Premise of the study: Pinaceae and nonpinoid species are sister groups within the conifer clade as inferred from molecular systematic comparisons of living species and therefore should have comparable geological ages. However, the fossil record for the nonpinoid lineage of extant conifer families is Triassic, nearly 100 million years older...
Molecular phylogenctic analyses indicate that the monophyletic classes Orbiliomycetes and Pezizomycetes are among the earliest diverging branches of Pezizomycotina, the largest subphylum of the Ascomycota. Although Orbiliomycetes is resolved as the most basal lineage in some analyses, molecular support for the node resolving the relationships between the two classes is...
Premise of study: This research seeks to advance understanding of conditions allowing movement of fungal pathogens among hosts. The family Clavicipitaceae contains fungal pathogens exploiting hosts across three kingdoms of life in a pattern that features multiple interkingdom host shifts among plants, animals, and fungi. The tribe Ustilaginoideae potentially represents...
• Premise of the study: Seed longevity and persistence in soil seed banks may be especially important for population persistence in ecosystems where opportunities for seedling establishment and disturbance are unpredictable. The fire regime, an important driver of population dynamics in sagebrush steppe ecosystems, has been altered by exotic annual...
Premise of the study: The Pacific Northwest of North America experiences relatively mild winters and dry summers. For the
tall coniferous trees that grow in this region, we predicted that loss in the hydraulic conductivity of uppermost branches would
be avoided because of difficulty reversing accumulated emboli in xylem that...
Worldwide, networks of plants and pollinators are faced with the threat of climate change. The extent of this threat and the degree of adaptability is not yet understood. In Oregon, climate change is predicted to bring hotter and drier summers which may have consequences for pollinators and the resources they...
Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) have an extensive history of harvest in the United States. The Pacific Northwest is well-reputed as a major source of floral greens for international markets. One NTFP in particular, beargrass (Xerophyllum tenax), has been repeatedly identified as a prominent, high-value species in the floral greens industry...
Plant species in the family Solanaceae are the usual hosts of potato psyllid, Bactericera cockerelli (Sulc) (Hemiptera: Psylloidea: Triozidae). However, the psyllid has also been shown to develop on some species of Convolvulaceae (bindweeds and morning glories). Developmental success on Convolvulaceae is surprising given the rarity of psyllid species worldwide...
Fuel accumulation and climate shifts are predicted to increase the frequency of high-severity fires in pon-derosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests of central Oregon. The combustion of fuels containing large downedwood can result in intense soil heating, alteration of soil properties, and mortality of microbes. Previousstudies show ectomycorrhizal fungi (EMF) improve...
Premise of the Study: Hybrid zones provide "natural laboratories" for understanding the processes of selection, reinforcement, and speciation. We sought to gain insight into the degree of introgression and the extent of ecological-phenotypic intermediacy in the natural hybrid strawberry, Fragaria x ananassa subsp. cuneifolia.
Methods: We used whole-plastome sequencing to...