Elwha River restoration: evolution of habitats and nearshore ecosystems during large-scale dam removal project

Located on the North Olympic Peninsula, the Elwha River nearshore is a critical component of the Salish Sea. It is depended on by no fewer than six federally listed salmon species including chum, and numerous forage fish such as surf smelt and sand lance. The Elwha nearshore is impaired ecologically due to extensive shoreline armoring and in-river channelization and dams. The Elwha nearshore is undergoing an unprecedented restoration event with the removal of two large in river dams from September 2011 to 2014, exposing 21 million cubic meters of sediment. According to Foley et al. 2016, as of December 2016, approximately 70% has been eroded of which 90% transported to the Strait of Juan de Fuca equating 13.23 million cubic meters of sediment that has been delivered to the sediment starved Elwha nearshore. The Coastal Watershed Institute and partners lead long-term studies of the Elwha nearshore ecological function. In this presentation, we provide an overview of fish use of the Elwha and comparative nearshore areas, and observations of nearshore ecological function response of the juvenile fish migration and forage fish spawning to dam removal. Despite the sediment delivery from the dam removal, nearshore restoration is incomplete due to remaining shoreline armoring and lower river alterations. These are the focus of ongoing community collaboration and large-scale restoration projects presented by Michel et al. Finally, we provide an overview of linkages of the nearshore restoration event for the larger Elwha and Salish Sea ecosystem

Idaho Bean Seeds in Puerto Rico

The Global Scholars Program, sponsored by International Business Programs, partners selected students with an Idaho company to carry out international business research projects. This year, the Global Scholars are working in cooperation with the Idaho Bean Commission to explore new market opportunities for Idaho bean seed producers in Puerto Rico. Idaho’s current bean industry has the capacity to export beans for all of Central America, and as a result, believes Puerto Rico to be the future staging area for the Caribbean. Therefore, the Idaho Bean Commission welcomed this opportunity to partner with the Program. Puerto Rico industrialized during the 1950s, which brought upon unprecedented expansion in food consumption and imports, but also undermined the productive potential of the agriculture sector. Recently, Puerto Rico has expanded that industry, which creates opportunities for business and investment. The Global Scholars will conduct market research to help decide if Puerto Rico’s growing agricultural industry is a viable market for Idaho seed beans. The Global Scholars will continue their research through a live case study in Puerto Rico in March. The Global Scholars will participate in the BSU Undergraduate Research Conference in order to present the results as presented to the Idaho Bean Commission

Prosodic Encoding of Sexuality in the Speech Patterns of Gay and Straight Men

Several studies have been designed to analyze the differences between gay and straight speech in males. Among them, Gaudio (1994) reported little difference in fluctuation in pitch and pitch range between the two populations from read text. This led him to conclude that sexuality could either be encoded by other features in their speech (i.e. /s/-fronting or “gay lisp”), or that differences in pitch could only appear in more naturally occurring speech. This poster reports on a sociophonetic study that builds on Gaudio (1994), addressing the latter concern by analyzing speech from different experimental tasks: each participant read aloud from a script, told a story from a picture book with no words, and recalled something funny that had happened to them recently. In a pilot study, two participants (one gay, one straight) were recorded performing each of the tasks in a sound-attenuated booth using a digital recorder. Praat phonetic analysis software was used to measure the pitch (fundamental frequency; F0), fluctuations in F0, and F0 range in each phrase produced by the participants. A preliminary analysis of the results supports Gaudio’s conclusions, providing further evidence that pitch fluctuation and pitch range are not indicative of male sexual identity