Moderate grazing by cattle increases the heterogeneity of soil and vegetation. This has been suggested as an ecologically sustainable mean of managing natural environments endangered by tree encroachment, such as heathlands. Our study was performed to test the impact of grazing intensity on soil macroinvertebrate communities in heterogeneous landscapes in a private property eligible to the Natu...

A survey of matai (Podocarpus spicatus) / totara (Podocarpus totara var. waihoensis) forest in South Westland recorded that c. 600 ha of these forests remain from a possible former 43,000 ha. Basal discs cut from logged or windthrown matai and totara showed a strong linear relationship between diameter and age (annual growth rings). Detailed surveys of stands showed grouping of size class distr...

The Conservation Estate, administered by the Department of Conservation (DOC), contains areas of land of undetermined conservation value. These include coastal lands, obtained and managed by the Government of the day for other than conservation purposes. One such purpose was to stabilise coastal sand dunes where drifting sands presented a hazard to adjacent railway lines or roads. The Sand Drif...

—As impacts of climate change expand, determining accurate measures of forest biomass and associated carbon storage in forests is critical. We present sampling guidance for 12 combinations of percent error, plot size, and alpha levels by disturbance regime to help determine the optimal size of plots to estimate aboveground biomass and carbon in an old-growth Central Hardwood forest. The analyse...

Radionuclides, including (137)Cs, were released from the disabled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and had been deposited broadly over forested areas of north-eastern Honshu Island, Japan. In the forest, (137)Cs was highly concentrated on leaf litters deposited in autumn 2010, before the accident. Monitoring of the distribution of (137)Cs among functional groups clearly showed the role of ...

The factors influencing weight changes during the grazing season of Brown Swiss autumn-calving cows and Brown Swiss and Pirenaica spring-calving cows and their calves were studied over an 8-yr period in Spanish mountain conditions. The data set comprised 552 annual production cycles of cows that calved in two consecutive years. The animals grazed on alpine ranges during the summer and on forest...

Remnant trees, spared from cutting when tropical forests are cleared for agriculture or grazing, act as nuclei of forest regeneration following field abandonment. Previous studies on remnant trees were primarily conducted in active pasture or old fields abandoned in the previous 2-3 years, and focused on structure and species richness of regenerating forest, but not species composition. Our stu...

There is concern over the decline of aspen and the lack of successful regeneration due to excessive browsing of aspen suckers by cattle and other wild and domestic ungulates. We conducted a 2-yr study on Lassen National Forest, California, to aid development of cattle grazing strategies to enhance aspen regeneration. We evaluated seasonal biomass, nutritional quality, and utilization by cattle ...

OBJECTIVE To analyze backcountry-area water quality in US Department of Agriculture Forest Service-designated wilderness areas for the presence of coliform and potentially pathogenic bacteria. METHODS Thirty-one backcountry lakes and streams were selected that would stratify the risk based on use by backpackers, pack animals, commercial grazing animals, or natural unaffected wilderness areas....

Forest disturbance can alter light and nutrient regimes in small streams, which in turn may influence grazer–periphyton interactions within the stream community. To investigate the influence of forest disturbance on grazer–periphyton interactions, we tested the effects of light, nutrients, and grazing by tadpoles of the tailed frog (Ascaphus truei) on periphyton standing crop and tadpole growth...