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Full-Text Articles in Aquaculture and Fisheries

Crustacean Assemblage Structure Over The Charlie-Gibbs Fracture Zone Of The Mid-Atlantic Ridge Collected During The 2009 Henry B. Bigelow Expedition, Kathryn Medina Dec 2022

Crustacean Assemblage Structure Over The Charlie-Gibbs Fracture Zone Of The Mid-Atlantic Ridge Collected During The 2009 Henry B. Bigelow Expedition, Kathryn Medina

All HCAS Student Capstones, Theses, and Dissertations

The Charlie Gibbs Fracture Zone (CGFZ) consists of two nearly parallel fracture transform faults that intersect the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) axis. This area has high primary productivity and biomass levels due to the topography and water. A predominant hydrographic feature of the MAR is the Sub-Polar Front (SPF) which runs along the southern edge of the CGFZ and is known as a biogeographical boundary for multiple species. As part of The Census of Marine Life project Patterns and Processes of the Ecosystem of the northern Mid-Atlantic (MAR-ECO), this study analyzed the abundance and distribution patterns of the CGFZ crustacean community …


Aquaculture In Africa: Aquatic Animal Welfare, Impact On The Environment And The Sustainability Of The Sector, Mwenda M. Mbaka, Janice H. Cox, Stephen Ronan Dec 2022

Aquaculture In Africa: Aquatic Animal Welfare, Impact On The Environment And The Sustainability Of The Sector, Mwenda M. Mbaka, Janice H. Cox, Stephen Ronan

Aquaculture

The African aquaculture sector recorded the fastest growth in the world between 2006-2018, averaging 10% or more, and is expected to partially fill the growing fish supply-demand gap up to 2063. In 2018, there were about 1.2 million aquafarmers across the continent, an increase from 920 thousand in 2014. According to the African Development Bank, expansion of aquaculture in Africa is hampered by "the overwhelming predominance of tilapia farming, which relies heavily on the production of fingerlings from a limited number of genetically improved strains that are resistant to the many diseases affecting this species, and on the production of …


Environmental Influences On The Growth Of Inland Cisco Populations In Three Minnesota Sentinel Lakes, Edward Carlson Dec 2022

Environmental Influences On The Growth Of Inland Cisco Populations In Three Minnesota Sentinel Lakes, Edward Carlson

Biology Graduate Theses

Cisco Coregonus artedi are a pelagic cold-water fish that are widely distributed throughout many inland lakes across the northern Midwest and play an important role as forage for large piscivores. Inland Cisco populations have been observed to vary in their overall size and recruitment potential based on the system in which they are found. Cisco are sensitive to oxythermal stress and with climate change, land use, and invasive species effects becoming more prevalent in Minnesota, aspects of lake ecosystems are changing, ultimately making Cisco more susceptible to these stressors. To investigate how different factors were affecting the population dynamics of …


Patterns Of Occurrence Of The Black Basses In The Upper Savannah River Tributaries Of Georgia And South Carolina With Emphasis On Bartram’S Bass Micropterus Sp. Cf. Coosae, Caroline Cox Dec 2022

Patterns Of Occurrence Of The Black Basses In The Upper Savannah River Tributaries Of Georgia And South Carolina With Emphasis On Bartram’S Bass Micropterus Sp. Cf. Coosae, Caroline Cox

All Theses

Aquatic ecosystems are among the most threatened in the world due to anthropogenic alterations to the natural landscape and native biotas. Identifying the local and landscape-level environmental factors that influence the occurrence of endemic species can help protect aquatic ecosystems by facilitating predictions of where hybridization or replacement with generalist species may occur across the landscape. The need for such predictions is pronounced for black bass species in the southeastern United States. Bartram’s Bass (Micropterus sp. cf. coosae) is a provisional species of conservation concern. Allelic frequencies of Bartram’s Bass in Savannah River reservoirs and tributaries have been …


The Impacts Of A Quagga And Zebra Mussel Infestation, Casey Silva Dec 2022

The Impacts Of A Quagga And Zebra Mussel Infestation, Casey Silva

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

Invasive species issues have been on the rise in the United States for decades. These organisms can disrupt the natural flow of an ecosystem and overtake native species, altering an environment as a whole. The introduction of the zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) in 1988, followed by the quagga mussel (Dreissena rostriformis) in 1989 is arguably the most prolific aquatic infestation the nation is currently up against (Hoddle, 2022). Beginning in the Great Lakes, both quagga and zebra mussels quickly spread their infestations through the Midwest and the East coast. The potential invasion of these species across …


