Digital Commons Network^™

Organic-Input Impacts On Soil Carbon Flux, Storage, And Budget In Conservation Agricultural Soils, Central Washington, Usa, Jessica Hartman

All Master's Theses

The increase in global atmospheric CO₂ over the last 200 years has generated an urgent need for strategies for sequestering carbon (C). Soil C, which has been depleted by land use change and agricultural practices, is a prime target for C storage. Land management practices, including no-till, cover cropping and crop rotation, and the application of C amendments such as compost and biochar, are suggested to increase C in the soil. Spoon Full Farm, near Thorp, WA, was a conventional hay farm until 2016, when management practices changed to implement some of these C sequestration strategies. A prior CWU …

Long-Term Geomorphic Effects Of The Glines Canyon Dam Removal On The Elwha River, Washington, Usa, Alyssa D. Demott

All Master's Theses

The Elwha River once provided vital habitat for a variety of salmonid species, but after two dams were emplaced on the river in the early 1900s, habitat diminished, and salmon populations declined. From 2011-2014, the dams were finally removed to restore the Elwha ecosystem. To understand the long-term geomorphic impacts of the Glines Canyon Dam removal on the Elwha River, I quantified changes in four parameters: in-channel large wood, main channel sinuosity, channel braiding, and sedimentation. High-resolution imagery from 2012-2020 was used to map large wood and digitize main and secondary river channels, and field surveys were completed at study …

A Regional Synthesis Of Post-Glacial Fire History In The Eastern Cascades, Washington, Using Macroscopic Charcoal Analysis, Brynn Harrison

All Master's Theses

The recent rise in severe wildfires in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) has created a heightened sense of urgency and reignited public interest in wildfire risk. In order to put this rise into a broader spatial and temporal context, a more in-depth look at fire histories from frequently burned areas in the eastern Cascades is needed. The first major objective of this study was to determine if CharAnalysis, a statistical program developed to reconstruct fire history from macroscopic charcoal-based records, is appropriate for use with charcoal records from the eastern Cascades of Washington. The second major objective was to develop a …

Tsunami Deposits And Tsunami Modeling Of The 900 Ad Seattle Fault Event In Northern Puget Sound, Andrew A. Raulerson

All Master's Theses

Puget Sound has a history of earthquakes and tsunamis with an ever-expanding knowledge of these events. The focus of this study is the Seattle fault earthquake and resulting tsunami 1100 years ago. This study aimed at refining the extent of tsunami inundation north of the fault using a two-phased approach: a field study at Elger Bay and tsunami modeling. Tsunami deposits dating to this event have been observed in six sites total sites in Puget Sound, and four of them are in northern Puget Sound. At Elger Bay I found one tsunami deposit in cores from the southwest corner of …

Full Interpretable Machine Learning Method With In-Line Coordinates, Hoang Phan

All Master's Theses

This thesis explores a new approach for machine learning classification task in 2-dimensional space (2-D ML) with In-line Coordinates. This is a full machine learning approach that does not require to deal with n-dimensional data in n-dimensional space. In-line coordinates method allows discovering n-D patterns in 2-D space without loss of n-D information using graph representation of n-D data in 2-D. Specifically, this thesis shows that it can be done with In-line Based Coordinates in different modifications, which are defined, including static and dynamic ones. Some classification and regression algorithms based on these In-line Coordinates were explored. Two successful cases …

Rock Glacier Hydrological Significance In A Warming World: A Geoecological Transect In The North Cascades, Washington, Jessica Abadie Coffey

All Master's Theses

Mountain environments are some of the most climate-sensitive areas on the planet. Due to recent warming trends, the 0℃ isotherm is rising in elevation and subsequently melting glaciers, snowpack, and permafrost. However, rock glaciers are a type of permafrost that is climate-resilient; therefore, research on their distribution and water volume equivalence (WVEQ) will be increasingly valuable in a warming world.

