Landmark News, Volume 18 Issue 1—Page 1

Spring / Summer 2011 D E P A R T M E N T O F R E N E W A B L E R E S O U R C E S

Volume 18 Issue 1

Landmark News It is a time of change in the Department of Renewable Resources. First, John Spence has stepped down from his position as Chair of the Department. Our Depart-ment owes John an enormous THANK YOU for the 10 years he has given to the Department. His time in the position has been transformative for the Depart-ment. We have hired 14 new academic staff members, our research program has ballooned to ~ $8 million in external funding and we now have ~125 graduate stu-dents. John‘s dedication and leadership will be diffi-cult to match – he was able to motivate faculty, staff and students with humor and by his example while at the same time maintaining core principles of integrity and fairness. John is taking administrative leave in the next year and we are thankful that he will be staying on as a professor in the Department when he returns from his leave. John will be travelling to reconnect with research col-leagues and continue his work in forest and wetland entomology. We wish John a bon voyage and expect him to come back rested to continue his good work as a professor in Renewable Resources. From time to time, I hope to tap his judgment and energy.

It is an exciting time in the Department:

Dr. Bill Shotyk has accepted the position as the Bocock Chair in Sustainable Agriculture and the Environment and will be arriving at the University in October. His special ultra clean laboratory is being planned so that he can analyze the origin, mobilization, fate and significance of trace metals and contaminants in the environment. Bill has won a large Canada Foundation for Innovation Grant in order to establish his lab. He is anxious to link his work on water with sustainable agriculture. Bill has graciously agreed to give the Bentley Lecture in Sustainable Agriculture on October 13, 2011. We are pleased that Bill will be the speaker at this high profile event.

Lee Foote has taken on the Directorship of the Devonian Botanic Garden after the retire-ment of Bruce Dancik. This is a happy situation as Lee will direct his talent and energies to developing and improving the Garden but he will still have graduate students in Renew-able Resources and continue to do some teaching in the Department. We are also cur-rently advertising for a professor to replace Lee in our Department. We plan to recruit a professor in Conservation Ecology with specialized skills and interest in aquatic, wetland or prairie ecosystems and their management.

We are currently advertising for a position in Pedology in our Department. This person will hopefully link classic pedology with landscape scale processes, hydropedology, solute fluxes, or transformations of contaminants.

Dr. Paul Woodard and Dr. Peter Blenis have retired after many years of distinguished ser-vice to the Department. We are fortunate, however, that both have been persuaded to

Message from the Chair

Research Abroad P. 3

Awards and Honors P. 5

Northern Tracks P. 6

Publications P. 7

Tree Identification P. 15

Landmark Laurels P. 16

Alumni Trails P. 17

Graduate Student News

P.19

Contact Us P.23

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

Landmark News, Volume 18 Issue 1—Page 2

continue with some teaching during their transition to retirement.

Land reclamation in Renewable Resources has been given a boost by the establishment of the Helmholtz-Alberta Initiative (Anne Naeth, David Chanasyk, Miles Dyck, Tariq Siddique, Simon Landhäusser, and Scott Chang). This joint initiative with the Helmholtz Association of German Research Institutes and Brandenburg Technical University will search for novel ways to reclaim mined lands. Building upon the success of this program, Anne Naeth, David Chanasyk, Sylvie Quideau, Tariq Sid-dique, Vic Adamowicz Simon Landhäusser and Julia Foght (Biological Sciences) were able to win a $1.65 million CREATE Grant from NSERC in order to establish an international graduate school in land reclamation – most of this funding will be used to support stipends for graduate students in land reclamation.

We are developing further initiatives in Restoration Ecology. We have several irons in the fire to try to expand our work and partnerships in this area. Stay tuned.

Teaching exchanges are expanding in our Department. The Northern Environmental and Conservation Sciences program, joint with Yukon College is up and running. Secondly, this fall we will have our first cohort of Chinese students registered in a 2 + 2 joint program with a group of Chinese Universities.

The Western Partnership for Wildland Fire Research (University of Alberta, Canadian Forestry Service and Alberta Sustainable Resource Development) has been established and Mike Flannigan and Soung Ryu are now professors in our Department. They are recruiting graduate students, writing grant proposals and establishing their first research projects. The importance of wildland fire as a focal area for research has recently been highlighted by the spring fires that have devastated communities of Alberta.

We have undergone a review of Forestry Program by the Canadian Forestry Accreditation Board and have received their draft report. The committee made a series of recommendations and suggestions to improve our undergraduate programs in Forestry and Forest Business Management. We will be responding to their report before the end of July and the decision on accredita-tion will be provided in September. Based upon the report, we are optimistic for a positive decision.

Scott Chang (Forest Soils) and Fiona Schmiegelow (Conservation Ecology) were promoted to Full Professor and Andreas Hamann (Forest Genetics and Climate modeling) was promoted to Associate Professor – congratulations!

In the next months I plan to settle into understanding the responsibilities and opportunities associated with being the Chair of Renewable Resources. I will need to get to know the staff and issues facing our Department. I hope to strengthen ties with community, including the Government of Alberta, industrial companies that are associated with land management, NGOs and farmers and ranchers. I also plan to spend considerable time on the review of the curriculum of the Undergraduate programs in the Faculty of Agricultural, Life & Environmental Sciences including the Environmental and Conservation Science, Forest-ry, and Agriculture Programs. Please give me a call or stop by to chat about the exciting things that we do and opportunities for education and research in the management of land and its biota.

Vic Lieffers, Chair, Renewable Resources

Michael Wagner Wins Prestigious Award

Michael Wagner‘s M.Sc. Thesis ―Hydrologic risk assessment framework for Alberta‘s green zone‖ was selected as the winner of the ―2011 Best Master‘s Thesis in Canada related to Hydrotechnical Engineering and Water Management‖ by the Canadian Society of Civil Engineering (CSCE). Mike will be receiving this prestigious award along with a plaque and $1000 prize at the 2011 CSCE Annual General Meeting & Conference in Ottawa, ON. June 14-17, 2011.

A very hearty congratulations to Mike from staff and colleagues in Renewable Resources.

Landmark News, Volume 18 Issue 1—Page 3

By Anne C.S. McIntosh, PhD Candidate, Forest Biology and Management I received a NSERC Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplement last fall. This scholarship gave me the opportunity to gain valuable hands-on experience working with researchers and students on boreal forest ecosystems in northern Sweden. I completed a three-month re-search project in the Department of Forest Ecology and Management at the Swedish Agri-cultural University (SLU), Umeå, Sweden under the supervision of Dr. Michael Gundale. I examined how the below-ground environment changes in response to forest cover type and geographical location, including when a species (lodgepole pine) is introduced to a region outside of its native range. The study compared forest floor properties, processes and micro-bial communities among four forest types (Canadian lodgepole pine, introduced Swedish lodgepole pine, Swedish Scots pine, and Swedish Norway spruce - birch).

Upon arrival in northern Sweden, with winter coming unexpectedly early, I promptly head-ed out to my research sites (driving a Volvo wagon of course!) and collected forest floor sam-ples for analysis (I brought Alberta samples I collected just before leaving Canada with me). After completing my field work I spent a lot of time doing lab work, enhancing my knowledge of analytical techniques for measuring soil properties. Findings from our study suggest that pine forests are similar among species and country for many of the soil proper-ties we measured, whereas there appear to be more soil differences found between the pine and mature spruce-birch forests.

In addition to the knowledge I gained from my research abroad, I also experienced many unexpected benefits by living in a different culture, and I shared my experiences and insights with friends and family by blogging about my life in Sweden (http://www.canadianneinsweden.blogspot.com). Personal highlights included commuting by bicycle despite cold snowy conditions, partaking in the Swedish love of sweets, and cross-country ski ad-ventures. After living in northern Sweden for three of the darkest months of the year (we had just over 4 hours daylight at Christmas), I am considering mov-ing back to pursue a research position after gradua-tion. I think that the Michael Smith program pro-vides a valuable research experience, and I encourage other NSERC recipients to apply for this scholar-ship. This project has greatly enhanced my PhD experience and my development both as a forest ecologist and as an individual.

Collecting forest floor samples — in the snow!

Traveling to Northern Sweden to Compare Soil Properties Among Forest Types

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE ABROAD

At the campus entrance to SLU — Umeå university cam-

pus in the background.

Tavelsjöleden, northern Sweden - the sun

setting by mid-afternoon.

