Natality characteristics were calculated for 3 regions in the southern Appalachians (Ridge and Valley, Alleghany Plateau, and Ohio River Valley). I report data collected in the first 2 years of a long term (> 6 years) study conducted by the Appalachian Cooperative Grouse Research Project (ACGRP). Nesting rate, pooled over all regions, was 83.6% in 1997 and 79.7% in 1998. In the 2-year period, the Alleghany Plateau reported the highest nesting rate (97.6%) while the Ohio River Valley reported the lowest rate (54.2%). Overall hen success rates were 81.5% in 1997 and 56.9% in 1998. Yearling hen success rates were as high or higher than adults. Adult hen success was 85.7% in 1997 and 48.5% in 1998; yearling hen success was 86.7% in 1997 and 82.3% in 1998. Additionally, I found a lower renest rate (8% over 2 years) in the southern Appalachians than previous studies have reported. The mean first-nest clutch size in the southern Appalachian region was considerably lower (9.5, years and regions pooled) than that reported for other portions of ruffed grouse range. Recommendations are given on how ACGRP natality data collection may be improved in upcoming years. Ruffed grouse chick survival estimates were calculated from data collected in the first 2 years of a long term ACGRP study as well as data collected separate from ACGRP protocol. First-week chick survival estimates ranged from 0.18 to 0.32 in 1997 and 0.45 to 0.48 in 1998. Late brood season survivorship values (0.11-0.13 at week 5, 0.07 at week 10) were considerably lower in the southern Appalachians than those reported from more northern portions of ruffed grouse range. Additionally, the mean number of chicks per brood in July was lower in the southern Appalachians than that reported in the Great Lakes region during July and August. Recommendations are given on how ACGRP chick count data collection may be improved in upcoming years. I compared micro-habitat characteristics at known brood locations with randomly selected locations to determine which characteristics are selected by ruffed grouse hens and broods in the southern Appalachians. In the first half of the brood season (weeks 1-6) hens and broods selected sites with tall, complete, vegetative ground cover. Additionally, broods selected forested sites with a well-developed canopy, rather than areas affected by large canopy gaps or openings. Higher ground cover at brood sites may have been due to a lack of midstory structure. The abundance of arthropods, fruit, and forage at brood flush sites was higher during the first few weeks of the brood season; this was possibly due to flush sites being located in open, mid-age or mature forest. Several authors have speculated that as the chicks' diet shifts from primarily arthropods to fruit and forage at approximately 3 weeks of age, the habitat selected by hens and their broods may change to accommodate this dietary shift. In my study, a change in habitat selection did not occur between weeks 3 and 4 as expected but after week 6 and may indicate the chicks' dietary shift occurs later than some have predicted. / Master of Science

Virginia's only montane pine barren, located in the Warm Springs Mountain Nature Preserve in the Allegheny Highlands of western Virginia is likely threatened by successional changes initiated by a history of fire suppression. Dominated by early successional fire adapted species, such as dwarfed Pinus rigida (Mill.) and Quercus ilicifolia (Wangenh.), this shrubland is home to numerous rare plants and invertebrates. We used vegetation analysis and dendrochronology to document establishment and recruitment patterns and to identify successional trends at this site. Tree establishment of the dominant tree species (P. rigida and Quercus rubra L.) peaked following the last known fire event in the early 1930s. Vegetation analysis revealed an absence of P. rigida seedling recruitment as well as a low density of fire adapted species such as Q. ilicifolia. In contrast, Q. rubra is represented in a variety of age classes and shade tolerant trees such as Acer rubrum (L.) and Pinus strobus (L.) are beginning to establish. A dense understory of ericaceous shrubs and a thick litter layer appear to inhibit recruitment of P. rigida and other early successional species pointing to the need for active management in the form of prescribed burns, which have been effective in other pine barrens. / Master of Science

Thesis (M.S.)--Miami University, Dept. of Family Studies and Social Work, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 46-54).

Thesis advisor: Yvette D. Kuiper / The Hudson Valley fold-thrust belt (HVB) is a narrow belt of deformed Upper Ordovician to Middle Devonian clastic and carbonate strata exposed in the western Hudson Valley of New York State. Geologic mapping at a scale of 1:10,000 was carried out near the town of Catskill. The southern portion of the map area includes a large doubly-plunging structure which features a fault-dominated southern portion plunging towards 017° and a northern fold-dominated, 206° trending, southerly plunging segment. A relay structure between two major faults or fault systems is interpreted as existing between the two domains. Farther north, the HVB narrows and folds plunge shallowly towards 212°, and then widens with folds plunging shallowly towards 017°. The changes can be explained by a localized increase in slip on the Austin Glen Detachment in the center of the map area, and subsequent loss of slip towards the north. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: College Honors Program. / Discipline: Geology and Geophysics.

