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Articles 1 - 14 of 14
Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Large-Scale Molecular Diet Analysis In A Generalist Marine Mammal Reveals Male Preference For Prey Of Conservation Concern, Dietmar Schwarz, Sara M. Spitzer, Austen C. Thomas, Christa M. Kohnert, Theresa R. Keates, Alejandro Acevedo-Gutiérrez
Large-Scale Molecular Diet Analysis In A Generalist Marine Mammal Reveals Male Preference For Prey Of Conservation Concern, Dietmar Schwarz, Sara M. Spitzer, Austen C. Thomas, Christa M. Kohnert, Theresa R. Keates, Alejandro Acevedo-Gutiérrez
Biology Faculty and Staff Publications
Sex-specific diet information is important in the determination of predator impacts on prey populations. Unfortunately, the diet of males and females can be difficult to describe, particularly when they are marine predators. We combined two molecular techniques to describe haul-out use and prey preferences of male and female harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) from Comox and Cowichan Bay (Canada) during 2012-2013. DNA metabarcoding quantified the diet proportions comprised of prey species in harbor seal scat, and qPCR determined the sex of the individual that deposited each scat. Using 287 female and 260 male samples, we compared the monthly sex ratio with …
Phenological Responses Of 215 Mothspecies To Interannual Climate Variation In The Pacific Northwest From 1895 Through 2013, Julie A. Maurer, Jon H. Shepard, Lars G. Crabo, Paul C. Hammond, Richard S. Zack, Merrill A. Peterson
Phenological Responses Of 215 Mothspecies To Interannual Climate Variation In The Pacific Northwest From 1895 Through 2013, Julie A. Maurer, Jon H. Shepard, Lars G. Crabo, Paul C. Hammond, Richard S. Zack, Merrill A. Peterson
Biology Faculty and Staff Publications
Climate change has caused shifts in the phenology and distributions of many species but comparing responses across species is challenged by inconsistencies in the methodology and taxonomic and temporal scope of individual studies. Natural history collections offer a rich source of data for examining phenological shifts for a large number of species. We paired specimen records from Pacific Northwest insect collections to climate data to analyze the responses of 215 moth species to interannual climate variation over a period of 119 years (1895–2013) during which average annual temperatures have increased in the region. We quantified the effects of late winter/early …
Using Machine Learning To Classify Extant Apes And Interpret The Dental Morphology Of The Chimpanzee-Human Last Common Ancestor, Tesla A. Monson, David W. Armitage, Leslea J. Hlusko
Using Machine Learning To Classify Extant Apes And Interpret The Dental Morphology Of The Chimpanzee-Human Last Common Ancestor, Tesla A. Monson, David W. Armitage, Leslea J. Hlusko
Anthropology Faculty and Staff Publications
Machine learning is a formidable tool for pattern recognition in large datasets. We developed and expanded on these methods, applying machine learning pattern recognition to a problem in paleoanthropology and evolution. For decades, paleontologists have used the chimpanzee as a model for the chimpanzee-human last common ancestor (LCA) because they are our closest living primate relative. Using a large sample of extant and extinct primates, we tested the hypothesis that machine learning methods can accurately classify extant apes based on dental data. We then used this classification tool to observe the affinities between extant apes and Miocene hominoids. We assessed …
How Low Can You Go (And Live): Determining The Sub-Lethal Exposure Time To Desiccation In Snowberry Maggot Flies (Rhagoletis Zephyria), Alison Klimke, Anna Marie Yanny
How Low Can You Go (And Live): Determining The Sub-Lethal Exposure Time To Desiccation In Snowberry Maggot Flies (Rhagoletis Zephyria), Alison Klimke, Anna Marie Yanny
Scholars Week
The fruit infesting snowberry maggot (Rhagoletis zephyria) inhabits a broad range of habitats across the northern United States, including the humid and arid parts of Washington State. Pupating snowberry maggots (the most vulnerable life stage) exhibit local adaptation, with flies being more desiccation resistant east than west of the Cascades. Previous experiments have measured this difference at eight days after the larvae leave the fruit. However, desiccation impacts on survival may occur much earlier. To better understand the mechanism(s) by which flies protect themselves from desiccation we need to study flies at a sub-lethal level of stress, as dying flies …
Feeding Success Of Harbor Seals In Relation To Hunting Technique At Whatcom Creek, Mackenna Newmarch
Feeding Success Of Harbor Seals In Relation To Hunting Technique At Whatcom Creek, Mackenna Newmarch
Scholars Week
