Since their discovery in 1977, hydrothermal vent communities have offered scientists
a unique glimpse into a world that is supported primarily by chemically derived
energy rather than direct energy from the sun. Furthermore, studies of hydrothermal
vent ecosystems have introduced scientists to amazing animals that have successfully
adapted to living...
Situated off the west coast of Vietnam in the Gulf of Thailand, Phu Quoc archipelago and its waters are well-known for their rich natural resources, especially the bounty of fishery resources. Under increasing pressure from the growing population, fishing, and tourism development, there is a strong need to formulate an...
One of the most pressing concerns in the Geographic Information Science community is the distribution of spatial datasets over the Internet. Two projects of the Department of Geosciences at Oregon State University are in the process of distributing data. The Oregon Coast Geospatial Clearinghouse was implemented with the goal of...
Dramatic declines in several groundfish populations have occurred along
the U.S. West Coast during the last decade (PFMC 1999, Sampson 1997,
Ralston 1998, Bloeser 1999). One problem exacerbating these declines is
insufficient stock assessments, especially for species of west coast rockfish
(Family Scorpaenidae, Genus Sebastes) which comprise the core of...
El Niflo and La Nifia are oceanographic and atmospheric phenomena that have been
catalogued for well over a centuly. In El Nifio years, Peru's otherwise thy west coast is
subjected to torrential rainfall. Higher ocean temperatures off the coast are deemed the
culprit. Attempts to quantify this began in the...
Geographical data and information are virtually unlimited in their
quantity and are oftentimes scattered throughout a multitude of locations and stored
in various formats on a wide variety of platforms. The Oregon Coast Geospatial
Clearinghouse (OCGC) is a web-based central repository for metadata (data about
data) corresponding to collected data...
Web geographic information systems (GISs) and the Internet are now providing the connectivity necessary to support large-scale data access by a wide variety of users, including not just scientific researchers, but also policy-makers and marine resource managers. However, connectivity alone cannot ensure that those who need natural resource information will...
Dramatic declines in many species of demersal fishes off the West Coast have resulted in the designation of nine commercially important species as being overfished. While the causes of those declines are not clearly understood, the fact remains that a paucity of life history and abundance data exists for many...
The purpose of this work is to broaden the theoretical foundations of interpolation of spatial data, by showing how ideas and methods from information theory and signal processing are applicable to the the work of geographers. Attention is drawn to the distinction between what we study and how we represent...
Ecoregions are regions of relative homogeneity with respect to specific
ecosystem variables (Bailey 1976; Omernik 1995). There has been an increasing
awareness that effective management of environmental resources must be undertaken
with an ecosystem perspective (Omernik, 1995). Ecoregions serve as a spatial
framework for assessing, managing, and monitoring ecosystems that...
This thesis deals with the archaeological investigations of an 1897-1898 gold rush
structure in the town of Dyea, Alaska. Little is known about this structure (Feature 96) from the historical records. A three year project was conducted to investigate Feature 96 in order to determine the function of the structure,...
Overfishing of our national marine resources has degraded some of the most productive fishing regions in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean, most notably the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank. These regions may have shifted from productive trophic regimes to a less than optimal state therefore reducing fishers’ catches and associated...
An Internet Map Server (IMS) web site was constructed with the goal of
helping middle- through high-school students learn about ocean processes. This IMS was
developed in conjunction with the activities of the Science & Math Investigative
Learning Experience (SMILE) program, and for eventual use with the Oregon Coastal
Atlas,...
Spatialization is an innovative way to expand searching capabilities for a
marine/coastal reference database by using a metaphorical map framework to establish
a sense of place for non-spatial information. Spatializing the Catalogue of Oregon
Marine and Coastal Information (COMC1), a coastal reference database, enables the
marine and coastal resource community...
Oregon is the number one producer of cool-season grass seed in the United
States. The center of the grass seed industry of Oregon is located in the Willamette
Valley, where about 470,000 acres of seed are grown. Innovative grass seed growers
of the area are beginning to implement precision agriculture...
The objective of this study was to examine vegetation and vegetation change in Eritrea over a period from the mid 1980s to 2002 using satellite remote sensing, and relate observed changes to the recent history of drought and war in the region. Specific objectives were (1) to examine vegetation change...
The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami raised concern among marine park managers and
hazard mitigation professionals about the significant impact of major coastal hazards
on marine park natural resources and ecosystems. The main reason for this concern is
the strong linkage of marine parks and their rich assortment of ecosystem services...
Once considered the largest wetland in Central Asia, the Mesopotamian Marshlands of Southeastern Iraq have nearly disappeared. Various hydrological projects by the Iraqi government and dam construction in the region have nearly destroyed these once rich freshwater wetlands by over 90%. With the launching of Operation Iraqi Freedom recent attempts...
Vegetation change is an important factor affecting the global carbon cycle, land-atmosphere interaction, and terrestrial ecology. The study of vegetation change on a global scale can be used to evaluate the impact of global climate change on terrestrial ecosystems. Satellite remote sensing can monitor vegetation change at the global scale,...
Conventional soil maps represent a valuable source of information about soil
characteristics, however they are subjective, very expensive, and time-consuming to
prepare. Also, they do not include explicit information about the conceptual mental
model used in developing them nor information about their accuracy, in addition to the
error associated with...