Sustainable elk (Cervus canadensis) habitat management on U.S. Forest Service (USFS) lands involves a complex relationship between management practices and ecological processes. A relatively novel Rocky Mountain elk population (Cervus canadensis nelsoni) on the Plumas National Forest (PNF) in northeastern California became established in the early 2000s, but there is...
Food webs consist of a combination of bottom-up (resource-driven) and top-down (predator-driven) effects. The strength of these effects depends on the context in which they occur. I investigated food web (trophic) relationships between wolf (Canis lupus) predation, elk (Cervus elaphus) herbivory, aspen (Populus tremuloides Michaux) recruitment, and fire. The study...
Like most ecological communities, aspen (Populus tremuloides) forests are influenced by a synergy of bottom-up (resources-driven) and top-down (predator-driven) processes. Since the 1920s, ecologists have observed the decline of many aspen communities throughout the Intermountain West. The extent and possible drivers of this decline are topics of much recent scientific...
Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) sustainability is a topic of intense interest in forest ecology.
Reports range from declines to persisting or increasing coverage in some areas. Moreover, there is little
agreement on ultimate factors driving changes. Low aspen recruitment has been attributed to climate
patterns, past management, herbivore increases, competitive...
This project examines the rulers of late medieval Castile, Enrique IV and Isabel I, and the controversies surrounding their reigns.
The paper begins with an examination of Isabel’s youth and education prior to her life at Enrique’s court. From there the troubles in Enrique’s reign are detailed beginning with discontented...
Full Text:
Enrique’s first wife, Blanca. Daniel
Eisenberg surmises that Enrique petitioned for annulment from Blanca
This project examines the rulers of late medieval Castile, Enrique IV and Isabel I, and the controversies surrounding their reigns.
The paper begins with an examination of Isabel’s youth and education prior to her life at Enrique’s court. From there the troubles in Enrique’s reign are detailed beginning with discontented...
Full Text:
sought to annul their marriages. We know little about Enrique’s first wife, Blanca. Daniel Eisenberg
Beschta et al. (2013) synthesized the ecological effects 41 of climate change and ungulate
grazing on western public lands, grounding their recommendations in ecological considerations
and federal agency legal authority and obligations. Svejcar et al. (2014) suggest that Beschta et
al. (2013) neither “present a balanced synthesis of the scientific...
Aldo Leopold, perhaps best known for his revolutionary and poignant essays about nature, was also an eloquent advocate during the 1930s and 1940s
of the need to maintain wolves and other large carnivores in forest and range ecosystems.He indicated that their loss set the stage for ungulate irruptions
and ecosystem...
According to general top-down trophic theory, in the presence of carnivores, herbivore behavior and/or densities could change and result in an overall decrease in herbivory on plant communities. In this dissertation, I examined the potential relationship between gray wolf (Canis lupus) presence and absence on elk (Cervus elaphus) herbivory of...
Humans, in conjunction with natural top-down processes and through a sequence of cascading trophic interactions, may have contributed
to the Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions. The arrival of the first humans, as hunters and scavengers, through top-down forcing, could have
triggered a population collapse of large herbivores and their predators. We present...
Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) is an important tree species in the western United States and there has been much concern about its persistence. In this thesis, I report on aspen in a portion of its range that has not been previously evaluated: the eastern and western slopes of the Central...
As wolves return to their historic habitats both in Oregon and across the globe, emotions are running high between people either gladdened or disturbed by their homecoming. Prior to colonization, wolves occupied the entire Pacific Northwest alongside Indigenous peoples. However, European settlements that ultimately coalesced to form the state of...
As we contemplate the future of forest landscapes under changing climate conditions and land-use demands, there is increasing value in studying historic forest conditions and how these landscapes have changed following past disturbances. Historic landscape paintings are a potential source of data on preindustrial forests with highly detailed, full-color depictions...
Climate change and the increase in meteorological drought have generated global concern over the persistence of ecosystems already in decline from decreased moisture. Evidence suggests dryland ecosystems have been more impacted by drought because of their tightly coupled growth-water relationships and high sensitivity to environmental shift. Removal of competing vegetation...
Quaking aspen, Populus tremuloides, has experienced severe declines in recent years in part due to the effects of changing climate and extreme drought. As the dominant deciduous tree in Western North American forests, aspen plays a critical role in forest biodiversity and ecosystem function. Therefore, the persistence of this species...
Music performance and education faced unique barriers during the COVID-19 global pandemic which made it nearly impossible to effectively implement online learning. To better understand these barriers and what improvements might be made during future pandemics that entail periods of isolation, I collected the oral histories of eight Oregon State...
My thesis is an exploration of xánthiip (Karuk for black oak, Quercus kelloggii) restoration within the Karuk Tribe’s Ancestral Territory in present-day northwestern California. Black oak is a cultural keystone species for the Karuk and has been chosen as one of the species to guide Tribally led forest restoration work...
Standard accounts of women's relationship with technology stress women's need to overcome anxiety to achieve competence with computers. Recent studies provide evidence that this woman-anxiety-technology connection is an oversimplification of the relationship between women and computers. New literature also suggests that making computers more appealing will help girls overcome computational...
Anthropogenic land-cover change and climate change are the major drivers of the steep loss of avian biodiversity in past decades. Loss of avian biodiversity is predicted to result in the reduction of ecosystem services and ecological functions. Identifying avian population changes and the drivers of these trajectories is essential for...
This dissertation investigated potential ecological limitations to seedling regeneration in young, seasonally dry, evergreen forest restoration plantations in northern Thailand. We explored whether recruitment of colonizing tree species in the restoration plantations can be attributed to seed dispersal mode (i.e. abiotic or animal dispersal) and seed size. We did this...
We evaluated the regeneration behavior and early growth rates of 10 non-pioneer canopy tree species in medium-height, semi-evergreen dry tropical forest in Quintana Roo, Mexico. These species provide timber and non-timber forest products for local communities and include evergreen and deciduous species with varied dispersal mechanisms. The species were Coccoloba...