The purpose of this research was to determine the hydrological significance of different altitude belts of alpine permafrost in Washington State’s North Cascades. Additionally, this study analyzed how much rock glacier permafrost will be exposed to melting temperatures with climate …

Geologic Mapping Along The Benton Spring Fault, Nevada: Dextrally-Offset Tuff-Filled Paleovalleys In The Central Walker Lane, Peter Dubyoski

All Master's Theses

Documenting the spatiotemporal evolution of fault systems along the western margin of North America is a prerequisite for characterizing the forces which drive faulting across the U.S. Cordillera. Within the Cordillera, the Walker Lane, characterized by active intracontinental faults, straddles the western edge of the Basin and Range Province and the eastern edge of the Sierra Nevada. In the Gabbs Valley Range, central Nevada, eastern Central Walker Lane, I combine new mapping, geochronology, and structural studies to document the geometry and timing of dextral fault slip along the Benton Spring fault, an active intracontinental fault. The Benton Spring fault is …

Visualization For Solving Non-Image Problems And Saliency Mapping, Divya Chandrika Kalla

All Master's Theses

High-dimensional data play an important role in knowledge discovery and data science. Integration of visualization, visual analytics, machine learning (ML), and data mining (DM) are the key aspects of data science research for high-dimensional data. This thesis is to explore the efficiency of a new algorithm to convert non-images data into raster images by visualizing data using heatmap in the collocated paired coordinates (CPC). These images are called the CPC-R images and the algorithm that produces them is called the CPC-R algorithm. Powerful deep learning methods open an opportunity to solve non-image ML/DM problems by transforming non-image ML problems into …

Interactive Visual Self-Service Data Classification Approach To Democratize Machine Learning, Sridevi Narayana Wagle

All Master's Theses

Machine learning algorithms often produce models considered as complex black-box models by both end users and developers. Such algorithms fail to explain the model in terms of the domain they are designed for. The proposed Iterative Visual Logical Classifier (IVLC) is an interpretable machine learning algorithm that allows end users to design a model and classify data with more confidence and without having to compromise on the accuracy. Such technique is especially helpful when dealing with sensitive and crucial data like cancer data in the medical domain with high cost of errors. With the help of the proposed interactive and …

An Ecological Comparison Between Resource Subsidies: Pacific Lamprey (Entosphenus Tridentatus) And Pacific Salmon (Oncorhynchus Spp.), Jocelyn Wensloff

All Master's Theses

Historically, oligotrophic Pacific Northwest (PNW) streams received annual returns of spawning anadromous fish that provided resource subsidies in the form of marine-derived nutrients (MDN), thus driving stream food web productivity. To date, many studies in the PNW have focused on Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) as a resource subsidy, overlooking other anadromous fish species such as Pacific lamprey (Entosphenus tridentatus). Both Pacific salmon and Pacific lamprey are culturally important to PNW tribes for ceremonial, medicinal, and subsistence purposes, and have been since time immemorial. Unfortunately, both salmon and lamprey populations are in decline. Historically, lamprey have been disregarded …

Development Of Environmental Metabarcoding Analysis For Use In Ecological Studies Of Aquatic Fungal And Oomycete Communities Using Nanopore Sequencing, Douglas Bennett

All Master's Theses

One of several factors contributing to amphibian decline are organisms called water molds (oomycetes), which parasitize and kill amphibian and fish eggs, larvae, and occasionally adults. Amphibian decline is one of the most difficult issues facing ecologists and conservationists to date; half of amphibian species are in severe decline and one third of amphibian species are facing extinction, threatening the stability of ecosystems globally. Multiple oomycete species are known to cause the disease saprolegniasis and contribute to amphibian decline; however, the full range of species involved is not presently known. This study evaluated the Oxford Nanopore minION DNA sequencer (R9.2 …

Immigration Offenses Throughout Federal Sentencing: An Analysis Of The Impact Of Political Affiliation Among Districts, Robin Hood

All Master's Theses

Immigration has remained one of the most controversial political debates throughout the United States. Research has yet to fully examine the effects of political affiliation of federal districts on sentencing outcomes for specific immigration offenses. To fill the gaps in research, this study compares political affiliation of federal districts among immigration offenses to determine variations in sentencing outcomes. Data included Presidential and House of Representative votes for the 2016 election and Monitoring of Federal Sentencing for the fiscal years of 2015-2016. Analysis includes case processing/legal variables, defendant characteristics, and political affiliation. To analyze political affiliation, a binary logistic regression was …

