Washington State University and the School of the Environment present tremendous opportunities for students seeking to expand and enrich their education through travel and study abroad opportunities. Just imagine being able to travel to Thailand and Bhutan in Asia to study Asian elephants (Elephus maximus) and leopards (Panthera pardus) as a formal part of your educational program.

Sure beats studying for that lab quiz at 3 pm, doesn’t it?

Taking the road less traveled is exactly what WSU undergraduate, Cayden Steele, recently did while conducting field research for his Honors Thesis in the WSU Honors College. Cayden worked with Drs. Jennifer Phillips (thesis advisor) and Rod Sayler (thesis evaluator) in the School of the Environment to complete his honors thesis looking at human conflicts with Asian elephants, leopards, and Himalayan black bears (Ursus thibetinus laniger) in South and Central Asia.

 

 

Cayden worked with the School for Field Studies to gain valuable field work experience and study wildlife conservation in collaboration with The Elephant Valley Project in Mondulkiri Cambodia, Bring the Elephant Home in Ban Raum Thai, Thailand, the Bhutan Ecological Society in Paro, Bhutan, and other conservation programs.

For his honors thesis, Cayden studied aspects of human conflicts with elephants in Thailand followed by conducting surveys for leopards and Himalayan black bears in Bhutan. All of these species may come into conflict with humans, especially when farmers are growing crops (e.g., pineapples) that are eaten by elephants or raising livestock that may fall prey to leopards and other large predators.

 

 

Cayden didn’t exactly miss taking lab quizzes:

“We were fully immersed for weeks at a time, living in the jungle with no wifi, no electricity after dark, and in some cases, not even windows for any extra light. Days started early and ended late.

But our group of students were able to tackle many different subjects relating to elephants, such as behavior, ecology, potential deterrents to crop damage, and we even got to help a farmer protect their crops from wandering elephants. It gave us a great opportunity to experience and connect with people and local cultures.”

In Kui Buri National Park in southern Thailand, Cayden was asked to focus his work on evaluating the biodiversity value of alternative crops (e.g., lemongrass, galangal) that are thought to be less attractive than pineapples as forage for elephants that sometimes leave the natural cover of the national parks and forested areas to seek food in planted fields.

The hope is that conflicts with farmers can be reduced by growing alternative crops less attractive to elephants.

In field studies in Thailand, Cayden spent his time systematically sampling and identifying insects from study plots to evaluate whether insect abundance and diversity would be higher in these alternative crops compared to the traditional monoculture fields of pineapple subject to raids by foraging elephants. The essential question there was whether these alternative crops also presented other environmental benefits through higher insect biodiversity.

In separate studies in Bhutan, Cayden collected and used data from automatic camera traps to examine habitat use and compare the timing of activities of humans, livestock, and two large predators, leopards and Himalayan black bears. This work explored the spatial and temporal aspects of how large predators potentially interact and use landscapes increasingly dominated by humans.

Insect Studies

Unfortunately, most of the insect studies conducted in alternative crop fields in Thailand did not reveal significant differences in abundance or diversity among crop types, however, the results did suggest that improvements to sampling procedures and more extended studies could clarify and expand comparisons of biodiversity for different types of crops.

Negative results are a major, if not a dominant, part of science and Cayden leveraged these results to explore and dig deeper into the issues of developing better measurements for biodiversity in these field sites in his honors thesis.

 

Leopards, Bears, and Camera Traps

Cayden and his colleagues also spent many hard hours traversing rugged landscapes in Bhutan to visit and maintain camera traps which utilized motion sensors to automatically photograph wild animals, people, and livestock that triggered the cameras.

Data from the camera traps were then subjected to extensive statistical and graphical analysis to reveal broad patterns of habitat use and interactions of wildlife and humans over large landscapes.

Analysis of images from camera traps revealed several interesting patterns of habitat use such as leopards being more active in early morning hours (i.e., peaking around 0500 hrs) while Himalayan black bears tended to be more active later at night (i.e., around 18:00 hrs). Activities of both predators tended to be more frequent either before or after most human activities as well as when horses or cattle were active.

Cayden also found that leopards were more likely to be detected in relatively flat terrain compared to other categories of terrain, which he partly relates to diet and prey selection. Leopards are entirely carnivorous and likely exploit deer as prey occurring in flatter terrains while Himalayan black bears are omnivorous and exploit a wide variety of resources occurring over different elevations and terrains.

Cayden hopes that additional results from ecological studies such as these can be useful in determining ways to reduce human-wildlife conflicts and improve future wildlife conservation for many species, especially large carnivores and threatened and endangered species.

 

[Photo: Go Cougs!!! Cayden Steele, undergraduate student in the Honors Program at Washington State University. Asian elephant in the background.]

The Road Less Traveled

What might the future hold for Cayden? Like most people, Cayden doesn’t know exactly what opportunities might pop up and what new paths he might take and explore in the future after he finishes his education at Washington State University, but he is sure that he wants to continue his education and study animal behavior.

Wildlife ecology and animal behavior are fascinating subjects and Cayden wants to continue his adventures and learn all that he can about caring for and preserving the natural world.

