Appealing to Different Appetites? A Comparative Analysis of Visitors and Residents to a Culinary Festival

This study presents a comparative analysis of visitors and local residents attending selected events at a month-long culinary festival. The primary purposes of this study were to compare the motivations, spending behaviours, and satisfaction levels of these two groups. Consideration was also given to the information sources used to learn about the Festival Findings are based on an on-line survey of festival attendees; in total 460 surveys were collected and used. Research findings highlighted differences between visitor and resident groups with respect to motivations for attending a culinary events, spending behaviours and information sources used. An examination of satisfaction rating revealed significant variance across individual events. These results offer valuable insights for culinary festival organizers and marketers, who may wish to consider the differing motivations and information sources used by these two groups when developing advertising campaigns and on-site food and shopping experiences

The Influence of Prey Predictability on the Foraging Behavior and Movement of Intertidal Predators

Fluctuations and spatial heterogeneity of habitat and resources is thought to underlie niche variation in animal populations, with intraspecific differences serving to produce or maintain population-, community-, or ecosystem-level patterns. Individual diet variation, defined as individual variation in food resource use within a population that is consistent over time, is gaining recognition as an important factor influencing larger-scale processes. Spatial and temporal predictability of prey resources, individual movement behaviors, and diet choice may all serve to maintain individual diet specialization. However, the relationships between these factors in establishing and maintaining individual-level variation at ecological scales remains poorly understood. This dissertation provides insight into the dependence of individual diet specialization on the predictability, productivity, and spatial structure of prey by integrating feedbacks between individual behaviors, populations, and communities at local and regional scales. Foraging theory seeks to understand the relationships between the energetic demands of a predator, prey selection, patchiness of prey, and individual movement. To maximize energetic intake, a foraging predator must balance energy expended by foraging movements with energy gained via prey consumption, with foraging success greatly impacted by the scale of patchiness of prey. In Chapter 2, I correlated scale- dependent prey patchiness and predator feeding rates to predict predator movement in a heterogeneous prey environment. I then compared these predictions to observed movement of a predatory intertidal whelk Nucella ostrina over a 3-month period. I found that combining prey patchiness and predator feeding rates sufficiently explains predator movement rates, highlighting a tradeoff between prey heterogeneity and individual energetic demands in determining predator foraging behavior. Foraging behavior can maintain variation in individual diet, with differential habitat use and prey selection correlated with different foraging strategies. Optimal search strategies for a foraging predator depend on the abundance and predictability of prey, therefore differences in individual diet breadth are thought to produce different foraging patterns. In Chapter 3, I connected the broad-scale movement patterns found in Chapter 2 with variation in individual foraging behavior by quantifying variation in individual foraging patterns and correlating these patterns to habitat use and diet breadth. I found evidence for variation in individual behaviors, habitat use, and diet diversity. However, there was an overwhelming influence of tidal cycles on movement patterns, rather than associations with prey choice or habitat occupancy. This is likely due to the high degree of prey productivity at my focal study site, making random search patterns and small foraging movements sufficiently efficient for finding prey. While prey heterogeneity and individual behaviors within a population can maintain variation in individual diet at local scales, the processes that establish individual diet variation requires further study. The lack of environmental predictability has been posited to promote inter-individual differences on both ecological and evolutionary timescales, as tradeoffs between being a prey specialist versus a generalist result in one being favored over the other in certain environmental predictability regimes. In Chapter 4, I used manipulative laboratory experiments to investigate the role of site-specific environmental unpredictability on the relative contributions of learning and heritable diet plasticity in shaping the foraging efficiency of whelk hatchlings. My results indicated the importance of learning in individual foraging and prey handling efficiency. Additionally, there is suggestive evidence that prey predictability at the population source location decreases foraging times as well. However, site attributes or behavioral modification may play a larger role than prey predictability in determining individual foraging abilities I detected

Is hypoxia’s influence restricted to the deep? Evaluation of nearshore community composition in Hood Canal, Washington, a seasonally hypoxic estuary

Hypoxia [dissolved oxygen (DO) \u3c 2 mg L-1] has been identified as a key threat to the Puget Sound ecosystem, particularly in Hood Canal. Hood Canal is subject to seasonal hypoxia in its southern reaches, and prior work has demonstrated avoidance patterns of demersal species from the deep, offshore hypoxia-impacted waters. However, the non-lethal impact of low DO conditions on the nearshore community is not well understood, despite its importance to the estuary (e.g., nursery habitat). We evaluated the nature and extent of the sub-lethal influence of hypoxia on the nearshore community using underwater video monitoring techniques. Within two regions of Hood Canal, a southern highly impacted region and a northern reference region, we recorded weekly underwater video of the benthos via transects at three depths (10, 20, 30m) to measure species density and composition. Weekly monitoring of water quality revealed strong differences in DO over time and space, with the vertical extent of low DO waters increasing markedly at the end of summer in the south. While we were unable to detect acute shifts in nearshore densities, the community composition was significantly different between the two study regions; the south was primarily composed of hypoxia tolerant invertebrates and fewer fish species compared to the north. Moreover, the tolerant invertebrates displayed a three-fold increase in presence below a specific DO threshold (mean threshold ± SE = 3.95 mg L-1 ± 0.22), while the more sensitive species (e.g., fish) declined. Post-hoc comparisons of our findings to long-term DO trends in Hood Canal revealed the potential for a more persistent low DO state in the southern reaches. As a result, this study provides further insight into the complex regional differences in community structure and potential sensitivity of the nearshore community to other perturbations in Hood Canal