The Role Of Cumulate Plagioclase Entrainment In The Steens Basalt, Se Oregon: Insights From The Magma Chamber Simulator, Valerie Strasser

All Master's Theses

The Steens Basalt, located in SE Oregon, is the oldest and most mafic member of the Columbia River Basalt Group (CRBG). Because the Steens Basalt contains large (up to 6 cm) and abundant (up to 40%) plagioclase crystals, it is classified as a Giant Plagioclase basalt (GPB). Understanding the origin of these giant plagioclase yields insight into magmatic processes like recharge, crustal assimilation, cumulate entrainment, and fractional crystallization. Because large and abundant plagioclase are found in other flood basalt provinces worldwide, these results could also enhance understanding of magma evolution and storage conditions for GPB worldwide. The Steens basalt is …

Toward Efficient Automation Of Interpretable Machine Learning Boosting, Nathan Neuhaus

All Master's Theses

Developing efficient automated methods for Interpretable Machine Learning (IML) is an important and long-term goal in the field of Artificial Intelligence. Currently the Machine Learning landscape is dominated by Neural Networks (NNs) and Support Vector Machines (SVMs), models which are often highly accurate. Despite high accuracy, such models are essentially “black boxes” and therefore are too risky for situations like healthcare where real lives are at stake. In such situations, so called “glass-box” models, such as Decision Trees (DTs), Bayesian Networks (BNs), and Logic Relational (LR) models are often preferred, however can succumb to accuracy limitations. Unfortunately, having to choose …

Distribution Of Invasive Plant Species On Debris Cones At Mount Rainier National Park, Shaun Morrison

All Master's Theses

Invasive plant populations within Mount Rainier National Park are a biological and ecological threat to the unique mountain landscape. A better understanding of their distribution and transport within the landscape is needed to improve invasive species monitoring for National Park Service management. This study investigates how invasive plant populations in Stevens Canyon are utilizing the debris cone disturbances and associated geomorphic processes to facilitate movement within the park. Vegetation transects were performed along Stevens Canyon Road (to observe the roadside community composition) and on the debris cone features (to observe species movement from the roadside). These vegetation observations are presented …

Modeling Of Potential Historical Tsunamis From Large Earthquakes In The Izu-Bonin Mariana Subduction Zone, Rachelle Reisinger

All Master's Theses

The Izu-Bonin Mariana (IBM) subduction zone is an over 3000-km long oceanic-oceanic convergence zone with no instrumental record of great subduction-zone earthquakes (M_w > 8.0). Due to the lack of great earthquakes and the oceanic-oceanic subduction style, previous researchers have speculated that the IBM does not produce great earthquakes. The same behavior was also proposed for the northern Japan and Cascadia subduction zones, which has since been proven false. We use the tsunami model GeoClaw (v5.6.0) with adjoint-guided refinement level flagging to simulate IBM earthquakes in three separate segments to produce estimates of wave heights at locations around the Pacific …

A Geochemical Assessment Of Potential Groundwater Storage Locations Within The Yakima River Basin, Silas Sleeper

All Master's Theses

Currently in the Yakima River Basin more people possess surface water rights than there is available surface water. As a result, the local community devised the Yakima River Basin Integrated Water Management Plan, with the goal of creating a sustainable source of water for the foreseeable future. One of seven elements outlined in this plan is groundwater storage. The idea is to take available water during high spring flows and store it in the subsurface. The water will then be used to increase stream flows and decrease stream water temperatures during the summer months. A main challenge associated with groundwater …

Image Features For Tuberculosis Classification In Digital Chest Radiographs, Brian Hooper

All Master's Theses

Tuberculosis (TB) is a respiratory disease which affects millions of people each year, accounting for the tenth leading cause of death worldwide, and is especially prevalent in underdeveloped regions where access to adequate medical care may be limited. Analysis of digital chest radiographs (CXRs) is a common and inexpensive method for the diagnosis of TB; however, a trained radiologist is required to interpret the results, and is subject to human error. Computer-Aided Detection (CAD) systems are a promising machine-learning based solution to automate the diagnosis of TB from CXR images. As the dimensionality of a high-resolution CXR image is very …

Recovering Lost Information From Avocational Projectile Point Collections, Mackenzie Hughes

