The anadromous Pacific Lamprey (Entosphenus tridentatus) is a biologically and culturally important species native to the North Pacific Ocean and its adjacent freshwater tributaries. Pacific Lamprey have experienced declines in abundance and distribution throughout their native range, highlighting a need for further research on the species to better inform conservation...
The growing contamination of surface water by stormwater runoff parallels increasing urban development. Heavy metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), persistent organic pollutants (POPs), and contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) are discharged from point sources and washed from impervious surfaces into surface waters, impacting the ecology of these systems, food supplies,...
The western purple martin (Progne subis arboricola) is a species of conservation concern throughout the Pacific Northwest. In western Oregon, the purple martin nests in three major ecosystem types: inland open-water, coastal, and upland forest. The availability of suitable breeding habitat is a major limiting factor for western purple martin...
Considering human product interactions early and often in the engineering design process may improve product quality, facilitate user safety, reduce time to market, decrease or eliminate the need for costly physical prototypes, and reduce expensive late stage design changes. Currently, F1 race cars do not include a cockpit canopy to...
For hundreds of years, coastal and marine ecosystems have experienced increasing threats due to the cumulative effects of increasing population growth and dependence on these ecosystems. Thus, there has been increased enthusiasm to mitigate the negative effects of human actions through the use of cleaner sources of energy, like marine...
The development of resistance to multiple fungicide classes is currently limiting disease management options for many pathogens, while the discovery of new fungicide classes has become less frequent. To address this pressing issue, a three-part study with different layers of complexity, objectives, and experimental approaches was conducted using the model...
Long-term, large-scale studies of meta-ecosystems provide critical information about how global change influences communities. In my dissertation, I analyzed data from studies encompassing 18 years (2006 – 2023) and over 1,000 km of coastline to investigate drivers of rocky intertidal community structure and dynamics. Specifically, I explored the roles of...
Pre-spawning mortality (PSM) presents a major problem for population recovery of spring Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) in the Willamette River basin. In certain reaches and years, PSM has exceeded 90%. Histology has been used as the primary diagnostic method to investigate PSM in the Chinook Salmon, and a collection of...
Mosses (Phylum Bryophyta) are widely considered to be among the most ancient groups of land plants (embryophytes) and they are the second most speciose embryophyte phylum with ~13,000 extant species. Despite their diversity and antiquity, mosses have a limited fossil record, which primarily consists of gametophytes entombed in Cenozoic amber....
Skeletal muscles provide several functions, including, yet not limited to, voluntary body movement and locomotion, posture and body position, and soft tissue support. Skeletal muscles also play a role in metabolism, requiring energy to facilitate contraction. Each skeletal muscle serves a different purpose despite seeming to perform the same task....