Ultraviolet-B radiation (UVB) is an abiotic stressor in both terrestrial and aquatic systems. The stratospheric ozone layer, depleted due to anthropogenic activities and the cause of elevated UVB at earth's surface over the last four decades, is predicted to recover by 2065. However, UVB levels in aquatic systems may continue...
Breeding ecology and behavior were investigated in a field study of three sympatric anuran amphibians in the Oregon Cascade Mountains: the western toad (Bufo
boreas), the Cascades frog (Rana cascadae) and the Pacific treefrog (Hyla regilla). A comprehensive study of the western toad mating system was conducted at three populations...
Marine reserves are known to directly replenish overfished species. However, the
community-wide effects of reserves are less clear. I examined the community of coralreef
fishes in a large, fully protected marine reserve in The Bahamas: the Exuma Cays
Land and Sea Park. Visual-transect surveys provided estimates and comparisons of the...
Inner shelf hypoxia has occurred along the Oregon coast between the latitudes 44ºN
and 45ºN since 2002 with increasing duration and intensity, posing a threat to marine
life. The objective of this research was to determine whether variation in respiration
rate explains spatial and temporal variation in hypoxia. Dissolved oxygen...
Food webs are extraordinarily complex, containing myriad direct interactions and indirect effects. Determining how this network of interactions and effects influences a food web’s qualitative dynamics is a challenging task, especially because data on food web structure and individual interaction strengths is unknown in virtually all real-world ecosystems. The goal...
Considerable controversy exists about how fish assemblages are
organized. I explicitly took fish movement into account while I
studied the effects of disturbance, habitat complexity, and predation
at different times of the summer to understand the major factors
influencing assemblage structure in a high desert Oregon stream. The
effects of...
The effects of Marine protected areas (MPAs) on adult fish populations depend on the degree of protection provided, which is partly a function of MPA size and the spatial extent of fish movements. The Redfish Rocks Marine Reserve (RRMR) and MPA, located on the south coast of Oregon near Port...
In September of 1989, the site of an active seafloor methane vent was confirmed
approximately 20 km off the coast of Oregon in shelf waters 135 m deep. The location of
the vent had been described to Oregon State University oceanographers by a local
commercial fisherman. Preliminary observations in 1989...