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Skip to Search Results- 8Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (GPS), Faculty of
- 8Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (GPS), Faculty of/Theses and Dissertations
- 3Biological Sciences, Department of
- 3Biological Sciences, Department of/Journal Articles (Biological Sciences)
- 2Cahill Lab of Experimental Plant Ecology
- 2Cahill Lab of Experimental Plant Ecology/Journal Articles (Cahill Lab)
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1998
Abstract: Sporocarps of fungi belonging to ectomycorrhizal genera were collected between 1993 and 1997 at two sites at the upper elevational limit of the subalpine forest in montane Alberta. Host plants include Abies lasiocarpa, Picea engelmannii, Larix lyallii, Betula glandulosum, and Dryas and...
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2005
Hik, D.S., Zazula, G., Gillis, E.A., Morrison, S.F.
Male arctic ground squirrels (Spermophilus parryii) rely on food they cached the previous year for the energy they need to compete for mates each spring. We collected cheek-pouch contents of arctic ground squirrels trapped during three summers (2000–02) as an indication of what squirrels cached....
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The impact of recreational activities on an alpine vascular plant community in the Canadian Rockies
DownloadFall 2010
Alpine tundra is notorious for its fragility and slow recovery following disturbance. Tourism is increasing in alpine areas, creating the need to improve our understanding of the impacts of recreation in these ecosystems. This study examined the impacts of hiking and off-highway vehicle use on...
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Shrub encroachment in arctic and alpine tundra: Patterns of expansion and ecosystem impacts.
DownloadFall 2011
With a warming climate, northern ecosystems will face significant ecological changes such as permafrost thaw, increased frequency of forest fires, and shifting ecosystem boundaries including the spread of canopy-forming shrubs into tundra communities. A growing number of observations show...
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The roles of temperature and host plant interactions in larval development and population ecology of Parnassius smintheus Doubleday, the Rocky Mountain Apollo butterfly
DownloadFall 2011
Alpine environments are harsh and unpredictable. Exogenous factors such as weather might therefore be expected to dominate processes affecting population dynamics of alpine organisms, relative to endogenous factors including plant-animal interactions. The alpine butterfly Parnassius smintheus...
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Benthic Responses to Nitrogen and Phosphorus Deposition on Alpine Ponds in Banff National Park: A Replicated Whole-Ecosystem Experiment
DownloadFall 2012
Nitrogen (N) and Phosphorous (P) deposition at high elevations has increased by 40% over the last fifteen years, causing concern for the 3000+ alpine ponds in Banff National Park. A novel whole-ecosystem experiment was used to test for the effects of elevated N and P deposition on benthic...
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Population, individual and behavioural approaches to understanding the implications of habitat change for arctic ground squirrels
DownloadFall 2012
The ecological niche describes the entire set of resources and environmental conditions suitable for species to occur and persist. In northern ecosystems, rapid climate change appears to be altering these conditions and increasing the likelihood of shifts in distribution and abundance of species,...
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Spring 2014
The worldwide biodiversity crisis has intensified the need to better understand how biodiversity and human disturbance are related. Yet this relationship lacks both consensus in theoretical expectations and consistency in observed empirical patterns. I present one of the largest extent studies...
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Limited impacts of extensive human land use on dominance, specialization, and biotic homogenization in boreal plant communities
Download2015-01-01
Mayor, S. J., Boutin, S., He, F., Cahill, J. F.
Background Niche theory predicts that human disturbance should influence the assembly of communities, favouring functionally homogeneous communities dominated by few but widespread generalists. The decline and loss of specialists leaves communities with species that are functionally more similar....
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Scaling Disturbance Instead of Richness to Better Understand Anthropogenic Impacts on Biodiversity
Download2015-01-01
Mayor, S. J., Cahill, J. F., He, F., Boutin, S.
A primary impediment to understanding how species diversity and anthropogenic disturbance are related is that both diversity and disturbance can depend on the scales at which they are sampled. While the scale dependence of diversity estimation has received substantial attention, the scale...