Migration and spawning phenology of Pacific Salmon is linked to the hydroregime, and thought to be triggered by increases in river discharge and decreases in water temperature. However, little data exists that describes direct fine-scale linkages between the hydroregime and spawning in Coho Salmon. This study evaluated the spatial and...
The management of small-scale fisheries (SSF) around the world is facing increasing demands for reformation given ecological, social, and economic vulnerabilities. The governance of SSF is particularly important to foster the sustainability of these systems given that it combines regulatory instruments, interactive participation of diverse stakeholders, and the guiding values...
For over 100 years, National Parks have existed to preserve America’s natural and cultural heritage for current and future generations. As environmental pressures on wildlife and habitats have increased in recent decades, National Park lands have become important protected areas for many threatened and endangered species. Conservation and management of...
Year-round habitat use of marine predators provides knowledge of important marine areas throughout different life stages. Large-scale, environmental variability, both in space and time, causes changes in the behavior and distribution of marine predators that are important to quantify for conservation. In the Northern California Current System (NCCS), common murres...
Species conservation depends on robust population assessment. Data on population abundance, distribution, and connectivity are critical for effective management, especially as baseline information for newly documented populations. I describe a pygmy blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus brevicauda) population in New Zealand waters with year-round presence that overlaps with industrial activities. This...
Declines in populations of anadromous salmonids (Oncorhynchus spp.) in the Columbia River drainage basin have resulted in extensive programs to annually release large numbers of hatchery-raised juvenile salmonids in an effort to support salmonid restoration. The Pacific Flyway population of Caspian terns (Hydroprogne caspia) has grown from around 3,500 nesting...
The influence of the flood pulse on fish populations has been posited, but infrequently tested or quantified. Here, we tested the effect of habitat on population size, using Prochilodus nigricans as a case study species. Floodplain habitat was based on the littoral zone area occupied by P. nigricans to feed....
Fishers (Pekania pennanti) are medium sized mustelids endemic to North America. Two fisher populations persist in Oregon: an indigenous population in southwestern Oregon, and a reintroduced population in the southern Cascade Mountains. Despite candidacy for listing under the Endangered Species Act, current information on fisher populations in Oregon is scarce....
Up to 99.9% of native North American grasslands have been degraded since European settlement, primarily due to agricultural conversion. Today, grasslands are a top priority for restoration as they provide essential habitat for many rare and endangered species; however, the majority of studies in grasslands have focused on vegetation or...
Biodiversity loss in highly diverse systems such as coral reefs has been linked to significant declines in the ecosystem functions and services provided by marine species. Ecological functioning of coral reefs and the resistance of coral reef fish communities to disturbance depend on the functional traits of species that promotes...
Background. Ampelisca eschrichtii Krøyer, 1842 of the Sakhalin Shelf of the Okhotsk Sea, Far Eastern Russia, comprise the highest known biomass concentration of any amphipod population in the world and are a critically important prey source for western gray whales. Growth and reproduction in this population has not been apparent...
Background. Ampelisca eschrichtii Krøyer, 1842 of the Sakhalin Shelf of the Okhotsk Sea, Far Eastern Russia, comprise the highest known biomass concentration of any amphipod population in the world and are a critically important prey source for western gray whales. Growth and reproduction in this population has not been apparent...
Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) are a widely distributed baleen whale species, well known for their diverse acoustic behavior. On high-latitude foraging grounds, humpback whales produce a suite of non-song vocalizations (“calls”) in concert with foraging and social behavior. In this dissertation I investigated the role of calls in the acoustic...
This study investigates the use of a mobile application, Whale mAPP, as a citizen science tool for collecting marine mammal sighting data. In just over three months, 1261 marine mammal sightings were observed and recorded by 39 citizen scientists in Southeast Alaska. The resulting data, along with a preliminary and...
Characiform fishes form one of the most diverse freshwater fish clades in the world. Comprising more than 2000 species and distributed primarily in South America and Africa, characiforms vary dramatically in their ecomorphology. However, the evolutionary processes responsible for the immense ecomorphological diversity remains unknown. Recently, a study postulated that...
Ecotourism is a movement that seeks to sustain local communities by uniting conservation, travel, and education. To minimize effects on animal behavior, ecotourism operations must be carefully managed. Local management efforts that can be tailored to the specific area and animals may be more successful than broad‐scale efforts that may...
