Life Sciences Commons^™

Spatial Ecology Of Mule Deer Migrations From Grand Teton National Park And The Teton Range, Justin K. Schwabedissen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem hosts several of the longest, fully intact ungulate migrations remaining in the continental United States. However, expanding development and an increasing human footprint continue to truncate migratory routes. While the endpoints are often a seasonal range on protected lands, these migration corridors frequently cross other jurisdictional boundaries, including large tracts of private or multiple-use lands, with varying levels of protection. Thus, it is critical resource managers understand the dynamics of migratory movements to define population-level corridors and prioritize appropriate conservation strategies. Mule deer in Wyoming have been documented traveling long distances between summer and winter ranges; …

Environmental Factors Associated With Triploid Aspen Occurrence In Intermountain West Landscapes, James A. Walton

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Polyploidy is common among plants and can contribute to physiological and morphological differences, altering how plants respond to environmental changes, promoting genetic diversification and even species radiation. Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides), a keystone species associated with high plant and animal diversity is frequently found in mixed diploid/triploid populations in the Intermountain West. Triploid aspen carries an extra chromosomal copy, whereas the diploid type contains two chromosomal copies. High mortality rates and widespread population declines in aspen are of increasing concern in the Intermountain West, and often ascribed to changing climates and drought stress events. The goal of this …

Sustainable Fertilizer Management Practices For Container Nursery Production, Saroj Burlakoti

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Growing nursery plants in containers requires a timely supply of mineral nutrients for optimum growth. However, there is a misconception among growers that the application of higher doses of fertilizers hastens plant growth; instead, it can lead to runoff and leaching loss of nutrients. Reducing fertilizer application while sustaining healthy plants can not only negate environmental consequences but also save fertilizer costs. For example, two ground covers, Lysimachia nummularia (creeping jenny, moneywort) and Vinca minor 'Bowles' (periwinkle), can be grown for three months by applying 6 mg/L of phosphorus (P) as reduction of P to single application of 6 mg/L …

Soil Reclamation Strategies In Construction Disturbed Soil, Alexis Koelling

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

The rapid urbanization occurring in arid environments like the Intermountain West region of the U.S. significantly alters soil conditions. Construction of roads, buildings, and other infrastructure leads to the disturbance of soil structure, nutrient depletion, and reduced fertility. This research addresses the need for sustainable soil management practices that may restore soil health post-construction. In this study, the effectiveness of various soil amendments and application methods on specific soil parameters and turfgrass establishment in construction-disturbed soils was evaluated. The study highlights the critical role of soil amendments, particularly municipal solid waste (MSW) compost, in improving soil quality and plant growth. …

Ecology And Management Of Dyer's Woad (Isatis Tinctoria) In Northern Utah, Erin Marie Hettinger

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Dyer’s woad (Isatis tinctoria L.) is a non-native forb that continues to threaten natural areas throughout Northern Utah and much of the Intermountain West. Once introduced, dyer’s woad can become extremely invasive, decreasing forage quality, and displacing native species. While dyer’s woad is found throughout much of Northern Utah, its range in other states remains limited. If promptly managed, control success in these areas will be much higher and populations may be kept at bay before ecological damage becomes severe.

This project tested the ability of dyer’s woad seedlings to compete with common rangeland grasslands at varied densities as …

Reducing Inputs And Adding Value To Turfgrass Systems Through Clover Inclusion And Plant Growth-Promoting Rhizobacteria Applications, Paige E. Boyle

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Recently, the US has seen an expansion in the amount of turfgrass land cover (lawns, parks, roadsides, sports fields, and golf courses), as well as an interest in reducing fertilizer, water, and pesticide use in these grass systems. To help maintain quality and function while reducing resource inputs, two promising approaches have emerged: planting clover into lawns and applying plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria.

