The Endangered Species Act (ESA) grants legal standing for any individual or party willing to challenge a species status finding in court. As a result, the legislation has become a controversial, but powerful tool leveraged in political battles and legal disputes that go far beyond the narrow confines of conservation...
Accurate estimation of historical abundance provides an essential baseline for judging the recovery of the great whales. This is particularly challenging for whales hunted prior to twentieth century modern whaling, as population-level catch records are often incomplete. Assessments of whale recovery using pre-modern exploitation indices are therefore rare, despite the...
Purpose: The transition into college can be a stressful and tense time for students. This study aimed to examine the effect of peer involvement in the creation and maintenance of health-oriented habits. Behaviors such as flossing, eating breakfast, drinking water, and increasing fruit and vegetable intake were all recorded while...
Accurate estimation of the amount of water used by trees is important for a variety of agricultural applications. There are several current methodologies for measuring sap flow and water use in trees, however the heat ratio method has been identified as the ideal due to its ability to measure low...
Common ecological restoration treatments such as thinning trees and prescribed burning could result in changes to soil fungal communities and changes to the function of those communities. Ectomycorrhizal fungi are especially likely to be affected as they are symbionts on plant roots and exhibit host and niche preferences. Ectomycorrhizal fungi...
The persistent color (pc) trait in snap bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) belongs to a member of the cosmetic stay-green gene family. It is considered very desirable by snap bean breeders for its impacts on pod quality. Persistent color imparts a uniform dark-green color to pods and expresses in seeds as...
Although the concept of breeding crops for organic agricultural systems has been around for decades, few studies have been reported for vegetable crops to quantify and compare how conventional and organic systems differ in their selection pressures on genotypes advancing through the breeding cycle; especially research utilizing modern sequencing capabilities....
It is well known that in-stream large wood affects river channel shape, sediment deposits, stream flow, and available habitat for aquatic species. However, less is known about how wildlife interact with this large wood. Previous research has shown that small mammals and birds utilize woody debris in river channels for...
Restoration to achieve Stage 0 is a valley-scale, process-based (hydrologic, geologic and biological) approach that aims to reestablish stream depositional environments to maximize longitudinal, lateral, and vertical connectivity at base flows and facilitate development of dynamic, self-formed and self-sustaining wetland-stream complexes. The term Stage 0 originally described complex multi-channel conditions...
Viral infections were investigated in American black bears (Ursus americanus) from Nevada and northern California with and without idiopathic encephalitis. Metagenomics analyses of tissue pools revealed novel viruses in the genera Circoviridae, Parvoviridae, Anelloviridae, Polyomaviridae, and Papillomaviridae. The circovirus and parvovirus were of particular interest due to their potential importance...