R. Sayler

 

For More Information: Dr. Jennifer Phillips

Also See:

• WSU Honors College
• WSU International Programs
• Contact Academic Advisors: WSU School of the Environment

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Silvopasture Research: Trees & Biodiversity on Washington Farms & Ranches A large portion of the world’s forests have been cut or degraded by human activity, which creates an obvious and urgent need to restore forests and plant and integrate trees into diverse landscapes used by humans. Silvopasture is a form of agroforestry that blends trees, forage, and managed grazing of domestic animals to provide economic benefits to land managers from farm animals and tree crops while simultaneously producing beneficial ecosystem services such as habitat for biodiversity, erosion control, improved air and water quality, carbon capture, and other environmental benefits (e.g., bird, insect, pollinator habitats). Recently, researchers in the WSU School of the Environment, the Department of Crops and Soil Science, WSU Extension, and Agroforestry Northwest collaborated on a baseline assessment of the use and goals of silvopasture among landowners in Washington State. Their publication in the journal, Agroforestry Systems, reports some of the dissertation research conducted by recent SoE doctoral student, Mark Batcheler, along with co-investigators, Drs. Marcia Ostrom, Lynne Carpenter-Boggs, Mark Swanson, and WSU Extension Forester, Patrick Shults and Carrie Brausieck from Agroforestry Northwest. Their work discovered that many different combinations of trees, forage, and livestock were being used by landowners pursuing silvopasture, and consequently, more work is needed to better determine how to develop best land management practices and determine the ecological effects of silvopasture. Considering the future challenges that climate change poses for farmers, ranchers, and people in all walks of life, including those living in increasingly hot city environments, research in agroforestry and urban forestry will play an increasingly important role in helping to design systems to better integrate trees into human-dominated landscapes and provide a wide range of environmental benefits. For more information, see: Journal – Agroforestry Systems: Design and application of silvopasture in washington state USDA Forest Service: Silvopasture

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Invasive Asian Clam Research in the Columbia River The widespread occurrence of invasive aquatic species throughout the world is particularly troubling because of their substantial economic and ecological consequences and the extreme difficulty of achieving effective remedial management actions once an invasion has taken place.  Some invasive bivalves (e.g., clams, oysters, cockles, mussels, scallops, etc.), such as zebra mussels and quagga mussels, are notorious for their explosive reproductive ability and potentially negative impacts on water quality, other native aquatic species, and potentially extensive damage caused by clogging pipes and other aquatic infrastructure. The ecology of invasive aquatic species is a major concern in the Columbia River Basin given that the Columbia River and its tributary rivers (e.g., the Snake River) drain nearly 260,000 mi.2 including large portions of British Columbia, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, and smaller portions of Wyoming, Utah, and Nevada. Recently, researchers in the WSU School of the Environment, including former graduate student, Salvador Robb-Chavez, and Drs. Stephen Bollens and Gretchen Rollwagen-Bollens, and their colleague Timothy Counihan from the U.S. Geological Survey, reported their findings about habitat associations of the invasive Asian clam (Corbicula fluminea) in the lower Columbia River in the journal International Review of Hydrobiology.  The researchers sampled nearly 300 miles of the Columbia River from the ocean and upstream to Richland, Washington, and found that invasive Asian clams were widespread and successful in many habitats despite variation in water temperature, water quality, and substrates (sand, silt, rock). While initial invasions of clams likely originated from international shipping transportation and dumping of ballast water from ships, humans may play a significant role in advancing invasions into new areas by accidentally or purposely introducing invasive species into other aquatic reaches and habitats (e.g., transport on boat hulls and trailers; releasing or discarding aquarium pets, fish, etc.). Aquatic ecology studies such as these by WSU School of the Environment researchers are valuable in describing environmental factors influencing the ultimate distribution of invasive bivalves (e.g., limiting cold water temperatures) and their potential impacts on the ecology and conservation of native aquatic species. See Video: KGW8 (Study looks at numbers of invasive Asian clams in the Columbia River) See full story at: WSU Insider  See publication: International Review of Hydrobiology  See: Aquatic Ecology Lab – Washington State University – Vancouver

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Video & Story: Pygmy Rabbit Research  This summer, KCTS 9, a local affiliate of PBS, highlighted some of the research being conducted on pygmy rabbits (Brachylagus idahoensis) by Dr. Lisa Shipley, Professor, WSU School of the Environment, and her colleague, Dr. Janet Rachlow, Dept. Head, Fish and Wildlife Sciences, Univ. of Idaho. See more…

 

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Video & Story: Invasive Asian Clams in the Columbia River   To view a short video followup to the stories on research being conducted by WSU School of the Environment faculty and graduate students on invasive Asian clams in the Columbia River you may watch the recent video story by KGW8 news in Portland, Oregon. See more…

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A Summer of Heat, Flooding, Fire, and Smoke  This summer, the dramatic summer of 2023, will go down as one of many markers of increasingly widespread and frequent effects of climate heating and climate catastrophe.  It is news to virtually no-one that this past July appears to be the hottest month recorded on Earth since instrument measurements began (see: Axios), and even possibly, for about the last 125,000 years. See more…

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Climate Refuge? Canada Lynx in Glacier National Park  Canada lynx are well known as a relatively specialist predator, well adapted to hunt in deep snow and prey upon snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus). The up and down population cycles of snowshoe hare followed by Canada lynx provide ecology students with a classic example of coupled predator-prey cycles. Canada lynx are a cold-adapted species and occur at the southern limits of their distribution in the contiguous United States. Consequently, Glacier National Park (GNP) is important as a large protected area harboring lynx, but the species has been difficult to census and accurately determine population status. Recently, Alissa K. Anderson, former SoE graduate student, Dr. Dan Thornton, Director of the Mammal Spatial Ecology & Conservation Lab, and their colleague, John S. Waller, used an extensive system of photographic camera traps to automatically and remotely capture photos of animals using trails and habitats with the Park. By identifying individuals through unique leg markings and by carefully modeling the population via repeated sightings of individuals, researchers were able to estimate that GNP contained about 52 individuals and at a density of about 1.3/100 km2. Because of the warming and range-shifting impacts of climate change, they concluded that GNP is potentially an important site to maintain future lynx populations in the United States as well as monitor their population to determine conservation status. See full story at: WSU Insider  See publication: The Journal of Wildlife Management – Canada lynx occupancy and density in Glacier National Park

