Digital Commons Network^™

The Legend Of The Bear Lake Monster, Melissa Anderson Asay

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

The Bear Lake Monster is a legend that has persisted for centuries. This monster is rooted in Shoshone oral traditions and hold the potential to be based off of fossils found in the Shoshone territory. This living legend was later amplified by Mormon settlers. One settler in particular, Joseph C. Rich, played a significant role in shaping its narrative. Though he eventually admitted to fabricating sightings to encourage settlement, belief in the creature remains alive today. The serpent’s presence in local lore has undeniably influenced the Bear Lake region, shaping both its identity and tourism industry. This legend serves as …

The Economics And Viability Of Organic Forage And Grain Production In Utah, Mackenzie Lee

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

Utah farmers face significant financial and agronomic challenges when transitioning into organic forage and grain production. The state’s high-desert climate, alkaline soils, and limited irrigation water make organic production more expensive and riskier than in many other regions.

This study evaluates a ten-year rotation built around alfalfa, which acts as a natural nitrogen engine for the system. Because alfalfa fixes large amounts of nitrogen, it reduces fertilizer costs for later crops such as organic corn. However, farmers must first survive the three-year transition period, during which they must follow organic rules but cannot sell their crops at organic prices.

Using …

Developing A Resilient Park For Palisade State Park: A Model For Intermountain West State Parks, Hirone T. Warner

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

Palisade State Park in central Utah is a cherished natural resource, offering diverse recreational opportunities and serving as an important ecological habitat. However, the park faces increasing challenges due to increasing visitation and the impacts of climate change. This thesis presents a strategic master plan for Palisade State Park, designed to guide its development over the next 20 years.

Recognizing the need for a sustainable approach, this project adopts a participatory method, involving park users, residents, and environmental experts in the planning process. The goal is to create a master plan that not only addresses the park’s immediate needs but …

The Development Of A Plant Database For Waterwise Plants Along The Intermountain West, Tyler G. Peterson

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

This thesis presents the rationale behind the importance of accurate 3D plant models. The research conducted provides logical explanations for why we should accurately represent plants in our 3D models, not only as landscape architects but as designers in general. In addition to this research, a database of waterwise plants was produced to provide designers with a resource to better represent landscapes. During the creation of this database, detailed process records were maintained to enable others to continue to add to and build on the work done within this thesis. It is hoped that this database, begun in this thesis, …

Isolation, Identification, And Enzymatic Screening Of Fungi From Utah Dryland Soils For Industrial And Waste Valorization Applications, Jessica Lorena Silva Cuero

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

Agricultural waste accumulation presents environmental challenges but also opportunities for biological valorization into value-added products. Fungi are particularly well-suited for this purpose due to their capacity to produce extracellular enzymes involved in the degradation of complex organic substrates. Dryland ecosystems represent a promising source for bioprospecting microbes capable of producing such enzymes. Drylands harbor a high diversity of extremophilic microorganisms that can withstand harsh conditions, extreme heat, UV, and low nutrients using unique adaptations. This suggests that these microbes are resilient and capable of surviving under varying conditions and still produce enzymes for biotransformation. The objective of this study was …

A Design Guide For Extreme Heat In Play Environments: Exploring Landscape Architecture Strategies, Amy Elise Guenther

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

Urban heat is a rising concern and is affecting vulnerable populations such as our youth. A particular concern is exposure to extremely high temperatures on playgrounds – an environment that is meant to be safe for children even in extreme weather conditions. There has been an increase in many impervious surfaces such as concrete and asphalt in urban areas. These surfaces absorb solar radiation, which contributes to the heat island effect. These same surfaces are in and around playground areas, which are contributing to the extreme heat felt within these play environments. Therefore, requiring intervention to help mitigate the effects …

"In Any Other Circumstance I Am Not In Work Mode. I Am Clocked Out": Chappell Roan And The Objectified Persona, Aubry Louise

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

It is known that celebrities have influence on their audience’s attitudes and behaviors. Within the last few decades, multiple celebrities have created distinctions between their public/stage self and their private self, however, less is known about the ways that they differentiate between the two. This paper looks at celebrity public persona’s and how these persona’s influence their audience. I use Kayleigh Amstutz, otherwise known as Chappell Roan, as my case study. This thesis offers an analysis of how Amstutz talks about Kayleigh differently than Chappell within social media posts, interviews, and commentary from media outlets. I use the concepts of …

