Douglas-fir and western hemlock growth and stocking were examined on two neighboring clear-cut watersheds in the Western Cascades of Oregon and related to the intensity of burning and logging disturbance, habitat type, soil type, aspect and the influence of percent cover of both invading Ceanothus species and residual Acer circinatum....
Interactions and feedbacks among climate change effects and continued human impacts will exacerbate impacts to water resources in complex ways. An urgent imperative of the hydrologic community is to understand the response of hydrologic systems to these perturbations, thus contributing to long-term sustainability of water resources in an uncertain future....
Coral reef ecosystems are the most diverse on earth, and their subsistence is being threatened by natural and adverse anthropogenic patterns and processes. In an effort to understand and protect these marine environments, several programs have outlined strategies and initiatives. For example, the United States Coral Reef Task Force’s Mapping...
Coral reefs around the world face numerous threats, both natural and
anthropogenic, including pollution, natural disasters, invasive species, habitat destruction,
and destructive methods of fishing. Given enough time, coral can recover from natural
disasters, but anthropogenic threats decrease corals’ ability to recover from things such as
hurricanes. It is difficult...
Sperm acrosome associated 3 protein (SPACA3) is a unique, intra-acrosomal, conventional-type lysozyme-like protein of mammalian spermatozoa. SPACA3 is present in all stages of ovarian follicles and is localized to granulosa cells and ooplasma in humans, mice, cows, dogs, and cats. The objective of this study was to determine if equine...
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Dawn Sherwood, Committee Member, representing Department of Animal and
Rangeland Sciences
During the past two decades, interest has grown in the role and welfare implications of different head and neck positions (HNPs) in equine biomechanics as well as dressage training and competition. To evaluate the influence of HNP on stride length, 17 horses of varying breeds and dressage levels were studied...
In the era of #MeToo, we have learned more about the plight of women in Hollywood as they seek employment as actors. While the recent public conversation about gender and sexualization in Hollywood is robust, few peer-reviewed academic articles examine the actor’s personal experiences of gaining meaningful employment in television...
Equine-facilitated mental health (EFMH) is a practice within equine-assisted therapy
(EAT) that has expanded greatly in the last 20 years, but scientific research is still
lacking. Thus far, no attempt has been made to characterize the horses and ponies
currently used in EFMH programs, or to define what characteristics EFMH...
The development of new technologies in science is a balance between existence and use. There are three versions of this duality – something is built and users come, something is built and users don’t come, and, finally, potential users show up but the ballpark has not yet been built. In...
Mixed linear models are a time honored method of analyzing correlated data. However, there is still no method of calculating exact confidence intervals or p-values for an arbitrary parameter in any mixed linear model. Instead, researchers must use either specialized approximate and exact tests that have been developed for particular...
Dramatic declines in several groundfish populations have occurred along
the U.S. West Coast during the last decade (PFMC 1999, Sampson 1997,
Ralston 1998, Bloeser 1999). One problem exacerbating these declines is
insufficient stock assessments, especially for species of west coast rockfish
(Family Scorpaenidae, Genus Sebastes) which comprise the core of...
Oregon's ocean waters are a potential source of wind, wave, and tidal energy; of interest to renewable energy entrepreneurs and to the U.S. government as it seeks to bolster energy security. In order to install technology to capture this energy, however, it may be necessary to mitigate conflict with existing...
Overfishing of our national marine resources has degraded some of the most productive fishing regions in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean, most notably the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank. These regions may have shifted from productive trophic regimes to a less than optimal state therefore reducing fishers’ catches and associated...
Streptococcus gordonii (S. gordonii) is being developed as a Gram-positive
expression vector for the expression of heterologous proteins. This bacterial
expression system takes advantage of the natural pathway of protein export and
anchoring on the surface of the bacterium. The expression of heterologous proteins
relies on the homologous recombination of...
I conducted acoustic lure surveys of northern pygmy-owls (Glaucidium gnoma) on transects that were systematically placed in forested areas throughout the state of Oregon. My objectives were to determine if pygmy-owls were associated with particular forest types, ecoregions, or with large-diameter dominant overstory trees. I also examined temporal variation in...
Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) have experienced declines throughout their range over the last 50 years. Long-term declines in sage-grouse abundance in Nevada and Oregon have been attributed to reduced productivity. From 1995-1997, sage-grouse production on Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge (SNWR), Nevada was greater compared to Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge...
Species conservation depends on robust population assessment. Data on population abundance, distribution, and connectivity are critical for effective management, especially as baseline information for newly documented populations. I describe a pygmy blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus brevicauda) population in New Zealand waters with year-round presence that overlaps with industrial activities. This...
Landforms are natural features on the Earth’s surface that both reflect and shape geophysical and ecological process. The result is a defining part of landscapes that so often impact on human perception and interactions with environment. Blascyznki (1997) defines landforms as, “specific geomorphic features on the surface of the Earth,...