Digital Commons Network^™

The Distribution And Reproductive Success Of The Western Snowy Plover Along The Oregon Coast - 2016, David J. Lauten, Kathleen A. Castelein, J. Daniel Farrar, Adam A. Kotaich, Erica Krygsman, Eleanor P. Gaines

Institute for Natural Resources Publications

We monitored the distribution, abundance and productivity of the federally threatened Western Snowy Plover (Charadrius nivosus nivosus) along the Oregon coast from 5 April – 31 August 2016. From north to south, we surveyed and monitored plover activity at Sutton Beach, Siltcoos River estuary, the Dunes Overlook, North and South Tahkenitch Creek, Tenmile Creek, Coos Bay North Spit, Bandon Snowy Plover Management Area, New River HRA and adjacent lands, and Floras Lake. Our objectives in 2016 were to: 1) estimate the size of the adult Snowy Plover population, 2) locate plover nests, 3) determine nest success, 4) implement …

The Effects Of Anthropogenic Stressors On Mercury Concentrations And Community Composition Of Freshwater Zooplankton, Meredith Powers Jordan

Dissertations and Theses

Methylmercury (MeHg) bioaccumulation in freshwater aquatic systems is impacted by anthropogenic stressors, including climate change and excess nutrients. The goal of this study was to determine how warmer water temperatures and excess nutrients would impact zooplankton communities and phytoplankton concentrations, and in turn increase or decrease MeHg concentrations in freshwater zooplankton. I used a 2x2 factorial design to determine if the interaction of temperature and nutrients would impact plankton metrics and zooplankton MeHg concentrations. Mesocosms were filled with Hg-contaminated water and plankton from Cottage Grove Reservoir, Oregon, a waterbody that has experienced decades of elevated MeHg concentrations and corresponding fish …

Parameterizing A Water-Balance Model For Predicting Stormwater Runoff From Green Roofs, Olyssa Starry, John Lea-Cox, Andrew Ristvey, Steven Cohan

University Honors College Faculty Publication and Presentations

Crop coefficients (kc) were calculated for three different species of common green roof succulents from March to November in 2011, to parameterize the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Penman-Monteith equation for use in a mechanistic green roof water-balance model. Seasonally averaged kc values for each species for 2011 were used to predict plant evapotranspiration (ET) in 2012. The adjusted FAO Penman-Monteith equation predicted the total annual ET within 3–13 mm, a substantial improvement over model predictions with kc set to 1, which overpredicted ET by 100 mm or more, depending on the species. The adjusted equation …

Indoor Inhalation Intake Fractions Of Fine Particulate Matter: Review Of Influencing Factors, Natasha Hodas, Miranda Loh, Hyeong-Moo Shin, Dingsheng Li, Deborah Bennett, Thomas E. Mckone, Olivier Jolliet, Charles J. Weschler, Matti J. Jantunen, Paul Lioy, Peter Fantke

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Exposure to fine particulate matter ( PM2.5) is a major contributor to the global human disease burden. The indoor environment is of particular importance when considering the health effects associated with PM2.5 exposures because people spend the majority of their time indoors and PM2.5 exposures per unit mass emitted indoors are two to three orders of magnitude larger than exposures to outdoor emissions. Variability in indoor PM2.5 intake fraction ( iFin,total), which is defined as the integrated cumulative intake of PM2.5 per unit of emission, is driven by a combination of building-specific, human-specific, and pollutant-specific factors. Due to a limited …

Reduced Snow Cover Alters Root-Microbe Interactions And Decreases Nitrification Rates In A Northern Hardwood Forest, Patrick O. Sorensen, Pamela H. Templer, Lynn M. Christenson, Jorge Durán, Timothy J. Fahey, Melany C. Fisk, Peter M. Groffman, Jennifer L. Morse, Adrien C. Finzi

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Snow cover is projected to decline during the next century in many ecosystems that currently experience a seasonal snowpack. Because snow insulates soils from frigid winter air temperatures, soils are expected to become colder and experience more winter soil freeze-thaw cycles as snow cover continues to decline. Tree roots are adversely affected by snowpack reduction, but whether loss of snow will affect root-microbe interactions remains largely unknown. The objective of this study was to distinguish and attribute direct (e.g., winter snow-and/ or soil frost-mediated) vs. indirect (e.g., root-mediated) effects of winter climate change on microbial biomass, the potential activity of …

Using Transects To Understand Cyanobacterial Blooms, John Rueter

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Presentation focuses on Toxic algae (and cyanobacteria) and on short-term mitigation:

