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• 261. [Article] Review of Status and Opportunities in Farmed Fish using an Innovative Real Time Fish Market Information System

  Abstract Only This is part of the IIFET Special Session on Markets and Value Chains for Small Aquaculture & Fisheries Enterprises with a Focus on Gender that took place on 17 July 2012 in Dar Es Salaam, ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Review of Status and Opportunities in Farmed Fish using an Innovative Real Time Fish Market Information System Author: Ngugi, Charles, Quagrainie, Kwamena, Amadiva, Judith, Manyala, Julius Abstract Only This is part of the IIFET Special Session on Markets and Value Chains for Small Aquaculture & Fisheries Enterprises with a Focus on Gender that took place on 17 July 2012 in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania in conjunction with 16th IIFET Conference. The complete proceedings of this special session are available (http://aquafishcrsp.oregonstate.edu/Documents/Uploads/FileManager/IIFET%202012%20CRSP%20Session%20Proceedings%20Final_small.pdf) through the Aquaculture & Fisheries Collaborative Research Support Program gender web site, (http://aquafishcrsp.oregonstate.edu/Gender/). Title: Review of Status and Opportunities in Farmed Fish using an Innovative Real Time Fish Market Information System Author: Ngugi, Charles, Quagrainie, Kwamena, Amadiva, Judith, Manyala, Julius Abstract Only This is part of the IIFET Special Session on Markets and Value Chains for Small Aquaculture & Fisheries Enterprises with a Focus on Gender that took place on 17 July 2012 in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania in conjunction with 16th IIFET Conference. The complete proceedings of this special session are available (http://aquafishcrsp.oregonstate.edu/Documents/Uploads/FileManager/IIFET%202012%20CRSP%20Session%20Proceedings%20Final_small.pdf) through the Aquaculture & Fisheries Collaborative Research Support Program gender web site, (http://aquafishcrsp.oregonstate.edu/Gender/). Close

• 262. [Article] Status of Oregon Stocks of Coho Salmon, 2004 through 2008 Report Number: OPSW-ODFW-2009-3