Characterizing Habitat Suitability For Gulf Sturgeon (Acipenser Oxyrinchus Desotoi) In Southern Louisiana, Jenna N. Brogdon Aug 2022

Characterizing Habitat Suitability For Gulf Sturgeon (Acipenser Oxyrinchus Desotoi) In Southern Louisiana, Jenna N. Brogdon

LSU Master's Theses

A generalized additive modeling (GAM) framework was used to characterize fish-habitat relationships and develop habitat suitability maps to predict spatiotemporal and ontogenetic shifts in Gulf sturgeon distribution within an impacted estuary in the northern Gulf of Mexico, Lake Pontchartrain. Gulf sturgeon (n = 103) were fitted with acoustic transmitters in the Pearl River during the early summer and fall from 2013 to 2018, and an array of acoustic receivers (n = 81) was used to monitor Gulf sturgeon habitat use and movement in the estuary from 2016 to 2019. Daily presence data from the telemetry array were paired with environmental …


Enzootic Trends Of Crassostrea Virginica And Perkinsus Marinus In North Inlet Estuary, South Carolina, Nico Martin D'Amico May 2022

Enzootic Trends Of Crassostrea Virginica And Perkinsus Marinus In North Inlet Estuary, South Carolina, Nico Martin D'Amico

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) co-occurs with the protozoan parasite Perkinsus marinus (the causative agent for "Dermo") in US Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico estuaries. Oyster host functions as an ecological engineer and agent for benthic-pelagic coupling are compromised when P. marinus infections are common in populations (prevalence) and high in individuals (intensity). P. marinus infections in oysters from North Inlet estuary, South Carolina were quantified in relation to shell height (60-76 mm, ≥76 mm), sex (functional female, male, indeterminate), water temperature, and salinity. Three fringing reefs on a longitudinal transect from the inlet mouth into the watershed were sampled …


Trophish: Building A Global Database Of Freshwater Trophic Interactions, Jacob M. Ridgway May 2022

Trophish: Building A Global Database Of Freshwater Trophic Interactions, Jacob M. Ridgway

Honors Thesis

Freshwater management and research frequently use the trophic data of freshwater fishes. Despite this fact, it is difficult to perform a simple search of dietary information for any one fish species. FishBase represents, to our knowledge, the largest compilation of freshwater dietary information to date. However, it excludes a large portion of the ecological literature due to its development taking place prior to the creation of most modern scientific search engines. Our project (TroPhish) is building upon FishBase by digitizing approximately 130 years of data from the fish predation literature. Data from the primary and grey (e.g. theses, dissertations, reports) …


A Genetic Evaluation Of The Impacts Of Dams On Sauger Movement Patterns In The Arkansas River, Emily R. Jonagan May 2022

A Genetic Evaluation Of The Impacts Of Dams On Sauger Movement Patterns In The Arkansas River, Emily R. Jonagan

ATU Theses and Dissertations 2021 - Present

Decreased habitat connectivity as a result of damming can lead to genetic isolation in fish communities, especially in highly migratory species. Sauger Sander canadensis is a migratory freshwater species native to the Arkansas River. Sauger are highly sought after by anglers during their annual spawning migration in late winter. In order to investigate the impacts Arkansas River dams on Sauger populations, fin clips were collected in the winters of 2019, 2020, and 2021 below eight dams in the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigational System (MKARNS). Fin clips were also collected from two reservoirs in Kansas to serve as distinct reference populations. …


Accumulation Of Persistent Organic Pollutants In Marine Mammals: A Case Study On Cetaceans, Pinnipeds, And Sirenians, Alydia Moorhead Apr 2022

Accumulation Of Persistent Organic Pollutants In Marine Mammals: A Case Study On Cetaceans, Pinnipeds, And Sirenians, Alydia Moorhead

All HCAS Student Capstones, Theses, and Dissertations

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are lipophilic semi-volatile organic chemicals that present a range of challenges to marine biota, specifically marine mammals that often occupy a high trophic position in the food web. POPs have become a global problem since they have been shown to cause immunologic, teratogenic, carcinogenic, neurological, and reproductive complications in living organisms due to their resistance to biodegradation and their lipophilic nature. Marine mammals can accumulate these toxic substances through direct ingestion, trophic transfer, adsorption, and maternal offloading. They are susceptible to both bioaccumulation and biomagnification of POPs. Accumulation of POPs is affected by many variables, including …