As human land uses continue to expand rapidly across the landscape, the management practices of private landowners are an essential part of effective conservation of biodiversity. Conservation of early successional habitats (ESH) and the species that depend on them is a priority in the eastern United States, and efforts to create more ESH on private lands has primarily focused on forest landowners and the harvesting of timber. Private lands with significant pasture cover in a forested landscape present an additional opportunity to create and maintain ESH, yet our understanding of landowner values and attitudes about management strategies in pastures (i.e., modifying mowing or grazing practices, use of herbicides to control invasive species) is lacking. This study implemented a survey of private landowners in five western Virginia counties who own at least 25 acres that are at or above 2000 ft elevation. This region was selected due to its high priority for declining bird species and its mix of heavily forested ridges and extensive pastureland in its valleys. Our primary objective was to understand what influences private landowner intentions to carry out seven different ESH management strategies (i.e. modified mowing, modified grazing, timber harvests within forest, timber harvests at filed-forest border, prescribed fire, use of machinery, and use of herbicides to control invasive species) for the benefit of wildlife in the next five years. General linear models (GLM) were developed to determine whether landowner values, barriers to management, perceived norms, past experience, organizational membership, and demographics predicted the intention to carry out each management strategy in the next five years. Models explained 22-49% of the variation in landowner intention and predictors of intention differed across the seven management strategies. What landowners’ value about their property significantly predicted behavioral intention but was not consistent across the different management strategies. For example, those most likely to modify mowing and grazing tend to value ecological aspects of their land (i.e., pollinator habitat and water quality) whereas those most likely to harvest timber value hunting and revenue from production on their land. Landowner’s past experience with land management was a strong predictor of likelihood to modify mowing and grazing and to harvest timber. Lastly, members of non-hunting conservation organizations are nearly 7 times more likely to modify grazing practices than non-members, and members of hunting conservation organizations were 2.6 times more likely to use prescribed fire for the benefit of wildlife. These results suggest that expanding outreach efforts to include additional management options for creating ESH (i.e., modification of mowing and grazing practices) and the inclusion of images and verbiage about the benefits to pollinator species, non-game species, and water quality would likely recruit landowners who may not have been recruited with current methods.

This dissertation examines a movement in Western North Carolina to build a local food system, one grounded in the conditions and relationships of place. In 2000, Mountain Family Farms launched the Local Food Campaign to raise public awareness about the region's farms and farming heritage, to educate consumers about the benefits of buying food grown by local farms, and, ultimately, to build markets for locally grown food to sustain the region's farms. The campaign sparked a social movement and over a decade later local farms and locally grown food are a palpable feature of life in the mountains of Western North Carolina. This dissertation is the result of my tenure at the organization as an employee and four years of ethnographic research. The primary objective of my research has been to understand how the Local Food Movement in Western North Carolina is interacting with and affecting the industrialized food industry at the local level. Drawing on perspectives within anthropology, sociology, political science, geography, feminist theory, and social movements theory and from the concepts of hegemony, cultural politics, place-making, and social capital, this dissertation understands the movement in Western North Carolina within a processual framework, an integral part of the hegemonic process, which struggles to define and legitimize the practices and ideas that govern way of life. To examine this process, my research has focused on the ways movement organizers create a movement culture and mediate a tension between the dual imperatives of engaging the dominant food system and protecting the integrity of movement goals. Equally, my research has focused on understanding the impacts of movement activities on the region's food system - on the perceptions and practices of consumers and farmers and of the businesses that serve and sell food in the region. My dissertation reveals the significance of place-making to the strategies of movement organizers - grounding movement participants and observers in the particularities of place, developing a shared place-based consciousness, cultivating different economic subjectivities that affect different material impacts. My dissertation documents the hegemonic process - the encounter and interaction between movement meanings, ideas, and practices and those of the dominant, conventional food industry. Within this process, movement outcomes are the responses of movement organizers, participants, and observers as they mediate challenges and opportunities at the intersection of disparate ideas and practices. Within a dynamic movement, outcomes are both provisional and incremental, shifting in relation to emergent knowledge and perceptions and the actions they inform.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin, 1966. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references.

Stream capture is a major driver of the retreat of the Blue Ridge Escarpment, but timescales of capture are not well understood. This study examines stream sediment geochemistry to establish a set of sediment source fingerprints which can be used to identify and date the capture of the Tallulah River. Statistical analyses show significant differences in U, Th, and certain REE enrichment. These differences result from variations in bedrock along the lengths of each river and a shift in relative stream powers after capture to favor mobilization or deposition of heavy elements. The observed differences should be sufficient to identify where Tallulah sediment appears in floodplains of the capturing Tugaloo River, facilitating future dating of the capture event. Understanding the timing of river capture will provide insight into the ongoing reshaping and redistribution of river systems and interactions of geomorphic processes in the continuing evolution of the southern Appalachian Mountains.

Spruce-Fir forests are relicts from the Pleistocene and have migrated back north after the previous warming period as well as up in elevation in the southern Appalachian mountains. This in turn created sky islands of isolated, endemic, and disjunct species. These refugal forests require certain climatic parameters similar to Canada’s boreal mountains but also need additional cloud immersion and precipitation. These forests have experienced stressors in the past, but face continued threats such as air pollution and climate change. Due to limited immigration for the majority of the species on these mountains, a significant number of organisms are at risk of being endangered or extinct. Analyzing the relationships and patterns between species distribution and climatic parameters both in the past and present will help create future prediction maps. These will potentially anticipate where habitat reduction might occur and will benefit management and conservation purposes. The first study will analyze current distributions of Spruce-Fir forests to see which model and variable combination best approximates the unique mountain forests environments. Using the optimal model from the first study, the second study will examine which distributional changes may occur in the future and how these changes compare to paleo-environmental distributions. Anticipated results will show a reduction of habitat in lower peaks with minimal impact at higher peaks based on the known projected trends of cloud ceilings. This research will help with forest and conservation management and will impact a multitude of species that rely on this forest to survive.