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Determining The Presence Of Remains Using The Chemical Composition Of Burned Cadaver Ash, Megan J. Richardson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

New Methods To Estimate Abundance From Unmarked Populations Using Remote Camera Trap Data, Anna K. Moeller

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Abundance estimates are central to the field of ecology and are an important tool for wildlife managers. While many tools are available for estimating abundance from individually identifiable animals, it is much more difficult to estimate abundance of unmarked animals. Most species have no natural markings and capturing them to apply artificial marks is invasive. One step toward noninvasive abundance estimation is the use of passive “traps” such as remote cameras or acoustic recording devices. The continuous-time data from these traps can be used to estimate abundance, although most available methods still require individually identifiable animals. There is a great …

Evolution Of Molt Phenology In Dwarf Hamsters, Zachary Clare-Salzler

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Environmental seasonality presents many challenges for survival. In response, organisms from across the tree of life exhibit adaptive phenology, which can facilitate survival from season to season. In particular, many species are white in the winter and brown in the summer where winter snow cover alters the visual environment. There is an extensive body of literature describing the physiological and cellular regulation of this trait in the Siberian dwarf hamster (Phodopus sungorus), but there are major shortcomings in our understanding concerning the evolution and molecular regulation of mammalian skin phenology. Notably, little is known about the genetic basis …

Aerodynamics And Ecomorphology Of Flexible Feathers And Morphing Bird Wings, Brett Klassen Van Oorschot

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Birds morph their wings during a single wingbeat, across flight speeds, and among flight modes. Such morphing may allow them to maximize aerodynamic performance, but this assumption remains largely untested. We tested the aerodynamic performance of swept and extended wing postures of 13 raptor species in three families (Accipitridae, Falconidae, and Strigidae) using a propeller model to emulate mid-downstroke of flapping during takeoff and a wind tunnel to emulate gliding. Based on previous research, we hypothesized that 1) during flapping, wing posture would not affect maximum ratios of vertical and horizontal force coefficients (CV:CH), and that 2) extended wings would …

The Ecology Of Montane Bengal Tigers (Panthera Tigris Tigris) In The Himalayan Kingdom Of Bhutan, Tshering Tempa

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Large carnivores are endangered across the globe. Loss of habitat and habitat fragmentation, prey depletion, and direct poaching for the illegal wildlife trade are the major causes driving them towards extinction. Although tigers (Panthera tigris) once roamed across Asia, they are now restricted to 7 % of their historical range and experiencing rapid population declines. This warrants a concerted, multipronged strategy that will halt further declines of tigers in the wild. One approach put forth by some scientists is to focus conservation on 6% of the presently occupied tiger habitat identified as tiger sources sites. Other scientists argued for a …

The Balancing Act: Ecological Interventions And Decision Tradeoffs To Preserve Wilderness Character, Lucy A. Lieberman

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Global climate change, land use intensification and increasing development are impacting federal wildernesses in new and unprecedented ways. Ecological restoration is one tool that that wilderness managers are using to combat degradation, though the decision to intervene in wilderness is complicated by the Wilderness Act’s legal mandate to preserve wilderness character and demonstrate managerial restraint. The purpose of this study is to document a baseline of ecological interventions that have occurred in the NWPS over the last five years, and to understand how wilderness managers make decisions related to ecological interventions. I sent a quantitative survey to over five hundred …

Assessing The Character Of Place To Guide Geotourism In Montana: A Case Study Of Whitefish And White Sulphur Springs, Montana, Michael E. Tipton

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In 2007 the governor’s Montana Tourism Advisory Council adopted the Montana Tourism and Recreation Charter. Its guiding principle of geotourism pledged to sustain and enhance the character of the places that the people of Montana call home. How can the state’s efforts to keep this pledge be assessed when “character of place” has never been clearly defined or understood in detail? To keep this pledge, and chart the future of geotourism in the state, it was important to clarify what is meant by character of place and identify the full range of present and potential problems that threaten the integrity …

High-Resolution Mapping Of Hierarchical Greater Sage-Grouse Nesting Habitat: A Grain-Spectrum Approach In Northwestern Wyoming, Robert T. Haynam Iii