Landmark News, Volume 18 Issue 1—Page 4

The Helmholtz-Alberta Initiative (HAI) Theme 6 (Land Reclamation) participants Anne Naeth, Ellen Macdonald, David Chanasyk, Scott Chang, Miles Dyck, Simon Landhausser, Tariq Siddique, Heather Archibald, Katrina Forsch, Victoria Collins and Brad Pinno participated in several events in Germany. They met at Brandenburg Technical University in Cott-bus, Germany for an International Research Training Group (U of A-BTU-GFZ) workshop. They then participated in the 2nd Annual HAI Workshop held at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geoscience in Potsdam, Germany on March 3 and 4. Anne made a presentation on behalf of Theme 6 and Heather, Katrina and Victoria made presentations on their research.

Helmholz-Alberta Initiative

―Spring Flowering Response to Climate Change Between 1936 and 2006 in Alberta, Canada‖ by E. Beaubien and A. Hamann was accepted by the Journal BioScience and should appear in the August issue. A second paper titled ―Plant phenology networks of citizen scientists: recom-mendations from two decades of experience in Canada‖ was submitted and awaits review. Once published, these papers will be posted on the Alberta Plantwatch website www.plantwatch.fanweb.ca. Do visit this to see newslet-ters, data recording sheets, a wall chart with photos, and information on how to Plantwatch. You can report your data there and also on the federal Canada Plantwatch site www.plantwatch.ca.

You may enjoy the information in the updated Plant-watch teachers‘ guide. See page 90 for how to grow prai-rie crocus and saskatoon from seed, and how to care for your lilacs: http://www.naturewatch.ca/ english/plantwatch/curriculum/full_curriculum.pdf.

Elisabeth Beaubien Alberta Plantwatch Coordinator Science Advisor: Canada Plantwatch

New Land Reclamation International Graduate School

The Land Reclamation International Graduate School, which will begin accepting students within a year, is the first entity at the U of A to receive funding from Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada‘s prestigious Collaborative Research and Training Experience Program.

Read more about this exciting news at http://www.ales.ualberta.ca/rr/

PlantWatch News

Landmark News, Volume 18 Issue 1—Page 5

The ACA Grants in Biodiversity program is pleased to announce that RenR students, Seung-il Lee (supervisor J. Spence) and Crisia Tabacaru (supervisor N. Erbilgin), are amongst this year's (2011) grant winners. Seung-il‘s project, "The influence of aggregated retention patches on saproxylic beetle communities in boreal white spruce stands", and Crisia's project, "Playing with fire: The effect of prescribed burns on mountain pine beetle populations," exemplify the Grant program's goal to enable research that will ultimately conserve, protect, and enhance Alberta's fish, wildlife and natural habitats. With this year‘s awards, the ACA Grants in Biodiversity has now awarded over $3.6 million dollars to 361 researchers in its 17 year history.

Acorn, John. 2010 ASTECH Award for Science Promotion and Faculty Teacher of the Year Award – Faculty of ALES Teaching Wall of Fame.

Carbyn, Lu. Lu has been appointed to The Wildlife Certification of Professional Wildlife Biologists Review Board. Dr. Carbyn has been appointed for a 3 year term, staring in October of 2010.

Chanasyk, David. Faculty Teacher of the Year Award – Faculty of ALES Teaching Wall of Fame.

Chang, Scott. Overseas Collaborating Researcher, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Zijiang Visiting Chair Professorship. College of Resources and Environment, East China Normal University; Best Poster Award, for the presentation by Jung, K.H., Chang, S.X. and M.A. Arshad. Effects of canopy deposition interactions on H+ supply to soils in Pinus banksiana and Populus tremuloides ecosys-tems in the Athabasca oil sands region of Alberta, Canada. Session 241 on General Forest, Range, and Wildland Soils, Soil Sci-ence Society of America Annual Meeting, Oct. 31 - Nov. 3, 2010, Long Beach, CA; and Best Poster Award, for the presentation by Jung, K.H. and Chang, S.X. Effects of interception deposition and canopy exchange on H+ supply to soils in forest ecosystems in the oil sands. The 47th Annual Alberta Soil Science Workshop, Soils and the Alberta Land-Use Framework, February 16-18, 2010, Coast Hotel, Lethbridge, Alberta.

Erbilgin, Nadir. 2010 Recipient of the Faculty of Agriculture, Life & Environmental Sciences Research & Innovation Award.

Hamann, Andreas. ―Teaching Wall of Fame‖ recognition from the Faculty of Agricultural, Life, & Environmental Sciences for the 2009-10 academic year.

Lieffers, Vic. Tree of Life – Canadian Institute of Forestry 2010.

Macdonald, Ellen. Teacher of the Year: Faculty of Agricultural, Life & Environmental Sciences (2010).

Naeth, Anne. Teacher of the Year: Faculty of Agricultural, Life & Environmental Sciences (2010); Featured in Energize Alberta, September-October issue; and Renewable Resources Graduate Student Mentoring Award.

Ryu, Soung-Ryoul. Travel Award from Korea Forest Service Research Institute (approximately $3000).

Silins, Uldis. Teacher of the year Award - Faculty of ALES (Sept. 2010).

Spence, John. Department of Renewable Resources Graduate Mentoring Award.

Zwiazek, Janusz. International Union of Forestry Research Organizations (IUFRO) Scientific Achievement Award, 2010; The David J. Gifford Award in Tree Physiology of the Canadian Society of Plant Physiologists, 2010; and Erasmus Mundus Scholar-ship for Academics, 2010.

Awards and Honors

Landmark News, Volume 18 Issue 1—Page 6

As September looms, we are in full swing in the north with preparations for the first term of full-time delivery of the Northern ENCS Program at Yukon College. It has been a busy year, with inevitable growing pains associated with the establishment and growth of a new program and partnerships, but many successes to celebrate. In January 2010, the University of Alberta launched a new initiative to deliver Bachelors of Science curriculum in northern Canada. The Northern Environmental and Conservation Sciences Program, a unique partnership between UofA (Faculties of ALES and Native Studies) and Yukon Col-lege, accepted its first students into part-time studies in January 2010, and with the addition of new recruits this fall, anticipates about 25 students enrolled and taking courses in 2011/12, distributed across four campuses in the Yukon Territory.

This year marked a record high for the University of Alberta in receipt of scholarships as part of the Association of Canadian Universities in the North (ACUNS, http://www.acuns.ca/). Our Northern ENCS students garnered three of these. Congratu-lations to Natasha Ayoub, David Jennings and Lori Schroeder on their success! In addition, student Annie-Claude Letendre will be attending the exclusive IMPACT! Youth Conference for Sustainability Leadership in Guelph, ON this fall, as one of 165 delegates from universities and colleges across Canada (http://www.impactyouthsustainability.ca/).

Beyond our priority focus on the development and delivery of curriculum, further highlights from the past year include partici-pation in the Yukon Environment Forum, a visit and personal address from Canada‘s Governor General, David Johnston, who has a rich history in post-secondary education and a genuine interest in the north, and the secondary school outreach programs described below.

What‘s black and brown, weighs up to a ton, but can blend into its back-ground and be difficult to count? That was one question posed to Grade 7 students from local schools, participating in a ―Stay-a-Day‖ Program host-ed annually by Yukon College. This year marked the first for a half-day biology module as part of the Program, led by myself and Kim Lisgo, long-term Renewable Resources staff member. Students learned about research questions and methods related to animal movement and population esti-mation, with hands-on activities involving radio telemetry, mark-recapture techniques, and a line crossing ―experiment‖. During the coming academic year, the Northern ENCS Pro-gram will also support

the Grade 11 Experiential Science Program, where amongst a host of other activities, students spend several weeks at the College participating in lab and classroom exercises. It‘s a great way to reach out to the community and par-ticularly, potential recruits to UofA Programs!

Looking forward, there are many exciting developments in capacity that will help bolster the Northern ENCS Program. ALES has acquired state-of-the-art, portable video-conferencing equipment that complements the existing network of distributed learning technology supported by Yukon College, and will allow us to link classrooms and instructors from Edmonton with those in the north. It will also al-low me, on occasion, to deliver my classes in the Yukon from a distance, when I am back visiting Renewable Resources home turf. This fall promises to be an excellent testing ground for this technology.