White clover and grass mixtures have been studied for their ability to cut down on fertilizer usage and provide a uniform, dark green lawn, but other clover types have not been as widely studied and may provide similar …

Opening The Black Box: Soil Microbial Communities In Field-Based Plant-Soil Feedback Experiments, Julia Kate Aaronson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Plant-soil feedback is a process through which plants modify the properties of their associated soils, affecting their growth. PSF can play a key role in regulating plant growth and communities including altering plant invasion, rarity, and abundance. However, our understanding of the soil organisms that drive these plant growth responses is limited. Most studies treat soils as a ‘black box’ and do little to reveal which specific microbes or microbial communities may be responsible. This chapter examines two recent large PSF field experiments conducted in Minnesota, USA, and Jena, Germany. These experiments revealed that plants altered their soils, changing subsequent …

Overcoming Barriers To Aquatic Plant Restoration: Addressing Gaps In Species Identification And Planting Techniques In The Intermountain West, Kate A. Sinnott

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Aquatic ecosystems provide many critical and economically valuable benefits, including drinking water, food, recreational opportunities, and water supply for irrigation and agriculture. However, the health of these systems has been severely impacted by human activities such as pollution, land conversion, and introductions of harmful species. Restoring native aquatic plants can help reverse this damage and reestablish benefits, though it is not a common practice. With an objective to increase capacity for aquatic plant restoration in the Intermountain West, I identified and addressed two major barriers: 1) a lack of confidence in aquatic species identification among wetland professionals, and 2) underdeveloped …

A Statewide Evaluation Of Fuel Treatment Effectiveness In Altering Wildfire Outcomes On Public Lands In Utah, Jamela Charmaine Thompson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Fuel treatments are land management activities that reduce living and dead flammable materials on the landscape to mitigate undesirable wildfire behavior and effects. Common treatments in the western United States include mechanical methods such as thinning and mastication, prescribed burns, and chemical methods, such as herbicide application. Treatments usually have multiple objectives, including reducing fire intensity, protecting natural and cultural resources, slowing or disrupting a potential future fire’s path, supporting ecosystem health, and reestablishing low to mid severity fire cycles in ecosystems. Although treatments can potentially modify fire behavior and ecological health, they generally cannot prevent fires from igniting, eliminate …

A Mechanistic Examination Of Interspecific Competition Between Wild And Domestic Herbivores, Courtney Check

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Large herbivores, such as mule deer and cattle have similar life histories and likely compete for resources. However, quantifying the extent to which these species compete and the specific resources they compete for has proved challenging. My research examines if cattle influence deer abundance and behavior due to competition for forage, competition for shade, and/or by affecting the predation risk of deer. Using a grid of autonomous trail cameras, I was able to determine if cattle abundance influences local deer abundance in relation to specific resources and habitat features. Using GPS data from collared deer, I was also able to …

Evapotranspiration And Energy Balance Of Irrigated Urban Turfgrass, Matthew D. Miksch

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Water usage for irrigation is a big consumer of water resources in urban areas in Utah and other parts of the Intermountain Region of the Western United States. As populations continue to increase in these states, it is important to understand how much water is being used by urban landscapes in order to plan and manage future water resources. Evapotranspiration (ET), or the amount of water leaving a surface over a certain timeframe due to both transpiration from plants and evaporation from the soil, is a key variable in understanding how much water urban landscapes are really using to grow …

Practical Improvements For Pivot And Surface Irrigation, Jonathan A. Holt

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Irrigation is critical to meeting global food and fiber demands. Optimizing agricultural irrigation may help sustain production levels, while reducing its demand for water. This research evaluated precision sprinklers and drip irrigation for pivots, five pivot track mitigation tools, three scientific irrigation scheduling (SIS) methods, sensors for surface irrigation cutoff, and automating surface systems to implement surge irrigation. With pivots and surface irrigation being the most common methods for irrigation in the West, small improvements from these tools could result in significant water savings.

