Thesis (Ph.D.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland. / Typescript. Bibliography: leaves 151-157. Also available online.

<p>Tjädern (Tetrao urogallus) är en av arterna skogshöns med sitt utbredningsområde Europa och Ryssland. Den är väl anpassad till ett liv i det norra barrskogsbältet. Beståndet av tjäder har minskat kraftigt under efterkrigstiden över hela sitt utbredningsområde utanför Ryssland, där den dock har ökat i antal. Tack vare den ökningen anger BirdLife International beståndet som stabilt. Anledningarna till nedgången i norra delen av Europa består troligen av flera orsaker varav de förändrade skogsbruksmetoderna under andra halvan av 1900-talet kan vara en av de viktigaste. Klimatfaktorer och förändrat predationstryck kan vara andra orsaker.</p><p>För att försöka se effekterna av genomförda skogsbruksåtgärder inom upptagningsområdet för tjäderns lekplatser, har 12 lekplatser i norra Skaraborg som var inventerade under 1990-1995 återinventerats under våren 2005. Antalet tuppar idag på dessa lekplatser har jämförts med tidigare situation. Ingen lekplats uppvisar någon ökning av tuppar på leken och på 5 ställen har leken övergivits helt. Arealer för de olika markslagen har uppmätts inom de 300 ha som utgör en lekplats. Analyser av korrelationen mellan de olika markanvändningarna och antalet tuppar har inte gett några signifikanta resultat (p > 0,05). Det finns en signifikant korrelation mellan förlorat antal tuppar och förändrad andel plantering (p<0,05), det har betydelse från vilken nivå förändringen sker. Anledningarna till att tupparna försvunnit på en del ställen och minskat på andra skulle kunna vara resultatet av den samlade effekten av dels skogbruksåtgärder dels övriga faktorer. Det verkar vara betydelsefullt hur stort hygget är och var det ligger i förhållande till lekcentrum om det ska påverka tjädern. Ska hänsyn kunna tas när skogsbruksåtgärder planeras är det en förutsättning att lekplatsen är känd av berörda parter. Tjäderns höga krav på sin miljö med flera olika biotoper inom reviret och dess preferens för äldre skogar med lång kontinuitet gynnar många andra arter, vilket i sin tur även gör tjädern användbar som paraplyart inom naturvården.</p> / <p>The capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus) is one of the species of wood fowls with distribution in Europe and Russia. It is well adapted to a life in the northern coniferous forest area. The population of capercaillies has diminished considerably during the postwar period in the whole distribution area outside Russia, where it on the contrary has increased in number. Because of this increase the BirdLife International states the population as stable. The reasons for the decrease in the northern part of Europe are believed to emanate from different sources of which the changing methods in forestry during the second half of the 20th century seem to be one of the most important ones. Climate conditions and changed predacious pressure are other possible causes.</p><p>In an attempt to observe the effects of the measures in forestry taken within the distribution areas of the mating grounds of the capercailzies, twelve sites in the northern county of Skaraborg, registered during the years 1990-1995, were again registered in spring 2005. The number of male birds today on these grounds has been compared to the number of earlier registrations. No mating ground shows an increase in the number of male birds and in five places the mating ground has been totally abandoned. Within the mating ground consisting of 300 hectares the acreage of different kinds of land has been measured. The analysis of the correlation between the use of the different kinds of land and the number of male birds has not given any significant results (p> 0,05). There is one significant correlation between lost numbers of male birds and the alter of the share of plantation (p<0,05). The reason why the male birds have disappeared and in other places have diminished in number could be the result of the increased effect of both the forestry measures taken and other factors. The size of the cutting area as well as the location in relation to the centre of the mating ground seems to be of importance in influencing the capercaillie. The knowledge of the mating grounds is therefore essential to the concerned parties in planning forestry measures in a considerate way. The capercaillie has high demands upon its environment with several different biotopes within its territory; its preference for old forests with a long continuity favors several other species, which thereby makes the capercaillie useful as a general covering species in the nature conservation work.</p>