An Assessment Of Burbot Life History In Minnesota With A Focus On Movement Dynamics And Spawning Vulnerability, Tyler Robinson Apr 2022

An Assessment Of Burbot Life History In Minnesota With A Focus On Movement Dynamics And Spawning Vulnerability, Tyler Robinson

Biology Graduate Theses

Burbot have a circumpolar range spanning from rivers of Alaska to lentic systems in Minnesota. Although Burbot population dynamics have been studied, their movement dynamics have been rarely investigated. Our objectives were to assess seasonal home range changes of Burbot in a closed-lentic system and quantify the scale of spawning aggregations. Sixty-six Burbot were implanted with acoustic transmitters in Bad Medicine Lake, Minnesota, with 32 surviving the length of the study period between 10 April 2019 to 11 June 2020. The peak spawning date for Burbot in Bad Medicine Lake was estimated to be mid-March, when home range estimates were …


Larval Fish Abundance In The Benthic And Surface Drift Of The Missouri River, Ryan L. Ruskamp Apr 2022

Larval Fish Abundance In The Benthic And Surface Drift Of The Missouri River, Ryan L. Ruskamp

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Knowledge of the larval fish community of the Missouri River is one of the biggest gaps in fisheries research. The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission has sampled the drift of the Missouri River for many years (1983-2015), but these data have not been compiled into a unified assessment. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to: 1) quantify temporal and spatial aspects of larval fish community composition (richness) and structure (abundance) of the surface drift, 2) quantify associations of larval fish communities of the drift to different discharges of the Missouri River, 3) quantify the larval benthic drift community, and …


Estimating Fish Diet In Lake Turkana, Kenya, Julia G. Sharapi Apr 2022

Estimating Fish Diet In Lake Turkana, Kenya, Julia G. Sharapi

Student Publications

Lake Turkana, located in northern Kenya on the Ethiopian border, is the world’s largest permanent desert lake. Over 90% of its flow originates from the Omo River in Ethiopia, which causes the lake to have seasonal rises and falls in water level. The Omo River has been subject to the construction of five dams (the Gilgel Gibe dams) and several irrigation projects. These developments will impact the amount of water entering the lake, with implications for lake chemistry and productivity, littoral habitat availability, and the breeding biology of the lake’s fishes. Though ongoing upstream changes are likely to have serious …


The Role Of Leaf Decomposition In Macroinvertebrate Colonization, Bethany Mabel Lian Schorr, Kevin Geedey Mar 2022

The Role Of Leaf Decomposition In Macroinvertebrate Colonization, Bethany Mabel Lian Schorr, Kevin Geedey

Independent Research Projects

Decomposition plays an important ecological role in carbon and nutrient cycling that supply food and energy resources to food webs. This study investigates the potential role that leaf decomposition of different leaf species may play in macroinvertebrate assemblages in upper Midwest streams. We hypothesized that the different decomposition rates experienced with different leaf species and in different streams would have an effect on invertebrate colonization due to the variance in nutrient availability. Due to altered fire regimes and other influences, forests are experiencing declines in fire-adapted, heliophytic species such as oaks and compositional shifts toward shade-tolerant, mesophytic species such as …


Global And Regional Sea Level Rise Scenarios For The United States: Updated Mean Projections And Extreme Weather Level Probabilities Along U.S. Coastlines, William V. Sweet, Benjamin D. Hamlington, Robert E. Kopp, Christopher P. Weaver, Patrick L. Barnard, David Bekaert, William Brooks, Michael Craghan, Gregory Dusek, Thomas Frederikse, Gregory Garner, Ayesha S. Genz, John P. Krasting, Eric Larour, Doug Marcy, John J. Marra, Jayantha Obeysekera, Mark Osler, Matthew Pendleton, Daniel Roman, Lauren Schmied, Will Veatch, Kathleen D. White, Casey Zuzak Feb 2022

