 and 24 yr postfire, and what variables explain these patterns and changes? (2) How has landscape-level (among-stand) variability in postfire stand structure and function changed between 11 and 24 yr postfire? We expected to see evidence of convergence beginning to emerge, but also that initial postfire stem density would still determine trajectories of biomass accumulation. After 24 yr, postfire lodgepole pine density remained very high (mean = 21,738 stems/ha, range = 0-344,067 stems/ha). Stem density increased in most plots between 11 and 24 yr postfire, but declined sharply where 11-yr-postfire stem density was >72,000 stems/ha. Stems were small in high-density stands, but stand-level lodgepole pine leaf area, foliage biomass, and live aboveground biomass increased over time and with increasing stem density. After 24 yr, mean annual lodgepole pine aboveground net primary production ( ANPP) was high (mean = 5 Mg?ha?1?yr?1, range = 0-16.5 Mg?ha?1?yr?1). Among stands, lodgepole pine ANPP increased with stem density, which explained 69% of the variation; another 8% of the variation was explained by environmental covariates. Early patterns of postfire lodgepole pine regeneration, which were contingent on prefire serotiny and fire severity, remained the dominant driver of stand structure and function. We observed mechanisms that would lead to convergence in stem density (structure) over time, but it was landscape variation in functional variables that declined substantially. Stand structure and function have not converged across the burned landscape, but our evidence suggests function will converge sooner than structure.

Fire, Red Squirrels, Whitebark Pine, and Yellowstone Grizzly Bears

Fire, Red Squirrels, Whitebark Pine, and Yellowstone Grizzly Bears PDF Author: Shannon R. Podruzny
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Fire
Languages : en
Pages : 8

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Book Description
Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) habitats are important to Yellowstone grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) as refugia and sources of food. Ecological relationships between whitebark pine, red squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus), and grizzly bear use of pine seeds on Mt. Washburn in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, were examined during 1984-86. Following large-scale fires in 1988, we repeated the study in 1995-97 to examine the effects of fire on availability of whitebark pine seed in red squirrel middens and on bear use of middens. Half of the total length of the original line transects burned. We found no red squirrel middens in burned areas. Post-fire linear-abundance (no./km) of active squirrel middens that were pooled from burned and unburned areas decreased 27% compared to pre-fire abundance, but increased in unburned portions of some habitat types. Mean size of active middens decreased 54% post-fire. Use of pine seeds by bears (linear abundance of excavated middens) in pooled burned and unburned habitats decreased by 64%, likely due to the combined effects of reduced midden availability and smaller midden size. We discourage any further large-scale losses of seed producing trees from management-prescribed fires or timber harvesting until the effects of fire on ecological relationships in the whitebark pine zone are better understood.

Landscape Variability and Convergence in Forest Structure and Function Following Large Fires in Yellowstone National Park

Landscape Variability and Convergence in Forest Structure and Function Following Large Fires in Yellowstone National Park PDF Author: Daniel M. Kashian
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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Book Description