  Abstract -- This report summarizes five years of monitoring status and trend in Oregon’s naturally spawning coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) populations. The five coho run years reported are 2004 through ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Status of Oregon Stocks of Coho Salmon, 2004 through 2008 Report Number: OPSW-ODFW-2009-3 Abstract -- This report summarizes five years of monitoring status and trend in Oregon’s naturally spawning coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) populations. The five coho run years reported are 2004 through 2008. Monitoring results include: abundance of naturally spawning coho; density of spawning coho; coho spawn timing; and proportion of hatchery (marked) coho in naturally spawning populations. These results are based on data from randomly selected spawning surveys, as well as other methods in areas without adequate random surveys. Results for coho standard spawning surveys, as well as spawning surveys for other species are covered in data summaries and reports posted on an Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) web page (see: http://oregonstate.edu/dept/ODFW/spawn/index.htm). Monitoring occurs at three hierarchical spatial scales, as defined by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS): Evolutionarily Significant Unit (ESU); Stratum; and coho Population. There are three coho ESU’s located entirely or partially within the State of Oregon: the Lower Columbia River (LCR) Coho ESU; the Oregon Coast (OC) Coho ESU; and the Southern Oregon/Northern California Coasts (SONCC) Coho ESU. This report summarizes results for coho populations in the portion of each ESU that is within the State of Oregon. In the Oregon portion of the LCR Coho ESU sufficient surveys were conducted to meet precision goals at the ESU level three out of the five sampling years. At the population complex scale, yearly precision goals were rarely met. Wild spawner abundance remained fairly stable over the five sampling years; hatchery abundance was more variable. Regional patterns in fish distribution, spawn timing, and hatchery proportion are apparent at both the stratum and population scale. In the Oregon Coast ESU sufficient surveys were conducted to meet precision goals at the ESU level in all five sampling years, however at the population scale, precision goals were rarely met. Wild spawner abundance declined over the first four sampling years, but showed a significant increase in the fifth sampling year. The proportion of hatchery fish was generally low, but variable over the five sampling years. Only two populations, Salmon River and North Umpqua River, consistently had over 10% hatchery fish on the spawning grounds. Regional patterns in fish distribution, spawn timing, and hatchery proportion are apparent. Inadequate funding and the need to update the GRTS sampling frame continue to hamper monitoring of the Oregon portion of the Southern Oregon/Northern California Coasts Coho ESU. In the Oregon portion of the ESU insufficient surveys were conducted to meet precision goals at the ESU level in any of the four years when GRTS surveys were done. However, estimates of wild coho spawners were obtained in all five years based on Huntley Park seining. Wild coho spawner abundance declined substantially over the five run years; but the proportion of hatchery coho spawning naturally was fairly low and stable. Regional patterns in fish distribution, spawn timing, and hatchery proportion are apparent. Title: Status of Oregon Stocks of Coho Salmon, 2004 through 2008 Report Number: OPSW-ODFW-2009-3 Abstract -- This report summarizes five years of monitoring status and trend in Oregon’s naturally spawning coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) populations. The five coho run years reported are 2004 through 2008. Monitoring results include: abundance of naturally spawning coho; density of spawning coho; coho spawn timing; and proportion of hatchery (marked) coho in naturally spawning populations. These results are based on data from randomly selected spawning surveys, as well as other methods in areas without adequate random surveys. Results for coho standard spawning surveys, as well as spawning surveys for other species are covered in data summaries and reports posted on an Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) web page (see: http://oregonstate.edu/dept/ODFW/spawn/index.htm). Monitoring occurs at three hierarchical spatial scales, as defined by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS): Evolutionarily Significant Unit (ESU); Stratum; and coho Population. There are three coho ESU’s located entirely or partially within the State of Oregon: the Lower Columbia River (LCR) Coho ESU; the Oregon Coast (OC) Coho ESU; and the Southern Oregon/Northern California Coasts (SONCC) Coho ESU. This report summarizes results for coho populations in the portion of each ESU that is within the State of Oregon. In the Oregon portion of the LCR Coho ESU sufficient surveys were conducted to meet precision goals at the ESU level three out of the five sampling years. At the population complex scale, yearly precision goals were rarely met. Wild spawner abundance remained fairly stable over the five sampling years; hatchery abundance was more variable. Regional patterns in fish distribution, spawn timing, and hatchery proportion are apparent at both the stratum and population scale. In the Oregon Coast ESU sufficient surveys were conducted to meet precision goals at the ESU level in all five sampling years, however at the population scale, precision goals were rarely met. Wild spawner abundance declined over the first four sampling years, but showed a significant increase in the fifth sampling year. The proportion of hatchery fish was generally low, but variable over the five sampling years. Only two populations, Salmon River and North Umpqua River, consistently had over 10% hatchery fish on the spawning grounds. Regional patterns in fish distribution, spawn timing, and hatchery proportion are apparent. Inadequate funding and the need to update the GRTS sampling frame continue to hamper monitoring of the Oregon portion of the Southern Oregon/Northern California Coasts Coho ESU. In the Oregon portion of the ESU insufficient surveys were conducted to meet precision goals at the ESU level in any of the four years when GRTS surveys were done. However, estimates of wild coho spawners were obtained in all five years based on Huntley Park seining. Wild coho spawner abundance declined substantially over the five run years; but the proportion of hatchery coho spawning naturally was fairly low and stable. Regional patterns in fish distribution, spawn timing, and hatchery proportion are apparent. Close

• 263. [Article] Examination of Human Impacts on the Biodiversity and Ecology of Lichen and Moss Communities

