Digital Commons Network^™

(De)Composition: Earthen Storytelling For Collective Liberation, Priya Subberwal

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

This interdisciplinary portfolio is an investigation into ecological communication through pedagogical design, online collaborative learning spaces, digital and print media, and creative writing. Braiding lenses of queer ecology, decolonial studies, anarchism, and collaborative and creative practice, this work hopes to explore the field of environmental communication through avenues that are reciprocal, community-driven, and oriented towards environmental justice and collective, intersectional liberation. Through the three distinct components of 1) the creation and facilitation of an online learning community, the Spiritual Ecology Study Club at Advaya, 2) the editing and production of two issues of Camas Magazine, an environmental literary magazine based …

Estimation Of Probability Of Habitat Use Of Roosevelt Elk On The Olympic Peninsula, Vincent Michael Gugliotti

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Estimating the probability of habitat use for a particular species is crucial to the direct management and conservation of that species. Without knowledge of habitat preferences, managers cannot effectively focus efforts on vital resources or landscape types. However, modelling probability of habitat use can be done in several ways which leaves room for variation and uncertainty in the estimates produced by each method. This study is an examination of the variation between two estimates of probability of habitat use while focusing on a particular subspecies of elk that inhabits a unique ecosystem relative to other elk subspecies. I modeled elk …

Understanding The Drivers Of Body Condition In Female Elk: Implications For Nutritional Ecology On Changing Landscapes, Nicole P. Bealer

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Ungulate body condition is often understood to reflect the nutritional resources on the landscape but is ultimately influenced by more than forage because body condition integrates both energetic costs and benefits. Factors driving variation in female body condition can be classified in both individual vs. environmental and bottom-up vs. top-down frameworks. My research evaluates how individual vs. environmental and bottom-up vs. top-down frameworks explain variation in ingesta-free body fat (IFBF) in female elk (Cervus canadensis). I used seven years (2015-2021) of IFBF data from monitored and recaptured female elk (n = 139) in the Ya Ha Tinda (YHT) population in …

Linking Life History And Population Dynamics Of An Ice-Associated Seabird, The Kittlitz’S Murrelet (Brachyramphus Brevirostris), Michelle Lynn Kissling

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Mechanistic understanding of population dynamics requires linking population change and demographic processes. However, for some species, accurate estimation of population parameters can be difficult owing to their life histories, resulting in reduced or biased inference. Mobile species that are not territorial or use dynamic habitats are susceptible to estimation problems arising from variable exposure to sampling, or temporary emigration, and common approaches to account for it like robust design are not feasible. The outcome is a population mismatch whereby the statistical population, or what was sampled, is not aligned with the biological population, which is what we want to know …

Seasonality And Depth Variability In The Microbial Ecology Of A Large, Oligotrophic Lake, Kate A. Evans

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Planktonic microorganisms are the primary drivers of energy flow in aquatic ecosystems, and their ability to rapidly respond to changing environmental conditions makes them key sentinels of ecosystem variability. However, understanding how microorganisms respond to variations in their environment requires improved understanding of microbial physiology and metabolism. Microorganisms that live in fluid environments experience a dynamic world, where resources needed for growth can be scarce or plentiful. In some cases, such variation can be directly linked to the physical movement of water, for example, vertical mixing. Temperate lakes experience strong seasonality in stratification and mixing, so resolving the relationships between …

Stories From Superfund, Rachel M. Neal

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Superfund sites are the most contaminated places in the nation, but they do not exist in isolation. Stories from Superfund examines Superfund sites in three different communities, sharing the stories of people with varying relationships to these sites.

An audio story explores how the largest Superfund complex in the U.S., the Clark Fork River, serves as a living laboratory. Researchers and agency staff explain what we can learn from the nation’s most contaminated places.

