Experimental measurements and numerical modeling of marginal burning in live chaparral fuel beds

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X. Zhou; D.R. Weise; S Mahalingam

2005-01-01

An extensive experimental and numerical study was completed to analyze the marginal burning behavior of live chaparral shrub fuels that grow in the mountains of southern California. Laboratory fire spread experiments were carried out to determine the effects of wind, slope, moisture content, and fuel characteristics on marginal burning in fuel beds of common...

Temporal fluctuations in soil water repellency following wildfire in chaparral steeplands, southern California

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K.R. Hubbert; V. Oriol

2005-01-01

Soil water repellency is partularly common in unburned chaparral, and its degree and duration can be influenced by seasonal weather conditions. Water repellency tends to increase in dry soils, whil eit decreases or vanishes following precipitation or extended periods of soil moisture. The 15426 ha Williams Fire provided an opportunity to investigate post-fire...

Spatial analysis of fuel treatment options for chaparral on the Angeles national forest

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G. Jones; J. Chew; R. Silverstein; C. Stalling; J. Sullivan; J. Troutwine; D. Weise; D. Garwood

2008-01-01

Spatial fuel treatment schedules were developed for the chaparral vegetation type on the Angeles National Forest using the Multi-resource Analysis and Geographic Information System (MAGIS). Schedules varied by the priority given to various wildland urban interface areas and the general forest, as well as by the number of acres treated per decade. The effectiveness of...

Faunal responses to fire in chaparral and sage scrub in California, USA

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van Mantgem, Elizabeth; Keeley, Jon E.; Witter, Marti

2015-01-01

Impact of fire on California shrublands has been well studied but nearly all of this work has focused on plant communities. Impact on and recovery of the chaparral fauna has received only scattered attention; this paper synthesizes what is known in this regard for the diversity of animal taxa associated with California shrublands and outlines the primary differences between plant and animal responses to fire. We evaluated the primary faunal modes of resisting fire effects in three categories: 1) endogenous survival in a diapause or diapause-like stage, 2) sheltering in place within unburned refugia, or 3) fleeing and recolonizing. Utilizing these patterns in chaparral and sagescrub, as well as some studies on animals in other mediterranean-climate ecosystems, we derived generalizations about how plants and animals differ in their responses to fire impacts and their post fire recovery. One consequence of these differences is that variation in fire behavior has a much greater potential to affect animals than plants. For example, plants recover from fire endogenously from soil-stored seeds and resprouts, so fire size plays a limited role in determining recovery patterns. However, animals that depend on recolonization of burned sites from metapopulations may be greatly affected by fire size. Animal recolonization may also be greatly affected by regional land use patterns that affect colonization corridors, whereas such regional factors play a minimal role in plant community recovery. Fire characteristics such as rate of spread and fire intensity do not appear to play an important role in determining patterns of chaparral and sage scrub plant recovery after fire. However, these fire behavior characteristics may have a profound role in determining survivorship of some animal populations as slow-moving, smoldering combustion may limit survivorship of animals in burrows, whereas fast-moving, high intensity fires may affect survivorship of animals in above ground refugia or

Chaparral shrub recovery after fuel reduction: a comparison of prescribed fire and mastication techniques

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J. Potts; E. Marino; S. Stephens

2010-01-01

Fuel management techniques are commonly used in shrublands to reduce wildfire risk. However, more information about the ecological effects of these treatments is needed by managers and ecologists. In an effort to address this need, we performed a replicated (4 replicates per treatment) 48-ha experiment in northern California chaparral dominated by Adenostoma...

Soil heating in chaparral fires: effects on soil properties, plant nutrients, erosion, and runoff

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Leonard F. DeBano; Raymond M. Rice; Conrad C. Eugene

1979-01-01

This state-of-the-art report summarizes what is known about the effects of heat on soil during chaparral fires. It reviews the literature on the effects of such fires on soil properties, availabilty and loss of plant nutrients, soil wettability, erosion, and surface runoff. And it reports new data collected during recent prescribed burns and a wildfire in southern...

METODOLOGÍA ARQUEOLÓGICA DE EXCAVACIÓN EN BRECHA DE UN YACIMIENTO DEL PLEISTOCENO INFERIOR: EL CHAPARRAL (VILLALUENGA DEL ROSARIO, CÁDIZ, ESPAÑA (Excavating in Breccia in an Early Pleistocene Site: El Chaparral (Villaluenga del Rosario, Cádiz, Spain

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Diego Salvador Fernández-Sánchez

2017-12-01

Full Text Available El Chaparral es un yacimiento ubicado en Villaluenga del Rosario (Cádiz, España, caracterizado por presentar un contexto sedimentológico propio de sistemas exokársticos. Su registro arqueológico está dominado por restos de macrofauna y microfauna cuyo análisis ha arrojado cronologías de entre 1-1,2 Ma, por tanto con adscripción al Pleistoceno Inferior. Desde su descubrimiento en 2009, se vio la dificultad de su excavación por la gran presencia de bloques cementados en brechas de arcilla compacta. Esta problemática obligó a diseñar una metodología propia que permitiese la recuperación controlada de los bloques de brecha para su posterior tratamiento en laboratorio. En este trabajo presentamos la metodología desarrollada durante estos trabajos, así como los resultados obtenidos gracias a su aplicación. ENGLISH: El Chaparral is a paleontological site (Villaluenga del Rosario, Cádiz, Spain characterized by a sedimentological context typical of exokarstic systems. Macro- and microfaunal analysis indicates a chronology between 1–1.2 Ma, placing this site on the Early Pleistocene. From its discovery, El Chaparral has presented an excavation challenge, as it contains cemented blocks of compact clay breccia. This forced us to design a methodology allowing controlled recovery of breccia blocks for subsequent treatment in the laboratory. In this paper, we describe the methodology and present the results of our analysis.

[New records of phlebotomine sand flies (Diptera: Psychodidae) near the Amoya River in Chaparral, Tolima].

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Contreras, María Angélica; Vivero, Rafael José; Bejarano, Eduar Elías; Carrillo, Lina María; Vélez, Iván Darío

2012-06-01

In Colombia, the diversity of phlebotomine sand flies is high, with 162 recorded species, and which include vectors of Leishmania spp. To identify the sand fly species of medically importance in the area of influence from Amoyá River Hydroelectric Project, Colombia. Sand flies were collected with CDC light traps, Shannon traps and sticky traps, from 15 villages in Chaparral County,Tolima. A total of 1,077 adult sand fly specimens were collected. Thirteen species were found in the genus Lutzomyiaand one species in the genus Warileya.Among the Lutzomyia species, three species--Lutzomyia longiflocosa, Lutzomyia columbiana and Lutzomyia nuneztovari--are important for their epidemiological history.Lutzomyia suapiensis was a new record for Colombia, and Warileya rotundipennis was recorded for the first time in Tolima. This study contributed to an increased knowledge of Colombian sand flies in terms of (1) expanding the geographical distribution of members of the subfamily Phlebotominae, (2) gaining estimates of species-richness and species associations in central Colombia, and (3) providing a better understanding of epidemiology of leishmaniasis in the Chaparral area.

Effect of mastication and other mechanical treatments on fuel structure in chaparral

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Brennan, Teresa J.; Keeley, Jon E.

2015-01-01

Mechanical fuel treatments are a common pre-fire strategy for reducing wildfire hazard that alters fuel structure by converting live canopy fuels to a compacted layer of dead surface fuels. Current knowledge concerning their effectiveness, however, comes primarily from forest-dominated ecosystems. Our objectives were to quantify and compare changes in shrub-dominated chaparral following crushing, mastication, re-mastication and mastication-plus-burning treatments, and to assess treatment longevity. Results from analysis of variance (ANOVA) identified significant differences in all fuel components by treatment type, vegetation type and time since treatment. Live woody fuel components of height, cover and mass were positively correlated with time since treatment, whereas downed woody fuel components were negatively correlated. Herbaceous fuels, conversely, were not correlated, and exhibited a 5-fold increase in cover across treatment types in comparison to controls. Average live woody fuel recovery was 50% across all treatment and vegetation types. Differences in recovery between time-since-treatment years 1–8 ranged from 32–65% and exhibited significant positive correlations with time since treatment. These results suggest that treatment effectiveness is short term due to the rapid regrowth of shrubs in these systems and is compromised by the substantial increase in herbaceous fuels. Consequences of not having a full understanding of these treatments are serious and leave concern for their widespread use on chaparral-dominated landscapes.

Particulate emissions from a mid-latitude prescribed chaparral fire

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Cofer, Wesley R., III; Levine, Joel S.; Sebacher, Daniel I.; Winstead, Edward L.; Riggin, Philip J.; Brass, James A.; Ambrosia, Vincent G.

1988-01-01

Particulate emission from a 400-acre prescribed chaparral fire in the San Dimas Experimental Forest was investigated by collecting smoke aerosol on Teflon and glass-fiber filters from a helicopter, and using SEM and EDAX to study the features of the particles. Aerosol particles ranged in size from about 0.1 to 100 microns, with carbon, oxygen, magnesium, aluminum, silicon, calcium, and iron as the primary elements. The results of ion chromatographic analysis of aerosol-particle extracts (in water-methanol) revealed the presence of significant levels of NO2(-), NO3(-), SO4(2-), Cl(-), PO4(3-), C2O4(2-), Na(+), NH4(+), and K(+). The soluble ionic portion of the aerosol was estimated to be about 2 percent by weight.

Influence of summer marine fog and low cloud stratus on water relations of evergreen woody shrubs (Arctostaphylos: Ericaceae) in the chaparral of central California.

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Vasey, Michael C; Loik, Michael E; Parker, V Thomas

2012-10-01

Mediterranean-type climate (MTC) regions around the world are notable for cool, wet winters and hot, dry summers. A dominant vegetation type in all five MTC regions is evergreen, sclerophyllous shrubland, called chaparral in California. The extreme summer dry season in California is moderated by a persistent low-elevation layer of marine fog and cloud cover along the margin of the Pacific coast. We tested whether late dry season water potentials (Ψ(min)) of chaparral shrubs, such as Arctostaphylos species in central California, are influenced by this coast-to-interior climate gradient. Lowland coastal (maritime) shrubs were found to have significantly less negative Ψ(min) than upland interior shrubs (interior), and stable isotope (δ(13)C) values exhibited greater water use efficiency in the interior. Post-fire resprouter shrubs (resprouters) had significantly less negative Ψ(min) than co-occurring obligate seeder shrubs (seeders) in interior and transitional chaparral, possibly because resprouters have deeper root systems with better access to subsurface water than shallow-rooted seeders. Unexpectedly, maritime resprouters and seeders did not differ significantly in their Ψ(min), possibly reflecting more favorable water availability for shrubs influenced by the summer marine layer. Microclimate and soil data also suggest that maritime habitats have more favorable water availability than the interior. While maritime seeders constitute the majority of local Arctostaphylos endemics, they exhibited significantly greater vulnerability to xylem cavitation than interior seeders. Because rare seeders in maritime chaparral are more vulnerable to xylem cavitation than interior seeders, the potential breakdown of the summer marine layer along the coast is of potential conservation concern.

Effects of hydromulch on post-fire erosion and plant recovery in chaparral shrublands of southern California

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Ken R. Hubbert; Peter M. Wohlgemuth; Jan L. Beyers

2012-01-01

Following the Cedar Fire (one of seven large wildfires that burned in southern California during the autumn of 2003), aerial hydromulch was applied at 50 and 100% cover to reduce hillslope erosion in chaparral shrublands. Our objectives were to determine the effectiveness of hydromulch in preventing erosion, and to see if plant recovery was hindered by treatment. We...

Post-Fire soil water repellency, hydrologic response, and sediment yield compared between grass-converted and chaparral watersheds

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Ken R. Hubbert; Pete M. Wohlgemuth; Jan L. Beyers; Marcia G. Narog; Ross Gerrard

2012-01-01

In 2002, the Williams Fire burned >90 % of the San Dimas Experimental Forest, providing an opportunity to investigate differences in soil water repellency, peak discharge, and sediment yield between grass-converted and chaparral watersheds. Post-fire water repellency and moisture content were measured in the winter and summer for four years. Peak discharge was...

Smoke-induced seed germination in California chaparral

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Keeley, J.E.; Fotheringham, C.J.

1998-01-01

The California chaparral community has a rich flora of species with different mechanisms for cuing germination to postfire conditions. Heat shock triggers germination of certain species but has no stimulatory effect on a great many other postfire species that are chemically stimulated by combustion products. Previous reports have shown that charred wood will induce germination, and here we report that smoke also induces germination in these same species. Smoke is highly effective, often inducing 100% germination in deeply dormant seed populations with 0% control germination. Smoke induces germination both directly and indirectly by aqueous or gaseous transfer from soil to seeds. Neither nitrate nor ammonium ions were effective in stimulating germination of smoke-stimulated species, nor were most of the quantitatively important gases generated by biomass smoke. Nitrogen dioxide, however, was very effective at inducing germination in Caulanthus heterophyllus (Brassicaceae), Emmenanthe penduliflora (Hydrophyllaceae), Phacelia grandiflora (Hydrophyllaceae), and Silene multinervia (Caryophyllaceae). Three species, Dendromecon rigida (Papaveraceae), Dicentra chrysantha, and Trichostema lanatum (Lamiaceae), failed to germinate unless smoke treatment was coupled with prior treatment of 1 yr soil storage. Smoke-stimulated germination was found in 25 chaparral species, representing 11 families, none of which were families known for heat-shock-stimulated germination. Seeds of smoke-stimulated species have many analogous characteristics that separate them from most heat-shock-stimulated seeds, including: (1) outer seed coats that are highly textured, (2) a poorly developed outer cuticle, (3) absence of a dense palisade tissue in the seed coat, and (4) a subdermal membrane that is semipermeable, allowing water passage but blocking entry of large (molecular mass > 500) solutes. Tentative evidence suggests that permeability characteristics of this subdermal layer are altered by

Photosynthesis and water relations of mature and resprout chaparral vegetation

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Hastings, S.J.; Oechel, W.C.

1982-01-01

Photosynthesis, leaf conductance, and water potential were measured in the field over time, on mature (ca. 34 years) and resprouts of Arctostaphylos glandulosa Eastw., Quercus dumosa nutt., and Adenostoma fasciculatum H and A. The experimental site is within the US Forest Service's Laguna-Morena Demonstration area of the Cleveland National Forest in southern California. It is characterized as a mixed chaparral community located on an east-facing slope at ca. 1400-meter elevation. Plots of the mature vegetation were marked off (250 meters wide, 675 meters long) and the aboveground biomass removed by either handclearing or controlled burning. Measurements were typically made from sunrise to sunset. A null balance porometer, Sholander pressure bomb, and carbon-14 dioxide were utilized to measure leaf conductance, water potential, and carbon dioxide uptake, respectively

Chaparral Shrub Hydraulic Traits, Size, and Life History Types Relate to Species Mortality during California's Historic Drought of 2014.

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Martin D Venturas

Full Text Available Chaparral is the most abundant vegetation type in California and current climate change models predict more frequent and severe droughts that could impact plant community structure. Understanding the factors related to species-specific drought mortality is essential to predict such changes. We predicted that life history type, hydraulic traits, and plant size would be related to the ability of species to survive drought. We evaluated the impact of these factors in a mature chaparral stand during the drought of 2014, which has been reported as the most severe in California in the last 1,200 years. We measured tissue water potential, native xylem specific conductivity, leaf specific conductivity, percentage loss in conductivity, and chlorophyll fluorescence for 11 species in February 2014, which was exceptionally dry following protracted drought. Mortality among the 11 dominant species ranged from 0 to 93%. Total stand density was reduced 63.4% and relative dominance of species shifted after the drought. Mortality was negatively correlated with water potential, native xylem specific conductivity, and chlorophyll fluorescence, but not with percent loss in hydraulic conductivity and leaf specific conductivity. The model that best explained mortality included species and plant size as main factors and indicated that larger plants had greater survival for 2 of the species. In general, species with greater resistance to water-stress induced cavitation showed greater mortality levels. Despite adult resprouters typically being more vulnerable to cavitation, results suggest that their more extensive root systems enable them to better access soil moisture and avoid harmful levels of dehydration. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that short-term high intensity droughts have the strongest effect on mature plants of shallow-rooted dehydration tolerant species, whereas deep-rooted dehydration avoiding species fare better in the short

Fire spread in chaparral – a comparison of laboratory data and model predictions in burning live fuels

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David R. Weise; Eunmo Koo; Xiangyang Zhou; Shankar Mahalingam; Frédéric Morandini; Jacques-Henri Balbi

2016-01-01

Fire behaviour data from 240 laboratory fires in high-density live chaparral fuel beds were compared with model predictions. Logistic regression was used to develop a model to predict fire spread success in the fuel beds and linear regression was used to predict rate of spread. Predictions from the Rothermel equation and three proposed changes as well as two physically...

Phlebotomine Vector Ecology in the Domestic Transmission of American Cutaneous Leishmaniasis in Chaparral, Colombia

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Ferro, Cristina; Marín, Dairo; Góngora, Rafael; Carrasquilla, María C.; Trujillo, Jorge E.; Rueda, Norma K.; Marín, Jaime; Valderrama-Ardila, Carlos; Alexander, Neal; Pérez, Mauricio; Munstermann, Leonard E.; Ocampo, Clara B.

2011-01-01

Phlebotomine vector ecology was studied in the largest recorded outbreak of American cutaneous leishmaniasis in Colombia in 2004. In two rural townships that had experienced contrasting patterns of case incidence, this study evaluated phlebotomine species composition, seasonal abundance, nocturnal activity, blood source, prevalence of Leishmania infection, and species identification. CDC miniature light traps were used to trap the phlebotomines. Traps were set indoors, peridomestically, and in woodlands. Natural infection was determined in pools by polymerase chain reaction–Southern blot, and blood sources and species identification were determined by sequencing. Large differences were observed in population abundance between the two townships evaluated. Lutzomyia longiflocosa was the most abundant species (83.1%). Abundance was higher during months with lower precipitation. Nocturnal activity was associated with human domestic activity. Blood sources identified were mainly human (85%). A high prevalence of infection was found in L. longiflocosa indoors (2.7%) and the peridomestic setting (2.5%). L. longiflocosa was responsible for domestic transmission in Chaparral. PMID:22049038

Phlebotomine vector ecology in the domestic transmission of American cutaneous leishmaniasis in Chaparral, Colombia.

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Ferro, Cristina; Marín, Dairo; Góngora, Rafael; Carrasquilla, María C; Trujillo, Jorge E; Rueda, Norma K; Marín, Jaime; Valderrama-Ardila, Carlos; Alexander, Neal; Pérez, Mauricio; Munstermann, Leonard E; Ocampo, Clara B

2011-11-01

Phlebotomine vector ecology was studied in the largest recorded outbreak of American cutaneous leishmaniasis in Colombia in 2004. In two rural townships that had experienced contrasting patterns of case incidence, this study evaluated phlebotomine species composition, seasonal abundance, nocturnal activity, blood source, prevalence of Leishmania infection, and species identification. CDC miniature light traps were used to trap the phlebotomines. Traps were set indoors, peridomestically, and in woodlands. Natural infection was determined in pools by polymerase chain reaction-Southern blot, and blood sources and species identification were determined by sequencing. Large differences were observed in population abundance between the two townships evaluated. Lutzomyia longiflocosa was the most abundant species (83.1%). Abundance was higher during months with lower precipitation. Nocturnal activity was associated with human domestic activity. Blood sources identified were mainly human (85%). A high prevalence of infection was found in L. longiflocosa indoors (2.7%) and the peridomestic setting (2.5%). L. longiflocosa was responsible for domestic transmission in Chaparral.

Isolation of Microsatellite Markers in a Chaparral Species Endemic to Southern California, Ceanothus megacarpus (Rhamnaceae

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Caitlin D. A. Ishibashi

2013-05-01

Full Text Available Premise of the study: Microsatellite (simple sequence repeat [SSR] markers were developed for Ceanothus megacarpus, a chaparral species endemic to coastal southern California, to investigate potential processes (e.g., fragmentation, genetic drift, and interspecific hybridization responsible for the genetic structure within and among populations distributed throughout mainland and island populations. Methods and Results: Four SSR-enriched libraries were used to develop and optimize 10 primer sets of microsatellite loci containing either di-, tri-, or tetranucleotide repeats. Levels of variation at these loci were assessed for two populations of C. megacarpus. Observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.250 to 0.885, and number of alleles ranged between four and 21 per locus. Eight to nine loci also successfully amplified in three other species of Ceanothus. Conclusions: These markers should prove useful for evaluating the influence of recent and historical processes on genetic variation in C. megacarpus and related species.

Nuevos registros de flebotomíneos (Diptera: Psychodidae en el área de influencia del río Amoyá en Chaparral, Tolima

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María Angélica Contreras

2012-06-01

Full Text Available Introducción. En Colombia, la diversidad de flebotomíneos es alta, con 162 especies registradas que incluyen especies vectoras de Leishmania spp. Objetivo. Identificar las especies de flebotomíneos de importancia médica dentro del área de influencia del Proyecto Hidroeléctrico del río Amoyá, Colombia. Materiales y métodos. Los flebotomíneos fueron recolectados con trampas de luz de tipo CDC, Shannon y adhesivas, en 15 veredas del municipio de Chaparral, departamento de Tolima. Resultados. Un total de 1.077 especímenes adultos de flebotomíneos fueron recolectados e identificados como pertenecientes a 13 especies del género Lutzomyia França, 1924 y una especie del género Warileya Hertig, 1948. Entre las especies del género Lutzomyia recolectadas, Lu. longiflocosa (Morales, Osorno y Muñoz, 1970, Lu. columbiana (Ristorcelli y Van Ty, 1941 y Lu. nuneztovari (Ortiz, 1954 son importantes por sus historiales epidemiológicos. Se resalta por primera vez la presencia de Lu. suapiensis (Le Pont, Torrez-Espejo y Dujardin, 1997 en Colombia y de Warileya rotundipennis (Fairchild y Herting, 1951 en el departamento de Tolima. Conclusión. Este estudio contribuye al conocimiento de la distribución geográfica de la subfamilia Phlebotominae en Colombia y favorece localmente a la comprensión de la riqueza y taxonomía de estos insectos, para un mejor entendimiento de la transmisión de la leishmaniasis en el municipio de Chaparral.   doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.7705/biomedica.v32i2.438

Ecological strategies in california chaparral: Interacting effects of soils, climate, and fire on specific leaf area

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Anacker, Brian; Rajakaruna, Nishanta; Ackerly, David; Harrison, Susan; Keeley, Jon E.; Vasey, Michael

2011-01-01

Background: High values of specific leaf area (SLA) are generally associated with high maximal growth rates in resource-rich conditions, such as mesic climates and fertile soils. However, fire may complicate this relationship since its frequency varies with both climate and soil fertility, and fire frequency selects for regeneration strategies (resprouting versus seeding) that are not independent of resource-acquisition strategies. Shared ancestry is also expected to affect the distribution of resource-use and regeneration traits.Aims: We examined climate, soil, and fire as drivers of community-level variation in a key functional trait, SLA, in chaparral in California.Methods: We quantified the phylogenetic, functional, and environmental non-independence of key traits for 87 species in 115 plots.Results: Among species, SLA was higher in resprouters than seeders, although not after phylogeny correction. Among communities, mean SLA was lower in harsh interior climates, but in these climates it was higher on more fertile soils and on more recently burned sites; in mesic coastal climates, mean SLA was uniformly high despite variation in soil fertility and fire history.Conclusions: We conclude that because important correlations exist among both species traits and environmental filters, interpreting the functional and phylogenetic structure of communities may require an understanding of complex interactive effects.

Carnivore distributions across chaparral habitats exposed to wildfire and rural housing in southern California

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Schuette, P.A.; Diffendorfer, J.E.; Deutschman, D.H.; Tremor, S.; Spencer, W.

2014-01-01

Chaparral and coastal sage scrub habitats in southern California support biologically diverse plant and animal communities. However, native plant and animal species within these shrubland systems are increasingly exposed to human-caused wildfires and an expansion of the human–wildland interface. Few data exist to evaluate the effects of fire and anthropogenic pressures on plant and animal communities found in these environments. This is particularly true for carnivore communities. To address this knowledge gap, we collected detection–non-detection data with motion-sensor cameras and track plots to measure carnivore occupancy patterns following a large, human-caused wildfire (1134 km2) in eastern San Diego County, California, USA, in 2003. Our focal species set included coyote (Canis latrans), gray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus), bobcat (Lynx rufus) and striped skunk (Mephitis mephitis). We evaluated the influence on species occupancies of the burned environment (burn edge, burn interior and unburned areas), proximity of rural homes, distance to riparian area and elevation. Gray fox occupancies were the highest overall, followed by striped skunk, coyote and bobcat. The three species considered as habitat and foraging generalists (gray fox, coyote, striped skunk) were common in all conditions. Occupancy patterns were consistent through time for all species except coyote, whose occupancies increased through time. In addition, environmental and anthropogenic variables had weak effects on all four species, and these responses were species-specific. Our results helped to describe a carnivore community exposed to frequent fire and rural human residences, and provide baseline data to inform fire management policy and wildlife management strategies in similar fire-prone ecosystems.

Ensayo de fertilización del pasto puntero (Hyparrhenia rufa con un diseño de superficies de respuesta en la zona de Chaparral, Tolima

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Buritica Martínez Hernando

1991-12-01

Full Text Available Se realizó un esayo de fertilización con NPK empleando urea, superfosfato tripley cloruro de potasio como fuentes en pasto puntero (Hyparrhenia rufa en la vereda Espíritu Santo, municipio de Chaparral, Tolima en suelos francos arenosos de laderade baja a mediana fertilidad natural, altura de 1.000 m.s.n.m., temperatura diaria de 25 grados, precipitación promedia anual de 2.500 mms. y una estación seca bien definida entre los meses de junio a septiembre, utilizando el modelo de superficies de respuesta desarrollado por Box y Hunter, ex·puesto por Cochran y Cox y recomendado por Instituto Colombiano Agropecuario. Los modelos de regresión obtenidos, muestran incrementos crecientes en la producción de forraje verde y contenido proteínico para las aplicaciones crecientes de nitrógeno y fósforo, con máximos equivalentes a 41 toneladas/Ha y 3.5% con aplicaciones de 400 y 200 kgs/Ha de úrea y superfosfato triple. En las condiciones de ensayo, se demuestra la conveniencia de la aplicaciónde nitrógeno y fósforo en cantidades comprendidas entre 150 a 200 y 75 a too kilos de úrea y superfosfato triple por hectárea respectivamente.
A field experiment were conducted in order to know the response of "Puntero" grass (Hyparrhenia rufa to the application of diferent amount of Urea, concentrated superphosphate and muriate of potash, in a sand 108m soil of farm located in Chaparral (Tolima at 1000 above sea level, 250C annual mean temperature, and 2.500mm annual mean precipitation. Box and Hunter's surface response model was usedas advised by the Instituto Agropecuario Colombiano.The regresion analysis shows that increasing applications levels of Nitrogen (urea and Phosphorus (superphosphate increase the amount of green forage and protein conten; highest level of forage 41 ton and protein 3.5% content were obtained using 400 and 200 kg.ha-1 of urea and superphosphate. From this information, the author recomend the use of amounts between 150

Experimental study and large eddy simulation of effect of terrain slope on marginal burning in shrub fuel beds

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Xiangyang Zhou; Shankar Mahalingam; David Weise

2007-01-01

This paper presents a combined study of laboratory scale fire spread experiments and a three-dimensional large eddy simulation (LES) to analyze the effect of terrain slope on marginal burning behavior in live chaparral shrub fuel beds. Line fire was initiated in single species fuel beds of four common chaparral plants under various fuel bed configurations and ambient...

