Forest fires occur frequently in the boreal forest of North America and greatly affect vegetation dynamics, biogeochemical cycles and resident human populations. Estimates of the frequency of boreal forest fires would be useful for understanding boreal ecosystems and managing the affects of fires on human populations. The objectives of this work were to investigate relations between fire frequency and climate change, vegetation)n type and waterbreaks in Wood Buffalo National Park (WBNP), located in northern Alberta. To address these objectives, four hypotheses were tested: 1) tree ring-width records from the boreal forest can provide a proxy climate record; 2) annual area burned in the boreal forest varies in response to climate changes; 3) boreal fores: fire frequency varies with differences in forest type and the proximity to waterbreaks and 4) fossil pollen and macroscopic charcoal records from massive lake sediments can provide meaningful estimates of local fire frequency. The first hypothesis was tested by constructing tree ring chronologies from 3 white spruce and two jack pine sites in WBNP. All five chronologies were significantly positively correlated with June precipitation in the growth year or the previous year, and were significantly negatively correlated with historical records of fire weather and annual area burned. The second hypothesis was tested by analyzing historical records of annual area burned and climate. and tree ring records of fire history and climate. Annual area burned was significantly negatively correlated with seasonal means of fire weather indices. The time since last fire was estimated using tree ring records from 166 sites located throughout WBNP. These records exhibited decadal and centennial scale variations in fire frequency. Comparisons with tree ring other proxy climate records suggest that the~e variations are related to climatic changes. The third hypothesis was tested using survival analysis of the time since last fire records, disaggregated by dominant vegetation and the mean distance to waterbreaks. Sites dominated by jack pine (Pinus banksiana) and aspen (Populus tremuloides) exhibited significantly higher fire frequencies than did sites dominated by black spruce (Picea mariana) or white spruce (Picea glauca). Fire frequency increased with increased mean distance to waterbreaks. The fourth hypothesis was tested by analyzing fossil pollen and charcoal records from two lakes at -5 year resolution for 600 years. I compared their fire history records with local tree ring records of fire, and their mean fire intervals with regional fire frequency estimates for sites with similar vegetation and mean distances to waterbreaks. One lake exhibited a meaningful fire frequency estimate and the other lake did not. The poor fire frequency estimate was related to high sediment mixing and the lack of homogenous vegetation around the lake. The results indicate that: 1) area burned and fire frequency in the boreal forest of northern Alberta varies temporally at the annual, decadal and centennial scales; 2) fire frequency varies spatially in relation to vegetation type and mean waterbreak distance; and 3) lakes with massive sediments can provide meaningful estimates of local fire frequency. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

A park is a desirable feature when people are purchasing a property. Buyers are ready to pay more for properties surrounded by natural amenities, such as a pleasant park. However, if a park is perceived as unsafe by local residents, then it may have a negative effect on housing prices. The aim of this study is to investigate the importance of urban parks in Stockholm, capital of Sweden, and to find evidence of whether people in Stockholm are willing to pay extra for parks when purchasing an apartment. This study hypothesized that people’s willingness to pay for urban parks and green spaces is affected by crime. The methodology had two stages. An extensive field work was performed in a selected number of parks to help characterize the parks in Stockholm. This was later followed by the analysis of 2008’s apartment sales using hedonic modelling combined with Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques. Results suggest that the effect of parks vary by park type. An aggregated measure of parks lower apartment prices but the effect turns out to be positive in some cases, or insignificant, when parks are broken down by types. For instance, parks with cultural features, forest feeling, skating and features of national interest increase apartment prices. However, if park have ball games, marina, boating facilities, skate board facilities and frequent social events – these features tend to reduce property values. These findings support the idea that the impact of park on property value depends on the type of park. Contrary to was expected, the park impact on prices does not seem to be affected by seasonal variations (e.g., summer versus winter), only individual months seem to affect prices. More interestingly, crime affects the quality of parks and, in its turn, the relationship between parks and prices. Results show that parks that originally show a positive impact on prices may affect prices negatively if they have relatively high rates of violence and vandalism. The study finalizes with a discussion these results and their implication for future research.

