Red tree voles (Arborimus longicaudus) are a unique species of Arvicoline rodent found in western Oregon and northwest California. Their preferred habitat is mature and old-growth coniferous forest dominated by Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii). Tree voles are an important prey item for northern spotted owls and many other predators, but are...
A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the production of poplar biomass grown under four management conditions in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) of the U.S.A. was conducted. While the extraction of fossil fuels and the subsequent generation of energy have environmental impacts, the alternative of extracting poplar biomass also has impacts...
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune condition that affects the central nervous system, and impacts the lives of over 400,000 individuals in the US. These individuals face unpredictable relapses of disabling conditions, are less active and experience poorer quality of life than the general population. Health professionals are challenged to...
It is good practice to fully understand components of an ecosystem if we hope to preserve its biodiversity. A problem is that we know very little about some organisms and nothing of others. Studies that investigate an organism’s basic biological, ecological and physiological life history variables advance our knowledge of...
With continual and worldwide human population growth, our impact on the natural environment expands and intensifies every day. We consume natural resources, burn fossil fuels, and release toxic compounds into the air, water, and earth. We build roads that fragment the landscape, construct new settlements, and develop agricultural lands in...
This thesis examines two cultural productions of the Harlem Renaissance: Aaron Douglas's mural series, Aspects of Negro Life, and Nella Larsen's novel Passing. I read these works together because, more than their shared time period, they showcase an attention to the visual. Both Larsen and Douglas's works are concerned with...
In this study, I examine the influence of habitat gradients created by the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, Washington USA on a recently established Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) population in the Spirit Lake basin. My goal was to evaluate the responses of fish in seven streams across a volcanic...
Ceratomyxa shasta is a myxozoan parasite that infects salmonid fishes causing the disease ceratomyxosis that is characterized by severe hemorrhage and necrosis of the intestine and death of the fish host. Ceratomyxa shasta is endemic to the Pacific Northwestern United States and Canada, where epizootics are reported for both wild...
Variable-retention harvesting was proposed to reduce loss of biodiversity and ecosystem processes associated with late-seral Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) forests in the Pacific Northwest. The Demonstration of Ecosystem Management Options experiment was established to test this hypothesis. Analysis presents various challenges to drawing statistical inferences about treatment effects. This dissertation explored...
Aquatic ecosystems continue to be increasingly affected by climate warming. For salmonids in the Pacific Northwest of North America, increasing temperatures pose tighter thermal constraints on their habitat use as well as aspects of their individual performance, such as disease resistance. This thesis examines the effect of temperature on the...