Carnivores have disproportionate effects in ecological systems but understanding their exact influences on ecosystems is a matter of great complexity and debate. Predators directly impact prey by killing them, and indirectly by modifying their behavior in response to predation risk. Yet how species interact, both among members of a carnivore...
Land-use change, particularly in the form of the conversion of primary forest to forest-matrix systems, alters species communities and species interactions. Describing these often complex and nuanced species responses is one of the great challenges in ecology. Another complementary challenge is finding and using the most efficient means for collecting...
Mangrove forests store more organic carbon across ecosystem carbon pools than most other coastal and forested ecosystems, and are subject to high global rates of deforestation. For these reasons, they are recognized as prime candidates for inclusion in climate change mitigation strategies. However, the ecological drivers of regional and micro-scale...
The northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis caurina; spotted owl) is of conservation concern and endemic to mature forests of the Pacific Northwest. Adult survival has a strong effect on population growth rate, but juvenile survival and recruitment are also important components of population change. Despite the importance of this life...
The life history traits of polygamous, non-territorial shorebirds like the Red Phalarope (Phalaropus fulicarius) can make it challenging to assess their population status. There are two general approaches to statistical inference used to understand shorebird (Order: Charadriiformes) population change: design-based inference, which implements an a-priori sampling scheme with known selection...
Passive acoustic monitoring is a valuable tool for observing the status of marine environments. Comparisons of underwater soundscapes over temporal and spatial scales can provide data to inform marine conservation efforts, including protection of threatened and endangered species. This dissertation utilizes passive acoustic data collected via a broadly spaced array...
Understanding prey quality and prey selection by predators is critical for management efforts aimed at identification and protection of essential habitats and prey. Marine predators must make daily foraging choices in a heterogenous and dynamic environment in order to meet the high energetic demands of migration, reproduction and foraging. With...
Livestock grazing occurs worldwide, spanning over 25% of land globally. Effective conservation of biodiversity relies upon understanding the interactions of agricultural management practices and increasingly variable weather associated with climate change. I evaluated grazing, weather and predator-prey interactions within a grazing experiment in the sagebrush ecosystem of southeastern Oregon. I...
Spatial capture-recapture (SCR) is employed for estimating abundance and density of species, particularly those that are cryptic or solitary, and evaluating how population density varies with habitat. However, it is uncertain whether estimates are biased when applied to species that aggregate, such as elk (Cervus canadensis). Wildlife managers in the...
Pacific lamprey is an important cultural and ecological species to freshwater ecosystems of the Pacific Northwest. Lamprey often rear in low gradient portions of watersheds that have high exposure to climate warming, yet very little is known about their thermal physiology in comparison with other anadromous fishes such as Pacific...