  Globally, more than half of the world's population is living in urban areas and it is well accepted that human activities (e.g. climate warming, pollution, landscape homogenization) pose a multitude of ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Examination of Human Impacts on the Biodiversity and Ecology of Lichen and Moss Communities Author: Prather, Hannah Marie Year: 2017 Globally, more than half of the world's population is living in urban areas and it is well accepted that human activities (e.g. climate warming, pollution, landscape homogenization) pose a multitude of threats to ecosystems. Largely, human-related impacts on biodiversity will hold consequences for larger ecological processes and research looking into human impacts on sensitive epiphytic lichen and moss communities is an emerging area of research. While seemingly small, lichen and moss communities exist on nearly every terrestrial ecosystem on Earth and contribute to whole-system processes (e.g. hydrology, mineral cycling, food web energetics) worldwide. To further examine human impacts on epiphytic communities, I conducted three studies examining urbanization and climate warming effects on epiphytic lichen and moss biodiversity and ecology. In the first study I revisited a historic urban lichen community study to assess how urban lichen communities have responded to regional air quality changes occurring over the last nearly two decades. I further investigated, for the first time, the biodiversity of urban tree canopy-dwelling lichen communities in a native coniferous tree species, Pseudotsuga menziesii. I found that urban parks and forested areas harbor a species rich community of lichens epiphytes. Further, I found evidence for the distinct homogenization of urban epiphytic lichen communities, suggesting that expanding beyond simplistic measures of biodiversity to consider community composition and functional biodiversity may be necessary when assessing the ecology and potential ecosystem services of epiphyte communites within urbanizing landscapes. Next, I present the first tall tree canopy study across a regional gradient of urbanization near Portland, Oregon, USA. I found that tall tree canopy epiphyte communities change dramatically along gradients of increasing urbanization, most notably by the transitioning of species functional groups from sensitive, oligotrophic species to a dominance of urban-tolerant, eutrophic species. The implications these dramatic shifts in species composition have on essential PNW ecosystem processes, like N-fixation and canopy microclimate regulation, is still not well understood and is difficult to formally evaluate. However, I find strong evidence that native conifer trees in urban areas may provide a diversity of essential ecosystem services, including providing stratified habitat for epiphyte communities and their associated micro arthropod communities and the scavenging of atmospherically deposited nutrients. Future work is needed to understand how losses in canopy N fixation and species with large biomass (both lichens and bryophytes) will affect nutrient and hydrologic cycling in the PNW region, which continue to undergo rapid growth and urbanization. The final chapter investigates the impacts of passive warming by Open Top Chambers (OTCs) in moss-dominated ecosystems located on the Western Antarctic Peninsula, an area of increasing climate warming. I compared species-specific temperature effects, moss canopy morphology, sexual reproductive effort and invertebrate communities between OTC and control moss communities for two moss species, Polytrichastrum alpinum and Sanionia uncinata, that make up over 65% of the terrestrial vegetative cover in the area. I found distinct reproductive shifts in P. alpinum under passive warming compared to controls. Moss communities under warming also had substantially larger total invertebrate communities than those in control moss communities, and invertebrate communities were significantly affected by moss species and moss reproductive effort. Further, substantial species-specific thermal differences among contiguous patches of these dominant moss species were revealed. These results suggest that continued warming will differentially impact the reproductive output of Antarctic moss species and is likely to dramatically alter terrestrial ecosystems dynamics from the bottom up. This combined work provides a diverse contribution to the field of epiphyte ecology and biology by providing new insights on how human