Like most ecological communities, aspen (Populus tremuloides) forests are influenced by a synergy of bottom-up (resources-driven) and top-down (predator-driven) processes. Since the 1920s, ecologists have observed the decline of many aspen communities throughout the Intermountain West. The extent and possible drivers of this decline are topics of much recent scientific...
Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) sustainability is a topic of intense interest in forest ecology.
Reports range from declines to persisting or increasing coverage in some areas. Moreover, there is little
agreement on ultimate factors driving changes. Low aspen recruitment has been attributed to climate
patterns, past management, herbivore increases, competitive...
Beschta et al. (2013) synthesized the ecological effects 41 of climate change and ungulate
grazing on western public lands, grounding their recommendations in ecological considerations
and federal agency legal authority and obligations. Svejcar et al. (2014) suggest that Beschta et
al. (2013) neither “present a balanced synthesis of the scientific...
Aldo Leopold, perhaps best known for his revolutionary and poignant essays about nature, was also an eloquent advocate during the 1930s and 1940s
of the need to maintain wolves and other large carnivores in forest and range ecosystems.He indicated that their loss set the stage for ungulate irruptions
and ecosystem...
Humans, in conjunction with natural top-down processes and through a sequence of cascading trophic interactions, may have contributed
to the Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions. The arrival of the first humans, as hunters and scavengers, through top-down forcing, could have
triggered a population collapse of large herbivores and their predators. We present...
As we contemplate the future of forest landscapes under changing climate conditions and land-use demands, there is increasing value in studying historic forest conditions and how these landscapes have changed following past disturbances. Historic landscape paintings are a potential source of data on preindustrial forests with highly detailed, full-color depictions...