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Canary in the Forest? Dieback of Western Redcedar in the Pacific Northwest A team of SoE researchers are part of a group of scientists looking at how climate variability is affecting increasing tree mortality and extensive canopy dieback for the western redcedar (Thuja plicata), a large and iconic tree species in the Pacific Northwest, . Drs. Robert Andrus, Arjan Meddens, Kevan Moffett, and Henry Adams along with doctoral student, L. Peach and other colleagues from Washington State University and elsewhere used tree ring analysis to identify climate and environmental factors associated with tree mortality, canopy dieback, and growth rates. They discovered that tree mortality was often preceded by 4-5 years of declining radial growth and was associated with warmer and drier conditions in May and June, which extended the normal summer dry season. For interior populations, tree mortality coincided with warmer, drier conditions from August to September. The implications of their findings are not good for sensitive trees in Pacific Northwest forests, which are a large carbon sink, but are facing a warming climate and more severe droughts. Dr. Henry Adams suspects that forests in the Pacific Northwest could be entering a “tipping point” leading to even more deaths because of ongoing climate change and shifting environmental conditions (see: Columbia Insight). View a Publication Pre-print: Canary in the Forest?

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Doctoral Candidate, Dmitri Kalashnikov, Wins AGU and AMS Presentation Awards: SoE doctoral student, Dmitri Kalashnikov, a NASA FINESST fellow, has recently received three awards for outstanding presentations at scientific conferences. These include the “Outstanding Student Presentation Award” for 2022 from the American Geophysical Union (AGU) and two additional awards for student oral presentations at the American Meteorological Society (AMS) Annual Meeting 2023 . The AGU award was for Dmitri’s presentation “How dry is “dry” lightning? Quantifying precipitation amounts associated with lightning-caused wildfire ignition across the western U.S.” while the the AMS awards were for the presentations “Climatology and driving atmospheric patterns of widespread dry lightning outbreaks in central and northern California” as well as for a second paper presented at the associated AMS – 14th Conference on Environment and Health, “Increasing co-occurrence of fine particulate matter and ground-level ozone extremes in the western United States (see: abstract). All of these scientific presentations are based on Dmitri’s dissertation research on the interplay of meteorological conditions, physical drivers, and impacts of dry thunderstorms in the western U.S., which are a major source of wildfire ignitions and associated air pollutants (e.g., fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and ground-level ozone). Dmitri works in the Climate Extremes Lab of SoE faculty member, Dr. Deepti Singh, and his dissertation research is funded by the NASA Future Investigators in Earth and Space Sciences Program. For more information, see: Climate Extremes Lab

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Bears, Berries & Woodland Debris Who doesn’t love fresh, sweet berries? Black bears and grizzly bears certainly do as they pack on energy reserves to prepare for hibernation, so it should be no surprise that the native mountain huckleberry (Vaccinium membranaceum) is highly prized by people and wildlife. SoE graduate student, Margaret Magee, and Dr. Mark Swanson and their colleagues, Drs. Henry Adams and Arjan Meddens, and others, are studying how small-scale prescribed fires and the presence of logs and other woody debris in forests may improve the survival and growth of huckleberries in the hot, dry future of climate change. In the Inland Northwest, east of the Cascade Range, the summers naturally tend to be hot and dry which challenges the growth and survival of huckleberry shrubs, particularly newly-planted seedlings. However, climate change, heat, drought, and wildfires will exacerbate these environmental conditions and may likely force changes in huckleberry distribution and forest communities across landscapes. By conducting experimental studies of how downed logs create favorable microclimates by modifying soil moisture, temperature, and other factors, SoE investigators hope to look at the sheltering effects of woodland debris on huckleberries, including how prescribed fires might be used as huckleberry and forest restoration tools. The SoE research team is working on lands of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe (Schitsu’umsh) and in a variety of other sites, including the Priest River Experimental Forest in Idaho and the E.H. Steffen Center on the WSU Pullman campus. Full story at: WSU Insider

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Human Disturbance and the Landscape Ecology of Fear A recent SoE study of the effects of low-level human recreational activities (e.g., hiking) on the behavior of wildlife during the partial COVID-19 lockdown of Glacier National Park in 2020 is generating considerable interest among the public and for agencies managing natural landscapes (i.e., parks, forests, conservation areas). The study, conducted by Alissa K. Anderson, SoE graduate student, Dr. Dan Thornton, Director of the Mammal Spatial Ecology & Conservation Lab, and their colleague, John S. Waller from the National Park Service., used automated photographic surveys conducted by camera-trap sampling to document areas along hiking trails used by both humans and a wide variety of animals. They found consistent negative effects of human presence on many wildlife species, including large carnivores (e.g., cougars, grizzly bears, wolves), medium-size or meso-carnivores (e.g., lynx), or herbivores (e.g., mule deer, white-tailed deer, elk). The temporary COVID-19 lockdown provided a so-called “natural experiment” on the effects of human activities on wildlife that would otherwise be quite difficult to conduct over such a large area as a national park. The study helps illustrate that additional research would be helpful to better understand how the timing, intensity, or type of human disturbance can subtly affect behavior of different species of wildlife and thereby guide better conservation and management strategies, particularly given a broad pattern of increasing human presence and recreation on public lands. Full story at: WSU Insider Journal publication: Scientific Reports

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Bug Splat Ecology: You may have heard about the “Insect Apocalypse” or possibly the “Colony Collapse Disorder” of honey bees, but you may not know that if you drive or ride in a vehicle, your car could be used as a “splatometer” to measure changes in insect abundance. See: SoE Feature Story – Bug Splat Ecology