A graphic, written piece uses data to understand environmental justice in a community in Southeast Georgia. Environmental inequities are visualized through graphs and maps showing demographic …

Variation In Body Composition In Deer Mice: The Biogeography And Ecophysiology Of Energy Allocation, Cole Joseph Wolf

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Body composition, the percent of lean and fat mass, is a snapshot of an individual’s energetic state at a moment in time. Wild organisms should allocate energy to optimize fitness, so tracking changes in body composition provides a window into how priorities may shift throughout the year or across environments. While seasonal variation in body composition is wellcharacterized in systems such migrating birds (Scott et al. 1994) and hibernating mammals (Hellgren 1998), much less is known about how this trait varies across species ranges and thus how organisms modify their body composition and to meet local environmental challenges. For my …

Evaluating Nurse Engagement With And Opportunities For Human Papillomavirus (Hpv) Vaccine Promotion In Montana, Juthika Jayendra Thaker

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Purpose: Parental vaccine hesitancy is a known driver of sub-optimal vaccine uptake in the United States.1 Even though a study analyzing parental responses in National Immunization Survey-Teen found that HPV vaccine hesitancy has slightly declined (69% in 2010 v/s 63% in 2019) over the years, only about 52.6% of adolescents in Montana had received all the required doses of the HPV vaccine series in 2021.2,3 Nurses are at the forefront of healthcare provision and possess a unique ability to influence parental vaccine decisions.5 By listening to and addressing parents' concerns about immunizations, nurses can dispel misinformation and help change parents' …

An Investigation Of Rural And Mental Health Disparities Across Five Dimensions Of Healthcare Access, Nicholas Charles Coombs

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Access to healthcare is a complicated public health challenge. Healthcare access is multi-dimensional and combines characteristics of individuals, their households, and their social and physical environments with system-level characteristics of healthcare delivery systems, organizations and healthcare providers. Access encompasses five dimensions: approachability, acceptability, availability, affordability and appropriateness. This dissertation investigates these five dimensions of access to healthcare in the context of two populations of interest: 1) persons who reside in rural areas and 2) persons who experience mental health challenges. Both persons in rural areas and persons with mental health challenges have structural barriers to healthcare access. Additionally, rural health …

Understanding The Utilization Of Woody Biomass Through The Perspectives Of Southwest United States Forest Service Land Managers: A Qualitative Study, Mary-Ellen Reyna

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Dry ponderosa pine/mixed conifer stands in the Southwestern United States create an overabundance of woody biomass during restoration and fuel treatments. It has been the job of land managers and resource specialists to develop management goals and practices to treat stands and lower the risk of catastrophic wildfires while managing for accumulations of woody biomass. Knowing the limitations, setbacks, and successes will help researchers, the United States Forest Service, and other land managers better improve woody biomass utilization. In conjunction with three previous ForBio Southwest studies, we present results from ten phone interviews from three Arizona and New Mexico ranger …

Seeding Resilience: An Examination Of The Impacts Of A Seed Saving Network In Western Montana, Christina Leas

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Seed saving, a worldwide practice as old as agriculture, continues even in the context of an increasingly industrialized and globalized agricultural system. While some scholarship has focused on informal seed saving practices that continue to thrive in the global South, few studies have examined the dynamics of these practices in the global North, particularly in the American West. Informal seed saving systems have implications for the resilience of agroecosystems. The concept of resilience has become an important framework for conceptualizing agroecosystems as social-ecological systems, both in scholarship and in policy. However, operationalizing the concept of resilience, particularly in agroecology research, …

Accumulation By Dispossession In Protected Areas, A Literatrue Review And Case Study To Create A More Unified Understanding, Leon Russell Miller

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

December 2021 News Releases, University Of Montana--Missoula. Office Of University Relations

University of Montana News Releases, 1928, 1956-present

No abstract provided.

Ensc 594.01: Applied Ecology, Ethan Alexander Smith

University of Montana Course Syllabi

No abstract provided.

Ensc 360.01: Applied Ecology, Ethan Alexander Smith

University of Montana Course Syllabi

No abstract provided.

Wild 485.01: Aquatic Invertibrate Ecology, Diana L. Six

University of Montana Course Syllabi, 2021-2025

No abstract provided.

Utilizing Suicide Death Certificates To Evaluate Suicide Prevention Programs: A Descriptive And Ecological Study, Nathan A. Munn

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

Objective: Suicide rates continue to increase despite various suicide prevention efforts. This study’s objective is to examine suicides in the State of Montana to ascertain suicide decedents’ demographics and the effectiveness of interventions to guide future prevention programs.