Yukon College recently hired a full-time Instructor/Coordinator for the Northern ENCS Program. Dr. Katherine Aitken as-sumes this position mid-August, and will teach courses in the Northern ENCS Program, as well as courses in diploma streams leading into the program, and play a key role as the primary liaison for Yukon College on our partnership. Katie is an excellent and committed teacher, as well as an active researcher, and I look forward to working with her in a variety of capacities. We are planning a visit to the Edmonton campus and Renewable Resources this fall, and I hope that she can meet as many of you as

Northern Tracks F. Schmiegelow, Director of the Northern ENCS Program

Landmark News, Volume 18 Issue 1—Page 7

Refereed Publications 2011 Asante P, Armstrong GW, and Adamowicz WL. 2011. Carbon sequestration and the optimal forest harvest decision: A dynamic programming approach considering biomass and dead organic matter. J. Forest Econ.17: 3-17 doi:10.1016/j.jfe.2010.07.001.

Benscoter, B.W., Thompson, D.K., Waddington, J.M., Flannigan, M.D., Wotton, B.M., de Groot, W.J. and Turetsky, M.R. 2011. Interactive effects of vegetation, soil moisture and bulk density on depth of burning of thick organic soils. International Journal of Wildland Fire 20: 418-429.

Carvalho, A. Monteiro, A. Flannigan, M. Solman, S. Miranda, A.I. and Borrego, C. (2011). Forest fires in a changing climate and their impacts on air quality. Atmosphere Environment. Accepted.

Clare, S., N. Krogman, L. Foote, N. Lemphers. 2011. Where is the avoidance in the implementation of wetland law and poli-cy? Wetlands Ecology and Management 19(2): 165-182.

Clark, SG; Rutherford, MB; Auer, MR; Chemy, DN; Wallace, RL; Mattson, DJ; Clark, DA; Foote, AL; Krogman, NT; Wil-shusen, P; Steelman, T. 2011. College and University environmental programs as a policy problem (Part 2): Strategies for im-provement. Environmental Management 47(5): 716-726.

Clark, SG; Rutherford, MB; Auer, MR; Chemy, DN; Wallace, RL; Matton, DJ; Clark, DA; Foote, AL; Krogman, NT; Wilshusen, P; Steelman, T. 2011. College and University environmental programs as a policy problem (Part 1): Integrating knowledge, edu-cation and action for a better world? Environmental Management 47(5): 701-715.

Emelko, M.B., Silins, U., Bladon, K.D., & Stone, M. 2011. Implications of land disturbance on drinking water treatability in a changing climate: Demonstrating the need for ―source water supply and protection‖ strategies. Water Research 45: 461-472.

Galvez DA, Landhäusser SM & Tyree MT 2011. Root carbon reserve dynamics in aspen seedlings: does simulated drought in-duce reserve limitation? Tree Physiol 31:250–257.

Krogman, Naomi and Lee Foote. 2011. ―Global Citizenship and the Environment: Embracing Life in All its Forms‖ Pp. 107-118 in Shultz, L., Abdi, A., Richardson, G. (Eds.) Global citizenship education in post-secondary institutions: Theories, practices, policies. New York: Peter Lang.

Landhäusser SM 2011. Aspen shoots are carbon autonomous during bud break. Trees 25:531–536.

Parisien, M-A., Parks, S.A., Krawchuk, M.A., Flannigan, M.D., Bowman, L.M., and Moritz, M.A. 2011. Scale-dependent controls

Publications

possible.

We are also looking forward to a late-September visit from Jim Bohun, ALES Student Services Manager, and Dr. Nat Kav, Associate Dean Academic. These exchanges are invaluable in solidifying and growing the partnership between the University of Alberta and Yukon College, and a great opportunity to experience a region of Canada of outstanding natu-ral beauty, rich cultural history, and growing political and economic importance. I encourage all of you to consider a trip north, for either professional or personal purposes.

For more information about the Northern ENCS Program, please contact me at: fiona.schmiegelow@ualberta.ca (tel: 867-668-8711 at my Yukon College office in Whitehorse).

Photo Credit: Yukon College

Landmark News, Volume 18 Issue 1—Page 8

on the area burned in the boreal forest of Canada, 1980-2005. Ecological Applications 21: 789-805.

Shabbar, A., Skinner, W. and Flannigan, M. 2011. Prediction of Seasonal Forest Fire Severity in Canada from Large-Scale Cli-mate Patterns. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology 50: 785-799.

Stone, M., Emelko, M.B., Droppo, I.G.., & Silins, U. 2011. Biostabilization and erodibility of cohesive sediment deposits in wildfire-affected streams. Water Research 45: 521-534.

Teste FP, Lieffers VJ & Landhäusser SM 2011. Viability of forest floor and canopy seed banks in Pinus contorta var. latifolia (Pinaceae) after a mountain pine beetle outbreak. Am J Bot 98: 1-8.

Teste FP, Lieffers VJ & Landhäusser SM 2011. Seed release in serotinous lodgepole pine forests after mountain pine beetle outbreak. Ecol Appl 21: 150-162.

Refereed Publications 2010 Acorn, John. 2010. A Bugster‘s Big Year. American Entomologist. 56: 255-256.

Acorn, John. 2010. Pins, Poisons and Psychology. American Entomologist. 56: 63-64.

Acorn, John. 2010. The Embodiment of Entomophilia. American Entomologist. 56: 191-192.

Acorn, John. 2010. The Nature Nut Approach to Insect Television. American Entomologist. 56: 127-128.

Allen, H.E., S.A. Quideau, R.C. Graham, S.-W. Oh, S.C. Sillett, and R.E. Wasylishen. 2010. Soil organic matter processes in old-growth redwood forest. Soil Science Society of America Journal 74: 161-171.

Almeida-Rodriguez, AM; Cooke, JEK; Yeh, FC; Zwiazek, JJ. 2010. Functional. characterization of drought-responsive aqua-porins in Populus balsamifera and Populus simonii x balsamifera clones with different drought resistance strategies. Physiologia Plantarum 140: 321-333.

Arevalo, C.B.M., Bhatti, J.S., Chang, S.X. and Sidders, D. 2010. Distribution of recent photosynthates in saplings of two hy-brid poplar clones. Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis. 41:1004–1015. Arevalo, C.B.M., Bhatti, J.S., Chang, S.X., Jassal, R.S. and Sidders, D. 2010. Soil respiration in four different land-use systems in north central Alberta, Canada. Journal of Geophysical Research - Biogeosciences Vol. 115, G01003, 12 p., doi:10.1029/2009JG001006. Ball, P. N., M. D. MacKenzie, T. H. DeLuca, and W. E. Holben. 2010. Wildfire and charcoal enhance nitrification and am-monium oxidizing bacterial abundance in dry montane forest soils. Journal of Environmental Quality 39:1243-1253. Barnett, A.G., Koper, N., Dobson, A. J., SCHMIEGELOW, F. K. A., and Manseau, M. 2010. Selecting the correct variance–covariance structure for longitudinal data in ecology: a comparison of the Akaike, quasi-information and deviance information criteria. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 1:15-24. Belland, R.J. 2010. Mosses (Bryophyta) of the Atlantic Maritime Ecozone. In Assessment of Species Diversity in the Atlantic Maritime Ecozone. Edited by D.F. McAlpine and I.M. Smith. NRC Research Press, Ottawa, Canada. Pages 179–196. Bourassa, S, HA Cárcamo, JR Spence, RE Blackshaw & K Floate. 2010. Effects of crop rotation and genetically modified herbi-cide-tolerant corn on ground beetle diversity, community structure and activity density. The Canadian Entomologst 142: 143-159. Cai, J; Hacke, U; Zhang, S; Tyree, MT. 2010. What happens when stems are embolized in a centrifuge? Testing the cavitron theory. Physiologia Plantarum 140: 311–320.

Publications continued

Landmark News, Volume 18 Issue 1—Page 9

Caners, R., S.E. Macdonald and R. Belland. 2010. Viability of epiphytic bryophytes depends on forest structure along a gradient of partial harvesting. Botany 88: 315-328. Cao, Q.J., Wang, M., Ge, Y., Chang, S.X., Zhang, J.M. and Chang, J. 2010. Growth responses of two Mosla species to soil nitro-gen and water supply. Botanical Studies. 51: 451-456. Card, S.M. and S.A. Quideau. 2010. Microbial community structure in restored riparian soils of the Canadian prairie pothole region. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 42: 1463-1471. Card, S.M., S.A. Quideau, and S.-W. Oh. 2010. Carbon characteristics in restored and reference riparian soils. Soil Science Socie-ty of America Journal 74: 1834-1843. Chang, J., Liu, D., Cao, H.Q., Chang, S.X., Wang, X.Y., Huang, C.C. and Ge, Y. 2010. NO3

–/NH4+ ratios affect the growth and

N removal ability of Acorus calamus and Iris pseudacorus in a hydroponic system. Aquatic Botany. 93: 216–220. Chávez, V. and S.E. Macdonald. 2010. Understory species interactions in mature boreal understory plant communities. Botany 88: 912-922.