Factors that influence hunting success of seals and sea lions are underrepresented in studies of animal behavior. This is a critical interaction to understand when evaluating the top-down effects of pinnipeds on endangered Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.). In the Pacific Northwest, harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) consume a very large number of individual salmon, species that are a valuable resource and the subject of costly restorative efforts. A salmon hatchery in Whatcom Creek estuary of downtown Bellingham, Washington, attracts harbor seals that prey on returning adult Pacific salmon. The convenient location and small size of the site allows consistent observation of …
Environmental Selection During The Last Ice Age On The Mother-To-Infant Transmission Of Vitamin D And Fatty Acids Through Breast Milk, Leslea J. Hlusko, Joshua P. Carlson, George Chaplin, Scott A. Elias, John F. Hoffecker, Michaela Huffman, Nina G. Jablonski, Tesla A. Monson, Dennis H. O'Rourke, Marin A. Pilloud, G. Richard Scott
Environmental Selection During The Last Ice Age On The Mother-To-Infant Transmission Of Vitamin D And Fatty Acids Through Breast Milk, Leslea J. Hlusko, Joshua P. Carlson, George Chaplin, Scott A. Elias, John F. Hoffecker, Michaela Huffman, Nina G. Jablonski, Tesla A. Monson, Dennis H. O'Rourke, Marin A. Pilloud, G. Richard Scott
Anthropology Faculty and Staff Publications
Because of the ubiquitous adaptability of our material culture, some human populations have occupied extreme environments that intensified selection on existing genomic variation. By 32,000 years ago, people were living in Arctic Beringia, and during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM; 28,000–18,000 y ago), they likely persisted in the Beringian refugium. Such high latitudes provide only very low levels of UV radiation, and can thereby lead to dangerously low levels of biosynthesized vitamin D. The physiological effects of vitamin D deficiency range from reduced dietary absorption of calcium to a compromised immune system and modified adipose tissue function. The ectodysplasin A …
Why Georeferencing Matters: Introducing A Practical Protocol To Prepare Species Occurrence Records For Spatial Analysis, Trevor D.S. Bloom, Aquila Flower, Eric G. Dechaine
Why Georeferencing Matters: Introducing A Practical Protocol To Prepare Species Occurrence Records For Spatial Analysis, Trevor D.S. Bloom, Aquila Flower, Eric G. Dechaine
Environmental Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications
Species Distribution Models (SDMs) are widely used to understand environmental controls on species’ ranges and to forecast species range shifts in response to climatic changes. The quality of input data is crucial determinant of the model’s accuracy. While museum records can be useful sources of presence data for many species, they do not always include accurate geographic coordinates. Therefore, actual locations must be verified through the process of georeferencing. We present a practical, standardized manual georeferencing method (the Spatial Analysis Georeferencing Accuracy (SAGA) protocol) to classify the spatial resolution of museum records specifically for building improved SDMs. We used the …
Hydrologic And Nutrient Fluxes In A Small Watershed With Changing Agricultural Practices, Bridger Cohan
Hydrologic And Nutrient Fluxes In A Small Watershed With Changing Agricultural Practices, Bridger Cohan
WWU Graduate School Collection
Many watersheds are subject to nonpoint-source inputs of nutrients from human activities, contributing to eutrophication of surface waters. The magnitude of these inputs is in turn dependent on the types of land use within a watershed, and on the specific land management strategies employed. Exact nutrient contributions resulting from particular management actions are difficult to identify, but field studies of nutrient fluxes through a waterway over time can shed light on the net impact of trends in land use and management. I investigated nutrient fluxes through upper Kamm Creek in northwest Washington State, to determine if historical changes in land …
Site Occupancy Analysis Of The Sagebrush Lizard (Sceloporus Graciosus) In The Disappearing Desert-Scrub Of The Columbia Basin, Ryan R. (Ryan Robert) Drake
Site Occupancy Analysis Of The Sagebrush Lizard (Sceloporus Graciosus) In The Disappearing Desert-Scrub Of The Columbia Basin, Ryan R. (Ryan Robert) Drake
WWU Graduate School Collection
The shrub-steppe landscape of the Columbia Basin has been the target of agricultural and urban development, and the resulting fragmentation and degradation has led to the disappearance of unique arid mesohabitats. In central Washington, the sandy lowland habitats resembling desert-scrub, which under natural conditions are characterized by a shrub-and-sand mosaic, have become increasingly degraded by humans directly (e.g., flooding, agriculture) or indirectly (e.g. cheatgrass introduction). These habitats have unique community assemblages with species adapted to the sandy substrates and unobstructed matrix between shrubs. While much conservation literature focuses on the loss of shrubsteppe habitat, there has been little research on …