<p>Common species of freshwater mussels may, like the freshwater pearl mussel (<em>Margaritifera margaritifera</em>) have a drastic decline in number and there is several reasons, like sedimentation, a decline of host fishes, introduction of alien species, nutrition leakages from agriculture and pollutants of medic drugs and poison. Ann Gustavsson made in the year of 2007 a study over rejuventation of freshwater great mussels in nine watersystems and considered that the rejuventation within the populations were all along the line poor. This study orients from her work and points to determine if there is a connection between the poor juventation and pollution of nitrogen and phosphorous from industries and private sanitations. The study was performed with the software program ArcGIS9.2 to take out drainage areas for the concerned habitats and contact was made with the concerned authoritys. When it comes to supervision of private sanitations is it the countys and for industries is it the county administrative board. Most of the countys had a very difficult way to reach their data of the private sanitations and those who had data had great holes in their knowledge in them. The greatest emission of nitrogen was without doubt the industries, but a more even allocation could be seen in the pollution of phosphourus, where the industries and the private sanitations stood for about fifty- fifty of the pollution. The greatest emission of nitrogen and phosphourus happened in Viskan, in the drainage area for Lekvad,there it was a lack of mussels. The species of <em>Anodonta anatina </em>showed a strong positive correlation between emission of nitrogen and phosphourus with the way of juvenile mussels in the population. More studies is need to do in these areas, both when it comes to continuing mapping of rejuventation within the freshwater great mussels in several waters and template value for pollution of nitrogen and phosphourus, that is very doubtful today. Even studies concerning other factors, like predation, host fishes and the influence of poison and medic drugs is needing to do, as it is few studies concerning this today.</p>

The land surface is a key component of the climate system and exchanges energy, water and carbon with the overlying atmosphere. It is the location of the terrestrial carbon sink and changes in the land surface can impact weather and climate at various time and spatial scales. It's ability to act as a source or a sink can influence atmospheric CO2 concentrations. Both models and observations have shown the reduced ability of the land surface to absorb increased anthropogenic CO2 emissions with results from the Coupled Climate-Carbon Cycle Model Intercomparison Project (C4MIP) and phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) have shown that the terrestrial carbon cycle is a major source of model uncertainty. Land surface models (LSMs) represent the interaction between the biosphere and atmosphere in earth system models (ESMs) and are important for simulating the terrestrial carbon cycle. In the context of land surface modelling, uncertainty arises from an incomplete understanding of land surface processes and the inability to model these processes correctly. As LSMs become more advanced, there is a need to understand their accuracy. In this thesis, the ability of the Joint UK Land Environment Simulator (JULES), the land surface scheme of the UK Met Office United Model, to simulate Gross Primary Productivity (GPP) fluxes is evaluated at various spatial scales (point, regional and global) in order to identify and quantify sources of uncertainty in the model. This thesis has three main objectives. Firstly, JULES is evaluated at the point scale across a range of biomes and climatic conditions using local (site-specific), global and satellite datasets. It was found that JULES is biased with total annual GPP underestimated by 16% and 30% across all sites compared to observations when using local and global data, respectively. The model's phenology module was tested by comparing results from simulations using the default phenology model to those forced with leaf area index (LAI) from the MODIS sensor. Model parameters were found to be a minor source of uncertainty compared to the meteorological driving data at the point scale as was the default phenology module in JULES. Secondly, in addition to evaluating simulated GPP fluxes at the point scale, the ability of JULES to simulate GPP at the global and regional scale for 2000-2010 was investigated with being able to simulate interannual variability and simulated global GPP estimates were found to be greater than the observation-based estimates, FLUXNET-MTE and MODIS, by 8% and 25%, respectively. At the regional scale, differences in GPP between JULES, FLUXNET-MTE and MODIS were observed mostly in the tropics and this was the reason for differences at the global scale. Simulating tropical GPP was found to be a major source of uncertainty in JULES. JULES was found to be insensitive to spatial resolution and when driven with the PRINCETON meteorological dataset, differences between model simulations driven using WFDEI-GPCC and PRINCETON occurred in the tropics (at 5°N-5°S) and extratropics (at 30°N-60°N). Finally, the response of JULES to changes in climate (surface air temperature, precipitation, atmospheric CO2 concentrations) was explored at the global and regional scale. Simulated GPP was found to have greater sensitivity to changes in precipitation and CO2 concentrations than air temperature at the global scale while LAI was sensitive only to changes in temperature and insensitive to changes in precipitation and CO2 concentrations. It was found that model sensitivity to climate at the global scale was determined by its behaviour at the regional scale.

