An approximately 228 acres large forested area near Hope, B.C., has been investigated in the mahonietosum subassociation of Pseudotsugeto-Gaultherietum mesic association of the Coastal Douglas-fir Zone. Botanical survey and bird census work by the nest (or territory) mapping method were carried out during two summer seasons. Fifteen ecosystem types are described and their bird population, expressed in average densities per area unit as well as by average biomass is tabulated. Physical environmental conditions, especially pertaining to microclimate, were measured at 55 nests of the eight most common passerine species, and nest placing and construction has been considered at 167 nests of the same species. It has been found that the nesting of these species in their habitats is the function of the present vegetation, physical environment and the adaptive range of the species. In certain species the birds apparently chose nest sites with equable microclimate. In others it was found that the insulation of the nest varies according to the needs indicated by the extremes of the microclimate; again in others the nest material chosen provided the best available resistance to mechanical stresses. While other essential environmental requirements were not studied the results point toward an assumption that microclimate strongly influences the site, height, position, and material of the nests, and ultimately, the selection of nesting habitat of the birds studied. / Forestry, Faculty of / Graduate

This study was initiated in 1985 to assess the response of seven key forage and browse species to prescribed burning for wildlife habitat and range improvement in the East Kootenay region of British Columbia. The species studied were Agropyron spicatum (bluebunch wheatgrass), Amelanchier alnifolia (saskatoon), Ceanothus velutinus (snowbrush), Festuca scabrella (rough fescue), Purshia tridentata (bitterbrush), Stipa occidentalis (stiff needlegrass), and Symphoricarpos albus (common snowberry). The primary objective of the study was to determine how these species respond to burning in terms of percent cover and current annual growth. There were two approaches to this study. First, experimentally burned plots were established on two sites. Spring and fall burning were carried out on one site and fall burning on a second site. Second, five previously operationally burned areas were compared with immediately adjacent unburned areas to assess differences in the percent cover of all the species and in the sprouting response of bitterbrush. Three of the sites were sampled in the first postburn growing season, one site was sampled in the second postburn growing season, and one site was sampled in the fourth postburn growing season. The total preburn fuel load on these sites ranged from 1.2 to 2.0 kg/m². Total fuel consumption varied from 53 to 91% on the experimentally burned plots. The variability of each fuel load component was high. In the first growing season following fall and spring burning, and the second growing season following fall burning, there were no significant differences in the percent cover of all species except bitterbrush and stiff needlegrass between burned and unburned plots. There was significantly less bitterbrush following both spring and fall burning. By the second growing season, bitterbrush had recovered slightly following fall burning. There was significantly more (33%) percent cover of stiff needlegrass on the fall burned plots both in the first and second growing season following burning. The only species for which there was a significant difference in the current annual growth on fall burned plots compared with control plots, were bitterbrush and saskatoon. There was 71% less current annual growth of bitterbrush the first growing season following fall burning. Saskatoon had 48% less current annual growth on the fall burned plots compared with the control plots. The results for percent cover were similar on the operationally burned areas. At all but the four-year-old operationally burned site, there was significantly less percent cover of bitterbrush on the burned plots compared with unburned plots. The percent decrease varied from 76 to 90%. At a two-year-old operationally burned site, there was 58% less snowberry on burned plots compared with unburned plots. At the same site there was less rough fescue (94%) but this represented only a 2% decrease in the percent cover. There was 58% more percent cover of stiff needlegrass on one of the one-year-old operationally burned sites. On these sites the postfire survival adaptation of all these species was by resprouting from either buds at the surface or the base of the plant, or from underground rhizomes. Some graminoid species seeded in from off-site seed sources. This study shows that where bitterbrush is the focus of enhancement, prescribed burning may have initial detrimental effects regardless of the timing of burning. The effects appear to be more variable and less dramatic for the other species studied. The implications of the response of these forage species to current prescribed burning practices are discussed and recommendations on future research are made. / Forestry, Faculty of / Graduate

Twenty Douglas-fir plantations, ranging from 5 to 15 years old, were examined on the east side of Vancouver Island. In all areas studied, salal was the dominant ground cover, and was suspected of being a major competitor with trees for water and nutrients. In each plantation, part of the area has been burned and part was unburned. Stocking of planted Douglas-firs was found to be greater on the burned than on the unburned areas of 16 sites and height growth of planted Douglas-firs was greater on the burned than on the unburned areas of 18 sites. Some degree of nitrogen deficiency was inferred for 17 sites, but was not attributed to burning. Height and percent cover of salal was greater on unburned areas. Differences in height growth and percent cover of salal between burned and unburned areas were seen to be greatest where inferred burn severity was high. Browsing of Douglas-fir was more prevalent on burned areas but did not result in height growth being less than on adjacent unburned areas. / Forestry, Faculty of / Graduate

