Temperatures Impact on Insect Capture and Black Phoebe Foraging Activity

Alyssa Lomeli, Wildlife Undergraduate Student

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

This project is a study I conducted which will be portraying the data I have collected. The data and additional outside research was done to depict temperatures impact on Black phoebe foraging activity and insect capture within the city of Arcata.

Temporal changes in body conditions of wintering waterfowl in Humboldt Bay

Amir Malikyar, Wildlife Undergraduate Student

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

Overwintering migratory birds may face increased competition for resources than in other seasons due to large influxes of birds arriving and inhabiting shared areas for similar amounts of time. These mechanisms may affect food availability, which in turn is implied to affect body energy reserves. We conducted a study to determine the temporal effects of body conditions of hunted waterfowl carcasses in Humboldt Bay, California, and test whether energy reserves as functions of body condition indices decrease over the winter season.

Temporal Habitat Usage of Columbian Black-tailed Deer Across Urban-wildland Interfaces in Arcata, California

Jaret Cross, Wildlife Undergraduate Student

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

In this study, we used motion-sensing camera traps to track deer’s habitat use in and out of urban areas, measuring key explanatory abiotic factors influencing their occurrence. The study took place in the public parks and community forest in Arcata, California.

Testing Gravitational Interactions Below Fifty Microns

Alexandra Papesh, Physics & Astronomy Undergraduate Student

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

Attempts to unify the Standard Model and General Relativity often include features that violate the Weak Equivalence Principle (WEP) and/or the gravitational Inverse-Square Law (ISL). To investigate this, researchers at Cal Poly Humboldt are conducting precision measurements of gravitational interactions below 50 microns. This project employs a torsion pendulum configured as a composition dipole with equal masses of titanium and aluminum. The twist angle and frequency of the pendulum is measured as an attractor mass in a parallel-plate configuration oscillates within submillimeter separations. *Supported by NSF grants PHY-1065697, PHY-1306783, PHY-1606988, PHY-1908502

Testing the Variable-Density Retention Silvicultural System as a Tool for Restoration of Conifer Dominance

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

After harvesting the merchantable conifers decades ago, many secondary forests in northern California regenerated naturally and are now fully stocked with low value hardwoods intermingled with conifers. Partial harvesting to reduce hardwood densities and release conifers is expected to enhance tree vigor and reduce risk of stand-replacing wildfire. Planting a new cohort of merchantable conifers in the understory would enhance structural complexity and future value. A flexible new forest restoration treatment called variable-density retention (VDR) was designed to achieve these objectives.

The Drive Home: Travel Times from Humboldt County to the rest of California

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

An isochrone map of California depicting the time required to travel from Humboldt State University to the rest of the state.

The Effect of Grazing on Frog Abundance

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

This study compares the abundance of frogs in landscapes that are grazed by livestock to lands that are non-grazed. This study found no influence of grazing activity on frog abundance. This information will be an important consideration for the conservation efforts of frog species as development of lands for urbanization and agriculture continue to increase as well as for conservation managers as they work to restore and maintain quality frog habitat by reverting agricultural lands back to native landscapes.

The Effect of Prescribed Fire in Northern California Dune Habitat for Avian Species

Cameron Morgan, Wildlife Undergraduate Student

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

The objective of my study is to determine relative abundance and species diversity of avian species in dune habitat by comparing point counts conducted in burned sections of prescribed fires that were either treated or untreated with herbicides prior to application of fire compared to unburned areas of invasive beach grass or native dune mat. The prescribed fire event was conducted last fall in Loleta's Ocean Ranch Unit, and I am seeking to inform CDFW and Cal Fire on the potential effects of the burn on birds, with the goal of restoring our dunes to habitat with native vegetation.

The Effect of Salinity on the Concentration of Various Trace Metals in The Little River Estuary

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

Trace metals are crucial to many biological processes in marine environments. In estuaries linear relationships between salinity and concentration indicate that mixing is the main determinant of concentration, while exponential relationships indicate active removal. In this study it was expected that scandium would have an exponential relationship with salinity due to its similar ionic size to iron, however, Sc displayed a linear relationship while elements that were expected to be linear were exponential. To the author’s knowledge, this data represents the first river and estuary measurements of Sc, Ce, Zr, and La, and the reasons for these surprising relationships are not fully known.

The Effects of Artificial Substrates on Larvel Settlement and Community Structure in Humboldt Bay, California

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

Different anthropogenic substrates have been shown to have a strong effect on larval recruitment and subsequent community development in estuarine fouling communities. Docks and piers have been shown to have an increased abundance of invasive species relative to natural substrates such as rock. We examined community structure in accordance to initial barnacle settlement on concrete, treated wood, untreated wood, tire rubber, and plastic settling plates. Results show that there were marked differences in initial barnacle settlement as well as final community structure (after 4 months) between treatments, revealing the importance of early settlement and substrate type on community composition.