Arsenic concentrations exceeding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) current Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) of 50 micrograms per liter are widespread in ground water in the Willamette Basin. The Oregon Water Resources Department and the U.S. Geological Survey began a cooperative study in the Willamette Basin in 1996. One goal...
Mapper is a tool designed by Gurjeet Singh, Facundo Mémoli, and Gunnar Carlsson for Topological Data Analysis (TDA) that constructs a simplicial complex from a finite subset of a metric space, which has been met with great success. Due to the many moving parts of Mapper and the potential it...
Wetlands are widely identified as providing important and fundamental processes valuable for maintaining ecosystem health and diversity. Located in the southern Willamette Valley, the Mt. Pisgah Arboretum contains some valuable remaining wetland habitat along the Coast Fork of the Willamette River. One goal of the Mt. Pisgah Arboretum is "to...
Climate change is a global phenomenon, but natural selection occurs within landscapes. A central tenet of landscape ecology is that mobile species depend on complementary habitats, which are insufficient in isolation, but combine to support animals through the full annual cycle. For coldwater fishes, it is widely assumed that maximum...
The shallow aquifer in Southern Willamette Valley (SWV) has high levels of nitrate, and we are exploring the time trends in nitrate, and the hydrologic and land management factors that contribute to this problem. Nitrogen (N) inputs to farmland from fertilizer is thought to be the primary source of nitrogen...
This dissertation presents novel, field-activated smart material systems for the actuation and control of autonomous robots. Smart materials, a type of material whose properties can be changed with an external stimuli, represent a promising direction to expand upon existing robotic control and actuation methods, particularly in the sub-fields of soft...
Genomic instability drives tumorigenesis, but how it is initiated in sporadic neoplasias is unknown. In early preneoplasias, alterations at chromosome fragile sites arise due to DNA replication stress. A frequent, perhaps earliest, genetic alteration in preneoplasias is deletion within the fragile FRA3B/FHIT locus, leading to loss of Fhit protein expression....
Harney County contains defining characteristics of regions containing arsenic within the groundwater such as its location in the western United States, unique closed basin geography, complex geology, and seasonal groundwater level fluctuations. Confirmation of arsenic concentrations above the Maximum Contaminant Level Drinking Water Standard of 10 μg/L has been observed...
The removal of dams on a river is one potential tool for the ecological restoration of native salmonid fishes. However, the removal of barriers also introduces risks, such as the introduction of fish pathogens into previously isolated populations. The proposed removal of four dams on the Klamath River, Oregon–California, provides...
The myxozoan parasite of salmonids, Ceratomyxa shasta, is established throughout the Klamath River, CA-OR, with high parasite densities below the series of dams and above the dams (upper basin) in the northernmost tributary, the Williamson River (WMR). Two objectives were designed to address concerns about C. shasta effects on reintroduced...