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Comprendre comment les pratiques agricoles affectent l’assemblage des communautés de plantes adventices dans les parcelles de grandes cultures annuelles est un enjeu majeur en agro-écologie. Les plantes adventices sont supposées partager certaines caractéristiques écologiques qui leur permettent de se maintenir dans les parcelles cultivées malgré les contraintes environnementales exercées par les pratiques agricoles. De plus, l'assemblage des communautés adventices est supposé dépendre d'interactions entre des processus écologiques opérant pendant une année de culture (par exemple : filtre abiotique) et à l'échelle de la succession des années de cultures (par exemple : dispersion temporelle). Les travaux présentés dans cette thèse ont pour but de tester ces deux hypothèses.Premièrement, nous avons comparé les pools d’espèces adventices aux plantes non adventices retrouvés dans les milieux ouverts et non cultivés sur la base de traits fonctionnels pour identifier les caractéristiques écologiques propres aux adventices. Les résultats montrent que les plantes adventices représentent un sous-échantillon des plantes retrouvées plus largement dans les milieux ouverts principalement filtré par les perturbations type travail du sol. Deuxièmement, j'ai proposé des dynamiques de type méta-communautés temporelles pour prédire les patrons de diversité attendus en fonction de l'influence de la dispersion temporelle et des variations temporelles des conditions environnementales sur l'assemblage des communautés. J'ai ensuite testé ces prédictions et quantifié la contribution relative des processus écologiques contemporains et passés sur l’assemblage d’une communauté. Pour ce faire, j'ai utilisé le jeu de données Biovigilance flore qui est un suivi sur une décennie des communautés de plantes adventices observées dans 1400 parcelles cultivées. Mes résultats montrent que l’assemblage d’une communauté de plantes adventices dépend d'interactions entre la dispersion temporelle et les conditions environnementales contemporaines de ladite communauté. De plus, mes travaux suggèrent que les risques d’extinctions des espèces adventices augmentent pour des niveaux de variations temporelles des conditions environnementales forts. Analyser directement la composition des banques de graines adventices me permettrait de valider cette hypothèse. Finalement, mes résultats confirment que l’assemblage des communautés adventices est largement imprévisible. Je propose donc un scénario basé sur la théorie des dynamiques de patches et du priority effect pour expliquer ce phénomène.En conclusion, les travaux présentés dans ce manuscrit nous permettent de mieux comprendre comment les pratiques agricoles interagissent avec des processus écologiques à différentes échelles spatiales et temporelles pour façonner les communautés de plantes adventices. / Understanding how farming practices affect weed community assembly in arable fields is a core challenge of agro-ecology. Weeds are supposed to share particular ecological characteristics that allow them to colonize arable fields despite environmental constrains exert by farming practices. In addition, interactions between ecological processes operating during a cropping season (eg: abiotic filtering) and at the scale of crop succession (eg: temporal dispersal) are supposed to drive weed community assembly in arable fields. These two hypotheses have been tested in my phD work.First, we compared a pool of weed species to a pool of non-weed herbaceous plants based on several functional traits to identify which functional traits and which strategies best characterized weeds. Our result brought evidences that weeds are a subset of non-weed herbaceous plant principally filtered out in arable fields by disturbances such as tillage. Second, I proposed different expected diversity patterns according to the influence of temporal dispersal and temporal variation of environmental conditions within temporal meta-community dynamics. Then I tested these predictions and quantified the respective contribution of contemporary and past ecological processes on weed community assembly. To do so, I used long term weed monitoring Biovigilance Flore dataset. Results showed that weed community assembly relies on complex interactions between temporal dispersal and contemporary environmental conditions. In addition, weed extinction risk seemed to increase for strong temporal variation of environmental conditions. However weed seed bank analyses are needed to confirm this hypothesis. Finally, my results confirmed that weed community assembly is largely unpredictable. I propose that patch dynamics and priority effects may explain this phenomenon.To conclude, the work presented here shade new lights on how farming practices interact with ecological processes across temporal and spatial scales to drive weed community assembly in arable fields.

