Thermal cracking of asphalt concrete pavements is responsible for millions
of dollars in annual maintenance and rehabilitation costs in the United States and
Canada. Thermal cracking is typically associated with low temperatures in
northern climates and at high elevations. However, another form of thermal
cracking, known as thermal fatigue cracking,...
Transformation is a major bottleneck for genetic engineering and gene editing in forest tree species. This includes most genotypes of Populus and Eucalyptus, which are some of the world’s most widely-cultivated genera of plantation forest trees. To provide new tools for transformation, I tested the transcription factor-protein chimera consisting of...
Limnology is undergoing a transition to high-throughput -omic analysis of freshwater
bacterial communities. An important first step in making the transition is to
characterize several genomes that can be used as references to guide metagenome
assembly and analysis. Here I characterize four new freshwater cyanobacterial
genomes, a pair of lake...
Flexible aerodynamic surfaces have been shown to favorably influence flight characteristics at low Reynolds numbers by increasing lift, angle of attack at stall, and resistance to perturbation. The objective of the research presented within this thesis is to investigate the influence of two aspects of flight observed in biological flyers,...
Mountain Quail (Oreortyx pictus) populations have declined in many areas of the western Great Basin during the past century. Yet the life history of this species is little known. From 1997 to 2000, I studied radio-marked Mountain Quail in Hell's Canyon in northeastern Oregon, in the Cascade Mountains of southwestern...
This analysis of Colombia's System of National Park Reservations
accomplishes four objectives: 1) The historical development of national
parks in Colombia was described; 2) The status, as of August,
1974, of the areas administered by the Colombian Renewable Natural
Resources Development Institute (INDERENA) was summarized; 3) An
analysis of major...
The Republic of Kiribati is one of the last countries to face the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the Pacific. First appearing in the region in 1982, HIV/AIDS was recognized as a national concern during the late 90s. Partnering with the National AIDS Committee, research was conducted using qualitative and quantitative methods...
We compared three existing ecoregional classification schemes (Bailey, Omernik, and World Wildlife Fund) with two derived schemes (Omernik Revised and Climate Zones) to explore their effectiveness in explaining species distributions and to better understand natural resource geography in the Klamath Region, USA. We analyzed presence/absence data derived from digital distribution...
Substantial scientific investment has been directed towards understanding factors that influence distribution patterns and animals' remarkable ability for precise orientation and navigation, yet fundamental gaps in our knowledge remain. In my dissertation, I applied emerging genetic technologies to conduct a top-down and bottom-up investigation of animal movement and cue perception....