Given the many significant roles that bacteria play in modern food manufacturing, it is crucial that we have a fundamental understanding of how bacterial communities assemble and behave in the food manufacturing environment. The focus of this dissertation was to investigate both the spatial and temporal distributions of microbial communities...
Pre-fermentation cold soak is a winemaking technique used to alter the color, mouthfeel, and aroma of red wine. While it is still debated what impact cold soak has on these wine quality parameters, current thoughts are that resident yeast populations found in fresh grape must play a role in altering...
Host-parasite interactions between the pathogen, Sphaerulina musiva, and its host, Populus spp., were examined in a series of studies. In the first study, variation in resistance of Populus nigra from 7 locations in Europe was differentiated based on the parameters cankers per cm and disease severity score. The analysis evaluated...
The dehumanization of Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC) and marginalized communities does not end once an individual is released from an institution. The dehumanization process is kept alive with ineffective community supervision and the stigma associated with an individual’s incarnation history. Evidence of this continual dehumanization process is reflected...
River impoundment by dams, along with other human driven changes, has threatened the health of riparian forests in the northern Great Plains for much of the last century. Two major concerns in the region are the impediment of natural recruitment of plains cottonwood (Populus deltoides Marsh. subsp. monilifera (Ait.) Eckenw.)...
Within the Pacific Northwest, USA, root diseases of conifers are a major forest health concern. These diseases are primarily caused by basidiomycete fungi. These fungal associates play a vital role in carbon sequestration but also have a significant negative economic impact within the timber industry. As a result, research on...
Managers of forest and plantation ecosystems are encountering growing problems involving plant pathogens and the expanding geographic ranges of these pathogens. Historically unexposed stands are exceptionally vulnerable when a non-native pathogen is introduced because these pathogens can cause devastating disease in a host population that lacks co-evolved resistance mechanisms. One...
Sphaerulina musiva is a fungal pathogen that causes Septoria leaf spot and stem canker on susceptible Populus species and hybrids. In this thesis, host and pathogen contributions to Septoria stem canker disease were explored through: 1) a greenhouse study associating Septoria stem canker phenotypes with molecular markers from a genetic...
Sudden Oak Death (SOD) is a forest disease caused by the oomycete pathogen Phytophthora ramorum, and infects trees in the Western United States and Europe. This generalist pathogen can infect over 130 species of plants, and causes rapid mortality in tree species in the Fagaceae. Sexual reproduction is thought to...
Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii (coast Douglas-fir) is a tree of ecological, economic, and cultural value in its native North American Pacific Northwest (PNW) distribution. P. menziesii is host to a variety of well-documented endophytic foliar microorganisms, including the fungus Nothophaeocryptopus gaeumannii, the causal agent of Swiss needle cast (SNC), and...