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Droning On in Higher Education: Combining Field and Virtual Ecology With Our Own “Dr. Bill” When is a university lecture not really a lecture? One answer to that question is when you’re taking a course in ecology in the School of the Environment and find yourself out in the field or talking to Dr. William Schlosser, or “Dr. Bill” as students affectionately like to call him. Lectures just seem more like friendly, excited conversations when you’re with Dr. Bill and studying the ecology of plants, animals, and their supporting ecosystems. One of the defining features of university courses for majors in the School of the Environment is a heavy dose of get-your-hands-dirty fieldwork, field trips, and studies conducted in outdoor settings and natural areas. However, unless your class is a relatively small handful of students, arranging for transportation, housing, meals, etc., for larger numbers of people can be difficult. Plus, accessibility is a major concern to make sure that everyone has an equal opportunity to participate in field trips and outdoor studies. And what do you do if the weather just happens to be especially bad during a scheduled field trip? Dr. Bill addresses these challenges by developing a blended approach to his large and popular class in general ecology by using technology, such as drones and wildlife camera traps, to engage students and help them more fully experience the wonders of the natural world during semester-long projects at the unique quartz-dome ecosystem found at nearby Kamiak Butte County Park. See: WSU Insider

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Using Drones to Count Salmon Nests: Daniel Auerbach, doctoral student, and Dr. Alex Fremier of the WSU School of the Environment report that drones can be used effectively to count salmon nest sites (redds) in streams in a new paper published in River Research and Applications. They counted potential redds for Chinook salmon in the Wenatchee River (WA, USA) and found that aerial counts frequently identified twice the number of redds as reported by ground surveys.  See: WSU Insider

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Nature Geoscience: Dams, Reservoirs, & Methane Emissions Dr. John Harrison, Professor in the School of the Environment at WSU Vancouver, and the colleagues he works with are concerned about greenhouse gas emissions from the reservoirs created behind the thousands of dams worldwide. In a recent study published in Nature Geoscience, this investigative team analyzed data from 9,000 reservoirs on 5 continents to determine their CO2 and methane emissions from 1900 to 2060. They discovered that while carbon dioxide emissions are decreasing from reservoirs as they age, methane emissions are increasing, which will likely increase the impact of reservoirs on climate change because of the powerful warming effect of methane. But can anything be done about these methane emissions? John says, yes, by changing the way water is withdrawn from the reservoir for turbines or spillways, it may be possible to reduce these emissions. A WSU research team will be looking at water management strategies and ecosystem properties in a series of reservoirs in the Pacific Northwest.  See: WSU Insider

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Nature Communications: Watching Trees Die Climate change is challenging the conservation and management of global forests through rapidly shifting patterns of fire and intense heat and drought. In a recent paper in the journal, Nature Communications, our Dr. Henry Adams joined other forest ecology researchers to analyze global forest die-off events.  Using climate model data they documented at what point increased heat and drought was associated with forest death. See: WSU Insider

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Scientific Reports: Are Bears Really Carnivores? After seeing so many pictures of brown bears catching salmon in Alaskan rivers, many people might naturally think that all bears are carnivores and eat a diet heavy in meat and protein. However, in a new study published in Scientific Reports, Dr. Charles T. Robbins, wildlife biology professor in the School of the Environment, and his colleagues report that bears are omnivores like humans and captive bears often preferred diets mimicking nutritional characteristics of their natural diets in the wild. See: WSU Insider

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Environmental Research: Climate  –  Dry Lightening & Western Wildfires Dmitri Kalashnikov, doctoral student in the School of the Environment, Vancouver, and Dr. Deepti Singh, and their colleagues recently analyzed the climatology of dry lightning in central and northern California in an open access paper published in Environmental Research: Climate. Using records from 1987-2020 for daily lightning and precipitation observations, they reanalyzed atmospheric and meteorological conditions and learned that about 46% of all lightning during the warm season (May-Oct.) was dry lightning. Their hope is that better understanding of the meteorology of dry lightning in this region can help forecast wildfire ignitions and improve wildfire risk assessment in climate projections. See: WSU Insider

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Survival of Mule Deer Fawns in SE Washington Rebecca Lumkes, graduate student in the School of the Environment, and Dr. Lisa Shipley, have been studying how agriculture and federal conservation programs are affecting the use of habitat for mule deer in SE Washington State. By tracking the movements of radio-collared does, Lumkes is able to document spatial and ecological features of habitats used by mule deer, especially during the critical fawning season. See: WSU Insider

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Science Advances: Air Pollution from Western Wildfires Dmitri Kalashnikov, WSU doctoral student, and Dr. Deepti Singh, reported in the journal, Science Advances, that the co-occurrence of multiple air pollutants from western wildfires increased significantly between 2001 – 2020 for fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and ground-level ozone. Air pollution is a critical and increasing global health problem and has substantial negative effects on humans and natural ecosystems. See: WSU Insider

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Science: How Cars Kill Salmon When people think about salmon dying before they can return from the ocean and swim back upstream into rivers and streams to spawn, they might think about dams, stream-blocking culverts, or agricultural runoff, but probably not the tires on their vehicles. But they should according to Dr. Jenifer McIntyre, School of the Environment, stationed in Puyallup. The puzzling deaths of Coho salmon in streams before they could spawn was a major environmental mystery until Dr. McIntyre and her colleagues discovered that a highly toxic chemical (6PPD-quinone) coming from tire wear particles was the likely culprit. Now the hunt is on for safer chemicals to protect tires from ozone but also vulnerable salmon in the Pacific Northwest and elsewhere. See: WSU Insider (Story 1; Story 2)

