In 2008 the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (ODEQ) initiated a program to monitor Oregon’s surface waters and aquatic biota for the presence of pollutants that pose risks to human and/or environmental health. ODEQ’s Toxics Monitoring Program was first implemented in the Willamette River Basin (WRB) between 2008 and 2010....
Interest in measuring soil quality continues to increase worldwide in view of demands on land productivity and the necessity to preserve soil resources, yet identification of suitable indicators for soil quality assessment is still evolving. This study adapted 10 biological, physical, and chemical indicators of soil quality identified by the...
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a prevalent issue that impacts individuals around the world. Mental health professionals need comprehensive and inclusive IPV training to support victims/survivors well. The IPV literature posits several concerns surrounding the quality of IPV training that counselors-in-training (CITs) receive. Obtaining an understanding in how master’s level...
This thesis details my investigations of marine cyanobacterial natural products that resulted in the discovery of eighteen new secondary metabolites. Isolation and characterization of these unique molecules were carried out using different chromatographic techniques and by careful analyses of 1D and 2D NMR data, respectively. Preliminary bioassays of the crude...
The Northern California Current (NCC) is a seasonally productive and open ecosystem. It is home to both a diverse endemic community and to seasonally transient species. Productivity and food web structure vary seasonally, interannually, and decadally due to variability in coastal upwelling, climate-scale physical processes, and the migratory species entering...
The Rusty Blackbird (Euphagus carolinus) has suffered significant population declines across its entire geographic range and the mechanisms associated with this decline are poorly understood. Although much of the Rusty Blackbird breeding habitat in Alaska has remained relatively unaltered by anthropogenic activities, this species continues to decline by an estimated...
Managers of U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Bald Knob National Wildlife Refuge (Refuge) in central Arkansas want to provide sufficient habitat resources to meet its population objectives for wintering waterfowl. Nutrient reserves acquired during the wintering period appear to support spring migration and subsequent reproductive success for some species,...
Seedlings of Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco and Betula papyrifera Marsh. were grown in the greenhouse in monoculture and dual culture in soils collected from a young mixed species plantation in the southern interior of British Columbia. The objectives of the study were (i) to evaluate the ability of P. menziesii...
Identification of critical habitat for all life stages of commercially exploited fish populations is critical for effective management. Despite a clear need for basic biological information on juvenile rockfish life history, there have been very few efforts to describe distribution and habitat of this life stage, particularly along the Oregon...
This thesis details investigations of marine cyanobacterial secondary metabolism, with emphasis on a strain of Phormidium sp. collected in Indonesia. These studies assessed the effects of nineteen putative elicitor compounds on the growth and metabolite production of five species of marine cyanobacteria, biosynthetic investigation of an intriguing secondary metabolite, phormidolide,...
This study provides a direct test of social exchange theory on knowledge sharing from the perspective of the provider by examining the role of both perceived coworker support (PCS) and perceived organizational support (POS) on the extent to which employees share their knowledge with their coworkers. Also examined is the...
This thesis describes the chemical investigation of marine cyanobacteria collected in Madagascar and Panama with an emphasis on the isolation and structure elucidation of medicinally relevant secondary metabolites.
A collection of the marine cyanobacterium Lyngbya majuscula from the Radames Islands, Madagascar yielded two new cyclic depsipeptides, radamamides A and B,...
Understanding of gene flow, connectivity, and diversity is critical to predict the stability of key marine species. The Oregon coast of the U.S.A. shows fine-scale levels of geographic variation in environmental stressors such as temperature, pH, and oxygen levels, prompting questions about the potential for local adaptation. In this thesis,...
The California Current Large Marine Ecosystem (CCLME), located on the eastern boundary of the North Pacific Ocean, is highly dynamic, with variable conditions driven by seasonal upwelling, regional oceanography, and broad scale climate patterns. In the last decade, the northeast Pacific Ocean has experienced several marine heatwaves (MHWs), prolonged periods...
Intraspecific life history attributes of growth, survival, and reproduction can vary in
response to changes in the physical environment. These changes can induce a cascading effect
across trophic levels. In marine systems, shifts in ocean conditions such as warm and cold phases
of ENSO can change primary production in benthic...
