Current riparian management objectives in the Pacific Northwest promote both retention of existing conifers and conversion of hardwood-dominated areas to conifers. Although understanding of relationships between riparian vegetation and salmonid prey availability is growing, temporal variation in these relationships is poorly understood. Seasonal fluxes in availability of aquatic and terrestrial...
Riparian areas are eco-tones where aquatically- and terrestrially-derived insect biomass is exchanged between habitats, presenting consumers with new sources of energy, and resulting in a reciprocal subsidy. The relative contribution of energy exchange and the
resulting impacts on vertebrate riparian consumers, such as fish or birds, remains poorly understood. We...
Intensive cultivation of Walla Walla silt loams (coarse silty,
mixed, mesic, typic Haploxeroll) in eastern Oregon and Washington
during the past 50 years, has decreased internal soil drainage in
the 15 to 40 cm layer. However, no measurements have been made to
determine the causes and corrective management for this...
Ocean acidification (OA) has emerged as an important focus of research and policy in this decade. Ocean acidification specifically refers to changes in the inorganic carbon system in the ocean resulting from its absorption of human-released CO₂ from the atmosphere. Anthropogenic atmospheric CO₂ levels are rapidly increasing; much of this...
A Willamette sandy shot loam was treated with ZnC1₂, CdC1₂, or sewage sludge to determine the chemical fate of added Cd and Zn in the soil and their influence on the growth of corn and wheat seedlings. Cadmium was added as CdC1₂ at rates of 0, 5, 20, or 80...
Rivers impacted by human activities often have multiple stressors present. The effects of multiple stressors on biological communities can often be difficult to predict, due to the potential for complex interactions between stressors and communities. This thesis explores the impacts of two stressors often associated with agricultural land use, increased...
Headwater streams and their riparian zones are a common, yet poorly understood,
component of Pacific Northwest landscapes. I sought to describe the ecological significance of
headwater stream riparian zones as habitat for forest-floor invertebrate communities, and to
assess how alternative management strategies for riparian zones may impact these communities.
I...
Sandy soils are among the least productive soils because of their inability to
store adequate water for plant growth. Their high percolation rate not only allows
water to move quickly beyond the root zone, but also washes nutrients below the reach
of plant roots. High evaporation occurs from the soil...
A total of 44 intermittent sand filter-septic systems, in five counties of Western
Oregon, were sampled over a three-month period during the summer of 1995. The sand
filter systems varied in age from 36 months up to 167 months (3 to 13.9 years). Liquid
samples were taken from the septic...
Various soil tests are routinely used in the United States to predict soil lime requirement. New non-hazardous methods have recently been proposed for adoption in Oregon, however the accuracy of these methods for Oregon soils has not been established. The objectives of this investigation were: (a) to document and describe...