Spring 2011

CURRENT LITERATURE

Copies of these publications can be obtained through the NPS Pacific West Regional
Library via email to Nancy_Hori@nps.gov or phone (206/220-4154).

Table of Contents:
 Climate Change................................................................................2
 Conservation....................................................................................5
 Restoration.......................................................................................6
 Biodiversity......................................................................................7
 Invasive Species.............................................................................10
 Infectious disease/parasites..........................................................12
 Roads, impact of............................................................................13
 Wildfires.........................................................................................14
 Forests............................................................................................18
 Grasslands......................................................................................22
 Soil..................................................................................................23
 Land Ecosystems............................................................................24
 Riparian Ecosystems......................................................................24
 Freshwater Ecosystems.................................................................25
 Marine Ecosystems........................................................................26
 Hydrology.......................................................................................28
 Aquatic wildlife, other than fish....................................................28
 Freshwater Fish..............................................................................29
 Marine Fish....................................................................................29
 Salmonoids.....................................................................................29
 Wildlife...........................................................................................30
 Birds...............................................................................................32
 Plants/Botany.................................................................................33
 General Interest.............................................................................33
 History............................................................................................34
 Environmental Law & Policy..........................................................34
 Visitor Use......................................................................................34
 Environmental Education...............................................................34
 Reviews..........................................................................................35

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Climate Change
Schuldt, Jonathon P., Sara H. Konrath and Norbert Schwartz. 2011. “Global Warming” or “Climate Change”?
Whether the plant is warming depends on question wording. Public Opinion Quarterly 75(1): 115-124.

In public discourse and survey research, global climate change is sometimes referred to as “global
warming” and sometimes as “climate change.” An analysis of web sites of conservative and liberal think
tanks suggests that conservatives prefer to use the term “global warming” whereas liberals prefer
“climate change.” A question wording experiment (N = 2267) illustrates the power of these frames:
Republicans were less likely to endorse that the phenomenon is real when it was referred to as “global
warming” (44.0%) rather than “climate change” (60.2%), whereas Democrats were unaffected by question
wording (86.9% vs. 86.4%). As a result, the partisan divide on the issue dropped from 42.9 percentage
points under a “global warming” frame to 26.2 percentage points under a “climate change” frame.
Theoretical and methodological implications are discussed.
Verschuuren, Jonathan. 2010. Climate Change: Rethinking Restoration in the European Union’s Birds and
Habitats Directives. Ecological Restoration 28(4):431

Kerr, Richard A. 2011. First Detection of ozone hole recovery claimed. Science. 332 (6026): 160.

Although ozone-destroying chemicals have been in decline for a decade now, researchers have long
projected that they will not glimpse the first signs that the Antarctic ozone hole is healing until well past
2020. But for the first time, a group of researchers claims they can already see the ozone hole slowly
recovering. Many others, however, say the paper, now in press in Geophysical Research Letters, leaves out
critical information needed to clinch the case.

Lambrecht, Susan C. and Antonia D’Amore. 2010. Solarization for Non-native Plant Control in Cool, Coastal
California. Ecological Restoration 28(4):424.

Girardin, M. P. , P. Y. Bernier, and S. Gauthier. 2011. Increasing potential NEP of eastern boreal North American
forests constrained by decreasing wildfire activity. Ecosphere. 2(3): art25. [Natural Resources Canada, Canadian
Forest Service, Québec, QC G1V 4C7 Canada]

Heath, Linda S., James E. Smith, Christopher W. Woodall, David L. Azuma, and Karen L. Waddell. 2011. Carbon
stocks on forestland of the United States, with emphasis on USDA Forest Service ownership. Ecosphere. 2(1):
art6. [USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station, Durham, New Hampshire 03824; USDA Forest Service,
Northern Research Station, St. Paul, Minnesota 55108; USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station,
Portland, Oregon 97205]

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service (USFS) manages one-fifth of the area of forestland in
the United States. The Forest Service Roadmap for responding to climate change identified assessing and
managing carbon stocks and change as a major element of its plan. This study presents methods and
results of estimating current forest carbon stocks and change in the United States for public and private
owners, consistent with the official 2010 U.S. greenhouse gas inventory, but with improved data sources
for three states. Results are presented by National Forest System region, a major organizational
management unit within the Forest Service, and by individual national forest. USFS forestland in the
United States is estimated to contain an average of 192 Mg C/ha (megagrams carbon per hectare) on 60.4
million ha, for a total of 11,604 Tg C (teragrams C) in the year 2005. Privately-owned forestland averages
150 Mg C/ha on 173.8 million ha, with forestland of other public owners averaging 169 Mg C/ha on 43.1
million ha. In terms of change, private and USFS ownerships each sequester about a net 150 Tg CO 2/yr,
but an additional 92 Tg CO2/yr is stored in products from private harvests compared to about 3 Tg CO 2/yr
from harvest on USFS land. Emissions from other disturbances such as fires, as well as corresponding area
estimates of disturbance are also important, but the needed datasets are not yet available.
Recommendations are given for improving the estimates.

2
Damschen, Ellen I., Susan Harrison, and James B. Grace, 2011. Climate change effects on an endemic-rich edaphic
flora: resurveying Robert H. Whittaker's Siskiyou sites (Oregon, USA). Ecology. 91(12): 3609–3619. [ Department
of Biology, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri 63130; Department of Environmental Science and Policy,
University of California, Davis, California 95616; U.S. Geological Survey, National Wetlands Research Center, 700
Cajundome Boulevard, Lafayette, Louisiana 70506]

Turner, David P. 2011. Global vegetation monitoring: toward a sustainable technobiosphere. Frontiers in Ecology
and the Environment. 9(2). p.111-116. [Division of Earth Systems Science, Department of Forest Ecosystems and
Society, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR]

The concept of sustainable resource management can be applied at multiple scales. Monitoring is an
essential component of sustainable natural resource management schemes, and as we begin to confront
the need to manage natural resources at the global scale, the importance of monitoring at the global scale
is also growing. The combination of satellite remote sensing, in situ measurements, and simulation
modeling has the potential to deliver an annual assessment of status and trends for several measures of
terrestrial biosphere structure and function relevant to sustainability. However, there is, as yet, no
internationally coordinated effort in place to perform that analysis. Synthesis activity of that kind would
support the development of global environmental governance institutions, including both non-
governmental organizations and international bodies.

West, Paul C, Gemma T Narisma, Carol C Barford, Christopher J Kucharik, and Jonathan A Foley. 2011. An
alternative approach for quantifying climate regulation by ecosystems. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.
9(2): 126-133.

Ecosystems provide multiple benefits to people, including climate regulation. Previous efforts to quantify
this ecosystem service have been either largely conceptual or based on complex atmospheric models.
Here, we review previous research on this topic and propose a new and simple analytical approach for
estimating the physical regulation of climate by ecosystems. The proposed metric estimates how land-
cover change affects the loading of heat and moisture into the atmosphere, while also accounting for the
relative contribution of wind-transported heat and moisture. Although feedback dynamics between land,
atmosphere, and oceans are not modeled, the metric compares well with previous studies for several
regions. We find that ecosystems have the strongest influence on surface climatic conditions in the boreal
and tropical regions, where temperature and moisture changes could substantially offset or magnify
greenhouse-forced changes. This approach can be extended to estimate the effects of changing land cover
on local, physical climate processes that are relevant to society.

Mumby , Peter J, Roberto Iglesias-Prieto, Anthony J Hooten, Peter F Sale, Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, Alasdair J Edwards,
C Drew Harvell, Edgardo D Gomez, Nancy Knowlton, Marea E Hatziolos, Margareth S Kyewalyanga, and Nyawira
Muthiga. 2011. Revisiting climate thresholds and ecosystem collapse. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.
9(2): 94-96.

Conant, Richard T, Stephen M Ogle, Eldor A Paul, and Keith Paustian. 2011. Measuring and monitoring soil organic
carbon stocks in agricultural lands for climate mitigation. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. 9(3): 169-173.

Policies that encourage greenhouse-gas emitters to mitigate emissions through terrestrial carbon (C)
offsets – C sequestration in soils or biomass – will promote practices that reduce erosion and build soil
fertility, while fostering adaptation to climate change, agricultural development, and rehabilitation of
degraded soils. However, none of these benefits will be possible until changes in C stocks can be
documented accurately and cost-effectively. This is particularly challenging when dealing with changes in
soil organic C (SOC) stocks. Precise methods for measuring C in soil samples are well established, but
spatial variability in the factors that determine SOC stocks makes it difficult to document change.
Widespread interest in the benefits of SOC sequestration has brought this issue to the fore in the

3
 development of US and international climate policy. Here, we review the challenges to documenting
changes in SOC stocks, how policy decisions influence offset documentation requirements, and the
benefits and drawbacks of different sampling strategies and extrapolation methods.

Anderson, Ray G, et.al. 2011. Biophysical considerations in forestry for climate protection. Frontiers in Ecology
and the Environment. 9(3): 174-182.

Forestry – including afforestation (the planting of trees on land where they have not recently existed),
reforestation, avoided deforestation, and forest management – can lead to increased sequestration of
atmospheric carbon dioxide and has therefore been proposed as a strategy to mitigate climate change.
However, forestry also influences land-surface properties, including albedo (the fraction of incident
sunlight reflected back to space), surface roughness, and evapotranspiration, all of which affect the
amount and forms of energy transfer to the atmosphere. In some circumstances, these biophysical
feedbacks can result in local climate warming, thereby counteracting the effects of carbon sequestration
on global mean temperature and reducing or eliminating the net value of climate-change mitigation
projects. Here, we review published and emerging research that suggests ways in which forestry projects
can counteract the consequences associated with biophysical interactions, and highlight knowledge gaps
in managing forests for climate protection. We also outline several ways in which biophysical effects can
be incorporated into frameworks that use the maintenance of forests as a climate protection strategy.

Aufdenkampe, Anthony K, et.al. 2011. Riverine coupling of biogeochemical cycles between land, oceans, and
atmosphere. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. 9(1): 53-60. [Stroud Water Research Center, Avondale, PA]

Streams, rivers, lakes, and other inland waters are important agents in the coupling of biogeochemical
cycles between continents, atmosphere, and oceans. The depiction of these roles in global-scale
assessments of carbon (C) and other bioactive elements remains limited, yet recent findings suggest that
C discharged to the oceans is only a fraction of that entering rivers from terrestrial ecosystems via soil
respiration, leaching, chemical weathering, and physical erosion. Most of this C influx is returned to the
atmosphere from inland waters as carbon dioxide (CO 2) or buried in sedimentary deposits within
impoundments, lakes, floodplains, and other wetlands. Carbon and mineral cycles are coupled by both
erosion–deposition processes and chemical weathering, with the latter producing dissolved inorganic C
and carbonate buffering capacity that strongly modulate downstream pH, biological production of
calcium-carbonate shells, and CO2 outgassing in rivers, estuaries, and coastal zones. Human activities
substantially affect all of these processes.

Dawson, Terence P., Stephen T. Jackson, Joanna I. House, Iain Colin Prentice, and Georgina M. Mace. 2011. Beyond
Predictions: Biodiversity Conservation in a Changing Climate. Science. 332(6025): 53-58.

Climate change is predicted to become a major threat to biodiversity in the 21st century, but accurate
predictions and effective solutions have proved difficult to formulate. Alarming predictions have come
from a rather narrow methodological base, but a new, integrated science of climate-change biodiversity
assessment is emerging, based on multiple sources and approaches. Drawing on evidence from
paleoecological observations, recent phenological and microevolutionary responses, experiments, and
computational models, we review the insights that different approaches bring to anticipating and
managing the biodiversity consequences of climate change, including the extent of species’ natural
resilience. We introduce a framework that uses information from different sources to identify
vulnerability and to support the design of conservation responses. Although much of the information
reviewed is on species, our framework and conclusions are also applicable to ecosystems, habitats,
ecological communities, and genetic diversity, whether terrestrial, marine, or fresh water.

Hole, David G., et al. 2011. Toward a Management Framework for networks of protected areas in the face of
climate change. Conservation Biology. 25(2): 305.

4
Cole, Kenneth L., Kirsten Ironside, Jon Eischeid, Gregg Garfin, Phillip B. Duffy, and Chris Toney. 2011. Past and
ongoing shifts in Joshua tree distribution support future modeled range contraction. Ecological Applications.
21(1): 137-149. [USGS, Colorado Plateau Research Station, P.O. Box 5614, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff,
Arizona 86011; NOAA Earth Systems Research Laboratory, 325 Broadway, Boulder, Colorado 80305; Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory and University of California, Merced, California 94550; USDA Forest Service, Rocky
Mountain Research Station, Missoula, Montana 59808]

The future distribution of the Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia) is projected by combining a geostatistical
analysis of 20th-century climates over its current range, future modeled climates, and paleoecological
data showing its response to a past similar climate change. As climate rapidly warmed 11 700 years ago,
the range of Joshua tree contracted, leaving only the populations near what had been its northernmost
limit. Its ability to spread northward into new suitable habitats after this time may have been inhibited by
the somewhat earlier extinction of megafaunal dispersers, especially the Shasta ground sloth. We applied
a model of climate suitability for Joshua tree, developed from its 20th-century range and climates, to
future climates modeled through a set of six individual general circulation models (GCM) and one suite of
22 models for the late 21st century. All distribution data, observed climate data, and future GCM results
were scaled to spatial grids of 1 km and 4 km in order to facilitate application within this
topographically complex region. All of the models project the future elimination of Joshua tree
throughout most of the southern portions of its current range. Although estimates of future monthly
precipitation differ between the models, these changes are outweighed by large increases in temperature
common to all the models. Only a few populations within the current range are predicted to be
sustainable. Several models project significant potential future expansion into new areas beyond the
current range, but the species' historical and current rates of dispersal would seem to prevent natural
expansion into these new areas. Several areas are predicted to be potential sites for relocation/assisted
migration. This project demonstrates how information from paleoecology and modern ecology can be
integrated in order to understand ongoing processes and future distributions.

Conservation
Turner, David P. 2011. Global vegetation monitoring: toward a sustainable technobiosphere. Frontiers in Ecology
and the Environment. 9(2): 111-116. [Division of Earth Systems Science, Department of Forest Ecosystems and
Society, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR]

The concept of sustainable resource management can be applied at multiple scales. Monitoring is an
essential component of sustainable natural resource management schemes, and as we begin to confront
the need to manage natural resources at the global scale, the importance of monitoring at the global scale
is also growing. The combination of satellite remote sensing, in situ measurements, and simulation
modeling has the potential to deliver an annual assessment of status and trends for several measures of
terrestrial biosphere structure and function relevant to sustainability. However, there is, as yet, no
internationally coordinated effort in place to perform that analysis. Synthesis activity of that kind would
support the development of global environmental governance institutions, including both non-
governmental organizations and international bodies.

VanDover, C.L., Scientists as stakeholders in conservation of hydrothermal vents. Conservation Biology. 25(2):
214.

Brosius, J.P., Acknowledging conservation trade-offs and embracing complexity. Conservation biology. 25(2): 259.

5
Restoration
Henn, Avi and David Ostergren. 2010. The San Juan River Basin Fluvial Restoration Database and the
Conservation Registry (California). Ecological Restoration 28(4): 415.

Merritt, David J. and Kingsley W. Dixon. 22 April 2011. Restoration Seed Banks – a matter of scale. Science.
332(6028): 383-500.
Seed banks must shift from being “stamp-collections” of species to collections that can provide tons of
seeds and the expertise to improve restoration efforts.

