TY - JOUR T1 - Carnivore use of an avocado orchard in southern California JF - California Fish and Game Journal Y1 - 2008 A1 - Borchert, M. A1 - Davis, F. W. A1 - Kreitler, J. AB - In southern California avocados are an important commercial fruit that often are planted near or immediately adjacent to wildlands. Among cultivated fruits, avocados are unusually high in both lipids and proteins. Fruits remain green on the tree and ripen only after they fall to the ground or are harvested. As a result, they offer a relatively constant, year-round food source in the form of unharvested, fallen fruit. In 2005 for 5.5 months, we camera-trapped medium and large mammals in 13.5 ha of a 55.5 ha commercial avocado orchard in southern California. We also monitored fruit fall and subsequent removal to quantify the amount of energy available to mammals and estimated how much of the ground fruit they consumed. Cameras captured 7 carnivores: black bear, Ursus americanus, domestic dog, coyote, Canis latrans, bobcat, Lynx rufus, gray fox, Urocyon cinereoargenteus, raccoon, Procyon lotor, and striped skunk, Mephitis mephitis; non-carnivores included western gray squirrel, Sciurus griseus and Virginia opossum, Didelphia virginiana. All but bobcats were photographed eating avocados. Black bears, gray foxes and striped skunks frequented the part of the orchard least affected by human activities. In contrast, coyotes and raccoons were more common where humans and domestic dogs were present. Mammals consumed all or nearly all marked avocados on the ground, usually within 50 days. We estimated that they consumed only a small portion (<2%) of the total fruit crop. Avocado orchards offer super-rich food patches that are readily accessible to an array of medium and large mammals. VL - 94 ER - TY - CHAP T1 - Central Coast Bioregion T2 - Fire in California's Ecosystems Y1 - 2006 A1 - Davis, F. W. A1 - Borchert, M. ED - Sugihara, Neil G. ED - van Wagtendonk, Jan W. ED - Shaffer, Kevin E. ED - Fites-Kaufman, JoAnn ED - Thode, Andrea E. JF - Fire in California's Ecosystems PB - University of California Press CY - Berkeley UR - http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/10085.html ER - TY - CHAP T1 - Central Coast Bioregion T2 - Fire in California's Ecosystems Y1 - 2006 A1 - Davis, F. W. A1 - Borchert, M. ED - Sugihara, Neil G. ED - van Wagtendonk, Jan W. ED - Shaffer, Kevin E. ED - Fites-Kaufman, JoAnn ED - Thode, Andrea E. JF - Fire in California's Ecosystems PB - University of California Press CY - Berkeley ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Reproduction and growth of the chaparral geophyte, Zigadenus fremontii (Liliaceae), in relation to fire JF - Plant Ecology Y1 - 2003 A1 - Tyler, C. A1 - Borchert, M. KW - bulb KW - California KW - fire-dependent reproduction KW - fire-induced flowering KW - germination KW - life-history KW - long-lived KW - pityopsis-graminifolia KW - populations KW - postfire KW - seedling establishment KW - soil fertility AB - Zigadenus fremontii is often a striking component of the flora following fire in the chaparral. Like other geophytes, it produces large numbers of flowers in the first spring after a burn. Although these plants are most conspicuous in the early postfire environment, the question that remains is, how do they persist in the interval between fires? To address this we investigated differences in the growth and reproduction of Z. fremontii in burned and unburned chaparral. We monitored marked individuals for nine years at three sites: two that were burned in 1990 and one in the same area that was in unburned mature chaparral. We measured leaf area, and production of flowers and fruits. We also conducted seed experiments in the field to determine the rates and timing of germination. We found that reproduction occurs only in the immediate postfire period: flowering and production of fruits and seeds in the first year following fire, and seedling establishment by year 3. There was a cost of reproduction; plants that flowered (in the burn area) had negative growth rates the following year. In contrast, plants in unburned chaparral, which did not flower, had positive growth rates over the same period. Moreover, plants that produced the most flowers had the lowest growth rates. In the unburned chaparral site, plants were not dormant as predicted from previous literature; instead they produced leaves nearly every year. In most years the average leaf area per plant was greater than that in the burned sites. Our results indicate that postfire reproduction depends on growth and carbohydrate storage in the inter-fire period. We also suggest that this species is relatively long-lived for a herbaceous perennial. VL - 165 UR - ://000179659700002 JO - Plant Ecol Plant Ecol ER - TY - CONF T1 - Beyond the traditional vegetation map towards a biodiversity database T2 - Gis/lis'92 Y1 - 1992 A1 - Stoms, D. M. A1 - Davis, F. W. A1 - Stine, P. A. A1 - Borchert, M. JF - Gis/lis'92 PB - American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing CY - San Jose ER -