Courtesy and Adjunct

Landscape ecology, behavioral ecology species distributions, forest management and conservation
(1) Influences of landscape structure on demography of animal populations,
(2) Animal movement (particularly dispersal),
(3) Population viability modeling,
(4) Ecological thresholds,
(5) Trophic cascades in forest ecosystems,
(6) Species distribution modeling,
(7) Socio-political mechanisms to affect sustainable forestry
(8) Measuring landscape change.

My research has focused on (1) the effects of agricultural and forestry land-use practices on stream and riparian habitats critical to native fish species, and (2) the development of land management practices that minimize degradation of stream and riparian functions important to aquatic species. 

About your research program/projects: Although I am now retired from federal service, I continue to participate in the Department and provide students expertise and mentoring in the conservation and management of aquatic species living in agricultural landscapes, and arid lands of the American Southwest. In addition, I collaborate with river scientists in western Europe, Mexico, Japan, and Oregon on restoration applications and strategies focusing on the management of wood in world rivers. 

Flooded Fields and Drainage Ditches of the Willamette Valley: Habitat legacies for native fish and wildlife. DVD produced by Freshwaters Illustrated in collaboration with OSU and Oregon Sea Grant.

Oregon Public Broadcasting, Oregon Field Guide: Ditch Fish; http://www.opb.org/television/programs/ofg/segment/ditch-fish/

I study the effects of ocean conditions on the distribution and feeding ecology of marine fishes in the Northeast Pacific Ocean.  Also interested in other trophic levels from zooplankton up to seabirds and marine mammals and how the different trophic levels interact.

Ric currently leads a team of researchers and students working on several projects including feeding ecology of juvenile salmon and other fishes in the Columbia River plume, distribution of salmon and associated biota relative to hydrographic features and migration patterns of salmon in coastal waters. He currently sits on several national and international committees, panels and working groups and is heavily involved with North Pacific fisheries science and management issues.

My research interests center around three broad topics:
1) Understanding how salmon and trout use stream habitats and how these habitats are distributed across a landscape;
2) Evaluating and developing spatial data for broad-scale research and management of stream ecosystems; and
3) Advancing knowledge of interactions among in-channel conditions, watershed processes, and land management to better evaluate policy options.

Watershed Health and Aquatic Invasive Species Specialist. Sam Chan is Oregon Sea Grant's expert in aquatic invasive species and aquatic ecosystem health. He provides public education and engagement to Oregonians of all ages on identifying, controlling and managing the spread of marine invasives, and conducts research to test evaluate and implement invasive species educational programs.

Aquatic biological invasions, invertebrate zoology and peracaridan crustacean taxonomy. Climate consequences for species invasions and diversity changes in marine coastal systems, the historical origin and mechanisms of marine invertebrate dispersal, the criteria for introduced species and the geographical impacts of humans on ecosystems, the processes of biological invasions and the systematics of marine peracaridan crustaceans, invertebrate ecology and systmatics. An illustrated key to the 345 shallow water shallow water marine and estuarine gammaridean amphipod crustaceans of the American Pacific from Point Conception to the Columbia River. (One out of every eleven species in the 1001 page 4th edition of "Light and Smith's Manual" are gammaridean amphipods).

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My research focuses on the application of population and landscape ecology principles to better understand and predict how species respond to environmental heterogeneity across ecological and spatial scales. My research involves three major themes: (1) the development, evaluation, and application of hierarchical models to estimate the distribution, abundance, and demography of species; (2) the development of decision-support models to forecast how species will respond to future conditions; and (3) the use of remote sensing technologies to monitor large-scale changes in the distribution of species and their habitats.

Fish ecology and conservation biology. Landscape ecology of aquatic ecosystems, conservation biology of focal species, ecology of natural disturbance, biological invasions, monitoring

My research focuses on the interactions among ecological processes, contaminant bioaccumulation, and effects on wild populations. I have specifically focused on (1) the ecological factors regulating contaminant bioaccumulation and trophic transfer, with an emphasis on food web processes and contaminant cycling, (2) land use practices and ecosystem restoration effects on contaminant cycling through food webs, and (3) the sublethal effects of contaminants on individuals and contaminant-induced impairment to reproduction in the wild. I broadly apply my research across taxa (primarily fish and waterbirds) and habitat types (including lakes, freshwater wetlands, agricultural fields, and estuarine habitats).