Chávez, V., and S.E. Macdonald. 2010. The influence of canopy patch mosaics on understory plant community composition in boreal mixedwood forest. Forest Ecology and Management 259: 1067-1075. Chen, P., Welsh, C. and Hamann, A. 2010. Geographic variation in growth response of Douglas-fir to inter-annual climate varia-bility and projected climate change. Global Change Biology 16: 3374–3385. Chhin, S., Hogg, E.H., Lieffers, V.J. and Huang, S. 2010. Growth-climate relationships vary with height along the stem in lodge-pole pine. Tree Phys. 30: 335-345. Clark, D; Clark, SG; Dowsley, M; Foote, L; Jung, TS; Lemlin, RH. 2010. It‘s not just about bears: A problem-solving workshop on Aboriginal peoples, polar bears and human dignity. Arctic 63(1)124-127. Cobb, T.P., K.D. Hannam, B.E. Kishchuk, D. W. Langor, S.A. Quideau, and J.R. Spence. 2010. Wood-feeding beetles and soil nutrient cycling in burned forests: implications of post-fire salvage logging. Agricultural and Forest Entomology12: 9-18. Cobb, TP, JL Morissette, JM Jacobs, MJ Koivula, JR Spence & DW Langor. 2010. Effects of postfire salvage logging on deadwood-associated beetles. Conservation Biology 25: 94-104. (Article originally posted on-line 23 Aug 2010, DOI: 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2010.01566.x Cobb, TP, KP Hamman, BE Kishchuk, SA Quideau, DW Langor & JR Spence. 2010. Effects of postfire salvage logging on Mon-ochamus s. scutellatus (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae): implications for wood decomposition, nutrient cycling and forest succession. Conservation Biology 25(1): 94-104. Colgan LJ, N Erbilgin. The ecological interaction of the mountain pine beetle and jack pine budworm in the boreal forest. For Chron. 86: 766-774. Comeau, P.G., White,M., Kerr, G. and Hale,S. 2010. Maximum density-size relationships for Sitka spruce and coastal Douglas-fir in Britain and Canada. Forestry 83:461-468. Cortini, F , Comeau P.G. , Boateng, J.O. and Bedford, L. 2010. Yield Implications of site preparation treatments for lodgepole-pine and white spruce in northern British Columbia. Forests 1: 25-48. Cumming, S. G., Lefevre, K., Bayne, E., Fontaine, T., SCHMIEGELOW, F.K.A. and S. J. Song. 2010. Toward conservation of Canada`s boreal forest avifauna: design and application of ecological models at continental extents. Avian Conservation and Ecology

Publications continued

Landmark News, Volume 18 Issue 1—Page 10

5(2): 8. [online] URL: http://www.ace-eco.org/vol5/iss2/art8/. Desserud, P.A., and M.A. Naeth. 2010. Smooth brome: an unexpected response to straw amended soil (Alberta). Ecological Res-toration 28(2): 133-135. Dimitriu, P.A., C.E. Prescott, S.A. Quideau, and S.J. Grayston. 2010. Impact of reclamation of surface-mined boreal forest soils on microbial community composition and function. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 42: 2289-2297. Dimitrov, D.D., Grant, R.F., Lafleur, P.M. and Humphreys, E. 2010. Modelling the effects of hydrology on ecosystem respira-tion at Mer Bleue bog. JGR Biogeosciences. 115, G04043, doi:10.1029/2010JG001312. Dimitrov, D.D., Grant, R.F., Lafleur, P.M. and Humphreys, E. 2010. Modelling subsurface hydrology of Mer Bleue bog. Soil Sci. Soc. Amer. J. 74:680-694 . Dimitrov, D.D., Grant, R.F., Lafleur, P.M. and Humphreys, E. 2010. Modelling peat thermal regime of an ombrotropic peat-land with hummock-hollow microtopography. Soil Sci. Soc. Amer. J. 74 1406-1425. Dou, R.P., Jiang†, H., Yu, S.Q., Ma, Y.D., Song, X.Z., Guo, P.P., Chang, S.X. 2010. Leaf litter decomposition of four tree species in subtropical China. Journal of Zhejiang Forestry College, 27: 163-169. Drobyshev, I., Flannigan, M., Bergeron Y., Girardin, M. and Suran, B. 2010. Variation in local weather explains differences in fire regimes within a Quebec south-eastern boreal forest landscape. International Journal of Wildland Fire, 19,1073-1082. Duinker, P.N. Y.F. Wiersma, W. Haider, G.T. Hvenegaard, and F.K.A. SCHMIEGELOW. 2010. Protected areas and sustaina-ble forest management: what are we talking about? Forestry Chronicle 86(2):173-177. Dyck, M. F. and R. G. Kachanoski. 2010. Spatial scale-dependence of preferred flow domains during infiltration in a layered field soil. Vadose Zone J. 9:385-396. Gardner, W.C., K. Broersma, A. Naeth, D. Chanasyk and A. Jobson. 2010. Influence of biosolids and fertilizer amendments on physical, chemical and microbiological properties of copper mine tailings. Can. J. Soil Sci. 90: 571-583. Gaston, K.J. and He. F. 2010. Species occurrence and occupancy. Pages 141-151 in Biological Diversity: Frontiers in Measure-ment and Assessment, eds. A. Maguran and B. McGill. Oxford Univ Press. Goodsman DW, Lieffers VJ, Landhäusser, SM & Erbilgin N. 2010. Fertilization of lodgepole pine trees increased diameter growth but reduced root carbohydrate concentrations. Forest Ecology and Management 260: 1914-1920. Goodsman, D.W., Lieffers, V.J., Landhausser S.M. and Erbilgin, N. 2010. Fertilization of lodgepole pine trees increased diame-ter growth but reduced root carbohydrate concentrations. For. Ecol. Manage. 260: 1914-1920. Gradowski T, Lieffers VJ, Landhäusser SM, Sidders D, Volney J, & Spence JR. 2010. Regeneration of Populus nine years after variable retention harvest in boreal mixedwood forests. Forest Ecology and Management 259: 383-389. Grant, R.F., Barr, A.G., Black, T.A., Margolis, H.A., McCaughey, J.H. and Trofymow, J.A. 2010. Net ecosystem productivity of temperate and boreal forests after clearcutting – a Fluxnet-Canada synthesis. Tellus B. 62B: 475-496. Grant, R.F., Jassal, R.S., Black, T.A. and Bruemmer, C. 2010. Changes in net CO2 and N2O exchange with fertilization of Doug-las fir: mathematical modelling in ecosys. J. Geophys. Res. 115, G04009, doi:10.1029/2009JG001094. Hacke, U.G., L. Plavcová, A. Almeida-Rodriguez, S. King-Jones, W. Zhou, J.E.K. Cooke. 2010. Influence of nitrogen fertiliza-

Publications continued

Landmark News, Volume 18 Issue 1—Page 11

tion on xylem traits and aquaporin expression in stems of hybrid poplar. Tree Physiology 30: 1016-1025. Hallin, I.L., M.A. Naeth, D.S. Chanasyk and C.K. Nichol. 2010. Assessment of a reclamation cover system for phosphogypsum stacks in central Alberta, Canada. J. Environ. Qual. 39(6): 160-2169. Hauer, G., Cumming, S.G., SCHMIEGELOW, F.K.A, Adamowicz, A., Weber, M. and R. Jagodzinski. 2010. Tradeoffs between forestry resource and conservation values under alternate forest policy regimes: A spatial analysis of the western Canadian boreal plains. Ecological Modelling 221:2590-2603. He, F. 2010. Maximum entropy, logistic regression, and species abundance. Oikos 119:578-582. Hemstock, S., S.A. Quideau, and D.S. Chanasyk. 2010. Nitrogen availability from peat amendments used in boreal oil sands rec-lamation. Canadian Journal of Soil Science 90: 165-175. Hemstock, S.S., S.A. Quideau and D.S. Chanasyk. 2010. Nitrogen availability from peat amendments used in boreal oil sands reclamation. Can. J. Soil Sci. 90:165-175. Hunter, M.L. Jr. and F.K.A. SCHMIEGELOW. 2010. Wildlife, Forests and Forestry: Principles of Managing Forests for Biologi-cal Diversity, 2nd Edition. Prentice-Hall. 259 pp. Landhäusser SM, Deshaies D, & Lieffers VJ. 2010. Disturbance facilitates rapid range expansion of aspen into higher elevations of the Rocky Mountains under a warming climate. Journal of Biogeography 37: 68-76. Landhäusser SM, Wan X, Lieffers VJ & Chow P. 2010. Nitrate stimulates root suckering in trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides). Canadian Journal of Forest Research 40: 1962-1969. Lang, M., Cai, Z.C., Mary, B., Hao, X.Y. and Chang, S.X. 2010. Land-use type and temperature affect gross nitrogen transfor-mation rates in Chinese and Canadian soils. Plant and Soil 334: 377-389. Lee, S.H., Calvo Polanco, M., Chung, G.C. and Zwiazek, J.J. 2010. Cell water flow properties in root cortex of ectomycorrhizal

(Pinus banksiana) seedlings. Plant Cell and Environment 33:769-780.