Verschuuren, Jonathan. 2010. Climate Change: Rethinking Restoration in the European Union’s Birds and
Habitats Directives. Ecological Restoration 28(4): 431

Hough-Snee, Nate, Rodney Pond and Jake Jacobson. 2010. The Stillaguamish Big Trees Project: Watershed-Scale
Riparian Restoration (Washington). Ecological Restoration 28(3): 243

Nyoka. Susan E. 2010. Can Restoration Management Improve Habitat for Insect Pollinators in Ponderosa Pine
Forests of the American Southwest? Ecological Restoration 28(3): 280

Allen, Anastasia E., Francisco J. Santana-Michel, Claudia Ortiz Arrona and Joy B. Zedler. 2010. Integrating Ecological
and Ethnobotanical Priorities into Riparian Restoration. Ecological: 377

Sorensen, Christopher D. and Christopher M. McGlone. 2010. Ponderosa Pine Understory Response to Short-Term
Grazing Exclusion (Arizona). Ecological Restoration. 28(2): 124

Murcia. Carolina. 2010. On-the-Job Training for National Park Staff: What They Need to Know about Ecological
Restoration (Colombia). Ecological Restoration. 28(2): 139

Sandel, B., J. D. Corbin, and M. Krupa. 2011. Using plant functional traits to guide restoration: A case study in
California coastal grassland. Ecosphere. 2(2): art 23. [Department of Integrative Biology, University of California,
Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720;Department of Biological Sciences, Union College, Schenectady, New York
12308; Department of Land, Air, and Water Resources, University of California, Davis, Davis, California 95616]

Restoration ecology can benefit greatly from developments in trait-based ecology that enable improved
predictions of how the composition of plant communities will respond to changes in environmental
conditions. Plant functional traits can be used to guide the restoration of degraded habitats by closely
tailoring treatments to the local species pool. We tested this approach in two heavily invaded coastal
California grasslands. We asked whether native plant abundance and plant community trait composition
respond to (1) experimental soil fertility reduction in the form of twice-yearly carbon (C) amendments and
(2) disturbance in the form of mowing. We measured height, specific leaf area, leaf thickness and leaf
density from individuals of 39 species in the control and C addition plots, and supplemented these trait
values with database information on growth form, lifespan, nitrogen-fixing ability and seed mass.  
Consistent with theoretical predictions, C addition favored short, large-seeded and nitrogen-fixing species,
while mowing benefitted short species with high specific leaf area. However, native and exotic species did
not differ in any of the measured traits, and neither group benefitted generally from the treatments.
Carbon addition led to large intraspecific trait shifts, with individuals in C addition plots having smaller,
denser leaves and shorter stature. Species' trait plasticity, however, was not related to the community
composition response to C addition.  Our study indicates that trait-based ecology is sufficiently mature
to provide useful predictions in the realm of restoration ecology. Trait screening at a site can help predict
the success of a particular restoration measure in that community.

Krawchuk, Meg A. and Steve G. Cumming. 2011. Effects of biotic feedback and harvest management on boreal
forest fire activity under climate change. Ecological Applications. 21(1): 122-136. [Department of Environmental

6
Science, Policy, and Management, 137 Mulford Hall, MC number 3114, University of California, Berkeley, California
94720; Département des Sciences du Bois et de la Forêt, Faculté de Foresterie et de Géomatique, Pavillon Abitibi-
Price, Bureau 3143-A, Université Laval, Québec City, Québec G1K 7P4 Canada]

Predictions of future fire activity over Canada's boreal forests have primarily been generated from climate
data following assumptions that direct effects of weather will stand alone in contributing to changes in
burning. However, this assumption needs explicit testing. First, areas recently burned can be less likely to
burn again in the near term, and this endogenous regulation suggests the potential for self-limiting,
negative biotic feedback to regional climate-driven increases in fire. Second, forest harvest is ongoing, and
resulting changes in vegetation structure have been shown to affect fire activity. Consequently, we tested
the assumption that fire activity will be driven by changes in fire weather without regulation by biotic
feedback or regional harvest-driven changes in vegetation structure in the mixedwood boreal forest of
Alberta, Canada, using a simulation experiment that includes the interaction of fire, stand dynamics,
climate change, and clear cut harvest management.
We found that climate change projected with fire weather indices calculated from the Canadian Regional
Climate Model increased fire activity, as expected, and our simulations established evidence that the
magnitude of regional increase in fire was sufficient to generate negative feedback to subsequent fire
activity. We illustrate a 39% (1.39-fold) increase in fire initiation and 47% (1.47-fold) increase in area
burned when climate and stand dynamics were included in simulations, yet 48% (1.48-fold) and 61%
(1.61-fold) increases, respectively, when climate was considered alone. Thus, although biotic feedbacks
reduced burned area estimates in important ways, they were secondary to the direct effect of climate on
fire. We then show that ongoing harvest management in this region changed landscape composition in a
way that led to reduced fire activity, even in the context of climate change. Although forest harvesting
resulted in decreased regional fire activity when compared to unharvested conditions, forest composition
and age structure was shifted substantially, illustrating a trade-off between management goals to
minimize fire and conservation goals to emulate natural disturbance.

Pike, David A., Jonathan K. Webb, and Richard Shine. 2011. Removing forest canopy cover restores a reptile
assemblage. Ecological Applications. 21(1): 274-280. [School of Biological Sciences A08, University of Sydney,
NSW 2006 Australia]

Ando, Amy W. and Lee Hannah. 2011. Lessons from finance for new land-conservation strategies given climate-
change uncertainty. Conservation Biology. 25(2): 412.

Hardwick, K. et al., Role of botanic gardens in the science and practice of ecological restoration. Conservation
biology. 25(2): 265.

Michel, J.T., Helfield, J.M., Hooper, D.U., Seed rain and revegetation of exposed substrates following dam
removal on the Elwha River. Northwest Science 85(1): 15-29

Biodiversity
Pillsbury, Finn C., James R. Miller, Diane M. Debinski, David M. Engle. 2011. Another tool in the toolbox? Using fire
and grazing to promote bird diversity in highly fragmented landscapes. Ecosphere. 2(3):art28

Kennedy, Thomas L. and Thomas F. Turner. 2011. River channelization reduces nutrient flow and
macroinvertebrate diversity at the aquatic terrestrial transition zone. Ecosphere. 2(3): art 35 [Department of
Biology and Museum of Southwestern Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131 USA ]

Aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems are linked through lateral interactions that support and maintain
biodiversity in both regions. However, in many places, river regulation and channelization have isolated
rivers from surrounding riparian areas. We evaluated the effects of channelization on the linkages

7
 between aquatic and terrestrial invertebrate assemblages in the Rio Grande, New Mexico via comparison
of quantitative macroinvertebrate survey data and analyses of carbon and nitrogen isotopes to test for
changes in nutrient flow between channelized and non-channelized reaches of this highly regulated
system. Aquatic and terrestrial macroinvertebrates were surveyed in summer 2008 at channelized and
non-channelized reaches. Average densities of aquatic macroinvertebrates were 50% lower in the
channelized reaches. Taxonomic richness and densities of macroinvertebrates in the transition zone
between the river and forested floodplain were also lower in channelized reaches and this effect was
especially pronounced for predatory macroinvertebrate species. Carbon isotope ratios in consumers
indicated that instream (i.e., benthic algae) production served as the major source of carbon for
predaceous arthropods in the transition zone. Our results indicate that river regulation that leads to
channelization can reduce diversity and macroinvertebrate densities at the landscape scale by severing
linkages between the aquatic and riparian communities. These effects appear especially acute for
predaceous macroinvertebrates, perhaps because preferred prey density is lowered. Restoration of
natural flow regimes is vitally important to reduce channelization and maintain connectivity between the
aquatic and terrestrial environments to conserve the unique assemblage of macroinvertebrates in the
transition zone

Merritt, David M., Christer Nilsson, and Roland Jansson. 2010. Consequences of propagule dispersal and river
fragmentation for riparian plant community diversity and turnover. Ecological Monographs. 80(4): 600-626.
[National Watershed, Fish, Wildlife, Air, and Rare Plants, U.S. Forest Service, Natural Resource Research Center,
Fort Collins, Colorado 80526]

Letourneau, Deborah K. et.al. 2011. Does plant diversity benefit agroecosystems? A synthetic review. Ecological
Applications. 21(1): 9-21. [Environmental Studies Department, 1156 High Street, University of California, Santa
Cruz, California 95064]

Russ, Garry R. and Angel C. Alcala. 2011. Enhanced biodiversity beyond marine reserve boundaries: The cup
spillith over. Ecological Applications. 21(1): 241-250. [School of Marine and Tropical Biology and ARC Centre for
Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811 Australia; Silliman University Angelo King
Center for Research and Environmental Management, Silliman University, Dumaguete City, 6200, Philippines]

Swanson, Mark E, Jerry F Franklin, Robert L Beschta, Charles M Crisafulli, Dominick A DellaSala, Richard L Hutto,
David B Lindenmayer, and Frederick J Swanson. 2011. The forgotten stage of forest succession: early-successional
ecosystems on forest sites. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. 9(2): 117-125.

Early-successional forest ecosystems that develop after stand-replacing or partial disturbances are
diverse in species, processes, and structure. Post-disturbance ecosystems are also often rich in biological
legacies, including surviving organisms and organically derived structures, such as woody debris. These
legacies and post-disturbance plant communities provide resources that attract and sustain high species
diversity, including numerous early-successional obligates, such as certain woodpeckers and arthropods.
Early succession is the only period when tree canopies do not dominate the forest site, and so this stage
can be characterized by high productivity of plant species (including herbs and shrubs), complex food
webs, large nutrient fluxes, and high structural and spatial complexity. Different disturbances contrast
markedly in terms of biological legacies, and this will influence the resultant physical and biological
conditions, thus affecting successional pathways. Management activities, such as post-disturbance logging
and dense tree planting, can reduce the richness within and the duration of early-successional
ecosystems. Where maintenance of biodiversity is an objective, the importance and value of these natural
early-successional ecosystems are underappreciated.

Fletcher, Robert J Jr, Bruce A Robertson, Jason Evans, Patrick J Doran, Janaki RR Alavalapati, and Douglas W
Schemske .2011. Biodiversity conservation in the era of biofuels: risks and opportunities. Frontiers in Ecology and
the Environment. 9(3): 161-168.

8
 Growing demand for alternative energy sources has contributed to increased biofuel production, but the
effects on biodiversity of land-use change to biofuel crops remain unclear. Using a meta-analysis for crops
being used or considered in the US, we find that vertebrate diversity and abundance are generally lower
in biofuel crop habitats relative to the non-crop habitats that these crops may replace. Diversity effects
are greater for corn than for pine and poplar, and birds of conservation concern experience greater
negative effects from corn than species of less concern. Yet conversion of row-crop fields to grasslands
dedicated to biofuels could increase local diversity and abundance of birds. To minimize impacts of biofuel
crops on biodiversity, we recommend management practices that reduce chemical inputs, increase
heterogeneity within fields, and delay harvests until bird breeding has ceased. We encourage research
that will move us toward a sustainable biofuels economy, including the use of native plants, development
of robust environmental criteria for evaluating biofuel crops, and integrated cost–benefit analysis of
potential land-use change.

Dawson, Terence P., Stephen T. Jackson, Joanna I. House, Iain Colin Prentice, and Georgina M. Mace. 2011. Beyond
Predictions: Biodiversity Conservation in a Changing Climate. Science. 332(6025): 53-58.

Climate change is predicted to become a major threat to biodiversity in the 21st century, but accurate
predictions and effective solutions have proved difficult to formulate. Alarming predictions have come
from a rather narrow methodological base, but a new, integrated science of climate-change biodiversity
assessment is emerging, based on multiple sources and approaches. Drawing on evidence from
paleoecological observations, recent phenological and microevolutionary responses, experiments, and
computational models, we review the insights that different approaches bring to anticipating and
managing the biodiversity consequences of climate change, including the extent of species’ natural
resilience. We introduce a framework that uses information from different sources to identify
vulnerability and to support the design of conservation responses. Although much of the information
reviewed is on species, our framework and conclusions are also applicable to ecosystems, habitats,
ecological communities, and genetic diversity, whether terrestrial, marine, or fresh water.

Narwani, Anita and Asit Mazumder. 2011. Community composition and consumer identity determine the effect
of resource species diversity on rates of consumption. Ecology. 91(12): 3441–3447 [Water and Aquatic Sciences
Research Program, Department of Biology, University of Victoria, P.O. Box 3020, Station C.S.C., Victoria, British
Columbia V8W 3N5 Canada]

The effect of species diversity on ecosystem function is commonly studied within a single trophic level,
but less is known about how resource diversity affects species interactions between trophic levels. We
conducted a grazing experiment to determine how resource species diversity affects rates of consumption
by three species of freshwater zooplankton consumers. We measured the effect of resource diversity on
rates of consumption for several resource community compositions. These compositions varied in terms
of palatability for the consumers. The effect of resource diversity on consumption rates depended on the
diet breadth of the consumer species (from specialist to generalist) and the community composition of
resources. Overall, high resource diversity commonly caused a decline in consumption rates of
consumers. The most selective grazer showed reduced consumption for nearly all community
compositions, whereas the most generalist grazer showed accelerated consumption when all resource
species were palatable. Our results demonstrate that resource species diversity can modulate rates of
consumption through the action of multiple different mechanisms.

9
Invasive Species

Bateman, Heather L., Tom L. Dudley, Dan W. Bean, Steven M. Ostoja, Kevin R. Hultine and Michael J. Kuehn. , 2010.
A River System to Watch: Documenting the Effects of Saltcedar (Tamarix spp.) Biocontrol in the Virgin River
Valley. Ecological restoration 28(4): 405-410.

Lambrecht, Susan C. and Antonia D’Amore. 2010. Solarization for Non-native Plant Control in Cool, Coastal
California. Ecological Restoration 28(4): 424-426.

Prasser Nick and Joy B. Zedler. 2010. Salt Tolerance of Invasive Phalaris arundinacea Exceeds That of Native
Carex stricta (Wisconsin). Ecological Restoration. 28(3): 238-240

Gertzen, E. L., B. Leung, and N. D. Yan. 2011. Propagule pressure, Allee effects and the probability of
establishment of an invasive species (Bythotrephes longimanus) Ecosphere 2(3): art 30. [Department of Biology,
McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 1B1, McGill School of Environment, McGill University, Montreal,
Quebec, Canada H3A 2A7, Department of Biology, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3J 1P3 ]

Predicting establishment of exotic species is a central goal of invasion biology, and is dependent upon
propagule pressure and population processes. We introduced invading spiny water fleas, Bythotrephes
longimanus at different propagule pressures into 19 experimental enclosures, following populations over
asexual generations, resting egg production, and emergence in the following year. We integrated
experimental results with field data to generate a stochastic population model, predicting establishment
in relation to propagule pressure and introduction date. Our results suggested that Allee effects are
operational at higher densities or smaller volumes than previously predicted, that stochasticity plays an
important role in establishment, and demographic stochasticity may be correlated between individuals.
Further, our novel theoretical derivations suggest that organisms should modify their sex ratios to reduce
Allee effects. The functional form using adaptive sex-ratios was consistent with both mesocosm and field
data. Despite the occurrence of Allee effects and stochasticity, there was still no date during the growing
season where we predict lakes to be entirely safe from Bythotrephes invasions. A single propagule had
approximately a 0.15 establishment probability in our mesocosms, if introduced early in the season;
propagule pressures of 10 had > 0.50 probability, regardless of introduction date.

