Human alterations of landscapes take many forms, one of which is anthropogenic pollution. Mercury (Hg) is a complex contaminant because its uptake into the food web is not driven entirely by loading to the system; methylation is necessary to make Hg bioavailable and toxic to fish and wildlife. Because methylation...
Wood composites are an important renewable structural material which can be a net carbon sink when used in combination with sustainable forest management practices and high rates of log utilization. Adhesive bondlines are an essential part of composites, and for wood composites, they determine the moisture durability and mechanical performance...
I examined ecological relationships and mechanisms of coexistence for sympatric populations of Columbian white-tailed (Odocoileus virginianus leucurus) and black-tailed deer (Odocoileus hemionus columbianus) in Douglas County, Oregon, from September 1997 to August 1998. Horseback transects were used to describe spatial distributions, population overlap, and habitat use for both species. Behavioral...
Streamflow response to rainfall is controlled by the net water budget and the routing of rainfall to stream channels. In rain-dominated forested regions, including the Oregon Coast Range, water budget aspects of forest hydrology are better quantified than water routing. As a result, most of the commonly used forest hydrology...
Oregon’s high hunger and food insecurity rates have been a concern throughout the last decade. These high rates earned Oregon the dubious distinction as the most food insecure with hunger state in the late 1990’s. While Oregon’s ranking has improved in recent years, our understanding of why Oregon ranked so...
Understanding and predicting how regional to global scale processes affect macroalgal populations and communities requires elucidating the mechanisms underlying observed patterns. This dissertation identifies some of the underlying mechanisms that produce complex multi-scale responses of macroalgae across space and time by delineating the role of key local environmental drivers and...
Succession and organization of rocky intertidal zone surfgrass beds
(Phyllospadix scouleri Hook) were examined experimentally at two sites
on the Oregon coast. The interaction of three attributes of the plant
-- high persistence, high preemption, and slow recovery -- strongly
influences the organization of surfgrass beds. Permanent plots indicate
that...
Two of the most powerful ways in which humans have altered ecosystems are by increasing productivity and changing the densities of important consumers. The bottom-up effects of productivity and the top-down effects of consumers have been identified as primary determinants of biological diversity, though the links between them remain unclear....
Wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) were first successfully introduced into Oregon and Washington in the 1960s; the population has grown in size and expanded in distribution to a point where it provides an important recreational hunting opportunity in both states that generates significant funds for habitat conservation and contributes financially to...
Fundamental objectives in the field of conservation biology involve understanding the processes that influence small and declining populations and applying that knowledge to develop appropriate monitoring strategies and targeted management and conservation actions. Critical first steps in determining the relative role of factors that drive population declines involves estimation of...