impacts will affect epiphyte lichen and moss communities across diverse ecosystems, in light of a rapidly changing planet. Title: Examination of Human Impacts on the Biodiversity and Ecology of Lichen and Moss Communities Author: Prather, Hannah Marie Year: 2017 Globally, more than half of the world's population is living in urban areas and it is well accepted that human activities (e.g. climate warming, pollution, landscape homogenization) pose a multitude of threats to ecosystems. Largely, human-related impacts on biodiversity will hold consequences for larger ecological processes and research looking into human impacts on sensitive epiphytic lichen and moss communities is an emerging area of research. While seemingly small, lichen and moss communities exist on nearly every terrestrial ecosystem on Earth and contribute to whole-system processes (e.g. hydrology, mineral cycling, food web energetics) worldwide. To further examine human impacts on epiphytic communities, I conducted three studies examining urbanization and climate warming effects on epiphytic lichen and moss biodiversity and ecology. In the first study I revisited a historic urban lichen community study to assess how urban lichen communities have responded to regional air quality changes occurring over the last nearly two decades. I further investigated, for the first time, the biodiversity of urban tree canopy-dwelling lichen communities in a native coniferous tree species, Pseudotsuga menziesii. I found that urban parks and forested areas harbor a species rich community of lichens epiphytes. Further, I found evidence for the distinct homogenization of urban epiphytic lichen communities, suggesting that expanding beyond simplistic measures of biodiversity to consider community composition and functional biodiversity may be necessary when assessing the ecology and potential ecosystem services of epiphyte communites within urbanizing landscapes. Next, I present the first tall tree canopy study across a regional gradient of urbanization near Portland, Oregon, USA. I found that tall tree canopy epiphyte communities change dramatically along gradients of increasing urbanization, most notably by the transitioning of species functional groups from sensitive, oligotrophic species to a dominance of urban-tolerant, eutrophic species. The implications these dramatic shifts in species composition have on essential PNW ecosystem processes, like N-fixation and canopy microclimate regulation, is still not well understood and is difficult to formally evaluate. However, I find strong evidence that native conifer trees in urban areas may provide a diversity of essential ecosystem services, including providing stratified habitat for epiphyte communities and their associated micro arthropod communities and the scavenging of atmospherically deposited nutrients. Future work is needed to understand how losses in canopy N fixation and species with large biomass (both lichens and bryophytes) will affect nutrient and hydrologic cycling in the PNW region, which continue to undergo rapid growth and urbanization. The final chapter investigates the impacts of passive warming by Open Top Chambers (OTCs) in moss-dominated ecosystems located on the Western Antarctic Peninsula, an area of increasing climate warming. I compared species-specific temperature effects, moss canopy morphology, sexual reproductive effort and invertebrate communities between OTC and control moss communities for two moss species, Polytrichastrum alpinum and Sanionia uncinata, that make up over 65% of the terrestrial vegetative cover in the area. I found distinct reproductive shifts in P. alpinum under passive warming compared to controls. Moss communities under warming also had substantially larger total invertebrate communities than those in control moss communities, and invertebrate communities were significantly affected by moss species and moss reproductive effort. Further, substantial species-specific thermal differences among contiguous patches of these dominant moss species were revealed. These results suggest that continued warming will differentially impact the reproductive output of Antarctic moss species and is likely to dramatically alter terrestrial ecosystems dynamics from the bottom up. This combined work provides a diverse contribution to the field of epiphyte ecology and biology by providing new insights on how human impacts will affect epiphyte lichen and moss communities across diverse ecosystems, in light of a rapidly changing planet. Close

