Five separate trials were conducted to test the feeding value
of Pacific Northwest grown soybeans for chickens and turkeys. Soybeans
were obtained from farms near Walla Walla, Washington and
incorporated into rations which were fed to replacement pullets,
laying pullets, broiler chickens, turkey poults and market turkeys.
These rations were...
There are a nearly unlimited number of situations in which the
status of time-varying processes must be updated. The monitoring of
these processes usually occurs at periodic intervals. Whether the
monitoring is performed by man or machine, a decision must be made
regarding the frequency of these activities, that is,...
An inextricable link exists between dams and human development in the Pacific Northwest, but they can fragment rivers and reduce genetic connectivity for freshwater and anadromous fishes. Since the early-twentieth century, a series of hydropower and irrigation dams on the mainstem Klamath River, California, has fragmented migratory corridors and eliminated...
The combined effects of habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation pose a serious threat to Earth's biodiversity, imperiling even relatively common species. 'Habitat' is necessarily a species-specific concept, and investigations of bird diversity relationships and subsequent efforts to prioritize conservation areas, are challenged by the difficulty of estimating complex habitat gradients...
The California Current Ecosystem (CCE) is a dynamic marine ecosystem from which many socioeconomically important fisheries species are harvested. In this thesis, a genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) approach was used to examine genomic variation in an early life stage of the Dungeness crab (Cancer magister), which constitutes the most valuable single-species commercial...
Understanding connectivity among exploited populations is critical to their sustainable management and long-term viability. In the marine environment, estimates of connectivity often rely on the use of genetic markers, as dispersal primarily occurs during a planktonic larval phase which is difficult to track using direct methods. In this thesis, we...
Total US lumber production in 2011 was 77.9 million cubic meters. Its primary use was for housing and construction. There is a growing concern that the structural properties for wood are being reduced as trees are harvested at much younger ages as the wood supply shifts from older to younger...
The hemlock woolly adelgid (Hemiptera: Adelgidae: Adelges tsugae; HWA) is an invasive and damaging pest on hemlock in eastern North America. HWA is native to the Pacific Northwest, where it does not damage hemlock. In support of classical biological control of HWA in eastern North America, abundances of native predators...
Large scale disruption of natural habitats worldwide has led to concern over the
effects of habitat fragmentation on wildlife populations. Small scale experiments may be
a useful tool for discovering effects of fragmentation over larger landscape scales. I
sought to explore the potential for using voles as an experimental model...
A study was conducted to determine the effect of dietary protein on
performance of commercial New Zealand White rabbits.
In Part I of this study, three levels of crude protein (17.5, 19
and 20.5%) were fed to lactating does and their offspring during a 12
month period. Total rabbits born...
Within the Pacific Northwest, USA, root diseases of conifers are a major forest health concern. These diseases are primarily caused by basidiomycete fungi. These fungal associates play a vital role in carbon sequestration but also have a significant negative economic impact within the timber industry. As a result, research on...
Effective and sustainable fisheries management not only depends on identifying and defining stocks (fundamental unit of management), but also on having knowledge of factors influencing the abundance, distribution and connectivity of stocks. Population structure of Pacific cod (Gadus macrocephalus) in the southeastern Bering Sea (EBS) remains unresolved although genetic data...
The purpose of this thesis is to aid in qualitative improvements to technical support documents on the Internet. By using a generic criticism this analysis will make substantive suggestions towards the improvement of this type of document by engaging the rhetoric employed by their authors. It will discuss the history...
The objective of this thesis is to provide a predictive model for the archaeological investigation of the first farmsteads in the Pacific Northwest, established in the early- and mid-nineteenth century by Canadien and Métis families retiring from their service in the fur trade. Past studies of this population have either...
Illuminated contour lines, where line width and color are varied based on an angle of illumination, date back to the mid-nineteenth century, but their effectiveness compared to conventional contour lines has not been fully examined. Currently, illuminated contour lines are not widely used in computer-based cartography because they are not...