All Master's Theses

Human prehistory in North America has sparked the interest of private citizens for decades, sometimes leading to an accumulation of avocational artifact collections that lack site-level provenience. The Wild/Clymer artifacts (n = 1,371) are one such collection where precise site provenience was lost. The analysis aims to recover regional provenience by using morphology, raw material sourcing, and typology to create a data set. The avocational collection data set was analyzed by comparing it to the professionally recorded archaeological data sets from within 100 miles of Frenchglen, Oregon. A paradigmatic classification approach identified 606 typeable points in the avocational collection, in …

Modeling Cle Elum Reservoir Shoreline Erosion: Gis Analysis To Support Cultural And Environmental Resource Management, Yakima Basin, Washington, Michael H. Horner

All Master's Theses

In the Yakima Basin, managers are expanding reservoirs including Cle Elum Lake to increase the availability of water. The objective of this study was to examine areas prone to further shoreline erosion to inform resource management. This research included the use of airphotos and fieldwork to identify erosional shorelines. Erosion was verified in the field using a video survey as well as indicators such as shoreline slope, sediment size, and nearshore width. Near-term erosional segments were identified by more rapidly receding bluffs while long-term erosional segments included both bedrock cliffs and bluffs. Although most of the shoreline is depositional, near-term …

Sampling The Local Fare: Fishes At The Sam Israel House Pit (45gr76), Soap Lake, Washington, Adam Fruge

All Master's Theses

The Sam Israel site is a precontact archaeological complex with numerous fish bones at the north end of Soap Lake, Washington. Excavated in 1976, the fish remains recovered from there were never fully analyzed prior to this research. Since this inland Columbia Plateau site had thousands of fish bones, it contained untapped potential for our understanding of ancient local fish procurement. As such, I conducted a detailed analysis of 2,862 fish bone specimens from the Sam Israel House Pit locus to: study a larger sample of fish bones in greater detail than was done before; compare the distribution of fishes …

Evaluation Of The Relationship Between Land Use And Water Quality In Kittitas County, Wa, Lindsay Schulz

All Master's Theses

Water in Kittitas County is extremely valuable since it supports farming, recreation, and cultural activities, as well as environmental processes and a diversity of biological life while providing many ecosystem services. However, land conversions required by agricultural and urban land uses can negatively impact water quality and the biological function of the stream. I studied how forested, agricultural, and urban land use affect six streams. Fourteen sites were sampled, once each in July, August, and September 2019. Land use was calculated as a percentage of forested, agricultural, and urban land use within a 100-m buffer of the stream, upstream of …

Selective Synthesis Of Trans-Fused Lactam-Lactones By Vicinal Difunctionalization Of Readily Affordable Allylic Lactams, Morgan J. Rodriguez

All Master's Theses

With intrinsic versatility and an overwhelming presence in natural products, nitrogen- and oxygen-containing heterocycles boast a plethora of medicinal properties. Specifically, lactams and lactones are the respective luminaries of the antibiotic and flavor worlds. However, the synthesis of fused lactams-lactones, especially those bearing trans-fusion, is challenging from the standpoints of chemoselectivity, stereoselectivity, and regioselectivity. In this thesis, the highly-selective, cost-effective, and high-yielding conversion of readily affordable allylic lactams into trans-fused lactam-lactones by intramolecular vicinal difunctionalization is explored. The approach is highly divergent and requires only two steps, which bodes well for the construction of medicinally pertinent fragments. It …

Late Holocene Paleoflood Hydrology Of The Snake River In The Lower Hells Canyon, Idaho, Kent C. Allen

All Master's Theses

The Snake River watershed spans a large geographic region from the Rocky Mountains to the inland Pacific Northwest, and a comprehensive paleoflood chronology on the mainstem of the river is key to identifying the frequency and magnitude of large prehistoric floods within the region. We examined and compared four sites of slackwater deposits along a 20-km reach of the Lower Hells Canyon on the Snake River, Idaho. The sites contain evidence of up to 34 paleofloods within the last 1700 years. Stratigraphic breaks, soils, and in-situ plant or archaeological materials demarcate distinct layers that represent discrete paleoflood events. Radiocarbon dates …

