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Skip to Search Results- 1Barrie, Emily
- 1Biddlecombe, Brooke
- 1Cook, Andrew
- 1Deakin, Samuel
- 1Del Bel Belluz, Vincent
- 1Knight, Elly C
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Fall 2021
Streams provide essential ecosystem services including nutrient cycling and uptake, organic matter processing and ecosystem production and respiration. Stream ecosystem functioning provides an integrated metric of biological structures and processes that can respond to anthropogenic land use...
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Detection probability of the Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus): Implications for developing habitat use models
DownloadSpring 2024
As old-growth forest ecosystems become increasingly scarce in North America, the need to accurately and efficiently survey, monitor, and model old-growth specialists and keystone species, such as the Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus), becomes increasingly important. Little is known about...
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Effects of clear-cutting and wildfires on succession of ground beetle (Coleoptera: Carabidae) assemblages in western Alberta
DownloadSpring 2019
I studied how carabid beetle assemblages in lodgepole pine stands have responded after clear- cut harvest and wildfires on an actively managed landscape ~20 km south of Hinton, Alberta. This work builds on and expands the focus of a previous study (Niemelä et al. 1993) conducted 23-24 years...
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Feather mite ecology and morphology: exploring how obligate ectosymbionts of birds are impacted by life on hosts
DownloadFall 2022
Feather mites (Acariformes: Sarcoptiformes: Analgoidea and Pterolichoidea) are a group of small arachnids that inhabit the feathers of nearly every species of bird. Life as ectosymbionts has shaped the morphology and ecology of feather mites, whose entire life cycles (from egg to adult) are...
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From species to genes: ecological and evolutionary mechanisms structuring diversity in space and time
DownloadFall 2021
My Ph.D. thesis addresses three foundational questions in conservation biology: i) what is biodiversity and how is it best measured? ii) how does variation in habitat configuration, habitat composition, and environmental conditions affect emergent patterns of species diversity? and iii) how do...
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Fall 2019
Integrodifference equations are a common tool used in ecology to model the spread of populations. In this thesis, I explore the neutral genetic patterns formed by range expansions and how dispersal-reproduction trade-offs impact the spread of populations. In Chapter 2, we investigate the inside...
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Phenotypic and genetic variation in Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis canadensis)
DownloadFall 2023
Genetic variation is a ubiquitous feature of natural populations and underpins much phenotypic variation. Genetic variance can be partitioned and examined at various hierarchical levels of organization to address fundamental questions in ecology and evolution. Patterns of genetic variance among...
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Fall 2023
Caribou (Rangifer tarandus) numbers continue to decline across their circumpolar range with boreal woodland caribou (R. t. caribou; hereafter caribou) listed as threatened under Canada’s Species at Risk Act. Given this conservation concern, evaluating the factors influencing reproductive success...
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Spring 2024
This thesis introduces the theory of possessive ecologies, offering a critical alternative to the dominant paradigms of knowledge integration in environmental science, grounded in Moreton-Robinson's ontology of possession and Whyte's Indigenous ecologies. I argue that the field of environmental...
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Using spatial autocorrelation to quantify the effects of sea ice fragmentation on polar bear movement in Hudson Bay
DownloadSpring 2020
Habitat fragmentation occurs when continuous habitat gets broken up as a result of ecosystem change. While commonly studied in terrestrial ecosystems, Arctic sea ice ecosystems also experience fragmentation, but are rarely studied in this context. Most fragmentation analyses are conducted using...