• 264. [Article] Lichen Functional Trait Variation Along an East-West Climatic Gradient in Oregon and Among Habitats in Katmai National Park, Alaska

  Functional traits of vascular plants have been an important component of ecological studies for a number of years; however, in more recent times vascular plant ecologists have begun to formalize a set ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Lichen Functional Trait Variation Along an East-West Climatic Gradient in Oregon and Among Habitats in Katmai National Park, Alaska Author: Spickerman, Kaleigh Functional traits of vascular plants have been an important component of ecological studies for a number of years; however, in more recent times vascular plant ecologists have begun to formalize a set of key traits and universal system of trait measurement. Many recent studies hypothesize global generality of trait patterns, which would allow for comparison among ecosystems and biomes and provide a foundation for general rules and theories, the so-called “Holy Grail” of ecology. However, the majority of these studies focus on functional trait patterns of vascular plants, with a minority examining the patterns of cryptograms such as lichens. Lichens are an important component of many ecosystems due to their contributions to biodiversity and their key ecosystem services, such as contributions to mineral and hydrological cycles and ecosystem food webs. Lichens are also of special interest because of their reliance on atmospheric deposition for nutrients and water, which makes them particularly sensitive to air pollution. Therefore, they are often used as bioindicators of air pollution, climate change, and general ecosystem health. This thesis examines the functional trait patterns of lichens in two contrasting regions with fundamentally different kinds of data. To better understand the patterns of lichen functional traits, we examined reproductive, morphological, and chemical trait variation along precipitation and temperature gradients in Oregon. Specifically, we measured traits of 102 macrolichen species collected from 166 USDA Forest Service program for Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) plots. These plots were located in a more-or-less continuous swath across Oregon between 43°W and 45°W. Plots were grouped into seven regions (the Oregon Coast, Coast Range, Willamette Valley, Western Cascades, High Cascades, Eastern Cascades, and Eastern Oregon). Using multivariate analysis techniques we found strong linear and nonlinear trait patterns along precipitation and temperature gradients, and were able to characterize the seven main regions of Oregon by the relative abundance of lichen traits. The literature on what lichen traits are most common in which habitats is sparse and anecdotal; understanding trait-habitat patterns could have management implications due to lichen importance as bioindicators and animal forage. Understanding how key traits are distributed among habitats could provide insight into potential air pollution impacts on certain habitats, animal movement among habitats, etc. To examine trait-habitat patterns, we measured the reproductive, morphological, and chemical traits of 429 lichen species collected haphazardly (without a formal sampling framework) from ten distinct habitats within Katmai National Park in southwest Alaska as part of a taxonomic inventory. Using multivariate analysis techniques we grouped habitats based on the expression of lichen traits and described the relative abundance of each trait in different habitats. The second goal of this study was to examine the potential usefulness of herbarium collections in ecological studies of this type. Herbarium specimens are a large potential resource that is generally unused in ecological studies due to concerns over potential bias and noise introduced by variation in collection methods. However, recent work has suggested that herbarium specimens may yield more useful results than previously thought and could be a valid resource for ecological studies. The data for our study were collected in a haphazard manner for a floristic inventory, similar to the collection methods used for many herbarium specimens. The patterns that we observed indicates that herbarium specimens may be a good resource for future research. Title: Lichen Functional Trait Variation Along an East-West Climatic Gradient in Oregon and Among Habitats in Katmai National Park, Alaska Author: Spickerman, Kaleigh Functional traits of vascular plants have been an important component of ecological studies for a number of years; however, in more recent times vascular plant ecologists have begun to formalize a set of key traits and universal system of trait measurement. Many recent studies hypothesize global generality of trait patterns, which would allow for comparison among ecosystems and biomes and provide a foundation for general rules and theories, the so-called “Holy Grail” of ecology. However, the majority of these studies focus on functional trait patterns of vascular plants, with a minority examining the patterns of cryptograms such as lichens. Lichens are an important component of many ecosystems due to their contributions to biodiversity and their key ecosystem services, such as contributions to mineral and hydrological cycles and ecosystem food webs. Lichens are also of special interest because of their reliance on atmospheric deposition for nutrients and water, which makes them particularly sensitive to air pollution. Therefore, they are often used as bioindicators of air pollution, climate change, and general ecosystem health. This thesis examines the functional trait patterns of lichens in two contrasting regions with fundamentally different kinds of data. To better understand the patterns of lichen functional traits, we examined reproductive, morphological, and chemical trait variation along precipitation and temperature gradients in Oregon. Specifically, we measured traits of 102 macrolichen species collected from 166 USDA Forest Service program for Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) plots. These plots were located in a more-or-less continuous swath across Oregon between 43°W and 45°W. Plots were grouped into seven regions (the Oregon Coast, Coast Range, Willamette Valley, Western Cascades, High Cascades, Eastern Cascades, and Eastern Oregon). Using multivariate analysis techniques we found strong linear and nonlinear trait patterns along precipitation and temperature gradients, and were able to characterize the seven main regions of Oregon by the relative abundance of lichen traits. The literature on what lichen traits are most common in which habitats is sparse and anecdotal; understanding trait-habitat patterns could have management implications due to lichen importance as bioindicators and animal forage. Understanding how key traits are distributed among habitats could provide insight into potential air pollution impacts on certain habitats, animal movement among habitats, etc. To examine trait-habitat patterns, we measured the reproductive, morphological, and chemical traits of 429 lichen species collected haphazardly (without a formal sampling framework) from ten distinct habitats within Katmai National Park in southwest Alaska as part of a taxonomic inventory. Using multivariate analysis techniques we grouped habitats based on the expression of lichen traits and described the relative abundance of each trait in different habitats. The second goal of this study was to examine the potential usefulness of herbarium collections in ecological studies of this type. Herbarium specimens are a large potential resource that is generally unused in ecological studies due to concerns over potential bias and noise introduced by variation in collection methods. However, recent work has suggested that herbarium specimens may yield more useful results than previously thought and could be a valid resource for ecological studies. The data for our study were collected in a haphazard manner for a floristic inventory, similar to the collection methods used for many herbarium specimens. The patterns that we observed indicates that herbarium specimens may be a good resource for future research. Close

• 265. [Article] Forestry

  Posted by permission of Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (CSA). (c) CSA 2011. All rights reserved.