Leroux, S.J., Krawchuk, M.A., SCHMIEGELOW, F.K.A., Cumming, S.G., Lisgo, K., Anderson, L.G. and M. Petkova. 2010. Global protected areas and IUCN designations: does the category match the condition? Biological Conservation 143:609-616. Li, H., Wang, X. and Hamann, A. 2010. Genetic adaptation of aspen (Populus tremuloides) populations to spring risk environ-ments: a novel remote sensing approach. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 40: 2082–2090. Li, Y.F., Jiang, P.K., Chang, S.X., Wu, J.S. and Lin, L. 2010. Organic mulch and fertilization affect soil carbon pools and forms under intensively managed bamboo (Phyllostachys praecox) forests in southeast China. Journal of Soils and Sediments. 10: 739–747. Lilles, E.B., Purdy, B.G., Chang, S.X. and Macdonald, S.E. 2010. Soil and groundwater characteristics of saline sites supporting boreal mixedwood forests in northern Alberta. Canadian Journal of Soil Science 90: 1-14. Lin, Y., Han, G.D., Zhao, M.L. and Chang, S.X. 2010. Spatial vegetation patterns as early signs of desertification: a case study of a desert steppe in Inner Mongolia, China. Landscape Ecology. 25:1519–1527. Lin, Y., Hong, M., Han, G.D., Zhao, M.L., Bai, Y.F. and Chang, S.X. 2010. Grazing intensity affected spatial patterns of vegeta-tion and soil fertility in a desert steppe, Inner Mongolia, China. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 138: 282-292. Macdonald, S.E., Lecomte, N., Bergeron, Y., Brais, S., Chen, H., Comeau, P., Drapeau, P., Lieffers, V., Quideau, S., Spence, J., and Work, T. 2010. Ecological implications of changing the composition of boreal mixedwood forests. A State of Knowledge Re-

Publications continued

Landmark News, Volume 18 Issue 1—Page 12

port. Sustainable Forest Management Network, Edmonton, Alberta. 48 pp. MacKenzie, D.M. and S.A. Quideau. 2010. Microbial community structure and nutrient availability in oilsands reclaimed boreal soils. Applied Soil Ecology 44: 32–41. MacQuarrie, CJK, JR Spence & DW Langor. 2010. Using classification tree analysis to reveal causes of mortality in an insect population. Agricultural & Forest Entomology 12: 143-149. Marenholtz, E., Lieffers, V.J. and Silins, U. 2010. Atmospheric moisture demand across a range of microsites in partial-cut bore-al forests. Scan. J. For. Res. 25: 118-126. Martin-DeMoor, J., V.J. Lieffers and S.E. Macdonald. 2010. Natural regeneration of white spruce in aspen-dominated boreal mixedwoods following harvesting. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 40: 585-594. Masood A, S Saeed, N Erbilgin, YJ Kwon. 2010. Role of stressful mango host conditions in attraction and colonization by the mango bark beetle, Hypocryphalus mangiferae Stebbing (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) and in the symptom develop-ment of quick decline on mango trees in Pakistan. Entomol. Res. 40: 316-327. Mbogga, M. S., Wang, X. and Hamann, A. 2010. Bioclimate envelope model predictions for natural resource management: dealing with uncertainty. Journal of Applied Ecology 47: 731–740. Mead, D.J., Scott, J.T. and Chang, S.X. 2010. Using vector analysis to understand temporal changes in understorey-tree compe-tition in agroforestry systems. Forest Ecology and Management. 259: 1200–1211. Metsaranta, J.M. and Lieffers, V.J. 2010. Patterns of inter-annual variation in the size-asymmetry of growth in Pinus bank-siana. Oecologia 163: 737-745. Meyn, A., Taylor, S.W., Flannigan, M.D., Thonicke, K. and Cramer, W. 2010. Relationship between fire, climate oscillations, and drought in British Columbia, Canada, 1920-2000. Global Change Biology, 16:977-989. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2009.02061.x. Miller, J.J. and D.S. Chanasyk. 2010. Soil characteristics in relation to groundwater for selected Dark Brown Chernozems in southern Alberta. Can. J. Soil Sci. 90: 597-610. Miller, J.J., D.S. Chanasyk, T. Curtis and W.D. Willms. 2010. Influence of streambank fencing on the environmental quality of cattle-excluded pastures. J. Environ. Qual. 39:991-1000. Miller, J.J., T.W. Curtis, E. Bremer, D.S. Chanasyk and W.D. Willms. 2010. Soil test phosphorus and nitrate adjacent to artifi-cial and natural cattle watering sites in southern Alberta. Can. J. Soil Sci. 90:331-340. Newsome, T.A., Heineman, J.L., Nemec, A.F., Comeau, P.G., Arsenault, A., and Waterhouse, M. 2010. Ten-year regeneration responses to varying levels of overstory retention in two productive southern British Columbia ecosystems. Forest Ecology and Management 260: 132–145. Nielsen, S.E., McDermid G., Stenhouse, G.B., & M.S. Boyce. 2010. Dynamic wildlife habitat models: Seasonal foods and mor-tality risk predict occupancy-abundance and habitat selection in grizzly bears. Biological Conservation, 143, 1623-1634. Norris, C., S.A. Quideau, J.S. Bhatti, and R.E. Wasylishen. 2010. Soil carbon stabilization in jack pine stands along the Boreal Forest Transect Case Study. Global Change Biology 17: 480-494. Pinzon, J & JR Spence. 2010. Bark-dwelling spider assemblages (Araneae) in the boreal forest: dominance, diversity composi-tion and life-histories. Journal of Insect Conservation 14: 439-458.

