<p>Manatees (Mammalia: Sirenia), along with the closely related dugongs, are the only herbivorous marine mammals. Manatees consume a wide variety of vascular plants and algae in both marine and freshwater habitats. However, ...

Snake populations in the North American tallgrass prairie appear to be declining, yet data unavailability impedes the development of enhanced ecological understanding of snake species-habitat relationships and also hinders ...

<p>This dissertation consists of four chapters. The first three chapters examine protected areas (or parks) from multiple perspectives. Parks are the first, and often only, line of defense in efforts to conserve biodiversity. ...

<p>Rivers interact with their valleys from headwaters to mouth, but nowhere as dynamically as in their floodplains. Rivers deliver water, sediments, and solutes onto the floodplain land surface, and the land in turn supplies ...

<p>This study seeks to investigate the dynamics of dead plant carbon over fifty years of old-field forest development at the Calhoun Long Term Soil-Ecosystem Experiment (LTSE) in South Carolina, USA. Emphasis is on the ...

<p>Afforestation, the conversion of historically treeless areas into forests, is a rapidly spreading land-use change with the potential to sequester carbon. Afforested plantations typically feature fast growing exotic tree ...

<p>As the human population continues to increase, the effects of land use change on streams and their watersheds will be one of the central problems facing humanity, as we strive to find ways to preserve important ecosystem ...

<p>Under the increasing threat of climate change, it is imperative to understand the impact that environmental phenomena have on the demography and behavior of natural populations. In the last few decades an ever increasing ...

<p>Root carbon exudation is a critical element of the soil carbon cycle, and how both environmental conditions and plant traits influence exudation remains uncertain. I studied relationships between environmental conditions, ...

<p>This dissertation examines issues concerning sap flux scaled estimates of the canopy-averaged transpiration rate of trees per unit leaf area (E_L) and stomatal conductance (G_S), as well as their ...