Reforestation-based restoration of severely burnt plantations is one of the primary management activities following wildfire on U.S. federal lands. Restoration effects on early-seral plant and cryptogam communities have not been documented. The objectives of this study were, in severely burnt plantations two to four years post-fire, to examine the: (1)...
Despite the recognized role of soil arthropod fauna on nutrient cycling
and decomposition processes, many aspects of the effects of sylvicultural
methods in forest ecosystems upon their biology remain poorly understood.
The long term effects of prescribed fires on soil arthropods in forest
ecosystems in the Pacific Northwest have never...
As a result of a warming climate, subsequent declining snowpack, and a century of fire suppression, forest fires are increasing across the western United States. However, we still do not fully understand how forest fire effects snowpack energy balance, nor the volume and availability of snow melt and associated water...
Rainfall interception is a primary control over the moisture input to a forested ecosystem through the partitioning of precipitation into throughfall, stemflow, and an evaporated component (i.e. the interception loss). Rainfall interception is a spatially and temporally varying process at multiple scales, but heterogeneity in interception processes are poorly understood...
Knowledge of stand structure, stand dynamics, and production ecology of species mixtures lags well behind that of single-species, even-aged stands. Two mixed-species spacing trials in central Oregon allowed investigation of mixed-species dynamics in a controlled experimental setting. The first site, Pringle Butte, is a mixture of ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa...
Twenty sites of uniform topography and soil were select ed in the
montane forest found on the East flank of the Central Oregon Cascades.
These sites were located along a vegetational gradient composed of
five plant communities: Abies/Pachistima, Pinus/Ceanothus, Pinus
Arctostaphylos-Purshia, Pinus/Purshia/Festuca, and Juniperus
Festuca. An attempt was made to...
Nutrient and particulate matter balances were established for five ecosystems dominated by Douglas-fir [Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco] in the western Cascades, Oregon. Carriers of N and P were particulate matter (dust in precipitation and sediment in streams) and dissolved matter in both precipitation and stream water. The input and outflow...
Montane forest vegetation as it occurs on the east flank of the
central Oregon Cascades has provided excellent conditions for a
"natural experiment" in the use of various methodologies in studying
vegetational distribution. This "experiment" has reflected on some
theory and practice for the discipline of plant synecology. Detailed
descriptions,...
National Forest management in the Pacific Northwest is shifting
from a focus on commodity production to ecosystem management, in which
the health of the entire forest ecosystem is considered, rather than that
of a few key species. Ecosystem management includes retention of some
live trees following timber harvest (green-tree retention)...
Study objectives were to survey and compare physical and chemical characteristics of soils within two thirdorder montane riparian ecosystems: a 500-year old Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menzlesii) forest at Mack Creek, and a mature red alder (Alnus rubra) forest occupying a 35-year old clearcut at Quartz Creek, both near Blue River,...