Development and change in forest communities are strongly influenced by plant-soil interactions. The primary objective of this paper was to identify how forest soil characteristics vary along gradients of forest community composition in aspen-conifer forests to better understand the relationship between forest vegetation characteristics and soil processes. The study was conducted on the Fishlak...

Sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) obligate wildlife species such as the imperiled greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) face numerous threats including altered ecosystem processes that have led to conifer expansion into shrub-steppe. Conifer removal is accelerating despite a lack of empirical evidence on grouse population response. Using a before-after-control-impact design at the landscape ...

We characterized the volume, weight and top surface area of naturally fallen logs in an oldgrowth redwood forest, and quantified conifer recruit densities on these logs and on the surrounding forest floor. We report significantly greater conifer recruit densities on log substrates as compared to the forest floor. Log substrate availability was calculated on a per hectare basis using the line-in...

We reconstructed the broad backbone of conifer phylogeny from a survey of 15–17 plastid loci and associated noncoding regions from exemplar conifer species. Parsimony and likelihood analyses recover the same higher-order relationships, and we find strong support for most of the deep splits in conifer phylogeny, including those within our two most heavily sampled families, Araucariaceae and Cupr...

Context The diversity of myxomycetes associated with Australia’s most diverse native conifer genus, Callitris, has been incompletely studied. Aims In this study, we examine the outer bark, fallen cones and dead litter (leaves/needles) four Callitris species. Methods Substrate samples were collected from 13 localities in New South Wales, Queensland Northern Territory. Samples used to prepare moi...

Pigment content is a critical assessment indicator in the study of plant physiological metabolism, stress resistance, ornamental characteristics, and forest health. Spectral imaging technology widely used for rapid non-destructive determination physicochemical parameters. To address shortcomings previous models spectral reflectance prediction chlorophyll needles only from perspective traditiona...

background: needlestick injuries (nsis) are among the most important occupational injuries for health care workers (hcws). in iran, the problem of exposure to contaminated blood among nursing personnels has not well documented. the aim of this study was to determine the incidence of needlestick injuries in population of nurses in shahroud imam hossein hospital, northern iran. methods: a self-ad...

The Cavitron technique facilitates time and material saving for vulnerability analysis. The use of rotors with small diameters leads to high water pressure gradients (DeltaP) across samples, which may cause pit aspiration in conifers. In this study, the effect of pit aspiration on Cavitron measurements was analysed and a modified 'conifer method' was tested which avoids critical (i.e. pit aspir...