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...

Abstract Anti-nociceptive activity of aerial parts of Phytolacca americana were investigated, using the hot plate method in mice. Results of the present study showed that the aqueous methanolic extract of aerial parts of P. americana produced a statistically significant increase in pain threshold after 30 min, in comparison with the control, at adose of 190 mg kg-1 (P 0.05). The anti-nociceptiv...

Studies of the long-term impacts of acidic deposition in Europe and North America have prompted growing interest in understanding the dynamics linking the nitrogen (N) and calcium (Ca) cycles in forested watersheds. While it has been shown that increasing concentrations of nitrate (NO3-) through atmospheric deposition or through nitrification can increase Ca loss, the reciprocal effects of Ca o...

The effects of invasive earthworms on decomposition are little known, and the controls of their effect on decomposition may be different than those of microbes. Sugar maple–dominated forests previously devoid of earthworms in the western Great Lakes region (USA) exhibit different degrees of earthworm invasion, presenting a natural experiment to study its effects on litter decomposition. We hypo...

The time course of chromosome movement and decay of half-spindle birefringence retardation in anaphase have been precisely determined in the endosperm cell of a plant Tilia americana and in the egg of an animal Asterias forbesi. For each species, the anaphase retardation decay rate constant and chromosome velocity are similar exponential functions of temperature. Over the temperature range at w...

The introduced basswood thrips, Thrips calcaratus Uzel pear thrips, Taeniothrips inconsequens (Uzel), and native basswood thrips, Neohydatothrips tiliae (Hood), form a thrips complex that attacks buds and foliage of basswood, Tilia americana L., trees in the northern United States. We assessed the potential for exploiting visual and olfactory cues to monitor these forest thrips. We tested blue,...

Cellulose is the major component of plant biomass, and microbial cellulose utilization is a key step in the decomposition of plant detritus. Despite this, little is known about the diversity of cellulolytic microbial communities in soil. Fungi are well known for their cellulolytic activity and mediate key functions during the decomposition of plant detritus in terrestrial ecosystems. We develop...