Fish Ecology, Fish-habitat relationships, Restoration, Aquatic-terrestrial linkages, Ecological literacy in contemporary culture

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Reproduction; Physiology

Clean Water Act Policy (esp. water quality standards)

I am Director of the Oregon Climate Change Research Institute; Professor in the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences; and Adjunct Professor in FWCS

Ecology of forest wildlife and ecology of forest owls.

Processes affecting persistence/extinction of small populations, conservation genetics, behavioral ecology of shorebirds, wetland ecology, mating systems.

Avian Population Genetics

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Aquatic Monitoring/Bioassessment Biogeochemistry Ecological Indicators.

Lake, Stream, and Wetland Biological Assessment and Monitoring

Fish Assemblage Ecology
Landscape Ecology
Stream & River Ecology

I am interested in the ecology of early life stages of marine species and the constraints imposed by the environment. I am particularly interested in the pervasive influence on temperature variation on all aspects of physiology and ecology of ectotherms. A current area of research is the role of temperature variation on growth dynamics and survival patterns of juvenile fishes, including the phenomenon of winter mortality among temperate and boreal fishes. I am also interested in the influence of temperature on predator-prey behavioral interactions, habitat selection, growth energetics, and larval ecology. A new avenue of research is the potential impacts of ocean acidification on fishes on trophic dynamics of the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska. My research is focused on species of commercial importance in Alaska: walleye pollock, Pacific cod, northern rock sole, and Pacific halibut.

Aquatic Ecology and Biogeochemistry

Landscape influences on streams: stream-forest interactions; abiotic factors (hydrology, temperature, geomorphology, others) which influence stream biota and stream ecosystem functions; network/patch dynamics; hierarchical analysis of effects of scale of observation on our understanding of the process under study.

Interactions of ecosystems, land use, and climate change in wetlands and tropical forests (current emphasis is on mangroves and other coastal ecosystems, tropical swamp forests, and riparian zones). Riparian ecology and restoration. Approaches to climate change adaptation and mitigation. Natural and human disturbances on ecosystem structure and function.

Stream channel morphology and hydraulics.
Field methods for quantifying aquatic biota and habitat.
Natural & anthropogenic controls on aquatic habitat & biota.
Stream sediment transport and sediment effects on biota.
Quantifying and assessing physical habitat complexity.
Physical Habitat Structure (in streams, rivers, lakes)

Presently the Kent lab is focusing on two major research areas; diseases of zebrafish in research facilities and impacts of pathogens on wild salmonid fishes. In both areas, we are focusing on the study of chronic infectious diseases. In the past decade there has been a dramatic increase in the use of zebrafish as a model in biomedical research. Underlying chronic diseases are of concern as they relate to non-protocol induced variation in laboratory fish, as they would with any laboratory animal. Microsporidosis (caused by Pseudoloma neurophilia) and mycobacteriosis (caused by various species of Mycobacterium) are the diseases under investigation at this time. This work is supported by NIH NCRR.  Dr. Kent is also a co-PI at the Zebrafish International Resource Center, where he assists with health studies and their diagnostic service. We also have an on-line manual on zebrafish diseases.

We recently established the SPF (Specific Pathogen Free) zebrafish research colony here at OSU at the Sinnhuber Aquatic Resource Center in collaboration with Dr. Robyn Tanguay. This was supported by the NIEHS Environmental Health Sciences Center and NIH NCRR. Relating to our zebrafish studies, Drs. Kent and Tanguay oversee a T-32 training grant from NIH NCRR to provide research training to veterinarians with aquatic models.

Regarding salmonid fishes, we recently completed a multi-year study on the impacts of parasites on overwinter survival in coho salmon from the West Fork Smith River in Oregon. These fish are Endangered Species Act (ESA) listed as “threaten”. Work was supported by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. We are now investigating the role of multiple pathogen infections with prespawning Chinook salmon from the Willamette River in collaboration with Dr. Carl Schreck, OSU and Dr. Chris Claudill, University of Idaho, and through support of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Dr. Kent also investigates other parasites, including those infecting terrestrial animals. Recently we described spirurid nematodes in cougars in Oregon and modified a new diagnostic test for Haemonchus contortus, an important trichostongyle nematode of sheep, goats and camilds (See publications below).  We also showed that  what were thought to be gonadal tumors in arrow gobies are actually lesions caused by a new species of Ichthyosporidium (Microsporidia).