Long-Term Propagule Pressure Overwhelms Early Community Determination Of Invader Success In A Serpentine Grassland, Amanda N. Carr
Long-Term Propagule Pressure Overwhelms Early Community Determination Of Invader Success In A Serpentine Grassland, Amanda N. Carr
WWU Graduate School Collection
The role of plant diversity in reducing invasions has generated decades of debate. Diverse communities might be more resistant to invasion because the communities contain resident species that are functionally similar to the invader (limiting similarity/sampling effect), or the residents use the range of available resources more effectively (complementarity) than single species. However, the resistance of diverse communities to invasion appears to decline with increasing spatial and temporal scale, in a phenomenon called the “invasion paradox.” I addressed two groups of hypotheses related to this paradox, broadly that: (1) functional diversity and functional identity resist invasion initially, via complementarity or …
Cross-Sectional Scat Sampling Reveals Intrapopulation Feeding Diversity In A Marine Predator, Madelyn Voelker
Cross-Sectional Scat Sampling Reveals Intrapopulation Feeding Diversity In A Marine Predator, Madelyn Voelker
WWU Graduate School Collection
Harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) have substantial impacts on species of concern. To understand and predict the impact that harbor seals have in their communities, we need to describe their level of individual specialization because it can affect food web dynamics, responses to changes in prey availability, and the accuracy of predictive models. I estimated intrapopulation feeding diversity, a proxy for individual specialization, of P. vitulina in the Salish Sea relative to sex, time, and location using repeated cross-sectional sampling of scat. Based on 1,083 scat samples collected from five haul-out sites over the course of four, non-sequential years, …
Wasted And Castrated: Two Diseases Affecting The Ochre Star, Pisaster Ochraceus, In North America, Zoë Zilz
Wasted And Castrated: Two Diseases Affecting The Ochre Star, Pisaster Ochraceus, In North America, Zoë Zilz
WWU Graduate School Collection
Understanding the diseases that plague marine organisms is essential to the management and conservation of coastal ecosystems, especially in the face of a possible sixth mass extinction. An increase in mass-mortality events, often caused by epizootics, is modifying intertidal ecosystems. When predators that have disproportionately large trophic impacts on their community and maintain community structure (i.e., keystone predators) suffer from widespread population declines it destabilizes population dynamics ecosystem-wide, and can have long-term or sometimes permanent effects. This thesis is comprised of two studies that examined two maladies affecting a keystone predator, the ochre star Pisaster ochraceus, in Eastern Pacific …
Evaluation Of The Stream Function Assessment Methodology (Sfam) In Watersheds Of The Puget Sound Lowlands, Michelle Bahnick
Evaluation Of The Stream Function Assessment Methodology (Sfam) In Watersheds Of The Puget Sound Lowlands, Michelle Bahnick
WWU Graduate School Collection
Effective stream management requires identification of anthropogenic degradation effects on stream functioning. However, few stream assessment protocols aim to evaluate stream functions (i.e., ecosystem processes), integrate multiple disciplines, and combine stream reach assessment with landscape-level context. To address these shortcomings, several agencies in Oregon collaborated to develop the Stream Function Assessment Methodology (SFAM). However, SFAM has yet to be tested against established protocols and some SFAM metrics have no equivalent data sources outside of Oregon. I conducted SFAM (2015 draft version) on 36 stream reaches in Water Resource Inventory Area 8 in Washington State. I compared SFAM scores to commensurate …
Characterizing Potential Bacterial Pathogens Of Pisaster Ochraceus Sea Stars With Wasting Disease, Chelsea Hutchinson
Characterizing Potential Bacterial Pathogens Of Pisaster Ochraceus Sea Stars With Wasting Disease, Chelsea Hutchinson
WWU Graduate School Collection
In 2013 sea star wasting disease (SSWD) caused an epizootic in over 20 species of asteroids along the west coast of North America. To see if SSWD was still affecting wild populations, we surveyed populations of the sea star, Pisaster ochraceus, in Birch Bay, WA. Our surveys indicated that advanced symptoms (lesion formation) increased 73% from July to September in 2017. To understand the role of bacteria in SSWD, we isolated bacteria with tissue-degrading potential from epidermal tissues of P. ochraceus animals in Birch Bay, WA. Next, we identified these isolates via 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Our results indicated …