Corbin, Jeffrey D. and Carla M. D'Antonio. (2011). Abundance and productivity mediate invader effects on
nitrogen dynamics in a California grassland. Ecosphere. 2(3): art 32.

Soil nitrogen (N) transformations have been shown to be influenced by plant community composition.
Identifying species traits that control nitrogen dynamics is more straightforward when species
dramatically differ in N input via litter (e.g., N-fixing invaders in a non-fixing community) or in litter
carbon:N or lignin:N ratios. Cases where invaders and residents are more similar for such traits are more
challenging to evaluate. In these settings, a species' relative abundance and its contribution to overall
ecosystem productivity are likely to contribute significantly to the development of effects on N availability
and cycling.
We compared soil N dynamics in experimental grassland communities dominated by native perennial
grasses (NP), exotic annual grasses (EA), and exotic perennial grasses (EP), as well as mixtures of the
native perennial grasses with each exotic grass group (NP + EA and NP + EP). These groups differ from
each other in subtle ways in traits likely to influence soil N cycling including annual productivity, allocation
to roots versus shoots, litter production, litter chemistry, and degree of summertime activity. We found
that ecosystem N dynamics were significantly different between the various species groups with the
greatest differences occurring between EA plots and other community types: soils in EA plots had
significantly lower rates of net N mineralization, net nitrification, and microbial biomass-N compared to
either NP or NP + EA plots, and lower extractable nitrate in the spring compared to either NP or EP plots.

10
 The higher the proportion of productivity in a plot that derived from exotic species, particularly exotic
annual species, the lower were the measured rates of net N mineralization. Stepwise regression analysis
showed that vegetation productivity was the best predictor of N cycling metrics: the higher the
productivity, the higher the rates of net mineralization and nitrification, and microbial biomass-N.
We conclude that species' abundance and productivity were strong controlling factors in the development
of differences in ecosystem N dynamics between our experimental treatments. Inclusion of relative
proportion of productivity contributed by community members in models of the development of species
effects will likely aid in predicting when and where invasive species will alter ecosystem N dynamics.

Warren, Robert J. II, Volker Bahn, Timothy D. Kramer, Yaya Tang, and Mark A. Bradford. (2011). Performance and
reproduction of an exotic invader across temperate forest gradients. Ecosphere. 2(2): art 14. [School of Forestry
and Environmental Studies, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06511 USA, Department of Biological
Sciences, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio 45435 USA ]

Widespread colonization by invasive species often obscures their underlying niche requirements. A robust
inference into habitat requirements demands direct measures of invasive species performance linked
with associated environmental conditions. In the context of general ecological theory, we investigated the
niche requirements of Microstegium vimineum, an invasive grass in the U.S. that overruns native
vegetation in forest understories. We examined M. vimineum's performance and reproduction as a
function of environmental drivers across forested and unforested habitats along a 100-km regional and
climatic gradient in the southeastern U.S. from the southern Appalachian Mountains to the Georgia
piedmont. We then measured M. vimineum performance and reproduction in response to direct
environmental drivers (diffuse light, litter cover, soil moisture, herbaceous cover, soil pH, clay content and
temperature) in paired invaded and uninvaded plots. Lastly, we experimentally investigated recruitment
in the context of experimental and natural disturbances. We find that all habitats are not equally suitable
for M. vimineum—even those within which it occurs—and that the environmental conditions associated
with roadsides and waterways are most suitable for M. vimineum persistence and spread. Microstegium
vimineum's soil moisture, light and leaf litter requirements may delineate the boundaries of suitable
habitat for the exotic invader. Significant decreases in M. vimineum recruitment, performance and
reproduction along these environmental gradients suggest its potential niche limitations. Nevertheless,
we also find significant dispersal limits on M. vimineum populations not subject to conspicuous overland
water flow. We discuss our findings in the context of spread, impact and management of invasive species.

Sandel, B., J. D. Corbin, and M. Krupa. (2011). Using plant functional traits to guide restoration: A case study in
California coastal grassland. Ecosphere. 2(2): art 23. [Department of Integrative Biology, University of California,
Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720;Department of Biological Sciences, Union College, Schenectady, New York
12308; Department of Land, Air, and Water Resources, University of California, Davis, Davis, California 95616]

Restoration ecology can benefit greatly from developments in trait-based ecology that enable improved
predictions of how the composition of plant communities will respond to changes in environmental
conditions. Plant functional traits can be used to guide the restoration of degraded habitats by closely
tailoring treatments to the local species pool. We tested this approach in two heavily invaded coastal
California grasslands. We asked whether native plant abundance and plant community trait composition
respond to (1) experimental soil fertility reduction in the form of twice-yearly carbon (C) amendments and
(2) disturbance in the form of mowing. We measured height, specific leaf area, leaf thickness and leaf
density from individuals of 39 species in the control and C addition plots, and supplemented these trait
values with database information on growth form, lifespan, nitrogen-fixing ability and seed mass.  
Consistent with theoretical predictions, C addition favored short, large-seeded and nitrogen-fixing species,
while mowing benefitted short species with high specific leaf area. However, native and exotic species did
not differ in any of the measured traits, and neither group benefitted generally from the treatments.
Carbon addition led to large intraspecific trait shifts, with individuals in C addition plots having smaller,
denser leaves and shorter stature. Species' trait plasticity, however, was not related to the community
composition response to C addition.  Our study indicates that trait-based ecology is sufficiently mature

11
 to provide useful predictions in the realm of restoration ecology. Trait screening at a site can help predict
the success of a particular restoration measure in that community.

Kulhanek, Stefanie A., Anthony Ricciardi, and Brian Leung. 2011. Is invasion history a useful tool for predicting the
impacts of the world's worst aquatic invasive species? Ecological Applications. 21(1): 189-202. [Department of
Biology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec H3A 1B1 Canada.]

Kulhanek, Stefanie A., Brian Leung, and Anthony Ricciardi. 2011. Using ecological niche models to predict the
abundance and impact of invasive species: application to the common carp. Ecological Applications. 21(1): 203-
213. [Department of Biology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec H3A 1B1 Canada]

Bled, Florent J., Andrew Royle, and Emmanuelle Cam. 2011. Hierarchical modeling of an invasive spread: the
Eurasian Collared-Dove Streptopelia decaocto in the United States. Ecological Applications. 21(1): 290-302. [U.S.
Geological Survey, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Laurel, Maryland 20708 USA]

Oppel, Steffen, Brent M. Beaven, Mark Bolton, Juliet Vickery and Thomas W. Bodey. 2011. Eradication of Invasive
Mammals on Islands Inhabited by Humans and Domestic Animals. Conservation Biology. 25(2): 232-240.

Foxcroft, Llewellyn C., Vojtech Jarosik, et al. 2011. Protected-area boundaries as filters of plant invasions.
Conservation Biology. 25(2): 400-405.

Infectious Disease/Parasites
Meentemeyer, Ross K., et.al. 2011. Epidemiological modeling of invasion in heterogeneous landscapes: spread of
sudden oak death in California (1990–2030). Ecosphere. 2(2): art 17.

The spread of emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) in natural environments poses substantial risks to
biodiversity and ecosystem function. As EIDs and their impacts grow, landscape- to regional-scale models
of disease dynamics are increasingly needed for quantitative prediction of epidemic outcomes and design
of practicable strategies for control. Here we use spatio-temporal, stochastic epidemiological modeling in
combination with realistic geographical modeling to predict the spread of the sudden oak death pathogen
(Phytophthora ramorum) through heterogeneous host populations in wildland forests, subject to
fluctuating weather conditions. The model considers three stochastic processes: (1) the production of
inoculum at a given site; (2) the chance that inoculum is dispersed within and among sites; and (3) the
probability of infection following transmission to susceptible host vegetation. We parameterized the
model using Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) estimation from snapshots of local- and regional-scale
data on disease spread, taking account of landscape heterogeneity and the principal scales of spread. Our
application of the model to Californian landscapes over a 40-year period (1990–2030), since the
approximate time of pathogen introduction, revealed key parameters driving the spatial spread of disease
and the magnitude of stochastic variability in epidemic outcomes. Results show that most disease spread
occurs via local dispersal (<250 m) but infrequent long-distance dispersal events can substantially
accelerate epidemic spread in regions with high host availability and suitable weather conditions. In the
absence of extensive control, we predict a ten-fold increase in disease spread between 2010 and 2030
with most infection concentrated along the north coast between San Francisco and Oregon. Long-range
dispersal of inoculum to susceptible host communities in the Sierra Nevada foothills and coastal southern
California leads to little secondary infection due to lower host availability and less suitable weather
conditions. However, a shift to wetter and milder conditions in future years would double the amount of
disease spread in California through 2030. This research illustrates how stochastic epidemiological models
can be applied to realistic geographies and used to increase predictive understanding of disease dynamics
in large, heterogeneous regions.

12
Teste, François P., Victor J. Lieffers, and Simon M. Landhäusser. 2011. Seed release in serotinous lodgepole pine
forests after mountain pine beetle outbreak. Ecological Applications. 21(1): 150-162. [Department of Renewable
Resources, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2H1 Canada]
There are concerns that large-scale stand mortality due to mountain pine beetle (MPB) could greatly
reduce natural regeneration of serotinous Rocky Mountain (RM) lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta var.
latifolia) because the closed cones are held in place without the fire cue for cone opening. We selected 20
stands (five stands each of live [control], 3 years since MPB [3-yr-MPB], 6 years since MPB [6-yr-MPB], and
9 years since MPB [9-yr-MPB] mortality) in north central British Columbia, Canada. The goal was to
determine partial loss of serotiny due to fall of crown-stored cones via breakage of branches and in situ
opening of canopy cones throughout the 2008 and 2009 growing seasons. We also quantified seed release
by the opening of forest-floor cones, loss of seed from rodent predation, and cone burial. Trees killed by
MPB three years earlier dropped 3.5 times more cones via branch breakage compared to live stands.
After six years, MPB-killed stands had released 45% of their canopy seed bank through cone opening,
cone fall due to breakage, and squirrel predation. Further losses of canopy seed banks are expected with
time since we found 9-yr-MPB stands had 38% more open canopy cones. This was countered by the
development of a modest forest-floor seed bank (6% of the original canopy seed bank) from burial of
cones; this seed bank may be ecologically important if a fire or anthropogenic disturbance reexposes
these cones. If adequate levels of regeneration are to occur, disturbances to create seedbeds must occur
shortly after tree mortality, before the seed banks are lost. Our findings also suggest that the sustained
seed rain (over at least nine years) after MPB outbreak may be beneficial for population growth of
ground-foraging vertebrates. Our study adds insight to the seed ecology of serotinous pines under a
potentially continental-wide insect outbreak, threatening vast forests adapted to regeneration after fire.

Brinkerhoff, R Jory, Corrine M Folsom-O'Keefe, Kimberly Tsao, and Maria A Diuk-Wasser. 2011. Do birds affect
Lyme disease risk? Range expansion of the vector-borne pathogen Borrelia burgdorferi. Frontiers in Ecology and
the Environment. 9(2): 103-110.

White, P.J., John J. Treanor, and Rick L. Wallen. 2011. Balancing Brucellosis Risk Management and Wildlife
Conservation. Yellowstone Science. 19(1): 15-21.

Land managers and park scientists examine the complex scientific and social issues surrounding the how,
when, and where of brucellosis transmission.

Foley, Janet, Deana Clifford, et al. 2011. Investigating and managing the rapid emergence of white-nose
syndrome, a novel, fatal infectious disease of hibernating bats. Conservation Biology. 25(2): 223-231.

Roads, Impact of
Shanley, Colin S. and Sanjay Pyare. 2011. Evaluating the road-effect zone on wildlife distribution in a rural
landscape. Ecosphere. 2(2): art 16. [Biology and Wildlife Department, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775
USA, Environmental Sciences and Geography Program, University of Alaska Southeast, Juneau, Alaska 99801 USA]

The road-effect zone is the area in which ecological effects extend outward from a road. Dispersed off-
highway vehicle (OHV; e.g., four-wheelers and snowmachines) activity on rural road networks creates a
disturbance that reduces the effective amount of wildlife habitat and therefore has the potential for an
extensive road-effect zone. Consequently, land managers must consider the trade-offs between rural road
development and the conservation of habitat for species of concern. We conducted a spatially-explicit
study of moose, Alces alces, occurrence in relation to rural roads and OHV routes in rural Alaska, U.S.A.
We used logistic regression and AIC model selection criterion to develop resource selection functions
(RSFs) for male and female moose at three spatial scales (250 m, 500 m, and 1000 m) in two seasons
(summer and fall). To evaluate an ecological disturbance threshold from increasing route activity on the
probability of animal occurrence, the RSFs were plotted against an index of route activity derived from
interviews with OHV users, and fit with logarithmic functions. The variable for route activity improved the

13
 fit of RSF models for both sexes at all spatial scales and in both seasons. A negative relationship was found
between moose occurrence and routes or areas in which routes were in close proximity to primary forage,
with the exception of male moose at the 1000-m scale in the fall. Therefore, among the spatial scales of
analysis, the road-effect zone for male moose was determined to be between 500 m and 1000 m, and
>1000 m for female moose. Furthermore, route activity <0.25 km of vehicle travel/km 2/day was a
threshold value at which moose sustained a high probability of occurrence (0.60 to 0.91). The results of
our study suggest that the dispersed ecological effect of rural roads and OHV routes should be considered
in transportation and land-management planning efforts. Relatively low levels of vehicular activity may
create extensive road-effect zones for sensitive species.

Kociolek, A.V., A.P. Clevenger, et al. 2011. Effects of Road networks on bird populations. Conservation Biology,
25(2): 241-249.

Sarah E. Goodwin and Gregory Shriver. 2011. Effects of traffic noise on occupancy patterns of forest birds.
Conservation Biology. 25(2). p.406-411.

Wildfires
Simpson, Thomas B., 2010. Perspective: Thinking Like a Forest: On Fire and Oak Woods. Ecological Restoration
28(3): 234-325.

Nyoka, Susan. 2010. Effects of Fuel-Reduction Treatments on Pollinators in a Pinyon-Juniper Woodland

(Arizona). Ecological Restoration 28(2): 119-121.

Girardin, M. P., P. Y. Bernier, and S. Gauthier. (2011). Increasing potential NEP of eastern boreal North American
forests constrained by decreasing wildfire activity. Ecosphere. 2(3): art25. [Natural Resources Canada, Canadian
Forest Service, Québec, QC G1V 4C7 Canada]

Finn C. Pillsbury, James R. Miller, Diane M. Debinski, David M. Engle. (2011). Another tool in the toolbox? Using fire
and grazing to promote bird diversity in highly fragmented landscapes. Ecosphere. 2(3).

