The topics in this dissertation are centered around the way that trees respond to environmental stress in the climates where they occur. Though forests across the planet are expected to experience change in local climate due to historic and ongoing anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, the effects of climate change will...
Magnetotellurics is used in two geologic settings on scales ranging from 1000-km tectonic structures to local features hundreds of meters wide. These areas are the Midcontinent Rift System (MRS) and its related mantle plume in the northern Midwestern United States and Newberry Volcano in central Oregon.
The MRS study uses...
Consistent with its charge under Oregon House Bill 3543, the Oregon Climate Change Research Institute (OCCRI) conducts a biennial assessment of the state of climate change science, including biological, physical, and social science, as it relates to Oregon and the likely effects of climate change on Oregon. This sixth Oregon...
Satellite Based evapotranspiration (ET) models have become a dominant means to estimate large-scale surface fluxes of water. Global and regional ET estimates are important parameters in many climate forecasts and hydrologic models. However, large scale partitioning of ET into soil evaporation, transpiration, and canopy interceptions remains largely unknown and modeled...
Habitat fragmentation studies have produced complex results that are challenging
to synthesize. Inconsistencies among studies may result from variation in
the choice of landscape metrics and response variables, which is often compounded
by a lack of key statistical or methodological information. Collating
primary datasets on biodiversity responses to fragmentation in...
Large wood (LW) plays an integral role in mountain stream ecosystems, exerting a range of effects on sediment transport, stream morphology, and habitat creation. Human activities, including timber harvesting and clearing of land for agricultural and industrial development, have contributed to a marked decrease in natural sources of LW and...
Population trends and patterns in species distributions are the major currencies used to examine responses by biodiversity to changing environments. Effective conservation recommendations require that models of both distribution dynamics and population trends accurately reflect reality. However, identification of the appropriate temporal and spatial scales of animal response, and then...
Research has shown that college students sit above the global average for levels of physical inactivity. Currently, there are attempts to assuage this by using motivational theories to encourage physical activity. This, however, is being met with limited success. Therefore, it is now necessary to cast a broader net across...