Sea otters fulfill a keystone role in several Northeastern Pacific nearshore ecosystems. However, their influence has been absent in Oregon coastal waters since their extirpation in the 19th and early 20th century. Interest has been growing for a translocation attempt to reintroduce sea otters to Oregon from one or more...
Population genetic techniques are now preeminent in differentiating wild populations. Natural resource managers rely on them in their efforts to restore viable populations of fish and wildlife. Overfishing adversely impacted Yelloweye Rockfish (Sebastes ruberrimus) on the U.S. West Coast in the late 20th century. Management actions included shutting down the...
RNAseq data among copepods (Calanus pacificus) were sampled and analyzed in relation to oceanographic and climatic conditions to determine if new information derived from such an approach might assist applications that use copepods as ecosystem indicators to predict fishery yields. These samples were taken as part of long-term studies conducted...
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...
Rapid adaptation and evolution based on standing genetic variation and novel mutations is likely to be one of the primary ways that species survive the widespread anthropogenic environmental changes expected of the next century. Three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) are known to be capable of extremely quick, dramatic adaptation in response...
Reintroduction programs are used to re-establish species back into their historical habitat. Most reintroduction programs have failed and few papers have evaluated factors that may be important to Pacific salmon. The 158 meter tall Cougar Dam has blocked Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) from accessing 40 kilometers of historical spawning and...
Substantial scientific investment has been directed towards understanding factors that influence distribution patterns and animals' remarkable ability for precise orientation and navigation, yet fundamental gaps in our knowledge remain. In my dissertation, I applied emerging genetic technologies to conduct a top-down and bottom-up investigation of animal movement and cue perception....
Evidence for reduced reproductive success (RS) of wild spawning hatchery-reared fish invites serious consideration with regard to the detrimental effects on subsequent generations of wild populations. Mate choice was evaluated as a potential mechanism contributing to these observed RS differences using a previous pedigree of wild spawning hatchery-reared and wild...
Although the effects of extrinsic barriers to dispersal have increasingly been shown to
play a large role in the structuring of contemporary genetic diversity, describing the
relationship between landscape structure, stochastic disturbance, and genetic diversity
remains a major challenge. Here, environmental features for 27 barrier-isolated
populations (2,232 individuals) of coastal...
Because human land use activities often result in increased fragmentation of headwater stream habitats, a better understanding of the effects of fragmentation on the genetic heterogeneity of stream salmonids is useful for effective management. We used eight microsatellites to examine the genetic structure of potamodromous coastal cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarki...