For the high-elevation Engelmann spruce - subalpine fir (ESSF) biogeoclimatic zone of southwestern British Columbia, there is little empirical data on the long-term dynamics of subalpine spruce-fir stands. A lack of a long-term perspective on the growth and development of stands in the ESSF zone hinders both ecological research and silvicultural planning in the ESSF forest. A broadly-focussed pilot study on long-term Engelmann spruce-subalpine fir stand dynamics in the ESSF zone was designed to begin to address this deficiency. This study used two methodological approaches to gain insights into long-term stand dynamics: 1) a retrospective approach to examine historical patterns of: i) postfire conifer regeneration, ii) post-establishment stand structure development, and; iii) basal area production and accumulation in ESSF spruce-fir forests, and; 2) A chronosequence approach to examine overall stand basal area development over a 575-year chronosequence, which is not amenable to detailed retrospective examination. In order to reconstruct the patterns of postfire regeneration and subsequent stand development, measurements of tree age, diameter, radial increment, and height were collected in 8 mesic, 45- to 110-year-old fire-origin stands of Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii Parry. ex Engel.) and subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa (Hook.) Nutt.) in the ESSFwm and ESSFdc2 biogeoclimatic subzones of the North Cascades mountains. The results of the stand reconstruction were also used to aid in the interpretation of the chronosequence, which was based on basal area and age data from both the retrospective study sites, and the published literature. Based on the graphical analysis and discussion of the data collected in this pilot study, the following features of long-term stand development were noted in subalpine Engelmann spruce-subalpine fir stands: 1) Postfire conifer re-establishment on these burned ESSF sites was slow and erratic; the re-establishment period was 30 to 50 or more years in duration; 2) There appeared to be no consistent or predictable postfire patterns of conifer establishment on the various sites, either over time, or on a site-to site basis; 3) During postfire regeneration and immature stand development, there appeared to be no consistent differences between Engelmann spruce and subalpine fir, either in terms of i) postfire regeneration establishment, or ii) height development; 4) Fire-origin spruce-fir stands in the ESSF zone rapidly develop a complex stand structure, possibly due to the gradual and prolonged patterns of regeneration ingress on these sites; 5) Trees which have initial advantages in height or other competitive advantages over other trees on the site during the establishment phase tend to retain dominant crown positions in the stand at much later stages of development; 6) The relationship of periodic basal area increment (b.a.i.) to initial basal area stocking in immature spruce-fir stands suggests that stand increment is optimized above a critical stand density; 7) The initial basal area level necessary to optimize b.a.i. appears to increase with stand age; and 8) Apparent trends from a 575-year chronosequence of Engelmann spruce-subalpine fir stand development suggests that stand basal area tends to peak, on average, between the ages of 70 and 150 years of age. Subsequently, basal area tends to gradually decline and eventually stabilize between the ages of 300 to 400 years of age. Based on these results, preliminary recommendations were proposed for the long-term silvicultural management of ESSF spruce-fir forest types. Also, the research priorities necessary for building on the results of this pilot study were identified. / Forestry, Faculty of / Graduate

Humans are at a critical juncture in terms of how to evolve to deal with increasingly urgent global ecological and social trends. Questions of ecological sustainability are inextricably linked to patterns of human production and consumption. The current economic system operates without regard for unbending ecological laws. Industrial Ecology is an alternative theory for planning, designing and managing production and consumption activities to operate within biophysical limits by applying ecological principles to industrial operations. This thesis explores implementing Industrial Ecology with eco-industrial parks - sites with a redundant and diverse set of businesses co-located to operate as ecologically compatible and economically viable systems. Projects underway are using different concepts, strategies and organizational forms, but all seek to apply Industrial Ecology principles. My literature review discusses the benefits, challenges and risks associated with eco-industrial parks and summarizes key design elements from existing cases. The City of Richmond is used to analyze the capacity of a municipality and its policy and regulatory framework for eco-industrial parks based on key design elements. Structured interviews informed the evaluation of capacity. I found Richmond's Official Community Plan, Industrial Strategy and zoning bylaw conceptually support and would not prevent eco-industrial park development; however, policy lacks economy-environment linkages and does not further Industrial Ecology. Regulatory barriers to implementation of physical design features of eco-industrial parks involve zoning, land use patterns, permitting, ownership and water concerns, but the barriers are flexible in terms of presenting obstacles rather than being prohibitive. Municipal capacity gaps exist for non-physical design features relating to information systems and organization and management. I make recommendations for Richmond to increase eco-industrial development capacity based on Industrial Ecology theory, other eco-industrial park cases and a personal interpretation of what is required for sustainable development. Richmond has significant potential to become a leader in industrial innovation at the level of local systems to which horizontal and vertical links can be established for achieving long-term sustainability. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

