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Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Effects Of Landscape Configuration Metrics On American Barn Owl Nest Box Occupancy And Hunting, Samantha D. Chavez Jan 2023

Effects Of Landscape Configuration Metrics On American Barn Owl Nest Box Occupancy And Hunting, Samantha D. Chavez

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Harnessing ecosystem services, broadly defined as the benefits nature gives to people, is one approach to minimize the widespread negative impacts of agriculture on wildlife and biodiversity conservation. Conservation biological control is one such service that aims to use natural enemies to reduce crops losses from pests without the use of harmful pesticides, including rodenticides. In Napa Valley, California, human-made nest boxes are deployed on wine grape vineyards to attract barn owls (Tyto furcata) that depredate and remove thousands of rodent pests throughout the nesting season. However, the provisioning of this ecosystem service depends on whether a box …


Carnivore And Ungulate Occurrence In A Fire-Prone Region, Sara J. Moriarty-Graves Jan 2023

Carnivore And Ungulate Occurrence In A Fire-Prone Region, Sara J. Moriarty-Graves

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Increasing fire size and severity in the western United States causes changes to ecosystems, species’ habitat use, and interspecific interactions. Wide-ranging carnivore and ungulate mammalian species and their interactions may be influenced by an increase in fire activity in northern California. Depending on the fire characteristics, ungulates may benefit from burned habitat due to an increase in forage availability, while carnivore species may be differentially impacted, but ultimately driven by bottom-up processes from a shift in prey availability. I used a three-step approach to estimate the single-species occupancy of four large mammal species: mountain lion (Puma concolor), coyote …


Recolonization Potential For Coho Salmon (Oncorhynchus Kisutch) In Tributaries To The Klamath River After Dam Removal, Max M. Ramos Jan 2020

Recolonization Potential For Coho Salmon (Oncorhynchus Kisutch) In Tributaries To The Klamath River After Dam Removal, Max M. Ramos

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Removal of four major dams on the Klamath River is scheduled to begin in 2023, restoring access to greater than 50 km of historic mainstem habitat for coho salmon. However, mainstem habitat may not be suitable for juvenile coho salmon due to elevated water temperatures and high concentrations of infectious myxospores in the summer and fast water velocities in the winter. Small, cooler tributaries can provide essential habitat for escape from deleterious conditions in the mainstem Klamath River. I used temperature and other physical features of six tributaries to the Klamath River above Iron Gate Dam to assess their capacity …


Tree Squirrels And Fishers In Northern California: The Effects Of Masting Hardwoods On Stand Use, Andria M. Townsend Jan 2019

Tree Squirrels And Fishers In Northern California: The Effects Of Masting Hardwoods On Stand Use, Andria M. Townsend

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

In western North America, tree squirrels such as western gray (Sciurus griseus) and Douglas squirrels (Tamiasciurus douglasii) are potentially important prey for fishers (Pekania pennanti). Western gray squirrels in particular may be highly ranked due to their large body size. Masting trees including black oak (Quercus kelloggii) and tanoak (Notholithocarpus densiflorus) produce an important food source for tree squirrels; therefore, forest stands containing these trees may be useful to foraging fishers. I hypothesized that; 1) the abundance of western gray and Douglas squirrels in a stand is influenced by the …