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Our overall objective was to create a probabilistic nesting-habitat map for the Jackson Hole sage-grouse population that would have utility as a tool for future research, conservation, and management. The models that we developed for this purpose were specified to evaluate whether sage-grouse may be selecting nesting-habitat characteristics simultaneously at various spatial scales. Our spatially-explicit landscape-scale research was implemented primarily with readily available National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) data. All nesting data was collected from 2007-2010. We tested how a broad range of grain sizes (spatial resolution) of covariate values affected the fit to logistic regression models used to estimate …

Poison In Pink, Sydney V. Cook

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Humans slather, spray, mist, and cleanse their bodies with personal care products like lotion, hairspray, cologne, and shampoo every day. Our cupboards are stocked full of them, but few of us understand what is in those jars and bottles. We trust that if it’s on the shelf at the store, it’s safe. However, this is not always the case, and many personal care products contain chemicals that are harmful to human and environmental health.

My multi-disciplinary Environmental Studies thesis project combines evidenced-based research, interviews, nonfiction narrative, and science communication to create part of a book manuscript intended to educate general …

Growth Response Of Whitebark Pine (Pinus Albicaulis) Regeneration To Thinning And Prescribed Burn Release Treatments, Molly L. Mcclintock Retzlaff

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis Engelm.) plays a prominent role throughout high-elevation ecosystems in the northern Rocky Mountains. It is an important food source for many birds and mammals, as well as a major player in high-elevation watershed maintenance, both slowing snowmelt and stabilizing soils. Whitebark pine is vanishing from the landscape due to three main factors – white pine blister rust (Cronartium ribicola) invasions, mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) outbreaks, and successional replacement by more shade-tolerant tree species historically controlled by wildfire. In the past century, human activity such as fire suppression has altered these …

Before Abandonment: Social Change In Pre-Colonial Housepit 54, Bridge River Site (Eerl4), British Columbia, Kathryn L. Bobolinski

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Housepit 54 at the Bridge River pithouse village in south-central British Columbia provides a glimpse into the complex cultural practices that occurred in this area in the past. This village, which includes approximately 80 semi-subterranean structures, was occupied during four periods, approximately 1800- 1600 cal. B.P., 1600-1300 cal. B.P., 1300-1000 cal. B.P. and 500-100 cal. B.P, firmly placing the site within both a historic and a pre-Colonial context. The two pre-Colonial floors, IIb (1288-1058 cal B.P.) and IIa (1184-1050 cal B.P.), that represent the occupation of Housepit 54 directly prior to the pre-Colonial villages abandonment are the focus of this …

Examining Drivers Of Phenotypic Variation In The Perennial Herb Showy Milkweed (Asclepias Speciosa)., Kira I. Sussman

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Many plant species show variation in phenotypic traits, such as traits related to growth and defense against herbivores, across environmental gradients. Differences in phenotypic traits can be due to selection, leading to local adaptation, or due to the random process of genetic drift. To examine the driver of phenotypic variation, I conducted a Qst (a measure of phenotypic variation among populations) vs. Fst (a measure of genetic variation among populations) analysis for 13 populations of A. speciosa grown in a common garden, using five growth and defense traits and seven microsatellite markers. I found relatively low differentiation at the neutral …

Montanan, Winter 2017, University Of Montana--Missoula

Montanan Magazine, 1969-2024

This is the magazine of the University of Montana with news about the University for UM alumni as well as current faculty, students, staff, and administrators. This is volume 34, number 1.

President's Report, 2016-2017, University Of Montana (Missoula, Mont.). Office Of The President

University of Montana President’s Report, 1993-2016

The President’s Report of the University of Montana, produced by University Relations on behalf of the President’s Office.

Strategic Recommendation For Evertec, Inc., Talia Zook

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Our research seeks to improve the operational effectiveness of Latin American transaction processing firm Evertec, headquartered in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The unstable economic status of Puerto Rico—as the site of headquarters and as the source of approximately 7% of Evertec’s total revenue—is of external concern, though there are promising technological trends occurring in much of Latin America. The risk of entry by potential competitors in industry appears high, but all other risks as outlined by Michael Porter’s Five Forces are low, indicating an attractive market. Internally, Evertec exhibits several core competencies, including innovation, end-to-end (comprehensive) service, community service/social responsibility, …

Harvest And Persistence Of Wolf Populations: Variable Effects Of Harvest On Wolf Packs In The Rocky Mountains, Sarah B. Bassing