Experimental Modeling of the Effect of Terrain Slope on Marginal Burning

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X. Zhou; S. Mahalingam; D. Weise

2005-01-01

A series of laboratory fire spread experiments were completed to analyze the effect of terrain slope on marginal burning behavior of live chaparral shrub fuels that grow in the mountains of southern California. We attempted to burn single species fuel beds of four common chaparral plants under various fuel bed configurations and ambient conditions. Seventy-three (or 42...

Recent emissions research in southwestern shrub and grassland fuels

Science.gov (United States)

David R. Weise; Wayne Miller; David R. Cocker; Heejung Jung; Seyedehsan Hosseini; Marko Princevac; Robert J. Yokelson; Ian Burling; Sheryl Akagi; Shawn Urbanski; WeiMin Hao

2015-01-01

While it is currently challenging to use prescribed burning in chaparral and other southwestern shrub fuel types due to many constraints, any such activities require smoke management planning. Information on fuels and emissions from chaparral were limited and based on older sampling systems. The DoD SERDP program funded a project to measure fuels and smoke emissions in...

Remote sensing analysis of vegetation recovery following short-interval fires in Southern California shrublands.

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Meng, Ran; Dennison, Philip E; D'Antonio, Carla M; Moritz, Max A

2014-01-01

Increased fire frequency has been shown to promote alien plant invasions in the western United States, resulting in persistent vegetation type change. Short interval fires are widely considered to be detrimental to reestablishment of shrub species in southern California chaparral, facilitating the invasion of exotic annuals and producing "type conversion". However, supporting evidence for type conversion has largely been at local, site scales and over short post-fire time scales. Type conversion has not been shown to be persistent or widespread in chaparral, and past range improvement studies present evidence that chaparral type conversion may be difficult and a relatively rare phenomenon across the landscape. With the aid of remote sensing data covering coastal southern California and a historical wildfire dataset, the effects of short interval fires (<8 years) on chaparral recovery were evaluated by comparing areas that burned twice to adjacent areas burned only once. Twelve pairs of once- and twice-burned areas were compared using normalized burn ratio (NBR) distributions. Correlations between measures of recovery and explanatory factors (fire history, climate and elevation) were analyzed by linear regression. Reduced vegetation cover was found in some lower elevation areas that were burned twice in short interval fires, where non-sprouting species are more common. However, extensive type conversion of chaparral to grassland was not evident in this study. Most variables, with the exception of elevation, were moderately or poorly correlated with differences in vegetation recovery.

Remote Sensing Analysis of Vegetation Recovery following Short-Interval Fires in Southern California Shrublands

Science.gov (United States)

Meng, Ran; Dennison, Philip E.; D’Antonio, Carla M.; Moritz, Max A.

2014-01-01

Increased fire frequency has been shown to promote alien plant invasions in the western United States, resulting in persistent vegetation type change. Short interval fires are widely considered to be detrimental to reestablishment of shrub species in southern California chaparral, facilitating the invasion of exotic annuals and producing “type conversion”. However, supporting evidence for type conversion has largely been at local, site scales and over short post-fire time scales. Type conversion has not been shown to be persistent or widespread in chaparral, and past range improvement studies present evidence that chaparral type conversion may be difficult and a relatively rare phenomenon across the landscape. With the aid of remote sensing data covering coastal southern California and a historical wildfire dataset, the effects of short interval fires (fire history, climate and elevation) were analyzed by linear regression. Reduced vegetation cover was found in some lower elevation areas that were burned twice in short interval fires, where non-sprouting species are more common. However, extensive type conversion of chaparral to grassland was not evident in this study. Most variables, with the exception of elevation, were moderately or poorly correlated with differences in vegetation recovery. PMID:25337785

History of wildland fires on Vandenberg Air Force Base, California

Science.gov (United States)

Hickson, Diana E.

1988-01-01

The fire history of the past 50 years for Vandenberg AFB, California was determined using aerial photography, field investigation, and historical and current written records. This constitutes a record of the vegetation age classes for the entire base. The location, cause, and fuel type for sixty fires from this time period were determined. The fires were mapped and entered into a geographic infomation system (GIS) for Vandenberg. Fire history maps derived from this GIS were printed at 1:9600 scale and are on deposit at the Vandenberg Environmental Task Force Office. Although some ecologically significant plant communities on Vandenberg are adapted to fire, no natural fire frequency could be determined, since only one fire possibly caused by lightning occurred in the area now within the base since 1937. Observations made during this study suggest that burning may encourage the invasion of exotic species into chaparral, in particular Burton Mesa or sandhill chaparral, an unusual and geographically limited form of chaparral found on the base.

Chaparral Skill Retention

Science.gov (United States)

1979-03-01

0 M 0 u 0 .oc 9 00 43 v -’ CLv . u s0A).00 43x £ fLJ . CO 4 ,4 4c z 41 4344 z 4 r. ’- C4r.3o04(1)M Q3 an4 w.> U) .0 .0443 .. .0 . > , H. 41 a4 r_ 410 z...USASA, Arlington, ATT’N: IARD-T 1 USA Topographic Lab. Ft Belvoir. ATTN: ETL- TD --S I USA Fischs Ofc, Durham, ATTN: Life Sciences Dir 1 USA Topographic

Investigating the links between ozone and organic aerosol chemistry in a biomass burning plume from a prescribed fire in California chaparral

Science.gov (United States)

Alvarado, M. J.; Lonsdale, C. R.; Yokelson, R. J.; Akagi, S. K.; Coe, H.; Craven, J. S.; Fischer, E. V.; McMeeking, G. R.; Seinfeld, J. H.; Soni, T.; Taylor, J. W.; Weise, D. R.; Wold, C. E.

2015-06-01

Within minutes after emission, complex photochemistry in biomass burning smoke plumes can cause large changes in the concentrations of ozone (O3) and organic aerosol (OA). Being able to understand and simulate this rapid chemical evolution under a wide variety of conditions is a critical part of forecasting the impact of these fires on air quality, atmospheric composition, and climate. Here we use version 2.1 of the Aerosol Simulation Program (ASP) to simulate the evolution of O3 and secondary organic aerosol (SOA) within a young biomass burning smoke plume from the Williams prescribed fire in chaparral, which was sampled over California in November 2009. We demonstrate the use of a method for simultaneously accounting for the impact of the unidentified intermediate volatility, semi-volatile, and extremely low volatility organic compounds (here collectively called "SVOCs") on the formation of OA (using the Volatility Basis Set - VBS) and O3 (using the concept of mechanistic reactivity). We show that this method can successfully simulate the observations of O3, OA, NOx, ethylene (C2H4), and OH to within measurement uncertainty using reasonable assumptions about the average chemistry of the unidentified SVOCs. These assumptions were (1) a reaction rate constant with OH of ~ 10-11 cm3 s-1; (2) a significant fraction (up to ~ 50 %) of the RO2 + NO reaction resulted in fragmentation, rather than functionalization, of the parent SVOC; (3) ~ 1.1 molecules of O3 were formed for every molecule of SVOC that reacted; (4) ~ 60 % of the OH that reacted with the unidentified non-methane organic compounds (NMOC) was regenerated as HO2; and (5) that ~ 50 % of the NO that reacted with the SVOC peroxy radicals was lost, presumably to organic nitrate formation. Additional evidence for the fragmentation pathway is provided by the observed rate of formation of acetic acid (CH3COOH), which is consistent with our assumed fragmentation rate. However, the model overestimates peroxyacetyl

Reptile and amphibian responses to large-scale wildfires in southern California

Science.gov (United States)

Rochester, C.J.; Brehme, C.S.; Clark, D.R.; Stokes, D.C.; Hathaway, S.A.; Fisher, R.N.

2010-01-01

In 2003, southern California experienced several large fires that burned thousands of hectares of wildlife habitats and conserved lands. To investigate the effects of these fires on the reptile and amphibian communities, we compared the results from prefire herpetofauna and vegetation sampling to two years of postfire sampling across 38 burned and 17 unburned plots. The sampling plots were spread over four vegetation types and four open space areas within San Diego County. Our capture results indicated that burned chaparral and coastal sage scrub plots lost herpetofaunal species diversity after the fires and displayed a significant shift in overall community structure. Shrub and tree cover at the burned plots, averaged across the second and third postfire years, had decreased by 53 in chaparral and 75 in coastal sage scrub. Additionally, postfire herpetofauna community structure at burned plots was more similar to that found in unburned grasslands. In grassland and woodland/riparian vegetation plots, where shrub and tree cover was not significantly affected by fires, we found no differences in the herpetofaunal species diversity or community composition. At the individual species level, Sceloporus occidentalis was the most abundant reptile in these areas both before and after the fires. We saw increases in the net capture rates for several lizard species, including Aspidoscelis tigris, Phrynosoma coronatum, and Uta stansburiana in burned chaparral plots and Aspidoscelis hyperythra and U. stansburiana in burned coastal sage scrub plots. The toad, Bufo boreas, was detected at significantly fewer burned plots in chaparral after the fires. Additionally, we documented decreases in the number of plots occupied by lizards (Elgaria multicarinata), salamanders (Batrachoseps major), and snakes (Coluber constrictor, Lampropeltis getula, Pituophis catenifer, and Masticophis lateralis) in coastal sage scrub and chaparral after the fires. We discuss the individual species

Fire risk in California

Science.gov (United States)

Peterson, Seth Howard

Fire is an integral part of ecosystems in the western United States. Decades of fire suppression have led to (unnaturally) large accumulations of fuel in some forest communities, such as the lower elevation forests of the Sierra Nevada. Urban sprawl into fire prone chaparral vegetation in southern California has put human lives at risk and the decreased fire return intervals have put the vegetation community at risk of type conversion. This research examines the factors affecting fire risk in two of the dominant landscapes in the state of California, chaparral and inland coniferous forests. Live fuel moisture (LFM) is important for fire ignition, spread rate, and intensity in chaparral. LFM maps were generated for Los Angeles County by developing and then inverting robust cross-validated regression equations from time series field data and vegetation indices (VIs) and phenological metrics from MODIS data. Fire fuels, including understory fuels which are not visible to remote sensing instruments, were mapped in Yosemite National Park using the random forests decision tree algorithm and climatic, topographic, remotely sensed, and fire history variables. Combining the disparate data sources served to improve classification accuracies. The models were inverted to produce maps of fuel models and fuel amounts, and these showed that fire fuel amounts are highest in the low elevation forests that have been most affected by fire suppression impacting the natural fire regime. Wildland fires in chaparral commonly burn in late summer or fall when LFM is near its annual low, however, the Jesusita Fire burned in early May of 2009, when LFM was still relatively high. The HFire fire spread model was used to simulate the growth of the Jesusita Fire using LFM maps derived from imagery acquired at the time of the fire and imagery acquired in late August to determine how much different the fire would have been if it had occurred later in the year. Simulated fires were 1.5 times larger

Enlarged Liver

Science.gov (United States)

... of liver damage. Medicinal herbs. Certain herbs, including comfrey, ma huang and mistletoe, can increase your risk ... herbs to avoid include germander, chaparral, senna, mistletoe, comfrey, ma huang, valerian root, kava, celandine and green ...

Environmental Assessment: Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) 2005 Mission Realignments to Vandenberg AFB

Science.gov (United States)

2007-02-01

implied by altered connective tissue metabolism and altered pulmonary morphology in animals after long-term exposures and pulmonary function...addition to the wildlife found in chaparral, other species include mammals like Heerman’s kangaroo rat (Dipodomys heermanni), Broad-footed mole (Scapanus

Phellinus artemisiae sp. nov. (Basidiomycota, Hymenochaetaceae), from western USA

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Vlasák, Josef; Vlasák, J.

2017-01-01

Roč. 303, č. 1 (2017), s. 93-96 ISSN 1179-3155 Institutional support: RVO:60077344 Keywords : chaparral Fungi * Phellinus artemisiae sp. nov. * molecular taxonomy * Fungi Subject RIV: EF - Botanics OBOR OECD: Plant sciences, botany Impact factor: 1.240, year: 2016

Fire regimes and vegetation responses in two Mediterranean-climate regions

Science.gov (United States)

Montenegro, G.; Ginocchio, R.; Segura, A.; Keely, J.E.; Gomez, M.

2004-01-01

Wildfires resulting from thunderstorms are common in some Mediterranean-climate regions, such as southern California, and have played an important role in the ecology and evolution of the flora. Mediterranean-climate regions are major centers for human population and thus anthropogenic impacts on fire regimes may have important consequences on these plant formations. However, changes in fire regimes may have different impacts on Mediterranean type-ecosystems depending on the capability of plants to respond to such perturbations. Therefore, we compare here fire regimes and vegetation responses of two Mediterranean-climate regions which differ in wildfire regimes and history of human occupation, the central zone of Chile (matorral) and the southern area of California in United States (chaparral). In Chile almost all fires result from anthropogenic activities, whereas lightning fires resulting from thunderstorms are frequent in California. In both regions fires are more frequent in summer, due to high accumulation of dry plant biomass for ignition. Humans have markedly increased fires frequency both in the matorral and chaparral, but extent of burned areas has remained unaltered, probably due to better fire suppression actions and a decline in the built-up of dry plant fuel associated to increased landscape fragmentation with less flammable agricultural and urban developments. As expected, post-fire plant regeneration responses differs between the matorral and chaparral due to differences in the importance of wildfires as a natural evolutionary force in the system. Plants from the chaparral show a broader range of post-fire regeneration responses than the matorral, from basal resprouting, to lignotuber resprouting, and to fire-stimulated germination and flowering with fire-specific clues such as heat shock, chemicals from smoke or charred wood. Plants from the matorral have some resprouting capabilities after fire, but these probably evolved from other environmental

76 FR 52968 - National Register of Historic Places; Notification of Pending Nominations and Related Actions

Science.gov (United States)

2011-08-24

... Clarke County Cleridge, 1649 Old Charles Town Rd., Stephenson, 11000653 In the interest of preservation.../National Historic Landmarks Program. ARIZONA Maricopa County el chaparral, 4935 E. Lafayette Blvd., Phoenix, 11000631 COLORADO Park County Threemile Gulch, Address Restricted, Hartsel, 11000632 MAINE Knox County Land...

Ecology of insects in California chaparral

Science.gov (United States)

Don C. Force

1990-01-01

Studies stimulated by the International Biological Program showed total insect faunal biomass and diversity to be greatest in the spring of the year, which matches increased plant growth and flowering at this time. Ground-inhabiting beetle studies indicated the family Tenebrionidae to be overwhelmingly dominant in biomass, but the family Staphylinidae to be richest in...

Biomass burning fuel consumption rates: a field measurement database

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Van Leeuwen, TT

2014-01-01

Full Text Available residue (n = 4, FC = 6.5), chaparral (n = 2, FC = 32), tropical peatland (n = 4, FC = 314), boreal peatland (n = 2, FC = 42), and tundra (n = 1, FC = 40). Within biomes the regional variability in the number of measurements was sometimes large, with e...

Tracking MODIS NDVI time series to estimate fuel accumulation

Science.gov (United States)

Kellie A. Uyeda; Douglas A. Stow; Philip J. Riggan

2015-01-01

Patterns of post-fire recovery in southern California chaparral shrublands are important for understanding fuel available for future fires. Satellite remote sensing provides an opportunity to examine these patterns over large spatial extents and at high temporal resolution. The relatively limited temporal range of satellite remote sensing products has previously...

Deposition and processing of airborne nitrogen pollutants in mediterranean-type ecosystems of southern California

Science.gov (United States)

Philip J. Riggan; Robert N. Lockwood; Ernest N. Lopez

1985-01-01

Atmospheric nitrogen deposition, associated with chronic urban air pollution, has produced stream water nitrate concentrations as high as 7.0 mg of N L-l in chaparral watersheds in the San Gabriel Mountains of Los Angeles County, CA. Stream water [NO3-] and discharge were greatest at high flow and may...

Aerosol emissions from prescribed fires in the United States: A synthesis of laboratory and aircraft measurements

Science.gov (United States)

A. A. May; G. R. McMeeking; T. Lee; J. W. Taylor; J. S. Craven; I. Burling; A. P. Sullivan; S. Akagi; J. L. Collett; M. Flynn; H. Coe; S. P. Urbanski; J. H. Seinfeld; R. J. Yokelson; S. M. Kreidenweis

2014-01-01

Aerosol emissions from prescribed fires can affect air quality on regional scales. Accurate representation of these emissions in models requires information regarding the amount and composition of the emitted species. We measured a suite of submicron particulate matter species in young plumes emitted from prescribed fires (chaparral and montane ecosystems in California...

Laboratory characterization of PM emissions from combustion of wildland biomass fuels

Science.gov (United States)

Seyedehsan Hosseini; Shawn Urbanski; P. Dixit; Qi Li; Ian Burling; Robert Yokelson; Timothy E. Johnson; Manish Sharivastava; Heejung Jung; David R. Weise; Wayne Miller; David Cocker

2013-01-01

Particle emissions from open burning of southwestern (SW) and southeastern (SE) U.S. fuel types during 77 controlled laboratory burns are presented. The fuels include SW vegetation types: ceanothus, chamise/scrub oak, coastal sage scrub, California sagebrush, manzanita, maritime chaparral, masticated mesquite, oak savanna, and oak woodland, as well as SE vegetation...

Effects of Wildfire on Fluvial Sediment Regime through Perturbations in Dry-Ravel

Science.gov (United States)

Florsheim, J. L.; Chin, A.; Kinoshita, A. M.; Nourbakhshbeidokhti, S.; Storesund, R.; Keller, E. A.

2015-12-01

In steep chaparral ecosystems with Mediterranean climate, dry ravel is a natural process resulting from wildfire disturbance that supplies sediment to fluvial systems. When dense chaparral vegetation burns, sediment accumulated on steep hillslopes is released for dry-season transport (dry ravel) down steep hillslopes during or soon after the wildfire. Results of a field study in southern California's Transverse Ranges illustrate the effect of wildfire on fluvial sediment regime in an unregulated chaparral system. Big Sycamore Canyon in the steep Santa Monica Mountains burned during the May 2013 Springs Fire and experienced one small sediment-transporting stormflow during the following winter. We conducted pre- and post-storm field campaigns during the fall and winter following the fire to quantify the effect of wildfire on the fluvial sediment regime. We utilized a sediment mass balance approach in which: 1) sediment supply, consisting primarily of dry ravel-derived deposits composed of relatively fine grained-sediment, was measured in the upstream basin and in the hillslope-channel margin adjacent to the study reach; 2) changes in storage in the study reach were quantified by analyzing the difference between pre- and post-storm channel topography derived from Terrestrial LiDAR Scanning (TLS) and field surveys; and 3) transport from the study reach was estimated as the difference between supply and change in storage where uncertainty is estimated using calculated sediment transport as a comparison. Results demonstrate channel deposition caused by changes in the short-term post-wildfire sediment regime. The increased sediment supply and storage are associated with significant changes in morphology, channel bed-material characteristics, and ecology. These results suggest that dry-ravel processes are an important factor to consider in post-wildfire sediment management.

Thermal particle image velocity estimation of fire plume flow

Science.gov (United States)

Xiangyang Zhou; Lulu Sun; Shankar Mahalingam; David R. Weise

2003-01-01

For the purpose of studying wildfire spread in living vegetation such as chaparral in California, a thermal particle image velocity (TPIV) algorithm for nonintrusively measuring flame gas velocities through thermal infrared (IR) imagery was developed. By tracing thermal particles in successive digital IR images, the TPIV algorithm can estimate the velocity field in a...

First results from a large, multi-platform study of trace gas and particle emissions from biomass burning

Science.gov (United States)

I. R. Burling; R. J. Yokelson; S. K. Akagi; T. J. Johnson; D. W. Griffith; Shawn Urbanski; J. W. Taylor; J. S. Craven; G. R. McMeeking; J. M. Roberts; C. Warneke; P. R. Veres; J. A. de Gouw; J. B. Gilman; W. C. Kuster; WeiMin Hao; D. Weise; H. Coe; J. Seinfeld

2010-01-01

We report preliminary results from a large, multi-component study focused on North American biomass burning that measured both initial emissions and post-emission processing. Vegetation types burned were from the relatively less-studied temperate region of the US and included chaparral, oak savanna, and mixed conifer forest from the southwestern US, and pine understory...

Fostering personal relationships with the wild: Oral history's role in recreation management

Science.gov (United States)

Alison Steiner; Daniel R. Williams

2017-01-01

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks (SEKI) encompass much of central California's most stunning scenery. Dramatic peaks and passes, perennial snowfields, remote lake basins, alpine meadows, steep canyons, and shockingly big trees characterize the more than 800,000 acres of wild land that lie within the parks. Drought-resistant chaparral and blue oak woodlands...

Spatial variability in mycorrhizal hyphae and nutrient and water availability in a soil-weathered bedrock profile

Science.gov (United States)

L.M. Egerton-Warburton; R.C. Graham; K.R. Hubbert

2003-01-01

We documented the spatial distribution, abundance and molecular diversity of mycorrhizal hyphae and physical and chemical properties of soil-weathered bedrock in a chaparral community that experiences seasonal drought. Because plants in this community were known to rely on bedrock-stored water during the summer, the data were used to evaluate the potential role of...

The role of fire severity, distance from fire perimeter and vegetation on post-fire recovery of small-mammal communities in chaparal

Science.gov (United States)

Jay Diffendorfer; Genie M. Fleming; Scott Tremor; Wayne Spencer; Jan L. Beyers

2012-01-01

Chaparral shrublands in southern California, US, exhibit significant biodiversity but are prone to large, intense wildfires. Debate exists regarding fuel reduction to prevent such fires in wildland areas, but the effects of these fires on fauna are not well understood. We studied whether fire severity and distance from unburned fire perimeter influenced recovery of the...

Soil water repellency and infiltration in coarse-textured soils of burned and unburned sagebrush ecosystems

Science.gov (United States)

F. B. Pierson; P. R. Robichaud; C. A. Moffet; K. E. Spaeth; C. J. Williams; S. P. Hardegree; P. E. Clark

2008-01-01

Millions of dollars are spent each year in the United States to mitigate the effects of wildfires and reduce the risk of flash floods and debris flows. Research from forested, chaparral, and rangeland communities indicate that severe wildfires can cause significant increases in soil water repellency resulting in increased runoff and erosion. Few data are available to...

The hidden treasures of long-term paired watershed monitoring in the forests and grasslands of Arizona, USA

Science.gov (United States)

B. Poff; D. G. Neary; V. Henderson; A. Tecle

2012-01-01

Beginning in the 1950s, researchers of the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service established a series of paired watershed studies throughout north-central and eastern Arizona. A total of nine experimental watershed areas were established in the pinyon-juniper and chaparral woodlands, as well as the ponderosa pine and mixed conifer forests. While most...

Post-fire burn severity and vegetation response following eight large wildfires across the Western United States

Science.gov (United States)

Leigh B. Lentile; Penelope Morgan; Andrew T. Hudak; Michael J. Bobbitt; Sarah A. Lewis; Alistair M. S. Smith; Peter R. Robichaud

2007-01-01

Vegetation response and burn severity were examined following eight large wildfires that burned in 2003 and 2004: two wildfires in California chaparral, two each in dry and moist mixed-conifer forests in Montana, and two in boreal forests in interior Alaska. Our research objectives were: 1) to characterize one year post-fire vegetation recovery relative to initial fire...

Final report for SERDP project RC-1648: new tools for estimating and managing local/regional air quality impacts of prescribed burns. University of California - Riverside

Science.gov (United States)

W. Miller; D. Weise; S. Mahalingam; M. Princevac; R. Yokelson; W. Hao; D. Cocker; H. Jung; G. Tonnesen; S. Urbanski; I. Burling; S. Hosseini; S. Akagi

2013-01-01

Gaseous and particulate emissions were measured for a variety of chaparral and Madrean oak woodland fuel types in a series of laboratory and field experiments in California and Arizona. Emissions were measured using state of the art ground-based and aircraft-based sampling systems. Emission factors were determined for many new chemical species for the fuels....

Examination of Habitat Fragmentation and Effects on Species Persistence in the Vicinity of Naval Base Pt. Loma and Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, San Diego, CA and Development of a Multi-Species Planning Framework for Fragmented Landscapes

Science.gov (United States)

2011-02-01

Chaparral. Ecological Monographs 70:149-169. Pausas, J. G. 2004. Changes in fire and climate in the eastern Iberian Peninsula (Mediterranean basin...3.2.1  Current Climate and Future Climate Projections ...................................................... 19  3.2.2  Future Habitat Loss and...study area—1953, 1974, 1984, 1995, and 2005. .................. 37  Figure 21. Maxent projections for Neotoma macrotis and underlying climate variables

Challenge theme 1: Understanding and preserving ecological resources: Chapter 3 in United States-Mexican Borderlands: Facing tomorrow's challenges through USGS science

Science.gov (United States)

Moring, J. Bruce; Papoulias, Diana M.; van Riper, Charles

2013-01-01

The notable biodiversity within the United States–Mexican border region is driven by the wide variety of natural landscapes in the area and its biologically unique transition zone of habitats for xeric, temperate, and subtropical species. Six diverse ecoregions cover the length of the border (fig. 3–1): California Coastal Sage, Chaparral, and Oak Woodlands; Sonoran Desert; Madrean Archipelago; Chihuahuan Desert; Southern

The effects of fire on biogenic soil emissions of nitric oxide and nitrous oxide

Science.gov (United States)

Levine, Joel S.; Cofer, Wesley R., III; Sebacher, Daniel I.; Boston, Penelope J.; Winstead, Edward L.; Sebacher, Shirley

1988-01-01

Measurements of biogenic soil emissions of nitric oxide (NO) and nitrous oxide (N2O) before and after a controlled burn conducted in a chaparral ecosystem on June 22, 1987, showed significantly enhanced emissions of both gases after the burn. Mean NO emissions from heavily burned and wetted (to simulate rainfall) sites exceeded 40 ng N/sq m s, and increase of 2 to 3 compared to preburn wetted site measurements. N2O emissions from burned and wetted sites ranged from 9 to 22 ng N/sq m s. Preburn N2O emissions from these wetted sites were all below the detection level of the instrumentation, indicating a flux below 2 ng N/sq m s. The flux of NO exceeded the N2O flux from burned wetted sites by factors ranging from 2.7 to 3.4. These measurements, coupled with preburn and postburn measurements of ammonium and nitrate in the soil of this chaparral ecosystem and measurements of NO and N2O emissions obtained under controlled laboratory conditions, suggest that the postfire enhancement of NO and N2O emissions is due to production of these gases by nitrifying bacteria.