Rock-avalanches (RAs) are a large (typically > 106 m3) and extremely rapid (30 - >100 m/s) type of landslide. RAs pose a significant hazard as they can runout over long distances and generate secondary hazards such as tsunami and unstable, cross-valley dams. Previous research on the distribution of rock-avalanche deposits (RADs) on the South Island, New Zealand has suggested that there are fewer deposits than would be expected for a seismically active, high-mountain region. This is due to their removal from the sedimentary record (censoring) by fluvial erosion, glacial entrainment, vegetation cover, sub-aqueous occlusion and deposit misidentification. Censoring of deposits skews magnitude-frequency relationships of RA occurrence and hinders hazard planning. This research examines processes acting to fluvially censor RADs on the South Island. 268 known, and 47 possible RADs were identified to provide the first RAD inventory for the entire South Island. The temporal distribution of RADs indicates censoring of the record over the Holocene. >500 year intervals exist between RA events from 12,000 to 2,000 years ago; a more complete record is shown for the last 1,000 to 100 years with intervals of > 50 - < 150 years. The last 100 years shows phases of co-seismic RAD generation, a period of RAD quiescence and a recent increase in aseismic RAD occurrence. The spatial distribution of RADs suggests that the West Coast, Fiordland and Nelson could have experienced fluvial censoring of deposits. The sediment routing characteristics of catchments in these regions, where the majority of rivers have direct pathways from RADs to the ocean, suggest that fluvially reworked RAD material could be stored within alluvial flats and braidplains. Agglomerate grains (microscopic grains which are diagnostic of RAs) were used to identify fluvially reworked RAD material. Grains were detected in dam-breach flood terraces up to 1km downstream of known RADs. Contemporary river sediment samples showed no agglomerate presence, this suggests that 1) agglomerates break down under extended fluvial transport, 2) they are not supplied to river systems outside of flood events, 3) agglomerates become diluted by other river sediment or 4) they become buried in discrete sedimentary layers. In order to investigate the redistribution of coarse RAD material within South Island rivers, a micro-scale flume model was developed. Using ultra-violet sand as a novel analogue for a RAD, the redistribution of material through an idealised South Island catchment could be examined. The model showed that RAD material is deposited in discrete aggradational layers in dam proximal locations. Downstream, the sedimentary signal is rapidly diluted by ordinary river sediment flux. The research shows that the RAD record for the South Island is incomplete and that fluvial censoring is prevalent within the West Coast, Nelson and Fiordland. The agglomerate tracing method can be used to identify the presence of RADs in fluvial systems proximal to RADs but the signal is undetectable after ~1km from the deposit. Both field sampling and flume modelling show that localised flood derived aggradational layers, close to deposit locations, will archive reworked RAD material. These results have important implications for understanding the magnitude and frequency of RADs within New Zealand and other similar high-mountain, tectonically active regions of the globe.

Magister Scientiae (Biodiversity and Conservation Biology) - MSc (Biodiv & Cons Biol) / Gaps in our knowledge of the functional roles of snakes within ecosystems limit our ability to predict the potentially cascading effects their removal from an ecosystem might create. Extirpation of snake species could potentially result in losses of ecosystem functionality if those taxa are ecologically unique. I used pitfall and funnel trap arrays, artificial cover object surveys, active searching, and passive camera trapping, as well as pre-existing faunal diversity data to identify terrestrial tetrapod species within the Koeberg Private Nature Reserve. This resulted in a list of 265 species, of which 13 were snakes. I then gathered data on dietary and four additional functional traits for each species from the literature. Next, using hierarchical and partitioning around medoids clustering, I identified ten broad dietary guilds and 54 functional guilds within the terrestrial tetrapod community. Of the dietary guilds Dasypeltis scabra was the only snake species that formed a unique single species guild and was one of four snake species (Pseudaspis cana, Homoroselaps lacteus and Lamprophis guttatus) to form four unique single species functional guilds. The remaining snakes clustered together within groups of other vertebrate predators. Functional diversity analysis was then used to simulate losing eight major taxonomic groups (birds, passerines, non-passerines, mammals, reptiles, snakes, non-snake reptiles and amphibians) and gauge the effects of those losses on overall community dietary and functional diversity. Functional diversity analysis revealed that the loss of certain snake species resulted in disproportionate losses of overall community dietary and functional diversity while losing others had negligible effects. These findings provide ambivalent support for the dietary and functional uniqueness of snakes suggesting that certain snake species are fulfilling unique functional roles within the ecosystem. Additionally, it is likely that losing those non-redundant species would result in significant losses of ecosystem functionality.