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Pubic harvest is a common method used to manage populations of wolves (Canis lupus) in North America. Although wolves appear resilient to the effects of harvest management the influences on demography and pack stability are uncertain. Packs generally drive population dynamics for wolves; thus, we were interested in how harvested populations were maintained and how harvest influenced the abundance and distribution of packs. We used noninvasive genetic data collected in Idaho, USA (2008–2014) and Alberta, Canada (2012–2014) to test whether immigration compensated for harvest mortality and helped maintain population densities. We further fit occupancy models to detection data …

Implications Of Rancher Decision-Making Patterns In Douglas County, Washington For Incentive-Based Conservation Of Sage-Grouse, Clancy Jandreau

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Conservationists are increasingly recognizing the importance of private land for the conservation of imperiled wildlife species while at the same time acknowledging the controversies with seeking Endangered Species Act protections. Recent and ongoing government-led efforts to conserve the greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) through the Sage Grouse Initiative (SGI) provide an illustrative experiment in applying incentive-based conservation to private lands. However, whether the SGI program works because it provides an alternative to listing has not been empirically researched. In this study I apply a qualitative, exploratory approach to examine SGI participation among ranchers in Washington, a state with high …

Estimating The Effects Of Overstory Retention, Vegetative Competition, And Site Quality On The Height Growth Of Small Ponderosa Pine Trees Using Regression Quantiles, Colin P. Kirkmire

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa C. Lawson) forests in the Inland Northwestern region of the US are increasingly managed under multi-aged silvicultural systems that provide stand structure for wildlife habitat, timber production, enhanced aesthetic, or restoration of presettlement conditions (O'Hara 2005). Partial retention harvest, where an element of the previous stand's overstory structure is retained, is commonly used to achieve a multi-aged stand structure. However, little is known about how ponderosa pine trees in the understory respond to overstory and understory competitive factors following partial retention harvest. The height growth of small trees was hypothesized to be influenced by site …

Disappearing Act, Kate Barrett

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Disappearing Act is a manuscript of fiction consisting of four short stories: "Disappearing Act," "California Zephyr," "Lost & Found," and "We Run to the Desert." The collection explores issues pertaining to relationships, sexuality, and the myriad definitions of both platonic and romantic love.

Structural Integrity And Physical Properties Of Ponderosa Pine Over Time After Death Between Vectors Of Mortality, Edward J. O'Donnell

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In an era of accelerated climate change, with persistent and increasing disturbance on our landscapes it is important to increase our knowledge of how these natural disturbances effect our lands. This study investigated the changes that take place in ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) stems after death when killed by mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) and by fire. Trees killed by mountain pine beetle as well as trees killed by fire were sampled and separated into two age classes, those dead 0-4 years and those dead 4+ years. Data was gathered on the modulus of rupture, modulus …

What The Gringos Brought: A Critical Examination Of A Privately Protected Area In Chilean Patagonia, Elena Louder

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Neoliberal ideology increasingly underscores many mainstream efforts to conserve biodiversity. This research explores this convergence through an in-depth case study of a privately owned park located in Chilean Patagonia. In two complementary chapters, I assess the social and cultural impacts of the project, and examine the role of discourse in the process of communicating and constructing the park. In the first chapter I draw from interview data collected from September through December of 2016 and explore the perspectives of local people with a variety of relationships to the project. In the second I employ a critical discourse analysis of park …

Subjective Experience Of Empathy In Schizotypy Elicited By Literary Fictional Narrative, Christa "Anahata" Neuman

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The elaborate and multidimensional systems that are involved in the personal and subjective experience of empathy are largely unexplored. Nevertheless, when empathy is measured as a static trait there is considerable evidence that individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia and schizotypy demonstrate altered and reduced empathic abilities respectively (Thirioux, 2014). The aim of this study was to investigate the effect that the context of reading literary fiction has on a portion of the process of empathic responding in relation to schizotypal traits, taking into consideration personal factors including current mood. A new measure for the use of momentary assessment of empathy was …

Assessing Riparian Ecosystem Condition And Monitoring Recovery From Natural And Anthropogenic Disturbance, Rachel Powers

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Riparian ecosystems are the transition zones between river systems and uplands. They provide many valuable ecological functions including creating habitat for wildlife, stabilizing banks from erosion and providing a buffer that prevents excess nutrients from entering streams. Fires and other disturbances alter the function of these ecosystems. Currently, there is a lack of broadly used standardized assessments and monitoring methods in riparian areas within our current water policy framework. This study aims to examine this gap in riparian ecosystem protection by reviewing the assessment methods currently in use, selecting one method for field testing, and analyzing the effort involved in …

The Ecology And Evolution Of Avian Alarm Call Signaling Systems, Alexis Chandon Billings

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Communication is often set up as a simple dyadic exchange between one sender and one receiver. However, in reality, signaling systems have evolved and are used with many forms and types of information bombarding multiple senders, who in turn send multiple signals of different modalities, through various environmental spaces, finally reaching multiple receivers. In order to understand both the ecology and evolution of a signaling system, we must examine all the facets of the signaling system.