Optimizing Pollution Routing Problem, Shivika Dewan

All Master's Theses

Pollution is a major environmental issue around the world. Despite the growing use and impact of commercial vehicles, recent research has been conducted with minimizing pollution as the primary objective to be reduced. The objective of this project is to implement different optimization algorithms to solve this problem. A basic model is created using the Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) which is further extended to the Pollution Routing Problem (PRP). The basic model is updated using a Monte Carlo Algorithm (MCA). The data set contains 180 data files with a combination of 10, 15, 20, 25, 50, 75, 100, 150, and …

Comparing Rusle Ls Calculation Methods Across Varying Dem Resolutions, Amanda Moody

All Master's Theses

Soil erosion is a global problem that reduces land productivity and causes environmental degradation. Soil erosion models, such as the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE), are used to estimate the severity and distribution of erosion. The topographic factor (LS), which combines slope length and angle, is an important part of RUSLE. This work compared two methods of L calculation, the grid cumulation (GC) and the contributing area (CA) methods, and two methods of S calculation, the neighborhood (NBR) and maximum downhill slope (MDS) methods. These were compared across digital elevation models (DEMs) of 1, 5, 10, and 30m resolutions. …

Mapping And Modeling The Seattle Fault Tsunami Inundation In Puget Sound, David Bruce

All Master's Theses

Coastal communities of Puget Sound are susceptible to tsunami inundation from multiple sources. Two sources of potential tsunami hazard that threaten the region are earthquakes on crustal faults in the Puget Lowlands, or earthquakes originating on the Cascadia subduction zone. This study investigated two coastal marshes in Puget Sound, Deer Lagoon and Doe-Kag-Wats, for evidence of a paleotsunami record to combine with tsunami modeling, in order to predict how future events could inundate Puget Sound. A deposit, interpreted as a paleotsunami, is traceable thought the marsh stratigraphy near the modern day tidal inlet of Deer Lagoon, a site that has …

Applying Garnet And Zircon Ree Linkages To Determine Timing Of P-T Conditions And Tectonic Implications For Uhp Eclogites And Hp Granulites, Dulan Uhp Terrane, China, Wesley Weisberg

All Master's Theses

The Dulan ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) terrane in western China hosts rocks that record continental collision, however; the timing of peak P-T conditions in UHP eclogites and HP granulites, and the tectonic significance of their spatial relationship within the Dulan UHP terrane are not well understood. This study, (1) evaluates rare earth element (REE) equilibrium between garnet and zircon, to assess coeval growth; (2) links timing (from zircon) to the P-T history (from garnet) to constrain the P-T-t path of the Dulan UHP terrane and interpret implications for zircon growth; (3) refines P-T conditions for HP granulite; and (4) evaluates the tectonic …

The Economic Impacts Of Soil Remediation Efforts At Lead Arsenate Contaminated Sites In Yakima County: A Hedonic Approach, Seth Urbanski

All Master's Theses

Area-wide lead-arsenate contamination stemming from the widespread use of pesticides in the early 1900s poses a serious health risk to the residents of Yakima, Washington. Soil testing for contaminants resulted in the Department of Ecology funding the remediation of 6 elementary schools in Yakima, Washington where unsafe levels of lead and arsenic were found in the topsoil. This study will evaluate the impact that these remediation projects have had on nearby real estate values through the use of GIS analysis and multivariate hedonic pricing models. We expect to find a negative price effect on real estate values following the announcement …

Documenting The Earthquake History Of The Thousand Springs Fault In Summer Lake Basin, Oregon, Usa, Elizabeth Curtiss

All Master's Theses

Defining seismic hazards in low-strain-rate regions such as the northwestern Basin and Range can be difficult due to the infrequency of earthquakes. Revealing the earthquake records of low-strain-rate regions can refine our understanding of the variability of earthquake sizes and recurrence intervals, however, which can ultimately improve hazard analysis. Four active normal faults form the Summer Lake basin, in the northwestern Basin and Range: The Thousand Springs (TSF), Ana River (ARF), Slide Mountain, and Winter Ridge faults. Other than the TSF, the faults in the Summer Lake basin have documented histories that include surface-rupturing (>M6) earthquakes. Scarps along the …