Coral reefs, found in tropical regions, are renowned for their rich biodiversity and their contributions to ecological, cultural, and economic aspects worldwide. The success of coral reefs hinges on the symbiotic partnership between corals and their dinoflagellate algae, from the family Symbiodiniaceae. The algae reside within the coral host’s gastrodermal...
Long-term, large-scale studies of meta-ecosystems provide critical information about how global change influences communities. In my dissertation, I analyzed data from studies encompassing 18 years (2006 – 2023) and over 1,000 km of coastline to investigate drivers of rocky intertidal community structure and dynamics. Specifically, I explored the roles of...
Sound is a crucial aspect of the underwater environment for fishes – various species use sound to communicate, identify predators, navigate, and many other activities needed for survival in their habitat. Disruptions and disturbances in the natural soundscape can have important impacts on all these activities and are likely to...
Chapter 2:
Aquatic macroinvertebrate communities have been shown to exhibit strong differences between erosional (riffle and run) and depositional (pool) macrohabitats of streams. A subset of these communities are aquatic insect taxa that are an important food source for riparian consumers like birds, bats, lizards, and spiders. Understanding the role...
As global atmospheric carbon emissions continue to rise, scientists and land managers are increasingly looking to natural ecosystems to sequester and store carbon to buffer the impacts of climate change. Despite their small geographic size, many coastal ecosystems such as salt marshes, seagrass meadows, and mangroves sequester large amounts of...
Non-native ecosystem engineers, which modify the structure and function of their ecosystems, are often a particularly concerning and costly group of invasive species. Such organisms may have substantial impacts on ecosystem services, or the benefits that humans derive from their ecosystems. Many factors play a role in the invasion success...
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...
The European green crab (Carcinus maenas) has persisted in Oregon and Washington coastal estuaries since the late 1990s. A strong year class arrived during the 1998 El Niño, but numbers decreased and remained below 1 per trap per day until the arrival of the 2015-2016 El Niño. Since then, numbers...
In 2019, a multi-cohort population of the typically estuarine burrowing shrimp Neotrypaea sp., was discovered approximately 7 miles offshore of Newport, Oregon. Morphological analysis of the offshore population, microbial sediment sequencing, and species distribution modeling was conducted with this new offshore population. In order to identify Neotrypaea sp. to the...
Daily cyclical changes of light are brought on by the axial rotation of the Earth while seasonal changes in light are caused by Earth’s tilt as it revolves around the sun. Major life history traits, such as development, which are tied to metabolic processes, have a strong link to the...