Harmful algal blooms (HABs) are a problem for coastal communities, the fishing industry, and coastal organisms. Pseudo-nitzschia spp. is a regularly occurring diatom in Oregon’s coastal waters. At times, Pseudo-nitzschia spp. can facultatively produce domoic acid, a neurotoxin that can bioaccumulate in the food chain. While regular shore-based sampling provides...
In 2021, Oregon’s legislature passed House Bill 2021 with relative ease. House Bill 2021 is a mandate for the state’s two largest utilities to reduce carbon emissions from electricity generation on a decreasing scale, reaching 100% below baseline levels by 2040. This ambitious piece of legislation, meant to reduce the...
Global annual average temperatures are rising, creating extreme heat events or heatwaves that are increasing in frequency, length, and severity. The world will endure more of these events as climate change worsens and heat-related mortality and morbidity will increase due to warming conditions. At the center of heatwaves are urban...
The purpose of this paper is to understand the role of policy diffusion in the policy development process of state healthy soil policies. Within the last decade state legislation on soil health has increased exponentially. In general, these policies are efforts by state governments to mitigate or adapt to climate...
Hydrological and biogeochemical processes occurring throughout a watershed are typically reflected in stream water chemistry, including in coastal watersheds. While Oregon Coast Range streams have been studied in the past, there is a dearth of knowledge in terms of seasonal temporal trends and spatial variability that this study seeks to...
In September 2016, the US Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation, and Bonneville Power Administration initiated an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to re-evaluate the long-term strategies for managing the Columbia River System Operations (CRSO). Most notably, these strategies included an option to remove four dams along the Lower Snake...
A product of global climate change, ocean acidification (OA) and other stressors increasingly put pressure on the economic, social, and cultural systems of Western U.S. coastal communities. In the face of increasing OA and local reports that OA is negatively impacting local communities’ socioeconomic structures, there is a clear need...
The management of the Northern Rocky Mountains (NRM) gray wolf population is a longstanding controversy that has fueled generations of political and cultural turmoil in the American West. At the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century, wolves were eradicated from the West for the threat...
Relative to other systems in the PNW, the rain-dominated, coastal watersheds of western Oregon have shallow aquifers. Given the seasonality of streamflow and storage limitations in coastal, rain-dominated watersheds, changes in the temporal patterns of precipitation have the potential to magnify the risk of extreme streamflow conditions during both high-...
Anthropogenic climate change is an escalating environmental and humanitarian emergency, but American public opinion varies on the issue, particularly in terms of whether climate change is natural or human caused. Belief that climate change is human caused has been shown to be critical in terms of support for policy action....
Marin County, located in the northern San Francisco Bay Area in California, faces significant threats due to climate change, including more frequent wildfires, flooding, and increased temperatures. Adaptation and mitigation efforts are necessary in order to promote resilience amidst these changing conditions. Scorecards and similar evaluation tools have previously been...
In recent decades, local governments have desired to increase community engagement in collaborative governance processes, such as community visioning and strategic planning, in an effort to develop policies that are inclusive and supportive of those who live in the community. A key component of the community visioning process is the...
In the Pacific Northwest, USA, the cumulative impact of human development has caused decades of salmon habitat degradation and the listing of multiple populations under the US Endangered Species Act. As a result, the need for implementation of recovery goals has encouraged the development of an economy focused on salmon...
Diverse scientific fields collect multiple time series data to investigate the dynamical behavior of complex systems: atmospheric and climate science, geophysics, neuroscience, epidemiology, ecology, and environmental science. Identifying patterns of mutual dependence among such data generates valuable knowledge that can be applied either for inferential or forecasting purposes. Vector autoregressive...
The topics in this dissertation center on the snow processes that dominate mountain environments in the Western U.S. and Alaska, particularly in locations lacking long-term observational datasets or locales that are difficult to access in-person. Some are currently glacierized or have been glaciated in the recent past. Each of the...
South Louisiana has a major coastal erosion problem, exposing coastal communities to storm surge. The state is spending billions of dollars on projects that are not expected to last beyond 20 years. Research indicates that predominate stories influence problem definitions and solutions. Colten (2017) identified a shift in Louisiana's coastal...
Few studies examine whether public attitudes toward forest management practices differ between public and private forests, with virtually no recent studies examining these differences in the Pacific Northwest, despite the coexistence of millions of acres of both public and private forest lands. Knowing whether public attitudes differ between public and...
Gunung Leuser is a national park in Sumatra Island, Indonesia. This park is one of the most important biodiversity hotspots in the country. For instance, it is home to endangered and endemic species of Indonesia, such as the Sumatran orangutan, the Sumatran tiger, the Sumatran elephant, and the Sumatran rhino....
This dissertation seeks to understand Yi farmers’ livelihoods in the midst of an agricultural transition in Yunnan, Southwest China. This dissertation examines a community’s traditional knowledge related to wild edible plants (WEPs), analyzes socio-ecological vulnerability and resilience in the face of agricultural transition from subsistence farming to cash cropping, and...
Climate change and the increase in meteorological drought have generated global concern over the persistence of ecosystems already in decline from decreased moisture. Evidence suggests dryland ecosystems have been more impacted by drought because of their tightly coupled growth-water relationships and high sensitivity to environmental shift. Removal of competing vegetation...