Integrative Taxonomic Analysis Of Cryptic Species Diversity In The Spiny Witch-Hazel Gall Aphid, Hamamelistes Spinosus (Hemiptera: Aphididae: Hormaphidini) In Eastern North America, Gavin Andrew Powell Munson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Taxonomy is the practice of identifying, classifying and categorizing species, providing structure for the vast diversity of life. Aphids are an ecologically important group of soft-bodied insects, but they can be difficult to identify because of their tiny anatomical size, reduced or simplified morphological features, and morphological variation within a single species across different generations. In this study, the taxonomy of the spiny witch-hazel gall aphid, Hamamelistes spinosus, is revised. The complex multi-generational life cycle of the aphids, which alternates between witch-hazel and birch trees, has led to confusion regarding past descriptions. Scientists in the late 1800s who were …

Nutrient Leaching Under Traditional And Intercropped Cover Crop Fields In Northern Utah, Katherine Hewitt

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

This study examines whether cover crops can be used in Utah and the Intermountain West to improve water quality and reduce contamination due to nutrient leaching from agricultural soils into the groundwater. Cover crops such as grasses, clover, and other seed mixtures can be planted to improve soil health, increasing the soil’s ability to retain water and nutrients, which reduces the amount of nitrate and phosphate fertilizers lost through leaching and contamination. In Utah, short growing seasons and limited irrigation water availability hinder the ability to establish cover crops. By planting the cover crop between the rows (intercropping) when the …

Quaking Aspen On Cedar Mountain, Utah: Status And Update, Jaycee Cappaert, Larissa L. Yocom, Paul C. Rogers, Darren J. Mcavoy, R. Justin Derose

Wildland Resources Student Research

Quaking aspen forests are important communities in the western United States where they provide preferential food and habitat for animals, limit wildfires from spreading, and have favorable aesthetics, among other things. Their putative decline is an issue for ecology and management. We remeasured the aspen population on Cedar Mountain, Utah, to assess changes to its condition since it was originally measured in 2008 and laid the groundwork for continued aspen monitoring on Cedar Mountain. Our objectives were to compare current metrics of stand structure and composition, mortality, crown dieback, bole damage, regeneration, and recruitment, to those of the original inventory. …

The Influence Of Habitat And Individual Specialization On Mountain Lion (Puma Concolor) Hunting Strategy In A Multi-Prey System, Hannah B. Klugman

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

There is a growing recognition that animal species considered generalists (having a broad and varied diet), are actually specialists, a collection of individuals with different preferences and strategies known as specializations. The diet of a specialist depends on the variety and quantity of available food options, and their own ability to take what they need. Mountain lions (Puma concolor) are known for their ability and tendency to hunt large prey, such as elk (Cervus canadensis) and mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), but despite the fact they overlap with other potential large prey, like feral horses …

Agronomic And Economic Evaluation Of Alternative Forage Crops Under Irrigation Technologies And Deficit Irrigation, Shikha Sharma

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Water is becoming more limited in the western United States, including Utah, so farmers need forage crops that can produce well while using less irrigation water. This study examined how different forage crops respond to reduced irrigation and different irrigation application methods, and whether some crops can provide better economic returns under limited water conditions.

Field studies were conducted at three Utah locations, Cedar City, Logan, and Vernal, from 2020 to 2024. The alternative forage crops included teff, sorghum-sudangrass (sudex), and forage rye. For economic comparison, conventional forage crops included alfalfa, corn, and three-way small grains. Four to five irrigation …

Bees In The Trap: Leveraging Bumble Bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Bombus) Bycatch For Ecological And Genetic Insights, Tori L. Strausser

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Managers rely on insect monitoring traps to detect insect pests that harm crops and protect food and other agricultural production. However, these traps also capture non-target insects, including bumble bees, raising concerns about whether repeated trapping could harm pollinator populations. This thesis explores whether bees caught as non-targets, also called bycatch, in routine pest monitoring traps can be used to better understand bumble bee populations, and whether traps pose risks to their long-term persistence. Using bumble bees collected from pest surveillance traps placed in crop fields across Utah, this research examined seasonal patterns in body size, timing of capture, and …

Bridging Animal Production And Human Nutrition: How Production Ecology Shapes The Nutritional Quality Of Terrestrial Animal Foods And Human Omega-3 Status, Joseph Vinod Varre

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

The question at the center of this dissertation is simple: does the way food is produced change the quality of the food itself in ways that matter for human health? Across a series of studies on bison meat, eggs, and human dietary intervention, the answer was yes. This work began with a broad look at the modern food system and the nutritional consequences of industrialized diets. In particular, it focused on the growing imbalance between omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids in the Western diet. This balance matters because omega-3 fats support heart, brain, and immune health, and diets high in …

Learning Latent Structure In High-Dimensional Data Via Geometry And Graphs, Haozhe Chen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Modern datasets often contain many measured variables for each observation, such as gene-expression levels, brain activity signals, or features in tabular data. These data are also often noisy, meaning that useful patterns are mixed with measurement error or irrelevant variation. Although such datasets can appear complex, they are frequently represented by simpler hidden structures, such as trajectories, clusters, or relationships between observations. This dissertation develops methods for uncovering these hidden structures by learning geometric and graph-based representations directly from data. The first part introduces Functional Information Geometry, which represents local patterns in high-dimensional data using functional features and constructs a …