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Forestry Author: Avery, Bonnie E. Posted by permission of Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (CSA). (c) CSA 2011. All rights reserved. Title: Forestry Author: Avery, Bonnie E. Posted by permission of Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (CSA). (c) CSA 2011. All rights reserved. Close

• 266. [Article] Exploratory Study of the Adoption and Use of the Smartphone Technology in Emerging Regions: Case of Saudi Arabia

  Users' acceptance of a new information technology (IT) is considered to be a key determinant factor of its success. Also, studying users' adoption and use of new IT plays an important role in determining ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Exploratory Study of the Adoption and Use of the Smartphone Technology in Emerging Regions: Case of Saudi Arabia Author: Aldhaban, Fahad Abdulaziz Year: 2016 Users' acceptance of a new information technology (IT) is considered to be a key determinant factor of its success. Also, studying users' adoption and use of new IT plays an important role in determining users' needs and reducing business risk, especially in industry segments with rapid changes in IT such as Smartphone technology. Such rapid evolution is influencing consumers' behaviors, their daily lifestyle, the manner of conducting their activities and their ways of consuming and using information. Smartphone technology holds a promising future with an expected global market that could reach US $258 billion by the end of year 2015 [1]. Besides the mobile industry, Smartphone technology introduces a wide range of opportunities and challenges for many related industries that participate directly or indirectly in producing and providing Smartphone services/products to the end users. Moreover, the Smartphone technology is relatively new technology with plenty of room for improvement. Better understanding of users' intentions and their behaviors regarding the adoption and use of the Smartphone technology plays a critical role in determining its success and benefiting all stakeholders. Significant efforts have been made to study and explain users' adoption and use of Smartphone technology. However, most of the empirical research focused on only a limited number of Smartphone aspects or on a specific profession such as doctors and nurses which may neglect other important factors. In emerging regions such as Jordan and China, cultural and social influence showed significant relationships with users' adoption and use of the Smartphone and its related technologies. Saudi Arabia is a developing country that has different cultural and social contexts that could influence users' intention to adopt and use the Smartphone technology. The key factors that influence general users' intention to adopt and use Smartphone technology in Saudi Arabia have not yet been studied and explored in a comprehensive manner. Therefore, the main purpose of this dissertation is to empirically study and explore the key factors that influence general users' adoption and use of the Smartphone in a comprehensive manner in Saudi Arabia. This dissertation starts with a literature review of existing research related to the adoption and use of Smartphone technology. Taxonomy is developed that includes factors that were identified as important in previous research and related to the adoption and use of the Smartphone technology. By using the developed taxonomy and reviewing literature related to the IT adoption theories, a preliminary theoretical research model is developed based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). A number of qualitative methods, namely brainstorming, focus group and individual interviews, have been conducted to evaluate, select and validate the existing factors, as well as introduce new factors, and to identify only the most related factors to be included in the preliminary research model. A survey questionnaire has been developed and validated to survey general users of the Smartphone in Saudi Arabia. A web-based survey has been designed and sent through email to 5,000 randomly selected smartphones users in Saudi Arabia. Data has been statistically analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The results indicate that performance expectancy factor, effort expectancy factor, brand influence factor, perceived enjoyment factor and design factor have a positive and significant relationship with users' intention to adopt and use smartphones in Saudi Arabia. Also, the results indicate that the social