Marine heatwaves (“MHWs”) are discrete periods of anomalously warm ocean conditions that can lead to shifts in the distribution and abundance of marine organisms. Low-trophic level, pelagic forage species are frequently among those affected by MHWs, often resulting in considerable impacts upon their predators. In the North Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic...
The Aleutian tern (Onychoprion aleuticus) is a species of high conservation concern in Alaska due to large declines at known breeding locations since the 1960s. Due to the small population size and ephemeral behavior of this species on the nesting grounds, there is little basic biological information available and data...
The Advanced Test Reactor (ATR), under the Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactors (RERTR) Program and the Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI), is conducting feasibility studies for the conversion of its fuel from a highly enriched uranium (HEU) composition to a low enriched uranium (LEU) composition. These studies have...
A detailed understanding of the foraging ecology of species preying upon
threatened or endangered prey may contribute to identifying and evaluating
management options to reduce predation, when such management is deemed
appropriate. In the Columbia River estuary, Caspian terns (Sterna caspia) and
double-crested cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus) have been identified as...
One-minute rainrates were measured during two winter rainy
seasons in western Oregon to gain insights into the time-structure of
Oregon rainstorms. The averages of three non-dimensional relative
variance statistics were greater on the coast than inland. Rainrate
distributions showed that a greater portion of the total rain fell, at
higher...
Understanding the factors that contribute to or limit reproductive success is a fundamental objective of the field of ecology, providing insight into the ways ecosystems function and facilitating better management of natural resources. Behaviors that benefit offspring often increase costs to parents, and thus parents must adjust their level of...
Year-round habitat use of marine predators provides knowledge of important marine areas throughout different life stages. Large-scale, environmental variability, both in space and time, causes changes in the behavior and distribution of marine predators that are important to quantify for conservation. In the Northern California Current System (NCCS), common murres...
Double-crested cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus) and Brandt’s cormorants (P. penicillatus) nest sympatrically in a large mixed-species colony on East Sand Island (ESI) in the Columbia River estuary. Ecological theory predicts that such morphologically similar species will partition prey resources when faced with resource limitations. During the summer of 2014, I investigated...
The detection of subtle variations in mineral chemistry in zoned hydrothermal
alteration associated with the formation of porphyry copper deposits by short-wave
infrared spectroscopy and rock chemistry are potentially valuable vectoring tools for
mineral exploration. In order to correctly interpret the data collected by these methods,
results must be calibrated...