The O horizon, or detrital layer, of forest soils is linked to long-term forest productivity and health. Fuel reduction techniques, such as prescribed fire, can alter the thickness and composition of this essential ecosystem component. Developing an understanding of the changes in the chemical composition of forest detritus due to prescribed fire is essential for forest managers and stakeholder...

The University of Idaho has been developing gasoline direct injection two-stroke engine technology for use in snowmobile applications as part of the Clean Snowmobile Challenge organized by the Society of Automotive Engineers. Applying GDI to a twostroke engine significantly reduces emissions of unburned hydrocarbons and improves fuel economy by reducing or eliminating the short circuiting of fu...

Air pollution is a precursor to many health issues such as difficulty breathing, asthma, lung and heart diseases, cancer. This study presents concise view of biodiesel combustion in mitigating pollutant emissions which are generated by the fossil fuels, thereby eliminating negative effects on human environment. Gaseous pollutants carbon monoxide, unburned hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, particul...

Biodiesel combustion in diesel engines is associated with reduced carbon monoxide, particulate matter and unburned hydrocarbons emissions, but several concerns remain including deposition, low thermal efficiency elevated nitrogen oxides production. To this end, the incorporation of gasoline additive has been proposed as a solution to drawbacks posed by biodiesel. Integrated chemical kinetics-co...

The temperate deciduous species Nothofagus glauca (Phil.) Krasser exhibits characteristics commonly found in fire-adapted vegetation, yet the role of fire in the evolutionary history of the vegetation in south-central Chile has not been well investigated. We examined the effects of a wildfire on early succession in a Nothofagus glauca forest in the Coastal Cordillera of south-central Chile by c...

Some tick populations have increased dramatically in the past several decades leading to an increase in the incidence and emergence of tick-borne diseases. Management strategies that can effectively reduce tick populations while better understanding regional tick phenology is needed. One promising management strategy is prescribed burning. However, the efficacy of prescribed burning as a mechan...

Changes in land management and reductions in fire frequency have enabled woody species to increase in grasslands worldwide. Nevertheless, fire is rarely eliminated from grasslands, and for shrubs to survive, they must be able cope with fire and replace aboveground structures. Because new shoots may have more available solar radiation, greater root : shoot ratios, and thus more resources availab...

Fire has become more extensive in recent decades in southwestern United States arid lands. Burned areas pose management challenges and opportunities, and increasing our understanding of post-fire plant colonization may assist management decision-making. We examined plant communities, soils, and soil seed banks two years after the 2005 Loop Fire, located in a creosote-blackbrush community in Red...

Annual spring burning of tallgrass prairie increases plant biomass production despite losses of N and lower net N mineralization. To better understand how burning influences the cycling of N in prairie, '5N was injected to soil as NH4+, and the partitioning between plant and soil N pools was followed over five growing seasons in annually burned and unburned prairie. Applied '5N was rapidly immo...

In the southern Great Plains, the greater prairie-chicken (Tympanuchus cupido) is confined to tallgrass prairie, a habitat now largely converted to agriculture. Remaining prairie is highly fragmented and subjected to land management practices that greatly alter the ecosystem of this species. Chief among these practices are deliberate, large-scale spring burns associated with early intensive sto...