Thesis(M.S.)--Auburn University, 2005. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographic references.

Thesis (M.S.) in Plant, Soil and Environmental Sciences--University of Maine, 2008. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 88-93).

Thesis--Auburn University, 2008. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 54-59).

Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon State University, 2010. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 89-96). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2008. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on August 14, 2009) Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Auburn University. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon State University, 2008. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 159-167). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Orientador: Teresa Cristina Tarlé Pissara / Banca: Sérgio Campos / Banca: Maurício José Borges / Resumo: A adequação ambiental em microbacias hidrográficas é importante para auxiliar no planejamento do desenvolvimento de nossa sociedade. Para eficácia e resultado da adequação é imprescindível que seja cumprida e respeitada a legislação ambiental brasileira em vigor, no contexto da unidade territorial na qual será desenvolvido o trabalho. A análise do uso e ocupação do solo em uma superfície é a primeira etapa para nortear uma gestão eficaz no que tange à adequação do meio, seja este rural ou urbano. O trabalho teve como principal objetivo caracterizar os padrões fotográficos que representem a avaliação do uso e ocupação do solo da cabeceira de drenagem da Microbacia do Córrego Rico, localizada no Município de Monte Alto, SP, para fins de adequação ambiental no que tange a legislação florestal brasileira. O mapeamento foi realizado utilizando técnicas de sensoriamento remoto e interpretação visual da imagem World View 1, seguida da digitalização da rede de drenagem e vegetações (naturais e agrícolas) no AutoCAD MAP 3D, com auxílio de documentos cartográficos e trabalho de campo. A área de estudo apresenta uma superfície de 2.141,53 ha e os resultados permitiram constatar que a principal cultura é a cana-deaçúcar, com 546,34 ha, seguida de pastagens com 251,22 ha, frutíferas com 191,71 ha, eucalipto com 57,31 ha e a cebola com 49,52 ha da área total, confirmando a presença dos canaviais na região. Analisou-se que a área em questão possui 375,04 ha de APPs e apenas 19,24% destas, compostas por mata ou vegetação arbórea nativa. Precisam ser enriquecidos e reflorestados 302,87 ha com vegetação nativa da região, de acordo com a Resolução SMA 08 de 2008... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The environmental suitability of watersheds is important for planning the development of our society. However, for the effective result of this action is necessary to consider the Brazilian environmental legislation, which must be respected, mainly in the territorial unit, where will be developed the field work. The analysis of the land use is the first step to guide an effective management, regarding the appropriateness of the rural and urban lands. This work aimed to define image patterns representing the photographic evaluation of the land uses of the Córrego Rico drainage net, located in Monte Alto, SP., for respecting the environmental legislation of Brazilian forest. Mapping was performed using remote sensing techniques and visual interpretation of the World View image, due to the drainage and vegetation (natural and agricultural) vetorization in AutoCAD Map 2008 software, looking at the cartographic documents and doing fieldwork. The study area has an extension of 2141.53 ha, and the results revealed that the main crop is sugar cane, with 546.34 ha; followed by pasture with 251.22 ha, perennial crops with 191.71 ha, eucalyptus with 57.31 ha and 49.52 ha of onion, confirming the progress of the sugar cane plantations in the region. It was noted also that the watershed has 375.04 ha of preserved areas along the drainage net, but only 72.17 ha (19.24% of the areas of permanent preservation) are made up by natural vegetation, and 302.87 ha of those need to be enriched and reforested with native vegetation, according to law. The study and analysis of the Córrego Rico watershed have the data for future proposals for models of environmental suitability in accordance with environmental regulations / Mestre

