Hydrological and biogeochemical processes occurring throughout a watershed are typically reflected in stream water chemistry, including in coastal watersheds. While Oregon Coast Range streams have been studied in the past, there is a dearth of knowledge in terms of seasonal temporal trends and spatial variability that this study seeks to...
Recreational and Commercial fisheries and the quality of aquatic habitats in which the fish live are an important part of the livelihoods and economy of the Oregon Coast. The composition of important juvenile fish assemblages in estuaries can bring a unique view into the needs of different species on a...
Urban parks are biodiversity hotspots within cities and have the potential to provide a range of socio-cultural benefits for people, but may not always meet the needs and desires of park visitors. A variety of land use practices and environmental factors affect urban park biodiversity and vegetation structure, composition, and...
The purpose of this study was to better understand the level of
wetland classification consistency among three different land cover layers
created using Geographical Information System (GIS) and remote sensor
technology. Where inconsistencies in data existed, the goal was to identify the
kinds of inconsistencies that occur. The results were...
The salt marshes of the Salmon River Estuary, Oregon have been of interest for decades due to their disturbance and restoration history, as well as the presence of long-term vegetation transects that were established as early as the 1970s. Vegetation abundance data have been gathered in the four sites of...
Coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) migration and spawning are unique components of the salmon life cycle because they require synchrony of behavior with other individuals as well as with acceptable fluvial conditions. As with other organisms that exhibit group mating behavior, it is likely that environmental cues trigger coho salmon movement...
This study uses interviews with 18 businesses in Oregon's Willamette Valley to explore business investment in the environment, and how this relates to ecosystem services, payment for ecosystem services programs, and the water-energy nexus. Our research led us to outline 5 factors that influence business investment in the environment, those...
Increasing population and land use decisions have had a negative effect on the aquatic ecosystems in the Willamette River Basin. One result is elevated temperatures in many of the Basin’s streams, which adversely affect the fish that live in these streams. There are several regulatory mechanisms in place to improve...
The levels of cooperation in efforts towards transboundary water management in the Aral Sea basin have ranged from high to low over the past few decades, due in part to diverse purposes for water use in the region. Two important and often conflicting uses are agriculture and hydropower, which tend...
Management goals for restoring populations of the federally-threatened northern spotted owl currently include experimental lethal removals of barred owls from demographic study areas within the overlapping ranges of the two species to examine northern spotted owl population response. As lethal removals of a bird species are time- and cost-intensive, predictive...