Low energy precision application (LEPA) sprinklers and mobile drip irrigation (MDI) were tested on two pivots. …

Regeneration Of Quaking Aspen And Understory Vegetation Change After Fire Risk Reduction Treatment, Allison M. Trudgeon

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) is a keystone species that, when coexisting with conifers (i.e., seral aspen), often undergoes stand-replacing disturbances to sustain long term vigor. Historically, mixed-to-high severity fire reduced fuels and regenerated aspen, but such disturbances have become less common in recent decades. This has often led to high fuel loading, and many seral aspen stands are at now risk of an unpredictable, high-severity fire, posing a threat to development in the wildland-urban-interface. The lack of a commercial market for aspen, and the risk of conducting prescribed fire, means there are few alternate management options. This has …

Functional Characterization Of The Newly Discovered Type V Crispr-Cas Protein Cas12a2, Dylan J. Keiser

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Similarly to people, bacteria are under the treat of infection by viruses. To circumvent these threats, bacteria evolve complex immune systems. Our understanding of some of these immune systems has led to many advancements in the field of Biotechnology including tools that made expressing proteins for study in a lab easier, tools that revolutionized the feasibility of gene editing, and tools that could change the way we think about viral diagnostics and cancer therapeutics. A certain type of immune system that bacteria use to fight virus is called a CRISPR system. Presented here is work to understand the function of …

A Bayesian Hierarchical Approach For Modeling Virtual Species With Realistic Functional Trait Relationships, Sarah Bogen

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Understanding the spatial and temporal dynamics of plant populations has important implications for the fields of ecology and conservation. A rich body of mathematical modeling approaches, including reaction-diffusion equations and integrodifference equations, have been developed to mechanistically model population spread based on species demography and seed dispersal characteristics. However, with over 390,000 plant species on Earth, it is not feasible to collect complete information on all species for the purpose of drawing generalized conclusions. One means of overcoming such a problem is through trait-based modeling, which seeks to represent realistic combinations of organismal traits rather than focusing on individual species. …

Quantification Of Hydrologic Response To Forest Disturbance In Western U.S. Watersheds, Sara A. Goeking

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Forested watersheds produce more than half of the water supply in the United States. Forests affect how precipitation is partitioned into available water versus evapotranspiration. This dissertation investigated how water yield and snowpack responded to forest disturbance following recent disturbances in western U.S. forests during the period 2000-2019.

Chapter 2 systematically reviewed 78 recent studies that examined how water yield or snowpack changed after forest disturbances. Water yield and snowpack often increased after disturbance, but decreased in some circumstances. Decreased water yield was most likely to occur following disturbances that did not remove the entire forest canopy. It was also …

Comparing Fecal Dna Capture-Recapture Methods To Traditional Mark-Resight Methods For Estimating Abundance Of Mule Deer On Winter Ranges, Andi M. Stewart

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Well-designed monitoring strategies are required to obtain accurate estimates of population abundance, which is important for evaluating conservation and management strategies. Obtaining abundance estimates using traditional survey methods, like aerial surveys, is not possible in all scenarios and can be expensive and risky. One survey method that has gained popularity in the last decade is fecal DNA-based capture-recapture (CMR). However, this method has not been evaluated on winter ranges or in snowy, winter conditions.

My first objective was to implement fecal DNA CMR to estimate abundance of mule deer in the Round Valley and Goodale winter survey areas in the …

Conservation Genetics Of A Declining Bumble Bee In Western North America; The Influence Of Geography, Dispersal Limitation, And Anthopogenic Activity, Ashley T. Rohde

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Conservation biology addresses the problem of species loss by identifying species in need of protection. Conservation biology has subfields to address different aspects of biodiversity loss, including genetics and sociology. I used genetic approaches to assess the conservation status of western bumble bees, a bumble bee species of conservation concern.