Advancing Management Strategies For Two Promising Mason Bee Species (Osmia Ribifloris And Osmia Bruneri) For Berry Pollination, Miranda L. Jones

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Bee management can broadly refer to human manipulation of one or multiple parts of a bee’s lifecycle. Managing honey bees, commonly referred to as beekeeping, is responsible for providing most pollination for global food crops. However, using more than one bee species for crop pollination can have many benefits. Benefits include better crop pollination and insurance in case one bee species underperforms or its population collapses. Some bees within the genus Osmia are already widely managed for crop pollination because their developmental lifecycle allows bee managers to readily deploy pollinating bees in sync with varying crop blooms, and for certain …

Visualizing The Phase Space Of Two Interacting Spherical Magnets Via Lagrangian Descriptors, Matthew Pontius

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

This thesis studies the motion of one spherical magnet sliding on another fixed spherical magnet. Although the setup is simple, the resulting motion can range from regular and predictable to chaotic as the energy increases. To understand this behavior, mathematical tools are used to visualize how all possible motions are organized in phase space. These methods reveal patterns such as stable regions, repeating motions, and chaotic trajectories. The results show how order and chaos coexist in this system and provide insight into how small changes in the initial conditions can lead to very different outcomes.

Pesticide Dissipation In Agroecosystems – Exploring Pesticide Fate And Transport Mechanisms To Protect Alternative Pollinators, Calvin Luu

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Honey bees are the most well-known pollinators, but there exists thousands of other bee species that contribute to pollination; one such group of bees are the solitary bees. True to their namesake, solitary bees do not live in hives like honey bees. Some solitary bees, like alfalfa leafcutting bees (ALCB) and blue orchard bees, can pollinate crops more efficiently than honey bees. However, since they live solitary lives, pesticide exposure is much more harmful to their overall population. If one honey bee dies from pesticide exposure, the hive can still survive, and the queen bee will continue producing offspring. If …

The Impact Of Ai On The Landscape Design Process, Jacob Owen Huff

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming more common in design fields, including landscape architecture. For example, AI has been used to visually analyze park aesthetics and generate landscape design concepts (Jahani et al., 2022; Senem et al., 2023; Ploennigs & Berger, 2023). This study explores how AI, specifically an image-generation tool called Midjourney, affects the design process for landscape architecture students.

Students completed two design projects—one using AI-generated images and one using traditional, non-AI precedent images. Their final designs were evaluated by professional landscape architects who did not know which designs had been influenced by AI. Students also completed surveys about …

Evolving Roles: School Counselors Addressing Mental Health In Pk-12 Education, Evin Daines

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

A significant number of children and youth are currently experiencing poor mental health. School counselors work with all students and are in a position to provide support to students experiencing mental health challenges. School counselors can also identify what may hinder children and youth from accessing mental health resources in their communities. This study explores how many school counselors engage in mental health counseling, how school counselors view their roles in addressing student mental health, and what barriers they perceive as keeping children and youth from accessing mental health and behavior services.

Integrating Space Use And Demography To Support Management Of An Endangered Alpine Ungulate, Danielle J. Berger

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

The places animals choose to live affect the food they find, the dangers they face, and the weather conditions they experience. These experiences influence whether individual animals survive and reproduce, which in turn affects the size and health of animal populations. Although scientists have long believed that animal movements play an important role in population trends, there has been limited real-world evidence showing this connection. Advances in GPS tracking technology now allow researchers to follow animals over long periods and better understand how movement influences survival. Using 20 years of GPS tracking data from the endangered Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep …

Understanding The Impact Of Environmental Change On Shorebird Abundance And Distribution Across The Intermountain West Over The Past 30 Years, Sharon Montecino

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Shorebirds have declined worldwide over the past century, mainly due to wetland loss and degradation. Wetlands are sites that are temporarily or permanently flooded and provide critical habitat for shorebirds, especially in arid and semi-arid regions such as the Intermountain West. However, climate change and human water use threaten these wetlands, and how these threats may affect shorebirds in this region remains poorly understood. In the early 1990s, shorebird counts at over 160 wetlands across the Intermountain West provided a broad assessment of shorebird populations in the region. These counts remained the only large-scale surveys until 2022, when the Intermountain …

An Examination Of Lifetime Traumatic Brain Injury And Anti-Inflammatory Medication Use In The Risk For Alzheimer's Disease, Mikaela A. Drewel