• Monitoring
• Possible approaches

Effects Of Antibiotic Mixtures Across Marine Intertidal Trophic Levels: Examining Environmentally-Relevant Contaminant Concentrations, Jaclyn Rebecca Teixeira

Dissertations and Theses

Approximately 48% of Americans use prescription drugs within each 30-day period, and there are signs this trend is increasing. Although many studies track pharmaceuticals’ fates in contaminating waterways, only fairly recent efforts have examined the potential impacts of these drugs on non-target organisms. The antibiotics sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim, often prescribed together to treat bacterial infections, have been detected worldwide in marine and estuarine environments at concentrations up to 700-800 ng/L each. Toxic effects of these drugs have been identified in freshwater organisms, with synergistic effects observed in short-term studies of mixtures of the two; however, little research has examined possible …

Comparing Sanitation Delivery Modalities In Urban Informal Settlement Schools: A Randomized Trial In Nairobi, Kenya, Kate Bohnert, Anna N. Chard, Alex Mwaki, Amy E., Kirby, Richard Muga, Corey L. Nagel, Evan A. Thomas, Matthew C. Freeman

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The provision of safely managed sanitation in informal settlements is a challenge, especially in schools that require durable, clean, sex-segregated facilities for a large number of children. In informal settlements in Nairobi, school sanitation facilities demand considerable capital costs, yet are prone to breakage and often unhygienic. The private sector may be able to provide quality facilities and services to schools at lower costs as an alternative to the sanitation that is traditionally provided by the government. We conducted a randomized trial comparing private sector service delivery (PSSD) of urine-diverting dry latrines with routine waste collection and maintenance and government …

Understanding The Links Between Cyanobacteria Physiology And Hydrodynamics May Help Find Adaption Strategies For Toxic Blooms, John Rueter

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Even though we are managing lakes to decrease algal blooms overall, harmful algal blooms seem to be showing up more and more frequently. Although the word “blooms” connotes dominance and rapid growth, dangerous accumulations of cyanobacteria can occur because of combinations of physiological advantages and particular weather and hydrodynamic conditions. I am particularly interested in specific conditions that might favor Aphanizomenon versus those that might favor Microcystis in Upper Klamath and Agency Lakes. Aphanizomenon is a nuisance and large blooms can lead to oxygen depletion and fish deaths. Microcystis can both be a nuisance and is toxic. The comparison of …

Ecological Investigations To Select Mitigation Options To Reduce Vehicle-Caused Mortality Of A Threatened Butterfly, Sara B. Zielin, Jalene Littlejohn, Catherine E. De Rivera, Winston P. Smith, Sandra L. Jacobson

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Whereas roads that bisect habitat are known to decrease population size through animal-vehicle collisions or interruption of key life history events, it is not always obvious how to reduce such impacts, especially for flying organisms. We needed a quick, cost-efficient and effective way to determine how best to decrease vehicle-caused mortality while maintaining habitat connectivity for the federally listed Oregon silverspot butterfly, Speyeria zerene hippolyta. Therefore, we gathered targeted ecological information that informed selection of a mitigation option prior to implementation. We sampled butterfly behavior and environmental conditions along a highway and conducted a small-scale experiment along a decommissioned …

The Associations Between Environmental Quality And Mortality In The Contiguous United States, 2000-2005, Yun Jian, Lynne C. Messer, Jyotsna S. Jagai, Kristen M. Rappazzo, Christine L. Gray, Shannon C. Grabich, Danelle T. Lobdell

OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: Assessing cumulative effects of the multiple environmental factors influencing mortality remains a challenging task.

Objectives: This study aimed to examine the associations between cumulative environmental quality and all-cause and leading cause-specific (heart disease, cancer, and stroke) mortality rates.

Methods: We used the overall Environmental Quality Index (EQI) and its five domain indices (air, water, land, built and sociodemographic) to represent environmental exposure. Associations between the EQI and mortality rates (CDC WONDER) for counties in the contiguous United States (n=3109) were investigated using multiple linear regression models, and random intercept, random slope hierarchical models. Urbanicity, climate and their combination were …

Discontinuities In Hygroscopic Growth Below And Above Water Saturation For Laboratory Surrogates Of Oligomers In Organic Atmospheric Aerosols, Natasha Hodas, Andreas Zuend, Katherine Schilling, Thomas Berkemeier, Manabu Shiraiwa, Richard C. Flagan, John H. Seinfeld

