Great Lakes coastal wetland communities are threatened by the impacts of invasive plants on ecosystem function and biodiversity. What allows invasive plants to become dominant in invaded communities can be hard to define and context-dependent. Traits associated with invasion success in wetland systems – rapid vegetative growth, competitive superiority in...
Honey bees are important pollinators for many agricultural systems throughout the world. However, recent honey bee declines have caused great alarm, drawing attention to the vulnerability of worldwide agriculture to pollinator loss. These declines are often attributed to a combination of pests, pathogens, viruses, chemicals, and a lack of proper...
Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women worldwide with human papillomavirus (HPV) being the main cause of the disease. Currently available treatment methods are limited and emphasize the need for discovery of new therapies that improve patient outcome. Chromosomal amplifications have been identified as a source of...
There is a fundamental distortion in our understanding of Native people, especially Native women. This distortion is rooted in imperialism and the colonization of Native lands and has created a dominant/subordinate relationship between Non-Native/Native people. Anthropological life history research has traditionally reflected this relationship. As a Native woman, the author...
I focus on addressing knowledge gaps relating to management of cryptogams in Oregon's public lands in Pseudotsuga menziesii-Tsuga heterophylla forests on the west side of the Cascade Range and dryland steppe in the Cascade Range's rainshadow.
While a great deal of research has illustrated the importance of late-successional forests for...
In the midst of the sixth mass extinction, understanding wildlife disease spillover is critical to maintaining protected wildlife areas. Studying ecoimmunology and wildlife disease ecology helps to understand immune and disease traits in an ecological context, which is invaluable in preventing pathogen spillover between livestock and wildlife. To investigate this...
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating disease characterized by the progressive degeneration of motor neurons. Dominantly-inherited mutations to the antioxidant enzyme Cu,Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD1) cause 3-6% of all ALS cases. The complete mechanism behind the toxicity of mutant SOD1 remains unclear, although significant evidence points to aberrant or...
Fire is an important disturbance mechanism in big sagebrush (Artemisia
tridentata) communities, yet little is known about wildlife population dynamics during
post-fire habitat succession. I estimated the abundance of small mammals and birds in
relation to fire history in mountain big sagebrush (A.t. spp. vaseyana) communities on the
Sheldon National...
Cnidarians and their symbiotic dinoflagellates form a productive mutualism that shapes marine environments. In this symbiosis, dinoflagellate species from the family Symbiodiniacea reside within cnidarian host gastrodermal cells and provide the host with photosynthetically fixed carbon in exchange for host metabolites. This nutritional exchange allows both partners to thrive in...
Plant pathogens in the genus Phytophthora are known to cause disease on field crops, nursery plants, and forest trees. The best known example probably is Phytophthora infestans, which triggered the infamous Irish potato famine. Other important Phytophthora species include: P. ramorum (sudden oak death pathogen), P. sojae (soybean root rot...