Global And Regional Sea Level Rise Scenarios For The United States: Updated Mean Projections And Extreme Weather Level Probabilities Along U.S. Coastlines, William V. Sweet, Benjamin D. Hamlington, Robert E. Kopp, Christopher P. Weaver, Patrick L. Barnard, David Bekaert, William Brooks, Michael Craghan, Gregory Dusek, Thomas Frederikse, Gregory Garner, Ayesha S. Genz, John P. Krasting, Eric Larour, Doug Marcy, John J. Marra, Jayantha Obeysekera, Mark Osler, Matthew Pendleton, Daniel Roman, Lauren Schmied, Will Veatch, Kathleen D. White, Casey Zuzak

National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration: Technical Reports and Related Materials

This report and accompanying datasets from the U.S. Sea Level Rise and Coastal Flood Hazard Scenarios and Tools Interagency Task Force provide 1) sea level rise scenarios to 2150 by decade that include estimates of vertical land motion and 2) a set of extreme water level probabilities for various heights along the U.S. coastline. These data are available at 1-degree grids along the U.S. coastline and downscaled specifically at NOAA tide-gauge locations. Estimates of flood exposure are assessed using contemporary U.S. coastal flood-severity thresholds for current conditions (e.g., sea levels and infrastructure footprint) and for the next 30 years (out …


Invasive Plants Watch List: 2022, Allison Zach Jan 2022

Invasive Plants Watch List: 2022, Allison Zach

Nebraska Invasive Species Program

The purpose of the weed watch list is to collect data on the distribution of invasive plants found in various Nebraska counties. Counties were divided up into ‘ecoregions’ based on the Nebraska Game & Parks Commission’s Legacy Plan (map of regions below). The plants in the watch list have been identified based on their invasiveness in surrounding states and their increasing range in Nebraska. Data collected on watch list plant species distribution has been used to support the listing or delisting of noxious weeds. Plant species in the weed watch list are categorized based on early detection and rapid response …


Ecological Risk Assessment For The Western Rock Lobster Resource : Workshop Procedure And Outcomes, R Stoklosa Jan 2022

Ecological Risk Assessment For The Western Rock Lobster Resource : Workshop Procedure And Outcomes, R Stoklosa

Fisheries Occasional Publications

No abstract provided.


Spatial And Temporal Variability Of Mercury In Upper And Lower Red Lake Walleye, Tyler Orgon Jan 2022

Spatial And Temporal Variability Of Mercury In Upper And Lower Red Lake Walleye, Tyler Orgon

Biology Graduate Theses

Mercury is a global pollutant that is released into our environment by natural and anthropogenic processes resulting in extensive studies conducted on mercury cycling in aquatic ecosystems which has led to the issuance of human-health-based fish-consumption advisories. We examined total mercury concentrations in Walleye Sander vitreus from Upper and Lower Red Lakes, located in north central Minnesota, between 2019 and 2020. Upper and Lower Red Lake form a contiguous water body consisting of two large (483.1 and 665.6 km2, respectively) basins that are naturally connected by a 1.4 km-wide strait. Both basins are important fisheries for recreation, subsistence, and commercial …


Seasonal Reproductive Allocation In Landlocked Alewife Alosa Pseudoharengus, In The Context Of Niche Construction And Eco-Evolutionary Feedbacks, Foivos Mouchlianitis, Eric T. Schultz, Kostas Ganias Jan 2022

Seasonal Reproductive Allocation In Landlocked Alewife Alosa Pseudoharengus, In The Context Of Niche Construction And Eco-Evolutionary Feedbacks, Foivos Mouchlianitis, Eric T. Schultz, Kostas Ganias

EEB Articles

The bidirectional dynamics between species and their biotic and abiotic environments, known as eco-evolutionary feedbacks, may shift the direction of evolution and alter the ecological role of species. Alewife, Alosa pseudoharengus, is an exemplary species to study reciprocal feedbacks between ecology and evolution, owing to repeated independent derivations of a landlocked life history from an ancestral anadromous form. In this study we analysed the reproductive allocation during the spawning season in a landlocked Alewife population in the context of eco-evolutionary feedbacks. We also compared our findings with previous results from a neighbouring anadromous population of the species. Similarities were found …


Decapods As Food, Companions And Research Animals: Legal Impact Of Ascribing Sentience, Jonathan J. Cooper, Ambrose Tinarwo, Beth A. Ventura Jan 2022

Decapods As Food, Companions And Research Animals: Legal Impact Of Ascribing Sentience, Jonathan J. Cooper, Ambrose Tinarwo, Beth A. Ventura

Animal Sentience

This commentary provides an overview of the practical implications of attributing sentience to protect decapods as food, companion and research animals in the UK context. Recognising their capacity to suffer has implications for humane slaughter in farming and fishing sectors. It should also place a greater duty of care on owners of captive decapods, considering their needs and avoiding unnecessary suffering. The recognition of decapod sentience should also have an impact on their protection as research animals, although research with a potential to cause suffering may be needed to better understand decapods’ capacity to suffer.