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Discontinuities in apparent hygroscopicity below and above water saturation have been observed for organic and mixed organic–inorganic aerosol particles in both laboratory studies and in the ambient atmosphere. However, uncertainty remains regarding the factors that contribute to observations of low hygroscopic growth below water saturation but enhanced cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) activity for a given aerosol population. Utilizing laboratory surrogates for oligomers in atmospheric aerosols, we explore the extent to which such discontinuities are influenced by organic component molecular mass and viscosity, non-ideal thermodynamic interactions between aerosol components, and the combination of these factors. Measurements of hygroscopic growth under subsaturated …

The Economic Value Of Forest Park Ecosystem Services: Results Of Five Focus Groups Conducted In Spring 2016, Randall A. Bluffstone, Pablo Barreyro, Jenny Dempsey Stein, Cody Kent, Antonia Machado

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Objective: This initial phase of research lays the foundation for a survey using contingent valuation (CV) and choice experiment (CE) methods. We asked select Portland residents what they care about most in Forest Park, their willingness to pay (WTP) for improving ecosystem services and how they generally think about the value of those goods and services. These results will help us narrow the experimental design of the forthcoming CV/CE study.

Approach: We conducted a focus group in each of Portland’s 5 “quadrants.” We chose each location - Skyline, St. John’s, Cully, Foster-Powell and Hillsdale - based on either its proximity …

Reproductive Output Of Mosses Under Experimental Warming On Fildes Peninsula, King George Island, Maritime Antarctica, Angélica Casanova-Katny, G. A. Torres-Mellado, Sarah M. Eppley

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: Mosses dominate much of the vegetation in the Antarctic, but the effect of climatic change on moss growth and sexual reproduction has scarcely been studied. In Antarctica, mosses infrequently produce sporophytes; whether this is due to physiological limitation or an adaptive response is unknown. We studied the effect of experimental warming (with Open Top Chambers, OTCs) on sporophyte production on Fildes Peninsula, King George Island for four moss species (Bartramia patens, Hennediella antarctica, Polytrichastrum alpinum, and Sanionia georgicouncinata). To determine whether reducing cold stress increases sexual reproduction as would be predicted if sex is …

Use Of Water Indices Derived From Landsat Oli Imagery And Gis To Estimate The Hydrologic Connectivity Of Wetlands In The Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge, Debra Sue Blackmore

Dissertations and Theses

This study compared two remote sensing water indices: the Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) and the Modified NDWI (MNDWI). Both indices were calculated using publically-available data from the Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI). The research goal was to determine whether the indices are effective in locating open water and measuring surface soil moisture. To demonstrate the application of water indices, analysis was conducted for freshwater wetlands in the Tualatin River Basin in northwestern Oregon to estimate hydrologic connectivity and hydrological permanence between these wetlands and nearby water bodies. Remote sensing techniques have been used to study wetlands in recent …

A Landscape Approach To Determining And Predicting Juvenile Coho Salmon (Oncorhynchus Kisutch) Movement Timing And Growth Patterns Prior To Ocean Entry, Amelia Lee Johnson

Dissertations and Theses

Coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) rely on unique habitats during the winter season, which may dictate how much individuals may grow and when migration from freshwater rearing habitat to the ocean occurs. Here I analyze movement timing and growth patterns for coho salmon through a field-based study and a literature review. For the field portion, I examined hatchery-stocked juvenile coho salmon across four stream basins in the Russian River watershed, California to determine the relative importance of climate, landscape, and fish size metrics in predicting movement and growth patterns over a winter rearing and spring smolt outmigration time period …

Watershed Response To Climate Change And Fire-Burns In The Upper Umatilla River Basin Using The Precipitation Runoff Modeling System, Kimberly Crystal Yazzie

Dissertations and Theses

This study provides an analysis of watershed response to climate change and forest fire impacts, to better understand the hydrologic budget and inform water management decisions for present and future needs. The study site is 2,365 km², located in the upper Umatilla River Basin (URB) in northeastern Oregon. The Precipitation Runoff Modeling System, a distributed-parameter, physical-process watershed model, was used in this study. Model calibration yielded a Nash Sutcliffe Model Efficiency of 0.73 for both calibration (1995-2010) and validation (2010-2014) of daily streamflow. Ten Global Climate Models using Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 experiments with Representative Concentration …

Use Of Distance Weighted Metrics To Investigate Landscape-Stream Temperature Relationships Across Different Temporal Scales, Eric Craig Watson

Dissertations and Theses

Stream ecosystems have experienced significant negative impacts from land use, resource exploitation, and urban development. Statistical models allow researchers to explore the relationships between these landscape variables and stream conditions. Weighting the relevant landscape variables based on hydrologically defined distances offers a potential method of increasing the predictive capacity of statistical models. Using observations from three grouped watersheds in the Portland Metro Area (n=66), I have explored the use of three different weighting schemes against the standard method of taking an areal average. These four different model groups were applied to four stream temperature metrics: mean seven-day moving average maximum …