Intraspecific life history attributes of growth, survival, and reproduction can vary in
response to changes in the physical environment. These changes can induce a cascading effect
across trophic levels. In marine systems, shifts in ocean conditions such as warm and cold phases
of ENSO can change primary production in benthic...
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very rare (Pennington 1985, Mercier and Hamel 2009). Importance of an increase 440
in temperature
Marine algae have been recognized as a rich resource of new
and unusual organic molecules with diverse biological properties.
The current need to develop new antifungal, anticancer, antibiotic
and antiviral drugs has led to an intense research effort into the
discovery, isolation and structure determination of potential
medicinal agents from...
Year-round habitat use of marine predators provides knowledge of important marine areas throughout different life stages. Large-scale, environmental variability, both in space and time, causes changes in the behavior and distribution of marine predators that are important to quantify for conservation. In the Northern California Current System (NCCS), common murres...
Variable ocean conditions can greatly impact lower trophic level prey assemblages in marine ecosystems, with effects propagating up to higher trophic levels. Our goal was to better understand how varying ocean conditions influence diets and niche overlap among a suite of low- to mid trophic level predators. We studied the...
Riparian ecosystems provide critical habitat for a broad diversity of aquatic and terrestrial species. However, due to their connectivity along river corridors, and the tendency for people to build roads, infrastructure, and other settlements next to rivers, riparian ecosystems are vulnerable to colonization by invasive plant and animal species. Early...
Cyanobacteria are rich in biologically active secondary metabolites, many of which have potential application as anticancer or antimicrobial drugs or as useful probes in cell biology studies. A Jamaican isolate of the marine cyanobacterium, Lyngbya majuscula was the source of a novel antifungal and cytotoxic secondary metabolite, hectochlorin. The structure...
The near physical environment is believed to be an integral component in creating quality learning and classroom environments for young children. Free-choice play periods during preschool daily curriculums are a widespread component of preschool early childhood education. Research has demonstrated that the presence of houseplants may be a contributor to...
As in many regions of the world, the shelf waters of the western United States have experienced large increases and high interannual variability in jellyfish populations in recent decades. The northern California Current (NCC) is a productive upwelling zone that is home to large populations of medusae, particularly during some...
Over the past century, the tuna canning industry has been dominated by a few big companies, some of
them having changed of ownership or merged: these oligopolistic firms are the “big three” in the USA,
Van Camp, Star Kist, and Bumble Bee, the French Saupiquet, the Italian Trinity Alimentari and...
I have participated in a drug discovery program designed to screen marine algae for
inhibitors of cancer-related enzymes, antitumor compounds, antiinflammatory substances,
and other agents of potential pharmaceutical utility. Over 1,500 lipid and aqueous extracts
of marine plants and animals were surveyed for biomedical potential. Assays designed to
screen extracts...
The introduction of non-native species often results in fundamental changes in the structure and function of disturbed environments. In the Pacific Northwest (PNW), the introduced seagrass Zostera japonica is rapidly expanding in distribution, impacting stakeholders and public use of the intertidal. Z. japonica’s expansion has prompted a number of different...
The intricate relationship between wildlife health and the quality of their environment is well established, with technological advances increasing our understanding and aiding the unraveling of underlying mechanisms. Large herbivores require forage of sufficient quality to maintain their condition to reproduce and survive, all while warding off parasites and predators...
While the marketing literature has advocated for decades that new products should be designed for intended and
anticipated consumer usages, the engineering literature mostly proposes optimization of product performances
independent of specific users’ skills, anticipated usage scenarios, and competing products on the market. In contrast
to tedious market studies which...
The commercial groundfish fishing industry and groundfish research have a long concurrent history of activity on the Oregon continental margin. Within the non-whiting groundfish fishery, the target species are primarily flatfishes, sablefish, lingcod, and rockfishes, though landings of each have fluctuated over time. Recent work shows that over the past...
Bioretention is a common form of green stormwater infrastructure that is used to attenuate peak flows from urban stormwater. Previous research shows that the bioretention peak response is not consistent across time or space and that the variables that affect peak hydrology are numerous. One variable that has not been...
The objectives of this research is to advance human health by evaluating interventions to minimize the detrimental effects of acute whole body gamma irradiation on bone metabolism, bone architecture and bone reconstruction using a mouse model. Total body irradiation (TBI) followed by adoptive transfer of bone marrow from donor animals...