Informed conservation of small mammals, ecosystems, and predators requires a detailed understanding of how small mammals species and communities vary in both space and time, as well as the relative cyclicity and synchrony of this variation. This variation can be especially informative to land managers interested in manipulating the abundance...
OBJECTIVE To document the environmental stewardship practices (decisions and actions regarding use and disposal) of pet and human pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) among pet-owning veterinary-care professionals (practicing veterinarians, veterinary students, and veterinary technicians and trainees) and environmental educators. DESIGN Internet-based cross-sectional survey. SAMPLE 191 pet owners (103 veterinary-care...
Background: Despite recent work to characterize gene expression changes associated with larval development in oysters, the mechanism by which the larval shell is first formed is still largely unknown. In Crassostrea gigas, this shell forms within the first 24 h post fertilization, and it has been demonstrated that changes in...
This document reports on findings, conclusions and recommendations derived from scientific literature and knowledge regarding the effectiveness of tide gate removal or upgrade in improving conditions for Oregon’s native migratory fish species, particularly salmonids, and other plant and animal species that utilize estuarine ecosystems. The project was commissioned by the...
The Western Pacific Ocean barred knifejaw Oplegnathus fasciatus was found from 2013 to 2015 along the Pacific Coast of North America from Washington to California. The knifejaw was found in derelict vessels that had arrived on the Pacific Coast and that had been lost during the March 2011 Great Japan...
Movement in an important component of an animal’s life cycle when it relies on both aquatic and terrestrial habitats. When multiple species overlap in the use of these habitats, they rely on other methods to reduce competition for shared resources. This dataset measured the jumping performance and movement behavior of...
2018 Library Undergraduate Research Awards nomination materials, reflective learning essay, and research paper.
In this study, pocket gopher and gray-tailed vole holes and hills were counted within four distinct habitats using quadrats and a gridding method over a period of five field days. The study was conducted to determine which...
Environmental DNA (eDNA) is an emerging biological monitoring tool that can aid in assessing the effects of forestry and forest manufacturing activities on biota. Monitoring taxa across broad spatial and temporal scales is necessary to ensure forest management and forest manufacturing activities meet their environmental goals of maintaining biodiversity. Our...
Cytochrome B sequence data (FASTA format) from the paper “Seasonal distribution and environmental associations among late larval and juvenile rockfish (Sebastes spp.) off Oregon and Washington: new insights based on genetics”. The data was generated from a sample of 2534 unknown, field collected late-larval and juvenile rockfishes from the Pacific...
Cross-seasonal effects, where conditions in one season can have consequences in a following season, can have population-level implications for migratory species. To assess the presence of cross-seasonal effects on a migratory dabbling duck population, we examined the relative importance of habitat conditions in multiple seasons on the subsequent productivity of...
Collaborative decision-making is often promoted as a means to achieve socially acceptable and enduring solutions to natural resource management issues, and one that holds promise for resolving “wicked” problems. However, success rates for implementation of collaborative recommendations are unknown. This paper explores challenges to collaborative salmon fishery management in Prince...
Using a combination of population‐ and individual‐based analytical approaches, we provide a comprehensive examination of genetic connectivity of Dungeness crab (Cancer magister) along ~1,200 km of the California Current System (CCS). We sampled individuals at 33 sites in 2012 to establish a baseline of genetic diversity and hierarchal population genetic...
Many marine mammal predators, particularly pinnipeds, have increased in abundance in recent decades, generating new challenges for balancing human uses with recovery goals via ecosystem-based management. We used a spatio-temporal bioenergetics model of the Northeast Pacific Ocean to quantify how predation by three species of pinnipeds and killer whales (Orcinus...
Many marine mammal predators, particularly pinnipeds, have increased in abundance in recent decades, generating new challenges for balancing human uses with recovery goals via ecosystem-based management. We used a spatio-temporal bioenergetics model of the Northeast Pacific Ocean to quantify how predation by three species of pinnipeds and killer whales (Orcinus...
In this study, we used a combination of conventional statistical analyses and mechanistic bioenergetics models to understand the potential effects of environmental variability on growth of stream-living fishes in four headwater streams subject to upstream forest harvest. We focused on two common fish consumers in headwater streams in the Pacific...
Predator outbreaks are predicted to increasingly decimate economically and ecologically important prey populations because global climate change and food-web modifications frequently facilitate predators and stress prey. Natural systems are organized hierarchically, with processes operating at multiple scales giving rise to patterns of biodiversity, so predicting and managing outbreaks requires a...