James F. Saracco, Rodney B. Siegel, and Robert L. Wilkerson. 2011. Occupancy modeling of Black-backed
Woodpeckers on burned Sierra Nevada forests. Ecosphere. 2(3). [The Institute for Bird Populations, P.O. Box 1346,
Point Reyes Station, California 94956-1346 USA]

The Black-backed Woodpecker (Picoides arcticus) has been designated by the USDA Forest Service as a
management indicator species for snags in burned conifer forests of the Sierra Nevada of California, USA.
However, little is known about the characteristics that affect between-fire and within-fire habitat
selection by the species in the region. Here we report on the first broad-scale survey of Black-backed
Woodpeckers on wildfire-affected forests of the Sierra Nevada. We implemented a Bayesian hierarchical
model to: 1) estimate Black-backed Woodpecker occupancy probability in fire areas burned within a time
window of 1–10 years; 2) identify relationships between occupancy probability and habitat covariates (fire
age, change in canopy cover pre-to-post fire, and snag basal area), elevation, and latitude; and 3) estimate
detection probability and relate it to survey interval length and survey type (passive v. broadcast). We
included random fire-area effects in our model of occupancy probability to accommodate clusters of non-
independent points surveyed within the larger set of fire areas. Mean occupancy probability was
estimated to be 0.097. Elevation (after controlling for latitude) had the strongest effect on occupancy
probability (higher occupancy at higher elevation) followed by latitude (higher occupancy at northerly
sites). Fire age was also important; occupancy probability was about 4× higher on the youngest compared
to oldest fires. Although the direction of regression coefficients were in the expected direction (positive),
snag basal area and canopy cover change were of minor importance in affecting occupancy probability.
There was some indication, however, that the importance of snag basal area increased with fire age.
Weak links between occupancy and canopy cover change suggested the species uses a range of burn

14
 severities, and such heterogeneity may promote habitat longevity. Our estimate of overall detection
probability (across all survey intervals) was 0.772. We found strong effects of survey interval length
(higher for longer interval) and, especially survey type (higher for broadcast survey) on detection
probability. Our modeling framework and implementation illustrates the flexibility of the Bayesian
hierarchical approach for handling complexities such as estimating derived parameters (and variances)
and modeling random effects, and should prove generally useful for occupancy studies.

Franco Biondi, Leia P. Jamieson, Scotty Strachan, and Jason Sibold, 2011. Dendroecological testing of the
pyroclimatic hypothesis in the central Great Basin, Nevada, USA. Ecosphere. 2(1). [DendroLab, Department of
Geography, MS 154, University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada 89557; Environmental Sciences Graduate Program,
University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada 89557; Department of Anthropology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins,
Colorado 80523]

In the Great Basin region of western North America, records of past climate and wildfire variability are
needed not only for fire use, but also for understanding the mechanisms behind the century-long
expansion of piñon-juniper woodlands. The Mt. Irish area (Lincoln County, south-eastern Nevada) is a
remote mountain ecosystem on the hydrographic boundary between the Great Basin and the Colorado
River Basin. Non-scarred ponderosa pines (Pinus ponderosa C. Lawson var. scopulorum Engelm.) and
single-needle pinyons (Pinus monophylla Torr. & Frém.) were used to develop a tree-ring reconstruction
of drought (mean PDSI for May–July from NV Climate Division 3) from 1396 to 2003. A hypothetical fire
regime was obtained from the PDSI reconstruction and from explicitly assumed relationships between
climate and wildfire occurrence. A census of fire-scarred trees was then sampled at the study area, and
crossdated fire-scar records were used to generate the fire history, independently of the pre-existing
pyroclimatic model. Out of 250 collected fire-scar wood sections, 197 could be crossdated (about 89%
from ponderosa pines), covered the period from 1146 to 2006, and contained 485 fire scars, 390 of which
could be dated to a single year. Numerical summaries were computed for the period 1550–2006, when
recorder trees ranged from 16 to 169, using a total of 360 fire scars on 176 sections. Up to 1860, the time
of Euro-American settlement, fires that scarred at least two trees were very frequent (minimum fire
interval: 1 year, mean: 4, median: 2, Weibull median: 3, maximum: 19), while fires that scarred at least
10% of the recorder trees were relatively rare (minimum fire interval: 40 years, mean: 66, median: 50,
Weibull median: 63, maximum: 123). Fire frequency remained high during the 1780–1840 period, when
fire was reduced or absent in other areas of the western United States. Both the “expected” and the
“observed” fire history showed lower fire frequency after Euro-American settlement, which most likely
displaced Native people and any deliberate use of fire, but did not introduce publicly organized
suppression in the area. Therefore, less favorable climatic conditions, not post-settlement fire
management, were responsible for reduced wildfire occurrence in the modern era.

Akira S. Mori. 2011. Climatic variability regulates the occurrence and extent of large fires in the subalpine forests
of the Canadian Rockies. Ecosphere. 2(1). [Graduate School of Environment and Information Sciences, Yokohama
National University, 79-7 Tokiwadai, Hodogaya, Yokohama, Kanagawa 240-8501, Japan]

Drought occurrence and wildfire activity in subalpine forests in Kootenay National Park (KNP) of the
Canadian Rockies are studied by focusing on the interannual and multi-decadal variations in climate
patterns of the Pacific Ocean. The question addressed is whether broad-scale climate patterns can
regulate both large fire occurrence and fire-free periods causing fuel buildups. This study compared years
of large wildfire outbreaks for the subalpine forests of KNP during the last three centuries using indices of
climate patterns of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) and El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). PDO and
ENSO were correlated with drought and fire occurrence in KNP. A positive PDO–positive ENSO
combination created extreme drought conducive to crown fires, indicating that the occurrence of high-
severity wildfires in these generally moist/cool forests is strongly determined by climatic anomalies. Large
fire activity is chiefly modulated by PDO compared to ENSO, because a negative PDO phase greatly
decreased fire activity in the mid-twentieth century. Although this fire-free period is seemingly matched
with a fire-suppression period, it may be attributable to a negative PDO, which increased precipitation in

15
 the region. This mid-century fire gap contributed to the accumulation of old forests serving as loaded fuels
within the landscape and ultimately led to occurrences of crown fires as the PDO shifted to the positive
phase. Thus, in addition to the fundamental importance of interannual variations in the Pacific that
initiates a current-year severe drought, multi-decadal scale climate variability also influences the extent
and severity of subsequent fires by modulating pre-fire landscape conditions. For fire management in
subalpine areas of the Rockies, although drought occurrence is a primary concern and there are still
uncertainties in the detailed changes in fire risk through the successional process, it is worth paying
attention to fuel-loads of older forests in the landscape, which may lead to extensive large fires. Because
the climatic teleconnection pattern is one of the main drivers of crown fire occurrence in the region in
terms of creating current summer drought, and also for constructing a landscape structure prone to larger
fires, more of a focus on short to long-term variations in the climate for wildfire management is needed in
high-elevation forested landscapes.

Paul R. Gagnon, Heather A. Passmore2, William J. Platt, Jonathan A. Myers, C. E. Timothy Paine, and Kyle E. Harms.
2011. Does pyrogenicity protect burning plants? Ecology. 91(12).

Jason P. Field, David D. Breshears, Jeffrey J. Whicker, and Chris B. Zou. 2011. Interactive effects of grazing and
burning on wind- and water-driven sediment fluxes: rangeland management implications. Ecological
Applications. 21(1). 22-32. [School of Natural Resources and the Environment, University of Arizona, Tucson,
Arizona 85721; Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721;
Environmental Programs, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545; Department of Natural
Resource Ecology and Management, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma 74078]

Rangelands are globally extensive, provide fundamental ecosystem services, and are tightly coupled
human–ecological systems. Rangeland sustainability depends largely on the implementation and
utilization of various grazing and burning practices optimized to protect against soil erosion and transport.
In many cases, however, land management practices lead to increased soil erosion and sediment fluxes
for reasons that are poorly understood. Because few studies have directly measured both wind and water
erosion and transport, an assessment of how they may differentially respond to grazing and burning
practices is lacking. Here, we report simultaneous, co-located estimates of wind- and water-driven
sediment transport in a semiarid grassland in Arizona, USA, over three years for four land management
treatments: control, grazed, burned, and burned + grazed. For all treatments and most years, annual rates
of wind-driven sediment transport exceeded that of water due to a combination of ongoing small but
nontrivial wind events and larger, less frequent, wind events that generally preceded the monsoon
season. Sediment fluxes by both wind and water differed consistently by treatment: burned + grazed >
burned grazed ≥ control, with effects immediately apparent after burning but delayed after grazing until
the following growing season. Notably, the wind: water sediment transport ratio decreased following
burning but increased following grazing. Our results show how rangeland practices disproportionally alter
sediment fluxes driven by wind and water, differences that could potentially help explain divergence
between rangeland sustainability and degradation.

Johanna E. Freeman and Leda N. Kobziar. 2011. Tracking postfire successional trajectories in a plant community
adapted to high-severity fire. Ecological Monographs. 21(1). p.61-74. [School of Forest Resources and
Conservation, University of Florida, 208 Newins-Zeigler Hall, Gainesville, Florida 32611 USA]

In order to develop management strategies that maintain native biodiversity in plant communities
adapted to high-severity fire, an understanding of natural postfire succession in the target ecosystem is
essential. Detailed information on fire effects is lacking for the sand pine (Pinus clausa [Chapm. ex
Engelm.] Vasey ex Sarg.) scrub of the southeastern United States, limiting our ability to decide how and
when to apply prescribed fire in this ecosystem. We studied the effects of fire-severity heterogeneity on
sand pine scrub following a 4700-ha wildfire in Florida's Juniper Prairie Wilderness Area (USA). We
identified four levels of fire severity (unburned, low, moderate, and high) and three pre-burn stand
conditions (sapling, mature, and senescent). Study plots were established in each severity–stand-class

16
 combination, and were sampled at one and two years following fire. Nonmetric multidimensional scaling
(NMS) ordination was applied in order to identify differences in community composition and successional
trajectories in each of the stand-class–fire-severity combinations. NMS analyses indicated a shift in
dominance between the dominant understory oak species, from Quercus myrtifolia Willd. to Quercus
geminata Small, as sand pine basal area increases. Our ordination and regression results showed that Q.
myrtifolia was the most aggressive colonizer of postfire open space, which is an important structural and
habitat component of a sand pine scrub. Successional trajectories were heavily influenced by Quercus
myrtifolia Willd. and were more uniform in the mature class than in the senescent class, probably due to
more consistent overstory basal area. In both mature and sapling stands, herbaceous species cover was
highest in moderate-severity plots. Woody-debris load varied significantly with stand age, fire severity
level, and time. Sand pine seedling recruitment was highest in mature stands burned at high severity,
while sapling and senescent stands exhibited much lower sand pine seedling recruitment rates at all levels
of fire severity. The observed differences in seedling recruitment are expected to influence the
progressive development of vertical structure and composition in the sand pine forest, leading to
community differences that will persist and influence the effects of subsequent disturbances.

Meg A. Krawchuk and Steve G. Cumming. 2011. Effects of biotic feedback and harvest management on boreal
forest fire activity under climate change. Ecological Applications. 21(1). P.122-136. [Department of Environmental
Science, Policy, and Management, 137 Mulford Hall, MC number 3114, University of California, Berkeley, California
94720; Département des Sciences du Bois et de la Forêt, Faculté de Foresterie et de Géomatique, Pavillon Abitibi-
Price, Bureau 3143-A, Université Laval, Québec City, Québec G1K 7P4 Canada]

Predictions of future fire activity over Canada's boreal forests have primarily been generated from climate
data following assumptions that direct effects of weather will stand alone in contributing to changes in
burning. However, this assumption needs explicit testing. First, areas recently burned can be less likely to
burn again in the near term, and this endogenous regulation suggests the potential for self-limiting,
negative biotic feedback to regional climate-driven increases in fire. Second, forest harvest is ongoing, and
resulting changes in vegetation structure have been shown to affect fire activity. Consequently, we tested
the assumption that fire activity will be driven by changes in fire weather without regulation by biotic
feedback or regional harvest-driven changes in vegetation structure in the mixedwood boreal forest of
Alberta, Canada, using a simulation experiment that includes the interaction of fire, stand dynamics,
climate change, and clear cut harvest management.
We found that climate change projected with fire weather indices calculated from the Canadian Regional
Climate Model increased fire activity, as expected, and our simulations established evidence that the
magnitude of regional increase in fire was sufficient to generate negative feedback to subsequent fire
activity. We illustrate a 39% (1.39-fold) increase in fire initiation and 47% (1.47-fold) increase in area
burned when climate and stand dynamics were included in simulations, yet 48% (1.48-fold) and 61%
(1.61-fold) increases, respectively, when climate was considered alone. Thus, although biotic feedbacks
reduced burned area estimates in important ways, they were secondary to the direct effect of climate on
fire. We then show that ongoing harvest management in this region changed landscape composition in a
way that led to reduced fire activity, even in the context of climate change. Although forest harvesting
resulted in decreased regional fire activity when compared to unharvested conditions, forest composition
and age structure was shifted substantially, illustrating a trade-off between management goals to
minimize fire and conservation goals to emulate natural disturbance.

Fonda, R.W., Binney, E.P. Vegetation Response to prescribed fire in Douglas Fir forests, Olympic National Park.
Northwest Science. 85(1). p.30.

Rosenberger, A., Dunham, J.B., Buffington, J.M., Wipfli, M.S., Persistent Effects of Wildfire and Debris Flows on
the Invertebrate Prey Base of Rainbow Trout in Idaho streams. Northwest Science. 85(1): 55-63.

Peterson, D.L. After the Fire is Gone—Merging Science and Resource Management. A book review on Fire Effects
on Soils and Restoration Strategies. Northwest Science. 85(1): 71.

17
Forests
Thomas B. Simpson. Perspective: Thinking Like a Forest: On Fire and Oak Woods. Ecological Restoration 28(3):
234-235.

Susan E. Nyoka., 2010. Can Restoration Management Improve Habitat for Insect Pollinators in Ponderosa Pine
Forests of the American Southwest? Ecological Restoration 28(3): 280-290.

Susan Nyoka. 2010. Effects of Fuel-Reduction Treatments on Pollinators in a Pinyon-Juniper Woodland (Arizona).
Ecological Restoration 28(2).p.119.

Christopher D. Sorensen and Christopher M. McGlone. 2010. Ponderosa Pine Understory Response to Short-Term
Grazing Exclusion (Arizona). Ecological Restoration. 28(2). p.124

Girardin, M. P., P. Y. Bernier, and S. Gauthier. 2011. Increasing potential NEP of eastern boreal North American
forests constrained by decreasing wildfire activity. Ecosphere. 2(3): art 25 [Natural Resources Canada, Canadian
Forest Service, Québec, QC G1V 4C7 Canada]

Saracco, James F., Rodney B. Siegel, and Robert L. Wilkerson. 2011. Occupancy modeling of Black-backed
Woodpeckers on burned Sierra Nevada forests. Ecosphere. 2(3): art 31. [The Institute for Bird Populations, P.O.
Box 1346, Point Reyes Station, California 94956-1346 USA]

Warren, Robert J. II, Volker Bahn, Timothy D. Kramer, Yaya Tang, and Mark A. Bradford. 2011. Performance and
reproduction of an exotic invader across temperate forest gradients. Ecosphere. 2(2): 14. [School of Forestry and
Environmental Studies, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06511 USA, Department of Biological Sciences,
Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio 45435 USA ]

Widespread colonization by invasive species often obscures their underlying niche requirements. A robust
inference into habitat requirements demands direct measures of invasive species performance linked
with associated environmental conditions. In the context of general ecological theory, we investigated the
niche requirements of Microstegium vimineum, an invasive grass in the U.S. that overruns native
vegetation in forest understories. We examined M. vimineum's performance and reproduction as a
function of environmental drivers across forested and unforested habitats along a 100-km regional and
climatic gradient in the southeastern U.S. from the southern Appalachian Mountains to the Georgia
piedmont. We then measured M. vimineum performance and reproduction in response to direct
environmental drivers (diffuse light, litter cover, soil moisture, herbaceous cover, soil pH, clay content and
temperature) in paired invaded and uninvaded plots. Lastly, we experimentally investigated recruitment
in the context of experimental and natural disturbances. We find that all habitats are not equally suitable
for M. vimineum—even those within which it occurs—and that the environmental conditions associated
with roadsides and waterways are most suitable for M. vimineum persistence and spread. Microstegium
vimineum's soil moisture, light and leaf litter requirements may delineate the boundaries of suitable
habitat for the exotic invader. Significant decreases in M. vimineum recruitment, performance and
reproduction along these environmental gradients suggest its potential niche limitations. Nevertheless,
we also find significant dispersal limits on M. vimineum populations not subject to conspicuous overland
water flow. We discuss our findings in the context of spread, impact and management of invasive species.