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Frontiers in Environmental Science: Generating Enthusiasm for Science in High School Students Dr. Gretchen Rollwagen-Bollens, School of the Environment, Vancouver, worked with colleagues from Washington State University to establish the Columbia River Estuary Science Education and Outreach (CRESCENDO) Project to engage students from five public high schools in scientific research. High school students were enthusiastic about working with university scientists, collecting and contributing “real” data to a study (e.g., water samples, salinity and temperature measurements, plankton samples, etc.), and working outdoors in a science class. This project illustrated the value of place-based education and using local environments to help students study the natural world. Not surprisingly (to us in SoE anyway), Gretchen and her colleagues found that many students increased their ecological knowledge and understanding of scientific research by participating in this project and suggests that university-school partnerships can benefit many students and perhaps increase interest in STEM disciplines. See: Frontiers in Environmental Science

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Video Interview: Western Wildfires Affect Midwestern Severe Weather Dmitri Kalashnikov, Ph.D. Candidate in the WSU School of the Environment, was recently asked to comment on a new study that reported that western wildfires can influence severe weather much farther away in the Central U.S. See: New study finds significant impacts from western wildfires on severe weather in Central US  [Photo credit: Sky filled with smoke from fires in Washington State. By R. Sayler.]

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Tipping Points for Pacific Northwest Forests? As climate change and the effects of heat, drought, fires, insects, and disease increase in the Pacific Northwest, an iconic tree may be showing the effects of climate stress. A recent article in The Columbian tells the story of mysterious deaths being observed for the Western red cedar (Thuja plicata) here in the Pacific Northwest. Dr. Henry Adams, School of the Environment, and other researchers from Washington State University, Portland State University, Reed College, and elsewhere are quoted in the article and discuss observations and implications of tree mortality. See: The Columbian – Has this iconic Northwest tree reached a tipping point?  [Photo credits: Western red cedar in Vancouver. Source: Wikipedia. Author: abdallahh. License: CC BY 2.0]

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Landscape Ecology & Conservation of Wild Cats and Large-Mammals One of the most popular news stories at Washington State University in 2021 and continuing to the present is the work of graduate students in the Mammal Spatial Ecology and Conservation Lab of Dr. Daniel Thornton. More than 423 million potential readers, viewers, and subscribers of several news publications were treated to a popular science news story showing rare footage of a jaguar killing an ocelot at a waterhole in the Maya Biosphere Reserve in Guatemala. Lucy Perera-Romero, doctoral student in the School of the Environment, published these observations in the journal Biotropica to highlight the competition for limited resources (e.g., watering holes) that may occur among carnivores and other large animals, especially as climate change and human land use and development affect natural ecosystems. The spatial and landscape ecology of mid-large sized animals is increasingly studied over large geographic areas using camera traps and other techniques to identify and non-invasively census wildlife species and generate what are called habitat occupancy models to identify ecological factors influencing animal distributions. Several new study results from this SoE research lab will soon be published on ocelots, jaguars, Canadian lynx, Baird’s tapir, giant anteater, and other species and we will continue to highlight them in SoE Science News. See: WSU Insider  [photo credit: By MarcusObal – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2739854]

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A Citizen’s Guide to Conserving the Living Dead

Any good ecologist worth their salt knows that ghosts and zombies are real. If you don’t know that, your science education is deficient. Let’s fix that.

As a science educator and researcher, I don’t really follow pop culture closely so I’ve never paid much attention to the ongoing zombie craze. For many years now, they seem to be everywhere in movies, television, even commercials. But I do know a bit about real zombies and how important they are to the world. So as a conservation biologist, deeply concerned with saving life on Earth, I’m here to implore you to help me conserve zombies. It’s urgent. I beg you. Please, please, help me save the zombies.

If we don’t conserve zombies, there’ll be hell to pay.

 

Most people think zombies are fictitious, or at least, they hope they are! Ghosts, the living dead, or having the dead return to partial life to torment people are fears and themes that have haunted the human psyche and imagination since the dawn of our intellect. Now there’s always been good reasons for humans to be afraid of the dark. After all, we don’t see that well at night compared to many animals, and for night-stalking predators, we probably seem like a walking, talking “Big Mac.”

But being afraid of death defines us as intelligent and sentient beings. We are aware of our mortality and the finality of death and it scares us. Of course, zombies are a special case. They’re in that awkward halfway place between being able to enjoy sitting in a bar having a cold beer and laughing with your friends versus looking in a mirror and watching your ear rot off and fall on the floor. You know, that same kind of feeling you have during some faculty lectures! 

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What sometimes happens during faculty lectures… YouTube: “Cool.  Cool, Cool, Cool…” — Zombie   **The preceding video link is included for entertainment purposes only and does not imply endorsement of any commercial products or services.

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Zombies in the Real World

If we put human imagination and irrational fears aside, there are well documented cases of real zombies in the natural world. So how does one become a real zombie (other than by attending a faculty lecture)?

First, let’s have a short video lecture on the subject. I know. I know. You don’t have to say anything…. 

If the preceding brief overview of real zombies piques your interest, you may want to look at these examples in greater detail for yourself at Scientific American:

Zombie Ants

Zombie Bees

 

Are You Already a Zombie? (and just don’t know it…)

For those of you who haven’t already been zombified by this lecture, do you now worry about some hidden parasite turning you into a real zombie? Well, if you aren’t, maybe you should be!

As we saw in our video lecture, it isn’t just ants, bees, and other insects that can be turned into zombies in the real world. Mammals are susceptible to zombification, or behavioral manipulation and behavioral problems associated with parasites and their resulting influences on our brains. To see how cats may indirectly zombify humans, see this story that I call: Fatal Attraction.

Paranoid schizophrenia is a serious medical condition, so I won’t make jokes about it. But you might wonder what we will eventually learn about the ability of parasites and viruses (and perhaps our own DNA) to manipulate their hosts like puppets.

