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2026

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Assessing Coho Salmon (Oncorhynchus Kisutch) Distribution Using Traditional Sampling Methods In Conjunction With Edna On Trinity River Tributaries Within The Hoopa Tribal Boundaries, Ely D. Boone Jan 2026

Assessing Coho Salmon (Oncorhynchus Kisutch) Distribution Using Traditional Sampling Methods In Conjunction With Edna On Trinity River Tributaries Within The Hoopa Tribal Boundaries, Ely D. Boone

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Detecting the presence of species using environmental DNA (eDNA) is a fast-growing field of study that shows much promise for population monitoring. In fisheries biology, eDNA is a potentially powerful tool compared to traditional fisheries monitoring techniques such as visual observation via snorkel surveys. When eDNA and traditional survey methods are employed in tandem, using the same spatial and temporal sampling design, eDNA often detects target species when traditional methods do not. In this study, instead of utilizing this paired study design, I implemented eDNA and snorkel surveys at different sampling scales with eDNA being collected at a single downstream …


Contribution Of Lagoon-Rearing Juvenile Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus Tshawytscha) To The Adult Spawning Population In The Mattole River, Emma Held Jan 2026

Contribution Of Lagoon-Rearing Juvenile Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus Tshawytscha) To The Adult Spawning Population In The Mattole River, Emma Held

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Bar-built estuaries are rivermouth confluences characterized by periods of disconnection between the river and the ocean due to a sandbar that builds across the mouth. Sandbar timing characteristics vary between years and between systems, but when closed, a lake-like lagoon forms in the estuary footprint. The Mattole River has a bar-built estuary that forms in late spring or early summer, often overlapping with juvenile Chinook salmon outmigration. Juveniles that do not leave the river before the bar closes must remain in the lagoon until the mouth opens in fall. The purpose of this thesis was to understand if lagoon-rearing is …


Evidence Of Personality And Movement Syndromes In A Mobile Predator: How Individual Hunting Strategy Shapes Ecosystem Service Potential By Barn Owls (Tyto Furcata) In An Agroecosystem, Lauren M. Jackson Jan 2026

Evidence Of Personality And Movement Syndromes In A Mobile Predator: How Individual Hunting Strategy Shapes Ecosystem Service Potential By Barn Owls (Tyto Furcata) In An Agroecosystem, Lauren M. Jackson

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Animal-mediated ecosystem services are delivered through the behavior of individuals, yet most studies evaluate service-providing species at the population level. We tested whether individual variation in plumage, behavior, and movement predicted hunting behavior and vineyard habitat use by adult male American barn owls (Tyto furcata) nesting in winegrape vineyards in Lodi, California, USA. We fitted GPS-accelerometer tags to 42 breeding males, quantified breast-plumage traits, measured neophobia using repeated novel object tests, and derived nightly movement metrics from GPS tracks and hidden Markov model-classified hunting locations. Several behavioral traits were repeatable, but movement traits showed the clearest repeatable individual …


Testing Adaptive Habitat Selection In Breeding Swainson's Hawks (Buteo Swainsoni), Elizabeth Meisman Jan 2026

Testing Adaptive Habitat Selection In Breeding Swainson's Hawks (Buteo Swainsoni), Elizabeth Meisman

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Adaptive habitat selection theory predicts that individuals preferentially select habitats that maximize or improve their fitness. However, patterns of habitat preferences may dampen with increasing population density and become decoupled from habitat quality when environmental conditions change. Such dynamics may be especially important in long-lived territorial species that exhibit site fidelity. One of the longest running raptor studies in North America has tracked an increasing population of breeding Swainson’s Hawks (Buteo swainsoni) in Butte Valley, California since 1985, where agricultural practices have shifted over the decades, providing an ideal system for studying these processes. Using nest records from …


Endocranial Lesions: A Paleopathological Study Of Late Medieval Skeletal Remains From Żelewo Poland, Francesca Aleen Meyer Jan 2026

Endocranial Lesions: A Paleopathological Study Of Late Medieval Skeletal Remains From Żelewo Poland, Francesca Aleen Meyer

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The site of Żelewo is located in a rural area of northwestern Poland, a region historically known as Pomerania. Skeletal remains from the cemetery associated with the archaeological site Żelewo 1-3, dating mostly to the 13th-15th centuries, are likely associated with a nearby Cistercian monastery. Numerous individuals from this site show evidence of endocranial lesions. To evaluate potential factors associated with the lesions, a differential diagnosis was performed based on macroscopic observations of endocranial lesion morphology and distribution. This study takes into account estimated age at death, biological sex, and other signs of pathology in the body. Potential confounding factors, …


A Framework For Evaluating Riparian Climate Refugia In The Eel River Watershed, California, Farrah Tyler Jan 2026

A Framework For Evaluating Riparian Climate Refugia In The Eel River Watershed, California, Farrah Tyler

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Climate change is increasing the need to identify and protect landscapes that support biodiversity through both habitat connectivity and climate refugia. Climate refugia are areas that remain relatively buffered from regional climatic change, enabling species to persist despite shifting environmental conditions. Riparian ecosystems can function as both movement corridors and climate refugia, yet methods for identifying these features and understanding the environmental processes that sustain them remain limited. In California's North Coast region, the identification and conservation of watersheds that may serve as climate refugia for sensitive plant and animal species will be essential for long-term ecosystem management and conservation. …


Multiple Burn And Forest Characteristics Affect Gray Fox (Urocyon Cinereoargenteus) Occurrence Following A California Megafire, Amida Zohar Verhey Jan 2026

Multiple Burn And Forest Characteristics Affect Gray Fox (Urocyon Cinereoargenteus) Occurrence Following A California Megafire, Amida Zohar Verhey

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

In western North American forests, predator communities are faced with changing fire regimes and increased fire severity and size, particularly with megafires (>10,000 ha). As some wildlife communities may restructure following the loss of apex consumers, understanding post-fire space use of mid-trophic carnivores may inform species composition in these forests. I compared gray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) occupancy in and around the 2021 Dixie Fire, the largest single-ignition fire in California state history, to examine which spatially variable burn and forest characteristics affected the space use of a widespread generalist mesopredator. Using 210 camera traps placed in 2023, …