Browsing Dissertations and Theses by Subject "Quantitative ecology and resource management"
Now showing items 1-20 of 27
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Accounting for model uncertainties in statistical forecasts of wildfire parameters
Gauging the magnitude of model uncertainty and incorporating model uncertainty into predictions is of critical importance when models are used to inform wildfire-related decisions, where ignoring potential risks threaten ... -
Adaptive Bayesian Nonparametric Smoothing with Markov Random Fields and Shrinkage Priors
The need to estimate unknown functions or surfaces arises in many disciplines in science and there are many statistical methods available to do this. Our interest lies in using Bayesian nonparametric approaches to estimate ... -
Advancing Bayesian methods in fisheries stock assessment
Inference is the process of drawing conclusions from data about unobserved quantities. Bayesian inference is one type of statistical inference and is widely applied in diverse fields. In fisheries, it has many advantages, ... -
Best Practices for Constructing Size-Structured Population Dynamics Models used for Stock Assessments
All models are predicated on assumptions which makes them simplified versions of reality. An important goal of stock assessment scientists is to expand the capability of stock assessment models to improve their ability to ... -
Characterizing and forecasting fish recruitment in a changing world
Recruitment, the entry of young fish into a stock, is an important process in population dynamics models, which form the basis for many stock assessments. As such, recruitment has been a focus of research among fishery ... -
Designing and transferring environmental flows
Societal and environmental water needs are increasingly in conflict due to rising water demands from growing global human populations and climate-change-induced intensification of hydrologic drought. The last couple of ... -
Estimating demographic rates to improve monitoring of highly mobile species
Estimating demographic rates of wildlife species, such as survival and fecundity, is crucial for monitoring wildlife populations and informing management of these species. Monitoring highly mobile species is especially ... -
Fish in Space: Estimating groundfish population distribution in the Gulf of Alaska for management apportionment by subregion
Management of fisheries relies on information about biomass of stocks in order to determine how many fish can be sustainably harvested in a given year. In addition to predicting total biomass, it is frequently important ... -
Fixed and Random Effects Models and Multistage Estimation Procedures for Statistical Population Reconstructions
(2012-08-10)Age-at-harvest data are routinely collected as part of game-management programs. These data represent a wealth of information regarding demographic processes and trends in wildlife abundance. Use of wildlife age-at-harvest ... -
From Mark-Resight to Management: Bayesian Hierarchical Models for Endangered Bird Populations
Producing reliable estimates of demographic rates is critical to our understanding of wildlife population dynamics and can provide valuable information for prioritizing conservation and management efforts. Precise and ... -
Group size affects predation risk and foraging success in Pacific salmon at sea
Grouping (schooling, flocking, herding) is broadly distributed across taxa and environments, and is particularly common in marine fishes. A rich body of theory outlines ways in which grouping can enhance individual fitness, ... -
Hydrology, temperature, and water source dynamics across river basins of western North America
Climate change is altering temperature and precipitation regimes across the globe, resulting in often extreme modifications to river dynamics. Such impacts are particularly pronounced in western North America, a region ... -
Mechanistic Statistical Models of the Environment
Statistical models are often abstract in nature. However, in environmental contexts, data are often limited and important insight can be gained by applying knowledge of real-world mechanisms. In this dissertation, I present ... -
Modeling individual lodgepole pine mortality from mountain pine beetle outbreak in a spatially explicit framework
Outbreaks of native bark beetles (Curculionidae: Scolytinae) are key natural disturbances that shape the structure and function of conifer forests across the northern hemisphere. While drivers of bark beetle outbreaks have ... -
Modeling population dynamics and species interactions in a changing climate
Many species are expected to undergo significant distributional shifts in response to changes in climate. This adaptive response can impact population dynamics in many ways, including decreasing reproductive fitness, ... -
Mortality Associated with Extreme Heat in Washington State: The historical and projected public health burden
Extreme heat is one of the most important pathways illustrating the connection between climate and human health, including in temperate areas such as the Pacific Northwest. Moreover, climate change is expected to exacerbate ... -
Multi-state occupancy modeling and optimal allocation of survey resources for Common Loons in Washington State
Common Loons (Gavia immer) are a state listed sensitive species in Washington State; however, little is known about the distribution of the Common Loon or the habitat associations of this species. This is complicated by ... -
Physiological causes and biogeographic consequences of thermal optima in the hypoxia tolerance of marine ectotherms
Recent measurements of critical O2 thresholds (‘Pcrit’) in aquatic animals have revealed thermal optima in their hypoxia tolerance. To discern the prevalence, physiological drivers, and biogeographic manifestations of such ... -
A Predator Susceptibility Model of Juvenile Salmon Survival and a Voronoi Tessellation-based Approach for Generating Hypothetical Forest Landscapes
(2012-09-13)In relating juvenile salmonid size to adult survival, past observational studies have shown mixed results, while modeling has been limited to regression methods lacking in ecological mechanism. This paper develops a simple ... -
Spatial modeling, parameter uncertainty, and precision of density estimates from line-transect surveys: a case study with Western Arctic bowhead whales
Spatially-explicit models of animal density, such as density surface models (DSMs), are diverse, flexible, and powerful tools for investigating spatial patterns in animal density, examining associations between animal ...