Analysis Of Hematocrit Levels In Walleye Sander Vitreus From Similar Waterbodies, Alyssa Hauser Jan 2022

Analysis Of Hematocrit Levels In Walleye Sander Vitreus From Similar Waterbodies, Alyssa Hauser

Journal of Earth and Life Science

Walleye Sander vitreus are a popular fish among anglers and hold a prominent place in Minnesotan’s identity as their state fish. Because of this, multiple management practices are used to ensure the continued health of their populations within Minnesota waters. In this study, the process of analyzing hematocrit levels was used to determine if the analysis of hematological parameters could be a useful tool in detecting differences in population health. To evaluate this, blood samples were acquired from age-0 and age-1 fish from two similar lakes and run through a hematocrit centrifuge to separate platelets from plasma to read the …


The Effects Of Diet On Yellow Perch Morphology Throughout Lake Bemidji, Quiana L. Radaich Jan 2022

The Effects Of Diet On Yellow Perch Morphology Throughout Lake Bemidji, Quiana L. Radaich

Journal of Earth and Life Science

Morphology is very important as it looks at the arrangement of an organism’s parts to determine their functionality, development, and how they could have changed through evolution. It is also important for the identification of species as it can show how closely species are related. This study examines if the morphology of yellow perch changes throughout Lake Bemidji. Along with examining a subset of five stomachs for each group (A-F) of yellow perch collected to determine if diet was a driving force behind morphological changes. The data collected in this study suggested that morphology does change throughout Lake Bemidji and …


Final Report Floating Upwelling System Harvest Road Oceans, Robert Michael, Scott Bennett Jan 2022

Final Report Floating Upwelling System Harvest Road Oceans, Robert Michael, Scott Bennett

Fisheries Occasional Publications

A Floating Upwelling System or FLUPSY is a mechanical system for the culture of seed stock during the nursery stage of commercial bivalve production.


Living In A Gradient: The Influence Of Water Temperature Variation On Development, Settling Time And Survival Of Pallid Sturgeon Larvae In The Missouri River, Maria Elizabeth Erceg Jan 2022

Living In A Gradient: The Influence Of Water Temperature Variation On Development, Settling Time And Survival Of Pallid Sturgeon Larvae In The Missouri River, Maria Elizabeth Erceg

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Pallid Sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus albus) are a federally endangered species experiencing widespread reproduction and recruitment failures. Recruitment failure is hypothesized to be caused by habitat modifications made to the Missouri River that disrupt connectivity and alter temperature profiles downstream of constructed dams. Hypolimnetic releases from Missouri River dams affect the temperature downstream, creating colder conditions during the downstream drifting phase for dispersing larvae. Understanding the influence of water temperature changes on larval development is crucial for recovery efforts. In this study, we evaluated the effects of water temperature daily heating rate on energy use, settling behavior, and growth rate of endogenously …


Spatio-Temporal Movement Patterns Of Sub-Adult Adfluvial Bull Trout, Aimee Taylor Jan 2022

Spatio-Temporal Movement Patterns Of Sub-Adult Adfluvial Bull Trout, Aimee Taylor

All Master's Theses

Bull Trout in the Yakima River basin of Washington are primarily adfluvial, often using managed lakes as habitat. Kachess Lake, composed of Big and Little Kachess Lakes, is managed by the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) for water storage. BOR plans to build a structure that can withdraw an additional 200,000 acre-feet of water in drought years, which would disconnect the two basins for multiple years. This study examined the spatio-temporal movement of sub-adult Bull Trout in Kachess Lake to understand distribution patterns and the effects of environmental variables. We sought to answer 1) does time (week of the year), diel …


Population Assignment Of Entrained Migratory Westslope Cutthroat Trout In North Idaho, Craig D. Wells Jan 2022