Fire Science Strategy: Resource Conservation and Climate Change

Science.gov (United States)

2014-09-01

are southern yellow pine ( Pinus spp.; this currently includes over 0.6 million acres of managed longleaf pine [P. palustris], Robert Larimore, pers...Prosopis spp.), pinyon ( Pinus spp.)-juniper (Juniperus spp.), and chaparral-type ecosystems, and 0.7 million acres of annual and perennial grasslands...that meet current and future military land-use and stewardship objectives. Under current conditions, the presence of insects, disease, and drought

History of the Chaparral/FAAR Air Defense System

Science.gov (United States)

1977-05-31

i s t ed of t h e AN/DAW-1 guidance s e c t i o n ; t h e M817 t a r g e t d e t e c t i o n device (DIDO f u z e ) ; t h e M250 b l a s t...19n, 21-22, 25, 25n, 27-28, 30-32, 51, 88-89, 107-109, 175 Warhead Blast Fragmentation (BF), 92, 118 M250 (XM-250), 116, 119 continuous rod, 12

Fire spread in chaparral -"go or no-go?"

Science.gov (United States)

D.R. Weise; Xiangyang Zhou; Lulu Sun; Shankar Mahalingam

2005-01-01

Current fire models are designed to model the spread of a linear fire front in dead, small-diameter fuels. Fires in predominantly living vegetation account for a large proportion of annual burned area nationally. Prescribed burning is used to manage living fuels; however, prescribed burning is currently conducted under conditions that result in marginal burning. We do...

Fire regimes and vegetation responses in two Mediterranean-climate regions Regímenes de incendios y respuestas de la vegetación en dos regiones de clima Mediterráneo

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

GLORIA MONTENEGRO

2004-09-01

Full Text Available Wildfires resulting from thunderstorms are common in some Mediterranean-climate regions, such as southern California, and have played an important role in the ecology and evolution of the flora. Mediterranean-climate regions are major centers for human population and thus anthropogenic impacts on fire regimes may have important consequences on these plant formations. However, changes in fire regimes may have different impacts on Mediterranean type-ecosystems depending on the capability of plants to respond to such perturbations. Therefore, we compare here fire regimes and vegetation responses of two Mediterranean-climate regions which differ in wildfire regimes and history of human occupation, the central zone of Chile (matorral and the southern area of California in United States (chaparral. In Chile almost all fires result from anthropogenic activities, whereas lightning fires resulting from thunderstorms are frequent in California. In both regions fires are more frequent in summer, due to high accumulation of dry plant biomass for ignition. Humans have markedly increased fires frequency both in the matorral and chaparral, but extent of burned areas has remained unaltered, probably due to better fire suppression actions and a decline in the built-up of dry plant fuel associated to increased landscape fragmentation with less flammable agricultural and urban developments. As expected, post-fire plant regeneration responses differs between the matorral and chaparral due to differences in the importance of wildfires as a natural evolutionary force in the system. Plants from the chaparral show a broader range of post-fire regeneration responses than the matorral, from basal resprouting, to lignotuber resprouting, and to fire-stimulated germination and flowering with fire-specific clues such as heat shock, chemicals from smoke or charred wood. Plants from the matorral have some resprouting capabilities after fire, but these probably evolved from

Vegetation history along the eastern, desert escarpment of the Sierra San Pedro Mártir, Baja California, Mexico

Science.gov (United States)

Holmgren, Camille A.; Betancourt, Julio L.; Rylander, Kate A.

2011-01-01

Plant macrofossils from 38 packrat middens spanning the last ~ 33,000 cal yr BP record vegetation between ~ 650 and 900 m elevation along the eastern escarpment of the Sierra San Pedro Mártir, northern Baja California. The middens span most of the Holocene, with a gap between ~ 4600 and 1800 cal yr BP, but coverage in the Pleistocene is uneven with a larger hiatus between 23,100 and 14,400 cal yr BP. The midden flora is relatively stable from the Pleistocene to Holocene. Exceptions include Pinus californiarum, Juniperus californica and other chaparral elements that were most abundant > 23,100 cal yr BP and declined after 14,400 cal yr BP. Despite being near the chaparral/woodland-desertscrub ecotone during glacial times, the midden assemblages reflect none of the climatic reversals evident in the glacial or marine record, and this is corroborated by a nearby semi-continuous pollen stratigraphy from lake sediments. Regular appearance of C4 grasses and summer-flowering annuals since 13,600 cal yr BP indicates occurrence of summer rainfall equivalent to modern (JAS average of ~ 80–90 mm). This casts doubt on the claim, based on temperature proxies from marine sediments in the Guaymas Basin, that monsoonal development in the northern Gulf and Arizona was delayed until after 6200 cal yr BP.

A fundamental look at fire spread in California chaparral

Science.gov (United States)

David R. Weise; Thomas Fletcher; Larry Baxter; Shankar Mahalingam; Xiangyang Zhou; Patrick Pagni; Rod Linn; Bret Butler

2004-01-01

The USDA Forest Service National Fire Plan funded a research program to study fire spread in live fuels of the southwestern United States. In the U.S. current operational fire spread models do not distinguish between live and dead fuels in a sophisticated manner because the study of live fuels has been limited. The program is experimentally examining fire spread at 3...

Carbon concentration in structures of Arctostaphylos pungens HBK: An alternative CO2 sink in forests

OpenAIRE

Pompa-García, M; Jurado, E

2015-01-01

Arctostaphylos pungens HBK is a dominant species with increasing abundance and distribution in chaparral ecosystems as a result of range management and, possibly, changes in climate. The value of this species for carbon (C) sequestration is unknown, and the standard 50% C out of total tree biomass is used as an approximate value. In this study, we aim to determine the C concentration of the primary components of A. pungens. The total C expressed as a percentage of biomass was determined with ...

Results of a Research Study to Identify Historical RDTE (Research, Development, Test and Evaluation) Obligations and Expenditures on Major Army Materiel and Non-Materiel Systems,

Science.gov (United States)

1983-10-01

CHAPARRAL ROLAND HAWK NIKE HERCULES PATRIOT HELLFIRE ELECTRONICS PEWS MILES IRETS ARTBASS TACFIRE i RADAR CHRONOGRAPH, M90 BCS GLLD FIREFINDER AN/TMQ...6ll02Hr 5200 RESEARCH IN SFT OF EOUIP FOR THE IND SOLDIER L1.. 61,102RH37n R E RCH IN SC:IEN PROBl.. 16 1) WITH ,IL APPL 11-161 ,6 02AH6000 RESEAF.,-., IN...MAXILLOFACIAL INJURY 62777 SYSTEMS HEALTH HAZARD PREVENT TECH 62781 ENERGY TECH APPL . FOR MILITARY FACIL 63102 MATERIALS + STRUCTURE ADVANCED DEV 63104

Contrasting effects of wildfire and clearfelling on the hydrology of a small catchment

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Scott, DF

1997-05-01

Full Text Available in total ¯ow recorded after ®res in the Wilson River catchment in Oregon (Anderson, 1976), the Burns Watershed in Washington (Helvey et al., 1976) and the Etajima Island catchments in the Hiroshima Prefecture of Japan (Kusaka et al., 1983). The second... repellency in the soil (DeBano and Krammes, 1966; Dyrness, 1976; John, 1978; Scott and Van Wyk, 1990). Fire-induced water repellency in soils has been observed mostly in chaparral areas in southern California (Krammes and DeBano, 1965; DeBano and Krammes...

Comparison of post-fire seedling establishment between scrub communities in mediterranean and non-mediterranean climate ecosystems

Science.gov (United States)

Carrington, M.E.; Keeley, J.E.

1999-01-01

I Both fire regimes and the conditions under which fires occur vary widely. Abiotic conditions (such as climate) in combination with fire season, frequency and intensity could influence vegetation responses to fire. A variety of adaptations facilitate post-fire recruitment in mediterranean climate ecosystems, but responses of other communities are less well known. We evaluated the importance of climate by comparing sites with mediterranean and subtropical climates. 2 We used paired burned and mature sites in chamise chaparral, mixed chaparral and coastal sage scrub (California), and rosemary scrub, sand pine scrub and sand-hill (Florida), to test whether (i) patterns of pre-fire and post-fire seedling recruitment are more similar between communities within a region than between regions, and (ii) post-fire stimulation of seedling establishment is greater in regions with marked fire-induced contrasts in abiotic site characteristics. 3 Post-fire seedling densities were more similar among sites within climatic regions than between regions. Both seedling densities and proportions of species represented by seedlings after fires were generally higher in California. 4 The only site characteristic showing a pre-fire-post-fire contrast was percentage open canopy, and the effect was greater in California than in Florida. Soil properties were unaffected by fire. 5 Mediterranean climate ecosystems in other regions have nutrient-poor soils similar to our subtropical Florida sites, but show post-fire seedling recruitment patterns more similar to the nutrient-rich sites in California. Climate therefore appears to play a more major role than soil characteristics.

Final Technical Report: Response of Mediterranean-Type Ecosystems to Elevated Atmospheric CO2 and Associated Climate Change

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Oechel, Walter C

2002-08-15

This research incorporated an integrated hierarchical approach in space, time, and levels of biological/ecological organization to help understand and predict ecosystem response to elevated CO{sub 2} and concomitant environmental change. The research utilized a number of different approaches, and collaboration of both PER and non-PER investigators to arrive at a comprehensive, integrative understanding. Central to the work were the CO{sub 2}-controlled, ambient Lit, Temperature controlled (CO{sub 2}LT) null-balance chambers originally developed in the arctic tundra, which were re-engineered for the chaparral with treatment CO{sub 2} concentrations of from 250 to 750 ppm CO{sub 2} in 100 ppm increments, replicated twice to allow for a regression analysis. Each chamber was 2 meters on a side and 2 meters tall, which were installed over an individual shrub reprouting after a fire. This manipulation allowed study of the response of native chaparral to varying levels of CO{sub 2}, while regenerating from an experimental burn. Results from these highly-controlled manipulations were compared against Free Air CO{sub 2} Enrichment (FACE) manipulations, in an area adjacent to the CO{sub 2}LT null balance greenhouses. These relatively short-term results (5-7 years) were compared to long-term results from Mediterranean-type ecosystems (MTEs) surrounding natural CO{sub 2} springs in northern Italy, near Laiatico, Italy. The springs lack the controlled experimental rigor of our CO{sub 2}LT and FACE manipulation, but provide invaluable validation of our long-term predictions.

Monitoring post-fire recovery of shrublands in Mediterranean-type ecosystems using MODIS and TM/ETM+ data

Science.gov (United States)

Hope, Allen; Albers, Noah; Bart, Ryan

2010-05-01

Wildland fires in Mediterranean-Type Ecosystems (MTEs) are episodic events that dramatically alter land-cover conditions. Monitoring post-fire vegetation recovery is important for land management applications such as the scheduling of prescribed burns, post-fire resource management and soil erosion control. Full recovery of MTE shrublands may take many years and have a prolonged effect on water, energy and carbon fluxes in these ecosystems. Comparative studies of fynbos ecosystems in the Cape Floristic Region of South Africa (Western Cape Region) and chaparral ecosystems of California have demonstrated that there is a considerable degree of convergence in some aspects of post-fire vegetation regeneration and marked differences in other aspects. Since these MTEs have contrasting rainfall and soil nutrient conditions, an obvious question arises as to the similarity or dissimilarity in remotely sensed post-fire recovery pathways of vegetation stands in these two regions and the extent to which fire severity and drought impact the rate of vegetation recovery. Post-fire recovery pathways of chaparral and fynbos vegetation stands were characterized using the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) based on TM/ETM+ and MODIS (250 m) data. Procedures based on stands of unburned vegetation (control) were implemented to normalize the NDVI for variations associated with inter-annual differences in rainfall. Only vegetation stands that had not burned for 20 years were examined in this study to eliminate potential effects of variable fire histories on the recovery pathways. Post-fire recovery patterns of vegetation in both regions and across different vegetation types were found to be very similar. Post-fire stand age was the primary control over vegetation recovery and the NDVI returned to pre-fire values within seven to 10 years of the fires. Droughts were shown to cause slight interruptions in recovery rates while fire severity had no discernable effect. Intra

Fire management of California shrubland landscapes

Science.gov (United States)

Keeley, Jon E.

2002-01-01

Fire management of California shrublands has been heavily influenced by policies designed for coniferous forests, however, fire suppression has not effectively excluded fire from chaparral and coastal sage scrub landscapes and catastrophic wildfires are not the result of unnatural fuel accumulation. There is no evidence that prescribed burning in these shrublands provides any resource benefit and in some areas may negatively impact shrublands by increasing fire frequency. Therefore, fire hazard reduction is the primary justification for prescription burning, but it is doubtful that rotational burning to create landscape age mosaics is a cost effective method of controlling catastrophic wildfires. There are problems with prescription burning in this crown-fire ecosystem that are not shared by forests with a natural surface-fire regime. Prescription weather conditions preclude burning at rotation intervals sufficient to effect the control of fires ignited under severe weather conditions. Fire management should focus on strategic placement of prescription burns to both insure the most efficient fire hazard reduction and to minimize the amount of landscape exposed to unnaturally high fire frequency. A major contributor to increased fire suppression costs and increased loss of property and lives is the continued urban sprawl into wildlands naturally subjected to high intensity crown fires. Differences in shrubland fire history suggest there may be a need for different fire management tactics between central coastal and southern California. Much less is known about shrubland fire history in the Sierra Nevada foothills and interior North Coast Ranges, and thus it would be prudent to not transfer these ideas too broadly across the range of chaparral until we have a clearer understanding of the extent of regional variation in shrubland fire regimes.

Wildfires alter rodent community structure across four vegetation types in southern California, USA

Science.gov (United States)

Brehme, Cheryl S.; Clark, Denise R.; Rochester, Carlton J.; Fisher, Robert N.

2011-01-01

We surveyed burned and unburned plots across four habitat reserves in San Diego County, California, USA, in 2005 and 2006, to assess the effects of the 2003 wildfires on the community structure and relative abundance of rodent species. The reserves each contained multiple vegetation types (coastal sage scrub, chaparral, woodland, and grassland) and spanned from 250 m to 1078 m in elevation. Multivariate analyses revealed a more simplified rodent community structure in all burned habitats in comparison to unburned habitats. Reduction in shrub and tree cover was highly predictive of changes in post-fire rodent community structure in the burned coastal sage scrub and chaparral habitats. Reduction in cover was not predictive for the less substantially burned woodlands and grasslands, for which we hypothesized that interspecific competition played a greater role in post-fire community structure. Across vegetation types, generalists and open habitat specialists typically increased in relative abundance, whereas closed habitat specialists decreased. We documented significant increases in relative abundance of the deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus Wagner) and Dulzura kangaroo rat (Dipodomys simulans Merriam). In contrast, we found significant decreases in relative abundance for the California mouse (Peromyscus californicus Gambel), San Diego pocket mouse (Chaetodipus fallax Merriam), desert woodrat (Neotoma lepida Thomas), and brush mouse (Peromyscus boylii Baird). Currently, our research program involves assessment of whether habitat conservation plans (HCPs) in southern California provide long-term protection to HCP covered species, as well as preserve ecosystem function. The scenario of increased wildfires needs to be incorporated into this assessment. We discuss our results in relation to management and conservation planning under a future scenario of larger and more frequent wildfires in southern California.

Emissions of trace gases and aerosols during the open combustion of biomass in the laboratory

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

McMeeking, Gavin R.; Kreidenweis, Sonia M.; Baker, Stephen; Carrico, Christian M.; Chow, Judith C.; Collett, Jr., Jeffrey L.; Hao, Wei Min; Holden, Amanda S.; Kirchstetter, Thomas W.; Malm, William C.; Moosmuller, Hans; Sullivan, Amy P.; Wold, Cyle E.

2009-05-15

We characterized the gas- and speciated aerosol-phase emissions from the open combustion of 33 different plant species during a series of 255 controlled laboratory burns during the Fire Laboratory at Missoula Experiments (FLAME). The plant species we tested were chosen to improve the existing database for U.S. domestic fuels: laboratory-based emission factors have not previously been reported for many commonly-burned species that are frequently consumed by fires near populated regions and protected scenic areas. The plants we tested included the chaparral species chamise, manzanita, and ceanothus, and species common to the southeastern US (common reed, hickory, kudzu, needlegrass rush, rhododendron, cord grass, sawgrass, titi, and wax myrtle). Fire-integrated emission factors for gas-phase CO{sub 2}, CO, CH{sub 4}, C{sub 2-4} hydrocarbons, NH{sub 3}, SO{sub 2}, NO, NO{sub 2}, HNO{sub 3} and particle-phase organic carbon (OC), elemental carbon (EC), SO{sub 4}{sup 2-}, NO{sub 3}{sup -}, Cl{sup -}, Na{sup +}, K{sup +}, and NH{sub 4}{sup +} generally varied with both fuel type and with the fire-integrated modified combustion efficiency (MCE), a measure of the relative importance of flaming- and smoldering-phase combustion to the total emissions during the burn. Chaparral fuels tended to emit less particulate OC per unit mass of dry fuel than did other fuel types, whereas southeastern species had some of the largest observed EF for total fine particulate matter. Our measurements often spanned a larger range of MCE than prior studies, and thus help to improve estimates for individual fuels of the variation of emissions with combustion conditions.

Comparative Ecophysiology and Evolutionary Biology of Island and Mainland Chaparral Communities

OpenAIRE

Ramirez, Aaron Robert

2015-01-01

The unique nature of island ecosystems have fascinated generations of naturalists, ecologists, and evolutionary biologists. Studying island systems led to the development of keystone biological theories including: Darwin and Wallace's theories of natural selection, Carlquist's insights into the biology of adaptive radiations, MacArthur and Wilson's theory of island biogeography, and many others. Utilizing islands as natural laboratories allows us to discover the underlying fabric of ecology a...

Plant Equipment Packages: Are they a Credible Deterrent to War

Science.gov (United States)

1990-12-01

PEP# TYPE CONTRACTOR/FACILITY NAME LOCATION 0112 WARHEAD CHAPARRAL M250 0112 WARHEAD HELFIRE MISSILE SYSTEM 0112 WARHEAD HE M225 LAP (DRAGON) 0112...0149 GRENADE SMK SCRN RP UKL8A3 F/ M250 LAUNCHER 0149 ROCKET 66MM INCEND TPA 4RD CLIP M74 0149 WARHEAD RKT 2.75IN SMK WP M156 W/FZ PD M427 0149 ROCKET...M25A2 (COMPLETE) 0149 GRENADE HAND/RIFLE SMK WP M34 W/F M206A2. 0149 GRENADE HAND RIOT CS ABC-M7A3 W/FZ M201AI 0149 GRENADE SMK SCRN RP UKL8A3 F/ M250

The response of southern California ecosystems to Younger Dryas-like rapid climate change: Comparison of glacial terminations 1 and 5.

Science.gov (United States)

Heusser, L. E.; Hendy, I. L.

2015-12-01

The Younger Dryas is a well-known rapid climatic cooling that interrupted the Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 1-2 deglacial warming of Termination 1. This cool event has been associated with ice sheet readvance, meridional overturning, circulation changes, and southward movement of the Intertropical Convergence Zone. In Southern California, the Younger Dryas has been associated with cooler SST, low marine productivity, a well-ventilated oxygen minimum zone, and a wetter climate. Similar rapid cooling events have been found at other terminations including Termination 5 at the MIS 11-12 deglaciation (~425 Ka) identified by ice rafting events in the North Atlantic. Here we present new pollen census data from a unique suite of cores taken from the sub-oxic sediments of Santa Barbara Basin (MV0508-15JC, MV0805-20JC, MV0508-33JC, 29JC and 21JC). These short cores, collected on a truncated anticline within SBB, provide the opportunity to examine the response of southern California terrestrial and marine ecosystems to rapid climate change during the MIS 11-12 deglaciation (Termination 5), which is identified by a bioturbated interval within a sequence of laminated sediments. During Termination 1, changes in Southern California precipitation are reflected in pollen- based reconstructions Southern California vegetation. The high precipitation of glacial montane-coniferous assemblages of pine (Pinus) and Juniper (Juniperus/Calocedrus) transitions into interglacial drought, as expresssed by arid oak (Quercus)/chaparral vegetation. The Younger Dryas interrupts the transition as a high-amplitude pulse in pine associated with increased Gramineae (grass). Termination 5 differs, as the high precipitation of glacial montane-coniferous assemblages do not transition into arid oak/chaparral vegetation. However, a Younger Dryas-like rapid climate event was associated with increased pine and grass.

La modificacion del biotopo perihabitacional en la profilaxis de la enfermedad de Chagas

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Miguel Eduardo Jörg

1989-06-01

Full Text Available La modification del biotopo perihabitacional consiste en crear alrededor de la vivienda humana, rural, selvática o suburbuna, un espado perimetral limpio, totalmente libre de malezas y chaparral, despojado de nidos, madrigueras o refúgios de animales silvestres y de habitáculos de animales domésticos; de suficiente magnitud para evitar que tras desinsectación, queden focos peridomiciliarios de proliferation de triatomineos, vectores del Trypanosoma cruzi, focos inmediatos y habituales de reinfestación domiciliaria por estos redúvidos hematófagos. Los trabajos de rociado entomicida y aún el mejoramiento de la vivienda se reducen extremadamente si no son complementadas con la modificación del biotopo perihabitacional. Se expone una experiencia piloto sobre un barrio de la ciudad Villa Carlos Paz, provinda Córdoba, Argentina, que en 2 anos de aplicación permitió verificar la desaparición de vinchucas en un area de baja desindad de vectores y hospedadores.In zones endemic for the American trypanosomiasis the modification of the biotopes surrounding human, rural, sylvatic or suburban housing, involves the arrangement of a clean perimetral area completely free of shrubs and chaparral, devoid of dens of wild animals and dwellings of domestic animals, to hinder the persistence of peridomestic foci where the proliferation of Triatomine bugs encourage the reinfestation of the human lodgings. The success of insecticide spraying campaigns, even with simultaneous amelioration of housing, are enhanced by tne modification of the biotopes. A pilot field experience is presented; a 2 year active campaign in a suburban area of Villa Carlos Paz, province Cordoba, Argentina, confirming the methods to eliminate reinfestation of houses from peridomestic sites, in an area of low vector density.

Comparison of white-tailed kite food web dynamics among various habitats in California using stable isotope analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Iko, W.M.; Kester, C.L.; Bern, C.R.; Stendell, R.C.; Rye, R.O.

2003-01-01

The White-tailed Kite (Elanus leucurus) was once a common raptor species in the southern United States. However, by the 1930s, the species was considered on the verge of extinction until the 1940s, when a trend towards recovery was apparent. These dramatic fluctuations may be related to changes in rodent prey base due to the conversion of native wetlands to agriculture. To investigate the effects of changes in habitat, land use practices, and prey base on kite populations, we collected tissue samples from kites, their prey, and vegetation at four different locations in California: Arcata, Coastal-Coniferous Forest; Davis, mixed Urban-Agricultural; Cosumnes, Mixed Wetland-Agriculture, and Santa Barbara, Coastal-Chaparral.

Root distribution and seasonal water status in weathered granitic bedrock under chaparral

Science.gov (United States)

P. D. Sternberg; M. A. Anderson; R. C. Graham; J. L. Beyers; K. R. Tice

1996-01-01

Soils in mountainous terrain are often thin and unable to store sufficient water to support existing vegetation through dry seasons. This observation has led to speculation about the role of bedrock in supporting plant growth in natural ecosystems, since weathered bedrocks often have appreciable porosity and, like soil, can store and transmit water. This study, within...

Remote Sensing of Chaparral Fire Potential: Case Study in Topanga Canyon, California.

Science.gov (United States)

Remote sensing techniques, especially the use of color infrared aerial photography, provide a useful tool for fire hazard analysis, including interpetive information about fuel volumes, physiognomic plant groupings, the relationships of buildings to both natural and planted vegetation, and fire vulnerability of roofing materials. In addition, the behavior of the September, 1970 Wright Fire in the Topanga study area suggested the validity of the fire potential analysis which had been made prior to that conflagration.

Modeling the eco-hydrologic response of a Mediterranean type ecosystem to the combined impacts of projected climate change and altered fire frequencies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tague, Christina; Seaby, Lauren Paige; Hope, Allen

2009-01-01

Global Climate Models (GCMs) project moderate warming along with increases in atmospheric CO2 for California Mediterranean type ecosystems (MTEs). In water-limited ecosystems, vegetation acts as an important control on streamflow and responds to soil moisture availability. Fires are also key...... disturbances in semiarid environments, and few studies have explored the potential interactions among changes in climate, vegetation dynamics, hydrology, elevated atmospheric CO2 concentrations and fire. We model ecosystem productivity, evapotranspiration, and summer streamflow under a range of temperature...... climate scenarios, biomass in chaparral-dominated systems is likely to increase, leading to reductions in summer streamflow. However, within the range of GCM predictions, there are some scenarios in which vegetation may decrease, leading to higher summer streamflows. Changes due to increases in fire...

Low-volume and slow-burning vegetation for planting on clearings in California chaparral

Science.gov (United States)

Eamor C. Nord; Lisle R. Green

1977-01-01

Vegetation that is low-growing and either low in volume, slow burning, or both, is needed for reduction of fire hazard on fuelbreaks and other brush cleared areas in California. Of over 50 shrub species and many grass species that were test planted, about 20 shrubs and an equal number of grasses were chosen for plot and field trials. Creeping sage, a few saltbushes,...

Evolution of Trace Gases and Particles Emitted by a Chaparral Fire in California

Science.gov (United States)

2012-02-07

measurements in BB plumes and concluded that O3 formation is ubiquitous in tropical BB plumes, but O3 formation or destruction can oc- cur in extratropical BB...the Aventech AIMMS20AQ air- borne probe for turbulence measurements during the Convective Storm Initiation Project, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 8, 5449–5463

Meteorological factors associated with abundance of airborne fungal spores over natural vegetation

Science.gov (United States)

Crandall, Sharifa G.; Gilbert, Gregory S.

