The response of ground-dwelling spider assemblages to edges created by wildfire was compared to their response to clear-cut edges in black spruce forests in eastern Canada. For each disturbance six edge transects 100 m long were established. Spiders were collected with pitfall traps 10 m apart from 50 m inside the disturbances to 50 m in the forest interior. Measurements of the forest floor str...

Three-dimensional (3-D) visualizations of forest landscapes are quantitative ecological information-based techniques that can be used to visualize forest structure, dynamics, landscape transformations and regional plans. Visualizing forests and landscapes with limited ground observations are often the primary challenge for quality animations. Conducting stand-level field surveys over a large fo...

Snags (standing dead trees) provide important habitat for forest wildlife, as well as a source of coarse woody debris important in forest succession. Because of their importance, some land-management agencies have standards for snag retention on lands under their jurisdiction (e.g. U.S. Forest Service, British Columbia Ministry of Forestry). Despite these guidelines, however, little information...

Article history: Received 1 November 2006 Received in revised form 29 March 2007 Accepted 17 April 2007 Exploratorymodeling is an approach used when process and/or parameter uncertainties are such that modeling attempts at realistic prediction are not appropriate. Exploratory modeling makes use of computational experimentation to test how varying model scenarios drive model outcome. The goal of...

We characterized soil cation, carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) transformations within a variety of land use types in the karst region of the northeastern Dominican Republic. We examined a range of soil pools and fluxes during the wet and dry seasons in undisturbed forest, regenerating forest and active agricultural sites within and directly adjacent to Los Haitises National Park. Soil moisture, soil...

Some warm/dry mixed-conifer forests are at increasing risk of uncharacteristically large, high-severity fires. As a result, managers have begun ecological restoration efforts using treatments such as mechanical thinning and prescribed fire. Empirical information on the long-term impacts of these treatments is limited, especially in light of potential climate change. We assessed changes in fores...

Warming during late winter and spring in recent decades has been credited with increasing high northern latitude CO2 uptake, but it is unclear how different species and plant functional types contribute to this response. To address this, we measured net ecosystem exchange (NEE) at a deciduous broadleaf (aspen and willow) forest and an evergreen conifer (black spruce) forest in interior Alaska o...

Advanced forest succession and associated accumulations of forest biomass in the Blue Mountains of Oregon and Washington and Intermountain area have led to increased vulnerability of these forests to insects, diseases, and wild®re. One proposed solution is large-scale conversion of these forests to seral conditions that emulate those assumed to exist before European settlement: open-spaced stan...