Submitted by Socorro Pontes (socorrop@ufersa.edu.br) on 2017-03-06T14:43:57Z No. of bitstreams: 1 LuizPCM_DISSERT.pdf: 490130 bytes, checksum: 73f1c4e7c92225097ff3f3d0c6dba703 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-03-06T14:43:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 LuizPCM_DISSERT.pdf: 490130 bytes, checksum: 73f1c4e7c92225097ff3f3d0c6dba703 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-04-27 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Studies on the composition of trophic guilds of fish is crucial to determine the trophic structure and resource use by different species in environments due to temporal variations, for example, a prolonged drought, taking effect on the richness and abundance of these species modifying biodiversity. So this paper aims to show that the reduction in the volume of water and rainfall reservoir of Santa Cruz promotes negative changes in the biomass of fish species in the trophic guilds. Data were used precipitation (mm), a percentage of the accumulated water volume and biomass of fish every three months between February 2010 and November 2014. For the analysis of CPUE data were used, in order to verify significant changes for each trophic guild it was applied PERMANOVA was later applied the nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis test to determine which species has greater contribution of CPUE between years of collecting. To check changes in the formation of guilds was made a presence and absence analysis for all species and finally in order to verify the temporal organization of trophic guilds was applied nonparametric correlation Spearman test. They found 22 species with temporal variation distributed in five trophic guilds. The guild Detritivorous/Iliófaga showed higher biomass followed by guilds Carcinophaga, Insectivorous, Omnivorous and Piscivorous. Our results show that the temporal reduction in the biomass of trophic guilds Detritivorous/Iliófaga and Carcinophaga are related to the water and precipitation volume reduction factors, as other guilds their temporal biomass oscillations can this related to several factors such as resource exploitation food in greater abundance in a given year, favoring the presence of some guilds / Os estudos sobre a composição das guildas tróficas de peixes é fundamental para a determinação da estrutura trófica e da utilização dos recursos alimentares por diferentes espécies em ambientes decorrentes de variações temporais, por exemplo, uma seca prolongada, tendo efeito sobre a riqueza e abundância dessas espécies, modificando a biodiversidade. Assim o presente trabalho tem como objetivo mostrar que com a redução no volume de água e pluviosidade do reservatório de Santa Cruz promove alterações negativas na biomassa das espécies de peixes presentes nas guildas tróficas. Foram utilizados dados precipitação (mm), percentual do volume de água acumulado e biomassa capturada dos peixes trimestralmente, entre fevereiro de 2010 e novembro de 2014. Para a análise foram utilizados dados de CPUE, com o objetivo de verificar alterações significativas para cada guilda trófica foi aplicada PERMANOVA, posteriormente foi aplicado o teste não paramétrico de Kruskal-Wallis para verificar qual espécie apresenta maior contribuição de CPUE entre os anos de coleta. Para verificar variação na formação das guildas foi feito uma analise de presença e ausência para todas as espécies e por fim com o objetivo de verificar a organização temporal das guildas tróficas foi aplicado o teste de correlação não paramétrico de Sperman. Foram encontradas 22 espécies apresentando variação temporal distribuídas em cinco guildas tróficas. A guilda Detritívora/Iliófaga apresentou maior biomassa seguido das guildas Carcinófaga, Insetívora, Onívora e Piscívora. Nossos resultados mostram que a redução temporal na biomassa das guildas tróficas Detritívora/Iliófaga e Carcinófaga estão relacionadas com os fatores de redução de volume de água e precipitação, já as demais guildas suas oscilações temporais de biomassa podem esta relacionadas com diversos fatores como exploração de recurso alimentar em maior abundância em determinado ano, favorecendo a presença de algumas guildas / 2017-03-03

Made available in DSpace on 2014-08-20T14:36:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese_ Adilson_Luis_Bamberg.pdf: 2930528 bytes, checksum: 00de3ac979b98a46d838611d5abca7f1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-07-02 / Plowing during soil preparation and the use of fertigation and plastic mulching affects the management of strawberry production systems, resulting in temporal variations of soil physical, hydric and chemical attributes throughout the strawberry production cycle. This work had the objective of assessing and understanding the temporal variations of physical, hydric and chemical attributes during the strawberry production cycle in Turuçu, RS, Brazil, and to identify soil quality indicators of these soils by factor analysis. Soil samples with undisturbed and