2017-08-01

The abundance of airborne fungal spores in agricultural and urban settings increases with greater air temperature, relative humidity, or precipitation. The same meteorological factors that affect temporal patterns in spore abundance in managed environments also vary spatially across natural habitats in association with differences in vegetation structure. Here we investigated how temporal and spatial variation in aerial spore abundance is affected by abiotic (weather) and biotic (vegetation) factors as a foundation for predicting how fungi may respond to changes in weather and land-use patterns. We measured the phenology of airborne fungal spores across a mosaic of naturally occurring vegetation types at different time scales to describe (1) how spore abundance changes over time, (2) which local meteorological variables are good predictors for airborne spore density, and (3) whether spore abundance differs across vegetation types. Using an air volumetric vacuum sampler, we collected spore samples at 3-h intervals over a 120-h period in a mixed-evergreen forest and coastal prairie to measure diurnal, nocturnal, and total airborne spore abundance across vegetation types. Spore samples were also collected at weekly and monthly intervals in mixed-evergreen forest, redwood forest, and maritime chaparral vegetation types from 12 field sites across two years. We found greater airborne spore densities during the wetter winter months compared to the drier summer months. Mean total spore abundance in the mixed-evergreen forest was twice than in the coastal prairie, but there were no significant differences in total airborne spore abundance among mixed-evergreen forest, redwood forest, and maritime chaparral vegetation types. Weekly and monthly peaks in airborne spore abundance corresponded with rain events and peaks in soil moisture. Overall, temporal patterns in meteorological factors were much more important in determining airborne fungal spore abundance than the

Use of California biomass in the production of transportation-fuel oxygenates: Estimates for reduction in CO2 emissions and greenhouse gas potential on a life cycle basis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kadam, K. L.; Camobreco, V. J.; Glazebrook, B. E.

1999-01-01

A set of environmental flows associated with two disposal options for thee types of California biomass - forest biomass, rice straw, chaparral - over their life cycles were studied, the emphasis being on energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. The two options studied were: producing ethyl-tertiary-butyl ether (ETBE) from biomass and biomass burning, and producing methyl-tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE) from natural gas. Results showed a lower (by 40 to 50 per cent) greenhouse effect impact, lower net values for carbon dioxide and fossil fuel energy consumption, and higher net values for renewable energy consumption for the ETBE option. Based on these results, the deployment of the biomass-to-ethanol ETBE option is recommended as the one that contributes most to the reduction of GHG emissions. 12 refs., 2 tabs., 5 figs

Large, high-intensity fire events in Southern California shrublands: Debunking the fine-grain age patch model

Science.gov (United States)

Keeley, J.E.; Zedler, P.H.

2009-01-01

We evaluate the fine-grain age patch model of fire regimes in southern California shrublands. Proponents contend that the historical condition was characterized by frequent small to moderate size, slow-moving smoldering fires, and that this regime has been disrupted by fire suppression activities that have caused unnatural fuel accumulation and anomalously large and catastrophic wildfires. A review of more than 100 19th-century newspaper reports reveals that large, high-intensity wildfires predate modern fire suppression policy, and extensive newspaper coverage plus first-hand accounts support the conclusion that the 1889 Santiago Canyon Fire was the largest fire in California history. Proponents of the fine-grain age patch model contend that even the very earliest 20th-century fires were the result of fire suppression disrupting natural fuel structure. We tested that hypothesis and found that, within the fire perimeters of two of the largest early fire events in 1919 and 1932, prior fire suppression activities were insufficient to have altered the natural fuel structure. Over the last 130 years there has been no significant change in the incidence of large fires greater than 10000 ha, consistent with the conclusion that fire suppression activities are not the cause of these fire events. Eight megafires (???50 000 ha) are recorded for the region, and half have occurred in the last five years. These burned through a mosaic of age classes, which raises doubts that accumulation of old age classes explains these events. Extreme drought is a plausible explanation for this recent rash of such events, and it is hypothesized that these are due to droughts that led to increased dead fine fuels that promoted the incidence of firebrands and spot fires. A major shortcoming of the fine-grain age patch model is that it requires age-dependent flammability of shrubland fuels, but seral stage chaparral is dominated by short-lived species that create a dense surface layer of fine

The effectiveness of aerial hydromulch as an erosion control treatment in burned chaparral watersheds

Science.gov (United States)

Pete Wohlgemuth; Jan Beyers; Pete Robichaud

2011-01-01

High severity wildfire can make watersheds susceptible to accelerated erosion, which impedes resource recovery and threatens life, property, and infrastructure in downstream human communities. Land managers often use mitigation measures on the burned hillside slopes to reduce postfire sediment fluxes. Hydromulch, a slurry of paper or wood fiber that dries to a...

Accounting for disturbance history in models: using remote sensing to constrain carbon and nitrogen pool spin-up.

Science.gov (United States)

Hanan, Erin J; Tague, Christina; Choate, Janet; Liu, Mingliang; Kolden, Crystal; Adam, Jennifer

2018-03-24

central Idaho, and a chaparral-dominated watershed in southern California. In the pine-dominated watershed, model estimates of carbon, nitrogen, and water fluxes varied among methods, while the target-driven method increased correspondence between observed and modeled streamflow. In the chaparral watershed, where vegetation was more homogeneously aged, there were no major differences among methods. Thus, in heterogeneous, disturbance-prone watersheds, the target-driven approach shows potential for improving biogeochemical projections. © 2018 by the Ecological Society of America.

Size and shape stasis in late Pleistocene mammals and birds from Rancho La Brea during the Last Glacial-Interglacial cycle

Science.gov (United States)

Prothero, Donald R.; Syverson, Valerie J.; Raymond, Kristina R.; Madan, Meena; Molina, Sarah; Fragomeni, Ashley; DeSantis, Sylvana; Sutyagina, Anastasiya; Gage, Gina L.

2012-11-01

Conventional neo-Darwinian theory views organisms as infinitely sensitive and responsive to their environments, and considers them able to readily change size or shape when they adapt to selective pressures. Yet since 1863 it has been well known that Pleistocene animals and plants do not show much morphological change or speciation in response to the glacial-interglacial climate cycles. We tested this hypothesis with all of the common birds (condors, golden and bald eagles, turkeys, caracaras) and mammals (dire wolves, saber-toothed cats, giant lions, horses, camels, bison, and ground sloths) from Rancho La Brea tar pits in Los Angeles, California, which preserves large samples of many bones from many well-dated pits spanning the 35,000 years of the Last Glacial-Interglacial cycle. Pollen evidence showed the climate changed from chaparral/oaks 35,000 years ago to snowy piñon-juniper forests at the peak glacial 20,000 years ago, then back to the modern chaparral since the glacial-interglacial transition. Based on Bergmann's rule, we would expect peak glacial specimens to have larger body sizes, and based on Allen's rule, peak glacial samples should have shorter and more robust limbs. Yet statistical analysis (ANOVA for parametric samples; Kruskal-Wallis test for non-parametric samples) showed that none of the Pleistocene pit samples is statistically distinct from the rest, indicating complete stasis from 35 ka to 9 ka. The sole exception was the Pit 13 sample of dire wolves (16 ka), which was significantly smaller than the rest, but this did not occur in response to climate change. We also performed a time series analysis of the pit samples. None showed directional change; all were either static or showed a random walk. Thus, the data show that birds and mammals at Rancho La Brea show complete stasis and were unresponsive to the major climate change that occurred at 20 ka, consistent with other studies of Pleistocene animals and plants. Most explanations for such

Insects and related arthropods associated with greenleaf manzanita in montane chaparral communities of northeastern California

Science.gov (United States)

Michael A. Valenti; George T. Ferrell; Alan A. Berryman

1997-01-01

Specimens representing 19 orders and 169 arthropod families (mostly insects) were collected from greenleaf manzanita brushfields in northeastern California and identified to species whenever possible. More than500 taxa below the family level were inventoried, and each listing includes relative frequency of encounter, life stages collected, and dominant role in the...

La modificacion del biotopo perihabitacional en la profilaxis de la enfermedad de Chagas

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Miguel Eduardo Jörg

1989-06-01

Full Text Available La modification del biotopo perihabitacional consiste en crear alrededor de la vivienda humana, rural, selvática o suburbuna, un espado perimetral limpio, totalmente libre de malezas y chaparral, despojado de nidos, madrigueras o refúgios de animales silvestres y de habitáculos de animales domésticos; de suficiente magnitud para evitar que tras desinsectación, queden focos peridomiciliarios de proliferation de triatomineos, vectores del Trypanosoma cruzi, focos inmediatos y habituales de reinfestación domiciliaria por estos redúvidos hematófagos. Los trabajos de rociado entomicida y aún el mejoramiento de la vivienda se reducen extremadamente si no son complementadas con la modificación del biotopo perihabitacional. Se expone una experiencia piloto sobre un barrio de la ciudad Villa Carlos Paz, provinda Córdoba, Argentina, que en 2 anos de aplicación permitió verificar la desaparición de vinchucas en un area de baja desindad de vectores y hospedadores.

Joint inversion of time-lapse VSP data for monitoring CO2 injection at the Farnsworth EOR field in Texas

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, M.; Gao, K.; Balch, R. S.; Huang, L.

2016-12-01

During the Development Phase (Phase III) of the U.S. Southwest Regional Partnership on Carbon Sequestration (SWP), time-lapse 3D vertical seismic profiling (VSP) data were acquired to monitor CO2 injection/migration at the Farnsworth Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) field, in partnership with the industrial partner Chaparral Energy. The project is to inject a million tons of carbon dioxide into the target formation, the deep oil-bearing Morrow Formation in the Farnsworth Unit EOR field. Quantitative time-lapse seismic monitoring has the potential to track CO2 movement in geologic carbon storage sites. Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) has recently developed new full-waveform inversion methods to jointly invert time-lapse seismic data for changes in elastic and anisotropic parameters in target monitoring regions such as a CO2 reservoir. We apply our new joint inversion methods to time-lapse VSP data acquired at the Farnsworth EOR filed, and present some preliminary results showing geophysical properties changes in the reservoir.

A probabilistic view of chaparral and forest fire regimes in southern California and northern Baja California

Science.gov (United States)

Richard A. Minnich; Ernesto. Franco-Vizcaíno

2009-01-01

Fire suppression in industrialized countries encourages massive smoke emissions from high-intensity fires as a result of two inextricably related processes under current suppression policies: the nonrandom occurrence of vegetation fires in extreme weather states and the anomalous accumulation of spatially homogenous fuels. We propose as an organizing idea that the...

Nutrient fluxes from coastal California catchments with suburban development

Science.gov (United States)

Melack, J. M.; Leydecker, A.; Beighley, E.; Robinson, T.; Coombs, S.

2005-12-01

Numerous streams originate in the mountains fringing California's coast and transport nutrients into coastal waters. In central California, these streams traverse catchments with land covers including chaparral, grazed grasslands, orchards, industrial agriculture and suburban and urban development. Fluvial nutrient concentrations and fluxes vary as a function of these land covers and as a function of considerable fluctuations in rainfall. As part of a long-term investigation of mobilization and fluvial transport of nutrients in catchments bordering the Santa Barbara Channel we have intensively sampled nutrient concentrations and measured discharge during storm and base flows in multiple catchments and subcatchments. Volume-weighted mean concentrations of nitrate generally ranged from 5 to 25 micromolar in undeveloped areas, increased to about 100 micromolar for suburban and most agricultural catchments, and were in excess of 1000 micromolar in catchments with greenhouse-based agriculture. Phosphate concentrations ranged from 2 to 20 micromolar among the catchments. These data are used to examine the premise that the suburbanized portion of the catchments is the primary source of nutrients to the streams.

Population-level history of the wrentit (Chamaea fasciata): implications for comparative phylogeography in the California Floristic Province.

Science.gov (United States)

Burns, Kevin J; Barhoum, Dino N

2006-01-01

The phylogeography of a variety of species has been studied within the California Floristic Province; however, few studies have examined genetic variation in bird species across the entire region. This study uses mitochondrial DNA data to investigate the phylogeography of the wrentit (Chamaea fasciata), a sedentary bird native to scrub and chaparral habitats of this region. Analysis of molecular variance shows geographic structure, and maximum likelihood, Bayesian, and parsimony analyses consistently identify six main clades that are each restricted geographically. Nested clade phylogeographic analyses infer an overall range expansion for the entire cladogram, and a range expansion is also inferred from the mismatch distribution. Thus, our results suggest that the wrentit was isolated into southern refugia during the Pleistocene and has undergone a recent range expansion. Southern refugia and a range expansion were also identified in a previous study of the California thrasher (Toxostoma redivivum). The wrentit did not show marked divergence between northern and southern California defined by the Transverse Ranges, a pattern seen in a variety of other taxa within this region, including some birds.

A laboratory-scale comparison of rate of spread model predictions using chaparral fuel beds – preliminary results

Science.gov (United States)

D.R. Weise; E. Koo; X. Zhou; S. Mahalingam

2011-01-01

Observed fire spread rates from 240 laboratory fires in horizontally-oriented single-species live fuel beds were compared to predictions from various implementations and modifications of the Rothermel rate of spread model and a physical fire spread model developed by Pagni and Koo. Packing ratio of the laboratory fuel beds was generally greater than that observed in...

Comparisons of genetic diversity in captive versus wild populations of the federally endangered Quino checkerspot butterfly (Euphydryas editha quino Behr; Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae)

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, Mark P.; Pratt, Gordon F.; Mullins, Thomas D.; Haig, Susan M.

2014-01-01

Captive populations can play a significant role in threatened and endangered species management. An important consideration when developing and managing captive populations, however, is the maintenance of genetic diversity to ensure that adequate variation exists to avoid the negative consequences of inbreeding. In this investigation, we compared genetic diversity patterns within captive and wild populations of the federally endangered Quino checkerspot butterfly (Euphydryas editha quino Behr [Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae]), a taxon with a restricted distribution to chaparral and sage shrublands within Riverside and San Diego counties, California. Our analyses revealed that medium to high-frequency alleles from the wild populations were also present in the captive populations. While there was no significant difference in genetic diversity as quantified by expected heterozygosity, the captive populations showed tendencies toward significantly lower allelic richness than their wild counterparts. Given that alleles from the wild populations were occasionally not detected in captive populations, periodic incorporation of new wild specimens into the captive population would help ensure that allelic diversity is maintained to the extent possible. If performed in advance, genetic surveys of wild populations may provide the clearest insights regarding the number of individuals needed in captivity to adequately reflect wild populations.

Investigating the links between ozone and organic aerosol chemistry in a biomass burning plume from a California chaparral fire

Science.gov (United States)

M. J. Alvarado; C. R. Lonsdale; R. J. Yokelson; S. K. Akagi; I. R. Burling; H. Coe; J. S. Craven; E. Fischer; G. R. McMeeking; J. H. Seinfeld; T. Soni; J. W. Taylor; D. R. Weise; C. E. Wold

2014-01-01

Within minutes after emission, rapid, complex photochemistry within a biomass burning smoke plume can cause large changes in the concentrations of ozone (O3) and organic aerosol (OA). Being able to understand and simulate this rapid chemical evolution under 5 a wide variety of conditions is a critical part of forecasting the impact of these fires...

Facilitated establishment of Quercus ilex in shrub-dominated communities within a Mediterranean ecosystem: do mycorrhizal partners matter?

Science.gov (United States)

Richard, Franck; Selosse, Marc-André; Gardes, Monique

2009-04-01

Positive plant-plant interaction is a widespread phenomenon, especially in harsh environments, which can contribute to secondary successions. Here, we investigated whether Arbutus unedo positively influences Quercus ilex establishment in shrub communities by abiotic and/or biotic interactions in a Mediterranean forest ecosystem, where we previously showed that A. unedo and Q. ilex share numerous species of mycorrhizal fungi. In a first field experiment, patterns of Q. ilex survivorship were documented. During the summer following germination, a majority of seedlings survived in A. unedo chaparral (AU), whereas most of them died in previous succession stages dominated by Erica arborea (EA). These results showed that survival of the Q. ilex seedling is succession stage dependent, probably due to the differential effects of the summer drought. In a second experiment, Q. ilex seedlings were used as bait plants to investigate the mycorrhizal inoculum in EA and AU. Morphotyping and molecular typing revealed 2.5 times higher colonization in AU than in EA, with more diverse fungi. Our results demonstrate that A. unedo facilitates mycorrhization of Q. ilex by hosting compatible ectomycorrhizal symbionts and positively influences seedling survival by buffering abiotic conditions. A comprehensive understanding of facilitation should thus include investigations of the soil biological patterns.

Klamath Mountains Ecoregion: Chapter 13 in Status and trends of land change in the Western United States--1973 to 2000

Science.gov (United States)

Sleeter, Benjamin M.; Calzia, James P.

2012-01-01

The Klamath Mountains Ecoregion covers approximately 47,791 km2 (18,452 mi2) of the Klamath and Siskiyou Mountains of northern California and southern Oregon (fig. 1) (Omernik, 1987; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1997). The ecoregion is flanked by the Coast Range Ecoregion to the west, the Southern and Central California Chaparral and Oak Woodlands Ecoregion to the south, the Cascades and the Eastern Cascades Slopes and Foothills Ecoregions to the east, and the Willamette Valley Ecoregion to the north. The mild Mediterranean climate of the ecoregion is characterized by hot, dry summers and wet winters; the amount of winter moisture varies within the ecoregion, decreasing from west to east. The Klamath–Siskiyou Mountains region is widely recognized as an important biodiversity hotspot (Whittaker, 1960; Kruckeberg, 1984; Wagner, 1997; DellaSala and others, 1999), containing more than 3,500 plant species, more than 200 of which are endemic (Sawyer, 2007). A biological assessment by DellaSala and others (1999) ranked the Klamath–Siskiyou Mountains region as the fifth richest coniferous forest in terms of species diversity. In addition, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature considers the region an area of notable botanical importance (Wagner, 1997). Twenty-nine different species of conifers can be found in the Klamath Mountains Ecoregion (Sawyer, 1996).

Trans Atlantic Infrasound Payload (TAIP) Operation Plan.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bowman, Daniel [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Lees, Jonathan M. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

2018-01-01

The Carolina Infrasound package, added as a piggyback to the 2016 ULDB ight, recorded unique acoustic signals such as the ocean microbarom and a large meteor. These data both yielded unique insights into the acoustic energy transfer from the lower to the upper atmosphere as well as highlighted the vast array of signals whose origins remain unknown. Now, the opportunity to y a payload across the north Atlantic offers an opportunity to sample one of the most active ocean microbarom sources on Earth. Improvements in payload capabilities should result in characterization of the higher frequency range of the stratospheric infrasound spectrum as well. Finally, numerous large mining and munitions disposal explosions in the region may provide \\ground truth" events for assessing the detection capability of infrasound microphones in the stratosphere. The flight will include three different types of infrasound sensors. One type is a pair of polarity reversed InfraBSU microphones (standard for high altitude flights since 2016), another is a highly sensitive Chaparral 60 modified for a very low corner period, and the final sensor is a lightweight, low power Gem infrasound package. By evaluating these configurations against each other on the same flight, we will be able to optimize future campaigns with different sensitivity and mass constraints.

Occurrence of Entomopathogenic Fungi from Agricultural and Natural Ecosystems in Saltillo, México, and their Virulence Towards Thrips and Whiteflies

Science.gov (United States)

Sánchez-Peña, Sergio R.; Lara, Jorge San-Juan; Medina, Raúl F.

2011-01-01

Entomopathogenic fungi were collected from soil in four adjacent habitats (oak forest, agricultural soil, pine reforestation and chaparral habitat) in Saltillo, México using the insect bait method with Tenebrio molitor (L.) (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) larvae as bait. Overall, of the larvae exposed to soil, 171 (20%) hosted Beauveria bassiana (Balsamo) Vuillemin (Hypocreales: Cordycipitaceae), 25 (3%) hosted Metarhizium anisopliae (Metschnikoff) Sorokin (Hypocreales: Clavicipitaceae) and 1 (0.1%) hosted lsaria (=Paecilomyces) sp. (Hypocreales: Cordycipitaceae). B. bassiana was significantly more frequent on larvae exposed to oak forest soil. M. anisopliae was significantly more frequent on larvae exposed to agricultural soil. From the infected bait insects, 93 isolates of B. bassiana and 24 isolates of M. anisopliae were obtained. Strains were tested for their infectivity against Cuban laurel thrips, Gynaikothrips uzeli Zimmerman (Thysanoptera: Phlaeothripidae) and the greenhouse whitefly, Trialeurodes vaporariorum (Westwood) (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae). B. bassiana isolates caused the highest mortality on thrips (some causing 88% mortality after 6 days); both fungal species caused similarly high mortality levels against whiteflies (75%) after 6 days. Large amounts of germplasm of entomopathogenic fungi, fundamentally B. bassiana and M. anisopliae, exist in the habitats sampled; pathogenicity varied among strains, and some strains possessed significant virulence. Soils in these habitats are reservoirs of diverse strains with potential for use in biocontrol. PMID:21521145

Heavy browsing affects the hydraulic capacity of Ceanothus rigidus (Rhamnaceae).

Science.gov (United States)

Pittermann, Jarmila; Lance, Jonathan; Poster, Lauren; Baer, Alex; Fox, Laurel R

2014-07-01

Defoliation by herbivores can reduce carbon assimilation, change plant water relations, and even shift the biotic structure of plant communities. In this study, we took advantage of a long-term deer exclosure experiment to examine the consequences of persistent deer herbivory on plant water relations and the xylem structure-function relationships in Ceanothus rigidus, a maritime chaparral shrub in coastal California. Browsed plants had thicker stems with many intertwined short distal twigs, and significantly higher sapwood-to-leaf area ratios than their non-browsed counterparts. Leaf area-specific hydraulic conductivity was similar in both browsed and non-browsed plants, but xylem area-specific conductivity was significantly lower in the browsed plants. Vessel diameters were equivalent in both plant groups, but the number of vessels on a transverse area basis was nearly 40% lower in the browsed plants, accounting for their lower transport efficiency. Mid-day in situ water potentials and losses of hydraulic conductivity due to embolism were similar in both groups of plants but stomatal conductance was higher in the browsed shrubs in the early part of the growing season. We discuss our findings in the context of whole-plant ecophysiology, and explore the consequences of herbivory on hormonal signals, wood anatomy, and xylem function.

FLUXNET: A Global Network of Eddy-Covariance Flux Towers

Science.gov (United States)

Cook, R. B.; Holladay, S. K.; Margle, S. M.; Olsen, L. M.; Gu, L.; Heinsch, F.; Baldocchi, D.

2003-12-01

The FLUXNET global network was established to aid in understanding the mechanisms controlling the exchanges of carbon dioxide, water vapor, and energy across a variety of terrestrial ecosystems. Flux tower data are also being used to validate ecosystem model outputs and to provide information for validating remote sensing based products, including surface temperature, reflectance, albedo, vegetation indices, leaf area index, photosynthetically active radiation, and photosynthesis derived from MODIS sensors on the Terra and Aqua satellites. The global FLUXNET database provides consistent and complete flux data to support global carbon cycle science. Currently FLUXNET consists of over 210 sites, with most flux towers operating continuously for 4 years or longer. Gap-filled data are available for 53 sites. The FLUXNET database contains carbon, water vapor, sensible heat, momentum, and radiation flux measurements with associated ancillary and value-added data products. Towers are located in temperate conifer and broadleaf forests, tropical and boreal forests, crops, grasslands, chaparral, wetlands, and tundra on five continents. Selected MODIS Land products in the immediate vicinity of the flux tower are subsetted and posted on the FLUXNET Web site for 169 flux-towers. The MODIS subsets are prepared in ASCII format for 8-day periods for an area 7 x 7 km around the tower.

Aerosol optical properties and trace gas emissions by PAX and OP-FTIR for laboratory-simulated western US wildfires during FIREX

Science.gov (United States)

Selimovic, Vanessa; Yokelson, Robert J.; Warneke, Carsten; Roberts, James M.; de Gouw, Joost; Reardon, James; Griffith, David W. T.

2018-03-01

Western wildfires have a major impact on air quality in the US. In the fall of 2016, 107 test fires were burned in the large-scale combustion facility at the US Forest Service Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory as part of the Fire Influence on Regional and Global Environments Experiment (FIREX). Canopy, litter, duff, dead wood, and other fuel components were burned in combinations that represented realistic fuel complexes for several important western US coniferous and chaparral ecosystems including ponderosa pine, Douglas fir, Engelmann spruce, lodgepole pine, subalpine fir, chamise, and manzanita. In addition, dung, Indonesian peat, and individual coniferous ecosystem fuel components were burned alone to investigate the effects of individual components (e.g., duff) and fuel chemistry on emissions. The smoke emissions were characterized by a large suite of state-of-the-art instruments. In this study we report emission factor (EF, grams of compound emitted per kilogram of fuel burned) measurements in fresh smoke of a diverse suite of critically important trace gases measured using open-path Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (OP-FTIR). We also report aerosol optical properties (absorption EF; single-scattering albedo, SSA; and Ångström absorption exponent, AAE) as well as black carbon (BC) EF measured by photoacoustic extinctiometers (PAXs) at 870 and 401 nm. The average trace gas emissions were similar across the coniferous ecosystems tested and most of the variability observed in emissions could be attributed to differences in the consumption of components such as duff and litter, rather than the dominant tree species. Chaparral fuels produced lower EFs than mixed coniferous fuels for most trace gases except for NOx and acetylene. A careful comparison with available field measurements of wildfires confirms that several methods can be used to extract data representative of real wildfires from the FIREX laboratory fire data. This is especially valuable for

Vegetation studies on Vandenberg Air Force Base, California

Science.gov (United States)

Schmalzer, Paul A.; Hickson, Diana E.; Hinkle, C. Ross

1988-01-01

Vandenburg Air Force Base, located in coastal central California with an area of 98,400 ac, contains resources of considerable biological significance. Available information on the vegetation and flora of Vandenburg is summarized and new data collected in this project are presented. A bibliography of 621 references dealing with vegetation and related topics related to Vanderburg was compiled from computer and manual literature searches and a review of past studies of the base. A preliminary floristic list of 642 taxa representing 311 genera and 80 families was compiled from past studies and plants identified in the vegetation sampling conducted in this project. Fifty-two special interest plant species are known to occur or were suggested to occur. Vegetation was sampled using permanent plots and transects in all major plant communities including chaparral, Bishop pine forest, tanbark oak forest, annual grassland, oak woodland, coastal sage scrub, purple sage scrub, coastal dune scrub, coastal dunes, box elder riparian woodland, will riparian woodland, freshwater marsh, salt marsh, and seasonal wetlands. Comparison of the new vegetation data to the compostie San Diego State University data does not indicate major changes in most communities since the original study. Recommendations are made for additional studies needed to maintain and extend the environmental data base and for management actions to improve resource protection.

Biomass resources in California

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tiangco, V.M.; Sethi, P.S. [California Energy Commission, Sacramento, CA (United States)

1993-12-31

The biomass resources in California which have potential for energy conversion were assessed and characterized through the project funded by the California Energy Commission and the US Department of Energy`s Western Regional Biomass Energy Program (WRBEP). The results indicate that there is an abundance of biomass resources as yet untouched by the industry due to technical, economic, and environmental problems, and other barriers. These biomass resources include residues from field and seed crops, fruit and nut crops, vegetable crops, and nursery crops; food processing wastes; forest slash; energy crops; lumber mill waste; urban wood waste; urban yard waste; livestock manure; and chaparral. The estimated total potential of these biomass resource is approximately 47 million bone dry tons (BDT), which is equivalent to 780 billion MJ (740 trillion Btu). About 7 million BDT (132 billion MJ or 124 trillion Btu) of biomass residue was used for generating electricity by 66 direct combustion facilities with gross capacity of about 800 MW. This tonnage accounts for only about 15% of the total biomass resource potential identified in this study. The barriers interfering with the biomass utilization both in the on-site harvesting, collection, storage, handling, transportation, and conversion to energy are identified. The question whether these barriers present significant impact to biomass {open_quotes}availability{close_quotes} and {open_quotes}sustainability{close_quotes} remains to be answered.

