Montane meadows in the western Cascades of Oregon occupy approximately 5% of the landscape, but contribute greatly to the region's biodiversity. Western Cascades meadows are dynamic parts of the landscape and have contracted by over 50% in the past two hundred years in the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest (hereafter Andrews...
In the past decade, issues related to cultural diversity and pluralism
have risen to the forefront in education. The increasing cultural diversity in
American classrooms and communities requires preservice teachers to be
ready to promote multiple perspectives within their curricula and among their
students. The purpose of this study was...
This study aimed to connect habitat and landscape scale variation, through time and space, to wildlife population dynamics. I studied African buffalo (Syncerus caffer) group size according to habitat structure, landscape heterogeneity, forage quality, and water availability in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Game Reserve, South Africa. I used two approaches to study grouping...
The effect of scale is an important concern in mapping of biodiversity. Scale issues include the grid cell size used for analysis and the effect of the extent and internal boundaries. Because biodiversity analysis involves combinatorial processes, determining the proper scale is data dependent and cannot be predicted from the...
This study compared effects of human and natural wildfire disturbance on age class distribution and associated ecosystem properties of forests in a 15,670 km2 area of the western Cascades of Oregon. The study site is characterized by three forest use types: low elevation, intensively harvested private industrial lands; mid elevation...
The study examines the effect of forest clearance on fire occurrences in major islands of Indonesia, namely: Borneo, Sumatra, Sulawesi and Irian Jaya. The working hypothesis of the study is that forest clearing is a necessary predecessor for extensive fires to occur. The study is designed to test the idea...
This dissertation primarily uses observations made during the 2005 Kashmir earthquake relief effort and available disaster literature to address problems that impede effective and efficient disaster preparedness and response. Three manuscripts form the body of the dissertation. The manuscripts are thematically linked through the Emergency Management Cycle. Each manuscript examines...
One in four Ecuadorians do not have access to health services; while more than two-thirds have no health insurance and insufficient resources to pay for the health care services they might require. The following three studies examined utilization of health care services using Andersen’s Health Care Utilization Behavior Theory. Secondary...
Incidental bycatch in commercial fisheries has been identified as a threat to black-footed albatrosses (Phoebastria nigripes) and Laysan albatrosses (P. immutabilis). Effective long-term conservation of these albatrosses necessitates a thorough understanding of their marine distribution, which marine habitats are selected during foraging, and where they are most likely to interact...
This study demonstrates the utility of combining available scientific data with local ecological knowledge in a Geographic Information System (GIS) to support community-based fisheries management. The approach used provides both the framework for capturing important ecological, economic and social information relevant to marine fisheries management, and also offers coastal citizens...