Meentemeyer, Ross K., Nik J. Cunniffe, Alex R. Cook, Joao A. N. Filipe, Richard D. Hunter, David M. Rizzo, and
Christopher A. Gilligan. 2011. Epidemiological modeling of invasion in heterogeneous landscapes: spread of
sudden oak death in California (1990–2030). Ecosphere. 2(2): art 17.

18
 The spread of emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) in natural environments poses substantial risks to
biodiversity and ecosystem function. As EIDs and their impacts grow, landscape- to regional-scale models
of disease dynamics are increasingly needed for quantitative prediction of epidemic outcomes and design
of practicable strategies for control. Here we use spatio-temporal, stochastic epidemiological modeling in
combination with realistic geographical modeling to predict the spread of the sudden oak death pathogen
(Phytophthora ramorum) through heterogeneous host populations in wildland forests, subject to
fluctuating weather conditions. The model considers three stochastic processes: (1) the production of
inoculum at a given site; (2) the chance that inoculum is dispersed within and among sites; and (3) the
probability of infection following transmission to susceptible host vegetation. We parameterized the
model using Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) estimation from snapshots of local- and regional-scale
data on disease spread, taking account of landscape heterogeneity and the principal scales of spread. Our
application of the model to Californian landscapes over a 40-year period (1990–2030), since the
approximate time of pathogen introduction, revealed key parameters driving the spatial spread of disease
and the magnitude of stochastic variability in epidemic outcomes. Results show that most disease spread
occurs via local dispersal (<250 m) but infrequent long-distance dispersal events can substantially
accelerate epidemic spread in regions with high host availability and suitable weather conditions. In the
absence of extensive control, we predict a ten-fold increase in disease spread between 2010 and 2030
with most infection concentrated along the north coast between San Francisco and Oregon. Long-range
dispersal of inoculum to susceptible host communities in the Sierra Nevada foothills and coastal southern
California leads to little secondary infection due to lower host availability and less suitable weather
conditions. However, a shift to wetter and milder conditions in future years would double the amount of
disease spread in California through 2030. This research illustrates how stochastic epidemiological models
can be applied to realistic geographies and used to increase predictive understanding of disease dynamics
in large, heterogeneous regions.

Vepakomma, Udayalakshmi, Benoit St-Onge, and Daniel Kneeshaw. 2011. Response of a boreal forest to canopy
opening: assessing vertical and lateral tree growth with multi-temporal lidar data. Ecological Applications. 21(1):
99-121. [Institut des Sciences de l'Environnement, Université du Québec à Montréal, Case Postale 8888 Succursale
Centre-ville, Montréal, Quebec H3C 3P8 Canada]

Biondi, Franco, Leia P. Jamieson, Scotty Strachan, and Jason Sibold, 2011. Dendroecological testing of the
pyroclimatic hypothesis in the central Great Basin, Nevada, USA. Ecosphere. 2(1) art 5. [DendroLab, Department
of Geography, MS 154, University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada 89557; Environmental Sciences Graduate Program,
University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada 89557; Department of Anthropology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins,
Colorado 80523]

In the Great Basin region of western North America, records of past climate and wildfire variability are
needed not only for fire use, but also for understanding the mechanisms behind the century-long
expansion of piñon-juniper woodlands. The Mt. Irish area (Lincoln County, south-eastern Nevada) is a
remote mountain ecosystem on the hydrographic boundary between the Great Basin and the Colorado
River Basin. Non-scarred ponderosa pines (Pinus ponderosa C. Lawson var. scopulorum Engelm.) and
single-needle pinyons (Pinus monophylla Torr. & Frém.) were used to develop a tree-ring reconstruction
of drought (mean PDSI for May–July from NV Climate Division 3) from 1396 to 2003. A hypothetical fire
regime was obtained from the PDSI reconstruction and from explicitly assumed relationships between
climate and wildfire occurrence. A census of fire-scarred trees was then sampled at the study area, and
crossdated fire-scar records were used to generate the fire history, independently of the pre-existing
pyroclimatic model. Out of 250 collected fire-scar wood sections, 197 could be crossdated (about 89%
from ponderosa pines), covered the period from 1146 to 2006, and contained 485 fire scars, 390 of which
could be dated to a single year. Numerical summaries were computed for the period 1550–2006, when
recorder trees ranged from 16 to 169, using a total of 360 fire scars on 176 sections. Up to 1860, the time
of Euro-American settlement, fires that scarred at least two trees were very frequent (minimum fire
interval: 1 year, mean: 4, median: 2, Weibull median: 3, maximum: 19), while fires that scarred at least
10% of the recorder trees were relatively rare (minimum fire interval: 40 years, mean: 66, median: 50,

19
 Weibull median: 63, maximum: 123). Fire frequency remained high during the 1780–1840 period, when
fire was reduced or absent in other areas of the western United States. Both the “expected” and the
“observed” fire history showed lower fire frequency after Euro-American settlement, which most likely
displaced Native people and any deliberate use of fire, but did not introduce publicly organized
suppression in the area. Therefore, less favorable climatic conditions, not post-settlement fire
management, were responsible for reduced wildfire occurrence in the modern era.

Heath, Linda S., James E. Smith, Christopher W. Woodall, David L. Azuma, and Karen L. Waddell. 2011. Carbon
stocks on forestland of the United States, with emphasis on USDA Forest Service ownership. Ecosphere. 2(1) art
6. [USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station, Durham, New Hampshire 03824; USDA Forest Service,
Northern Research Station, St. Paul, Minnesota 55108; USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station,
Portland, Oregon 97205]

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service (USFS) manages one-fifth of the area of forestland in
the United States. The Forest Service Roadmap for responding to climate change identified assessing and
managing carbon stocks and change as a major element of its plan. This study presents methods and
results of estimating current forest carbon stocks and change in the United States for public and private
owners, consistent with the official 2010 U.S. greenhouse gas inventory, but with improved data sources
for three states. Results are presented by National Forest System region, a major organizational
management unit within the Forest Service, and by individual national forest. USFS forestland in the
United States is estimated to contain an average of 192 Mg C/ha (megagrams carbon per hectare) on 60.4
million ha, for a total of 11,604 Tg C (teragrams C) in the year 2005. Privately-owned forestland averages
150 Mg C/ha on 173.8 million ha, with forestland of other public owners averaging 169 Mg C/ha on 43.1
million ha. In terms of change, private and USFS ownerships each sequester about a net 150 Tg CO 2/yr,
but an additional 92 Tg CO2/yr is stored in products from private harvests compared to about 3 Tg CO 2/yr
from harvest on USFS land. Emissions from other disturbances such as fires, as well as corresponding area
estimates of disturbance are also important, but the needed datasets are not yet available.
Recommendations are given for improving the estimates.

Mori, Akira S. 2011. Climatic variability regulates the occurrence and extent of large fires in the subalpine forests
of the Canadian Rockies. Ecosphere. 2(1) art 7. [Graduate School of Environment and Information Sciences,
Yokohama National University, 79-7 Tokiwadai, Hodogaya, Yokohama, Kanagawa 240-8501, Japan]

Rawchuk, Meg A. K and Steve G. Cumming. 2011. Effects of biotic feedback and harvest management on boreal
forest fire activity under climate change. Ecological Applications. 21(1): 122-136. [Department of Environmental
Science, Policy, and Management, 137 Mulford Hall, MC number 3114, University of California, Berkeley, California
94720; Département des Sciences du Bois et de la Forêt, Faculté de Foresterie et de Géomatique, Pavillon Abitibi-
Price, Bureau 3143-A, Université Laval, Québec City, Québec G1K 7P4 Canada]

Predictions of future fire activity over Canada's boreal forests have primarily been generated from climate
data following assumptions that direct effects of weather will stand alone in contributing to changes in
burning. However, this assumption needs explicit testing. First, areas recently burned can be less likely to
burn again in the near term, and this endogenous regulation suggests the potential for self-limiting,
negative biotic feedback to regional climate-driven increases in fire. Second, forest harvest is ongoing, and
resulting changes in vegetation structure have been shown to affect fire activity. Consequently, we tested
the assumption that fire activity will be driven by changes in fire weather without regulation by biotic
feedback or regional harvest-driven changes in vegetation structure in the mixedwood boreal forest of
Alberta, Canada, using a simulation experiment that includes the interaction of fire, stand dynamics,
climate change, and clear cut harvest management.
We found that climate change projected with fire weather indices calculated from the Canadian Regional
Climate Model increased fire activity, as expected, and our simulations established evidence that the
magnitude of regional increase in fire was sufficient to generate negative feedback to subsequent fire
activity. We illustrate a 39% (1.39-fold) increase in fire initiation and 47% (1.47-fold) increase in area

20
 burned when climate and stand dynamics were included in simulations, yet 48% (1.48-fold) and 61%
(1.61-fold) increases, respectively, when climate was considered alone. Thus, although biotic feedbacks
reduced burned area estimates in important ways, they were secondary to the direct effect of climate on
fire. We then show that ongoing harvest management in this region changed landscape composition in a
way that led to reduced fire activity, even in the context of climate change. Although forest harvesting
resulted in decreased regional fire activity when compared to unharvested conditions, forest composition
and age structure was shifted substantially, illustrating a trade-off between management goals to
minimize fire and conservation goals to emulate natural disturbance.

Teste, François P., Victor J. Lieffers, and Simon M. Landhäusser. 2011. Seed release in serotinous lodgepole pine
forests after mountain pine beetle outbreak. Ecological Applications. 21(1): 150-162. [Department of Renewable
Resources, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2H1 Canada]

There are concerns that large-scale stand mortality due to mountain pine beetle (MPB) could greatly
reduce natural regeneration of serotinous Rocky Mountain (RM) lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta var.
latifolia) because the closed cones are held in place without the fire cue for cone opening. We selected 20
stands (five stands each of live [control], 3 years since MPB [3-yr-MPB], 6 years since MPB [6-yr-MPB], and
9 years since MPB [9-yr-MPB] mortality) in north central British Columbia, Canada. The goal was to
determine partial loss of serotiny due to fall of crown-stored cones via breakage of branches and in situ
opening of canopy cones throughout the 2008 and 2009 growing seasons. We also quantified seed release
by the opening of forest-floor cones, loss of seed from rodent predation, and cone burial. Trees killed by
MPB three years earlier dropped 3.5 times more cones via branch breakage compared to live stands.
After six years, MPB-killed stands had released 45% of their canopy seed bank through cone opening,
cone fall due to breakage, and squirrel predation. Further losses of canopy seed banks are expected with
time since we found 9-yr-MPB stands had 38% more open canopy cones. This was countered by the
development of a modest forest-floor seed bank (6% of the original canopy seed bank) from burial of
cones; this seed bank may be ecologically important if a fire or anthropogenic disturbance reexposes
these cones. If adequate levels of regeneration are to occur, disturbances to create seedbeds must occur
shortly after tree mortality, before the seed banks are lost. Our findings also suggest that the sustained
seed rain (over at least nine years) after MPB outbreak may be beneficial for population growth of
ground-foraging vertebrates. Our study adds insight to the seed ecology of serotinous pines under a
potentially continental-wide insect outbreak, threatening vast forests adapted to regeneration after fire.

Pike, David A., Jonathan K. Webb, and Richard Shine. 2011. Removing forest canopy cover restores a reptile
assemblage. Ecological Applications. 21(1): 274-280. [School of Biological Sciences A08, University of Sydney, NSW
2006 Australia]

Swanson, Mark E, Jerry F Franklin, Robert L Beschta, Charles M Crisafulli, Dominick A DellaSala, Richard L Hutto,
David B Lindenmayer, and Frederick J Swanson. 2011. The forgotten stage of forest succession: early-successional
ecosystems on forest sites. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. 9(2) 117-125.

Early-successional forest ecosystems that develop after stand-replacing or partial disturbances are
diverse in species, processes, and structure. Post-disturbance ecosystems are also often rich in biological
legacies, including surviving organisms and organically derived structures, such as woody debris. These
legacies and post-disturbance plant communities provide resources that attract and sustain high species
diversity, including numerous early-successional obligates, such as certain woodpeckers and arthropods.
Early succession is the only period when tree canopies do not dominate the forest site, and so this stage
can be characterized by high productivity of plant species (including herbs and shrubs), complex food
webs, large nutrient fluxes, and high structural and spatial complexity. Different disturbances contrast
markedly in terms of biological legacies, and this will influence the resultant physical and biological
conditions, thus affecting successional pathways. Management activities, such as post-disturbance logging
and dense tree planting, can reduce the richness within and the duration of early-successional

21
 ecosystems. Where maintenance of biodiversity is an objective, the importance and value of these natural
early-successional ecosystems are underappreciated.

Anderson, Ray G, Josep G Canadell, James T Randerson, Robert B Jackson, Bruce A Hungate, Dennis D Baldocchi,
George A Ban-Weiss, Gordon B Bonan, Ken Caldeira, Long Cao, Noah S Diffenbaugh, Kevin R Gurney, Lara M
Kueppers, Beverly E Law, Sebastiaan Luyssaert, and Thomas L O'Halloran. Biophysical considerations in forestry
for climate protection. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. 9(3): 174-182.

Forestry – including afforestation (the planting of trees on land where they have not recently existed),
reforestation, avoided deforestation, and forest management – can lead to increased sequestration of
atmospheric carbon dioxide and has therefore been proposed as a strategy to mitigate climate change.
However, forestry also influences land-surface properties, including albedo (the fraction of incident
sunlight reflected back to space), surface roughness, and evapotranspiration, all of which affect the
amount and forms of energy transfer to the atmosphere. In some circumstances, these biophysical
feedbacks can result in local climate warming, thereby counteracting the effects of carbon sequestration
on global mean temperature and reducing or eliminating the net value of climate-change mitigation
projects. Here, we review published and emerging research that suggests ways in which forestry projects
can counteract the consequences associated with biophysical interactions, and highlight knowledge gaps
in managing forests for climate protection. We also outline several ways in which biophysical effects can
be incorporated into frameworks that use the maintenance of forests as a climate protection strategy.

Goodwin, Sarah E. and Gregory Shriver. 2011. Effects of traffic noise on occupancy patterns of forest birds.
Conservation Biology. 25(2): 406-411.

Fonda, R.W., Binney, E.P. Vegetation Response to prescribed fire in Douglas Fir forests, Olympic National Park.
Northwest Science. 85(1): 30-.

Grasslands
Corbin, Jeffrey D. and Carla M. D'Antonio. (2011). Abundance and productivity mediate invader effects on
nitrogen dynamics in a California grassland. Ecosphere. 2(3): art 32.

White, P. J. and Rick L. Wallen. 2011. Shorts: Nutrient Cycling: Transitioning from an Elk to Bison Dominated
Grassland System. Yellowstone Science. 19(1): 6.