What’s the Matter? Parasite Got Your Tongue? 

If you’re willing to stretch the definition of zombie just a little, which I assume should be easy given all the rotting flesh purportedly involved, then even fish might become partial zombies. At least I’m guessing it might be somewhat of a fish nightmare to have your own tongue replaced by a mucous-eating parasite (see: Parasite That Replaces a Fish’s Tongue). Brings a whole new meaning to something tasting fishy, doesn’t it? 

Obviously, you’re not a fish. Still, maybe it wouldn’t hurt to contact that sleep clinic you heard about and check out the implications of your snoring and sleeping with your mouth open all night. Just a suggestion. And maybe you should inspect that next piece of sushi just a little bit more carefully.

A Zombie Philosophy 

Some of you who have taken my course in Conservation Biology have had the chance to see my “Philosophy of Worms.” Now let us develop a “Philosophy of Zombies.” Even if animal zombies are real, you still might wonder, what do any of these situations have to do with conservation in the real world?

If left to our own devices, it is doubtful that many of us would imagine these strange cases of ants, bees, and rats being turned into zombies or being manipulated to their doom by parasites. However, these examples are but a tiny revelation of the unimaginably complex and intricate workings of the natural world and the powerful forces of evolution and natural selection. The workings of the real world are so amazing they’re almost beyond imagination.

Conserving Ecological and Behavioral Processes

There are certainly good reasons to conserve real “zombies” given that they represent complex ecological processes that have evolved in the natural world. Many critical ecological processes and behavioral adaptations are being endangered by humans as we convert the Earth to our selfish needs, which, come to think of it, makes us much like other manipulative parasites, doesn’t it? For example, shouldn’t the wondrous migration of the beautiful monarch butterfly be an ecological and behavioral process that we should fight hard to conserve on Earth?

Your Zombie Identification Guide

There is yet another logical, but scary reason, to consider zombies in the future of conservation. And so I ask you to consider, which species are we looking at now that actually represent the walking dead? Which species are almost certainly doomed to extinction, but we just don’t know it yet? Which species may only survive in some small, scattered populations or have just a few individuals hanging on to their existence by a thread, but their future is almost certainly that of death and extinction? 

 

It truly is a scary thought that in some cases, despite our best science, we are almost assuredly looking at some of the living dead around us. Perhaps our grandchildren and great grandchildren may not see these species alive and will look back in wonder and amazement at the bountiful world in which you and I currently live. Will their own world then be hotter and missing many of  the species now alive?  Will they blame us and wonder how we could let such a thing happen? We just don’t know for sure which threatened and endangered species have a chance to be saved and which are the equivalent of the living dead walking among us. And on that scary note, I wish you:

R. Sayler
WSU School of the Environment

 

Advanced Zombie Studies: See extensive article list in The Conversation – Articles on Zombies

 

About: Research Scientist/Assoc. Prof./Project Director for the WSU Arboretum in the School of the Environment at Washington State University; conservation biologist and avian ecologist.

Endnotes: This lightly-edited and updated mini-lecture has arisen from the dead from class instructional materials originally written and used in my course in Conservation Biology in 2014.

Disclaimer: The opinions and comments in this lecture are my own and do not in any way reflect official policy or positions of the School of the Environment or Washington State University.

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If humans are good at one thing, it’s our ability to change the world, whether we intend to do so or not. Human impacts on the world range from immensely large (think global climate change) to those small and barely noticeable – perhaps even including the size of a bird’s eye.

The surprising reality is that humans are directly and indirectly shrinking the size of many species of animals, not just birds. While we never intended to do so, human activities and the unique environments we create are physically and rapidly shrinking the living world around us in multitudes of ways.

Dr. Jennifer Phillips, an avian ecologist in the WSU School of the Environment, along with her colleagues at Texas A&M University-San Antonio, recently reported in the journal Global Change Biology that individuals of several bird species, including Carolina Wrens (Thryothorus ludovicianus) and Northern Cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis), that were resident in core urban environments with brighter lights and illumination had smaller average eye sizes than birds living in edge habitats farther away from urban environments.

By contrast, several migratory bird species did not show any changes in eye size depending on where they lived. These different responses to urban light sources may be explained by resident urban birds adapting to the much brighter ambient light levels in cities and urban environments where night-time lighting is ubiquitous, while migratory birds that spent a greater proportion of time away from such urban areas did not.

The investigators also found smaller body size among one bird species in urban environments, the Painted Bunting (Passerina ciris), but concluded that this size difference was due to younger and smaller males being more likely to inhabit less desirable urban-core habitats.

This study helps illustrates that many relatively unseen changes are occurring in species as they adapt to novel ecological and evolutionary forces created in human-dominated and urban environments in particular.

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“A growing body of research suggests that global warming is messing with the body sizes of all kinds of creatures, from cold-blooded frogs to warm-bodied mammals, and often making animals smaller.” – Benji Jones for Vox.com 

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According to an ecogeographical principle called Bergmann’s Rule, among broadly distributed groups of warm-blooded species, species of larger body size are more likely to be found in colder regions compared to species living in warmer climates. For example, the largest penguins occur in the bitter cold landscape of Antarctica while smaller species of penguins are found in warmer areas in Argentina and elsewhere.

A similar ecogeographical principle, Allen’s Rule, predicts that animals in colder climates generally will have a smaller surface area to volume ratio, essentially meaning that individuals in cold climates will minimize the surface area of their extremities (e.g., smaller ears, legs), along with other adaptations, to better conserve heat energy. Conversely, individuals in warmer climates and temperatures may have relatively smaller body sizes or larger extremities (e.g., ears).