Method: Data from 1,665 suicide decedents’ death certificates were analyzed for age, ethnicity, veteran status, gender, education level, and means of suicide. Four types of suicide prevention strategies were examined for association with regional suicide rates: psychotherapist concentration, gatekeeper training, presence of county public health suicide prevention programs, and pre- post-implementation of statewide public service announcements.

Results: Compared with the general Montana …

The Ecology Of Puha: Identity, Orientation, And Shifting Perceptions Reflected Through Material Culture And Socioreligious Practice, Aaron Robert Atencio

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This dissertation explores the assertions that changes in form, function, practice, and perceptions of puha primarily arose from the dispossession of landscapes and oppression of specific religious practices due to Euro-American contact, resource depletion, and reservation confinement. The reservation era placed the indigenous populace into a state of purgatory where treaties and peace relations were consistently repositioned and reneged. The perceptions of the indigenous inhabitants pre and post Euro-American contact detail critical moments that assisted in shaping the dynamic relationship between socioreligious perceptions and the Eastern Shoshone’s identity. What is displayed is a unique set of circumstances that assisted in …

Ensc 594.01: Graduate Seminar - Applied Ecology, Leonard Broberg

University of Montana Course Syllabi

No abstract provided.

March 2020 News Releases, University Of Montana--Missoula. Office Of University Relations

University of Montana News Releases, 1928, 1956-present

No abstract provided.

Temperature Effects On Moose (Alces Alces) Activity Patterns In Isle Royale National Park, Isabella C. Evavold

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Moose (Alces alces) in Isle Royale National Park impact the ecosystem by browsing tree species and serving as the primary food source for wolves. As a heat-sensitive species, moose are susceptible to the impacts of climate change in the southern extent of their range which includes Isle Royale. Understanding how temperature impacts moose behavior is valuable and can be used to predict how moose may respond to changing temperature in the future. GPS enabled radio-collars with three-axis accelerometers were used to collect one year of temperature and activity data from 6 cow moose in Isle Royale National Park. …

Selection Of Forage And Avoidance Of Predation Risk By Partially Migratory Mule Deer, Collin Jeffrey Peterson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Migration by ungulates has traditionally been thought of as a strategy that increases access to forage quality or reduces exposure to risk of predation, but the benefits of migration may be waning globally. In partially migratory populations, the persistence of both migrant and resident strategies is an intriguing ecological phenomenon, because migrants and residents often face contrasting fitness consequences. Partial migration is common in mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), a species that has experienced widespread declines across the western United States during recent decades. Mule deer seldom switch between migratory strategies throughout their lifetime, which may make them less resilient to …

Food Web Effects Of Lake Trout (Salvelinus Namaycush) Invasion In Northwestern Montana, Charles Wainright

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Around the turn of the 20th century, lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) were widely introduced in several lakes and reservoirs outside their native range in western North America. Since then, lake trout have become problematic in many lakes where they were introduced, causing significant declines in popular sport fishes and native species, most notably federally protected bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus). Despite evidence that invasive fish can cause cascading trophic effects in aquatic communities, the impacts of lake trout introduction / invasion on aquatic food webs remain poorly understood. Moreover, native fish restoration programs tend to focus on suppression …

The Topographic Signature Of Ecosystem Climate Sensitivity In The Western United States, Zachary Hoylman, Kelsey Jencso, Jia Hu, Zachary A. Holden, Brady W. Allred, Solomon Z. Dobrowski, Nathaniel Robinson, Justin T. Martin, David L.R. Affleck, Carl Seielstad

Montana Climate Office Publications

It has been suggested that hillslope topography can produce hydrologic refugia, sites where ecosystem productivity is relatively insensitive to climate variation. However, the ecological impacts and spatial distribution of these sites are poorly resolved across gradients in climate. We quantified the response of ecosystem net primary productivity to changes in the annual climatic water balance for 30 years using pixel‐specific linear regression (30‐m resolution) across the western United States. The standardized slopes of these models represent ecosystem climate sensitivity and provide a means to identify drought‐resistant ecosystems. Productive and resistant ecosystems were most frequent in convergent hillslope positions, especially in …

