Raccoons are the reservoir for the raccoon rabies virus variant in the United States. To combat this threat, oral rabies vaccination (ORV) programs are conducted in many eastern states. To aid in these efforts, the genetic structure of raccoons (Procyon lotor) was assessed in southwestern Pennsylvania to determine if select geographic features (i.e., ridges and valleys) serve as corridors or hi...

Digital elevation models (DEMs) cover a wide range of scales, and allow statisticalanalysis of geomorphometric parameters. At global or continental scale, DEMs covering rectangular quadrangles can be considered random samples. Average quadrangle values can be compared at different DEM scales, and for different physiographic provinces. Three independent variables provide valuable descriptions of...

We hypothesized that tree form, recorded in historical public land surveys, would provide a valuable proxy record of regeneration patterns during early-European settlement of North America's eastern deciduous forest. To test this hypothesis, we tallied stem form fromwitness trees used in land survey records in the southern Appalachian Mountains from 13 counties spanning four physiographic provi...

The effect of physiographic region on microfibril angle (MFA) in loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) ia the southern United States was evaluated. MFA was determined at 1.4,4.6,7.6, 10.7, and 13.7 m up the stem of 59 trees, representing five physiographic regions. A nonlinear mixadeffects model was developed to test for regional differences in the initial value of MFA, the rate at which MFA changes w...

The autoecology of the oak Quercus petraea in the northwest Iberian Peninsula was investigated in the present study by applying the methodology developed in previous studies of other species of the genus Quercus. For this, the distribution of the species was firstly determined so that a minimum number of representative species could be selected. A total of 52 plots were chosen and in each one, ...

BACKGROUND Reducing carbon Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) is of central importance to combat climate change. Foremost among the challenges is quantifying nation's carbon emissions from deforestation and degradation, which requires information on forest carbon storage. Here we estimated carbon storage in India's forest biomass for the years 2003, 2005 and 2007 and the net f...

Prior to the current era of digital geomorphological mapping, global and regional-scale land surface characterization was advanced by qualitative interpretations that relied on human visualization aided disciplinary knowledge geophysical processes combined with extensive field study. In early twentieth century, Fenneman proposed devise systematic physiographic divisions United States in 1916 pr...

Turbidity regimes vary dramatically among small streams in north coastal California. In an analysis of turbidity data from 27 small streams in the region, turbidity at the 10-percent exceedence level ranged from 3 to 116 formazin nephelometric units (FNU) for the 2005 wet season, translating to 1.7 to 65 days above an oft-cited biological threshold of 25 FNU. Watersheds draining to the streams ...