Environmental philosophy has expanded and diversified greatly since its beginning. Yet applied philosophies, environmental philosophy and environmental ethics have not engaged descriptive ethics in the way that biomedical ethics has. I will suggest that the failure to has meant that environmental philosophy has had limited impact on environmental practices such as restoration ecology. In this thesis I will attempt to reposition philosophy's ethical spotlight upon what I feel to be the most ethically relevant features of the practice of restoration ecology, and to facilitate this, I develop a case-study. A history of the Musqueam Watershed restoration project and its participants' objectives and their operating policies will be given, followed by an ethical analysis of the project. I will argue on several counts that getting restoration right involves more than paying careful attention to the finished product, as philosophers Elliot and Katz have suggested. Getting restoration right involves placing practice within a broad social and political context where process becomes as crucial as outcome. This will require an examination of the way in which interested stakeholders nature, as well as an examination of the democratic structure and mandate of the Musqueam Watershed Committee. I will argue that restoration projects ought to be conducted in a manner that exploits the inherent participatory potential of restoration ecology. Finally, I will argue the inclusion of ecosystems within the human socio-political context, and thus suggest replacement of the Wilderness Paradigm, or the Hyperreal Paradigm with a Garden Paradigm for human relations with nature, in the hope that in this way we will restore ourselves to nature. / Arts, Faculty of / Philosophy, Department of / Graduate

This study examines seasonal changes in the relationship between a test organism and changes in the hydrographic and chemical properties of Indian Arm, a coastal fjord. There is a close relationship between changes in the hydrographic properties of the water and changes in the metal complexing ability of water in the inlet, as determined with the test organism. The relationship between the organism and the availability of metals changes with time; the complexing ability of natural water increases at the time of the major intrusion of water from the Strait of Georgia into Indian Arm, and then decreases. The addition of a variety of metals under experimental conditions affects the relationship between the organism and the complexing ability of the water. Additional studies examine the effect of material extracted from sediment samples on the toxic effect of copper enrichment. The ability of the extracted material to reduce the toxic effect changes and is related to the seasonal productivity in the surface waters of the inlet. / Science, Faculty of / Zoology, Department of / Graduate

Pythium undulatum var. litorale Hohnk was found to infect Fucus distichus in the Squamish River estuary of southern British Columbia. This thesis adresses the questions of: 1.) whether this symbiosis can be found outside the Squamish River estuary, 2.) relationship of the infection within the estuary to the distribution of P. undulatum var. litorale in estuarine sediments, 3.) taxonomically defining those species associated with Fucus and/or in estuarine sediments, and 4.) the host parasite relationship as determined by means of histochemical and light microscope observations. Results indicated that outside the Squamish River estuary, associations between pythiaceous fungi and Fucus are uncommon in British Columbia coastal areas. Sampling of live and decaying Fucus plants from 10 field stations in British Columbia and Washington yielded only 4 species, the most common isolate being Phytophthora vesicula. Within the Squamish estuary, an association was found to exist between the distribution of P. undulatum var. 1itorale in the sediments and the distribution of infected Fucus plants. Sediment sampling from the Fraser River estuary, where Fucus does not occur, yielded P. undulatum var. litorale, suggesting that the fungus is probably indigenous to estuarine sediments. Numerous other species of Pythium were recovered from estuarine sediments, including P. butler i, P. carolinianum, P. catenulatum, P. gracile, P. torulosum , and P. volutum . Two taxa are described in detail. Pythium undulatum var. litorale was originally described by Hohnk (1953), but the varietal status was rejected by Waterhouse (1967). Arguments are presented for retention of the variety. Pythiogeten utriforme Minden is transferred to the genus Pythium and P. hohnkii is proposed as the nomen nova of this taxon. A discussion of the generic characteristics of the genus Pythiogeten is presented. In order to facilitate an understanding of the infection process by Pythium species, the anatomy and histochemistry of Fucus distichus were examined. Anatomically, F. distichus agrees with earlier reports of other species of Fucus. The internal structure of cells was found to agree with descriptions in earlier publications, although higher physode content was noted in F. distichus. Histochemical staining suggested that cell walls of Fucus are three layered; having an outer fucan-rich layer, a middle layer composed principally of alginic acid, and an innermost layer of cellulose. Several phenolic-indicating reagents were tested on both fresh and fixed/embedded Fucus tissue, resulting in some interesting new observations of phenolics in the matrix. The host-parasite interface of P. undulatum var. 1itorale and F. distichus was also examined by use of histochemistry and the light microscope. Macroscopically, the infection of F. distichus occurs behind the most recent dichotomy, and lesions are necrotic, firm (flaccid with age), and are pink-to-red in color. Microscopically, fungal hyphae are confined to the cortical and medullary regions. Hyphae appear to penetrate host cell walls by means of an enzymatic dissolution of the alginic acid and cellulosic portions of the cell wall. Use of the Periodic Acid/Schiff's reagent shows a distinct non-staining halo at the point where hyphae cross the cell wall. Pit connections between cortical cells were observed to break down with hyphae present in only one cell, suggesting that the fungus is capable of parasitizing several cells via digestion of pits. Gemmae were observed to form in both cortical and medullary cells. The response by Fucus to infection is an active one; a hypersensitivity reaction analagous to that of higher plants is observed. Cells in advance of fungal hyphae are observed to autolyse. Normally metabolically quiescent medullary filaments are observed to have an increase in general protein levels and to have increased physode content. Physodes become polarized within the medullary cells, and coalesce to form larger units, which are then delimited from the producing cell by a cross wall. The fate of these 'giant' physodes was not observed, but it is believed that these cells autolyse and release their phenolic contents to the matrix, as levels of phenolic-reactive material were observed to increase in this region. Coupled with the buildup,of phenolics in the matrix is a decrease in the fucan component of the matrix. Stress and tear lines appear between cells, and eventually this region serves as an abscission zone by which the infected portions are dropped out of the plant. Behind the abscission zone, medullary filaments undergo transverse divisions to form irregular, cuboidal cells which function as epidermis after abscission of the lesion occurs. / Science, Faculty of / Botany, Department of / Graduate