My current research focuses on the development of hard- and software for real-time monitoring of marine mammals. I am also involved in research projects investigating the underwater vocal behavior of Antarctic pinnipeds - especially leopard seals, Hydrurga leptonyx. Marine Bioacoustic.

Processes affecting regional distribution of stream invertebrates and fish; Trophic interactions in streams; Riparian processes affecting stream communities; Thermal and hydrologic influences on aquatic communities in arid systems, especially eastern Oregon. Stream ecology, aquatic invertebrates, trophic interactions in streams.

Determination of critical habitat, migration routes, feeding ecology and dive behavior for endangered whales; also population assessment, human conflicts and resolution.

Effects of extended reservoir drawdown on resource dynamics in Willamette Basin Reservoirs (nutrients, productivity & food webs)

Kim Nelson is a Research Wildlife Biologist in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Oregon State University.  The current focus of her research is on the ecology and habitat associations of seabirds, specifically using modeling and habitat data to better understand and help resolve wildlife conservation and management issues.  She has studied the nest-site characteristics, stand and landscape associations, abundance, and nesting behavior of forest birds and seabirds of the Pacific, including Marbled Murrelets, Long-billed Murrelets, Caspian Terns, and a variety of species in forests of the Pacific Northwest and at mixed seabird colonies in the Bering Sea.  She has published more than 50 scientific papers on her research.

Ecology and habitat associations of seabirds, specifically Brachyramphus murrelets; forest-wildlife interactions; using information on habitat associations to better manage bird populations. Kim is also interested in the ecology of Kittlitz's and Long-billed Murrelets, other Pacific seabirds and their habitats, the factors associated with nest predation, and management of older-aged forests for birds and other wildlife.

Other: Please send her any inland observations of Marbled Murrelets in Oregon and southeast Alaska, and inland or at-sea observations of Long-billed Murrelets in Asia and throughout the world.

 Ecology of anadromous salmonids, stream habitat landscape ecology and monitoring

Seabird and Colonial Waterbird Ecology, Conservation, and Management. Reproductive energetics of birds, especially seabirds; using energetics and nutritional approaches to better understand and help resolve wildlife management issues, including seabird-fisheries interactions, long-term impacts of oil spills, and impacts of anthropogenic disturbance.

As a physical geographer with a background in complex data analysis and spatial modeling,  I am interested in the exploration and analysis of the ever-increasing richness of data from remote sensing projects or measurement networks including species distributions, land cover and land use information, forest fire fuel repositories, and long-term climate data. My research focuses on the application of process models and machine learning methods, in particular neural networks, to analyze and model a variety of bio-geophysical processes associated with a changing climate reaching from alterations of atmosphere-land exchange to wildfire risk assessments.

Environmental physiology and reproductive physiology of fish. Particularly, determination of effects of stress on fish performance in the wild and in the hatchery. Areas of interest include fish health, migration and development. Studies include synecology, endocrinology, immunology, molecular genetics as well as behavior and toxicology.

I study the influence of climate and landscape on species distributions, metapopulation dynamics, and functional connectivity in wildlife species in contemporary and future timescales. I seek to apply this information towards mitigation scenarios for focal species such as American pika and swift fox in the context of climate change and species restoration.

Please see my website for further details regarding research projects I am currently involved with. 

My scholarly interests include abiotic and biotic characteristics of habitat refugia for American pika in low-elevation lava flows and strategies for evidence-based management of parks and protected areas.

Instructor at University of Oregon

Environmental Projects Coordinator (Benton County)

I study how changes in the marine environment affect the foraging ecology, reproduction, and population dynamics of mid to upper trophic-level consumers, especially seabirds. I use satellite remote sensing applications to study atmospheric and oceanographic effects on animal distribution, identification of biological “hotspots,” and the effects of climate change. Research tools that I use include animal tracking, colony-based observational studies, vessel-based surveys, time series analyses, habitat modeling, and stable isotope analyses for dietary and food web studies. I conduct fieldwork off Oregon, Alaska, Japan, and Hawaii.

Marine fish stock assessment and fishery harvest theory, statistical methodology, risk analysis and precautionary approaches, prevention of overfishing.

I am an interdisciplinary social scientist with a background in human geography. I have diverse interests, including: sense of place, governance, infrastructure, landscapes, and place change. Much of my work focuses on examining people-place relationships and has regionally focused on Eurasia (Baltic Sea Region) and Pacific Northwest (USA). My research aims to contribute to management, planning, and policy.