Improving The Roadside Environment Through Integrating Air Quality And Traffic-Related Data, Christine M. Kendrick

Dissertations and Theses

Urban arterial corridors are landscapes that give rise to short and long-term exposures to transportation-related pollution. With high traffic volumes, congestion, and a wide mix of road users and land uses at the road edge, urban arterial environments are important targets for improved exposure assessment to traffic-related pollution. Applying transportation management strategies to reduce emissions along arterial corridors could be enhanced if the ability to quantify and evaluate such actions was improved. However, arterial roadsides are under-sampled in terms of air pollution measurements in the United States and using observational data to assess such effects has many challenges such as …

Groundwater-Surface Water Interactions Near Mosier, Oregon, Cullen Brandon Jones

Dissertations and Theses

The town of Mosier, Oregon, is located near the east, dry end of the Columbia River Gorge, and the local area is known for cherry orchards that rely heavily on groundwater for irrigation. The CRBG groundwater system in Mosier has experienced groundwater declines of up to 60 meters due to over-pumping and or commingling. Declining groundwater levels have led to concerns over the sustainability of the resource, as it is the principle water source for irrigation and domestic use. Despite numerous previous studies of groundwater flow in CRBG aquifers here and elsewhere in the Columbia River basin, an aspect that …

Do Forest Commons Contribute To International Environmental Initiatives? A Socio-Ecological Analysis Of Nepalese Forest Commons In View Of Redd+, Harisharan Luintel

Dissertations and Theses

Forests in developing countries have the potential to contribute to global efforts to mitigate climate change, promote biodiversity and support the livelihoods of rural, local people. Approximately one-fourth of such forests are under the control of local communities, which primarily manage forests for subsistence and to meet their livelihood needs. The trend of bottom-up community control is increasing through the adoption of decentralization reforms over the last 40 years. In contrast, the United Nations has introduced the top-down program, Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) for the conservation and enhancement of forest carbon and the sustainable management of …

Household Water Filter Use Characterization In Rural Rwanda: Signal Interpretation, Development And Validation, Sarita Lucia Tellez Sanchez

Dissertations and Theses

Access to safe drinking water is an important health factor in many developing countries. Studies have shown that unsafe drinking water and poor sanitation practices leads to diarrheal disease, which is one of the leading causes of death of children under five in developing countries. Provision and proper use of household water filters have been shown to effectively improve health.

This thesis is focused on the refinement and validation of algorithms for data collected from pressure transducer sensors that are used in household water filters (the Vestergaard Frandsen LifeStraw Family 2.0) deployed in Rwanda by the social enterprise DelAgua Health. …

Variation In Tussock Architecture Of The Invasive Cordgrass Spartina Densiflora Along The Pacific Coast Of North America, Jesus M. Castillo, Brenda J. Grewall, Andrea Pickart, Enrique Figueroa, Mark D. Sytsma

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Some introduced species spread rapidly beyond their native range and into novel habitats mediated by a high degree of phenotypic plasticity and/or rapid evolutionary responses. In this context, clonality has been described as a significant factor contributing to invasiveness. We studied the abiotic environment and the responses of different tussock architecture traits of the invasive cordgrass Spartina densiflora Brongn. (Poaceae). A common garden experiment and field studies of S. densiflora in salt marshes across a wide latitudinal gradient from California (USA) to British Columbia (Canada) provided a model system for an integrated study of the potential mechanisms underlying the response …

Watershed Management And Private Lands: Moving Beyond Financial Incentives To Encourage Land Stewardship, Matthew Thomas Deangelo

Dissertations and Theses

Public water utilities are tasked with providing high quality, inexpensive water often sourced from watersheds representing a diverse mix of public and private land ownership. There is increasing recognition amongst water resource managers of the role that private landowners play in determining downstream water quality, but bringing together landowners with a wide variety of land management objectives under the umbrella of watershed stewardship has proven difficult. Recently, a large number of "Payment for Watershed Services" programs have aimed to engage private landowners in watershed stewardship initiatives by offering financial incentives for adopting watershed best management practices. However, a growing field …

Assessment Of A Mycorrhizal Fungi Application To Treat Stormwater In An Urban Bioswale, Alaina Diane Melville

Dissertations and Theses

This study assessed the effect of an application of mycorrhizal fungi to stormwater filter media on urban bioswale soil and stormwater in an infiltration-based bioswale aged 20 years with established vegetation. The study tested the use of commercially available general purpose biotic soil blend PermaMatrix^® BSP Foundation as a treatment to enhance Earthlite^™ stormwater filter media amelioration of zinc, copper, and phosphorus in an ecologically engineered structure designed to collect and infiltrate urban stormwater runoff before it entered the nearby Willamette River.