Sandel, B., J. D. Corbin, and M. Krupa. (2011). Using plant functional traits to guide restoration: A case study in
California coastal grassland. Ecosphere. 2(2): 23. [Department of Integrative Biology, University of California,
Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720;Department of Biological Sciences, Union College, Schenectady, New York
12308; Department of Land, Air, and Water Resources, University of California, Davis, Davis, California 95616]

Restoration ecology can benefit greatly from developments in trait-based ecology that enable improved
predictions of how the composition of plant communities will respond to changes in environmental
conditions. Plant functional traits can be used to guide the restoration of degraded habitats by closely
tailoring treatments to the local species pool. We tested this approach in two heavily invaded coastal
California grasslands. We asked whether native plant abundance and plant community trait composition
respond to (1) experimental soil fertility reduction in the form of twice-yearly carbon (C) amendments and
(2) disturbance in the form of mowing. We measured height, specific leaf area, leaf thickness and leaf
density from individuals of 39 species in the control and C addition plots, and supplemented these trait
values with database information on growth form, lifespan, nitrogen-fixing ability and seed mass.  
Consistent with theoretical predictions, C addition favored short, large-seeded and nitrogen-fixing species,
while mowing benefitted short species with high specific leaf area. However, native and exotic species did
not differ in any of the measured traits, and neither group benefitted generally from the treatments.
Carbon addition led to large intraspecific trait shifts, with individuals in C addition plots having smaller,
denser leaves and shorter stature. Species' trait plasticity, however, was not related to the community

22
 composition response to C addition.  Our study indicates that trait-based ecology is sufficiently mature
to provide useful predictions in the realm of restoration ecology. Trait screening at a site can help predict
the success of a particular restoration measure in that community.

Field, Jason, P. David D. Breshears, Jeffrey J. Whicker, and Chris B. Zou. 2011. Interactive effects of grazing and
burning on wind- and water-driven sediment fluxes: rangeland management implications. Ecological
Applications. 21(1): 22-32. [School of Natural Resources and the Environment, University of Arizona, Tucson,
Arizona 85721; Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721;
Environmental Programs, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545; Department of Natural
Resource Ecology and Management, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma 74078]

Rangelands are globally extensive, provide fundamental ecosystem services, and are tightly coupled
human–ecological systems. Rangeland sustainability depends largely on the implementation and
utilization of various grazing and burning practices optimized to protect against soil erosion and transport.
In many cases, however, land management practices lead to increased soil erosion and sediment fluxes
for reasons that are poorly understood. Because few studies have directly measured both wind and water
erosion and transport, an assessment of how they may differentially respond to grazing and burning
practices is lacking. Here, we report simultaneous, co-located estimates of wind- and water-driven
sediment transport in a semiarid grassland in Arizona, USA, over three years for four land management
treatments: control, grazed, burned, and burned + grazed. For all treatments and most years, annual rates
of wind-driven sediment transport exceeded that of water due to a combination of ongoing small but
nontrivial wind events and larger, less frequent, wind events that generally preceded the monsoon
season. Sediment fluxes by both wind and water differed consistently by treatment: burned + grazed >
burned grazed ≥ control, with effects immediately apparent after burning but delayed after grazing until
the following growing season. Notably, the wind: water sediment transport ratio decreased following
burning but increased following grazing. Our results show how rangeland practices disproportionally alter
sediment fluxes driven by wind and water, differences that could potentially help explain divergence
between rangeland sustainability and degradation.

Soil
Corbin, Jeffrey D. and Carla M. D'Antonio. (2011). Abundance and productivity mediate invader effects on
nitrogen dynamics in a California grassland. Ecosphere. 2(3):32.

Pregitzer, Kurt S., Donald R. Zak, Alan F. Talhelm, Andrew J. Burton, and Jennifer R. Eikenberry. 2011. Nitrogen
turnover in the leaf litter and fine roots of sugar maple. Ecology. 91(12): 4356-3462. [College of Natural
Resources, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho 83844; School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109; School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science, Michigan
Technological University, Houghton, Michigan 49931 USA]

Damschen, Ellen I., Susan Harrison, and James B. Grace, 2011. Climate change effects on an endemic-rich edaphic
flora: resurveying Robert H. Whittaker's Siskiyou sites (Oregon, USA). Ecology. 91(12):3609-3619. [ Department of
Biology, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri 63130; Department of Environmental Science and Policy,
University of California, Davis, California 95616; U.S. Geological Survey, National Wetlands Research Center, 700
Cajundome Boulevard, Lafayette, Louisiana 70506]

Species with relatively narrow niches, such as plants restricted (endemic) to particular soils, may be
especially vulnerable to extinction under a changing climate due to the enhanced difficulty they face in
migrating to suitable new sites. To test for community-level effects of climate change, and to compare
such effects in a highly endemic-rich flora on unproductive serpentine soils vs. the flora of normal (diorite)
soils, in 2007 we resampled as closely as possible 108 sites originally studied by ecologist Robert H.
Whittaker from 1949 to 1951 in the Siskiyou Mountains of southern Oregon, USA. We found sharp
declines in herb cover and richness on both serpentine and diorite soils. Declines were strongest in
species of northern biogeographic affinity, species endemic to the region (in serpentine communities

23
 only), and species endemic to serpentine soils. Consistent with climatic warming, herb communities have
shifted from 1949-1951 to 2007 to more closely resemble communities found on xeric (warm, dry) south-
facing slopes. The changes found in the Siskiyou herb flora suggest that biotas rich in narrowly distributed
endemics may be particularly susceptible to the effects of a warming climate.

Peay, Kabir G., Matteo Garbelotto, and Thomas D. Bruns. 2011. Evidence of dispersal limitation in soil
microorganisms: Isolation reduces species richness on mycorrhizal tree islands. Ecology. 91(12): 3631–3640.
[Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California, Berkeley, California
94720; Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720]

Conant, Richard T., Stephen M Ogle, Eldor A Paul, and Keith Paustian. 2011. Measuring and monitoring soil
organic carbon stocks in agricultural lands for climate mitigation. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. 9(3):
169-173.

Policies that encourage greenhouse-gas emitters to mitigate emissions through terrestrial carbon (C)
offsets – C sequestration in soils or biomass – will promote practices that reduce erosion and build soil
fertility, while fostering adaptation to climate change, agricultural development, and rehabilitation of
degraded soils. However, none of these benefits will be possible until changes in C stocks can be
documented accurately and cost-effectively. This is particularly challenging when dealing with changes in
soil organic C (SOC) stocks. Precise methods for measuring C in soil samples are well established, but
spatial variability in the factors that determine SOC stocks makes it difficult to document change.
Widespread interest in the benefits of SOC sequestration has brought this issue to the fore in the
development of US and international climate policy. Here, we review the challenges to documenting
changes in SOC stocks, how policy decisions influence offset documentation requirements, and the
benefits and drawbacks of different sampling strategies and extrapolation methods.

Land Ecosystems
Letourneau, Deborah K., et.al. 2011. Does plant diversity benefit agroecosystems? A synthetic review. Ecological
Applications. 21(1): 9-21. [Environmental Studies Department, 1156 High Street, University of California, Santa
Cruz, California 95064]

Shuster, David L., Kurt M. Cuffey, Johnny W. Sanders, and Greg Balco. 2011. Thermochronometry Reveals
Headward Propagation of Erosion in an Alpine Landscape. Science. 332(6025): 84-88.
Glacial troughs in New Zealand mountains developed by propagation of erosion up valleys.

Riparian Ecosystems:
Hough-Snee, Nate, Rodney Pond and Jake Jacobson. 2010. The Stillaguamish Big Trees Project: Watershed-Scale
Riparian Restoration (Washington). Ecological Restoration 28(3): 243-245.

Allen, Anastasia E., Francisco J. Santana-Michel, Claudia Ortiz Arrona and Joy B. Zedler. 2010. Integrating Ecological
and Ethnobotanical Priorities into Riparian Restoration. Ecological Restoration 28(3): 377-388.

Kennedy, Thomas L. and Thomas F. Turner. 2011. River channelization reduces nutrient flow and
macroinvertebrate diversity at the aquatic terrestrial transition zone. Ecosphere. 2(3): art 35. [Department of
Biology and Museum of Southwestern Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131 USA]

Merritt, David M., Christer Nilsson, and Roland Jansson . 2010. Consequences of propagule dispersal and river
fragmentation for riparian plant community diversity and turnover. Ecological Monographs. 80(4): 600-626.
[National Watershed, Fish, Wildlife, Air, and Rare Plants, U.S. Forest Service, Natural Resource Research Center,
Fort Collins, Colorado 80526]

Aufdenkampe, Anthony K., et.al. 2011. Riverine coupling of biogeochemical cycles between land, oceans, and
atmosphere. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. 9(1): 53-60. [Stroud Water Research Center, Avondale, PA;

24
Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Washington, Seattle, WA; Bren School of Environmental Science and
Management, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA; Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, NOAA, Seattle,
WA]

Streams, rivers, lakes, and other inland waters are important agents in the coupling of biogeochemical
cycles between continents, atmosphere, and oceans. The depiction of these roles in global-scale
assessments of carbon (C) and other bioactive elements remains limited, yet recent findings suggest that
C discharged to the oceans is only a fraction of that entering rivers from terrestrial ecosystems via soil
respiration, leaching, chemical weathering, and physical erosion. Most of this C influx is returned to the
atmosphere from inland waters as carbon dioxide (CO 2) or buried in sedimentary deposits within
impoundments, lakes, floodplains, and other wetlands. Carbon and mineral cycles are coupled by both
erosion–deposition processes and chemical weathering, with the latter producing dissolved inorganic C
and carbonate buffering capacity that strongly modulate downstream pH, biological production of
calcium-carbonate shells, and CO2 outgassing in rivers, estuaries, and coastal zones. Human activities
substantially affect all of these processes.

Maier, G.O., Toft, J.D., Simenstad, C.A. Variability of isotopic composition of organic matter contributes to
detritus-based food webs of the Columbia river estuary. Northwest Science., 85(1): 41-54.

Hocking, Morgan D. and John D. Reynolds. 2011. Impacts of Salmon on Riparian Plant Diversity. Science.
331(6024): 1609-1612.

Salmon are distributed around the Pacific Rim from California to Korea, and the carcasses of salmon
returning to their native streams to spawn provide substantial nutrient input to the surrounding riverside
vegetation. Hocking and Reynolds (p. 1609) show that these subsidies cause detectable shifts in plant
communities along streams. In a large-scale study of 50 watersheds in British Columbian rainforests, the
impact of subsidies led to a simplification of plant communities and a shift toward nutrient-demanding
plant species. Thus, interactions across ecosystem boundaries can change ecological community structure
and function, which will impact ecosystem-based management of salmon and their habitats.

Freshwater Ecosystems
Henn, Avi and David Ostergren. 2010. The San Juan River Basin Fluvial Restoration Database and the
Conservation Registry (California). Ecological Restoration 28(4): 415-417.

Brown, Jenny, Leslie Bach, Allison Aldous, Abby Wyers, and Julia DeGagné. 2011. Groundwater-dependent
ecosystems in Oregon: an assessment of their distribution and associated threats. Frontiers in Ecology and the
Environment. 9(2): 97-102.

Hocking, Morgan D. and John D. Reynolds. 2011. Impacts of Salmon on Riparian Plant Diversity. Science.
331(6024): 1609-1612.

Salmon are distributed around the Pacific Rim from California to Korea, and the carcasses of salmon
returning to their native streams to spawn provide substantial nutrient input to the surrounding riverside
vegetation. Hocking and Reynolds (p. 1609) show that these subsidies cause detectable shifts in plant
communities along streams. In a large-scale study of 50 watersheds in British Columbian rainforests, the
impact of subsidies led to a simplification of plant communities and a shift toward nutrient-demanding
plant species. Thus, interactions across ecosystem boundaries can change ecological community structure
and function, which will impact ecosystem-based management of salmon and their habitats.

Verspoor, Jan J., Douglas C. Braun, Morgan M. Stubbs, and John D. Reynolds. 2011. Persistent ecological effects of
a salmon-derived nutrient pulse on stream invertebrate communities. Ecosphere. 2(2): art 18. [Earth2Ocean
Research Group, Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby,
British Columbia V5A 1S6 Canada]

25
 Pulsed resource subsidies can have ecological effects that persist over time. These subsidies can be
particularly important in aquatic ecosystems, which are often resource-limited. Anadromous salmon
(Oncorhynchus spp.) deliver annual nutrient pulses to many freshwater ecosystems around the North
Pacific. The persistent ecological consequences of this nutrient subsidy are poorly understood across the
range of Pacific salmon and likely depend on stream habitat, background nutrient dynamics, and the
abundance of spawning salmon. Using a model selection approach, we examined relationships among
spawning salmon density, stream habitats, and the abundance and diversity of stream invertebrates ten
months after salmon spawning, across 21 streams in central British Columbia, Canada. Total invertebrate
abundance increased with salmon density and with higher stream temperatures. Invertebrate diversity
was more closely related to stream habitat characteristics than to salmon density. These results suggest
that salmon nutrients have a greater impact on stream invertebrate population sizes than on the variety
of taxa that inhabit these streams. The three most common invertebrate families—grazing mayflies
(Heptageniidae), predatory stoneflies (Chloroperlidae), and chironomid midges (Chironomidae)—all
increased in abundance with salmon density. Stream habitat variables (temperature, pH, and substrate
size) also explained significant variation in the abundances of the three groups. These results suggest that
salmon nutrients retained in the watershed from previous years help support greater abundances of some
invertebrate taxa. Thus the pulsed nutrient subsidy provided by spawning salmon may have ecological
effects that persist many months, or even years, after it is delivered.

Walters, Annika W. and David M. Post. 2011. How low can you go? Impacts of a low-flow disturbance on aquatic
insect communities. Ecological Applications. 21(1): 163-174. [Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology,
Yale University, P.O. Box 208106, New Haven, Connecticut 06520-8106 USA; Present address: National Marine
Fisheries Service, Northwest Fisheries Science Center, 2725 Montlake Boulevard East, Seattle, Washington 98112-
2097]

The natural hydrology of streams and rivers is being extensively modified by human activities. Water
diversion, dam construction, and climate change have the potential to increase the frequency and
intensity of low-flow events. Flow is a dominant force structuring stream aquatic insect communities, but
the impacts of water diversion are poorly understood. Here we report results of an experimental stream
flow diversion designed to test how aquatic insect communities respond to a low-flow disturbance. We
diverted 40% to 80% of the water in three replicate streams for three summers, leading to summer flow
exceedance probabilities of up to 99.9%. Shifts in habitat availability appeared to be a major driver of
aquatic insect community responses. Responses also varied by habitat type: total insect density decreased
in riffle habitats, but there was no change in pool habitats. Overall, the total biomass of aquatic insects
decreased sharply with lowered flow. Collector-filterers, collector-gatherers, and scrapers were especially
susceptible, while predatory insects were more resistant. Despite extremely low flow levels, there was no
shift in aquatic insect family richness. The experimental water withdrawal did not increase water
temperature or decrease water quality, and some wetted habitat was always maintained, which likely
prevented more severe impacts on aquatic insect communities.