While there are many exceptions to these rules for different species in different environments due to competing selection forces, one general prediction is that under warmer temperatures smaller body sizes may be an advantage by allowing heat to dissipate easier and prevent overheating. In addition, a smaller body may affect energy and metabolic demands and subtly improve survival.

Thus, under the environmental pressures created by rapid global warming, individuals of many species may be selected to develop or evolve smaller body sizes to better deal with the increased heat and all of the myriad ecological and physiological changes now confronting most organisms on Earth.

Evidence for Shrinking Birds & Mammals

A recent study with large sample sizes (e.g., >100,000 specimens) have documented a general decline in the size of numerous species of birds over about the past 40 years. Moreover, smaller bird species appear to be changing body size more rapidly than larger species.

The evidence that a warming planet may shrink many living animals is also supported by fossil evidence from species living millions of years ago. Fossile evidence demonstrates that when the Earth warmed dramatically during the early Eocene about 56 M years ago, some mammals and other species became smaller (see: Vox – Animals are shrinking. Blame climate change.)

The Shrinking World

What may surprise many people is that it isn’t only birds and mammals that may be shrinking in size due to increasing heat. The phenomenon has been documented for frogs, fish, snakes, salamanders, insects, rodents, and other groups of organisms. However, ecological and physiological factors other than simple heat dissipation can be involved and may end up shrinking some animals for a variety of different reasons (see: Scientific American).

For example, the developmental metabolism of many organisms is affected by temperature, which means that under warmer temperatures, young may develop and mature more quickly which results in a smaller adult or mature body size, which may then directly influence their ability to reproduce, produce as many offspring, or survive. Such a process may partly explain why some amphibian and fish species may exhibit smaller body size under higher water temperatures.

In addition, increasing heat may influence available food resources and cause shifts in foraging ecology, food webs, and energy and nutrient availability, which may then restrict growth and development of young and immature animals, again resulting in smaller body sizes.

Shrinking Populations & Species

In addition to the declining size of some individual organisms, humans are shrinking the average size of many studied or monitored wildlife populations around the world (see: Living Planet Index; see critique: Our World in Data) as well as reducing the numbers of species on Earth. The decline in size of individual wildlife populations is dramatic while at the same time the human population is projected to grow by additional billions of people.

“Since 1970… the size of animal populations for which data is available have declined by 69% on average.” – Living Planet Index

 

Don’t blink, but climate change is affecting many species on Earth in complex ways. The shrinking size of individuals of various species, along with drastic reductions in biological diversity and abundance of many species of plants and animals, may be an increasingly common and life-threatening phenomenon as temperatures rapidly increase on Earth.

R. Sayler
WSU School of the Environment

 

For more information, see:

• WSU Insider: Urban light pollution linked to smaller eyes in birds

• (Journal) Global Change Biology: Phenotypic signatures of urbanization? Resident, but not migratory, songbird eye size varies with urban-associated light pollution levels 

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Try as we might, humans have a difficult time using, observing, and appreciating Nature without affecting it in some way. A recent study from the Mammal Spatial Ecology and Conservation Lab highlights research on human-wildlife interactions conducted by former WSU graduate student, Kelsey M. Gump, and School of the Environment scientist, Dr. Daniel H. Thornton. 

Using automated camera surveys of wildlife in the Colville National Forest (CNF) of northeastern Washington, the SoE wildlife ecologists collected about 11,000 “trap nights” of data using cameras placed in sampling locations in the forest at varying distances from roads and hiking trails.

Investigators then statistically modeled the automated photographic detections of different mammal species to determine the relative influence on wildlife habitat use of motorized traffic (primarily vehicles on roads) versus non-motorized traffic (primarily hikers on trails).

Wildlife reactions to disturbances by vehicle traffic versus human hikers was variable for different species, although some broad patterns emerged from the work. In general, most species tended to shift their habitat use at sites with recreational hikers to more nocturnal hours or delayed their return to these sites after disturbance.

Many mammal species responded more often to non-motorized recreation (hikers) than vehicles on roads, but responses to recreation varied among species, sometimes in a complex fashion depending on the type of disturbance. 

Given the increasing pressures of humans on forests, parks, and even wilderness landscapes, land managers need to be better aware of how different forms of human recreation may influence wildlife. Consequently, Gump and Thornton recommend that future work needs to develop a more nuanced understanding of how species respond to different types of recreation (e.g., biking, horse-riding, camping, people with dogs, off-road vehicles, etc.) and especially how timing and distance from disturbances influences the reactions of different species of wildlife.

They suggest that one of the more important questions to be addressed in the future is how behavioral responses to human recreation ultimately affects the fitness of different wildlife species, which essentially means their survival, reproduction, and population dynamics. 

For more information, see: 

Ecological Applications – Trucks versus treks: The relative influence of motorized versus non motorized recreation on a mammal community 

What happens to your tires after driving thousands of miles? Obviously, they eventually wear down and have to be replaced with new tires. But what happens to the physical materials (i.e., tire tread) and chemicals that originally composed the tire?

As tires abrade and wear away during driving and friction and contact with roads, various potentially toxic compounds and chemicals are vaporized or otherwise dispersed in the air and soil and end up in streets, ditches, and water drainage channels where they may wash into creeks, streams, and rivers. The resulting effects on aquatic life, such as salmon, are now being better understood through the research of Dr. Jenifer McIntyre who studies toxic impacts of urban runoff in the WSU School of the Environment.

In a recent study, Dr. McIntyre and her colleagues in the Northwest Fisheries Science Center and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, noted that juvenile and adult coho salmon may die from even brief (<24h) exposure to roadway runoff but effects on young, hatching coho salmon (called alevins) are less well known, including how to mitigate and reduce effects of urban runoff.