Fire On The Mountain: Impacts Of First-Year Burned Habitat On Wildlife Occupancy, Dakota Vaccaro

University of Montana Conference on Undergraduate Research (UMCUR)

Wildfires occur on a worldwide scale in a range of different environments and with varying levels of severity. Currently, wildfires are occurring on a higher frequency than in the past partly due to climate change. Fire ecology studies provide valuable management information that can be used to inform decisions. However, very few of these studies have been conducted on the impacts fire has on wildlife the year following a burn. Wildlife play an important role in keeping ecosystems healthy and functioning, therefore it is important to understand how they will react with increasing fire prevalence. This study focuses on wildlife …

An Assessment Of Fecal Water Contamination In The Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness, Daniel Paul Pendergraph 5024527

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Wilderness water sources are often defined as pristine or high quality due to the lack of point source pollution. Non-point source pollution from recreation to water resources can be extensive and is well-studied in protected areas globally. Bacterial contamination, specifically fecal bacteria, poses a significant threat to human health because of the risk for outbreaks of illness and disease. Water sources in designated Wilderness areas are particularly vulnerable to fecal water contamination due to high volume of backpackers and lack of backcountry waste facilities. To estimate the occurrence of fecal water contamination in Wilderness water resources, an exploratory analysis was …

Annual Climate Impacts On Tree Growth And Post-Fire Regeneration In Ponderosa Pine And Douglas-Fir In The Northern Rocky Mountains, Lacey Hankin

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Widespread changes in climate and disturbance regimes, including prolonged drought and increases in the size and frequency of wildfires, have raised concerns regarding forest resilience to environmental change. Dry mixed-conifer forests have persisted for centuries under mixed-severity fire regimes; however, climatically driven increases in the frequency of large wildfires in recent decades may lead to increased tree mortality and declines in post-fire tree regeneration. Climatic warming and increased drought may also impact tree growth, with implications for the carbon cycle. Lower-treeline forests near the edge of their climatic tolerance may be particularly vulnerable to these impacts of future climate warming …

The Enduring Importance Of Wildness: Shepherding Wilderness Through The Anthropocene, Patrick Ram Kelly

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Wilderness and wildness have long been essential values at the heart of American conservation. Both have played critical roles in the formation of environmental ethics, providing a conceptual foundation for the belief that the non-human natural world is valuable for its own sake (Nash, 2001). After grounding and inspiring much of 20th century environmentalism, their influence in the current century has grown increasingly tentative. The arrival of what some have called the “Anthropocene epoch” – a term meant to capture the planetary scale impacts of human activity – now threatens the continued viability and relevance of wilderness and wildness to …

Confronting The Challenges Of Whale Avoidance By Large Vessels To Reduce Collision Risk: A Quantitative Approach, Jennifer E. Helm

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Disturbance of wildlife by human transportation infrastructure is ubiquitous. This type of human-wildlife conflict has the potential to negatively impact wildlife population growth rates, especially for at-risk species like large whales. While many whale populations are rebounding as a result of a moratorium on commercial whaling, increasing ship traffic constitutes a significant threat to whale conservation efforts in the form of ship-whale collisions (“ship strikes”). Ship strike avoidance is difficult because vessel operators can only see whales when they are breaking the surface of the water, or “available for detection,” and even then, they will only see them a fraction …

Managing Mining Pollution: The Case Of Water Quality Governance In The Transboundary Kootenai/Y, Ashley Juric

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis addresses current water quality management challenges in the transboundary Kootenai/y River Basin, and how these challenges are shaped by historical, economic, political, and social factors. The water quality of this basin, both in the United State and Canada, has been severely affected by coal mining that has occurred in British Columbia over the last hundred years and continues to be threatened by several proposed mining expansion projects. The goals of this research are to uncover the forces shaping water management and to determine the potential for interested and affected parties to participate in crafting water quality protection measures. …