disturbed structure were collected in the 0,00-0,20m top layer of 15 strawberry production areas at four different times to determine the following variables: aggregate mean weight diameter (MWD), aggregate size distribution, total porosity (TotPOR), macroporosity (MacPOR), microporosity (MatPOR), soil water retention curve, S parameter, available water capacity (CAD), available water capacity considering soil salinity (CADs) particle density (Dp), bulk density (BulkDENS), particle size distribution, organic carbon (CO), total Nitrogen (N), cation exchangeable capacity (CECefective), base saturation (V) and basal respiration (RB). Soil saturation extract was obtained, from which it was determined: pH, electric conductivity (ECs), potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, sodium adsorption rate (SAR) and exchangeable sodium percentage (ESP). Moreover, a factor analysis of 12 soil attributes from strawberry production systems was conducted to reduce the total information in few factors. Physical, hydric and chemical attributes of the soil from strawberry production seedbeds were subjected to temporal variations. Soil preparation that was executed for seedbed s construction affected the solid-pores relations, and soil became structurally unstable. With time, soil structure and pore sizes were subjected to significant modifications in the way that the available water capacity was increased, allowing a reduction on the frequency of irrigation events. Concentration of nutrients in the soil saturation extract was diminished during the productive cycle, but it was not enough to forbid soil salinization. Factor analysis resulted in the synthesis of 12 attributes to only three factors: soil aggregation, soil capacity to store water and air in the pores, and soil chemical fertility. Seven attributes (CO, N, MWD, MacPOR, CAD, V, and pH) that compose the three yielded factors were selected as soil quality indicators in strawberry production areas in the region of Turuçu, RS, Brazil. In general, it can be affirmed that the soils involved on strawberry production in Turuçu, RS, Brazil had improved their physical, chemical and hydric conditions at the end of production cycle. / O revolvimento durante o preparo do solo e o uso da fertirrigação e de cobertura plástica afetam o manejo de sistemas de produção de morango, resultando em variações temporais dos atributos físicos, hídricos e químicos do solo ao longo do ciclo produtivo. Este trabalho teve o objetivo de determinar e compreender as alterações dos atributos físicos, hídricos e químicos de solos ao longo de um ciclo produtivo de morango em Turuçu, RS, bem como identificar os principais indicadores de qualidade desses solos utilizando a análise fatorial. Amostras de solo com estrutura preservada e não preservada foram coletadas na camada de 0,00-0,20m, em 15 áreas de produção de morango, em quatro diferentes tempos, destinadas à determinação das variáveis: diâmetro médio ponderado de agregados (DMP) e distribuição de agregados em classes de tamanho, porosidade total (TotPOR), macroporosidade (MacPOR) e microporosidade (MatPOR), curva de retenção de água no solo, parâmetro S , capacidade de água disponível (CAD), capacidade de água disponível considerando a salinidade do solo (CADs), densidade de partículas (Dp), densidade do solo (BulkDENS), granulometria, carbono orgânico (CO), Nitrogênio total (N), capacidade de troca de cátions (CTCefetiva), saturação por bases (V) e Respiração Basal (RB). Obteve-se o extrato de saturação do solo, do qual foram determinados: pH, condutividade elétrica (CEs), K+, Na+, Ca2+, Mg2+, razão de adsorção de sódio (RAS) e porcentagem de sódio trocável (PST). Realizou-se ainda a análise fatorial de 12 atributos dos solos utilizados na produção de morango em Turuçu para sintetizar a informação total em poucos fatores. Os atributos físicos, hídricos e químicos dos solos dos canteiros de produção de morango foram sujeitos a variações temporais significativas. O revolvimento do solo executado na construção de canteiros afetou as relações sólidos-poros, tornando o solo estruturalmente instável. Com o tempo, a estrutura do solo e tamanho dos poros sofreram modificações importantes, aumentando a CAD de modo a ser possível a redução da frequência dos eventos de irrigação. A concentração de nutrientes no extrato de saturação decaiu ao longo do ciclo produtivo, mas não o suficiente para impedir a ocorrência de salinização do solo. A análise fatorial possibilitou a síntese de 12 atributos em apenas três fatores: a agregação do solo, a capacidade do solo em armazenar água e ar nos poros, e a fertilidade química do solo. Sete atributos (CO, N, DMP, MacPOR, CAD, V, e pH) que compõem os três fatores obtidos foram selecionados como indicadores da qualidade do solo em áreas de produção de morango em Turuçu, RS, Brasil. De forma geral, pode-se afirmar que os solos utilizados na produção de morango em Turuçu, RS tiveram suas condições físicas, hídricas e químicas melhoradas ao final do ciclo produtivo.