The objective of this thesis was to characterize the microbiology of subsurface fracture water at a location within the Canadian Shield considered as a prospective host site for a geologic repository. Repository performance and long-term safety predictions for geologic confinement of radioactive waste rely on understanding the natural microbial processes that occur within a host formation; however, the inaccessibility of the crystalline terrestrial subsurface means that this habitat is difficult to explore and as such is largely unknown. The area characterized is located within the boundary of the Chalk River Laboratories site, situated within the Central Gneissic Belt of the Grenville province (formed 1.5 and 1.0 ba years before present); the site is also situated within the Ottawa-Bonnechere graben (formed 0.5 ba before present). Fracture water was accessed from one 34 m deep open drill hole and six cased and sealed drill holes; the Westbay Multilevel Groundwater Monitoring system preserved the natural fracture flow enabling discrete fracture water sampling at multiple depths via each of the sealed drill holes. This thesis combined multiple datasets in an exploratory analysis for drivers of subsurface microbial assembly within an ecological framework of selection, dispersal, drift and diversification across two spatial extents: 25 km3 and 1 km3. The outcomes of the multivariate analyses, null models and generalized linear models identified prospective source waters and distributional relationships of total and viable cell counts with fracture water sulfate and manganese. Random processes (dispersal, drift and diversification) explain close to 50% of the variance of the phylogenetic beta diversity among the component taxa. Selection associated with differential abundance of the 16S rRNA gene V4 region and spatial and environmental factors identified sulfate and organic carbon plus manganese and a spatial coefficient. Selection by differential abundance was not a major driver of community assembly; accounting for ~4% each of the total abundances linked to sulfate and manganese. At a spatial scale less than 1 km3, it may be possible to identify either greater significance for sulfate and manganese or to identify additional environmental factors linked to selection. Demonstrated metabolism included nitrate reduction (common across all sampling locations and at each sampling campaign) and sulfate reduction (observed at one sampling campaign). The distributions of total and viable cell counts correspond with the distributions of sulfate and manganese, respectively. The fracture water was a source of sulfate and manganese, but not a source of nitrate. A limited analysis of rock porewater identified sulfate and nitrogen compounds (ammonia, nitrite and nitrate) in parts per million concentrations, suggesting that the rock is a source of these compounds, and this finding warrants an assessment of rock weathering as a driver of selection at these sampling locations. Phylogenetic relationships across sampling locations showed that the component taxa were more closely related than expected by chance; this pattern suggests that, at the spatial scale of the analysis, competitive exclusion was not a driver of subsurface community assembly. Co-existence of close relatives may be biologically relevant—and thus be a sign of diversification—or this pattern may reflect the 16S rRNA gene copy number combined with intra-genomic heterogeneity greater than the 97% sequence similarity threshold for binning sequencing reads into organizational taxonomical units (OTUs). The distribution of genes for energy metabolism was uniform across all sampling locations. A metatranscriptome assessment would help differentiate between the genes present from the genes expressed. Testing for a wider range of demonstrated metabolic capabilities would support RNA-level gene expression analyses. Overall, applying the ecological framework of four main drivers of community assembly show that, at the spatial scale of the sampling, up to 50% of the variance among community dynamics reflect randomness. Approximately ~1% of the total abundance was linked to measured metabolism; at smaller spatial scales, ~8% of the total 16S rRNA gene abundance was linked to differential abundances across—potentially connected--sampling locations. By sampling at smaller spatial scales, therefore, it may be possible to discern additional metabolic and selective processes. These data will inform models for the performance and long-term safety of geological repositories.

Snake species are notoriously difficult to study in the field due to their cryptic natural-histories and secretive behaviors. Difficulties associated with detection present challenges estimating parameters including occupancy and abundance, as well as responses to habitat degradation. Our objectives were to use Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) telemetry to enhance detection of Queensnakes (Regina septemvittata) as compared to traditional capture-mark-recapture (CMR) survey techniques and to examine occupancy and abundance of Queensnakes and Northern Watersnakes (Nerodia sipedon) in streams of differing levels of anthropogenic impact within Central Kentucky. During 2013, we captured Queensnakes and implanted them with PIT tags. We detected significantly more tagged snakes using PIT telemetry than visual surveys. We did not observe significant differences in numbers of snakes detected using PIT telemetry at different times of day. We observed relatively high site fidelity of individuals. During 2014, we conducted point-count surveys of Northern Watersnakes and Queensnakes in streams characterized as highly degraded and lightly impaired. We estimated occupancy and conditional abundance among site types. We did not observe significant differences in occupancy or abundance between historically highly-impacted sites and less-impacted sites. We were able to determine significance of some environmental variables influencing detection of snakes.