Environmental factors associated with American cutaneous leishmaniasis in a new Andean focus in Colombia.

Science.gov (United States)

Ocampo, C B; Ferro, M C; Cadena, H; Gongora, R; Pérez, M; Valderrama-Ardila, C H; Quinnell, R J; Alexander, N

2012-10-01

To evaluate the environmental and ecological factors associated with Leishmania transmission and vector abundance in Chaparral, Tolima-Colombia. First, we compared the ecological characteristics, abundance of phlebotomies and potential reservoir hosts in the peridomestic environment (100 m radius) of randomly selected houses, between two townships with high and low cutaneous leishmaniasis incidence. Second, we examined peridomestic correlates of phlebotomine abundance in all 43 houses in the higher risk township. The high transmission township had higher coverage of forest (23%vs. 8.4%) and shade coffee (30.7%vs. 11%), and less coffee monoculture (16.8%vs. 26.2%) and pasture (6.3%vs. 12.3%), compared to the low transmission township. Lutzomyia were more abundant in the high transmission township 2.5 vs. 0.2/trap/night. Lutzomyia longiflocosa was the most common species in both townships: 1021/1450 (70%) and 39/80 (49%). Numbers of potential wild mammal reservoirs were small, although four species were found to be infected with Leishmania (Viannia) spp. In the high transmission township, the overall peridomiciliary capture rate of L. longiflocosa was 1.5/trap/night, and the abundance was higher in houses located nearer to forest (ρ = -0.30, P = 0.05). The findings are consistent with a domestic transmission cycle with the phlebotomies dependent on dense vegetation near the house. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Investigating the links between ozone and organic aerosol chemistry in a biomass burning plume from a prescribed fire in California chaparral

Science.gov (United States)

M.J. Alvarado; C.R. Lonsdale; R.J. Yokelson; S.K. Akagi; I.R. Burling; H. Coe; J.S. Craven; E. Fischer; G.R. McMeeking; J.H. Seinfeld; T. Soni; J.W. Taylor; D.R. Weise; C.E. Wold

2015-01-01

Within minutes after emission, complex photochemistry in biomass burning smoke plumes can cause large changes in the concentrations of ozone (O3) and organic aerosol (OA). Being able to understand and simulate this rapid chemical evolution under a wide variety of conditions is a critical part of forecasting the impact of these fires on air...

Diurnal Reflectance Changes in Vegetation Observed with AVIRIS

Science.gov (United States)

Vanderbilt, V. C.; Ambrosia, V. G.; Ustin, S. L.

1998-01-01

focused on day-to-day changes in water use, especially for agricultural applications. Ustin et al. showed seasonal changes in canopy water content in chaparral shrub could be estimated using optical methods. Vanderbilt et al. followed asymmetric diurnal changes in the reflectance of a walnut orchard, but could not attribute specific reflectance changes to specific changes in canopy architecture or physiology. Forests and shrub lands in California experience prolonged periods of drought, sometimes extending six months without precipitation. The conifer and evergreen chaparral communities common to the foothill region around the central valley of California retain their foliage throughout the summer and have low transpiration rates despite high net radiation and temperature conditions. In contrast, grasslands and drought resistant deciduous species in the same habitat are seasonally dormant in summer. Because of differences in the mechanisms of drought tolerance, rooting depth and physiology between different plant communities in the region, it is likely that they display differences in diurnal water relations. The presence of diverse plant communities provides an opportunity to investigate possible diurnal landscape patterns in water relations that could be observed by an airborne hyperspectral scanner. This investigation of AVIRIS data collected over forest and shrub land represents the continuation of a prior investigation involving spectral mixture analysis of diurnal effects in the same AVIRIS data set.

Recent Progress and Emerging Issues in Measuring and Modeling Biomass Burning Emissions

Science.gov (United States)

Yokelson, R. J.; Stockwell, C.; Veres, P. R.; Hatch, L. E.; Barsanti, K. C.; Simpson, I. J.; Blake, D. R.; Alvarado, M.; Kreidenweis, S. M.; Robinson, A. L.; Akagi, S. K.; McMeeking, G. R.; Stone, E.; Gilman, J.; Warneke, C.; Sedlacek, A. J.; Kleinman, L. I.

2013-12-01

Nine recent multi-PI campaigns (6 airborne, 3 laboratory) have quantified biomass burning emissions and the subsequent smoke evolution in unprecedented detail. Among these projects were the Fourth Fire Lab at Missoula Experiment (FLAME-4) and the DOE airborne campaign BBOP (Biomass Burning Observation Project). Between 2009 and 2013 a large selection of fuels and ecosystems were probed including: (1) 21 US prescribed fires in pine forests, chaparral, and shrublands; (2) numerous wildfires in the Pacific Northwest of the US; (3) 77 lab fires burning fuels collected from the sites of the prescribed fires; and (4) 158 lab fires burning authentic fuels in traditional cooking fires and advanced stoves; peat from Indonesia, Canada, and North Carolina; savanna grasses from Africa; temperate grasses from the US; crop waste from the US; rice straw from Taiwan, China, Malaysia, and California; temperate and boreal forest fuels collected in Montana and Alaska; chaparral fuels from California; trash; and tires. Instrumentation for gases included: FTIR, PTR-TOF-MS, 2D-GC and whole air sampling. Particle measurements included filter sampling (with IC, elemental carbon (EC), organic carbon (OC), and GC-MS) and numerous real-time measurements such as: HR-AMS (high-resolution aerosol MS), SP-AMS (soot particle AMS), SP2 (single particle soot photometer), SP-MS (single particle MS), ice nuclei, CCN (cloud condensation nuclei), water soluble OC, size distribution, and optical properties in the UV-VIS. New data include: emission factors for over 400 gases, black carbon (BC), brown carbon (BrC), organic aerosol (OA), ions, metals, EC, and OC; and details of particle morphology, mixing state, optical properties, size distributions, and cloud nucleating activity. Large concentrations (several ppm) of monoterpenes were present in fresh smoke. About 30-70% of the initially emitted gas-phase non-methane organic compounds were semivolatile and could not be identified with current technology

Aerosol optical properties and trace gas emissions by PAX and OP-FTIR for laboratory-simulated western US wildfires during FIREX

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V. Selimovic

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Western wildfires have a major impact on air quality in the US. In the fall of 2016, 107 test fires were burned in the large-scale combustion facility at the US Forest Service Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory as part of the Fire Influence on Regional and Global Environments Experiment (FIREX. Canopy, litter, duff, dead wood, and other fuel components were burned in combinations that represented realistic fuel complexes for several important western US coniferous and chaparral ecosystems including ponderosa pine, Douglas fir, Engelmann spruce, lodgepole pine, subalpine fir, chamise, and manzanita. In addition, dung, Indonesian peat, and individual coniferous ecosystem fuel components were burned alone to investigate the effects of individual components (e.g., duff and fuel chemistry on emissions. The smoke emissions were characterized by a large suite of state-of-the-art instruments. In this study we report emission factor (EF, grams of compound emitted per kilogram of fuel burned measurements in fresh smoke of a diverse suite of critically important trace gases measured using open-path Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (OP-FTIR. We also report aerosol optical properties (absorption EF; single-scattering albedo, SSA; and Ångström absorption exponent, AAE as well as black carbon (BC EF measured by photoacoustic extinctiometers (PAXs at 870 and 401 nm. The average trace gas emissions were similar across the coniferous ecosystems tested and most of the variability observed in emissions could be attributed to differences in the consumption of components such as duff and litter, rather than the dominant tree species. Chaparral fuels produced lower EFs than mixed coniferous fuels for most trace gases except for NOx and acetylene. A careful comparison with available field measurements of wildfires confirms that several methods can be used to extract data representative of real wildfires from the FIREX laboratory fire data. This is especially

Risks and benefits of commonly used herbal medicines in Mexico.

Science.gov (United States)

Rodriguez-Fragoso, Lourdes; Reyes-Esparza, Jorge; Burchiel, Scott W; Herrera-Ruiz, Dea; Torres, Eliseo

2008-02-15

In Mexico, local empirical knowledge about medicinal properties of plants is the basis for their use as home remedies. It is generally accepted by many people in Mexico and elsewhere in the world that beneficial medicinal effects can be obtained by ingesting plant products. In this review, we focus on the potential pharmacologic bases for herbal plant efficacy, but we also raise concerns about the safety of these agents, which have not been fully assessed. Although numerous randomized clinical trials of herbal medicines have been published and systematic reviews and meta-analyses of these studies are available, generalizations about the efficacy and safety of herbal medicines are clearly not possible. Recent publications have also highlighted the unintended consequences of herbal product use, including morbidity and mortality. It has been found that many phytochemicals have pharmacokinetic or pharmacodynamic interactions with drugs. The present review is limited to some herbal medicines that are native or cultivated in Mexico and that have significant use. We discuss the cultural uses, phytochemistry, pharmacological, and toxicological properties of the following plant species: nopal (Opuntia ficus), peppermint (Mentha piperita), chaparral (Larrea divaricata), dandlion (Taraxacum officinale), mullein (Verbascum densiflorum), chamomile (Matricaria recutita), nettle or stinging nettle (Urtica dioica), passionflower (Passiflora incarnata), linden flower (Tilia europea), and aloe (Aloe vera). We conclude that our knowledge of the therapeutic benefits and risks of some herbal medicines used in Mexico is still limited and efforts to elucidate them should be intensified.

Risks and Benefits of Commonly used Herbal Medicines in México

Science.gov (United States)

Rodriguez-Fragoso, Lourdes; Reyes-Esparza, Jorge; Burchiel, Scott; Herrera-Ruiz, Dea; Torres, Eliseo

2008-01-01

In Mexico, local empirical knowledge about medicinal properties of plants is the basis for their use as home remedies. It is generally accepted by many people in Mexico and elsewhere in the world that beneficial medicinal effects can be obtained by ingesting plant products. In this review, we focus on the potential pharmacologic bases for herbal plant efficacy, but we also raise concerns about the safety of these agents, which have not been fully assessed. Although numerous randomized clinical trials of herbal medicines have been published and systematic reviews and meta-analyses of these studies are available, generalizations about the efficacy and safety of herbal medicines are clearly not possible. Recent publications have also highlighted the unintended consequences of herbal product use, including morbidity and mortality. It has been found that many phytochemicals have pharmacokinetic or pharmacodynamic interactions with drugs. The present review is limited to some herbal medicine that are native or cultivated in Mexico and that have significant use. We discuss the cultural uses, phytochemistry, pharmacological and toxicological properties of the following following plant species: Nopal (Opuntia ficus), Peppermint (Mentha piperita), Chaparral (Larrea divaricata), Dandlion (Taraxacum officinale), Mullein (Verbascum densiflorum), Chamomile (Matricaria recutita), Nettle or Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica), Passionflower (Passiflora incarmata), Linden Flower (Tilia europea), and Aloa (Aloa vera). We conclude that our knowledge of the therapeutic benefits and risks of some herbal medicines used in Mexico is still limited and efforts to elucidate them should be intensified. PMID:18037151

In Situ Stem Psychrometry: toward a Physiologically-Based Drought Monitoring Network

Science.gov (United States)

KOCH, G. W.; Williams, C.; Ambrose, A.

2012-12-01

Plant water potential is a synoptic variable that integrates soil and atmospheric moisture stress and interacts with plant-internal factors to regulate gas exchange and determine vulnerability to drought-induced hydraulic dysfunction. Despite its importance, methods for measuring water potential are labor intensive. This limitation reduces measurement frequency, likely causes important transient events to be overlooked, and restricts development of a richer understanding of the impacts of integrated water stress on plant and ecosystem function. Recent technological advances have enabled in-situ, automated measurement of branch water potential over periods of weeks to months using stem psychrometers. We evaluated this technology through laboratory and field comparisons to standard pressure chamber measurements and with field installations in temperate forest, semi-arid woodland, and chaparral ecosystems. Performance was highly sensitive to installation procedures. With proper sealing, insulation, and radiation shielding, psychrometers typically differed from pressure chamber measurements by less than 0.2 MPa down to water potentials as low as -7 MPa. Measurements in tall trees reaffirmed the influence of gravity on water potential as previously documented with the pressure chamber. Psychrometer performance in situ was stable for periods of several weeks to months, with tissue wound response degrading sensor operation over time. We conclude that stem psychrometer technology is now suitable to serve as the foundation for a physiologically-based drought monitoring network that can anticipate important ecosystem impacts including changes in whole-system fluxes and mortality events.

Review article: herbal and dietary supplement hepatotoxicity.

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Bunchorntavakul, C; Reddy, K R

2013-01-01

Herbal and dietary supplements are commonly used throughout the World. There is a tendency for underreporting their ingestion by patients and the magnitude of their use is underrecognised by Physicians. Herbal hepatotoxicity is not uncommonly encountered, but the precise incidence and manifestations have not been well characterised. To review the epidemiology, presentation and diagnosis of herbal hepatotoxicity. This review will mainly discuss single ingredients and complex mixtures of herbs marketed under a single label. A Medline search was undertaken to identify relevant literature using search terms including 'herbal', 'herbs', 'dietary supplement', 'liver injury', 'hepatitis' and 'hepatotoxicity'. Furthermore, we scanned the reference lists of the primary and review articles to identify publications not retrieved by electronic searches. The incidence rates of herbal hepatotoxicity are largely unknown. The clinical presentation and severity can be highly variable, ranging from mild hepatitis to acute hepatic failure requiring transplantation. Scoring systems for the causality assessment of drug-induced liver injury may be helpful, but have not been validated for herbal hepatotoxicity. Hepatotoxicity features of commonly used herbal products, such as Ayurvedic and Chinese herbs, black cohosh, chaparral, germander, greater celandine, green tea, Herbalife, Hydroxycut, kava, pennyroyal, pyrrolizidine alkaloids, skullcap, and usnic acid, have been individually reviewed. Furthermore, clinically significant herb-drug interactions are also discussed. A number of herbal medicinal products are associated with a spectrum of hepatotoxicity events. Advances in the understanding of the pathogenesis and the risks involved are needed to improve herbal medicine safety. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Herbal hepatotoxicity: a tabular compilation of reported cases.

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Teschke, Rolf; Wolff, Albrecht; Frenzel, Christian; Schulze, Johannes; Eickhoff, Axel

2012-11-01

Herbal hepatotoxicity is a field that has rapidly grown over the last few years along with increased use of herbal products worldwide. To summarize the various facets of this disease, we undertook a literature search for herbs, herbal drugs and herbal supplements with reported cases of herbal hepatotoxicity. A selective literature search was performed to identify published case reports, spontaneous case reports, case series and review articles regarding herbal hepatotoxicity. A total of 185 publications were identified and the results compiled. They show 60 different herbs, herbal drugs and herbal supplements with reported potential hepatotoxicity, additional information including synonyms of individual herbs, botanical names and cross references are provided. If known, details are presented for specific ingredients and chemicals in herbal products, and for references with authors that can be matched to each herbal product and to its effect on the liver. Based on stringent causality assessment methods and/or positive re-exposure tests, causality was highly probable or probable for Ayurvedic herbs, Chaparral, Chinese herbal mixture, Germander, Greater Celandine, green tea, few Herbalife products, Jin Bu Huan, Kava, Ma Huang, Mistletoe, Senna, Syo Saiko To and Venencapsan(®). In many other publications, however, causality was not properly evaluated by a liver-specific and for hepatotoxicity-validated causality assessment method such as the scale of CIOMS (Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences). This compilation presents details of herbal hepatotoxicity, assisting thereby clinical assessment of involved physicians in the future. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons A/S.

The potential economic value of a cutaneous leishmaniasis vaccine in seven endemic countries in the Americas.

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Bacon, Kristina M; Hotez, Peter J; Kruchten, Stephanie D; Kamhawi, Shaden; Bottazzi, Maria Elena; Valenzuela, Jesus G; Lee, Bruce Y

2013-01-07

Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) and its associated complications, including mucocutaneous leishmaniasis (MCL) and diffuse CL (DCL) have emerged as important neglected tropical diseases in Latin America, especially in areas associated with human migration, conflict, and recent deforestation. Because of the limitations of current chemotherapeutic approaches to CL, MCL, and DCL, several prototype vaccines are in different states of product and clinical development. We constructed and utilized a Markov decision analytic computer model to evaluate the potential economic value of a preventative CL vaccine in seven countries in Latin America: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela. The results indicated that even a vaccine with a relatively short duration of protection and modest efficacy could be recommended for use in targeted locations, as it could prevent a substantial number of cases at low-cost and potentially even result in cost savings. If the population in the seven countries were vaccinated using a vaccine that provides at least 10 years of protection, an estimated 41,000-144,784 CL cases could be averted, each at a cost less than the cost of current recommended treatments. Further, even a vaccine providing as little as five years duration of protection with as little as 50% efficacy remains cost-effective compared with chemotherapy; additional scenarios resembling epidemic settings such as the one that occurred in Chaparral, Colombia in 2004 demonstrate important economic benefits. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Risks and benefits of commonly used herbal medicines in Mexico

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Rodriguez-Fragoso, Lourdes; Reyes-Esparza, Jorge; Burchiel, Scott W.; Herrera-Ruiz, Dea; Torres, Eliseo

2008-01-01

In Mexico, local empirical knowledge about medicinal properties of plants is the basis for their use as home remedies. It is generally accepted by many people in Mexico and elsewhere in the world that beneficial medicinal effects can be obtained by ingesting plant products. In this review, we focus on the potential pharmacologic bases for herbal plant efficacy, but we also raise concerns about the safety of these agents, which have not been fully assessed. Although numerous randomized clinical trials of herbal medicines have been published and systematic reviews and meta-analyses of these studies are available, generalizations about the efficacy and safety of herbal medicines are clearly not possible. Recent publications have also highlighted the unintended consequences of herbal product use, including morbidity and mortality. It has been found that many phytochemicals have pharmacokinetic or pharmacodynamic interactions with drugs. The present review is limited to some herbal medicines that are native or cultivated in Mexico and that have significant use. We discuss the cultural uses, phytochemistry, pharmacological, and toxicological properties of the following plant species: nopal (Opuntia ficus), peppermint (Mentha piperita), chaparral (Larrea divaricata), dandlion (Taraxacum officinale), mullein (Verbascum densiflorum), chamomile (Matricaria recutita), nettle or stinging nettle (Urtica dioica), passionflower (Passiflora incarnata), linden flower (Tilia europea), and aloe (Aloe vera). We conclude that our knowledge of the therapeutic benefits and risks of some herbal medicines used in Mexico is still limited and efforts to elucidate them should be intensified

How well does the Post-fire Erosion Risk Management Tool (ERMiT) really work?

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Robichaud, Peter; Elliot, William; Lewis, Sarah; Miller, Mary Ellen

2016-04-01

The decision of where, when, and how to apply the most effective postfire erosion mitigation treatments requires land managers to assess the risk of damaging runoff and erosion events occurring after a fire. The Erosion Risk Management Tool (ERMiT) was developed to assist post fire assessment teams identify high erosion risk areas and effectiveness of various mitigation treatments to reduce that risk. ERMiT is a web-based application that uses the Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) technology to estimate erosion, in probabilistic terms, on burned and recovering forest, range, and chaparral lands with and without the application of mitigation treatments. User inputs are processed by ERMiT to combine rain event variability with spatial and temporal variabilities of hillslope burn severity and soil properties which are then used as WEPP inputs. Since 2007, the model has been used in making hundreds of land management decisions in the US and elsewhere. We use eight published field study sites in the Western US to compare ERMiT predictions to observed hillslope erosion rates. Most sites experience only a few rainfall events that produced runoff and sediment except for a California site with a Mediterranean climate. When hillslope erosion occurred, significant correlations occurred between the observed hillslope erosion and those predicted by ERMiT. Significant correlation occurred for most mitigation treatments as well as the five recovery years. These model validation results suggest reasonable estimates of probabilistic post-fire hillslope sediment delivery when compared to observation.

Laboratory characterization of PM emissions from combustion of wildland biomass fuels

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hosseini, SeyedEhsan; Urbanski, Shawn; Dixit, P.; Qi, L.; Burling, Ian R.; Yokelson, Robert; Johnson, Timothy J.; Shrivastava, ManishKumar B.; Jung, H.; Weise, David; Miller, J. Wayne; Cocker, David R.

2013-09-09

Particle emissions from open burning of southwestern (SW) and southeastern (SE) U.S. 17 fuel types during 77 controlled laboratory burns are presented. The fuels include SW 18 vegetation types: ceanothus, chamise/scrub oak, coastal sage scrub, California sagebrush, 19 manzanita, maritime chaparral, masticated mesquite, oak savanna, and oak woodland as 20 well as SE vegetation types: 1-year, 2-year rough, pocosin, chipped understory, 21 understory hardwood, and pine litter. The SW fuels burned at a higher Modified 22 Combustion Efficiency (MCE) than the SE fuels resulting in lower particulate matter 23 (PM) mass emission factor (EF). Particle size distributions for six fuels and particle 24 number emission or all fuels are reported. Excellent mass closure (slope = 1.00, r2=0.94) 25 between ions, metals, and carbon with total weight was obtained. Organic carbon 26 emission factors inversely correlated (= 0.72) with MCE, while elemental carbon (EC) 27 had little correlation with MCE (=0.10). The EC/total carbon (TC) ratio sharply 28 increased with MCE for MCEs exceeding 0.94. The average levoglucosan and total Poly 29 Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH) emissions factors ranged from 25-1272 mg/kg fuel and 30 1790-11300 μg/kg fuel, respectively. No correlation between MCE and emissions of 31 PAHs/levoglucosan was found. Additionally, PAH diagnostic ratios were observed to be 32 poor indicators of biomass burning. Large fuel-type and regional dependency was 33 observed in the emission rates of ammonium, nitrate, fluoride, chloride, sodium, and

Utilizing Remote Sensing Information to Improve Post-fire Rainfall-runoff Predictions after the 2010 Bull Fire in the Sequoia National Forest, CA

Science.gov (United States)

Kinoshita, A. M.; Hale, B.; Hogue, T. S.

2012-12-01

Post-fire management decisions are guided by rainfall-runoff predictions, which ultimately influence downstream treatment and mitigation costs. The current study investigates evolving rainfall-runoff partitioning at the watershed scale over a two-year period after the 2010 Bull Fire which occurred in the southern Sequoia National Forest in California. Stage height was measured at five-minute intervals using pressure transducers, tipping buckets were installed for rainfall duration and intensity, and channel cross-sections were measured approximately every two months to detail sediment deposition or scour. We also utilize remotely sensed vegetation data to evaluate vegetation recovery in the studied watersheds and the corresponding relationship to storm runoff. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), a measure of vegetation greenness, is evaluated for its potential use as a key recovery indicator. Preliminary results focus on alterations in annual and seasonal precipitation and discharge relationships using in-situ data and Landsat NDVI values for the period of study. NDVI values are consistent with a comprehensive burn, with an acute decrease observed in the initial post-fire period. However, vegetation recovery is highly variable in the studied systems and influenced by shorter-term biomass pulses (grasses) while longer-term recovery of other species (chaparral and pine) is ongoing. Runoff ratios are elevated during early storms and show some recovery in the later part of the study period. The ability to accurately and confidently predict post-fire runoff and longer-term recovery is critical for monitoring values-at-risk, reducing mitigation costs, and improving warnings to downstream public communities.

Post-Fire Recovery of Eco-Hydrologic Behavior Given Historic and Projected Climate Variability in California Mediterranean Type Environments

Science.gov (United States)

Seaby, L. P.; Tague, C. L.; Hope, A. S.

2006-12-01

The Mediterranean type environments (MTEs) of California are characterized by a distinct wet and dry season and high variability in inter-annual climate. Water limitation in MTEs makes eco-hydrological processes highly sensitive to both climate variability and frequent fire disturbance. This research modeled post-fire eco- hydrologic behavior under historical and moderate and extreme scenarios of future climate in a semi-arid chaparral dominated southern California MTE. We used a physically-based, spatially-distributed, eco- hydrological model (RHESSys - Regional Hydro-Ecologic Simulation System), to capture linkages between water and vegetation response to the combined effects of fire and historic and future climate variability. We found post-fire eco-hydrologic behavior to be strongly influenced by the episodic nature of MTE climate, which intensifies under projected climate change. Higher rates of post-fire net primary productivity were found under moderate climate change, while more extreme climate change produced water stressed conditions which were less favorable for vegetation productivity. Precipitation variability in the historic record follows the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), and these inter-annual climate characteristics intensify under climate change. Inter-annual variation in streamflow follows these precipitation patterns. Post-fire streamflow and carbon cycling trajectories are strongly dependent on climate characteristics during the first 5 years following fire, and historic intra-climate variability during this period tends to overwhelm longer term trends and variation that might be attributable to climate change. Results have implications for water resource availability, vegetation type conversion from shrubs to grassland, and changes in ecosystem structure and function.

Mortality gradients within and among dominant plant populations as barometers of ecosystem change during extreme drought.

Science.gov (United States)

Gitlin, Alicyn R; Sthultz, Christopher M; Bowker, Matthew A; Stumpf, Stacy; Paxton, Kristina L; Kennedy, Karla; Muñoz, Axhel; Bailey, Joseph K; Whitham, Thomas G

2006-10-01

Understanding patterns of plant population mortality during extreme weather events is important to conservation planners because the frequency of such events is expected to increase, creating the need to integrate climatic uncertainty into management. Dominant plants provide habitat and ecosystem structure, so changes in their distribution can be expected to have cascading effects on entire communities. Observing areas that respond quickly to climate fluctuations provides foresight into future ecological changes and will help prioritize conservation efforts. We investigated patterns of mortality in six dominant plant species during a drought in the southwestern United States. We quantified population mortality for each species across its regional distribution and tested hypotheses to identify ecological stress gradients for each species. Our results revealed three major patterns: (1) dominant species from diverse habitat types (i.e., riparian, chaparral, and low- to high-elevation forests) exhibited significant mortality, indicating that the effects of drought were widespread; (2) average mortality differed among dominant species (one-seed juniper[Juniperus monosperma (Engelm.) Sarg.] 3.3%; manzanita[Arctostaphylos pungens Kunth], 14.6%; quaking aspen[Populus tremuloides Michx.], 15.4%; ponderosa pine[Pinus ponderosa P. & C. Lawson], 15.9%; Fremont cottonwood[Populus fremontii S. Wats.], 20.7%; and pinyon pine[Pinus edulis Engelm.], 41.4%); (3) all dominant species showed localized patterns of very high mortality (24-100%) consistent with water stress gradients. Land managers should plan for climatic uncertainty by promoting tree recruitment in rare habitat types, alleviating unnatural levels of competition on dominant plants, and conserving sites across water stress gradients. High-stress sites, such as those we examined, have conservation value as barometers of change and because they may harbor genotypes that are adapted to climatic extremes.