Commercial whaling during the 20th century drastically reduced many populations of great whales in the Southern Hemisphere. The Antarctic blue whale, for example, is estimated to have been reduced to less than 0.1% of its original abundance based on catch records and population dynamic models. Despite this population bottleneck, several...
Bird scaring lines (BSLs) protect longline fishing gear from seabird attacks, save bait, reduce incidental seabird mortality and are the most commonly prescribed seabird bycatch mitigation measure worldwide. We collaborated with fishermen to assess the efficacy of applying BSL regulations from the demersal longline sablefish fishery in Alaska to a...
Traditional analysis in population genetics evaluates differences among groups of individuals and, in some cases, considers the effects of distance or potential barriers to gene flow. However, many forces may shape genetic variation of organisms in riverine systems. Similarly complex research linking habitat heterogeneity and configuration to genetic structure has...
Tropical peatlands play an important role in global climate system by storing an immense of carbon that had been accumulated over thousands of years. Peatlands provide another important ecosystem service by regulating the hydrology. It is believed that peatlands act like a giant sponge by absorbing substantial amounts of water...
Limited approaches exist for studying population connectivity in widely dispersing marine benthic invertebrates. Genetic techniques can provide important insights toward identifying recruitment trajectories. Here, 10 microsatellite loci were used to examine connectivity among Oregon Dungeness crabs (Cancer magister, Dana, 1852) in the California Current System (CCS) (n = 801) as...
Research on cetacean foraging ecology is central to our understanding of their spatial and behavioral ecology. Yet, functional mechanisms by which cetaceans detect prey across different scales remain unclear. Here, I postulate that cetaceans utilize a scale-dependent, multimodal sensory system to assess and increase prey encounters. I review the literature...
One of the biggest hurdles for a juvenile salmonid (Oncorhynchus mykiss) is migrating downstream from freshwater spawning grounds to the ocean. Juveniles from wild broodstock were reared from the South Santiam River for more than 1 year at the Oregon Hatchery Research Center (OHRC) in Alsea, OR. The fish were...
Ecological resources available to freshwater fish shift spatially, temporally and across life stages. To better understand how spatial-temporal availability of resources influence fish, I examined the phenologies of hatching and emergence of Coho Salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) in streams with contrasting and strongly defined seasonal thermal variability. The study streams included...
Monitoring marine ambient sound using standardized methods supports assessments of ocean sound levels across widespread ecosystems. This thesis quantifies differences among coastal and deep-water marine soundscapes in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The sources of sound in a soundscape are compartmentalized into three components and compared over time and among...
The desire to understand the spatial and temporal drivers of animal behavior and distribution relative to scale is central to movement ecology. Optimal foraging theory states that a predator should continue exploiting a patch until it is no longer profitable to do so. As human developments increasingly encroach on the...
Humpback whale populations in Antarctica are recovering after intensecommercial whaling in the 20th century. Along the Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP)this recovery is occurring in an environment that is experiencing the fastest warming ofany region on the planet. To begin to understand the dynamics of this recovery undersuch dramatic climate change,...
Forecasts of the impacts of climate change have traditionally focused on individual species and their phenotypes, phenology, or distribution. However, shifts in species distributions and the resulting reorganization of community composition represent an important violation to the assumption of species acting in isolation. Whereas species may respond individualistically to climate...
This study focuses in providing the knowledge on carbon (C) stocks, emission and ecosystem productivity related to land use/land cover change in tropical peatlands. The field research activities were conducted for about 17 months between August 2013 to December 2015, at Pematang Gadung peat dome (peat depth up to 10.5...
Despite being a highly charismatic and frequently exhibited organism,
Giant Pacific Octopus (Enteroctopus dofleini) population dynamics
are poorly understood. Basic monitoring data for this species is
limited to bycatch and stomach contents of other fisheries species. An
essential step to a better estimation of population size and
productivity is to...
Human alterations of landscapes take many forms, one of which is anthropogenic pollution. Mercury (Hg) is a complex contaminant because its uptake into the food web is not driven entirely by loading to the system; methylation is necessary to make Hg bioavailable and toxic to fish and wildlife. Because methylation...
The Mahakam Delta which was once among the largest mangrove forests in Indonesia, has been subjected to dramatic changes in structure and function due to massive shifts from mangrove forest to shrimp ponds and oil and gas development. To understand the impacts of mangrove loss to the greenhouse gas (GHG)...