Observed declines in native pollinator species worldwide has generated concern and focused research into the disturbances, past and present, which may have contributed to these losses. In grasslands, for example, habitat degradation and fragmentation from historical and current crop production and livestock grazing has left only a few remnants of...
Previous investigations have failed to show benefits of low level laser therapy (LLLT) for tendon healing in horses, contrary to reports in other species. We hypothesized that delivery of LLLT at manufacturer-recommended energy fluence through equine cadaver skin to equine tendon-derived fibroblasts in vitro would increase cell proliferation, metabolic activity...
Intravenous regional limb perfusion (IVRLP) with tiludronate is a commonly used treatment for distal limb orthopedic disease in horses, but doses and protocols are anecdotal. IVRLP exposes articular cartilage within the perfused area to tiludronate, raising concerns about safety of this treatment, as high tiludronate concentrations (≥19mg/L) were harmful for...
Wearable sensors with an inertial measurement unit (IMU) are popular for indoor positioning and activity pattern detection. The IMUs can be connected to a wireless transmission module, allowing users to monitor and process motion-related parameters remotely. Because of the complexity and uncertainty of signals in indoor environments, a radio frequency...
Red alder (Alnus rubra), a nitrogen(N)-fixing deciduous broadleaf tree, can strongly influence N
concentrations in western Oregon and Washington. We compiled a database of stream N and GIS-derived landscape
characteristics in order to examine geographic variation in N across the Oregon Coast Range. Basal area
of alder, expressed as a...
Transcriptome and genome data from twenty stony coral species and a selection of reference bilaterians were studied to elucidate coral evolutionary history. We identified genes that encode the proteins responsible for the precipitation and aggregation of the aragonite skeleton on which the organisms live, and revealed a network of environmental...
Seabirds are an integral component of marine ecosystems, however, because humans typically observe only snapshots of their lives at sea, our understanding of seabird foraging ecology is often limited. A more complete understanding of the ecological roles of seabirds and identification of critical foraging habitats requires the ability to follow...
The marine cyanobacterium Lyngbya majuscula has proven to be extraordinarily rich in bioactive secondary metabolites. This dissertation describes the chemistry of L. majuscula collected from Grenada, Fiji and Papua New Guinea, and the biosyntheses of two L. majuscula metabolites, curacin A and barbamide.
The chemical studies with a Grenada collection...
Resident and migratory avifauna in the Willamette Valley, Oregon are heavily influenced by winter conditions and habitat characteristics, especially those of wetlands. As such, it is important to monitor avian communities and environmental factors at wetland sites within the Willamette Valley during winter. Using data from standardized avian point-count surveys,...
Recognisable debris from the Great Tōhoku Earthquake and Tsunami of March 2011 began arriving on the coasts of Oregon and Washington, USA in June 2012. This debris often carried fouling Japanese marine algae, and there was concern that these species might recruit and invade northeast Pacific shores. From June 2012...
From 1925 to 1930, Ernest H. Wiegand, a professor of Horticultural Products at Oregon State Agricultural College, developed an improved brining process for cherries. Brined cherries are used in the production of maraschino and glacé cherries, which already had a sizable market in the United States by the 1920s. This...
Variations in ocean conditions influenced by climate fluctuations may impact fish populations by changing their spatial distribution, physiology, survival, and other ecological features. Somatic growth is a crucial aspect of the biology of fishes and an important contributor to biomass fluctuations. Climate variability also affects somatic growth rates along the...
The Pacific coast groundfish fishery is a diverse, important and lucrative commercial and recreational fishery. Part of this fishery’s monitoring process includes regular fishery-independent surveys for stock assessment. Although these fishery-independent surveys are cost-effective, they are susceptible to scientific uncertainty, and they do not currently sample in nearshore (water depth...
This report, required by state law under HB3543, provides a comprehensive assessment of the state of science of climate change as it pertains to Oregon, covering the physical, biological, and social dimensions. The first chapter summarizes the current state of knowledge of physical changes in climate and hydrology, focusing on...
The Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery harvests a diverse and large grouping of fishes, but it did not become heavily fished until around WWII. This makes the groundfish fishery a comparatively young fishery. Despite its youth, it is one of the largest and most lucrative fisheries in Oregon—with a current harvest...