Population Assignment Of Entrained Migratory Westslope Cutthroat Trout In North Idaho, Craig D. Wells

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

The Clark Fork-Pend Oreille River basin of northeastern Washington and the Idaho Panhandle historically supported a robust metapopulation of Westslope Cutthroat Trout (WCT) Oncorhynchus clarkii lewisi, a western native salmonid of high cultural and economic value. The construction of impassible hydroelectric dams and smaller in-stream barriers has prevented the return of migratory WCT to spawning tributaries, likely leading to the fragmentation of this metapopulation over the last 100 years. One such impassible barrier is Albeni Falls Dam near Newport, Washington. Completed without fish passage capabilities in 1955, Albeni Falls Dam has been of interest as a site for restoring fish …


Underwater Video As A Tool To Quantify Fish Density In Complex Coastal Habitats, Ronald Baker, Dakota Bilbrey, Aaron Bland, Frank D’Alonzo Iii, Hannah Ehrmann, Sharon Havard, Zoe Porter, Sarah Ramsden, Alexandra Rodriquez Jan 2022

Underwater Video As A Tool To Quantify Fish Density In Complex Coastal Habitats, Ronald Baker, Dakota Bilbrey, Aaron Bland, Frank D’Alonzo Iii, Hannah Ehrmann, Sharon Havard, Zoe Porter, Sarah Ramsden, Alexandra Rodriquez

University Faculty and Staff Publications

Habitat loss is a serious issue threatening biodiversity across the planet, including coastal habitats that support important fish populations. Many coastal areas have been extensively modified by the construction of infrastructure such as ports, seawalls, docks, and armored shorelines. In addition, habitat restoration and enhancement projects often include constructed breakwaters or reefs. Such infrastructure may have incidental or intended habitat values for fish, yet their physical complexity makes quantitatively sampling these habitats with traditional gears challenging. We used a fleet of unbaited underwater video cameras to quantify fish communities across a variety of constructed and natural habitats in Perdido and …


Factors Influencing Mortality Of Stocked Rainbow Trout In Black Hills Reservoirs, Charles A. Mordhorst Jan 2022

Factors Influencing Mortality Of Stocked Rainbow Trout In Black Hills Reservoirs, Charles A. Mordhorst

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Because return to angler is an important outcome of put-and-take fisheries, understanding mortality of stocked Rainbow Trout is fundamental to managing these fisheries. Harvest rates of stocked Rainbow Trout Oncorhynchus mykiss in the Black Hills of South Dakota are believed to be below management objectives. Rainbow Trout not harvested by anglers are assumed to be lost to various sources of mortality, raising concerns about the cost of the Rainbow Trout stocking program relative to the benefit provided to anglers. (Simpson 2008). This study evaluated the factors influencing mortality of Rainbow Trout stocked into Black Hills reservoirs. We assessed the effects …


Effects Of Environmental Warming On Clarias Gariepinus Growth And Physiology, Dean Cahill Jan 2022

Effects Of Environmental Warming On Clarias Gariepinus Growth And Physiology, Dean Cahill

Capstone Showcase

Fresh water makes up about 0.8% of the Earth’s surface and is home to six percent of its species. Environmental warming is projected to have a significant effect on freshwater systems as the century progresses. They are susceptible to irreversible damage because fresh water availability and temperature is dependent of climate. The Clarias gariepinus, or the African Catfish, is popular among aquaculture in Africa and Asia because of its rapid growth, quick reproduction, and hardiness. The goal of my thesis was to examine the effect of environmental warming and elevated temperatures on the growth and physiology of Clarias gariepinus populations …


Characterizing And Predicting Beaver Pond Habitat In Kittitas County, Washington, Kylie Vroman Jan 2022

Characterizing And Predicting Beaver Pond Habitat In Kittitas County, Washington, Kylie Vroman

All Master's Theses

North American Beavers (Castor canadensis) are important ecosystem engineers in the Pacific Northwest (PNW), as they provide ecosystem services and create habitats that benefit aquatic species, watersheds, and riparian vegetation. Even though the species has been coined a “nuisance” in some settings, it is common for environmental agencies to capture beavers and relocate them to areas where it is less likely for them to cause damage. This study geospatially modeled the Kittitas County landscape to identify areas of suitable habitat. Nine existing beaver ponds in Kittitas County were investigated; three of which were prior relocation sites that had failed, three …