The impact of antecedent fire area on burned area in southern California coastal ecosystems

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Price, Owen F.; Bradstock, Ross A.; Keeley, Jon E.; Syphard, Alexandra D.

2012-01-01

Frequent wildfire disasters in southern California highlight the need for risk reduction strategies for the region, of which fuel reduction via prescribed burning is one option. However, there is no consensus about the effectiveness of prescribed fire in reducing the area of wildfire. Here, we use 29 years of historical fire mapping to quantify the relationship between annual wildfire area and antecedent fire area in predominantly shrub and grassland fuels in seven southern California counties, controlling for annual variation in weather patterns. This method has been used elsewhere to measure leverage: the reduction in wildfire area resulting from one unit of prescribed fire treatment. We found little evidence for a leverage effect (leverage = zero). Specifically our results showed no evidence that wildfire area was negatively influenced by previous fires, and only weak relationships with weather variables rainfall and Santa Ana wind occurrences, which were variables included to control for inter-annual variation. We conclude that this is because only 2% of the vegetation burns each year and so wildfires rarely encounter burned patches and chaparral shrublands can carry a fire within 1 or 2 years after previous fire. Prescribed burning is unlikely to have much influence on fire regimes in this area, though targeted treatment at the urban interface may be effective at providing defensible space for protecting assets. These results fit an emerging global model of fire leverage which position California at the bottom end of a continuum, with tropical savannas at the top (leverage = 1: direct replacement of wildfire by prescribed fire) and Australian eucalypt forests in the middle (leverage ∼ 0.25).

Parallel Computing for Terrestrial Ecosystem Carbon Modeling

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, Dali; Post, Wilfred M.; Ricciuto, Daniel M.; Berry, Michael

2011-01-01

Terrestrial ecosystems are a primary component of research on global environmental change. Observational and modeling research on terrestrial ecosystems at the global scale, however, has lagged behind their counterparts for oceanic and atmospheric systems, largely because the unique challenges associated with the tremendous diversity and complexity of terrestrial ecosystems. There are 8 major types of terrestrial ecosystem: tropical rain forest, savannas, deserts, temperate grassland, deciduous forest, coniferous forest, tundra, and chaparral. The carbon cycle is an important mechanism in the coupling of terrestrial ecosystems with climate through biological fluxes of CO 2 . The influence of terrestrial ecosystems on atmospheric CO 2 can be modeled via several means at different timescales. Important processes include plant dynamics, change in land use, as well as ecosystem biogeography. Over the past several decades, many terrestrial ecosystem models (see the 'Model developments' section) have been developed to understand the interactions between terrestrial carbon storage and CO 2 concentration in the atmosphere, as well as the consequences of these interactions. Early TECMs generally adapted simple box-flow exchange models, in which photosynthetic CO 2 uptake and respiratory CO 2 release are simulated in an empirical manner with a small number of vegetation and soil carbon pools. Demands on kinds and amount of information required from global TECMs have grown. Recently, along with the rapid development of parallel computing, spatially explicit TECMs with detailed process based representations of carbon dynamics become attractive, because those models can readily incorporate a variety of additional ecosystem processes (such as dispersal, establishment, growth, mortality etc.) and environmental factors (such as landscape position, pest populations, disturbances, resource manipulations, etc.), and provide information to frame policy options for climate change

On the global relationships between photosynthetic water-use efficiency, leaf mass per unit area and atmospheric demand in woody and herbaceous plants

Science.gov (United States)

Letts, M. G.; Fox, T. A.; Gulias, J.; Galmes, J.; Hikosaka, K.; Wright, I.; Flexas, J.; Awada, T.; Rodriguez-Calcerrada, J.; Tobita, H.

2013-12-01

A global dataset was compiled including woody and herbaceous C3 species from forest, Mediterranean and grassland-shrubland ecosystems, to elucidate the dependency of photosynthetic water-use efficiency on vapour pressure deficit (D) and leaf traits. Mean leaf mass per unit area (LMA) was lower and mass-based leaf nitrogen content (Nmass) was higher in herbaceous species. Higher mean stomatal conductance (gs), transpiration rate (E) and net CO2 assimilation rate under light saturating conditions (Amax) were observed in herbs, but photosynthetic and intrinsic water-use efficiencies (WUE = Amax/E and WUEi = Amax/gs) were lower than in woody plants. Woody species maintained stricter stomatal regulation of water loss at low D, resulting in a steeper positive and linear relationship between log D and log E. Herbaceous species possessed very high gs at low D, resulting in higher ratio of substomatal to atmospheric CO2 concentrations (ci/ca) and E, but lower WUE and WUEi than woody plants, despite higher Amax. The lower WUE and higher rates of gas exchange were most pronounced in herbs with low LMA and high Nmass. Photosynthetic water use also differed between species from grassland-shrubland and Mediterranean or forest environments. Water-use efficiency showed no relationship with either D or LMA in grassland-shrubland species, but showed a negative relationship with D in forest and chaparral. The distinct photosynthetic water-use of woody and herbaceous plants is consistent with the opportunistic growth strategy of herbs and the more conservative growth strategy of woody species. Further research is recommended to examine the implications of these functional group and ecosystem differences in the contexts of climate and atmospheric change.

Topographic Controls on Southern California Ecosystem Function and Post-fire Recovery: a Satellite and Near-surface Remote Sensing Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Azzari, George

Southern Californian wildfires can influence climate in a variety of ways, including changes in surface albedo, emission of greenhouse gases and aerosols, and the production of tropospheric ozone. Ecosystem post-fire recovery plays a key role in determining the strength, duration, and relative importance of these climate forcing agents. Southern California's ecosystems vary markedly with topography, creating sharp transitions with elevation, aspect, and slope. Little is known about the ways topography influences ecosystem properties and function, particularly in the context of post-fire recovery. We combined images from the USGS satellite Landsat 5 with flux tower measurements to analyze pre- and post-fire albedo and carbon exchanged by Southern California's ecosystems in the Santa Ana Mountains. We reduced the sources of external variability in Landsat images using several correction methods for topographic and bidirectional effects. We used time series of corrected images to infer the Net Ecosystem Exchange and surface albedo, and calculated the radiative forcing due to CO2 emissions and albedo changes. We analyzed the patterns of recovery and radiative forcing on north- and south-facing slopes, stratified by vegetation classes including grassland, coastal sage scrub, chaparral, and evergreen oak forest. We found that topography strongly influenced post-fire recovery and radiative forcing. Field observations are often limited by the difficulty of collecting ground validation data. Current instrumentation networks do not provide adequate spatial resolution for landscape-level analysis. The deployment of consumer-market technology could reduce the cost of near-surface measurements, allowing the installation of finer-scale instrument networks. We tested the performance of the Microsoft Kinect sensor for measuring vegetation structure. We used Kinect to acquire 3D vegetation point clouds in the field, and used these data to compute plant height, crown diameter, and

Pollen-based evidence of extreme drought during the last Glacial (32.6-9.0 ka) in coastal southern California

Science.gov (United States)

Heusser, Linda E.; Kirby, Matthew E.; Nichols, Jonathan E.

2015-10-01

High resolution pollen analyses of sediment core LEDC10-1 from Lake Elsinore yield the first well-dated, terrestrial record of sub-centennial-scale ecologic change in coastal southern California between ˜32 and 9 ka. In the Lake Elsinore watershed, the initial, mesic montane conifer forests dominated by Pinus, and Cupressaceae with trace amounts of Abies and Picea were replaced by a sequence of multiple, extended severe mega-droughts between ˜27.5 and ˜25.5 ka, in which halophytic and xerophytic herbs and shrubs occupied an ephemeral lake. This prolonged and extended dry interval, which corresponds with warm waters offshore, imply strengthening of the North Pacific High and persistent below-average winter precipitation. The subsequent, contrasting monotonic occurrence of montane conifers reflects little variation in cold, mesic climate until ˜15 ka. Postglacial development of Quercus woodland and chaparral mark the return to more xeric, warmer conditions at this time. A brief reversal at ˜13.1-˜12.1 ka, as reflected by an expansion of Pinus, is correlative with the Younger Dryas and interrupts development of warm, postglacial climate. Subsequent gradual expansion of xeric vegetation post - Younger Dryas denotes the establishment of a winter hydroclimate regime in coastal southern California that is more similar to modern conditions. Pollen-based reconstructions of temperature and precipitation at Lake Elsinore are generally correlative with pollen-based paleoclimatic reconstructions and foraminifera-based sea surface temperatures from Santa Barbara Basin in marine core ODP 893. The conspicuous absence of the ˜27.5-˜25.5 ka glacial "mega-drought" in the Santa Barbara Basin pollen record highlights the sensitivity of Lake Elsinore to hydroclimate change, and thus, the importance of this new record that indicates that mega-drought can occur during the full glacial when climatic boundary conditions and forcings differed substantially from the present.

Estimación del área y del peso seco foliar en Elaeis guineellsis, Elaeis oleifera y el hibrido interespecifico E. Guineensis x E. Oleífera

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Contreras Angela P.

1999-12-01

Full Text Available

Este trabajo se planteo can la finalidad de determinar modelos estadísticos que permitan estimar el área y el peso foliar a través de métodos indirectos (no destructivos en Elaeis guineensis (Palma africana, Elaeis oleifera (Palma Noli, y el hibrido interespecifico E. guineensis X E. oleifera (Afrieana X Noli . Los experimentos de campo se efectuaron en las Haciendas Santa Bárbara y Chaparral-Cuernavaca, de la plantación Unipalma, ubicadas en la zona palmera de los llanos orientales en Colombia. Como resultado de la investigación, se obtuvo la validación del modelo propuesto por Corley et a1. (1971 y la innovación y ajuste de nuevos modelos que estiman los parámetros de crecimiento sin necesidad de muestreos destructivos. Los modelos propuestos en este trabajo, están ajustados a las condiciones del trópico colombiano.

Palabras claves: Palma de aceite, área foliar, peso foliar, parámetros de crecimiento.

Middle Miocene carnivorans from the Monarch Mill Formation, Nevada

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Kent Smith

2016-02-01

Full Text Available he lowest part of the Monarch Mill Formation in the Middlegate basin, west-central Nevada, has yielded a middle Miocene (Barstovian Land Mammal Age vertebrate assemblage, the Eastgate local fauna. Paleobotanical evidence from nearby, nearly contemporaneous fossil leaf assemblages indicates that the Middle Miocene vegetation in the area was mixed coniferous and hardwood forest and chaparral-sclerophyllous shrubland, and suggests that the area had been uplifted to 2700–2800 m paleoaltitude before dropping later to near its present elevation of 1600 m. Thus, the local fauna provides a rare glimpse at a medium- to high-altitude vertebrate community in the intermountain western interior of North America. The local fauna includes the remains of fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and 25 families of mammals. Carnivorans, the focus of this study, include six taxa (three of which are new belonging to four families. Canidae are represented by the borophagine Tomarctus brevirostris and the canine Leptocyon sp. indet. The earliest record and second North American occurrence of the simocyonine ailurid Actiocyon is represented by A. parverratis sp. nov. Two new mustelids, Brevimalictis chikasha gen. et sp. nov. and Negodiaetictis rugatrulleum gen. et sp. nov., may represent Galictinae but are of uncertain subfamilial and tribal affinity. The fourth family is represented by the felid Pseudaelurus sp. indet. Tomarctus brevirostris is limited biochronologically to the Barstovian land mammal age and thus is consistent with the age indicated by other members of the Eastgate local fauna as well as by indirect tephrochronological dates previously associated with the Monarch Mill Formation. Actiocyon parverratis sp. nov. extends the temporal range of the genus Actiocyon from late Clarendonian back to the Barstovian. The Eastgate local fauna improves our understanding of mammalian successions and evolution, during and subsequent to the Mid-Miocene Climatic Optimum

Habitat eradication and cropland intensification may reduce parasitoid diversity and natural pest control services in annual crop fields

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Deborah K. Letourneau

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract California’s central coast differs from many agricultural areas in the U.S., which feature large tracts of monoculture production fields and relatively simple landscapes. Known as the nations salad bowl, and producing up to 90% of U.S. production of lettuces, broccoli and Brussels sprouts, this region is a mosaic of fresh vegetable fields, coastal meadow, chaparral shrubs, riparian and woodland habitat. We tested for relationships between the percent cover of crops, riparian and other natural landscape vegetation and the species richness of parasitic wasps and flies foraging in crops, such as broccoli, kale and cauliflower, and interpreted our results with respect to the decrease in natural habitat and increase in cropland cover prompted by a local microbial contamination event in 2006. Our key results are that: (1 as cropland cover in the landscape increased, fewer species of parasitoids were captured in the crop field, (2 parasitoid richness overall was positively associated with the amount of riparian and other natural vegetation in the surrounding 500m, (3 different groups of parasitoids were associated with unique types of natural vegetation, and (4 parasitism rates of sentinel cabbage aphid and cabbage looper pests were correlated with landscape vegetation features according to which parasitoids caused the mortality. Although individual species of parasitoids may thrive in landscapes that are predominantly short season crops, the robust associations found in this study across specialist and generalist parasitoids and different taxa (tachinid flies, ichneumon wasps, braconid wasps shows that recent food safety practices targeting removal of natural vegetation around vegetable fields in an attempt to eliminate wildlife may harm natural enemy communities and reduce ecosystem services. We argue that enhancing biological diversity is a key goal for transforming agroecosystems for future productivity, sustainability and public health.

A plant distribution shift: temperature, drought or past disturbance?

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Dylan W Schwilk

Full Text Available Simple models of plant response to warming climates predict vegetation moving to cooler and/or wetter locations: in mountainous regions shifting upslope. However, species-specific responses to climate change are likely to be much more complex. We re-examined a recently reported vegetation shift in the Santa Rosa Mountains, California, to better understand the mechanisms behind the reported shift of a plant distribution upslope. We focused on five elevational zones near the center of the gradient that captured many of the reported shifts and which are dominated by fire-prone chaparral. Using growth rings, we determined that a major assumption of the previous work was wrong: past fire histories differed among elevations. To examine the potential effect that this difference might have on the reported upward shift, we focused on one species, Ceanothus greggii: a shrub that only recruits post-fire from a soil stored seedbank. For five elevations used in the prior study, we calculated time series of past per-capita mortality rates by counting growth rings on live and dead individuals. We tested three alternative hypotheses explaining the past patterns of mortality: 1 mortality increased over time consistent with climate warming, 2 mortality was correlated with drought indices, and 3 mortality peaked 40-50 years post fire at each site, consistent with self-thinning. We found that the sites were different ages since the last fire, and that the reported increase in the mean elevation of C. greggii was due to higher recent mortality at the lower elevations, which were younger sites. The time-series pattern of mortality was best explained by the self-thinning hypothesis and poorly explained by gradual warming or drought. At least for this species, the reported distribution shift appears to be an artifact of disturbance history and is not evidence of a climate warming effect.

Characterization of potential fire regimes: applying landscape ecology to fire management in Mexico

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Jardel, E.; Alvarado, E.; Perez-Salicrup, D.; Morfín-Rios, J.

2013-05-01

Knowledge and understanding of fire regimes is fundamental to design sound fire management practices. The high ecosystem diversity of Mexico offers a great challenge to characterize the fire regime variation at the landscape level. A conceptual model was developed considering the main factors controlling fire regimes: climate and vegetation cover. We classified landscape units combining bioclimatic zones from the Holdridge life-zone system and actual vegetation cover. Since bioclimatic conditions control primary productivity and biomass accumulation (potential fuel), each landscape unit was considered as a fuel bed with a particular fire intensity and behavior potential. Climate is also a determinant factor of post-fire recovery rates of fuel beds, and climate seasonality (length of the dry and wet seasons) influences fire probability (available fuel and ignition efficiency). These two factors influence potential fire frequency. Potential fire severity can be inferred from fire frequency, fire intensity and behavior, and vegetation composition and structure. Based in the conceptual model, an exhaustive literature review and expert opinion, we developed rules to assign a potential fire regime (PFR) defined by frequency, intensity and severity (i.e. fire regime) to each bioclimatic-vegetation landscape unit. Three groups and eight types of potential fire regimes were identified. In Group A are fire-prone ecosystems with frequent low severity surface fires in grasslands (PFR type I) or forests with long dry season (II) and infrequent high-severity fires in chaparral (III), wet temperate forests (IV, fire restricted by humidity), and dry temperate forests (V, fire restricted by fuel recovery rate). Group B includes fire-reluctant ecosystems with very infrequent or occasional mixed severity surface fires limited by moisture in tropical rain forests (VI) or fuel availability in seasonally dry tropical forests (VII). Group C and PFR VIII include fire-free environments

Alien plant dynamics following fire in mediterranean-climate California shrublands

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Keeley, J.E.; Baer-Keeley, M.; Fotheringham, C.J.

2005-01-01

Over 75 species of alien plants were recorded during the first five years after fire in southern California shrublands, most of which were European annuals. Both cover and richness of aliens varied between years and plant association. Alien cover was lowest in the first postfire year in all plant associations and remained low during succession in chaparral but increased in sage scrub. Alien cover and richness were significantly correlated with year (time since disturbance) and with precipitation in both coastal and interior sage scrub associations. Hypothesized factors determining alien dominance were tested with structural equation modeling. Models that included nitrogen deposition and distance from the coast were not significant, but with those variables removed we obtained a significant model that gave an R2 = 0.60 for the response variable of fifth year alien dominance. Factors directly affecting alien dominance were (1) woody canopy closure and (2) alien seed banks. Significant indirect effects were (3) fire intensity, (4) fire history, (5) prefire stand structure, (6) aridity, and (7) community type. According to this model the most critical factor influencing aliens is the rapid return of the shrub and subshrub canopy. Thus, in these communities a single functional type (woody plants) appears to the most critical element controlling alien invasion and persistence. Fire history is an important indirect factor because it affects both prefire stand structure and postfire alien seed banks. Despite being fire-prone ecosystems, these shrublands are not adapted to fire per se, but rather to a particular fire regime. Alterations in the fire regime produce a very different selective environment, and high fire frequency changes the selective regime to favor aliens. This study does not support the widely held belief that prescription burning is a viable management practice for controlling alien species on semiarid landscapes. ?? 2005 by the Ecological Society of

Stability, Bistability, and Critical Thresholds in Fire-prone Forested Landscapes: How Frequency and Intensity of Disturbance Interact and Influence Forest Cover

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Miller, A. D.

2015-12-01

Many aspects of disturbance processes can have large impacts on the composition of plant communities, and associated changes in land cover type in turn have biogeochemical feedbacks to climate. In particular, changes to disturbance regimes can potentially change the number and stability of equilibrial states, and plant community states can differ dramatically in their carbon (C) dynamics, energy balance, and hydrology. Using the Klamath region of northern California as a model system, we present a theoretical analysis of how changes to climate and associated fire dynamics can disrupt high-carbon, long-lived conifer forests and replace them with shrub-chaparral communities that have much lower biomass and are more pyrogenic. Specifically, we develop a tractable model of plant community dynamics, structured by size class, life-history traits, lottery-type competition, and species-specific responses to disturbance. We assess the stability of different states in terms of disturbance frequency and intensity, and quantitatively partition long-term low-density population growth rates into mechanisms that influence critical transitions from stable to bistable behavior. Our findings show how different aspects of disturbance act and interact to control competitive outcomes and stable states, hence ecosystem-atmosphere C exchange. Forests tend to dominate in low frequency and intensity regimes, while shrubs dominate at high fire frequency and intensity. In other regimes, the system is bistable, and the fate of the system depends both on initial conditions and random chance. Importantly, the system can cross a critical threshold where hysteresis prevents easy return to the prior forested state. We conclude that changes in disturbance-recovery dynamics driven by projected climate change can shift this system away from forest dominated in the direction of shrub-dominated landscape. This will result in a large net C release from the landscape, and alter biophysical ecosystem

Rescuing and Sharing Historical Vegetation Data for Ecological Analysis: The California Vegetation Type Mapping Project

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Maggi Kelly

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Research efforts that synthesize historical and contemporary ecological data with modeling approaches improve our understanding of the complex response of species, communities, and landscapes to changing biophysical conditions through time and in space. Historical ecological data are particularly important in this respect. There are remaining barriers that limit such data synthesis, and technological improvements that make multiple diverse datasets more readily available for integration and synthesis are needed. This paper presents one case study of the Wieslander Vegetation Type Mapping project in California and highlights the importance of rescuing, digitizing and sharing historical datasets. We review the varied ecological uses of the historical collection: the vegetation maps have been used to understand legacies of land use change and plan for the future; the plot data have been used to examine changes to chaparral and forest communities around the state and to predict community structure and shifts under a changing climate; the photographs have been used to understand changing vegetation structure; and the voucher specimens in combination with other specimen collections have been used for large scale distribution modeling efforts. The digitization and sharing of the data via the web has broadened the scope and scale of the types of analysis performed. Yet, additional research avenues can be pursued using multiple types of VTM data, and by linking VTM data with contemporary data. The digital VTM collection is an example of a data infrastructure that expands the potential of large scale research through the integration and synthesis of data drawn from numerous data sources; its journey from analog to digital is a cautionary tale of the importance of finding historical data, digitizing it with best practices, linking it with other datasets, and sharing it with the research community.

A Molecular Survey for Francisella tularensis and Rickettsia spp. in Haemaphysalis leporispalustris (Acari: Ixodidae) in Northern California.

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Roth, Tara; Lane, Robert S; Foley, Janet

2017-03-01

Francisella tularensis and Rickettsia spp. have been cultured from Haemaphysalis leporispalustris Packard, but their prevalence in this tick has not been determined using modern molecular methods. We collected H. leporispalustris by flagging vegetation and leaf litter and from lagomorphs (Lepus californicus Gray and Sylvilagus bachmani (Waterhouse)) in northern California. Francisella tularensis DNA was not detected in any of 1,030 ticks tested by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), whereas 0.4% of larvae tested in pools, 0 of 117 individual nymphs, and 2.3% of 164 adult ticks were PCR-positive for Rickettsia spp. Positive sites were Laurel Canyon Trail in Tilden Regional Park in Alameda Contra Costa County, with a Rickettsia spp. prevalence of 0.6% in 2009, and Hopland Research and Extension Center in Mendocino County, with a prevalence of 4.2% in 1988. DNA sequencing revealed R. felis, the agent of cat-flea typhus, in two larval pools from shaded California bay and live oak leaf litter in Contra Costa County and one adult tick from a L. californicus in chaparral in Mendocino County. The R. felis in unfed, questing larvae demonstrates that H. leporispalustris can transmit this rickettsia transovarially. Although R. felis is increasingly found in diverse arthropods and geographical regions, prior literature suggests a typical epidemiological cycle involving mesocarnivores and the cat flea, Ctenocephalides felis. To our knowledge, this is the first report of R. felis in H. leporispalustris. Natural infection and transovarial transmission of this pathogen in the tick indicate the existence of a previously undocumented wild-lands transmission cycle that may intersect mesocarnivore-reservoired cycles and collectively affect human health risk. © The Authors 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Airborne and ground-based measurements of the trace gases and particles emitted by prescribed fires in the United States

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I. R. Burling

2011-12-01

Full Text Available We have measured emission factors for 19 trace gas species and particulate matter (PM_2.5 from 14 prescribed fires in chaparral and oak savanna in the southwestern US, as well as conifer forest understory in the southeastern US and Sierra Nevada mountains of California. These are likely the most extensive emission factor field measurements for temperate biomass burning to date and the only published emission factors for temperate oak savanna fuels. This study helps to close the gap in emissions data available for temperate zone fires relative to tropical biomass burning. We present the first field measurements of the biomass burning emissions of glycolaldehyde, a possible precursor for aqueous phase secondary organic aerosol formation. We also measured the emissions of phenol, another aqueous phase secondary organic aerosol precursor. Our data confirm previous observations that urban deposition can impact the NO_x emission factors and thus subsequent plume chemistry. For two fires, we measured both the emissions in the convective smoke plume from our airborne platform and the unlofted residual smoldering combustion emissions with our ground-based platform. The smoke from residual smoldering combustion was characterized by emission factors for hydrocarbon and oxygenated organic species that were up to ten times higher than in the lofted plume, including high 1,3-butadiene and isoprene concentrations which were not observed in the lofted plume. This should be considered in modeling the air quality impacts for smoke that disperses at ground level. We also show that the often ignored unlofted emissions can significantly impact estimates of total emissions. Preliminary evidence suggests large emissions of monoterpenes in the residual smoldering smoke. These data should lead to an improved capacity to model the impacts of biomass burning in similar temperate ecosystems.

Distribution and prevalence of vector-borne diseases in California chipmunks (Tamias spp..

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Mary H Straub

Full Text Available California, with 13 chipmunk (Tamias species, has more than any other state or country, occupying habitats ranging from chaparral to the high peaks of the Sierra Nevada. Chipmunks host zoonotic pathogens including Yersinia pestis, Anaplasma phagocytophilum, relapsing fever (RF Borrelia spp., Borrelia burgdorferi, and spotted fever group (SFG Rickettsia species. Chipmunk species are often not differentiated by public health workers, yet different species utilize different ecological niches and may have intrinsically different capacities for maintaining vector-borne pathogens and infecting vectors. We surveyed over 700 individuals from nine species of chipmunks throughout California for exposure to and infection by Y. pestis, A. phagocytophilum, RF Borrelia spp., Borrelia burgdorferi, and SFG Rickettsia species. DNA of all five pathogens was found and all chipmunks except Merriam's chipmunk (T. merriami were PCR-positive for at least one of the pathogens. Anaplasma phagocytophilum was most common (40.0%, 2/5 in Sonoma chipmunks (T. sonomae from Marin county and B. burgdorferi most common (37.5%, 27/72 in redwood chipmunks (T. ochrogenys from Mendocino county. RF Borrelia spp. was detected in 2% (6/297 of redwood chipmunks in Mendocino county and 10% (1/10 of both least (T. minimus and lodgepole (T. speciosus chipmunks in the western Sierra. Exposure to SFG Rickettsia spp. was found in the Northern Coastal region (Del Norte, Humboldt and Mendocino counties and in the northern and western Sierra in several species of chipmunks. Y. pestis infection was found only in the western Sierra-in a yellow-pine (T. amoenus and a long-eared (T. quadrimaculatus chipmunk. Though more data are needed to thoroughly understand the roles that different chipmunk species play in disease transmission, our findings suggest that some chipmunk species may be more important to the maintenance of vector-borne diseases than others within each geographic area.

Habitat suitability of patch types: a case study of the Yosemite toad

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Liang, Christina T.; Stohlgren, Thomas J.

