Beekeepers' gold: reconstructing tupelo honey yield in northwest Florida using Nyssa ogeche tree-ring data
- UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Justin Timothy Maxwell (Creator)
- Institution
- The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
- Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
- Advisor
- Paul Knapp
Abstract: This dissertation contains three manuscripts that have been either submitted to or accepted by peer-reviewed academic journals. I first examine the U.S. honey industry to determine how the industry is responding to the current multiple challenges facing U.S. beekeepers. I discuss how the industry might survive these challenges by transitioning to a multifunctional system and becoming more economically and environmentally sustainable. I then examine a specific honey type--tupelo--in more detail using tree-rings to expand the honey record. Tupelo honey is derived from the nectar of Ogeechee tupelo (Nyssa ogeche) trees growing in northwest Florida and southern Georgia. I use N. ogeche tree-ring data to reconstruct and expand the honey yield-per-hive record and then place the current decline in a historical context. I also identify the climatic and hydrologic conditions conducive to optimal honey yields. This project is the first to use dendrochronological techniques to expand and analyze honey yields. I use tupelo honey yield as an example of how climatic cycles may cause long-term fluctuations in crop productivity. The results demonstrate the utility of employing tree-rings to extend crop records to allow a broader understanding of yield variations inherent in agriculture and can be implemented for other crop yields.
Beekeepers' gold: reconstructing tupelo honey yield in northwest Florida using Nyssa ogeche tree-ring data
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Created on 5/1/2012
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Dissertation
- Language: English
- Date: 2012
- Keywords
- AMO, Dendroagronomy, Tree Ring, Tupelo Honey
- Subjects
- Honey trade $z United States
- Honey $z United States
- Bee culture $z United States
- Tupelo $x Climatic factors $z Florida