influence factor has a significant and positive relationship with use behavior or actual use of smartphones in Saudi Arabia. The results of this dissertation provide more insights to practitioners in the smartphones domain and information that contributes to the body of knowledge regarding information technology adoption and its related research, especially in Saudi Arabia. Title: Exploratory Study of the Adoption and Use of the Smartphone Technology in Emerging Regions: Case of Saudi Arabia Author: Aldhaban, Fahad Abdulaziz Year: 2016 Users' acceptance of a new information technology (IT) is considered to be a key determinant factor of its success. Also, studying users' adoption and use of new IT plays an important role in determining users' needs and reducing business risk, especially in industry segments with rapid changes in IT such as Smartphone technology. Such rapid evolution is influencing consumers' behaviors, their daily lifestyle, the manner of conducting their activities and their ways of consuming and using information. Smartphone technology holds a promising future with an expected global market that could reach US $258 billion by the end of year 2015 [1]. Besides the mobile industry, Smartphone technology introduces a wide range of opportunities and challenges for many related industries that participate directly or indirectly in producing and providing Smartphone services/products to the end users. Moreover, the Smartphone technology is relatively new technology with plenty of room for improvement. Better understanding of users' intentions and their behaviors regarding the adoption and use of the Smartphone technology plays a critical role in determining its success and benefiting all stakeholders. Significant efforts have been made to study and explain users' adoption and use of Smartphone technology. However, most of the empirical research focused on only a limited number of Smartphone aspects or on a specific profession such as doctors and nurses which may neglect other important factors. In emerging regions such as Jordan and China, cultural and social influence showed significant relationships with users' adoption and use of the Smartphone and its related technologies. Saudi Arabia is a developing country that has different cultural and social contexts that could influence users' intention to adopt and use the Smartphone technology. The key factors that influence general users' intention to adopt and use Smartphone technology in Saudi Arabia have not yet been studied and explored in a comprehensive manner. Therefore, the main purpose of this dissertation is to empirically study and explore the key factors that influence general users' adoption and use of the Smartphone in a comprehensive manner in Saudi Arabia. This dissertation starts with a literature review of existing research related to the adoption and use of Smartphone technology. Taxonomy is developed that includes factors that were identified as important in previous research and related to the adoption and use of the Smartphone technology. By using the developed taxonomy and reviewing literature related to the IT adoption theories, a preliminary theoretical research model is developed based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). A number of qualitative methods, namely brainstorming, focus group and individual interviews, have been conducted to evaluate, select and validate the existing factors, as well as introduce new factors, and to identify only the most related factors to be included in the preliminary research model. A survey questionnaire has been developed and validated to survey general users of the Smartphone in Saudi Arabia. A web-based survey has been designed and sent through email to 5,000 randomly selected smartphones users in Saudi Arabia. Data has been statistically analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The results indicate that performance expectancy factor, effort expectancy factor, brand influence factor, perceived enjoyment factor and design factor have a positive and significant relationship with users' intention to adopt and use smartphones in Saudi Arabia. Also, the results indicate that the social influence factor has a significant and positive relationship with use behavior or actual use of smartphones in Saudi Arabia. The results of this dissertation provide more insights to practitioners in the smartphones domain and information that contributes to the body of knowledge regarding information technology adoption and its related research, especially in Saudi Arabia. Close