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the leading cause of dementia in individuals aged 65 years and older. There are a number of lifestyle and genetic factors that affect one’s risk for AD including traumatic brain injury (TBI), and genes such as those for Apolipoprotein E (APOE) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). This study examined sex differences in how TBI history influences risk for AD, exploring genetic variants suspected to play a role in TBI recovery. Additionally, in following an inflammatory mechanism in TBI, the study also determined if nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) use reduced subsequent risk for AD. The study analyzed …

"Building Something Great!": Fifth-Grade Teachers Nurturing Hope Through Professional Learning Communities – A Telling Case, Matthew H. Huffaker

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Teachers and educational leaders face numerous obstacles that can seem insurmountable but overcome through collaboration. “High-hope thinking provides a special advantage when we face obstacles in our goal attainment” (Snyder, 1994). Effective PLCs provide the fertile ground for teacher collaboration, influencing schoolwide communities and student learning (DuFour et al., 2016; Hord, 2004; van Es, 2012). Collaboratively identifying challenges and coming up with solutions with the support of others (what effective PLCs do) is an ideal setting for observing hope.

This study explored how hope is fostered among teachers during their weekly professional learning community meetings. Further, this study examined how …

Challenges To Longevity Among Native Americans In The Four Corner States, Ashley Lenarz

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Previous research has shown that Native Americans within the Four Corners States of the United States experience poor health outcomes and premature mortality. The Four Corners States include Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah. Research examining COVID-19 pandemic outcomes has also suggested that Native peoples within the Four Corners States have been especially hard hit with high rates of infection and mortality. Our research seeks to (1) understand how life expectancy trends and differences changed among non-Hispanic Native Americans and Whites in the Four Corners States during the COVID-19 pandemic and (2) examine how much of these trends and differences …

Carbon Cycling, Salinization, And Long-Term Water Quality Trends In Rocky Mountain Streams, Allyson J. Marrs

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Humans have greatly affected streams and rivers worldwide through urbanization, agriculture, and water use. The purpose of my dissertation is to increase our understanding of various human impacts on rivers. In chapter two, I aim to determine whether there are differences in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions between a natural river and manmade canals. I did this by measuring the emissions and dissolved concentrations of three of the most prevalent GHGs, carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄), and nitrous oxide (N₂O). I found that most of the sites I studied were emitting CO₂ and CH …

Impact Of Chronic Stress And Nutrition On Functional Connectivity And Neural Networks In Young Kichwa Children From The Ecuadorian Amazon Rainforest, Matthew L. Cook

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Early childhood is a critical period for brain development. Positive and negative experiences during this time can have lasting effects on learning, health, and well-being. However, most research on children’s brain development has been conducted in wealthy, industrialized nations, leaving important gaps in our understanding of how children develop in other cultural and environmental contexts.

This study examined brain development in Indigenous Kichwa children living in two rural communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon Rainforest. The goal was to better understand how chronic stress and nutrition may influence a child’s developing brain during early childhood. Children participated in noninvasive brain assessments …

Investigating Recruitment Bottlenecks Of Juvenile Native Fish In The Colorado River Basin, Utah, Anna R. Amidon

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

The first year of life is a vulnerable period for most fish species. Whether young fish survive this early stage determines how many individuals eventually survive and grow into reproductive adults, a process called recruitment. In desert rivers like the Colorado River Basin, native fish evolved alongside extreme natural conditions but now face additional pressure from drought and water storage infrastructure, which alter the shoreline habitats on which young fish depend. Long-lived, migratory native species with complex life cycles are especially vulnerable. We used four decades of monitoring data from the Upper Colorado River Basin to evaluate whether young-of-year (YOY, …

Assessing Ecological Integrity Of Streams Across The Western U.S., Jennifer L. Courtwright

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Large-scale assessments of stream health (ecological integrity) are required by policies such as the U.S. Clean Water Act and provide critical information needed to properly manage public lands. Our ability to quantify the ecological condition of streams in the western U.S. and identify the causes of degraded conditions has previously been impeded by a lack of standardized large-scale datasets, high natural temporal and spatial variability of ecological attributes, and poor-quality land use data. I compiled large-scale monitoring datasets and built models to predict the values of ecological attributes (metrics) at a given site in the absence of human impacts. In …

Regional Occurrence And Spatiotemporal Habitat Partitioning Of The Culex Genus Mosquitoes In Salt Lake City And Uintah Basin, Utah, Katelyn Graybeal

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

West Nile virus is the most common mosquito-borne disease in North America and can cause serious illness, including inflammation of the brain and nervous system. Because there is currently no widely available vaccine for humans, preventing mosquito bites and monitoring mosquito populations remain the most effective ways to reduce disease risk. Understanding which mosquito species are present, where they occur, and how they respond to environmental change is critical for protecting public health.

This research examined the mosquito species responsible for spreading West Nile virus in Utah through two complementary studies. The first study focused on the Uinta Basin in …