Artemisia tridentata ssp. wyomingensis (Beetle & A. Young) S.L. Welsh-bunchgrass communities were used to analyze the influence of disturbances on invasibility after a recovery period. These communities evolved with periodic fires shifting dominance from shrubs to herbaceous species. However, fire can facilitate Bromus tectorum L. invasion of these plant communities. We evaluated the invasibili...

Reduced frequency of fire in historically fire-adapted ecosystems may have adverse effects on ecosystem structure, function, and resilience. Lack of fire increases stand density and promotes successional replacement of seral dominant trees by late-successional, more shade-tolerant species. These changes are thought to increase competition for limited resources among trees and to increase physio...

ELLIOTT, K. J. AND J. M. VOSE (Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory, Southern Research Station, USDA Forest Service, Otto, NC 28763). Effects of prescribed fire in mixed oak forests in the Southern Appalachians: vegetation response. J. Torrey Bot. Soc. 137: 49–66. 2010.—We examined vegetation responses to prescribed fire on three mixed-oak sites located in the Blue Ridge Physiographic province of the ...

Several studies have clearly demonstrated the capability of suitable algorithms based on satellite images to detect fires scars by using optical and radar data. In the near infrared region (0.7-1.3 micron) green vegetation shows high reflectance values compared to the most other natural surfaces. In general this region of the spectrum contains the most useful information on burned surface detec...

We prove the global existence of solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations describing the dynamic combustion of a compressible, exothermically reacting fluid, and we study the large-time behavior of solutions, giving necessary and sufficient conditions for complete combustion in certain cases. The adiabatic constants and specific heats of the burned (product) and unburned (reactant) fluids may d...

Large trees with cavities provide critical ecological functions in forests worldwide, including vital nesting and denning resources for many species. However, many ecosystems are experiencing increasingly rapid loss of large trees or a failure to recruit new large trees or both. We quantify this problem in a globally iconic ecosystem in southeastern Australia--forests dominated by the world's t...

Wildlife response to natural disturbances such as fire is of conservation concern to managers, policy makers, and scientists, yet information is scant beyond a few well-studied groups (e.g., birds, small mammals). We examined the effects of wildfire severity on bats, a taxon of high conservation concern, at both the stand (<1 ha) and landscape scale in response to the 2002 McNally fire in the S...

Nitric oxide is biosynthesized from the amino acid L-arginine by the enzyme nitric oxide synthase. Nitric oxide is a vasodilator, a neurotransmitter, and may modulate immune function. The experiments presented here were performed to determine whether the synthesis of nitric oxide is increased following experimental burn injury in rats. After a 30% total body surface area burn in 300-g Lewis rat...

Wildfires and harvesting are important disturbances to forest ecosystems, but their effects on soil microbial communities are not well characterized and have not previously been compared directly. This study was conducted at sites with similar soil, climatic, and other properties in a spruce-dominated boreal forest near Chisholm, Alberta, Canada. Soil microbial communities were assessed followi...

Canebrakes are monodominant stands of cane (Arundinaria gigantea [Walter] Muhl .), a bamboo native to and once prominent in the southeastern USA. Canebrakes were important wildlife habitat within the bottomland hardwood forest ecosystem. They have been reduced in areal coverage by an estimated 98 % since European settlement due to land conversion and the drastic alteration of disturbance regime...