The western bumble bee is a bumble bee species that ranges from Alaska to New Mexico and as far east as Wyoming and Colorado. This species is disappearing in some places. It may soon be listed as endangered in the United States and is already listed as endangered in parts …

Taphonomy Of Late Jurassic (Tithonian) Morrison Formation Apatosaurus Sp. Vertebrae Found Associated With Teeth From Allosaurus Sp. And Ceratosaurus Sp., And Body Size Extrapolation From The Associated Theropod Teeth., Greg C. Agyan

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

An Apatosaurus sp. locality from Dinosaur National Monument designated DNM-15 was excavated in 1985, and associated with two Allosaurus teeth and one Ceratosaurus tooth that were near one of the caudal vertebrae. The Ceratosaurus tooth was buried between an overlying rib and that same caudal vertebra. The caudal vertebrae of the DNM-15 Apatosaurus were intact and articulated, but the anterior skeleton was mostly absent, with a row of articulated sacral vertebrae in close association with a femur. Two other Allosaurus teeth were reported near the preserved ilium of the Apatosaurus, but they could not be located in the collections. …

Environmental Racism In A Growing City: Investigating Demographic Shifts In Salt Lake City's Polluted Neighborhoods, Emma Nathel Jones

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Studies investigating the spatial distribution of environmental hazards have repeatedly demonstrated the existence of environmental racism -- the disproportionate impact of environmental hazards on communities of color. We aim to contribute to research on environmental racism by asking how relationships between race and hazard exposure change over time. Our study area, Salt Lake City (SLC), UT, USA is one of the largest cities in the intermountain west and is expected to see continued population growth. SLC was 99% white from 1860-1950. 2019 census estimates indicate that SLC is becoming more racially diverse with 35.6% of the population identifying as racial …

Environmental Racism In A Growing City: Investigating Demographic Shifts In Salt Lake City's Polluted Neighborhoods, Emma Jones, Mariya Shcheglovitova

Undergraduate Honors Projects

We aim to contribute to research on environmental racism by asking how relationships between race and hazard exposure change over time. We analyze American Community Survey (ACS) demographic data from 2010 and 2019 to determine whether census tracts with high densities of EPA environmental hazard sites have a growing, shrinking, or unchanging proportion of Latinx residents. We argue that racist planning practices effectively weave environmental racism into the fabric of cities and that cities with growing communities of color must consider how existing spatial patterns of segregation may perpetuate exposure to environmental harms.

Connections Between Hydrothermal System Geochemistry And Microbiology: Traversing Tectonic Boundaries In The South-Central Peruvian Andes, Heather Upin

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Geochemistry and microbiology are inherently tied in the natural world. The study of geomicrobiology has historically taken place in extreme systems, like hot springs of Yellowstone National Park and deep-sea hydrothermal vents, because the organisms that exist there have deep lineages on the tree of life and provide insight into early life on Earth. These microbes use chemical energy from nutrients available in their environment rather than relying on photosynthesis, energy obtained from the sun, to support their metabolism. The goal of this study is to improve our understanding of geological controls (for example the tectonic setting) on hot spring …

Assessing & Protecting Dark Night Skies In El Morro National Monument, Leslie Kobinsky

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Light pollution is causing the disappearance of dark night skies around the world. In the United States alone, 1/3 of people are unable to see the Milky Way where they live (Ramlagan, 2016). National Park Service sites contain some of the darkest skies in the country. Here at El Morro National Monument, these dark skies are a beautiful and healthy benefit to people in the local community and visitors traveling from afar. El Morro’s current park legislation does not include specific measures of protection for the night sky. This capstone project will create a baseline data set of night sky …

Electronic Transmutation: An Aid For The Rational Design Of New Chemical Materials Using The Knowledge Of Bonding And Structure Of Neighboring Elements, Katie A. Lundell

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Everything in the universe is made up of elements from the periodic table. Each element has its own role that it plays in the formation of things it makes up. For instance, pencil lead is graphite. A series of honeycomb-like structures made up of carbon stacked on top of one another. Carbon’s neighbor to the left, boron doesn’t like to form such stacked honeycomb-like structures. But, what if there was a way to make boron act like carbon so it did like to form such structures? That question is the basis of the electronic transmutation concept presented in this dissertation. …

Phosphorus Rate Effects With And Without Avail® On Dryland Winter Wheat In An Eroded Calcareous Soil, Ryan C. Hodges