A major contributor to global warming is the increasing amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Land use management may be a means to countering global warming by increasing the carbon sink potential. Terrestrial carbon budgets were prepared for forested (Douglas-fir), agricultural (hay), and urban sites in Abbotsford, B.C. The results indicate that the greatest amount of carbon is stored in the forested sites, followed by the hay sites, with the lowest amount in the urban sites. To maximize carbon in storage the use of trees either as forests or in pockets within the landscape is the best option. To simulate and to expand the utility of these carbon budgets, the study used the CENTURY model. The results of the simulations indicate that forests are a major carbon sink as was found earlier. Carbon storage under hay is at a relative steady state, except during the cultivation years when it becomes a carbon source. Lawn in an urban setting is a carbon source. The results of the simulations suggest that management can be used to increase the carbon sink. It also indicates that soils are a major carbon pool representing 20% of the forest, 90% of the hay, and 95% of the lawn budgets. For the general public and decision-makers to become more aware of the impact of changing land use on carbon storage, at the lot, local, or regional levels, they require a userfriendly decision-making tool. A derivative of the CENTURY model, CLU (for CENTURY Land Use), was developed. It was designed to be user-friendly and at the same time maintain the integrity of the parent model. It allows the user to input site-specific data and obtain site related output carbon data on a component basis, which can be used to assess how a potential change in land use or management may affect the amount of carbon in storage. The model should be suitable as a research tool and for planning and educational purposes. / Science, Faculty of / Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES), Institute for / Graduate

I explored the importance of decaying wood to survival and growth of trees in south coastal British Columbia, and the effect of decaying wood on the intensity of podzolization on mesic sites. A field pot study was carried out in both high light and low light conditions using woody and non-woody forest floor materials. After two growing seasons, Pseudotsuga menziesii, Tsuga heterophylla, and Abies amabilis seedlings growing in clearcuts had greater survival and growth in the non-woody substrate; however, in the understory, the effect was much less. The proliferation of western hemlock roots was used as an indicator of the value of decaying wood to trees. In both greenhouse trials (using seed sown on a series of planting pots with each half filled with either a woody substrate or a non-woody substrate), and in field sampling of woody and non-woody substrates in mature stands, the non-woody substrate had a larger density of fine and very fine roots compared to the woody substrates or mineral soil. Ten litres of concentrated solutions of non-woody humus substrate and woody substrates were leached through soil columns. Both the non-woody and woody solutions had similar mean pH but significantly different chemical properties. The non-woody solution leachate had greater net average output of dissolved organic C, Fe, and Mn. The mineral soil treated with the nonwoody solution had significantly greater concentrations of total N and pyrophosphate-extractable Fe. In the field, forest floor and soil samples were compared between pedons having large accumulation of decaying wood and pedons with non-woody humus forms. Despite large and significant differences in chemical properties between the two substrates, there were generally no significant differences between the chemical properties of the soils directly under these substrates. In most cases, the results of (3-analyses showed that the means were not pedologically different. Additionally, 18 pairs of zero tension plate lysimeters were installed under the two substrates. The lysimeter solutions showed no significant differences. I concluded that coarse woody debris appears not to have either a positive effect of increased productivity of trees or a negative effect of increased intensity of podzolization.