Marine Ecosystems
Madin, Elizabeth M., P. Steven D. Gaines, and Robert R. Warner. 2011. Field evidence for pervasive indirect effects
of fishing on prey foraging behavior. Ecology. 91(12): 3563-3571. [Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine
Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106; Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie
University, Sydney, New South Wales 2019 Australia; Marine Science Institute, University of California, Santa
Barbara, California 93106; Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California, Santa
Barbara, California 93106 USA]

The indirect, ecosystem-level consequences of ocean fishing, and particularly the mechanisms driving
them, are poorly understood. Most studies focus on density-mediated trophic cascades, where removal of
predators alternately causes increases and decreases in abundances of lower trophic levels. However,
cascades could also be driven by where and when prey forage rather than solely by prey abundance. Over

26
 a large gradient of fishing intensity in the central Pacific's remote northern Line Islands, including a nearly
pristine, baseline coral reef system, we found that changes in predation risk elicit strong behavioral
responses in foraging patterns across multiple prey fish species. These responses were observed as a
function of both short-term ("acute") risk and longer-term ("chronic") risk, as well as when prey were
exposed to model predators to isolate the effect of perceived predation risk from other potentially
confounding factors. Compared to numerical prey responses, antipredator behavioral responses such as
these can potentially have far greater net impacts (by occurring over entire assemblages) and operate
over shorter temporal scales (with potentially instantaneous response times) in transmitting top-down
effects. A rich body of literature exists on both the direct effects of human removal of predators from
ecosystems and predators' effects on prey behavior. Our results draw together these lines of research and
provide the first empirical evidence that large-scale human removal of predators from a natural
ecosystem indirectly alters prey behavior. These behavioral changes may, in turn, drive previously
unsuspected alterations in reef food webs.

Russ, Garry R. and Angel C. Alcala. 2011. Enhanced biodiversity beyond marine reserve boundaries: The cup
spillith over. Ecological Applications. 21(1): 241-250. [School of Marine and Tropical Biology and ARC Centre for
Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811 Australia; Silliman University Angelo King
Center for Research and Environmental Management, Silliman University, Dumaguete City, 6200, Philippines]

Howarth, Robert, et.al. 2011. Coupled biogeochemical cycles: eutrophication and hypoxia in temperate estuaries
and coastal marine ecosystems. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. 9(1): 18-26. [Department of Ecology
and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY; Department of Zoology, Oregon State University, Corvallis,
OR]

Nutrient fluxes to coastal areas have risen in recent decades, leading to widespread hypoxia and other
ecological damage, particularly from nitrogen (N). Several factors make N more limiting in estuaries and
coastal waters than in lakes: desorption (release) of phosphorus (P) bound to clay as salinity increases,
lack of planktonic N fixation in most coastal ecosystems, and flux of relatively P-rich, N-poor waters from
coastal oceans into estuaries. During eutrophication, biogeochemical feedbacks further increase the
supply of N and P, but decrease availability of silica – conditions that can favor the formation and
persistence of harmful algal blooms. Given sufficient N inputs, estuaries and coastal marine ecosystems
can be driven to P limitation. This switch contributes to greater far-field N pollution; that is, the N moves
further and contributes to eutrophication at greater distances. The physical oceanography (extent of
stratification, residence time, and so forth) of coastal systems determines their sensitivity to hypoxia, and
recent changes in physics have made some ecosystems more sensitive to hypoxia. Coastal hypoxia
contributes to ocean acidification, which harms calcifying organisms such as mollusks and some
crustaceans.

Feary, David A., Joshua E. Cinner, et al. 2011. Effects of Customary marine closures on fish behavior, spear-fishing
success, and underwater visual surveys. Conservation Biology. 25(2): 341-349.

Watanabe, T., Minobe, S., Kawashima, T., Sowa, K., Nagai, T., Suzuki, A., Minoshima, K., Kase, T. et. al. (March 10,
2011). Permanent El Niño during the Pliocene warm period not supported by coral evidence. Nature, 471(7337):
209-211.

de Gouw, J. A. et al. March 2011. Organic Aerosol Formation Downwind from the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.
Science 331(6022); 1295-1298.

A large fraction of atmospheric aerosols are derived from organic compounds with various volatilities. A
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) WP-3D research aircraft made airborne
measurements of the gaseous and aerosol composition of air over the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill
in the Gulf of Mexico that occurred from April to August 2010. A narrow plume of hydrocarbons was
observed downwind of DWH that is attributed to the evaporation of fresh oil on the sea surface. A much

27
 wider plume with high concentrations of organic aerosol (>25 micrograms per cubic meter) was attributed
to the formation of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) from unmeasured, less volatile hydrocarbons that
were emitted from a wider area around DWH. These observations provide direct and compelling evidence
for the importance of formation of SOA from less volatile hydrocarbons.
.
Coe, Hugh. 2011. Aerosol Chemistry and the Deepwater Horizon Spill. Science. 331(6022): 1273-1274.

In Earth's atmosphere, particles smaller than 1 µm, known as aerosols, scatter incoming solar radiation
and act as sites for condensation of water during cloud formation. Human activities can alter this
population of particles, thereby affecting climate and air quality (1, 2). Our inability to accurately predict
the composition and mass of atmospheric aerosols, however, is inhibiting progress in both areas.
Understanding the formation of organic aerosols, a large class of submicrometer particles (3), has proven
to be a challenge; laboratory experiments have previously not been reconciled with field measurements
(4, 5). Recent theoretical frameworks point to the importance of semivolatile organic compounds (SVOCs)
and organic compounds of intermediate volatility (IVOCs) as precursors (6, 7), but investigators have
lacked observational evidence. On page 1295 of this issue, de Gouw et al. (8) help to clarify the role of
SVOCs and IVOCs in forming organic aerosols. Using airborne measurements taken downwind of the oil
slick resulting from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon (DWH) accident in the Gulf of Mexico, they reveal that
the oxidation of IVOCs and SVOCs in the atmosphere plays a dominant role in forming organic particles.

Hydrology
Konrad, C., et al., 2011. Channel dynamics in the middle Green River, Washington, From 1936 to 2002. Northwest
Science. 85(1): 1-14.

Aquatic Wildlife (excluding fish)

Jacobs, Molly W. and Kristin M. Sherrard. 2010. Bigger is not always better: Offspring size does not predict growth
or survival for seven ascidian species. Ecology, 91(12): 3598–3608. [Department of Biology, Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543; Friday Harbor Laboratories, 620 University Road,
Friday Harbor, Washington 98250; Department of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology, University of Chicago,
Chicago, Illinois 60637]

Walters, Annika W. and David M. Post. 2011. How low can you go? Impacts of a low-flow disturbance on aquatic
insect communities. Ecological Applications. 21(1): 163-174. [Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology,
Yale University, P.O. Box 208106, New Haven, Connecticut 06520-8106 USA; Present address: National Marine
Fisheries Service, Northwest Fisheries Science Center, 2725 Montlake Boulevard East, Seattle, Washington 98112-
2097]

The natural hydrology of streams and rivers is being extensively modified by human activities. Water
diversion, dam construction, and climate change have the potential to increase the frequency and
intensity of low-flow events. Flow is a dominant force structuring stream aquatic insect communities, but
the impacts of water diversion are poorly understood. Here we report results of an experimental stream
flow diversion designed to test how aquatic insect communities respond to a low-flow disturbance. We
diverted 40% to 80% of the water in three replicate streams for three summers, leading to summer flow
exceedance probabilities of up to 99.9%. Shifts in habitat availability appeared to be a major driver of
aquatic insect community responses. Responses also varied by habitat type: total insect density decreased
in riffle habitats, but there was no change in pool habitats. Overall, the total biomass of aquatic insects
decreased sharply with lowered flow. Collector-filterers, collector-gatherers, and scrapers were especially
susceptible, while predatory insects were more resistant. Despite extremely low flow levels, there was no
shift in aquatic insect family richness. The experimental water withdrawal did not increase water
temperature or decrease water quality, and some wetted habitat was always maintained, which likely
prevented more severe impacts on aquatic insect communities.

28
Freshwater Fish
Kulhanek, Stefanie A., Brian Leung, and Anthony Ricciardi. 2011. Using ecological niche models to predict the
abundance and impact of invasive species: application to the common carp. Ecological Applications. 21(1): 203-
213. [Department of Biology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec H3A 1B1 Canada]

Marine fish
Clark, Lora M., Stephan B. Munch, Simon R. Thorrold, and David O. Conover. 2011. High connectivity among
locally adapted populations of a marine fish (Menidia menidia). Ecology. 91(12): 3526-3537. [School of Marine
and Atmospheric Sciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York 11794-5000; Biology Department, MS
50, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543]

Madin, Elizabeth M. P., Steven D. Gaines, and Robert R. Warner. 2011. Field evidence for pervasive indirect effects
of fishing on prey foraging behavior. Ecology. 91(12):3563-3571. Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine
Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106; Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie
University, Sydney, New South Wales 2019 Australia; Marine Science Institute, University of California, Santa
Barbara, California 93106; Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California, Santa
Barbara, California 93106 USA]

The indirect, ecosystem-level consequences of ocean fishing, and particularly the mechanisms driving
them, are poorly understood. Most studies focus on density-mediated trophic cascades, where removal of
predators alternately causes increases and decreases in abundances of lower trophic levels. However,
cascades could also be driven by where and when prey forage rather than solely by prey abundance. Over
a large gradient of fishing intensity in the central Pacific's remote northern Line Islands, including a nearly
pristine, baseline coral reef system, we found that changes in predation risk elicit strong behavioral
responses in foraging patterns across multiple prey fish species. These responses were observed as a
function of both short-term ("acute") risk and longer-term ("chronic") risk, as well as when prey were
exposed to model predators to isolate the effect of perceived predation risk from other potentially
confounding factors. Compared to numerical prey responses, antipredator behavioral responses such as
these can potentially have far greater net impacts (by occurring over entire assemblages) and operate
over shorter temporal scales (with potentially instantaneous response times) in transmitting top-down
effects. A rich body of literature exists on both the direct effects of human removal of predators from
ecosystems and predators' effects on prey behavior. Our results draw together these lines of research and
provide the first empirical evidence that large-scale human removal of predators from a natural
ecosystem indirectly alters prey behavior. These behavioral changes may, in turn, drive previously
unsuspected alterations in reef food webs.

Feary, David A., Joshua E. Cinner, et al. 2011. Effects of Customary marine closures on fish behavior, spear-fishing
success, and underwater visual surveys. Conservation Biology. 25(2): 341-349.

Salmonoids
Verspoor, Jan J., Douglas C. Braun, Morgan M. Stubbs, and John D. Reynolds. 2011. Persistent ecological effects of
a salmon-derived nutrient pulse on stream invertebrate communities. Ecosphere. 2(2): art 18. [Earth2Ocean
Research Group, Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby,
British Columbia V5A 1S6 Canada]

Pulsed resource subsidies can have ecological effects that persist over time. These subsidies can be
particularly important in aquatic ecosystems, which are often resource-limited. Anadromous salmon
(Oncorhynchus spp.) deliver annual nutrient pulses to many freshwater ecosystems around the North
Pacific. The persistent ecological consequences of this nutrient subsidy are poorly understood across the
range of Pacific salmon and likely depend on stream habitat, background nutrient dynamics, and the
abundance of spawning salmon. Using a model selection approach, we examined relationships among
spawning salmon density, stream habitats, and the abundance and diversity of stream invertebrates ten

29
 months after salmon spawning, across 21 streams in central British Columbia, Canada. Total invertebrate
abundance increased with salmon density and with higher stream temperatures. Invertebrate diversity
was more closely related to stream habitat characteristics than to salmon density. These results suggest
that salmon nutrients have a greater impact on stream invertebrate population sizes than on the variety
of taxa that inhabit these streams. The three most common invertebrate families—grazing mayflies
(Heptageniidae), predatory stoneflies (Chloroperlidae), and chironomid midges (Chironomidae)—all
increased in abundance with salmon density. Stream habitat variables (temperature, pH, and substrate
size) also explained significant variation in the abundances of the three groups. These results suggest that
salmon nutrients retained in the watershed from previous years help support greater abundances of some
invertebrate taxa. Thus the pulsed nutrient subsidy provided by spawning salmon may have ecological
effects that persist many months, or even years, after it is delivered.

Eliason, Erika J., Timothy D. Clark, Merran J. Hague, Linda M. Hanson, Zoë S. Gallagher, Ken M. Jeffries, Marika K.
Gale, David A. Patterson, Scott G. Hinch, and Anthony P. Farrell. 2011. Differences in Thermal Tolerance Among
Sockeye Salmon Populations. Science. 332(6025): 109-112.
Environmental conditions encountered during migration shape cardiorespiratory physiology in sockeye
salmon.

Rosenberger, A., Dunham, J.B., Buffington, J.M., Wipfli, M.S., Persistent Effects of Wildfire and Debris Flows on
the Invertebrate Prey Base of Rainbow Trout in Idaho streams. Northwest Science. 85(1): 55-63.

Wildlife
Shanley, Colin S. and Sanjay Pyare. 2011. Evaluating the road-effect zone on wildlife distribution in a rural
landscape. Ecosphere. 2(2): art 16. [Biology and Wildlife Department, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775
USA, Environmental Sciences and Geography Program, University of Alaska Southeast, Juneau, Alaska 99801 USA]

The road-effect zone is the area in which ecological effects extend outward from a road. Dispersed off-
highway vehicle (OHV; e.g., four-wheelers and snowmachines) activity on rural road networks creates a
disturbance that reduces the effective amount of wildlife habitat and therefore has the potential for an
extensive road-effect zone. Consequently, land managers must consider the trade-offs between rural road
development and the conservation of habitat for species of concern. We conducted a spatially-explicit
study of moose, Alces alces, occurrence in relation to rural roads and OHV routes in rural Alaska, U.S.A.
We used logistic regression and AIC model selection criterion to develop resource selection functions
(RSFs) for male and female moose at three spatial scales (250 m, 500 m, and 1000 m) in two seasons
(summer and fall). To evaluate an ecological disturbance threshold from increasing route activity on the
probability of animal occurrence, the RSFs were plotted against an index of route activity derived from
interviews with OHV users, and fit with logarithmic functions. The variable for route activity improved the
fit of RSF models for both sexes at all spatial scales and in both seasons. A negative relationship was found
between moose occurrence and routes or areas in which routes were in close proximity to primary forage,
with the exception of male moose at the 1000-m scale in the fall. Therefore, among the spatial scales of
analysis, the road-effect zone for male moose was determined to be between 500 m and 1000 m, and
>1000 m for female moose. Furthermore, route activity <0.25 km of vehicle travel/km 2/day was a
threshold value at which moose sustained a high probability of occurrence (0.60 to 0.91). The results of
our study suggest that the dispersed ecological effect of rural roads and OHV routes should be considered
in transportation and land-management planning efforts. Relatively low levels of vehicular activity may
create extensive road-effect zones for sensitive species.

