Thesis (M.S.)--Ohio University, June, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references.

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

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 344-370).

Thesis (M.S.)--Humboldt State University, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 39-45). Also available via Humboldt Digital Scholar.

Thesis (MS)--Montana State University--Bozeman, 2009. / Typescript. Chairperson, Graduate Committee: David E. Buschena. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 55-58).

Since 1982, the state of Illinois has afforested over 100,000 acres of abandoned or marginal cropland. Afforestation, the planting of trees on land not in forest cover, is a sustainable forest management practice that has been shown to store carbon, increase plant diversity, improve soil and water quality, and assist in flood abatement. Our research seeks to develop practical soil and vegetative indicators that can be used by researchers and land managers alike to accurately assess changes to ecosystem function following land use shifts. To assess forest restoration success in terms of ecological function, seven ecological indicators were measured across a chronosequence of 50 afforested sites and 20 mature forested sites. Soil indicators: bulk density, aggregate stability, total nitrogen, total carbon, and labile carbon, and vegetation indicators: forest productivity and stocking density were assessed for each site. Additional sampling was completed on 25 nearby agriculture fields for each of the five soil indicators. Our data were analyzed using an analysis of variance test with multiple comparisons to examine differences among indicator values by land use category. Overall, soil indicator bulk density significantly decreased across afforested sites with stand age, whereas indicators aggregate stability, labile carbon, and total carbon significantly increased across afforested sites with stand age. Linear regression analyses were used to assess the change in indicator values with stand age. Additional linear regression analyses were used to assess the change in indicator values with site index, and significant results were recorded for 3 out of the 5 soil indicators. Indicator bulk density displayed a significant negative relationship with site index, and indicators aggregate stability and total carbon displayed a significant positive relationship with site index. Overall, our results indicated that four out of the five soil parameters measured were successful indicators of restored ecological function in afforested sites. Furthermore, we believe that the inclusion of vegetation indices forest productivity and stocking density provides vital information into forest succession and a better understanding of how productive sites benefit soil quality.

Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon State University, 2008. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 104-113). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oregon State University, 2009. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 146-166). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Orientador: Renata Cristina Batista Fonseca / Banca: Wilson Uieda / Banca: Elza Maria Guimarães Santos / Resumo: Atualmente no Brasil milhares de hectares estão sendo utilizados para o plantio de eucalipto e consequentemente essas áreas sofrem corte raso de tempos em tempos para alimentar a produção fabril. De modo geral como medida mitigatória o setor florestal conserva, em meio a monocultura, fragmentos de vegetação nativa, respeitando a legislação ambiental nacional e seguindo os preceitos das certificadoras florestais, formando extensas áreas cobertas por um mosaico vegetacional de eucalipto e vegetação nativa. O conhecimento da fauna presente nesses mosaicos e o que ocorre com ela após o corte raso de parte do plantio é de extrema importância para a conservação da biodiversidade e os morcegos são uma ótima ferramenta em estudos que abordam esse tema, visto serem a segunda maior ordem de mamíferos em número de espécies e podem representar até 50% da fauna de mamíferos em florestais tropicais. O presente estudo foi realizado na Fazenda Rio Claro, interior do estado de São Paulo, na cidade de Lençóis Paulista, em mosaico vegetacional formado por fragmentos de Floresta Estacional Semidecidual e em plantio de eucalipto, objetivando caracterizar a fauna de morcegos presente nessa paisagem e analisar o que ocorre com essa comunidade após o corte raso de parte do plantio. O trabalho de campo ocorreu entre outubro de 2007 e julho de 2010, com sessões de capturas em vegetação nativa e em plantio de eucalipto. O esforço amostral foi de 42 noites de captura utilizando 40 redes de 12 metros de ... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Presently in Brazil thousands of hectares are occupied by eucalyptus plantations and those areas are completely deforested in a timely manner in order to supply the production chain. Generally as mitigation measure the forestry industry preserves native forest fragments among monoculture patches respecting the national environmental laws and the sustainable forestry certification guidelines, which creates large areas covered by a vegetation mosaic of eucalyptus and native forest. Assessing the fauna in these mosaic areas and consequences after partial harvest is extremely important for biodiversity conservation. Bats are a great tool for studying this topic since they represent the second largest mammalian order regarding number of species and up to 50% of mammalian fauna in tropical forests. The present study was developed at Fazenda Rio Claro, São Paulo state countryside, in Lençóis Paulista city, in a vegetation mosaic of Seasonal Semideciduous Forest and Eucalyptus sp plantation, and its aim was to assess bat fauna in the landscape and analyze changes within this community after partial harvest. Fieldwork was carried out between October 2007 and July 2010 with capture sessions in native vegetation and eucalyptus plantation. Sampling effort comprised 42 capture nights using 40 12m-length by 2.5m-height mist nets exposed for 12 hours each night, being 24 nets set along the subcanopy and 16 set on the canopy. After 21 capture nights part of the eucalyptus plantation areas th... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

Dentre as atividades envolvidas no processo de mudança do uso da terra, está a mineração de bauxita, cuja atividade leva à constante perda de hábitat. Uma forma de reparar a degradação antrópica à diversidade e ao funcionamento dos ecossistemas naturais é utilizar o processo de restauração ecológica. Este trabalho utilizou armadilhas-de-queda para estudar o efeito da restauração florestal após a mineração de bauxita na abundância de anuros de serapilheira. Os pontos amostrais encontram-se em um mosaico vegetacional no planalto de Poços de Caldas, MG, sendo dois locais em processo de reabilitação, cinco em processo de restauração e dois locais em remanescentes secundários de Floresta Estacional Semidecidual Montana. Foram coletados dados referentes a características da vegetação (área basal; densidade; abertura do dossel e espessura da serapilheira) e a altitude em cada ponto amostral. O Critério de Informação de Akaike corrigido (AICc) foi usado para avaliar a eficácia de nove modelos construídos a priori na predição da abundância das duas espécies coletadas que apresentaram suficiência amostral, separadamente. A abundância de Rhinella pombali foi inversamente relacionada com a densidade da vegetação e com a altitude. O modelo com a abertura do dossel influenciou positivamente a abundância de Ischnocnema juipoca. A restauração florestal possibilitou a recolonização por duas espécies de anuros - E. juipoca e R. pombali, evidenciando a importância dessa atividade na reconstrução de habitats para a biodiversidade nativa. / Bauxite mining is one of the activities involved in land-use change that leads to total habitat loss. The process of ecological restoration is a way to repair anthropic damages to biodiversity and to natural ecosystems functioning. In this work, pitfall traps with drift fences were used to verify the influence of restoration of forest areas priorly submitted to bauxite mining on the abundance of leaf litter anurans. Sample sites were located in vegetation patches on the plateau of Poços de Caldas-MG, Brazil: two in areas under rehabilitation process, five in areas under restoration process and two in secondary fragments of Montane Semideciduous Seasonal Forest. Data concerning characteristics of vegetation (basal area, density, canopy openness and litter thickness) and height were collected in each sample site. The corrected Akaike Information Criterion (AICc) was used to evaluate the efficiency of nine models constructed a priori to predict abundance of two species collected that presented sampling sufficiency, analysed as separate groups. Abundance of Rhinella pombali was inversely related to height and vegetation density. The canopy openness model positively influenced abundance of Ischnocnema juipoca. Recolonization by two anuran species E. juipoca and R. pombali was possible due to forest restoration, which shows the importance of this process in reconstructing habitats for native biodiversity.