Northern red-backed vole northern forest and shrubland habitats. They occur in every major forest type in central Alaska. Plant species commonly found in areas occupied by northern red-backed voles include black spruce ("Picea mariana"), white spruce ("P. glauca"), quaking aspen ("Populus tremuloides"), paper birch ("Betula papyrifera"), alder ("Alnus" spp.), willow ("Salix" spp.), mountain cranberry ("Vaccinium vitis-idaea"), blueberry and bilberry ("Vaccinium" spp.), bunchberry ("Cornus canadensis"), and a variety of grasses and forbs. Important fungi, mosses and lichens include truffle ("Endogone fascilulata"), Schreber's moss ("Pleurozium schreberi"), mountain fern moss ("Hylocomium splendens"), sphagnum ("Sphagnum" spp.), and lichens ("Cladonia and Peltigera" spp.). The breeding season of northern
Plant breeding Plant breeding Plant breeding is the science of changing the traits of plants in order to produce desired characteristics. It has been used to improve the quality of nutrition in products for humans and animals. Plant breeding can be accomplished through many different techniques ranging from simply selecting plants with desirable characteristics for propagation, to methods that make use of knowledge of genetics and chromosomes, to more complex molecular techniques (see cultigen and cultivar). Genes in a plant are what determine what type of qualitative or quantitative traits it will have. Plant breeders strive to create a specific outcome of