Graduate Take-Home Exam

Type your answers and conform to word limits. Return the completed exam to Guy or Dave by Friday, 26 March at 1:00 p.m. Please use an alias to identify your exam. The exam is open-book and open-notes.

1. What is the "command-and-control" pathology, as described by Holling and Meffe? Describe steps that individuals can take to mitigate this large-scale sociological constraint. [15 points; 250 words or fewer]

2. How can a vegetation manager combine monitoring with ordination to assess changes in community structure over time? [10 points; 150 words or fewer]

3. Deconstruct the mission statement of the USDA Forest Service with respect to the ability of a vegetation manager to accomplish specific objectives. [25 points; 350 words or fewer]

1. List 5 specific objectives of vegetation management associated with forests. [5 points]

2. Briefly describe a realistic scenario in which 2 objectives from the above list would conflict with each other. [5 points]

3. Describe a management action that would mitigate the conflict. [6 points]

4. We discussed maintenance of aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) as one management alternative in high-elevation forest stands on Mt. Lemmon. What was the primary objective associated with this activity? [3 points]

5. Which of the following protected species constrains the ability to maintain aspen via removal of conifers? [2 points; select the single best response]
   1. red brome
   2. pygmy owl
   3. Douglas-fir
   4. spotted owl
   5. goshawk

6. The components or processes of the natural world that we choose to conserve depend to a great extent on human values. These values change over time, at least at the level of societies. Briefly describe one example of a societal value that has changed within the last few decades. [4 points]

7. Briefly describe how the linkage between surface water and ground water has changed at Rincon Creek within the last 150 years. [3 points]

8. What human activities contributed to this alteration in hydrological processes? [5 points]

9. Indicate whether the following descriptors pertain to ordination (O), cluster analysis (C), both (OC), or neither (-). [1 point each]
   1. ____involves several dependent variables
   2. ____primarily used to classify similar sites
   3. ____similar sites have little distance between them
   4. ____results are presented with a dendrogram
   5. ____primarily used to summarize and display patterns when relationships are unclear

10. Sketch an ordination diagram or dendrogram with the following properties: (1) 10 sites were sampled; (2) among all sites, sites 2 and 10 are most similar; (3) sites 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 form a discrete group; (4) sites 1, 3, and 5 form another discrete group. [8 points]

11. Use of vegetation changes in the past as a basis for prediction of vegetation changes in the future is potentially misleading. Why? In other words, describe one of the disadvantages associated with such extrapolation. [5 points]

12. Briefly describe one specific approach that natural resource managers can use that will contribute to a culture of cooperation between the science of ecology and the management of vegetation. [5 points]

13. Describe a realistic scenario in which use of the Clementsian model of succession could contribute to inappropriate decision-making in vegetation management. [7 points]

14. Briefly describe the techniques used at Guanacaste National Park to restore tropical dry forest. [6 points]

15. Match the correct tool to the task: a=box, b=clipper, c=flail-vac, d=land imprinter. [1 point each]
    1. ____store seed
    2. ____prepare seedbed
    3. ____harvest seed
    4. ____clean seed

16. What was the dominant historic "product" of the NRCS Plant Materials Center? What is the primary current "product"? [4 points]

17. Define plagiarism. [3 points]

18. List two mechanisms that produce either spatial or temporal variability in soil seed banks and briefly describe how these two mechanisms operate. [5 points]

19. What is the Oskar Syndrome? What advantage does it give to long-lived, shade-tolerant trees? [5 points]

20. List 5 properties of a safe site for seed germination and seedling establishment. [5 points]

21. You are an oak (Quercus spp.) seed (acorn) in the soil under your parent tree. Is this a good place for you to germinate and become established as a seedling? Why or why not? [5 points]