They then conducted experiments on coho salmon eggs and discovered that while many (>90%) of coho embryos were able to survive when exposed to intermittent road runoff, the alevin (newly hatched) experienced high (87%) mortality.

However, when stormwater runoff was treated using green infrastructure (bioretention filtration – runoff filtered through layers of sand, compost, gravel, wood mulch, etc.) it removed many of the toxins and essentially prevented mortality at the alevin stage. The study is important by demonstrating that relatively simple and inexpensive management strategies to treat stormwater runoff may improve survival of salmon and other important aquatic life in rivers and streams.

See: WSU Insider (with YouTube) – Stormwater biofiltration increases coho salmon hatchling survival

Also see: CBS Bay Area (with video) – Tire additive could push California salmon to extinction, study says

Publication: Science of the Total Environment

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[Foreword: Before we begin, we want to first acknowledge the many deaths, terrible suffering, and devastation caused by fires, storms, flooding, war, and many other tragedies that have occurred in 2023, including the recent horrific fires and loss of life in Lāhainā, Maui, Hawaii. It is not our intent to ignore these and other important losses, but simply to acknowledge and reflect for a moment that suffering and loss of life also occurs in the natural world simultaneous with the tragedies affecting human life.]

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The Pacific Northwest and the northwestern tribe, the Lummi, governed by the Lummi Nation (Lhaq’temish or “People of the Sea”) have lost what many felt was an extended member of their family when Tokitae (also called Toki or Lolita or Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut by the Lummi people), recently died at the Miami Seaquarium.

Species: Orcinus orca (orca; killer whale; toothed whale in the dolphin family)
Birth: 1964, Pacific Northwest
Died: August, 18, 2023 in the Miami Seaquarium
Second oldest orca in captivity
Survived by her 95-year-old mother, Ocean Sun (L25)

Tokitae was about 57 years old and was born into the L-pod of southern resident killer whales where she was captured when young and taken away from her mother to be shipped to the Miami Seaquarium where she spent her entire life living and performing in a tank 35 x 80 ft.

From The Guardian: “In August 1970, Tokitae’s ordeal began in the calm waters of Penn Cove, Whidbey Island – a quiet island off the coast of Washington state. Men with long sticks and guns corralled a group of resident killer whales, separating mothers from their calves. At least a dozen of those whales died during the capture, and more than 50 were kept for captive display. Toki was probably only a few years old at the time of her capture. A few years later, killer whales were placed under the Endangered Species Act.”

In March, 2023, plans were being made to return Toki to the Puget Sound after a lifetime in captivity, however, it appears that she died of a renal condition before she could experience that freedom.

Toki is survived by her mother, Ocean Sun (L25) who is believed to be about 95 years old, and by other relatives and members of the L-pod of southern resident killer whales living in the Salish Sea.

For photos of the new orca totem pole dedicated to Tokitae and a story about how the Lummi Nation community recently celebrated the life of Tokitae on San Juan Island, see: The Seattle Times

To learn more details about Toki’s life, see: The Guardian; NPR; The Seattle Times

 

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This summer, the dramatic summer of 2023, will go down as one of many markers of increasingly widespread and frequent effects of climate heating and climate catastrophe.  It is news to virtually no-one that this past July appears to be the hottest month recorded on Earth since instrument measurements began (see: Axios), and even possibly, for about the last 125,000 years.

Unfortunately, climate scientists in the WSU School of the Environment are increasingly called upon to comment on their own climate research as well as the diverse research findings of their climate colleagues and associates around the world.

Recently, Dr. Deepti Singh, WSU School of the Environment, was interviewed for her thoughts on the summer of 2023 by NBC News (see: Heat, flooding and smoke: The U.S. is in the midst of a summer of extremes).

“It causes me a lot of anxiety, the start of the summer season,” Singh said. “The fact we are seeing so many fatalities and such extreme impacts means we’re not prepared and we’re not adapted to the conditions we’re experiencing.”

In addition, recent work by Dr. Singh’s Climate Extremes Lab has explored the interactions of dry lightening (lightening with little or no rain) and various rainfall amounts that can contribute to “holdover” fires, or wildfires that can be caused by smoldering materials that ignite days after a dry lightening event.

Doctoral student, Dmitri Kalashnikov, and colleagues analyzed extensive wildfire data from 2015-20 for the western U.S. and found that about 15.3% of fires caused by lightening strikes were holdover fires, which could represent more than 100 such fires a year (see: Dry lightening can spark wildfires even under wetter conditions).

For more information:

See Video KGW8: Lightening can start fires even when there’s heavier rainfall

See: CAS in the Media

See publication: Geophysical Research Letters 

 

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Video: Invasive Asian Clams in the Columbia River

To view a short video followup to the stories on research being conducted by WSU School of the Environment faculty and graduate students on invasive Asian clams in the Columbia River you may watch the recent video story by KGW8 news in Portland, Oregon.

Video: See KGW8 – Study looks at numbers of invasive Asian clams found in the Columbia River 

For More Information, See Story: Invasive Asian Clam Research

 

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Video: Pygmy Rabbit Research

This summer, KCTS 9, a local affiliate of PBS, highlighted some of the research being conducted on pygmy rabbits (Brachylagus idahoensis) by Dr. Lisa Shipley, Professor, WSU School of the Environment, and her colleague, Dr. Janet Rachlow, Dept. Head, Fish and Wildlife Sciences, Univ. of Idaho.

The video is Episode 8 in the series, This American Land. The segment on pygmy rabbit research begins at about the 21:45 point in the program and once the video starts, you may scroll ahead to this point in the program to watch this part of the video.

See Video: PBS, KCTS 9: This American Land (Episode 8; start at the 21:45 mark) 

Also see: CAS in the Media – “This American Land” episode explores threatened Idaho sagebrush steppe environment 

 

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