These results show that the application of PermaMatrix^® BSP Foundation biotic soil amendment to Earthlite …

Genomics-Informed Isolation And Characterization Of A Symbiotic Nanoarchaeota System From A Terrestrial Geothermal Environment, Louie Wurch, Richard J. Giannone, Bernard S. Belisle, Carolyn Swift, Sagar Utturkar, Robert L. Hettich, Anna-Louise Reysenbach, Mircea Podar

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Biological features can be inferred, based on genomic data, for many microbial lineages that remain uncultured. However, cultivation is important for characterizing an organism’s physiology and testing its genome-encoded potential. Here we use single-cell genomics to infer cultivation conditions for the isolation of an ectosymbiotic Nanoarchaeota (‘Nanopusillus acidilobi’) and its host (Acidilobus, a crenarchaeote) from a terrestrial geothermal environment. The cells of ‘Nanopusillus’ are among the smallest known cellular organisms (100–300 nm). They appear to have a complete genetic information processing machinery, but lack almost all primary biosynthetic functions as well as respiration and …

Transdisciplinary Weed Research: New Leverage On Challenging Weed Problems?, N. Jordan, M. Schut, S. Grahan, J. N. Barney, D. Z. Childs, S. Christensen, R. D. Cousens, A. S. Davis, H. Eizenberg, David E. Ervin, C. Fernández-Quintanilla, L. J. Harrison, M. A. Harsch, S. Heijting, M. Liebman, D. Loddo, S. B. Mirsky, M. Riemens, P. Neve, D. A. Peltzer, M. Renton, M. Williams, J. Recasens, M. Sønderskov

Institute for Sustainable Solutions Publications and Presentations

Transdisciplinary weed research (TWR) is a promising path to more effective management of challenging weed problems. We define TWR as an integrated process of inquiry and action that addresses complex weed problems in the context of broader efforts to improve economic, environmental and social aspects of ecosystem sustainability. TWR seeks to integrate scholarly and practical knowledge across many stakeholder groups (e.g. scientists, private sector, farmers and extension officers) and levels (e.g. local, regional and landscape). Furthermore, TWR features democratic and iterative processes of decision-making and collective action that aims to align the interests, viewpoints and agendas of a wide range …

Wet Meadow Plant Associations, Double O Unit, Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Harney County, Oregon, John A. Christy

Institute for Natural Resources Publications

This report summarizes vegetation data collected in July 2015 in wet meadow and marshy habitats on the Double O Unit of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge (MNWR). Because vegetation sampled at the Double O was wetter and more alkaline than wet meadows sampled at the south end of the refuge in 2012 and 2013 (Christy 2014), data from the Double O Unit were analyzed and summarized separately. A total of 83 plots were sampled in 2015, and analysis of the data identified 14 plant associations: Alopecurus aequalis - Juncus balticus, Alopecurus pratensis - Potentilla anserina, Carex praegracilis - Juncus balticus, Cicuta …

Clear Creek Estuary Restoration: Establishing An Ecological Monitoring Program And Baseline Conditions, Christine Butler-Minor

Environmental Science and Management Professional Master's Project Reports

Monitoring habitat conditions in the Clear Creek Estuary before the completion of the Bucklin Hill Bridge Project is a critical part of this ecosystem restoration planning and execution. The Clear Creek Trail Alliance (CCTA) is working with local partners to monitor the effects of the estuary restoration. In a wider effort to characterize salmonid habitat suitability of the estuary prior to the bridge replacement, CCTA would like to gather data related to water quality, beach/bank elevations, vegetation in the vicinity, and invertebrate diversity in the estuary. The development and implementation of this Clear Creek Estuary monitoring project provides an opportunity …

Factors Influencing The Survival Of Outmigrating Juvenile Salmonids Through Multiple Dam Passages: An Individual-Based Approach, Timothy Elder, Christa M. Woodley, Mark A. Weiland, Angela L. Strecker

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Substantial declines of Pacific salmon populations have occurred over the past several decades related to large-scale anthropogenic and climatic changes in freshwater and marine environments. In the Columbia River Basin, migrating juvenile salmonids may pass as many as eight large-scale hydropower projects before reaching the ocean; however, the cumulative effects of multiple dam passages are largely unknown. Using acoustic transmitters and an extensive system of hydrophone arrays in the Lower Columbia River, we calculated the survival of yearling Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and steelhead (O. mykiss) passing one, two, or three dams. We applied a unique index of biological characteristics …