Remotely sensing recent growth, herbivory, or disturbance of herbaceous and woody vegetation in dryland ecosystems requires high spatial resolution and multi-temporal depth. Three dimensional (3D) remote sensing technologies like lidar, and techniques like structure from motion (SfM) photogrammetry, each have strengths and weaknesses at detecting vegetation volume and extent, given the instrument's ground sample distance and ease of acquisition. Yet, a combination of platforms and techniques might provide solutions that overcome the weakness of a single platform. To explore the potential for combining platforms, we compared detection bias amongst two 3D remote sensing techniques (lidar and SfM) using three different platforms [ground-based, small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS), and manned aircraft]. We found aerial lidar to be more accurate for characterizing the bare earth (ground) in dense herbaceous vegetation than either terrestrial lidar or aerial SfM photogrammetry. Conversely, the manned aerial lidar did not detect grass and fine woody vegetation while the terrestrial lidar and high resolution near-distance (ground and sUAS) SfM photogrammetry detected these and were accurate. UAS SfM photogrammetry at lower spatial resolution under-estimated maximum heights in grass and shrubs. UAS and handheld SfM photogrammetry in near-distance high resolution collections had similar accuracy to terrestrial lidar for vegetation, but difficulty at measuring bare earth elevation beneath dense herbaceous cover. Combining point cloud data and derivatives (i.e., meshes and rasters) from two or more platforms allowed for more accurate measurement of herbaceous and woody vegetation (height and canopy cover) than any single technique alone. Availability and costs of manned aircraft lidar collection preclude high frequency repeatability but this is less limiting for terrestrial lidar, sUAS and handheld SfM. The post-processing of SfM photogrammetry data became the limiting factor at larger spatial scale and temporal repetition. Despite the utility of sUAS and handheld SfM for monitoring vegetation phenology and structure, their spatial extents are small relative to manned aircraft.

Investigations were made examining the relationships between gastropod species richness and abundance across 20 phosphate and 20 natural lakes in Central Florida. In additional to lake category, age of phosphate lakes was used to determine if phosphate lakes ever approximate natural lakes. Additional physical, chemical, and biological parameters, including chlorophyll a, Ca, secchi, phosphorous, conductance, fish predation, and recreational lake use were investigated in order to determine if they affected gastropods with lake age. Comparisons were also made between gastropod species richness and average abundance and two groups of dominant vegetation categories: Panicum, a structurally complex macrophyte, and Typha, a less structurally complex macrophyte. After phosphate mining operations are completed, Florida state regulations require the establishment of ecologically viable habitat (created lakes) which reflects the properties of regional natural lakes including vegetation structure, littoral zone, bank slope, and lake depth. The littoral zone is part of the mandated structure of the lake, and is of considerable importance to the uptake, storage, transformation and release of nutrients. Within the littoral zone, gastropods are a critical link in the food web with implications for the long term structure and function of a lake. They are known for their close associations with macrophytes and are common environmental indicators since they have limited mobility, high diversity, are well studied, are representative of their habitat type and have a widespread geographic range. They are also an important food sources for many predators in aquatic environments, include migratory waterfowl and game fish. Gastropod species richness and abundance data were collected via standard net sweep methodology. Abundance was presented in catch per unit effort, therefore all abundance data were averages. Initial comparisons between gastropod species richness and average abundance yielded no significant differences between natural and phosphate lakes. However, when age was applied as a covariate, there was a significant difference between lake age as a continuous variable in species richness comparisons. Additionally, categorical comparisons between lakes older or younger than 30 years indicated significantly higher species richness and average abundance of gastropods in lakes phosphate lakes older than 30 years. Physical and chemical properties of the lakes did not appear to influence gastropod populations between lakes of different ages. Fish predation interactions did not indicate any significant influence either. However, the presence of boat ramps did indicate a positive relationship between average gastropod abundance and species richness and recreational lake use. Littoral zone macrophyte comparisons between dominant vegetation Typha and Panicum indicated a significantly positive relationship between gastropod species richness and average abundance in older phosphate lakes dominated by the more structurally complex Panicum macrophytes. Confidence in the Typha and Panicum results was confounded by lack of access to younger, Typha dominated, phosphate lakes. An increase in sample size for younger Typha lakes, with additional site access, may further support these findings.