Nearly a quarter of visits to the Emergency Department are for conditions that could have been managed via outpatient treatment; improvements that allow patients to quickly recognize and receive appropriate treatment are crucial. The growing popularity of mobile technology creates new opportunities for real-time adaptive medical intervention, and the simultaneous...
After large-scale disturbances such as fire, seeding can be necessary to reestablish a plant community and prevent soil erosion. While native plants are ideal for providing ecosystem services and supporting wildlife, currently seeded natives often fail to establish in disturbed landscapes. Further, reseeding with native plants is often hindered by...
Climate change, whether referring to historic ice ages or contemporary shifts in global climate patterns, has been linked to wide-ranging and regionally variable changes in biotic communities.
Understanding the factors that drive the maintenance of polymorphisms in plant populations has long been of interest to evolutionary biology. Variation in floral traits has often been attributed to selection by pollinators, but recent evidence suggests that other biotic and abiotic agents may also contribute to floral trait differentiation. In...
Because long-chain n-alkanes (n-C21 to n-C37) are found in the epicuticular leaf waxes of all vascular plants and are stable, long-lived molecules, the study of their molecular and isotopic compositions stands to serve as a potentially powerful tool in the fields of modern chemotaxonomy and paleoecology. This study attempts to...
Trees in urban areas offer ecosystem services like carbon sequestration, storm water attenuation, reduction of energy used in buildings and wildlife habitat. Cities invest substantial funds and resources to maintain a healthy urban forest, and much research has been done to improve its resiliency and sustainability. Studies have been done...
The prairie grasses Andropogon gerardii and Sorghastrum nutans have seeds with awns that twist in response to changes in humidity. The humidity-sensitive, or hygroscopic, part of the awn twists, moving the bent, passive portion in an arc. This trait has been demonstrated to improve seedling recruitment in other grass species...
Understanding how root traits vary within and among species, and how they respond to heterogeneous environments, can provide important insight into functional plant attributes that influence plant survival in competitive environments. Selecting plant material with root traits that will support its survival in competitive environments may help improve the outcomes...
Restoration managers may select seed from a variety sources for their restoration projects. If the purchased seed is not of the local ecotype, land managers run the risk of poor establishment in the short-term and outcrossing between local and non-local ecotypes, genetic swamping, and the loss of local genetic diversity...
Due to concerns about population declines and habitat destruction, secretive marsh birds (SMBs) are of high conservation concern at state, regional, and national levels. Gaps in research on SMB habitat pose barriers to conservation and wetland restoration efforts.
Fire is an agent of ecosystem change that has played a critical role in shaping the tallgrass prairie ecosystem. Periodic prescribed fire maintains the prairie by removing woody and invasive plant species, and stimulating growth of native herbaceous species. Fire’s beneficial effect on the tallgrass prairie aboveground community, in terms...
Once widespread throughout southern Wisconsin, Quercus savannas are now one of the most endangered communities due to fire suppression and increasing landscape fragmentation. These plant communities are also highly susceptible to invasions by nonnative, exotic species. Understanding the mechanisms of exotic species invasion has been the focus of numerous studies....
Hybridization is an important evolutionary pathway to genetic diversity, fitness, and ultimately to the emergence of new species. In contrast, hybridization between a native and an introduced species can lead to a loss of locally adapted gene complexes and ultimately to the extinction of the native. In the last decade,...
With increasing urbanization and creation of novel habitat types, green roofs can provide usable habitat for many species. To date, most research on green roofs has focused on minimizing the environmental impacts of buildings but little is known about the ecological services they provide. Previous research has shown that although...
Underutilized crops have the potential to economically benefit developing countries and to improve global food security. Breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis, Moraceae) is one such crop that can provide essential nutrients and requires relatively low-energy input to maintain compared to major crops. Humans have selected for many cultivars of breadfruit since its...
The introduction of non-native pests in general, and invasive plants in particular, has been receiving increasing interest by scientists, environmental groups, and to a certain extent the general public. Deleterious effects from the release of such alien species include threats to the environment, national economies, and even human health. The...
Plant-aphid systems provide a valuable opportunity for studying the ecological consequences of land use change for interacting species. The North American tallgrass prairie has undergone severe reduction and fragmentation due to agricultural development. The prairie perennial Echinacea angustifolia, a model system for studying population-level effects of habitat fragmentation, hosts a...
The environmental and plant physiological correlates of plant growth and reproductive effort in the locally threatened orchid, Cypripedium candidum Muhl. ex Willd were examined in the context of a conceptual model of demographic and reproductive trade-offs, focusing on three Illinois populations. This study addresses the current status and long-term trends...
Nitrogen (N) deposition can alter belowground microbial communities, especially ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi, resulting in a reduced ability of associated trees to access organic nutrients. This study tested whether N addition decreases ECM species richness and shifts ECM species composition across spatial scales in a subtropical slash pine (Pinus elliottii) plantation...
The tallgrass prairie once dominated much of the mid-western United States. Today, this highly productive system has been severely reduced, contributing to an array of environmental problems. The recent renaissance in natural area restoration and stewardship of the tallgrass prairie in the Chicago Wilderness region (Illinois, USA), especially in the...