Maron, John L., Dean E. Pearson, and Robert J. Fletcher Jr. 2011. Counterintuitive effects of large-scale predator
removal on a midlatitude rodent community. Ecology. 91(12): 3719-3728. [Division of Biological Sciences,
University of Montana, Missoula, Montana 59812; Rocky Mountain Research Station, U.S. Forest Service, Missoula,
Montana 59812; Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, P.O. Box 110430, University of Florida,
Gainesville, Florida 32611]

30
White, P. J., Robert A. Garrott, Kenneth L. Hamlin, Rachel C. Cook, John G. Cook, and Julie A. Cunningham. 2011.
Body condition and pregnancy in northern Yellowstone elk: Evidence for predation risk effects? Ecological
Applications. 21(1): 3-8. [National Park Service, P.O. Box 168, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming 82190]

S. Creel et al. reported a negative correlation between fecal progesterone concentrations and elk : wolf
ratios in greater Yellowstone elk (Cervus elaphus) herds and interpreted this correlation as evidence that
pregnancy rates of elk decreased substantially in the presence of wolves (Canis lupus). Apparently, the
hypothesized mechanism is that decreased forage intake reduces body condition and either results in elk
failing to conceive during the autumn rut or elk losing the fetus during winter. We tested this hypothesis
by comparing age-specific body condition (percentage ingesta-free body fat) and pregnancy rates for
northern Yellowstone elk, one of the herds sampled by Creel et al., before (1962–1968) and after (2000–
2006) wolf restoration using indices developed and calibrated for Rocky Mountain elk. Mean age-adjusted
percentage body fat of female elk was similarly high in both periods (9.0% ± 0.9% pre-wolf; 8.9% ± 0.8%
post-wolf). Estimated pregnancy rates (proportion of females that were pregnant) were 0.91 pre-wolf and
0.87 post-wolf for 4–9 year-old elk (95% CI on difference = −0.15 to 0.03, P = 0.46) and 0.64 pre-wolf and
0.78 post-wolf for elk >9 years old (95% CI on difference = −0.01 to 0.27, P = 0.06). Thus, there was little
evidence in these data to support strong effects of wolf presence on elk pregnancy. We caution that
multiple lines of evidence and/or strong validation should be brought to bear before relying on indirect
measures of how predators affect pregnancy rates.

Pike, David A., Jonathan K. Webb, and Richard Shine. 2011. Removing forest canopy cover restores a reptile
assemblage. Ecological Applications. 21(1): 274-280. [School of Biological Sciences A08, University of Sydney, NSW
2006 Australia]

Boyles, Justin G., Paul M. Cryan, Gary F. McCracken, and Thomas H. Kunz. 2011. Economic Importance of Bats in
Agriculture. Science. 332(6025): 41-42.

White-nose syndrome (WNS) and the increased development of wind-power facilities are threatening
populations of insectivorous bats in North America. Bats are voracious predators of nocturnal insects,
including many crop and forest pests. We present here analyses suggesting that loss of bats in North
America could lead to agricultural losses estimated at more than $3.7 billion/year. Urgent efforts are
needed to educate the public and policy-makers about the ecological and economic importance of
insectivorous bats and to provide practical conservation solutions.

White, P.J., John J. Treanor, and Rick L. Wallen. 2011. Balancing Brucellosis Risk Management and Wildlife
Conservation. Yellowstone Science. 19(1): 15-21.
Land managers and park scientists examine the complex scientific and social issues surrounding the how,
when, and where of brucellosis transmission.

Whittlesey, Lee and Paul Schullery. 2011. Wolves in the Historical Record: How many wolves lived in Yellowstone
before it became a park? A newly discovered account from 1872 sheds light on nineteenth century wolf
abundance. Yellowstone Science. 19(1): 23-28.

White, P. J., Glenn E. Plumb, and Rick L. Wallen. 2011. Shorts: Migration and Dispersal: Key Processes for
Conserving National Parks. Yellowstone Science. 19(1): 7.

Foley, Janet, Deana Clifford, et al. 2011. Investigating and managing the rapid emergence of white-nose
syndrome, a novel, fatal infectious disease of hibernating bats. Conservation Biology. 25(2): 223-231.

Martin, Julien, Paul L. Fackler, et al. 2011. An adaptive-management framework for optimal control of hiking near
golden eagle nests in Denali National Park. Conservation Biology. 25(2): 316-323.

31
Kery, Marc, Beth Gardner, et al. 2011. Use of spatial capture-recapture modeling and DNA data to estimate
densities of elusive animals. Conservation Biology. 25(2): 356-364.

Rao, S., Stephen, W.P., Kimoto, C., DeBano, S.J. 2011. The Status of the ‘Red-Listed’ Bombus occidentalis
(Hymenoptera: Apiformes) in Northeast Oregon. Northwest Science. 85(1): 64-67.

Reisenbichler, Reg. 2011. A Conservation Success Story. A book review of Wildlife on the Wind—A Field
Biologist’s Journey and an Indian Reservation’s Renewal. Northwest Science. 85(1): 72.

Shanley, Colin S. and Sanjay Pyare. 2011. Evaluating the road-effect zone on wildlife distribution in a rural
landscape. Ecosphere. 2(2): art 16. [Biology and Wildlife Department, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775
USA, Environmental Sciences and Geography Program, University of Alaska Southeast, Juneau, Alaska 99801 USA]

The road-effect zone is the area in which ecological effects extend outward from a road. Dispersed off-
highway vehicle (OHV; e.g., four-wheelers and snowmachines) activity on rural road networks creates a
disturbance that reduces the effective amount of wildlife habitat and therefore has the potential for an
extensive road-effect zone. Consequently, land managers must consider the trade-offs between rural road
development and the conservation of habitat for species of concern. We conducted a spatially-explicit
study of moose, Alces alces, occurrence in relation to rural roads and OHV routes in rural Alaska, U.S.A.
We used logistic regression and AIC model selection criterion to develop resource selection functions
(RSFs) for male and female moose at three spatial scales (250 m, 500 m, and 1000 m) in two seasons
(summer and fall). To evaluate an ecological disturbance threshold from increasing route activity on the
probability of animal occurrence, the RSFs were plotted against an index of route activity derived from
interviews with OHV users, and fit with logarithmic functions. The variable for route activity improved the
fit of RSF models for both sexes at all spatial scales and in both seasons. A negative relationship was found
between moose occurrence and routes or areas in which routes were in close proximity to primary forage,
with the exception of male moose at the 1000-m scale in the fall. Therefore, among the spatial scales of
analysis, the road-effect zone for male moose was determined to be between 500 m and 1000 m, and
>1000 m for female moose. Furthermore, route activity <0.25 km of vehicle travel/km 2/day was a
threshold value at which moose sustained a high probability of occurrence (0.60 to 0.91). The results of
our study suggest that the dispersed ecological effect of rural roads and OHV routes should be considered
in transportation and land-management planning efforts. Relatively low levels of vehicular activity may
create extensive road-effect zones for sensitive species.

Birds
Verschuuren. Jonathan. 2010. Climate Change: Rethinking Restoration in the European Union’s Birds and
Habitats Directives. Ecological Restoration 28(4):431-439.

Pillsbury, Finn C., James R. Miller, Diane M. Debinski, David M. Engle. 2011. Another tool in the toolbox? Using fire
and grazing to promote bird diversity in highly fragmented landscapes. Ecosphere. 2(3): art 28.

Saracco, James F., Rodney B. Siegel, and Robert L. Wilkerson. 2011. Occupancy modeling of Black-backed
Woodpeckers on burned Sierra Nevada forests. Ecosphere. 2(3): 31. [The Institute for Bird Populations, P.O. Box
1346, Point Reyes Station, California 94956-1346 USA]

Bled, Florent, J. Andrew Royle, and Emmanuelle Cam. 2011. Hierarchical modeling of an invasive spread: the
Eurasian Collared-Dove Streptopelia decaocto in the United States. Ecological Applications. 21(1): 290-302. [U.S.
Geological Survey, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Laurel, Maryland 20708 USA]

Brinkerhoff, R Jory, Corrine M Folsom-O'Keefe, Kimberly Tsao, and Maria A Diuk-Wasser. 2011. Do birds affect
Lyme disease risk? Range expansion of the vector-borne pathogen Borrelia burgdorferi. Frontiers in Ecology and
the Environment. 9(2): 103-110.

32
Kociolek, A.V., A.P. Clevenger, et al. 2011. Effects of Road networks on bird populations. Conservation Biology,
25(2): 241-249

Goodwin, Sarah E. and Gregory Shriver. 2011. Effects of traffic noise on occupancy patterns of forest birds.
Conservation Biology. 25(2): 406-411.

Plants/Botany
Pregitzer, Kurt S., Donald R. Zak, Alan F. Talhelm, Andrew J. Burton, and Jennifer R. Eikenberry. 2011. Nitrogen
turnover in the leaf litter and fine roots of sugar maple. Ecology. 91(12): 3456-3462. [College of Natural
Resources, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho 83844; School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109; School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science, Michigan
Technological University, Houghton, Michigan 49931 USA]

Gagnon, Paul R., Heather A. Passmore, William J. Platt, Jonathan A. Myers, C. E. Timothy Paine, and Kyle E. Harms.
2011. Does pyrogenicity protect burning plants? Ecology. 91(12): 3481-3486.

Gogol-Prokurat, Melanie. 2011. Predicting habitat suitability for rare plants at local spatial scales using a species
distribution model. Ecological Applications. 21(1): 33-47. [Ecology Graduate Group and Department of
Environmental Science and Policy, University of California, Davis, California 95616]

General Interest:
Nabhan, Gary Paul, DeJa Walker and Alberto Mellado Moreno. 2010. Biocultural and Ecogastronomic Restoration:
The Renewing America’s Food Traditions Alliance. Ecological Restoration 28(3): 266-279.

Tidball, Keith G. and Marianne E. Krasny. 2011. Toward an ecology of environmental education and learning.
Ecosphere. 2(2): art 21. [Civic Ecology Lab, Department of Natural Resources, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
14853 USA]

Environmental education traditionally has focused on changing individual knowledge, attitudes, and
behavior. Concern about environmental education's lack of effectiveness in instilling an understanding of
human's role within ecosystems has led us to an exploration of the relationship of learning and education
to the larger social-ecological systems in which they are embedded. We draw from socio-cultural learning
theory and from frameworks developed by long-term ecological research, hierarchy theory, and social-
ecological systems resilience to suggest an “ecology of learning” and an “ecology of environmental
education.” In so doing, we hope to open up new research and practices that consider possibilities for
environmental education to act in consort with other initiatives, such as local stewardship efforts, to
foster social capital, ecosystem services, and other attributes of resilient social-ecological systems.

Pokallus, J. W., G. M. Campbell, B. J. Koch, and J. N. Pauli 2011. The landscape of ecology. Ecosphere. 2(2): art 22.
Department of Zoology and Physiology, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming 82071, Program in Ecology,
University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming 82071; Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, Madison, Wisconsin
53706]

Science, and ecology, is fundamentally a social endeavor. As such, central aspects of the scientific process,
like innovation or the exchange of ideas, can be influenced by the geographic distribution of scientists and
resources. Nonetheless, the spatial patterning of ecological research within the United States has never
been measured. By using an approach similar to that used to map global biodiversity hotspots, we
quantified ecological research activity across the United States. We assigned members of Ecological
Society of America, recipients of National Science Foundation grants, and authors of publications in
leading ecological journals to the ZIP code of their home institution. Using these data we mapped the
density of ecologists, and the magnitude of their inputs and outputs, and quantified an “ecological
activity” index to measure the spatial intensity of ecological research within the United States. We also
examined spatial patterns of collaboration. Our quantification of ecological activity and subsequent

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 cluster analysis revealed distinct centers, or hotspots, of ecological research. Our analyses also
indicated that such hotspots of ecological activity achieved their status via different pathways.
Furthermore, ecologists within hotspots of ecological research were highly connected via collaborations
with researchers across the country and within their own ZIP code.

Scheffers, Brett R and Thomas C Wanger. 2011. Plastic: matching material with usage. Frontiers in Ecology and the
Environment. 9(3): 151-152.

Nature Editorial. March 2011. Journal launch: Welcome Nature Climate Change. Nature. 471: 548.

Barrett, Brenda. How to treasure a landscape: What is the role of the NPS? CRM: Journal of Heritage Stewardship.
7(1): 7-15.

History
Egerton, Frank N. 2011. A History of Ecological Sciences, Part 38A: Naturalists Explore North America, mid-1820s
to about 1840. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America. 92(1): 64-91.

Pringle, Heather. 2011. Texas Site Confirms Pre-Clovis Settlement of the Americas. Science. 331(6024): 1512.

Whittlesey, Lee and Paul Schullery. 2011. Wolves in the Historical Record: How many wolves lived in Yellowstone
before it became a park? A newly discovered account from 1872 sheds light on nineteenth century wolf
abundance. Yellowstone Science. 19(1): 23-28.

Flanagan, Joe. 2010. Freeway: Seattle’s Alaskan Way Viaduct. Common Ground. 15(4): 26-37.

Lubinski, P.M., Comments on Evidence for Hunting of Pronghorn Herds in Prehistory. Northwest Science. 85(1):68-
70.

Environmental Policy & Law

Donovan, E., 2011. Deferring to the Assertion of National Security: The Creation of a National Security Exemption
under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969. West Northwest. 17(1): 3-29.

Breakfield, A., Political cases or political questions: The Justiciability of Public Nuisance Climate Change Litigation
and the Impact on Native Village of Kivalina v. ExxonMobil. West Northwest. 17(1): 39-62.

Visitor use
Martin, Julien, Paul L. Fackler, et al. 2011. An adaptive-management framework for optimal control of hiking near
golden eagle nests in Denali National Park. Conservation Biology. 25(2): 316-323.

Environmental Education
Tidball, Keith G. and Marianne E. Krasny. 2011. Toward an ecology of environmental education and learning.
Ecosphere. 2(2): art 21 [Civic Ecology Lab, Department of Natural Resources, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
14853 USA]

Environmental education traditionally has focused on changing individual knowledge, attitudes, and
behavior. Concern about environmental education's lack of effectiveness in instilling an understanding of
human's role within ecosystems has led us to an exploration of the relationship of learning and education
to the larger social-ecological systems in which they are embedded. We draw from socio-cultural learning
theory and from frameworks developed by long-term ecological research, hierarchy theory, and social-
ecological systems resilience to suggest an “ecology of learning” and an “ecology of environmental
education.” In so doing, we hope to open up new research and practices that consider possibilities for

34
 environmental education to act in consort with other initiatives, such as local stewardship efforts, to
foster social capital, ecosystem services, and other attributes of resilient social-ecological systems.

Reviews
Peterson, D.L. After the Fire is Gone—Merging Science and Resource Management. A book review on Fire Effects
on Soils and Restoration Strategies. Northwest Science. 85(1): 71.

Reisenbichler, Reg. A Conservation Success Story. A book review of Wildlife on the Wind—A Field Biologist’s
Journey and an Indian Reservation’s Renewal. Northwest Science. 85(1): 72.

Conservation Magazine’s Journal Watch keeps readers abreast of ground breaking conservation research being
conducted around the globe selected from more than 50 peer-reviewed journals on a variety of themes: forests,
oceans, energy, climate, ecology, economics, genetics, public health, public policy and more.

 David Malakoff. 2011 Journal Watch: Democracy & Deforestation: is Autocracy better for trees?
Conservation. Spring, p. 10. http://www.conservationmagazine.org/2010/12/democracy-deforestation/

 David Malakoff. 2011 Journal Watch: Plugging into the Ocean: Ecological tradeoffs to scaling up blue
power. Conservation. Spring, p. 11. http://www.conservationmagazine.org/2011/03/plugging-into-the-
ocean/

 David Malakoff. 2011 Journal Watch: Live and Let Die: Dead salmon bring Canadian parks to life.
Conservation. Spring, p. 12. http://www.conservationmagazine.org/2011/03/live-and-let-die/

 David Malakoff. 2011 Journal Watch: Gray to Green: Aging populations curb CO2 emissions.
Conservation. Spring, p. 13 http://www.conservationmagazine.org/2011/03/gray-and-green/

 David Malakoff. 2011 Journal Watch: Windfall: More trees equal less wind. Conservation. Spring, p. 10.
http://www.conservationmagazine.org/2011/03/windfall/

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