• 267. [Article] Movement and space use by the green hermit (Phaethornis guy) in a fragmented landscape in Costa Rica

  Human activities have altered Earth’s ecosystems. Most biomes have experienced a 20-50% conversion to human use. Loss of habitat has obvious effects on the persistence of species. Fragmentation, however, ...

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Movement and space use by the green hermit (Phaethornis guy) in a fragmented landscape in Costa Rica Author: Volpe, Noelia L. Human activities have altered Earth’s ecosystems. Most biomes have experienced a 20-50% conversion to human use. Loss of habitat has obvious effects on the persistence of species. Fragmentation, however, may also negatively affect biodiversity for those species that exhibit behavioral responses to changes in habitat configuration. Such behavioral changes include movement, which is influenced by subdividing and isolating habitats through which animals prefer to travel. Ecosystem services that depend on the ability of animals to move through the landscape could be affected by changes in habitat configuration. Pollination is one such process because access of pollinators to flowers is often the key determinant of plant reproductive success. Yet, relatively little is known about how forest fragmentation may influence the flow of pollen carried by forest-dwelling pollinators, such as hummingbirds. I evaluate how changes in the distribution of pollinators produced by habitat fragmentation in southern Costa Rica affects a pollination web occupied by a generalist tropical pollinator, the green hermit hummingbird (Phaethornis guy). I used radio-telemetry to measure patterns of space use by green hermits living in forested areas with different levels of fragmentation. I first characterize patterns of space use by green hermits at three scales: point, path and home range. I found that green hermits have marked preference for locations in forested areas with high density of Heliconia plants and canopy cover; prefer paths close to streams that minimize crossing large stretches of non-forested matrix; and establish their home ranges in areas with high forest amount. In addition, home range area was negatively related to the amount of forest within it and positively related to fragmentation per se. Average resource density within the home range appeared to be unrelated to the area covered by the green hermits. My observations indicate that while the presence of green hermits in an area is mainly determined by the amount of forest available, the way they move through a landscape will be strongly affected by habitat configuration. In this context, pollen transfer by green hermits will be limited by the presence of open, non-forested areas owing to matrix avoidance. In landscapes with small discontinuous patches, the total area covered by an individual green hermit is likely to be small so I hypothesize that the genetic variability of pollen it transports may be diminished. I also assess the effectiveness of a tool commonly used to study the effect of habitat fragmentation on animal movement: translocation experiments. Such experiments are purported to have important advantages of being time efficient and standardizing across individuals the ‘motivation’ to move. Yet, we lack tests of whether movement behavior of translocated birds reflects natural behavior of unmanipulated birds. I compared the routine movement behavior of green hermits to that of experimentally translocated individuals. Behaviors documented during translocation experiments reflected those observed during routine movements. Both translocated and non-translocated birds showed similar levels of preference for mature tropical forest at the point level and avoided moving across non-forested matrix while selecting streams as movement corridors at the path level. Movement rates (distance covered per unit time) were generally higher during translocation experiments. However, the negative influence of forest cover on movement rates was proportionately similar in translocation and routine movement treatments. My results show that movement behavior of birds during translocation experiments is similar to natural movement behavior of birds. Therefore, translocation experiments may be reliable tools to address effects of landscape structure on animal movement. Title: Movement and space use by the green hermit (Phaethornis guy) in a fragmented landscape in Costa Rica Author: Volpe, Noelia L. Human activities have altered Earth’s ecosystems. Most biomes have experienced a 20-50% conversion to human use. Loss of habitat has obvious effects on the persistence of species. Fragmentation, however, may also negatively affect biodiversity for those species that exhibit behavioral responses to changes in habitat configuration. Such behavioral changes include movement, which is influenced by subdividing and isolating habitats through which animals prefer to travel. Ecosystem services that depend on the ability of animals to move through the landscape could be affected by changes in habitat configuration. Pollination is one such process because access of pollinators to flowers is often the key determinant of plant reproductive success. Yet, relatively little is known about how forest fragmentation may influence the flow of pollen carried by forest-dwelling pollinators, such as hummingbirds. I evaluate how changes in the distribution of pollinators produced by habitat fragmentation in southern Costa Rica affects a pollination web occupied by a generalist tropical pollinator, the green hermit hummingbird (Phaethornis guy). I used radio-telemetry to measure patterns of space use by green hermits living in forested areas with different levels of fragmentation. I first characterize patterns of space use by green hermits at three scales: point, path and home range. I found that green hermits have marked preference for locations in forested areas with high density of Heliconia plants and canopy cover; prefer paths close to streams that minimize crossing large stretches of non-forested matrix; and establish their home ranges in areas with high forest amount. In addition, home range area was negatively related to the amount of forest within it and positively related to fragmentation per se. Average resource density within the home range appeared to be unrelated to the area covered by the green hermits. My observations indicate that while the presence of green hermits in an area is mainly determined by the amount of forest available, the way they move through a landscape will be strongly affected by habitat configuration. In this context, pollen transfer by green hermits will be limited by the presence of open, non-forested areas owing to matrix avoidance. In landscapes with small discontinuous patches, the total area covered by an individual green hermit is likely to be small so I hypothesize that the genetic variability of pollen it transports may be diminished. I also assess the effectiveness of a tool commonly used to study the effect of habitat fragmentation on animal movement: translocation experiments. Such experiments are purported to have important advantages of being time efficient and standardizing across individuals the ‘motivation’ to move. Yet, we lack tests of whether movement behavior of translocated birds reflects natural behavior of unmanipulated birds. I compared the routine movement behavior of green hermits to that of experimentally translocated individuals. Behaviors documented during translocation experiments reflected those observed during routine movements. Both translocated and non-translocated birds showed similar levels of preference for mature tropical forest at the point level and avoided moving across non-forested matrix while selecting streams as movement corridors at the path level. Movement rates (distance covered per unit time) were generally higher during translocation experiments. However, the negative influence of forest cover on movement rates was proportionately similar in translocation and routine movement treatments. My results show that movement behavior of birds during translocation experiments is similar to natural movement behavior of birds. Therefore, translocation experiments may be reliable tools to address effects of landscape structure on animal movement. Close

• 268. [Article] Forestry

  Posted by permission of Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (CSA). (c) CSA 2013. All rights reserved.

  Citation × Citation Citation Abstract Copy Title: Forestry Author: Avery, Bonnie E. Posted by permission of Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (CSA). (c) CSA 2013. All rights reserved. Title: Forestry Author: Avery, Bonnie E. Posted by permission of Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (CSA). (c) CSA 2013. All rights reserved. Close