Publications continued Publications continued

Landmark News, Volume 18 Issue 1—Page 13

Pitt, D.G., Comeau, P.G., Parker, W.C., MacIsaac, D., McPherson, S., Hoepting, M.K., Stinson, A., and Mihajlovich, M. 2010. Early vegetation control for regeneration of a single cohort, intimate mixture of white spruce and trembling aspen on upland boreal sites. Can. J. For. Res. 40: 549-564. Rweyongeza, D.M., F. C. Yeh and N. K. Dhir. 2010. Genetic Parameters for Bud Flushing and Growth Characteristics of White Spruce Seedlings. Silvae Genetica 59: 151-157. Schoonmaker, A.L. Hacke U. G., Landhäusser, S.M. Lieffers, V.J., Tyree M.T. 2010. Hydraulic acclimation to shading in boreal conifers of varying shade tolerance. Plant Cell and Environ. 33: 382-393. Schroeder, T. A., Hamann, A., Wang, T. and Coops, N.C. 2010. Occurrence and dominance of six Pacific Northwest conifer species. Journal of Vegetation Science 21: 586–596. Schwalm, C.R., C.A. Williams, K. Schaefer, R. Anderson, M.A. Arain, I. Baker, A. Barr, T.A. Black, G. Chen, J.M. Chen, P. Ciais, K.J. Davis, A. Desai, M. Dietze, D. Dragoni, M.L. Fischer, L.B. Flanagan, R. Grant, L. Gu, D. Hollinger, R.C. Izaurralde, C. Kucharik, P. Lafleur, B.E. Law, L. Li, Z. Li, S. Liu, E. Lokupitiya, Y. Luo, S. Ma, H. Margolis, R. Matamala, H. McCaughey, R.K. Monson, W.C. Oechel, C. Peng, B. Poulter, D.T. Price, D.M. Riciutto, W. Riley, A.K. Sahoo, M. Sprintsin, J. Sun, H. Tian, C. Tonitto, H. Verbeeck, and S.B. Verma. 2010. A model‐data intercomparison of CO2 exchange across North America: Results from the North American Carbon Program site synthesis. J. Geophys. Res., 115, G00H05, doi:10.1029/2009JG001229. Smulders, M., Nelson, T.A., Jelinski, D.E., Nielsen, S.E., & G.B. Stenhouse. 2010. A spatially explicit method for evaluating accuracy of species distribution models. Diversity and Distributions, 16, 996-1008. Snedden J, Landhäusser SM, Lieffers VJ, & Charleson L. 2010.Propagating trembling aspen from root cuttings: impact of stor-age length and phenological period of root donor plants. New Forests 39: 169-182. Solarik, K.A. Lieffers V.J., Volney, W.J.A, Pelletier, R. and Spence, J.R. 2010. Seed tree density, variable retention and stand composition influence recruitment of white spruce in boreal mixedwood forests. Can. J. For. Res. 40: 1821–1832. Stephen,C, L. Ninghui, F. Yeh and L. Zhang. 2010. Animal Health Policy Principles for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza: Shared Experience from China and Canada. Zoonoses and Public Health doi: 10.1111/j.1863-2378.2010.01351. Teklay, T., Shi, Z., Attaeian, B. and Chang, S.X. 2010. Temperature and substrate effects on C & N mineralization and microbi-al community function of soils from a hybrid poplar chronosequence. Applied Soil Ecology 46: 413-421. Voicu M.C & Zwiazek J.J. 2010. Inhibitor studies of leaf lamina hydraulic conductance in trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) leaves. Tree Physiology 30: 193-204. Wang, M., Chang, J., Ge†, Y., Chang, S.X., Huang, C.C. and Wang, S.Y. 2010. Ecophysiological differentiation of two Mosla species in response to nitrogen and water levels. Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis. 41:2699–2712. Wang, Y., Flannigan, M. and Anderson, K. 2010. Correlations between forest fires in British Columbia, Canada, and sea surface temperature of the Pacific Ocean. Ecological Modelling, 221, 122-129. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2008.12.007. Wolken JM, Landhäusser SM, Lieffers VJ, & Dyck M. 2010. Differences in initial root development and soil conditions affect establishment of trembling aspen and balsam poplar seedlings. Botany 88: 275-285. Wolken JM, Lieffers VJ, Landhäusser SM, & Mulak T. 2009. Spring frost and decay fungi are implicated in suppressing aspen re-growth following partial cleaning in juvenile stands. Annals of Forest Science 66: 805. Work, TT, JJ Jacobs, JR Spence & WJA Volney. 2010. Higher levels of variable retention required to maintain ground beetle biodiversity in boreal mixedwood forests. Ecological Applications 20: 741-751.

Publications continued

Landmark News, Volume 18 Issue 1—Page 14

Wotton, B.M., Nock, C.A. and Flannigan, M.D. 2010. Forest fire occurrence and climate change in Canada. International Jour-nal of Wildland Fire,19,253-271. Wu, J.S., Jiang, P.K., Chang, S.X., Xu, Q.F. and Lin, Y. 2010. Dissolved soil organic carbon and nitrogen were affected by con-version of native forests to plantations in subtropical China. Canadian Journal of Soil Science 90: 27-36. Yang, X.J., Ikehata, K., Lerner, R., Hu, Y., Josyula, K., Chang, S.X., Liu, Y. 2010. Agricultural wastes (a review). Water Environ-ment Research. 82: 1396-1425. Zeng, D.H., Mao, R., Chang, S.X., Li, L.J., and Yang, D. 2010. Carbon mineralization of tree leaf litter and crop residues from poplar-based agroforestry systems in Northeast China: A laboratory study. Applied Soil Ecology. 44: 133-137. Zhang, B.B., Liu, W.Z., Chang, S.X. and Anyia, A.O. 2010. Water deficit and high temperature affected water use efficiency and arabinoxylan concentration in spring wheat. Journal of Cereal Science 52: 263-269. Zhang, C.B., Wang, J., Liu, W.L., Zhu, S.X., Ge, H.L., Chang, S.X., Chang, J. and Ge, Y. 2010. Effects of plant diversity on microbial biomass and community metabolic profiles in a full-scale constructed wetland. Ecological Engineering. 36: 62-68. Zhang, C.B., Wang, J., Liu, W.L., Zhu, S.X., Liu, D., Chang, S.X., Chang, J. and Ge, Y. 2010. Effects of plant diversity on nutri-ent retention and enzyme activities in a full-scale constructed wetland. Bioresource Technology. 101: 1686-1692. Zhu, S.X., Ge, H.L., Ge, Y., Cao, H.Q., Liu, D., Chang, J., Zhang, C.B., Gu, B.J. and Chang, S.X. 2010. Effects of plant diversi-ty on biomass production and substrate nitrogen in a subsurface vertical flow constructed wetland. Ecological Engineering 36: 1307–1313. Zillio, T and He, F. 2010. Inferring species-abundance distribution across spatial scales. Oikos 119: 71-80. Zillio, T. and He, F. 2010. Modeling spatial aggregation of finite populations. Ecology 91: 3698-3706. Book Chapters Keane, R.E., G. Cary, and M. Flannigan. 2010. Challenges and needs in fire management: A landscape simulation modeling perspective. Book Chapter. Pages 77-89 In: Li, Chao, R Lafortezza, and J. Chen (editors) Landscape ecology in forest manage-ment and conservation: Challenges and solutions for global change. Springer, Higher Education Press, Beijing, China ISBN: 978-7-04-029136-0.

Publications continued

Soil and Water Health: Our Key to Survival Dr William (Bill) Shotyk, Professor and Director of the Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Heidelberg, Germany, is the speaker for the 9th Bentley Lecture in Sustainable Agriculture. The title of Dr Shotyk's talk is, "Soil and Water Health: Our Key to Survival." 1 October 2011 Dr Shotyk will be joining the University of Alberta as the Bocock Chair in Agricul-ture and Environment. The event is scheduled for 13 October 2011 at 3:30 pm.

Landmark News, Volume 18 Issue 1—Page 15

Users contribute to science by helping map tree species This article appeared in the The Associated Press Posted: Jun 8, 2011 10:30 AM ET

If you've ever wondered what type of tree was nearby but didn't have a guide book, a new smartphone app allows users with no formal training to satisfy their curiosity and contribute to science at the same time.

Scientists have developed the first mobile app to identify plants by simply photographing a leaf. The free iPhone and iPad app, called Leafsnap, instantly searches a growing library of leaf images amassed by the Smithsonian Institution. In seconds, it returns a likely species name, high-resolution photographs and information on the tree's flowers, fruit, seeds and bark.

Users make the final identification and share their findings with the app's growing database to help map the population of trees one mobile phone at a time.

Leafsnap debuted in May, covering all the trees in New York's Central park and Washington's Rock Creek Park. It has been downloaded more than 150,000 times in the first month, and its creators expect it to continue to grow as it expands to Android phones.

By this summer, it will include all the trees of the Northeast U.S. and eventually will cover all the trees of North America.

Smithsonian research botanist John Kress, who created the app with engineers from Columbia University and the University of Maryland, said it was originally conceived in 2003 as a high-tech aid for scientists to discover new species in unknown habitats. The project evolved, though, with the emergence of smartphones to become a new way for citizens to contribute to research.

"This is going to be able to populate a database of every tree in the United States," Kress said. "I mean that's millions and millions and millions of trees, so that would be really neat."

It's also the first real chance for citizens to directly access some of the science based on the nearly five million specimens kept by the U.S. National Herbarium at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. The collection began in 1848 and is among the world's 10 largest plant collections.