Irrigated agricultural production in sandy soils presents several unique challenges to growers, including naturally high permeability, low native water retention, as well as high rates of water drainage losses and leaching of chemicals to the shallow aquifers. This study is an initial investigation into water motion in the sandy agricultural...
The Quotient Method (QM), a laboratory-based risk assessment methodology used by the Environmental Protection Agency to evaluate pesticides for registration and use, has not been thoroughly field-tested and its performance has not always been reliable. My objective was to determine if variation in vegetation structure or diet of exposed animals...
Climate change represents an increasing threat to northeastern temperate forests. Nearly all forest communities have been affected by climate change and require climate-adaptation management (Jandl et al. 2018). Climate-adaptation management (CAM) promotes the viability of forested systems and the ecosystem services they provide under current and future climatic conditions (Bolte...
A static-renewal, seven day test was developed and
utilized to study the effects of nutrition on the sensitivity
of Mysidopsis intii Holmquist to zinc. It was found that
juvenile growth was the most reliable and sensitive endpoint
that could also reflect the subtle effects of low zinc
concentrations and diet...
Fungi play critical roles in ecosystem processes and interact with plant communities in mutualistic, pathogenic, and commensal ways. Fungal communities are thought to be influenced by both associated tree communities and soil properties. However, the relative importance of the biotic and abiotic drivers of soil fungal community structure and diversity...
U.S. incarceration rates have soared over the past three decades and the demographic characteristics of those who end up in prison are a reflection of the nation's structural inequality. Incarcerated fathers are a socially disadvantaged group and spending time in prison compounds already significant risk factors that these men experienced...
This thesis mainly consists of two parts: (1) comparing statistical modeling methods based on the area-based approach (ABA) for predicting forest inventory attributes using airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data (Chapter 2), and (2) suggesting a new methodology fusing the individual tree detection (ITD) approach and the ABA for...
Bone is much more than a simple, static organ. While its classical functions of mineral storage, organ protection, and locomotion still hold true, further studies into the skeleton have revealed a dynamic system capable of signaling, communication, remodeling, and responding to various stimuli. Overall skeletal health is critically important to...
The Bureau of Land Managements (BLM) Emergency Fire Rehabilitation (EFR) policy was developed in 1985 to encourage protection of sites from soil erosion and to minimize potential changes in vegetation communities that may result from the dominance of weedy species. To achieve the goals of EFR policy, managers often used...
Contemporary fire effects are raising concerns about the resistance and resilience of dry mixed-conifer forests to large wildfires. Fire refugia – unburned or low-severity patches within fire perimeters – are understudied components of post-fire mosaics that may be key drivers of forest recovery following high-severity fire. Little is known about...
Most benthic marine organisms have a bipartite life with an early pelagic stage that enables dispersal of offspring, connecting spatially separated populations, and a late stage where individuals reside in a benthic habitat. Settlement of pelagic offspring to bottom associated substrates is the process that connects the two life history...
Neotropical characiform fishes form one of the most diverse freshwater ichthyofauna in the world. Knowledge of evolutionary processes that generated and maintain the immense characiform lineage and morphological diversity is still poorly understood. When did characiform lineages diversify? How have major geological and environmental changes affected diversification? Why are some...
The conservation of declining desert fish species requires the identification of relations between fish population dynamics and their environments. Dynamic occupancy modeling, an approach that requires less information than traditional mark-recapture studies, may help identify important factors affecting population processes and aid desert fish conservation and restoration efforts. I used...
Various methods of estimating the fault probabilities based on defect data of random defects seen in integrated circuit manufacturing are examined. Estimates of fault probabilities based on defect data are less costly than those based on critical area analysis and are potentially more reliable because they are based on actual...
Eelgrass (Zostera marina) provides critical ecosystem functions and services and is a vital biogenic habitat on Washington’s marine aquatic reserves but its placement at the land-sea interface leaves it vulnerable to multiple environmental and anthropogenic stressors. In this study, published scientific literature is examined to identify thresholds of environmental stressors...