Several previous studies have found that various characteristics of the Indian monsoon rainfall have shown secular changes over the past century. In this study, using a gridded (1degree) daily rainfall dataset, we analyse the spatio-temporal characteristics of the intensity and duration of monsoon (June through September) rainfall for secular changes over the last 50 years. The characteristics of the duration of rain events are described by wet and dry spells. A wet/dry spell is defined as a period of consecutive days with rainfall above/below a particular threshold. We choose to use a threshold that is a function of the local climatological mean, given the spatial heterogeneity of mean monsoon rainfall. The wet and dry spells are then divided into three categories: short [1 to 7 days], moderate [8 to 10 days], long [11 and more days] and analysed for changes over the past 50 years [19512000]. We find that while the number of short duration wet spells show a significant increase over the last 50 years (~15% change), the number of long duration wet spells show a significant decrease (~25%). Furthermore, while the numbers of short duration dry periods have shown a significant increase, the moderate and long duration dry spells do not shown an appreciable change. This increase and decrease in the short and long duration wet spells offset each other and consequently the total number of rainy days during the season has not shown any significant change over the past 50 years. In addition to the duration of wet and dry spells, we also analysed for changes in the accumulated rainfall of the short, medium and long duration wet spells. Our analysis suggests that while the depth of accumulated rainfall in short duration wet spells has shown a significant increase (~20%), the depth of rain in the long duration spells has shown a significant decrease (~30%) in the past fifty years.

This dissertation aims to investigate the sustainability impacts of alternative vehicle technologies and develop comprehensive sustainability assessment frameworks to analyze potential impacts of these vehicles in the U.S. In order to assess sustainability impact of vehicle alternatives, life-cycle based models has been extensively used in the literature. Although life cycle-based models are often used for environmental impacts of alternative vehicles, analysis of social and economic impacts of these vehicles has gained a tremendous interest. In this regard, there is a growing interest among the international platform and academia to use the Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment framework to have more informed sustainable products, material and technology choices by considering the environmental, as well as social and economic impacts. The Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment framework is still under development and there is an ongoing research to advance it for future applications. In this dissertation, current and future needs of sustainability assessment frameworks and the U.S. transportation are identified and addressed. The major research gaps are identified as follows: (1) there has been small emphasis on effects of spatial and temporal variations on the sustainability impacts of alternative vehicle technologies, (2) no national research efforts as of now have been directed specifically toward understanding the fundamental relationship between the adoption of electric vehicles and water demand, (3) there has been a lack of understanding the dynamic complexity of transportation sustainability, encompassing feedback mechanisms, and interdependencies, for the environmental, social, and economic impacts of alternative vehicles, and (4) there is no emphasis on addressing uncertainties inherent to the U.S. transportation and its complex relationships with the environment, society, and economy. The environmental, economic, and social impacts of alternative vehicles are highly critical for truly assessing and understanding the long-term sustainability of vehicles and propose economically viable, socially acceptable, and environmentally-friendly transportation solutions for U.S. passenger transportation. This dissertation provides a more comprehensive sustainability assessment framework by realizing following objectives: (1) inclusion of spatial and temporal variations when quantifying carbon, energy, and water footprints of alternative vehicle technologies, (2) quantifying environmental, social, and economic impacts of alternative vehicle technologies, (3) capturing the dynamic relations among the parameters of U.S. transportation system, environment, society, and the economy, (4) dealing with uncertainties inherent to the U.S. transportation sector considering the complexity of the system and dynamic relationships. The results of this dissertation reveal that the results with consideration of uncertainties, temporal and spatial variations, and dynamic complex relationships among the system variables can be significantly different than those of without consideration of those. Therefore, when developing policies the robustness of proposed scenarios should be valuated with consideration of uncertainties, temporal and spatial variations as well as the dynamic feedback mechanisms. The outcomes of this study can pave the way for advancement in the state-of-the-art and state-of-the-practice in the sustainability research by presenting novel approaches to deal with uncertainties and complex systems.