2011-01-01

Understanding patch variability is crucial in understanding the spatial population structure of wildlife species, especially for rare or threatened species. We used a well-tested maximum entropy species distribution model (Maxent) to map the Yosemite toad (Anaxyrus (= Bufo) canorus) in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California. Twenty-six environmental variables were included in the model representing climate, topography, land cover type, and disturbance factors (e.g., distances to agricultural lands, fire perimeters, and timber harvest areas) throughout the historic range of the toad. We then took a novel approach to the study of spatially structured populations by applying the species-environmental matching model separately for 49 consistently occupied sites of the Yosemite toad compared to 27 intermittently occupied sites. We found that the distribution of the entire population was highly predictable (AUC = 0.95±0.03 SD), and associated with low slopes, specific vegetation types (wet meadow, alpine-dwarf shrub, montane chaparral, red fir, and subalpine conifer), and warm temperatures. The consistently occupied sites were also associated with these same factors, and they were also highly predictable (AUC = 0.95±0.05 SD). However, the intermittently occupied sites were associated with distance to fire perimeter, a slightly different response to vegetation types, distance to timber harvests, and a much broader set of aspect classes (AUC = 0.90±0.11 SD). We conclude that many studies of species distributions may benefit by modeling spatially structured populations separately. Modeling and monitoring consistently-occupied sites may provide a realistic snapshot of current species-environment relationships, important climatic and topographic patterns associated with species persistence patterns, and an understanding of the plasticity of the species to respond to varying climate regimes across its range. Meanwhile, modeling and monitoring of widely dispersing

Aerosol Optical Properties and Trace Gas Emissions From Laboratory-Simulated Western US Wildfires

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Selimovic, V.; Yokelson, R. J.; Warneke, C.; Roberts, J. M.; De Gouw, J. A.; Reardon, J.; Griffith, D. W. T.

2017-12-01

Western wildfires have a major impact on air quality in the US. In the fall of 2016, 107 fires were burned in the large-scale combustion facility at the US Forest Service Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory as part of the Fire Influence on Regional and Global Environments Experiment (FIREX). Canopy, litter, duff, dead wood, and other fuels from various widespread coniferous and chaparral ecosystems were burned in combinations to represent relevant configurations in the field and as pure components to investigate the effects of individual fuels. The smoke emissions were characterized by a large suite of state-of-the-art instruments. In this study we report emission factor (EF, g compound emitted per kg fuel burned) measurements in fresh smoke of a diverse suite of critically-important trace gases measured by open-path Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (OP-FTIR). We also report aerosol optical properties (absorption EF, single scattering albedo (SSA) and Ångström absorption exponent (AAE)) as well as black carbon (BC) EF measured by photoacoustic extinctiometers (PAX) at 870 and 401 nm. A careful comparison with available field measurements of wildfires confirms that representative data can be extracted from the lab fire data. The OP-FTIR data show that ammonia (1.65 g kg-1), acetic acid (2.44 g kg-1), and other trace gases are significant emissions not previously measured for US wildfires. The PAX measurements show that brown carbon (BrC) absorption is most dominant for combustion of duff (AAE 7.13) and rotten wood (AAE 4.60): fuels that are consumed in greater amounts during wildfires than prescribed fires. We confirm that about 86% of the aerosol absorption at 401 nm in typical fresh wildfire smoke is due to BrC.

[Lutzomyia longiflocosa as suspected vector of cutaneous leishmaniasis in a focus of cutaneous leishmaniasis on the sub-andean region of Tolima department, Colombia, and the knowledge on sandflies by the inhabitants].

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Pardo, Raúl H; Cabrera, Olga Lucía; Becerra, Jorge; Fuya, Patricia; Ferro, Cristina

2006-10-01

Between 2003 and 2004 the largest epidemic of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Colombia (2,810 cases, with the highest incidence of 6,202 x 100,000 in 2004) occurred in the sub-Andean rural area of the municipalities of Chaparral and San Antonio in the department of Tolima. The present study was carried out to identify suspected vectors and to establish the knowledge that the inhabitants have about sand flies in order to use this information for vector control. 46 houses were sampled with CDC light traps set up indoors to establish the sand fly species composition, abundance and the percentage of infestation. Houses were examined during daylight to identify endophagy. A questionnaire was applied in order to estimate the knowledge about sand flies, their role in transmission and the sites and seasons of highest abundance. Three anthropophilic sand fly species of possible epidemiological importance were found. L. longiflocosa was the dominant sand fly species accounting for 81.7% (192 / 235) of all catches and infested the highest number of houses (41.7%). The other two species were L. columbiana and L. nuneztovari, with relative abundances of 3.4% and 2.1%, respectively, and house infestations of 13.0% and 6.5%, respectively. There was no evidence of endophilic behavior. Inhabitants recognized sand flies and their role in transmission. They identified the houses and the dry season as the site and time period of highest sand fly abundance. Based on its high anthropophily, predominance and apparent endophagic behavior, L. longiflocosa is the most probable vector of leishmaniasis indoors. L. columbiana and L. nuneztovari could be involved as secondary vectors outdoors. The importance of these findings on sand fly control is discussed.

West Texas array experiment: Noise and source characterization of short-range infrasound and acoustic signals, along with lab and field evaluation of Intermountain Laboratories infrasound microphones

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Fisher, Aileen

The term infrasound describes atmospheric sound waves with frequencies below 20 Hz, while acoustics are classified within the audible range of 20 Hz to 20 kHz. Infrasound and acoustic monitoring in the scientific community is hampered by low signal-to-noise ratios and a limited number of studies on regional and short-range noise and source characterization. The JASON Report (2005) suggests the infrasound community focus on more broad-frequency, observational studies within a tactical distance of 10 km. In keeping with that recommendation, this paper presents a study of regional and short-range atmospheric acoustic and infrasonic noise characterization, at a desert site in West Texas, covering a broad frequency range of 0.2 to 100 Hz. To spatially sample the band, a large number of infrasound gauges was needed. A laboratory instrument analysis is presented of the set of low-cost infrasound sensors used in this study, manufactured by Inter-Mountain Laboratories (IML). Analysis includes spectra, transfer functions and coherences to assess the stability and range of the gauges, and complements additional instrument testing by Sandia National Laboratories. The IMLs documented here have been found reliably coherent from 0.1 to 7 Hz without instrument correction. Corrections were built using corresponding time series from the commercially available and more expensive Chaparral infrasound gauge, so that the corrected IML outputs were able to closely mimic the Chaparral output. Arrays of gauges are needed for atmospheric sound signal processing. Our West Texas experiment consisted of a 1.5 km aperture, 23-gauge infrasound/acoustic array of IMLs, with a compact, 12 m diameter grid-array of rented IMLs at the center. To optimize signal recording, signal-to-noise ratio needs to be quantified with respect to both frequency band and coherence length. The higher-frequency grid array consisted of 25 microphones arranged in a five by five pattern with 3 meter spacing, without

Vulnerability of birds to climate change in California's Sierra Nevada

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Rodney B. Siegel

2014-06-01

(Pinicola enucleator, and Evening Grosbeak (Coccothraustes vespertinus. Species associated with alpine/subalpine habitats and aquatic habitats received significantly more vulnerable rankings than birds associated with other habitats. In contrast, species of foothill, sagebrush, and chaparral habitats ranked as less vulnerable than other species, and our results suggest these species may respond to climate change in the region with population increases or range expansions.

Coastal fog and low cloud spatial patterns: do they indicate potential biodiversity refugia?

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Torregrosa, A.

2016-12-01

Marine fog and low clouds transfer water and nutrients to coastal ecosystems through advection from the ocean and reduce heat effects by reflecting incoming shortwave radiation. These effects are known to benefit many species, vegetation communities, and habitats such as coastal redwood trees and their understory, maritime chaparral, and coastal streams harboring endangered salmon species. The California floristic region is the highest ranked hotspot in the U.S. and ranked 7th of 35 biodiversity hotspots worldwide in terms of the percent of its plant species that are found nowhere else (endemic). Many environmental drivers have been identified as contributing to California's remarkably high endemism and biodiversity, however, coastal low clouds have not typically been included. This could be due to the lack of data such as high resolution maps of coastal low cloud occurrence or the lack of long term records. Using a recent analysis of hourly National Weather Service satellite data, a stability index (SI) for coastal fog and low cloud cover was derived using two measures of variation and average summertime cloud cover to quantify long term spatial stability trends. Several discrete spatial clumps were identified that had both high temporal stability and high coastal low cloud cover. These areas show a strong correlation with a specific topographic landscape configuration with respect to wind direction. Point occurrence distribution maps of endemic coastal species were overlain with the SI to explore spatial correlation. The federally endangered species that showed very high spatial correlation included Yadon's Rein-orchid (Piperia yadonii), Monterey Spineflower (Chorizanthe pungens var. pungens), and Seaside Bird's-beak (Cordylanthus rigidus ssp. littoralis). Current estimated range maps are not consistent with the SI results suggesting a need to update estimated ranges. Biodiversity measures are being investigated in these areas to explore the hypothesis that they

Laboratory measurements of trace gas emissions from biomass burning of fuel types from the southeastern and southwestern United States

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Burling, I. R.; Yokelson, R. J.; Griffith, D. W. T.; Johnson, T. J.; Veres, P.; Roberts, J. M.; Warneke, C.; Urbanski, S. P.; Reardon, J.; Weise, D. R.; Hao, W. M.; de Gouw, J.

2010-11-01

Vegetation commonly managed by prescribed burning was collected from five southeastern and southwestern US military bases and burned under controlled conditions at the US Forest Service Fire Sciences Laboratory in Missoula, Montana. The smoke emissions were measured with a large suite of state-of-the-art instrumentation including an open-path Fourier transform infrared (OP-FTIR) spectrometer for measurement of gas-phase species. The OP-FTIR detected and quantified 19 gas-phase species in these fires: CO2, CO, CH4, C2H2, C2H4, C3H6, HCHO, HCOOH, CH3OH, CH3COOH, furan, H2O, NO, NO2, HONO, NH3, HCN, HCl, and SO2. Emission factors for these species are presented for each vegetation type burned. Gas-phase nitrous acid (HONO), an important OH precursor, was detected in the smoke from all fires. The HONO emission factors ranged from 0.15 to 0.60 g kg-1 and were higher for the southeastern fuels. The fire-integrated molar emission ratios of HONO (relative to NOx) ranged from approximately 0.03 to 0.20, with higher values also observed for the southeastern fuels. The majority of non-methane organic compound (NMOC) emissions detected by OP-FTIR were oxygenated volatile organic compounds (OVOCs) with the total identified OVOC emissions constituting 61 ± 12% of the total measured NMOC on a molar basis. These OVOC may undergo photolysis or further oxidation contributing to ozone formation. Elevated amounts of gas-phase HCl and SO2 were also detected during flaming combustion, with the amounts varying greatly depending on location and vegetation type. The fuels with the highest HCl emission factors were all located in the coastal regions, although HCl was also observed from fuels farther inland. Emission factors for HCl were generally higher for the southwestern fuels, particularly those found in the chaparral biome in the coastal regions of California.

Assessment of eruption intensity using infrasound waveform inversion at Mt. Etna, Italy.

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Diaz Moreno, A.; Iezzi, A. M.; Lamb, O. D.; Zuccarello, L.; Fee, D.; De Angelis, S.

2017-12-01

Mt. Etna, Italy, a 3,330 m stratovolcano, is one of the most active volcanoes in the world. It is topped by five craters: Voragine, Bocca Nuova, the North-East, South-East, and New South-East Crater. Its activity during the past decade can be separated into two main types: i) nearly-continuous degassing interspersed by mild-to-vigorous Strombolian activity within the summit craters, and ii) effusive flank eruptions. In June 2017, we deployed a large temporary network of 14 infrasound sensors (Chaparral UHP60) and 12 broadband seismometers (Guralp EX-120s). We also recorded Thermal Infrared (TIR) and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle images of activity at the summit vents. Our primary objective is to quantify the intensity and mechanisms of infrasound sources at Mt. Etna, and use these results to improve models of volcanic plumes. From June 2017 until the time of writing, the infrasound network detected signals associated with nearly-continuous degassing and discrete small-to-moderate explosions originating at two distinct locations within the Voragine Crater and the New South-East Crater, respectively. During periods of increased explosive activity, we recorded 20-30 discrete events/day with infrasonic amplitudes of up to 7.5 Pa at 1 km distance from the active vent. The explosions exhibited sinusoidal acoustic waveforms, often with similar characteristics, durations of 1-3 s, and a 2 Hz peak frequency. Due to the relatively dense station coverage and the azimuthal distribution of the network, our deployment offers an opportunity to characterize, with unprecedented resolution, infrasound sources at Mt. Etna. Here we present preliminary results of 3D acoustic wave-field simulations, using a Finite Difference Time Domain modelling scheme, and a preliminary assessment of volumetric eruption rates through acoustic waveform inversion. We investigate the effects of local topography and atmospheric winds on the propagation of the acoustic wavefield, and discuss the implications for

Water repellence assessment in humid mediterranean carbonated environments: influence of shrubland species

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Oscar, Gonzalez-Pelayo; Vicente, Andreu; Luis, Rubio Jose; Carla Sofia, Ferreira; Dinis, Ferreira Antonio Jose

2010-05-01

The importance of natural or induced (fire) water repellence in terms of water redistribution in the soil profile, reduction in soil infiltration capacity and thus, in runoff magnification, is well established. Hydrophobicity has been identified around the world in different climatic conditions, land covers, soil and vegetation types. Regarding soil and vegetation, many studies are based on coarse acidic soils with pine forest, eucalyptus, deciduous trees, grassland, cropland, chaparral vegetation type, and lately in shrublands. However, few studies are related to shrubland in wet Mediterranean carbonated environments. This work is oriented to the study of soil water repellence in these environments by means of WDPT. The study was carried out in Podentes (Coimbra), central Portugal, on 4 ha of shrubland (mainly Quercus coccifera, Pistacia lentiscus and Arbutus unedo), developed on Umbric leptosol and Calcaric cambisol soil types (WRB). The WDPT was assessed depending on the shrubland type, slope orientation, soil depth (0-2 cm and 2-5 cm) and on different soil fractions (unedo. Soil water repellence decreased with depth. The studied shrubland species showed an increasing trend on the soil hydrophobicity persistence: A. unedo > Q. coccifera ≈ P. lentiscus; and depending on the orientation: NE > SW. Direct relationships were obtained between the soil organic matter content and the log WDPT on almost all the surface soil samples. The soil pH and carbonate content did not display correlation with soil water repellence. The different hydrophobic compounds generated by waxes and resins of the different shrubland types, which could be incorporated to the soil as binding agents, seem to be the explanation for the differences of the WDPT data. The patchy distribution of the vegetation rules the persistence of the natural soil water repellence, restraining water infiltration mainly by micropore flow, being then the soil hydrology controlled by the macropore flow, cracks

Fire-driven alien invasion in a fire-adapted ecosystem

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Keeley, Jon E.; Brennan, Teresa J.

2012-01-01

Disturbance plays a key role in many alien plant invasions. However, often the main driver of invasion is not disturbance per se but alterations in the disturbance regime. In some fire-adapted shrublands, the community is highly resilient to infrequent, high-intensity fires, but changes in the fire regime that result in shorter fire intervals may make these communities more susceptible to alien plant invasions. This study examines several wildfire events that resulted in short fire intervals in California chaparral shrublands. In one study, we compared postfire recovery patterns in sites with different prefire stand ages (3 and 24 years), and in another study we compared sites that had burned once in four years with sites that had burned twice in this period. The population size of the dominant native shrub Adenostoma fasciculatum was drastically reduced following fire in the 3-year sites relative to the 24-year sites. The 3-year sites had much greater alien plant cover and significantly lower plant diversity than the 24-year sites. In a separate study, repeat fires four years apart on the same sites showed that annual species increased significantly after the second fire, and alien annuals far outnumbered native annuals. Aliens included both annual grasses and annual forbs and were negatively correlated with woody plant cover. Native woody species regenerated well after the first fire but declined after the second fire, and one obligate seeding shrub was extirpated from two sites by the repeat fires. It is concluded that some fire-adapted shrublands are vulnerable to changes in fire regime, and this can lead to a loss of native diversity and put the community on a trajectory towards type conversion from a woody to an herbaceous system. Such changes result in alterations in the proportion of natives to non-natives, changes in functional types from deeply rooted shrubs to shallow rooted grasses and forbs, increased fire frequency due to the increase in fine fuels

Fire-driven alien invasion in a fire-adapted ecosystem.

Science.gov (United States)

Keeley, Jon E; Brennan, Teresa J

2012-08-01

Disturbance plays a key role in many alien plant invasions. However, often the main driver of invasion is not disturbance per se but alterations in the disturbance regime. In some fire-adapted shrublands, the community is highly resilient to infrequent, high-intensity fires, but changes in the fire regime that result in shorter fire intervals may make these communities more susceptible to alien plant invasions. This study examines several wildfire events that resulted in short fire intervals in California chaparral shrublands. In one study, we compared postfire recovery patterns in sites with different prefire stand ages (3 and 24 years), and in another study we compared sites that had burned once in four years with sites that had burned twice in this period. The population size of the dominant native shrub Adenostoma fasciculatum was drastically reduced following fire in the 3-year sites relative to the 24-year sites. The 3-year sites had much greater alien plant cover and significantly lower plant diversity than the 24-year sites. In a separate study, repeat fires four years apart on the same sites showed that annual species increased significantly after the second fire, and alien annuals far outnumbered native annuals. Aliens included both annual grasses and annual forbs and were negatively correlated with woody plant cover. Native woody species regenerated well after the first fire but declined after the second fire, and one obligate seeding shrub was extirpated from two sites by the repeat fires. It is concluded that some fire-adapted shrublands are vulnerable to changes in fire regime, and this can lead to a loss of native diversity and put the community on a trajectory towards type conversion from a woody to an herbaceous system. Such changes result in alterations in the proportion of natives to non-natives, changes in functional types from deeply rooted shrubs to shallow rooted grasses and forbs, increased fire frequency due to the increase in fine fuels

Numerical modeling of laboratory-scale surface-to-crown fire transition

Science.gov (United States)

Castle, Drew Clayton

Understanding the conditions leading to the transition of fire spread from a surface fuel to an elevated (crown) fuel is critical to effective fire risk assessment and management. Surface fires that successfully transition to crown fires can be very difficult to suppress, potentially leading to damages in the natural and built environments. This is relevant to chaparral shrub lands which are common throughout parts of the Southwest U.S. and represent a significant part of the wildland urban interface. The ability of the Wildland-Urban Interface Fire Dynamic Simulator (WFDS) to model surface-to-crown fire transition was evaluated through comparison to laboratory experiments. The WFDS model is being developed by the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The experiments were conducted at the USFS Forest Fire Laboratory in Riverside, California. The experiments measured the ignition of chamise (Adenostoma fasciculatum) crown fuel held above a surface fire spreading through excelsior fuel. Cases with different crown fuel bulk densities, crown fuel base heights, and imposed wind speeds were considered. Cold-flow simulations yielded wind speed profiles that closely matched the experimental measurements. Next, fire simulations with only the surface fuel were conducted to verify the rate of spread while factors such as substrate properties were varied. Finally, simulations with both a surface fuel and a crown fuel were completed. Examination of specific surface fire characteristics (rate of spread, flame angle, etc.) and the corresponding experimental surface fire behavior provided a basis for comparison of the factors most responsible for transition from a surface fire to the raised fuel ignition. The rate of spread was determined by tracking the flame in the Smokeview animations using a tool developed for tracking an actual flame in a video. WFDS simulations produced results in both surface fire spread and raised fuel bed

Fire severity and ecosytem responses following crown fires in California shrublands.

Science.gov (United States)

Keeley, Jon E; Brennan, Teresa; Pfaff, Anne H

2008-09-01

Chaparral shrublands burn in large high-intensity crown fires. Managers interested in how these wildfires affect ecosystem processes generally rely on surrogate measures of fire intensity known as fire severity metrics. In shrublands burned in the autumn of 2003, a study of 250 sites investigated factors determining fire severity and ecosystem responses. Using structural equation modeling we show that stand age, prefire shrub density, and the shortest interval of the prior fire history had significant direct effects on fire severity, explaining > 50% of the variation in severity. Fire severity per se is of interest to resource managers primarily because it is presumed to be an indicator of important ecosystem processes such as vegetative regeneration, community recovery, and erosion. Fire severity contributed relatively little to explaining patterns of regeneration after fire. Two generalizations can be drawn: fire severity effects are mostly shortlived, i.e., by the second year they are greatly diminished, and fire severity may have opposite effects on different functional types. Species richness exhibited a negative relationship to fire severity in the first year, but fire severity impacts were substantially less in the second postfire year and varied by functional type. Much of this relationship was due to alien plants that are sensitive to high fire severity; at all scales from 1 to 1000 m2, the percentage of alien species in the postfire flora declined with increased fire severity. Other aspects of disturbance history are also important determinants of alien cover and richness as both increased with the number of times the site had burned and decreased with time since last fire. A substantial number of studies have shown that remote-sensing indices are correlated with field measurements of fire severity. Across our sites, absolute differenced normalized burn ratio (dNBR) was strongly correlated with field measures of fire severity and with fire history at a

Interfacing models of wildlife habitat and human development to predict the future distribution of puma habitat

Science.gov (United States)

Burdett, Christopher L.; Crooks, Kevin R.; Theobald, David M.; Wilson, Kenneth R.; Boydston, Erin E.; Lyren, Lisa A.; Fisher, Robert N.; Vickers, T. Winston; Morrison, Scott A.; Boyce, Walter M.

2010-01-01

The impact of human land uses on ecological systems typically differ relative to how extensively natural conditions are modified. Exurban development is intermediate-intensity residential development that often occurs in natural landscapes. Most species-habitat models do not evaluate the effects of such intermediate levels of human development and even fewer predict how future development patterns might affect the amount and configuration of habitat. We addressed these deficiencies by interfacing a habitat model with a spatially-explicit housing-density model to study the effect of human land uses on the habitat of pumas (Puma concolor) in southern California. We studied the response of pumas to natural and anthropogenic features within their home ranges and how mortality risk varied across a gradient of human development. We also used our housing-density model to estimate past and future housing densities and model the distribution of puma habitat in 1970, 2000, and 2030. The natural landscape for pumas in our study area consisted of riparian areas, oak woodlands, and open, conifer forests embedded in a chaparral matrix. Pumas rarely incorporated suburban or urban development into their home ranges, which is consistent with the hypothesis that the behavioral decisions of individuals can be collectively manifested as population-limiting factors at broader spatial scales. Pumas incorporated rural and exurban development into their home ranges, apparently perceiving these areas as modified, rather than non-habitat. Overall, pumas used exurban areas less than expected and showed a neutral response to rural areas. However, individual pumas that selected for or showed a neutral response to exurban areas had a higher risk of mortality than pumas that selected against exurban habitat. Exurban areas are likely hotspots for puma-human conflict in southern California. Approximately 10% of our study area will transform from exurban, rural, or undeveloped areas to suburban or

The age and diversification of terrestrial New World ecosystems through Cretaceous and Cenozoic time.

Science.gov (United States)

Graham, Alan

2011-03-01

Eight ecosystems that were present in the Cretaceous about 100 Ma (million years ago) in the New World eventually developed into the 12 recognized for the modern Earth. Among the forcing mechanisms that drove biotic change during this interval was a decline in global temperatures toward the end of the Cretaceous, augmented by the asteroid impact at 65 Ma and drainage of seas from continental margins and interiors; separation of South America from Africa beginning in the south at ca. 120 Ma and progressing northward until completed 90-100 Ma; the possible emission of 1500 gigatons of methane and CO(2) attributed to explosive vents in the Norwegian Sea at ca. 55 Ma, resulting in a temperature rise of 5°-6°C in an already warm world; disruption of the North Atlantic land bridge at ca. 45 Ma at a time when temperatures were falling; rise of the Andes Mountains beginning at ca. 40 Ma; opening of the Drake Passage between South America and Antarctica at ca. 32 Ma with formation of the cold Humboldt at ca. 30 Ma; union of North and South America at ca. 3.5 Ma; and all within the overlay of evolutionary processes. These processes generated a sequence of elements (e.g., species growing in moist habitats within an overall dry environment; gallery forests), early versions (e.g., mangrove communities without Rhizophora until the middle Eocene), and essentially modern versions of present-day New World ecosystems. As a first approximation, the fossil record suggests that early versions of aquatic communities (in the sense of including a prominent angiosperm component) appeared early in the Middle to Late Cretaceous, the lowland neotropical rainforest at 64 Ma (well developed by 58-55 Ma), shrubland/chaparral-woodland-savanna and grasslands around the middle Miocene climatic optimum at ca. 15-13 Ma, deserts in the middle Miocene/early Pliocene at ca. 10 Ma, significant tundra at ca. 7-5 Ma, and alpine tundra (páramo) shortly thereafter when cooling temperatures were augmented

Infrasound Sensor and Porous-Hose Filter Characterization Results

Science.gov (United States)

Hart, D. M.; Harris, J. M.

2008-12-01

The Ground-Based Nuclear Explosion Monitoring Research and Development (GNEM R&D) program at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) is regarded as the primary center for unbiased expertise in testing and evaluation of geophysical sensors and instrumentation for nuclear explosion monitoring. Over the past year much of our work has focused in the area of infrasound sensor characterization through the continuing development of an infrasound sensor characterization test-bed. Our main areas of focus have been in new sensor characterization and understanding the effects of porous-hose filters for reducing acoustic background signals. Three infrasound sensors were evaluated for characteristics of instrument response, linearity and self-noise. The sensors tested were Chaparral Physics model 2.5 low-gain, New Mexico Tech All-Sensor and the Inter-Mountain Labs model SS avalanche sensor. For the infrasound sensors tested, the test results allow us to conclude that two of the three sensors had sufficiently quiet noise floor to be at or below the Acoustic low-noise model from 0.1 to 7 Hz, which make those sensors suitable to explosion monitoring. The other area of focus has been to understand the characteristics of porous-hose filters used at some monitoring sites. For this, an experiment was designed in which two infrasound sensors were co- located. One sensor was connected to a typical porous-hose spatial filter consisting of eight individual hoses covering a 30m aperture and the second sensor was left open to unimpeded acoustic input. Data were collected for several days, power spectrum computed for two-hour windows and the relative gain of the porous-hose filters were estimated by dividing the power spectrum. The porous-hose filter appears to attenuate less than 3 dB (rel 1 Pa**2/Hz) below 0.1 Hz and as much as 25 dB at 1 Hz and between 20 to 10 dB above 10 Hz. Several more experiments will be designed to address the effects of different characteristics of the individual porous

Laboratory measurements of trace gas emissions from biomass burning of fuel types from the southeastern and southwestern United States

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

I. R. Burling

2010-11-01

, particularly those found in the chaparral biome in the coastal regions of California.