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Soluble phosphorus fertilizer is bound in the soil rapidly after application in soils high in calcium. A fertilizer additive known as AVAIL® (J.R. Simplot Company) is purported to keep applied phosphorus fertilizer more available to plants by binding to soil minerals such as calcium, magnesium, and iron, thereby reducing phosphorus binding. This could prove useful due to the attraction of AVAIL® with cations such as Ca²⁺, but is fairly unstudied for dryland wheat production on alkaline, calcium-rich soils. The objective of this study is to evaluate the effect of low-rate fertilizer treatments with AVAIL® on dryland small grain …

Breeding Season Ecology And Demography Of Lesser Scaup (Aythya Affinis) At Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, Jeffrey M. Warren

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

It is hypothesized that individuals make reproductive decisions based on current assessments of their physiological condition and environmental conditions. For female lesser scaup (Aythya affinis), breeding occurs after an energetically costly spring migration. Increasing fat reserves (i.e., ‘body condition’) prior to breeding allows a female to produce a larger clutch of eggs, but time spent gaining body condition is costly in terms of time allowed to raise ducklings before freezing conditions in the fall. In Chapter 2 I explored rate of pre-breeding body condition gain in female lesser scaup, and how that rate influenced clutch size. Spring phenology, …

Seasonal Resource Selection And Habitat Treatment Use By A Fringe Population Of Greater Sage-Grouse, Rhett Boswell

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Movement and habitat selection by Greater Sage-grouse (Centrocercus uropasianus) is of great interest to wildlife managers tasked with applying conservation measures for this iconic western species. Current technology has created small and lightweight GPS (Global Positioning Systems) transmitters that can be attached to sage-grouse. Using GIS software and statistical programs such as Program R, land managers can analyze GPS location data to assess how sage-grouse are geospatially interacting with their habitats. Within the Panguitch Sage-Grouse Management Area (SGMA) thousands of acres of land have been restored or manipulated to enhance sage-grouse habitat; this usually involves removal of pinyon pine …

Non-Methane Hydrocarbon Source Apportionment And Btex Risk Assessment Of Winter 2015 In Roosevelt, Utah, Jerimiah Lamb

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Non-Methane Hydrocarbons (NMHC) monitored in Roosevelt Utah including Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene and Xylene (collectively known as BTEX) are associated with deleterious effects including cancer. This study was designed to assess the origin and effect of the toxicants and addressed two points: 1) Source identification using the USEPA’s Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) and NOAA’s Hybrid Single Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model and 2) A human health risk assessment based on ambient concentrations of BTEX collected at the Roosevelt site. Model fit indicated that the primary contributor to total NMHCs was local oil and gas operations and was supported by previous …

A Comparison Of Five Statistical Methods For Predicting Stream Temperature Across Stream Networks, Maike F. Holthuijzen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The health of freshwater aquatic systems, particularly stream networks, is mainly influenced by water temperature, which controls biological processes and influences species distributions and aquatic biodiversity. Thermal regimes of rivers are likely to change in the future, due to climate change and other anthropogenic impacts, and our ability to predict stream temperatures will be critical in understanding distribution shifts of aquatic biota. Spatial statistical network models take into account spatial relationships but have drawbacks, including high computation times and data pre-processing requirements. Machine learning techniques and generalized additive models (GAM) are promising alternatives to the SSN model. Two machine learning …

Great Basin Bristlecone Pine Resistance To Mountain Pine Beetle: An Evaluation Of Dendroctonus Ponderosae Host Selection Behavior And Reproductive Success In Pinus Longaeva, Erika L. Eidson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) is a native bark beetle that attacks and kills most species of pines (Pinus) throughout its range in western North America. Due to the strong relationship between thermal conditions and mountain pine beetle population success, climate change-induced changes in mountain pine beetle outbreaks are a major concern for land managers. Over the past several decades, warmer than average temperatures allowed mountain pine beetle populations to reach epidemic levels across much of the western U.S. and Canada, including high elevations where outbreaks were previously limited by cool temperatures. Many high-elevation pine …