My dissertation focused on the alarm call signaling system in birds. Alarm calls are acoustic signals given in response to danger or predators. My …

Day Hikers And Bear Safety: An Elaboration Perspective On Communication In Yellowstone National Park, Zachary David Miller

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

As the National Park Service (NPS) celebrates its 100th year, Yellowstone National Park – the world’s first national park - is dealing with a variety of difficult and complex challenges. Human-wildlife conflict has become a flashpoint for these challenges, as increased visitation results in fewer managers dealing with more people in the park. A recent spate of deaths of day hikers in the park due to grizzly bears set further focus on this point. Yellowstone officials realized that effective communication strategies are more important than ever before.

This research was part of a broader project designed to examine the effectiveness …

Drivers And Feedbacks Of The Fire-Grazing Interaction In The Northern Great Plains, Jacob E. Powell

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The fire-grazing interaction is well studied in mesic grasslands worldwide, but research is lacking in semiarid systems. In addition, the fire-grazing interaction reduces the invasion of exotic forage species in mesic grasslands by increasing the scale of grazing selection and may be a tool to control invasive plants in other grasslands. We examined the principal drivers and feedbacks of the fire-grazing interaction on the strength of cattle grazing selection, forage quantity and quality, and vegetation structure and composition in two pastures in northeast Montana at The Nature Conservancy’s Matador Ranch. We also determined the influence of time since fire, within …

Explaining And Monitoring Population Performance In Grizzly And American Black Bears, Jeffrey Brian Stetz

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Understanding how environmental factors influence wildlife populations is at the heart of ecology and management. Populations and their habitats are, however, inherently dynamic, which requires monitoring responses to changes in the environment. Beyond quantifying population dynamics, understanding why populations respond as they do may allow improved predictions within and across populations, ideally leading to better management. Grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) and American black bears (U. americanus) have been researched in North America for decades, providing excellent opportunities to explore ecological questions involving inter- and intraspecific competition and responses to spatial and temporal variation in resources. The wealth of data collected …

Ground Fires: Essays On Land And Scouting, Matthew R. Hart

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Ground Fires is a collection of creative nonfiction probing the social and environmental complexities that marked the narrator’s long membership in the Boy Scouts of America. I grew up a Scout, part of a quirky, adventurous troop in a New England college town. After earning Eagle and graduating high school, I moved west, working for seven summers and a few more seasons at Philmont Scout Ranch in northern New Mexico. I led backpacking trips through the mountains and high desert, teaching teenagers about land I knew and loved, land that was changing fast. From bears to wildfire to challenging politics, …

A Biogeographic Perspective On The Impacts And Importance Of Rodent Granivory On Native Vs. Invasive Plants, Jacob Elias Lucero

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

One of the most well-known explanations for the success of invasive plants in novel environments is enemy release, which predicts that 1) invasive plants are limited by natural enemies in the native range but not the non-native range, and 2) native competitors in recipient communities remain limited by their natural enemies. Despite considerable empirical attention, very few studies have tested these basic predictions, especially with respect to generalist herbivores. We tested whether invasive cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) has experienced enemy release from granivorous rodents – an important guild of generalists – using exclosures and experimental seed additions in western Asia (where …

Utilization Of Landsat Imagery To Assess The Impacts Of Oil And Gas Extraction On The Tazovsky Peninsula, Siberia, Nicholas B. Kline

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Climatic warming of the Arctic is leading to landscape change through cascading biophysical feedbacks; development, such as oil and gas exploration and extraction, can accelerate or worsen these impacts. Due to restricted access to oil and natural gas fields, in situ environmental impact studies are only allowed in some regions. Satellite imagery analysis provides a mean for assessing impacts in areas with limited access. The Yamburg oil and gas field in western Siberia serves as a case study to assess the effects of infrastructure on an Arctic landscape.

This project quantifies the land-cover disturbance that occurred during the development and …