To download the apps to http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/leafsnap/id430649829?mt=8

To read more about this mobile app you can visit: http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2011/06/08/technology-leaf-app-smithsonian.html

This article appeared in the The Associated Press Posted: Jun 8, 2011 10:30 AM ET

Tree Identification a Snap with Mobile App

Landmark News, Volume 18 Issue 1—Page 16

Landmark Laurels

I first met Sylvie in 2002 at the Ca-nadian Soil Science Societies (CSSS) annual meeting in Banff. Her first PhD student Kirsten Hannam intro-duced us, but at the time Sylvie seemed distracted (probably nervous about presenting for the first time as a prof) and I was looking for the cash bar. It never occurred to me at the time that it would be the begin-ning of a career shaping relationship and fabulous friendship. Lucky for me it was both. In 2003 I went to the CSSS meeting, this time in Montreal, where I bumped into Sylvie and Kirsten again, and this time she made an enormous impression on me. She was elegant and thoughtful, and presented a great seminar. We had dinner together with Kirsten and Jim Fyles (UofA Alumni - Soils), and talked about research and academics, and career. This is when I started to

think that it would be great to post-doc with Sylvie, because her enthusi-asm for science and her ‗joie de vivre‘ was and is truly infectious. We met again at the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) meeting

in Seattle in 2004. Sylvie‘s former post-doc supervisor Bob Graham had seen me give a presentation and liked it, and offered to pay for half my post-doc. So when I asked Sylvie about post-doc work, she coyly said she might have something for a year. In 2005, I joined her group here at the Uni-versity of Alberta and decided not to leave. Sylvie is dedicated to her research, student mentoring, and is meticulous in everything that she does. She asks her students hard questions in proposal meetings or candida-cy exams, but genuinely cares for them and is always sorry to see them leave, making graduations both happy and sad occasions. Sylvie has excelled at the U of A, attaining full professorship in under 10 years. She works very hard as a mentor, a teacher, associate chair research and editor for the SSSA journal. Sylvie is through and through a team player and an excellent international departmental representative. Sylvie‘s research has taken her from West-ern Europe to North America. She has worked in California, where she examined the influence of vegetation on soil develop-ment in the long-term lysimeters of San Dimas. Recently while on sabbatical she visited the Itza volcano in Mexico and climbed to 5000 m to sample microbial community structure in relation to soil development. Her research team visited Mount Robson last summer to sample for microorganisms along a transect of increas-ing time since glacial retreat. All of these interests seem to culminate in the land reclamation research that she pursues in the oil sands, where the goal is to rebuild soils and access the effect of ecosystem development. There are a couple of important things to know about Sylvie: she prefers wine over beer, mostly red. She‘s from Paris, not Quebec, but does enjoy the odd shopping spree in La Ville Nationale. Although Can-ada is her adopted home, she has become a citizen and enjoys the odd hockey game

and even had a crush on MacT (although, who didn‘t). I almost forgot, to say Sylvie is an excellent skier is an understatement as she probably learned to ski before she could walk! Sylvie has been a great mentor to me and it has been a pleasure to work with and learn from her. As I pursue new research pro-grams I constantly hear her voice in my head to stay focused and not get over ex-tended. It‘s good advice, but hard to fol-low when the bar has been set quite high. Derek Mackenzie

Landmark News, Volume 18 Issue 1—Page 17

Alumni Profile

Katie Morrison, BSc ‘01, Environmental and Conservation Sciences

ENCS was a natural choice for Katie Morrison. Growing up in Manitoba, Katie spent her time horseback riding, camping and canoeing with her friends and family and gained a great interest in and appreciation of the natural world. Through high school Katie didn‘t really know what she wanted to do after graduation until she chanced upon a brochure for environmental stud-ies at the University of Manitoba. ―It wasn‘t a career that was ever talked about in high school but the environment was something I was interested in anyways so I thought I could study environmental sciences and worry about a career later.‖ When her dad, Ian Morrison, became dean of Agriculture, Forestry and Home Economics at the University of Alberta in 1996 it was a no brainer to follow her family out to Alberta to pursue a degree in ENCS. The fact that she really enjoyed her summer jobs living in the bush as a tree planter and later as a birder on the Calling Lake Forest Fragmentation Study solidified her choice of education.

Katie graduated in 2001 and soon after started a position with the school of Native Studies conducting research for a land and resource claim for the Métis Nation of Saskatchewan. Although the research was largely historically based, she considers herself fortunate to co- author a paper entitled Dispossession and Sustainability: Métis Aboriginal Rights, Traditional Economy and Industrial De-velopment of the Prairie Provinces for the Métis National Council which was presented by the senior author at the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in August 2002. Although she didn‘t get to go the summit, a year out of school Katie felt that she was doing something to make a difference in the world.

During that time she also took four months off to travel and volun-teer with several conservation projects in Central America. These experiences fueled her interest in environmental issues in Latin Amer-ica and after two years at Native Studies she started an internship working in La Tigra National Park in Honduras for four months. During this time she lived in a village in the park on the edge of a cloud forest. ―It was a tough job but someone had to do it‖ she jokes. At the completion of the internship she was hired by the NGO that manages the park to continue her work for another year. Katie‘s main project was an inventory of the bird species of the park as well as a comparison between the intact cloud forest and the fragmented areas at the edge of the core zone.

As much as she enjoyed the re-search aspect of this position, she also enjoyed sharing what she was doing with other people. Not only was she able to present her research and findings at a national workshop on monitor-ing biodiversity in Honduras, but she worked in the community as well. Katie is a real believer that when people learn and talk about the natural world and their place in it, they can further relate to it which is reflected in their actions and effort to conserve. To this end, she worked with the park guards and community members on biodiversity education and training. She also started an informal nature club in her community which would go out and watch birds, learn about butterflies and share knowledge of the natural environment. She took a Nature Tourism course through the Honduran Institute of Tourism and guided tourists both local and foreign through the park. With all her informal and formal involvement in the community, it wasn‘t long before she had both adults and children coming to her house to share their obser-vations of wildlife. Katie is currently writing and illustrating a bi-lingual (Spanish/English) field

Landmark News, Volume 18 Issue 1—Page 18

guide to the birds of the park that can be used in the education of park guards, tourists and students in the local schools.

Since 2005 Katie has been working in Calgary for Stantec as a wildlife biologist. As the wildlife lead on several projects, she has conducted field work all over Alberta and says that besides learning how to dig a quad out of swamp, she has gained a greater understanding of the assessment of effects of industrial landscape changes. She uses both scientific knowledge and Traditional Ecological knowledge in writing the environmental impact assessment and recommending mitigation measures for project devel-oper to implement to decrease impacts on wildlife.

Katie says she has always been torn between human dimensions and conservation biology and being perhaps a glutton for pun-ishment, in September 2010 she cut down to working half time and started a Master‘s of Environmental Design at the University of Calgary working with Dr. Michael Quinn. Her studies will bring her back to La Tigra National Park in Honduras for 4 months, leaving this September. The research aims to understand the current and historical relationship of residents of La Tigra National Park with the park and its management. Using this information, with the co-operation of the residents, the federal government and the NGO responsible for the management of the park, she will develop a strategic identification of issues relat-ed to resource conservation and sustainable community develop-ment which can be used by all three groups to improve manage-ment of the park. To support the research Katie put her proposal writing skills to work and recently received a SSHRC Graduate Scholarship and the IDRC John G. Bene Community Forestry Fellowship.

Katie and her partner Brian recently bought a bungalow in Calgary where they live with her brother Stuart, their 11 month old puppy, and a toad. Katie spends her little free time working in the garden, training the dog and hiking when she can.

Landmark News, Volume 18 Issue 1—Page 19

Graduate Awards Congratulations to all students who received the following awards and scholarships.

Graduate Student News

Ariss, Janet QE II Masters Archibald, Heather QE II Masters Christensen, Andre NSERC IPS Collins, Catherine QE II Masters Das Gupta, Sanatan INAC Northern Scientific Training Program Grant Award Ding, Chen Graduate Travel Award Forsch, Katryna NSERC CGSM Forsch, Katryna Walter H John's Fellowship Hawthorn, Kirk NSERC CGSM and Walter H John's Fellowship

Hughes, Courtney Margaret (Peg) Brown Award in Environmental Studies and Wildlife Resources at the UofA (2010)

Isaac-Renton, Miriam Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship-Master‘s Isaac-Renton, Miriam Walter H Johns Graduate Fellowship Katz, Cory Mary Louis Imrie Graduate Student Award Lazebnik, Jenny QE II Masters Lazebnik, Jenny Profiling Alberta's graduate students award Martin, Jillian INAC Northern Scientific Training Program Grant Award Mezbahuddin, Mohammad Mary Louis Imrie Graduate Student Award Mezbahuddin, Symon QEII Doctoral Norris, Charlotte INAC Northern Scientific Training Program Grant Award Norris, Charlotte QEII Doctoral Osika, Diana J Gordin Kaplan Graduate Student Award Plavcova, Lenka J Gordin Kaplan Graduate Student Award Plavcova, Lenka Al Brennan Memorial Graduate Scholarship in Forestry Reyes-Hernandez, Valentin J Gordin Kaplan Graduate Student Award

Roy, Marie-Claude INAC Northern Scientific Training Program Grant Award Rovang, Sarah Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship-Master‘s (NSERC) Walter H John‘s Graduate Fellowship Serben, Candace Mary Louis Imrie Graduate Student Award Schrieber, Stefan Max Maclaggan Scholarship (2010) Song, YanYan Mary Louis Imrie Graduate Student Award Stolar, Jessica NSERC PGSD 2 Stolar, Jessica President's Doctoral Prize of Distinction Stover, Holly QE II Masters

