Twenty-three bottom-trawl fish assemblages were identified from the relative biomass of
33 dominant species that occurred in the National Marine Fisheries Services' triennial
trawl surveys over the continental shelf and upper slope off California, Oregon, and
Washington from 1977 to 1992. The assemblages accounted for about 70% of the total...
Disturbance, whether natural or of human origin, modifies to varying degrees
many ecosystem attributes. Fire is a natural process in the montane forests of southern
Oregon but for much of the 20th century fire was viewed as an apocalypse and thus
fervently suppressed. Effective natural resource management requires an
understanding...
Debris flows, common disturbances in many mountainous areas, initially scour or bury stream habitats; however, debris flows deliver vast amounts of wood, boulders, and gravel that may ultimately form complex stream habitat to potentially support a diverse salmonid assemblage. The materials deposited by debris flows would otherwise be inaccessible to...
Animal weapons are thought to have evolved to compete for reproductive opportunities within a species. Across the diverse weapon-bearing taxa, several evolutionary trends have emerged: (1) increasing complexity and relative size across ontogeny, (2) sexual dimorphism, and (3) higher levels of random deviations from symmetry (i.e., fluctuating asymmetry) than non-weaponized...
Early life stages of many marine and diadromous fish species use sandy beach surf zones, which occur along >50% of the world's marine coastlines. This extensive habitat can provide juvenile fishes with an abundant supply of potential prey and the ability to hide from predators in its shallow turbid waters....
Vegetation provides food for many insects, and many insects serve as food for bats. We investigated the linkages among these three trophic levels in riparian areas throughout the Oregon Coast Range by examining the influence of vegetation cover, composition, and structure on the activity of nocturnal insects and bats, the...
Understanding how populations within a species interact across various geographic and temporal scales is fundamental to developing appropriate conservation strategies. I examined the geographic variation in genetic and meristic characters of coastal cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarki clarki) based on
approximately 1,400 fish sampled from 54 populations spanning their distributional range...
Tidal marshes are dynamic ecosystems that are threatened by climate change and sea-level rise. To characterize baseline condition and historic climate sensitivities, and improve projections into the future, new methods are required that integrate data from the field and remote sensing platforms. Marsh elevation response models can be calibrated with...
Reintroduction programs are increasingly being used to save animals from extinction and aid in their recovery. The California Condor (Gymnogyps californianus), one of the most endangered birds in the world, is a remarkable example of how reintroduction programs can help rapidly increase a species' population numbers and range following a...
Along the Pacific coast of North America, from Alaska to Mexico, harmful algal blooms (HABs) have caused losses to natural resources and coastal economies, and have resulted in human sicknesses and deaths for decades. Recent reports indicate a possible increase in their prevalence and impacts of these events on living...