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Avian community response to group-selection harvest on a mixed-forest American tree farm in west-central New Hampshire
No full textEarly-successional species of songbirds are in sharp decline especially in Eastern North America. These species colonize early-successional forest that are currently near historic lows for most of the Northeastern United States. Intentional management for these species often recruits predators, invasive plants or nest parasites, depending on landscape context. Managing for early-successional species can negatively affect late-successional species that depend on mature forest. Currently, habitat for arlysuccessional species is declining due to urban expansion and natural maturation of early-successional vegetation into more mature forests. By creating a mosaic of small group-selections within mature mixed deciduous-coniferous forest, we successfully recruited early-successional species without decreasing the abundance or reproductive performance of later-successional species. Through monitoring fledging success of three early-successional species, magnolia warbler (Setophaga magnolia), chestnutsided warbler (Setophaga penslyvanica), common yellow throat (Geothlypis trichas) and three late-successional species, black-throated blue warbler (Setophaga caerulescens), hermit thrush (Catharus guttatus) and ovenbird (Seiurus aurocapillus) we were able to assess the impact of the harvest on two suites of avian species. We conducted point counts one year prior to harvest and seven consecutive years postharvest, and documented habitat use of the post-harvest mosaic for these six species in 2017 and 2018. Though the first monitoring season (2017) did not include intensive monitoring of hermit thrush or ovenbird, both early and late successional species paired and fledged young at rates that suggest the habitat was suitable to each suite of species. Early-successional songbird species were 74% successful in fledging young when combining monitoring data from 2017 and 2018 and forest-interior species were 64% successful in fledging young. Point counts revealed that immediately postharvest, species richness increased and continued to increase significantly through the recruitment of several early successional species and persistence of the late successional species. We found that early-successional songbird species began to increase in abundance and richness after the fifth year post harvest with no negative pattern of decrease in forest-interior songbird species abundance and richness across years. We documented that through the group-selection cutting there were significantly more woody stems less than 2.5 cm in cut areas and less canopy cover when compared to mature forest. Contrary to our prediction there was no significant difference in the density of woody stems less than 8 cm in cut areas compared to mature forest. This is most likely due to the high amounts of herbaceous plants such as raspberry (Rubus spp.) in cut areas which did not contribute in the woody stem count. The density of stems less than 8cm was negatively correlated with nest success, though previous studies have shown opposite findings. None of the measured shrub and tree vegetation variables or ground cover variables had a significant correlation with successful nesting. The return rates of those species banded in 2018 were 39% for black-throated blue warblers, 25% for common yellow throats and 14% for chestnut sided warblers. More than half of New Hampshire is privately owned and so landowners and consulting foresters can play a critical role in sustaining early successional habitat without negatively impacting late-successional migratory birds
Circle Trot - Preparation Meeting [video]
No full textThis video is the first meeting of the Circle Trot Project. Pam Childs and the students that are apart of the project, meeting weekly with the Leaders of the Circle Program to organize the Circle Trot Race. This is a fundraiser for the Circle Program. The Circle Program provides girls from low-income New Hampshire families with new opportunities to learn the skills, courage and confidence they need to handle the challenges in their lives
LRPC Presentations, Part II [Video]
No full textThe Lakes Region Planning Commission (LRPC) is a non-profit association of local governments that provides comprehensive planning services to meet the diverse needs of New Hampshire’s Lakes Region. Their mission is to provide effective planning, in order to achieve and sustain a quality environment, a dynamic economy, and local cultural values by supporting community efforts through leadership, education, technical assistance, information advocacy, coordination and responsive representation.
This video depicts the second round of presentations for the LRPC Communication & Outreach Initiative cluster project. This was done in front of a group of VIPs that are the association\u27s leaders. It was exciting for the group to present their findings to the LRPC
Exploring the Effectiveness of Social Media Activism
No full textThe last ten years have seen the rise and fall of numerous activism campaigns started on social networks, ranging in focus from politics to poverty and receiving varied levels of success. Consequently, many have questioned whether or not social media activism is a truly viable vehicle for social action. By examining the campaigns KONY 2012 and Save Darfur, I consider whether online engagement equates to long-term success. In the case of KONY 2012, excitement about the issue was quick to rise but was not sustained as the campaign’s single goal of capturing Joseph Kony remained unreached. Save Darfur gained wide popularity online while raising a large sum of donations, but its success is questionable as research now proves all funds were raised by less than one percent of those following online. This might appear to support the opinion that online activism is not an effective tool for social action. However, these campaigns provide important information about the affordances of these platforms. The research describes a few areas of social activism in which social networks prove incredibly effective. More research is needed to explore how the strengths of social networks can be used strategically in developing successful campaigns in the future
Genetic Variants in the CTGF Gene Associated with a Family History of Heart Disease
No full textA person in the United States suffers from a heart-related incident every minute. Damage sustained during a heart attack can cause chronic health problems, heart failure, and death. Connective Tissue Growth Factor (CTGF) is a gene that coordinates repair of damaged tissue after a heart attack. When there is too much CTGF, faulty repair can occur causing scarring and decreased heart function. The aim of this research is to determine if CTGF genetic variants correlate with a family history of heart disease. Cheek cells were collected from PSU volunteers and DNA was sequenced to find genetic variants. Volunteers also completed a survey recording family history of heart disease-related incidents or conditions. A Kendall’s Tau b test was used to correlate the presence of genetic variants and survey data. One variant, C156T, correlated to an increased family history of heart disease (p-value \u3c 0.001). In the PSU population, we found 17 variants, 6 of which are novel. Finding new variants indicates that small resequencing efforts can lead to the discovery of previously unknown human genetic diversity. Investigating the relationship between CTGF genetic variation and family history of heart disease may help discover genetic variation that influences scarring
It Starts with Students
No full textRelationships and retention go hand in hand. Join us for stories from faculty and staff and the students they have impacted. We often forget the number of PSU employees our students come in contact with during their time on campus and the impact we can have on their student experience and sometimes even their lives. As we approach the beginning of a new academic year it is important to be reminded each of us serve an important and ongoing role in seeing these students through to graduation. These stories are just a few examples and we are excited to share them with you
EAB
No full textDemographic shifts and a strong economy, not matched with increasing public investment in state higher education allocations, have colleges around the country struggling for enrollment growth and institutional vitality. At the same time, student needs are more diverse, course catalogues are more complex, and the costs of veering off the credential path are at an all-time high. In response, forward-thinking colleges have begun approaching student success and retention not just as moral/mission imperatives but also as a necessary measure for preserving and growing tuition revenue. Research tells us that investing in student success is an effective strategy for enrollment management, retention, and ultimately the bottom line. How has this shift influenced the mindset, strategy, and investments made by higher education leaders? What are the roles of faculty and the classroom in these efforts? This session will provide a broad overview of trends in student success and illustrate which investments in retention have provided wins for savvy institutions
Integrating Career Development Into Clusters, Curricular, and Co-Curricular Programs
No full textThe three C’s – Cluster, curricular, and co-curricular programs. Be a key contributor in this interactive session as we explore how to integrate career development into the curricular, co-curricular, and cluster experiences at PSU. This session invites faculty and ataff to engage in an ideation process to determine scalable programming and resources to meet your needs. Please join us for this opportunity to enhance career development by making it an integrated part of the Plymouth State experience for our students