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....