Landmark News, Volume 18 Issue 1—Page 20

Welcome! Welcome new graduate students starting in September

Congratulations on successful defenses

Name Research Supervisors

Bachmann, Sascha

MSc, Forest Biology & Man-agement Lieffers

Bakker, Nicola Master of Forestry Hamann

Bockstette, Simon

MSc, Enhanced Forest Man-agement Landhausser

Cigan, Paul MSc, Forest Biology & Man-agement Erbilgin

Henkel-Johnson, David

MSc, Forest Biology & Man-agement Macdonald

Isaac-Renton, Miriam Master of Forestry Hamann

Kai, Zhao PhD, Biodiversity Conserva-tion

He and Spence

Klutsch, Jennifer

PhD, Forest Biology & Man-agement Erbilgin

Koroscil, Stephanie

MSc, Forest Biology & Man-agement Flannigan

Kuloglu, Tevfik

MSc, Enhanced Forest Man-agement Armstrong

Kwak, Jin-Hyeob PhD, Soil Science Chang Odsen, Sonja

MSc, Biodiversity Conserva-tion

Spence and Acorn

Pamela, Sabbagh

MSc, Environmentally Sus-tainable Agriculture Dyck

Pavlick, Karen MSc, Forest Fire Science Flannigan Rovang, Sarah

MSc, Biodiversity Conserva-tion Nielsen

Schroeder, Lori

MSc, Biodiversity Conserva-tion

Schmiegelow and Bork

Stockdale, Chris

MSc, Forest Biology & Man-agement (Start date May 1) Macdonald

Youdon, Tsering

PhD, Forest Biology & Man-agement Erbilgin

Yu, Fang-yuana

PhD, Wildlands & Protected Area Management Flannigan

Zahraei, Shirin MSc, Soil Science Siddique

Zhang, Ju MSc, Soil Science Dyck

Name Date Degree Supervi-

Candace Nemirsky 29-Jul MSc Naeth

Cory Kartz 20-Apr MSc Dyck

Francesco Cortini 16-Dec PhD Comeau

Jaime Pinzon 14-Jun PhD Spence

Jing Chen 29-Jun PhD Chang

Johnny Montenegro 4-May PhD Grant

Kurt Frederick 25-Nov MSc Foote

Kyle Lochhead 26-Jan MSc Comeau

Lance Steinke 13-Jul MSc Naeth

Laura Gray 14-Jul PhD Hamann

Laura Macpherson 31-Mar MSc Foote

Peggy Desserud 19-Jul PhD Naeth

Preston Sorenson 13-Dec MSc Quideau

Tim Gylander 27-Jun MSc Hamann/ Blenis

Wendy Crosina 26-Jul MF Spence

Landmark News, Volume 18 Issue 1—Page 21

David (or Dah – veed as it is pronounced in Spanish) was born in Panama, Central America. He moved to Mexico in his early childhood moving back and forth between the two countries. In his early twenties he started his bachelor degree in Biology at the School of Botany in the University of Panama. During those years, David worked in Barro Colorado Island, a world-class tropical research station administrated by the Smithsonian Institution where he developed his passion for plant physiology. After working for a year at the Stable Isotope Ratio Facility for Environmental Research at the University of Utah (David loves to work with fancy instrumentation) he traveled to Cancun, Mexico after contacting his high school sweetheart, Anayansi. In Cancun he worked as an industrial scuba diver until he, Anayansi and their son Santiago moved to Edmonton after she was accepted in the Land Reclamation PhD program at the Department of Renewable Resources, here at the University of Alberta. Upon arrival in Edmonton, David started working as lab manager for Dr. Mel Tyree, who was opening a research Lab at the University of Alberta. David had met Dr Tyree 10 years earlier back in the tropical forests of Panama. Two years later David was accepted into the PhD program at the Department of Renewable Resources, fulfilling his old dream of pursuing a doctoral degree, under Dr. Tyree‘s supervision. After Dr. Tyree‘s retirement David joined Professor‘s Simon Landhäusser‘s research group, where he is studying how the gas exchange and water relations physiological domains modulate carbon dynamics of aspen and balsam poplar seedlings under drought stress.

David is a serious advocate on the need for more basic research, which in his view ―…can sometimes be mistakenly perceived as less relevant or urgent than applied science. This perception could become more common during the impending crisis the forestry industry confronts during the next decade. Nonetheless, understanding how a poplar clone grows requires studying more than just productivity rates; we need to know about its photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance, hydraulic conductivity and reserve dynamics.‖ When not working on his PhD project (which is not that often lately) David is always available for strong coffee, red wine and dominos!

Meet our Graduate Students

David Galvez, PhD Candidate

Landmark News, Volume 18 Issue 1—Page 22

Ashley arrived in Canada for the first time this past January in the midst of a colossal snowstorm. The bitter Canadian winter came as quite the environmental shock since she had spent the last few winters at field stations and lodges in the Peruvian Amazon. An American who grew up amongst the cornfields of Iowa, Ashley came to Canada in order to complete a Master‘s degree under the supervision of Drs. Nadir Erbilgin and John Spence.

Ashley‘s past research experience would lead one to think she has a bit of a Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) obsession. In 2004/2005 she worked on a project investigating the movement dynamics of the great-spangled fritillary (Speyeria cybele) in Iowa. She later obtained an NSF-funded grant to study the use of two families of moths (Arctiidae and Notodoniidae) as indicator species in beech-maple forests in Ohio, and, before coming to Edmonton, she developed a project investigating the ability of conservationists to use a subfamily of butterflies (the clearwing butterflies, Ithomiinae) to assess the impact of human – native and touristic – activities on the arthropod biodiversity of Amazonian forests. Ashley‘s experience isn‘t solely limited to insects. While attending university, she paid the rent by lighting prairies on fire and was a teaching assistant in the ecology department at her alma mater. During her time living in Peru, she supervised and mentored university students on their undergraduate theses as part of her job with Fauna Forever Tambopata. Ashley also worked for Greenpeace USA in Chicago as a campaign organizer on projects fighting global warming and saving the virgin boreal forests from being made into toilet paper.

As one might guess, when Dr. Erbilgin contacted Ashley about the position opening in his lab to study a Threatened Canadian butterfly – from a Neotropical family, no less – she was quick to accept and move back to the northern hemisphere. The butterfly in question, Apodemia mormo or the Mormon metalmark, was federally listed as Threatened in Saskatchewan and Endangered in British Colombia.

Ashley‘s research is focused on assisting Parks Canada in designing and implementing a management strategy for the Mormon metalmark. To accomplish this, she is investigating the population and movement dynamics of the Mormon metalmark in Grasslands National Park, in southern SK, through a mark-release-recapture study. She is further examining the difference of host plant (Eriogonum pauciflorum) microhabitat that is left occupied and unoccupied by the butterfly by studying host plant leaf chemistry, soil chemistry and microtopography. She has a hunch that soil salinity may play a role in caterpillar survival through the fierce Canadian winter. As a final part of her research, Ashley will be building a critical habitat model that will delineate which areas are imperative to the continued survival of the Mormon metalmark in Saskatchewan.

As for Ashley‘s interests outside of school, she was a ballet dancer for 15 years but now practices Ashtanga and Bikram yoga. Always an avid reader, she‘s lately traded Tom Robbins and Richard Manning in for books on modeling and the program R. Accident-prone by nature, she is sometimes dealing with broken bones and dislocated ribs. To balance her time, she has joined the CONFOR 2012 organizing committee working on communications and media. One little known fact about Ashley - prior to shattering her elbow in a ballet accident, she was a young golf prodigy.

Ashley Ann Wick, MSc Candidate

Landmark News, Volume 18 Issue 1—Page 23

Excellence in the discovery, dissemination and application

of knowledge about natural and managed ecosystems

We’re on the Web!

www.ales.ualberta.ca/rr/

This newsletter is published twice a year, distributed to staff and students

within the Department of Renewable Resources and included on the department website.

For copies and/or contributions, please contact the Interim Editor, Judy Huck at

judy.huck@ales.ualberta.ca; phone 492--8621.

Submissions for the next issue of Landmark should be sent in by September 30, 2011.

Department of Renewable Resources University of Alberta

751 General Services Building Edmonton, AB T6G 2H1

Phone: 780-492-8621 Fax: 780-492- 4323

Email: judy.huck@ales.ualberta.ca

The Global Competition for Land: The 4Fs (Food, Feed, Fiber and Fuel)

Don G Roberts, Vice Chairman, CIBC World Markets Inc. is the next speaker for the 66th Forest Industry Lecture on 10 November 2011. A lecture is shed-uled for 3:00 pm in the Horowitz Theatre, University of Alberta.