Field and laboratory studies were used to elucidate the factors affecting temporal and spatial variations of species abundance and structure of macroalgal assemblage and environmental variables between fish farming (FFA) and non-fish farming (NFFA) areas in Hsiao-Lu-Chiao island, a coral island in southwestern Taiwan. Four experiments have been approached: 1. field surveys of macroalgal assemblage structure on 5-m and 10-m depth at 3 sampling sites at FFA (FFA1, FFA2 and FFA3) and 1 sampling site at NFFA from September 2004, January 2005 and April 2005; 2.the relationship between abiotic (monthly maximum air temperature, monthly minimum air temperature, monthly mean air temperature, monthly cumulative precipitation, monthly cumulative irradiance, seawater temperature, light extinction coefficient, water motion, and nutrient (NO3-, NO2-, NH4+, SRP, DON, and DOP) and biotic (seaurchin density) factors and spatio-temporal variations in macroalgal structures analyzed by non-parametric multivariate model; 3. Factors affecting macroalgal abundance and structure: (1). Comparison of growth temperature ranges in different species to field temperature fluctuation; (2).Comparison of growth irradiance ranges in different species to field irradiance fluctuation; 4.Herbivore pressure: (1). Spatio-temporal variations of sea urchin abundance and structure of assemblage; (2). Gut contents and food preference of sea urchin experiment; (3). Herbivore exclusion experiment. Macroalgal %cover, biomass, species richness, diversity (H¡¦) and evenness (J¡¦) showed temporal and spatial variations, low values in January 2005 and also low values in the 5 m- and 10 m-depth areas of FFA1 and the 10 m-depth areas of FFA2. The data of k-dominance curve, hierarchical cluster and ANOSIM tests indicate that macroalgal assemblage is different between 4 sampling sites, between 2 depths and between 3 seasons. Ceratodictyon spongiosum is the most important species that separates September and January assemblages from April assemblage and separates the FFA1 and FFA2 assemblages from the FFA3 and NFFA assemblages. BVSTEP analysis shows that nutrients (NO3-, DON, DOP), temperature, monthly cumulative precipitation, and sea urchin density are the factors corresponding to variations of macroalgal assemblages, this correlation is more significant for 5 m-depth assemblage. Fish farming area FFA1and FFA2 assemblage are affect by sea urchin density, temperature and DON. Sea urchin influnces macroalgal abundance and assemblage structure in FFA1 and FFA2. Macroalgal %cover in 5 m-depth area shows a reversal relationship with sea urchin density; however, this relationship is not observed for 10 m-depth area. FFA1 and FFA2 are belong to high grazing pressure sites as indicated by high sea urchin density and exclusion experiment. Sea urchin gut contents and feeding preference test show that sea urchin has strong food selectivity with Hypnea charoides and Gracilaria coronopifolia as the most preferred species. Herbivore exclusion experiment shows that Hypnea charoides and Gracilaria coronopifolia are the species recruited in the cages. Ceratodictyon spongiosum had high biomass in FFA1 and FFA2 in January, which was ¡¥low DOP/high DON¡¦. The coindicence of temporal variations in FFA3 assemblage structure with a change from ¡¦Halimeda opuntia and Boodlea compostia¡¦ ¡÷ ¡¦Amphiroa fragilissima, Corallina phhulifera and Galaxaura oblongata¡¦ ¡÷¡¦Halimeda opuntia and Boodlea compostia¡¦ with low nitrogen/ high phosphorous¡¦ ¡÷¡¦ high nitrogen/ low phosphorous¡¦ ¡÷ ¡¦low nitrogen/ high phosphorous¡¦ suggest a role of ¡¦low nitrogen (NO3-)/high phosphorous (DOP)¡¦ for FFA3 structure modification. NFFA assemblage is controlled by temperature and monthly cumulative precipitation. Monthly cumulative precipitation in September was higher than January and April, in which Boodlea compostia and Gracilaria coronopifolia were dominant algae in September. The temperature growth responses of algae using the continuous-flow outdoor laboratory tank culture system fit their seasonal growth, reflecting the temperature-dependent manner of seasonal variations in abundance. It could be concluded from the present investigation that the structure of benthic macroalgal assemblage in Hsiao-Lu-Chiao island in southwestern Taiwan is affected by predicted natural and pulse disturbances. Temperature fluctuations involve in overall temporal variations in structure. Sea urchin herbivory and nutrient as pulse nutrient modulate the structure in fish farming area while monthly cumulative precipitation is associated with algal structure in non-fish farming area.