The canopy cover of the Pinus contorta forests of west-central Alberta, dictates colonization of the forest floor ground layer. This dynamic ground layer is a mosaic of feather mosses and reindeer lichens in a system driven by disturbance. In this project, anthropogenic was used to control canopy cover change and study its effects on the ground layer. Timber companies selectively mechanically thinned sections producing three experimental areas with uncut controls. Data were collected from 182, 6.5 m2 plots located in the four thinning areas. Six general areas of inquiry were posed around determining ground layer responses to canopy opening: 1) vegetation, 2) plant species richness, 3) plant abundance, 4) diaspore availability, 5) environmental limiting factors, 6) moss and lichen establishment. In 1997, three timber companies were involved in selective tree removal at three different stand percentages (20/40/60%), however, these were not consistent when measured in 2005. This variation in operational logging along with changes over the seven year time period, resulted in strong disparity for each of the thinning regimes. Percent canopy cover change for all thinned plots was ranked and three new groups created; least, moderate, most canopy change. These new groups formed the basis for the data presented in Chapter 3. The three thinning groups had little to no effect on species richness, but overall showed a small decrease from measurements taken pre-harvest. Numbers of locally rare species were similar to pre-harvest levels, but there were some gains and losses of species between pre-harvest and seven years post-harvest. In contrast to the lack of change in diversity, the abundance of dominant species and major vegetation components underwent dramatic changes. Dominant species of both vascular plants and bryophytes decreased with increasing canopy openness, with vascular plants being gradually affected while mosses were more affected at less intense canopy opening. Abundances of lichens showed no change. When measuring limiting factors (biotic and abiotic) for ground layer mosses and lichens, diaspores (spores and fragments) were plentiful in all stands, but differed in abundance at the micro-scale. The position of feather mosses and reindeer lichen in the forest floor mosaic appears to be due to an intermingling of environmental influences (at both the meso- and micro-scale). With less environmental constraints on lichens and the widespread availability of lichen fragments, lichens are more tolerant to the conditions evoked by thinning than are mosses. Mosses are more restricted by environmental conditions and have more constrained diaspore dispersal than lichens. Thus, mosses are more limited both by diaspore dispersal and by harsh environmental conditions in open canopy habitats. Whereas relative humidity (RH) did not differ at the stand level, moss dominated areas had higher RH no matter where they occurred, lichen-dominated areas did not--suggesting the moss occurrence is at least partially controlled by micro-scale level factors. Moss establishment is effected by the "ghosts" of past events and substrates. Mosses are widespread in formerly moss-dominated areas that contain organic substrates and high canopy cover. Lichen establishment is limited in previously moss-dominated areas. Species interactions weighed more heavily on moss establishment than on that of lichens. Therefore, the effects of canopy change on the ground layer are variable corresponding to moss decreases, but not lichens. Seven years post-harvest species diversity is unchanged, but vegetation, as a whole, has been affected.

Biodiversity in Mexico is threatened by Land Use/Cover Change (LUCC) and Climate Change (CC). Identifying what sites will be most vulnerable to these threats can help to prioritise conservation, mitigation and adaptation strategies and target limited resources. Therefore, the aims of this study are 1) to identify the most vulnerable sites to LUCCs under different socio-economic and CC scenarios, and 2) to assess the vulnerability of endemic and threatened vertebrate species to establish prioritization strategies for biodiversity conservation. Spatially explicit socio-economic scenarios were created at national and subnational level (Chapter 3). National LUCC models were then developed using the DINAMICA EGO software (Chapter 4). These models were run for three future time slices (2020s, 2050s and 2080s) and two contrasting future climate and socio-economic scenarios to determine biodiversity vulnerability (Chapter 5). Vulnerability was estimated by quantifying the exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity to LUCC and CC. This framework integrates national information about the priority sites of biodiversity conservation and their future extent of natural covers under future socio-economic and climate conditions. Finally, the vulnerability framework was also applied in a regional case-study in three municipalities of southern Mexico (Chapter 6). Results reveal that temperate forest is the most vulnerable ecosystem type in Mexico, followed by natural grasslands and tropical evergreen forests. Agriculture is the driver of this threat, which is projected to expand to feed an increasing population under dryer climatic conditions. More than 40% of endemic and endangered mammals are in places ranking from medium to extremely high vulnerability, followed by the 28% of the amphibians, 25% and 23% for reptiles and birds, respectively. These vertebrates are principally distributed on temperate forests and tropical dry forests. In the regional scale, rain-fed agriculture (RfA) and anthropogenic grasslands are the principal LUCC drivers, threatening 31 species of endangered vertebrates. A local strategy for creating corridors between patches close to rivers from the south to the north of one municipality is supported as conservation priority for the regional biodiversity. This research presents a novel approach for prioritising conservation strategies in highly biodiverse countries using readily available data sources, demonstrated at different spatial and temporal scales.