Correspondence of biological condition models of California streams at statewide and regional scales

Science.gov (United States)

May, Jason T.; Brown, Larry R.; Rehn, Andrew C.; Waite, Ian R.; Ode, Peter R; Mazor, Raphael D; Schiff, Kenneth C

2015-01-01

We used boosted regression trees (BRT) to model stream biological condition as measured by benthic macroinvertebrate taxonomic completeness, the ratio of observed to expected (O/E) taxa. Models were developed with and without exclusion of rare taxa at a site. BRT models are robust, requiring few assumptions compared with traditional modeling techniques such as multiple linear regression. The BRT models were constructed to provide baseline support to stressor delineation by identifying natural physiographic and human land use gradients affecting stream biological condition statewide and for eight ecological regions within the state, as part of the development of numerical biological objectives for California’s wadeable streams. Regions were defined on the basis of ecological, hydrologic, and jurisdictional factors and roughly corresponded with ecoregions. Physiographic and land use variables were derived from geographic information system coverages. The model for the entire state (n = 1,386) identified a composite measure of anthropogenic disturbance (the sum of urban, agricultural, and unmanaged roadside vegetation land cover) within the local watershed as the most important variable, explaining 56 % of the variance in O/E values. Models for individual regions explained between 51 and 84 % of the variance in O/E values. Measures of human disturbance were important in the three coastal regions. In the South Coast and Coastal Chaparral, local watershed measures of urbanization were the most important variables related to biological condition, while in the North Coast the composite measure of human disturbance at the watershed scale was most important. In the two mountain regions, natural gradients were most important, including slope, precipitation, and temperature. The remaining three regions had relatively small sample sizes (n ≤ 75 sites) and had models that gave mixed results. Understanding the spatial scale at which land use and land cover affect

Characterizing Ecosystem and Watershed Response to Atmospheric Loading at the Urban Fringe

Science.gov (United States)

Curto, V.; Lopez, S.; Hogue, T.; Rademacher, L.

2006-12-01

The southern California region, although highly urbanized and densely populated, is also characterized by steep mountain ranges with extensive forests and diverse ecosystems. Growing population pressure in the region has forced continuing development at the urban fringe. The large mountain systems situated on the windward side of the Los Angeles basin experience high atmospheric nitrogen deposition rates from various urban pollutants. Arroyo Seco, a watershed located on the eastern edge of the Los Angeles basin, is no exception to this trend. The present study uses hydrologic and geochemical data to assess current watershed dynamics and ecosystem responses to the impacts of regional urbanization. The Arroyo Seco stream runs through a deeply incised canyon originating in the San Gabriel Mountains and draining into the Los Angeles River. The current riparian habitat, which comprises only 15 percent of the total land cover within the watershed, contains over 705 species of plants and animals. We focused our studies on the upper reaches of the basin (~18 square miles), which remains undeveloped and consists primarily of chaparral and evergreen forests. This portion of the watershed has an average watershed slope of approximately 6 percent and relatively porous soils. However, estimated runoff ratio from the existing USGS gage and local precipitation gages indicates fairly high runoff (discharge/precipitation ratio of 0.29). Weekly stream samples have been collected over a several year period and analyzed for standard geochemical constituents and stable isotopes to assess deposition impacts on ecosystem function and overall watershed behavior. Stable isotopes of water measured in the weekly Arroyo Seco stream samples deviate from the global meteoric water line (GMWL), particularly during summer months. High evaporative rates in the summer may be responsible for the distinct summer pattern and overall deviation from the GMWL of stream isotope values. An

Nutrient Flux from Mediterranean Coastal Streams: Carpinteria Valley, California

Science.gov (United States)

Robinson, T. H.; Leydecker, A.; Melack, J. M.; Keller, A. A.

2003-12-01

Along the southern California coast, near Santa Barbara, California, we are measuring nutrient export from specific land uses and developing a model to predict nutrient export at a watershed scale. The area is characterized by a Mediterranean-like climate and short steep catchments producing flashy runoff. The six land uses include chaparral, avocado orchards, greenhouse agriculture, open-field nurseries, and residential and commercial development. Sampling sites are located on defined drainages or storm drains that collect runoff from relatively homogeneous areas representing each land use. Stream water samples are taken once a week during the rainy season, every two weeks during the dry season and every one to four hours during storms. Samples are analyzed for ammonium, nitrate, phosphate, total dissolved nitrogen and particulate nitrogen and phosphorus. Intensive sampling at the thirteen sites of the study was conducted throughout Water Year (WY) 2002 and 2003. We determine discharge from measurements of stage derived from pressure transducers at all sampling sites. This information is then converted to flux at a high temporal resolution. Wet and dry season sampling has shown that nitrate baseflow concentrations vary over three orders of magnitude, from a few micromoles per liter in undeveloped catchments, to a few 100 æmol/L in agricultural and urban watersheds, to 1000 æmol/L where intensive "greenhouse" agriculture dominates. Nitrate loading ranged from a few moles per hectare per storm at undeveloped and residential sites to hundreds at the greenhouse site. Phosphate concentrations show a similar, but smaller, variation from 1 to 100 æmol/L, although the loading is comparable at 1-100 moles/ha-storm. Stormflow concentrations fluctuate with the storm hydrograph: phosphate increases with flow, while nitrate typically decreases due to dilution from runoff probably from impervious surfaces. Nitrate export patterns indicate a marked difference between land use

San Gabriel Mountains, California, Radar image, color as height

Science.gov (United States)

2000-01-01

This topographic radar image shows the relationship of the urban area of Pasadena, California to the natural contours of the land. The image includes the alluvial plain on which Pasadena and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory sit, and the steep range of the San Gabriel Mountains. The mountain front and the arcuate valley running from upper left to the lower right are active fault zones, along which the mountains are rising. The chaparral-covered slopes above Pasadena are also a prime area for wildfires and mudslides. Hazards from earthquakes, floods and fires are intimately related to the topography in this area. Topographic data and other remote sensing images provide valuable information for assessing and mitigating the natural hazards for cities along the front of active mountain ranges.This image combines two types of data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. The image brightness corresponds to the strength of the radar signal reflected from the ground, while colors show the elevation as measured by SRTM. Colors range from blue at the lowest elevations to white at the highest elevations. This image contains about 2300 meters (7500 feet) of total relief. White speckles on the face of some of the mountains are holes in the data caused by steep terrain. These will be filled using coverage from an intersecting pass.The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM), launched on February 11,2000, uses the same radar instrument that comprised the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) that flew twice on the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1994. The mission is designed to collect three-dimensional measurements of the Earth's surface. To collect the 3-D data, engineers added a 60-meter-long (200-foot) mast, an additional C-band imaging antenna and improved tracking and navigation devices. The mission is a cooperative project between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) and the

Recent development of infrasound monitoring network in Romania

Science.gov (United States)

Ghica, Daniela; Popa, Mihaela; Ionescu, Constantin

2017-04-01

The second half of 2016 was marked at National Institute for Earth Physics (NIEP) by a significant development of infrasound monitoring infrastructure in Romania. In addition to IPLOR, the 6-element acoustic array installed at Plostina, in the central part of Romania, since 2009, two other four-element arrays were deployed. The first one, BURARI infrasound research array, was deployed in late July 2016, under a joint effort of AFTAC, USA and NIEP, in the northern part of Romania, in Bucovina region. The sites, placed in vicinity of the central elements of BURAR seismic array (over 1.2 km aperture), are equipped with Chaparral Physics Model 21 microbarometers and Reftek RT 130 data loggers. The data, used mainly for research purposes within the scientific collaboration project between NIEP and AFTAC, are available to scientific community. The second one is a PTS portable infrasound array (I67RO) deployed for one year, starting with the end of September 2016, within a collaboration project between NIEP and PTS of the Preparatory Commission for CTBTO. This array is located in the western part of Romania, at Marisel, Cluj County, covering a 0.9 km aperture and being equipped with CEA/DAM MB2005 microbarometers and Reftek RT 130 data loggers. This joint experiment aims to contribute both to advanced understanding of infrasound sources in Central-Europe and to ARISE design study project, as an expansion of the spatial coverage of the European infrasound network. The data recorded by the three infrasound arrays deployed in Romania, during a same time interval (October - December 2016) were processed into detection arrival bulletins applying CEA/DASE PMCC algorithm embedded in DTK-GPMCC (extended CTBTO NDC-in-a-box) and WinPMCC software applications. The results were plotted and analyzed using DTK-DIVA software (extended CTBTO NDC-in-a-box), in order to assess detectability of each station, as well as the capacity of fusing detections into support of infrasound monitoring

San Gabriel Mountains, California, Shaded relief, color as height

Science.gov (United States)

2000-01-01

This topographic image shows the relationship of the urban area of Pasadena, California to the natural contours of the land. The image includes the alluvial plain on which Pasadena and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory sit, and the steep range of the San Gabriel Mountains. The mountain front and the arcuate valley running from upper left to the lower right are active fault zones, along which the mountains are rising. The chaparral-covered slopes above Pasadena are also a prime area for wildfires and mudslides. Hazards from earthquakes, floods and fires are intimately related to the topography in this area. Topographic data and other remote sensing images provide valuable information for assessing and mitigating the natural hazards for cities along the front of active mountain ranges.This shaded relief image was generated using topographic data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. A computer-generated artificial light source illuminates the elevation data to produce a pattern of light and shadows. Slopes facing the light appear bright, while those facing away are shaded. On flatter surfaces, the pattern of light and shadows can reveal subtle features in the terrain. Colors show the elevation as measured by SRTM. Colors range from blue at the lowest elevations to white at the highest elevations. This image contains about 2300 meters (7500 feet) of total relief. White speckles on the face of some of the mountains are holes in the data caused by steep terrain. These will be filled using coverage from an intersecting pass.The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM), launched on February 11,2000, uses the same radar instrument that comprised the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) that flew twice on the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1994. The mission is designed to collect three-dimensional measurements of the Earth's surface. To collect the 3-D data, engineers added a 60-meter-long (200-foot) mast, an additional C-band imaging antenna

Using ecological forecasting of future vegetation transition and fire frequency change in the Sierra Nevada to assess fire management strategies

Science.gov (United States)

Thorne, J. H.; Schwartz, M. W.; Holguin, A. J.; Moritz, M.; Batllori, E.; Folger, K.; Nydick, K.

2013-12-01

strong upslope shifting of open grassland, chaparral and hardwood types, which may be initiated by increased fire frequencies, particularly where fires have not recently burned within normal fire recurrence interval departures (FRID). An evaluation of four fire management strategies (business as usual; resist change; foster orderly change; protect vital resources) across four combinations of future climate and fire frequency found that no single management strategy was uniformly successful in protecting critical resources across the range of future conditions examined. This limitation is somewhat driven by current management constraints on the amount of management available to resource managers, which suggests management will need to use a triage approach to application of proactive fire management strategies, wherein MOC landscape projections can be used in decision support.

Infrasound research at Kola Regional Seismological Centre, Russia

Science.gov (United States)

Asming, Vladimir; Kremenetskaya, Elena

2013-04-01

A small-aperture infrasound array has been installed in Kola Peninsula, Russia 17 km far from the town of Apatity in the year 2000. It comprises 3 Chaparral V microbarographs placed closely to the APA seismic array sensors and equipped with pipe wind reducing filters. The data are digitized at the array site and transmitted in real time to a processing center in Apatity. To search for infrasound events (arrivals of coherent signals) a beamforming-style detector has been developed. Now it works in near real time. We analyzed the detecting statistics for different frequency bands. Most man-made events are detected in 1-5 Hz band, microbaromes are typically detected in 0.2-1 Hz band. In lower frequencies we record mostly a wind noise. A data base of samples of infrasound signals of different natures has been collected. It contains recordings of microbaromes, industrial and military explosions, airplane shock waves, infrasound of airplanes, thunders, rocket launches and reentries, bolides etc. The most distant signals we have detected are associated with Kursk Magnetic Anomaly explosions (1700 km far from Apatity). We implemented an algorithm for association of infrasound signals and preliminary location of infrasound events by several arrays. It was tested with Apatity data together with data of Sweden - Finnish infrasound network operated by the Institute of Space Physics in Umea (Sweden). By agreement with NORSAR we have a real-time access to the data of Norwegian experimental infrasound installation situated in Karasjok (North Norway). Currently our detection and location programs work both with Apatity and Norwegian data. The results are available in Internet. Finnish militaries routinely destroy out-of-date weapon in autumns at the same compact site in North Finland. This is a great source of repeating infrasound signals of the same magnitude and origin. We recorded several hundreds of such explosions. The signals have been used for testing our location routines

Nitrogen excess in North American ecosystems: Predisposing factors, ecosystem responses, and management strategies

Science.gov (United States)

Fenn, M.E.; Poth, M.A.; Aber, J.D.; Baron, Jill S.; Bormann, B.T.; Johnson, D.W.; Lemly, A.D.; McNulty, S.G.; Ryan, D.F.; Stottlemyer, R.

1998-01-01

Most forests in North America remain nitrogen limited, although recent studies have identified forested areas that exhibit symptoms of N excess, analogous to overfertilization of arable land. Nitrogen excess in watersheds is detrimental because of disruptions in plant/soil nutrient relations, increased soil acidification and aluminum mobility, increased emissions of nitrogenous greenhouse gases from soil, reduced methane consumption in soil, decreased water quality, toxic effects on freshwater biota, and eutrophication of coastal marine waters. Elevated nitrate (NO3/-) loss to groundwater or surface waters is the primary symptom of N excess. Additional symptoms include increasing N concentrations and higher N:nutrient ratios in foliage (i.e., N:Mg, N:P), foliar accumulation of amino acids or NO3/-, and low soil C:N ratios. Recent nitrogen-fertilization studies in New England and Europe provide preliminary evidence that some forests receiving chronic N inputs may decline in productivity and experience greater mortality. Long-term fertilization at Mount Ascutney, Vermont, suggests that declining and slow N-cycling coniferous stands may be replaced by fast-growing and fast N-cycling deciduous forests. Symptoms of N saturation are particularly severe in high-elevation, nonaggrading spruce-fir ecosystems in the Appalachian Mountains and in eastern hardwood watersheds at the Fernow Experimental Forest near Parsons, West Virginia. In the Los Angeles Air Basin, mixed conifer forests and chaparral watersheds with high smog exposure are N saturated and exhibit the highest streamwater NO3/- concentrations for wildlands in North America. High-elevation alpine watersheds in the Colorado Front Range and a deciduous forest in Ontario, Canada, are N saturated, although N deposition is moderate (~8 kg??ha-1??yr-1). In contrast, the Harvard Forest hardwood stand in Massachusetts has absorbed >900 kg N/ha during 8 yr of N amendment studies without significant NO3/- leaching

Subspecific variation in the widespread burl-forming Arctostaphylos glandulosa

Science.gov (United States)

Keeley, Jon E.; Vasey, Michael C.; Parker, V. Thomas

2007-01-01

The genus Arctostaphylos consists mostly of chaparral shrubs known by the common name manzanita, and one of the widest ranging of these is A. glandulosa Eastw., distributed from Baja California to Oregon. Particularly in the southern half of its range it exhibits complex patterns of morphological variation that have long presented taxonomic challenges. Phenetic analysis of morphological traits from over 1400 individuals from throughout the range were used to examine intra- and inter-population patterns of variation. Multivariate ordination and hierarchical cluster analysis were used to determine phenetic patterns linked with ecological and geographical distributions. These analyses suggest the hypothesis that this species comprises two lineages with a common origin but divergent in the presence or absence of glandularity: A. glandulosa Eastw. subsp. glandulosa, characterized by branchlets with long glandular hairs, scabrous or pubescent leaves, and nascent inflorescences with mostly foliaceous bracts; and A. glandulosa Eastw. subsp. cushingiana(Eastw.) Keeley, Vasey and Parker comb. nov., with non-glandular tomentose branchlets, glabrate or pubescent leaves and either foliaceous or short deltoid bracts. Populations dominated by one or the other of these morphotypes occur throughout the range and tend to be separated by elevation or distance from the coast, although mixed populations occur where these taxa come together.Two other glandular subspecies are named here. One is A. glandulosa Eastw. subsp. leucophyllaKeeley, Vasey and Parker, subsp. nov., with intensely glaucous leaves and commonly with foliaceous bracts. A second glandular subspecies is A. glandulosa Eastw. subsp. atumescens Keeley, Vasey & Parker, subsp. nov., a narrowly distributed Baja California endemic similar to the nominate subspecies except that it lacks a basal burl and does not resprout after fire.Of the non-glandular tomentose taxa, in addition to A. glandulosa

Desertification and other ecological impacts produced by the historic Rodeo-Chediski Wildfire of 2000, Arizona, USA

Science.gov (United States)

Neary, D.; Ffolliott, P.; Stropki, C.

2009-04-01

The Rodeo-Chediski Wildfire - the largest in Arizona's history - damaged or destroyed ecosystem resources and disrupted ecosystem functioning in a largely mosaic pattern throughout the ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests exposed to the burn. Impacts of this wildfire on tree overstories were studied on two watersheds in the area burned; one watershed burned by a high severity (stand-replacing) fire, while the other watershed burned by a low severity (stand-modifying) fire. The Rodeo-Chediski wildfire damaged or destroyed ecosystem resources and disrupted the ecological functioning on much of the 189,015 ha impacted by the burning. Intermingling chaparral shrub communities and pinyon-juniper woodlands at lower elevations and ponderosa pine forests at high elevations were located within the burned area. The wildfire was caused by two human ignitions that merged into one inferno. The Rodeo Fire was started by an arsonist on June 18, 2002, while the Chediski Fire was ignited as a signal fire by a stranded motorist on June 20th. The two fires merged on June 26, 2002, to become the Rodeo-Chediski Wildfire. The combined wildfires were contained on July 7th at a suppression (firefighting) cost of about €37.9 million (USA 50 million). However, the estimated costs associated with property losses; losses of ecosystem, anthropological, and cultural resources; and post-fire rehabilitation efforts increased the costs of the wildfire to over €114 million (USA 150 million). About one-half of the total area that was burned by the Rodeo-Chediski Wildfire experienced a high-severity fire, other areas burned at a low- to medium-severity fire, and still other areas were largely unburned according to a Burned Area Emergency Rehabilitation (BAER) report and fire severity map prepared shortly after containment of the wildfire. A mosaic of areas burned at varying fire severities within intermingling unburned areas resulted. Post-fire rehabilitation efforts, including establishment

Coupling field and laboratory measurements to estimate the emission factors of identified and unidentified trace gases for prescribed fires

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yokelson, R. J.; Burling, I. R.; Gilman, J. B.; Warneke, C.; Stockwell, C. E.; de Gouw, J.; Akagi, S. K.; Urbanski, S. P.; Veres, P.; Roberts, J. M.; Kuster, W. C.; Reardon, J.; Griffith, D. W. T.; Johnson, T. J.; Hosseini, S.; Miller, J. W.; Cocker III, D. R.; Jung, H.; Weise, D. R.

2013-01-01

Vegetative fuels commonly consumed in prescribed fires were collected from five locations in the southeastern and southwestern U.S. and burned in a series of 77 fires at the U.S. Forest Service Fire Sciences Laboratory in Missoula, Montana. The particulate matter (PM2.5) emissions were measured by gravimetric filter sampling with subsequent analysis for elemental carbon (EC), organic carbon (OC), and 38 elements. The trace gas emissions were measured with a large suite of state-of-the-art instrumentation including an open-path Fourier transform infrared (OP FTIR) spectrometer, proton-transfer-reaction mass spectrometry (PTR-MS), proton-transfer ion-trap mass spectrometry (PIT-MS), negative-ion proton-transfer chemical-ionization mass spectrometry (NI-PT-CIMS), and gas chromatography with MS detection (GC-MS). 204 trace gas species (mostly non-methane organic compounds (NMOC)) were identified and quantified with the above instruments. An additional 152 significant peaks in the unit mass resolution mass spectra were quantified, but either could not be identified or most of the signal at that molecular mass was unaccounted for by identifiable species. As phase II of this study, we conducted airborne and ground-based sampling of the emissions from real prescribed fires mostly in the same land management units where the fuels for the lab fires were collected. A broad variety, but smaller number of species (21 trace gas species and PM2.5) was measured on 14 fires in chaparral and oak savanna in the southwestern US, as well as pine forest understory in the southeastern US and Sierra Nevada mountains of California. These extensive field measurements of emission factors (EF) for temperate biomass burning are useful both for modeling and to examine the representativeness of our lab fire EF. The lab/field EF ratio for the pine understory fuels was not statistically different from one, on average. However, our lab EF for “smoldering compounds” emitted by burning the semi

Mountain Lions of the Flagstaff Uplands: 2003-2006 Progress Report

Science.gov (United States)

Mattson, David J.

2007-01-01

strong selection for rough terrain and forest or woodland cover. Females differed from males by selecting more strongly for intermediate, rather than extreme, levels of terrain roughness, by selecting more strongly for chaparral vegetation and related rocky areas during winter, and by not selecting as strongly for areas near water sources. Overall, lions collared during this study strongly avoided flat open areas in private ownership. Male but not female lions exhibited pronounced selection for National Park Service jurisdictions. Both males and females year-round avoided residential areas and a zone outward to about 1-3 km and, when within this zone, moved more slowly and with less change in direction compared to when farther away. Collared lions have so far rarely crossed paved highways of any description - orders of magnitude less often than expected by chance. We observed only 3 crossings of an interstate highway, all on I17 and none on I40. Elk comprised the majority (52%) of kills by lions in our study, followed by mule deer (46%), and small mammals (15%). Adults comprised most of the mule deer kills (68%) and mesocarnivores, primarily coyotes (n = 21), comprised 73% of smaller prey. Calf and short-yearling elk comprised the largest single category of kills (29%). In addition to kills, we documented seven instances of scavenging, involving four different lions. Females differed from males by killing more mule deer and virtually all of the mesocarnivores, and by killing fewer elk of all ages. Intervals between kills averaged between 144 hrs (young females) to 221 hours (adult females), whereas average time spent on a kill ranged from 19 hrs (adult males) to 40 hrs (young males). Carcass mass had a strong effect on likelihood that a lion would bury or relocate a kill, the percentage of edibles consumed, and overall time spent feeding. Time spent feeding and likelihoods of carcass burial and relocation all peaked at intermediate carcass masses, suggesting an optimal

Coupling field and laboratory measurements to estimate the emission factors of identified and unidentified trace gases for prescribed fires

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

R. J. Yokelson

2013-01-01

Full Text Available An extensive program of experiments focused on biomass burning emissions began with a laboratory phase in which vegetative fuels commonly consumed in prescribed fires were collected in the southeastern and southwestern US and burned in a series of 71 fires at the US Forest Service Fire Sciences Laboratory in Missoula, Montana. The particulate matter (PM_2.5 emissions were measured by gravimetric filter sampling with subsequent analysis for elemental carbon (EC, organic carbon (OC, and 38 elements. The trace gas emissions were measured by an open-path Fourier transform infrared (OP-FTIR spectrometer, proton-transfer-reaction mass spectrometry (PTR-MS, proton-transfer ion-trap mass spectrometry (PIT-MS, negative-ion proton-transfer chemical-ionization mass spectrometry (NI-PT-CIMS, and gas chromatography with MS detection (GC-MS. 204 trace gas species (mostly non-methane organic compounds (NMOC were identified and quantified with the above instruments. Many of the 182 species quantified by the GC-MS have rarely, if ever, been measured in smoke before. An additional 153 significant peaks in the unit mass resolution mass spectra were quantified, but either could not be identified or most of the signal at that molecular mass was unaccounted for by identifiable species.

In a second, "field" phase of this program, airborne and ground-based measurements were made of the emissions from prescribed fires that were mostly located in the same land management units where the fuels for the lab fires were collected. A broad variety, but smaller number of species (21 trace gas species and PM_2.5 was measured on 14 fires in chaparral and oak savanna in the southwestern US, as well as pine forest understory in the southeastern US and Sierra Nevada mountains of California. The field measurements of emission factors (EF are useful both for modeling and to examine the representativeness of our lab fire EF. The lab EF/field EF ratio for

Library of Congress Model, Anaglyph

Science.gov (United States)

2004-01-01

little rainfall for areas further inland, thus creating the deserts. Topography also controls the land use pattern. The mountains are mostly very rugged, which greatly limits urban expansion. Similarly, major transportation routes are limited to a few mountain passes. Water supply to the city and drainage away from it both follow paths largely dictated by topography. Radio, television, and cell phone transmission towers are all sited with topography in mind to maximize coverage. Its climate and scenic mountain surroundings have been a major part of the appeal of the Los Angeles region as it has grown into one of the world's largest cities over the past 150 years. But the topography that has created this environment also results from and leads to significant natural hazards. The tall mountains result from tectonic compression and uplift of Earth's crust along a kink in the San Andreas fault. (The fault is seen here as a straight boundary between the Mojave Desert and the San Gabriel Mountains.) Major earthquakes occur on the San Andreas fault every few centuries. Damaging earthquakes also occur on other faults across the region several times in a typical human lifespan. Most of these faults were first recognized by their impact upon the topographic pattern. Meanwhile, wildfires are common in the chaparral covered hills and mountains, and topography affects the fire's path (burning more readily upslope) as well as our ability to fight it. After a fire, rainfall from winter storms often strips exposed soil, accumulates it as mudflows in rugged canyons, and dumps it into the adjacent valleys which are now heavily urbanized. Topography is indeed important in the lives of the people of Los Angeles. Landsat has been providing visible and infrared views of the Earth since 1972. SRTM elevation data substantially help in analyzing Landsat images by revealing the third dimension of Earth's surface, topographic height. The Landsat archive is managed by the U.S. Geological Survey

Library of Congress Model, Perspective View

Science.gov (United States)

2004-01-01

limits urban expansion. Similarly, major transportation routes are limited to a few mountain passes. Water supply to the city and drainage away from it both follow paths largely dictated by topography. Radio, television, and cell phone transmission towers are all sited with topography in mind to maximize coverage. Its climate and scenic mountain surroundings have been a major part of the appeal of the Los Angeles region as it has grown into one of the world's largest cities over the past 150 years. But the topography that has created this environment also results from and leads to significant natural hazards. The tall mountains result from tectonic compression and uplift of Earth's crust along a kink in the San Andreas fault. (The fault is seen here as a straight boundary between the Mojave Desert and the San Gabriel Mountains.) Major earthquakes occur on the San Andreas fault every few centuries. Damaging earthquakes also occur on other faults across the region several times in a typical human lifespan. Most of these faults were first recognized by their impact upon the topographic pattern. Meanwhile, wildfires are common in the chaparral covered hills and mountains, and topography affects the fire's path (burning more readily upslope) as well as our ability to fight it. After a fire, rainfall from winter storms often strips exposed soil, accumulates it as mudflows in rugged canyons, and dumps it into the adjacent valleys which are now heavily urbanized. Topography is indeed important in the lives of the people of Los Angeles. Landsat has been providing visible and infrared views of the Earth since 1972. SRTM elevation data substantially help in analyzing Landsat images by revealing the third dimension of Earth's surface, topographic height. The Landsat archive is managed by the U.S. Geological Survey's Eros Data Center (USGS EDC). Elevation data used in this image were acquired by the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour, launched