GTP avoidance in Tetrahymena thermophila requires tyrosine kinase activity, intracellular calcium, NOS, and guanylyl cyclase

Guanosine 5'-triphosphate (GTP) is a chemorepellent in Tetrahymena thermophila that has been shown to stimulate cell division as well as ciliary reversal. Previous studies have proposed that GTP avoidance is linked to a receptor-mediated, calcium-based depolarization. However, the intracellular mechanisms involved in GTP avoidance have not been previously documented. In this study, we examine the hypothesis that GTP signals through a tyrosine kinase pathway in T. thermophila. Using behavioral assays, enzyme immunosorbent assays, Western blotting, and immunofluorescence, we present data that implicate a tyrosine kinase, phospholipase C, intracellular calcium, nitric oxide synthase (NOS) and guanylyl cyclase in GTP signaling. The tyrosine kinase inhibitor genistein eliminates GTP avoidance in Tetrahymena in behavioral assays. Similarly, pharmacological inhibitors of phospholipase C, NOS, and guanylyl cyclase all eliminated Tetrahymena avoidance to GTP. Immunofluorescence data shows evidence of tyrosine kinase activity in the cilia, suggesting that this enzyme activity could be directly involved in ciliary reversal

Hawaiian Enough: Insecure Identities, Racialization, and Recognition among Kānaka Maoli

M.A

Morphological Variability and Intraspecific Aggression in the Clonal Anemone, Anthopleura elegantissima

Individuals of the aggregating anemone, Anthopleura elegantissima, occupy the rocky intertidal and form large clusters of polyps by splitting (fission). These organisms are known to attack neighboring, unrelated clone-groups and although genetically identical, fighting ability varies within a clone-group; individuals on the edge of the aggregation take the role of warriors, leaving those further inside the clone-group free to reproduce. This study examined morphological differences between successful and unsuccessful combatants, both within a colony and across different clone-groups. This may confer a competitive advantage to individuals within a colony or to the clone-group as a whole. Anemones were collected from three distinctly separate clonal colonies in a single bay and agonistic interclonal interactions were staged. Competitors were chosen at random within each functional class, with 15 reproducer and 15 warrior trials. Outcomes of the competitions were determined and variations in tentacle length, tentacle density and acrorhagi density were assessed between the winners and losers, as well as within clone-groups. Warriors and reproducers from Clone-group 1 had the highest frequency of wins, while individuals from Clone-group 3 had the least. No differences between tentacle density and acrorhagi density were observed. Tentacle length varied both across clone groups and between warriors and reproducers within colonies (warriors: P < 0.001, reproducers: P =0.004; and clone-group (CG) 1: P =0.001, CG 3: P = 0.003; respectively). Morphological characteristics measured do not appear to give a competitive advantage to individuals (P = 0.262). Aggressive ability seems to be conferred to the aggregation as a whole

The Role of Egg Predation in Pacific Herring Population Dynamics in the Salish Sea

Forage fish such as Pacific herring (Clupea pallasii) are ecological foundation species in marine and estuarine ecosystems. In the Salish Sea, Pacific herring are an indicator species, and the regional management agency, the Puget Sound Partnership, has set recovery targets to guide herring management. Salish Sea herring are spatially and temporally segregated into individual subpopulations by their spawning behavior, and these subpopulations show asynchronous abundance trends over the past several decades. Some local spawning subpopulations have significantly declining trends. Here we focus on the embryonic stage as a potential limiting stage for herring, describing variability in hatch rates across different subpopulations, and assessing the relative importance of predation in determining herring egg hatch success. We then explore the implications of predation rates for observed local trends in herring biomass. Using a combination of in situ incubations and predation exclusion devices, we estimated herring egg survival rates both in the presence and absence of large predators, across multiple spawning subpopulations in the Salish Sea. We found that predation accounted for approximately 50% of egg loss across all spawning populations. We link predation rates to 40+ years of herring biomass estimates for each spawning population and trends in major egg predators (diving ducks) to develop hypotheses about stressors that limit recovery of herring in the Salish Sea