Mountain Scholar

Mountain Scholar is an open access repository service that collects, preserves, and provides access to digitized library collections and other scholarly and creative works from Colorado State University and the University Press of Colorado. It also serves as a dark archive for the Open Textbook Library.

Communities in Mountain Scholar

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Colorado State University, Fort Collins 26418
Explore the Colorado State University community’s scholarly output as well as items from the University at large and the CSU Libraries.
Open Textbook Library Archive 25
A limited number of titles are available here. To see all OTL titles, please visit the Open Textbook Library at https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks. Only Open Textbook Library staff have access to all OTL Archive titles held in Mountain Scholar.
University Press of Colorado 1067
Access is limited to University Press of Colorado members. Non-members: to purchase books, please visit https://upcolorado.com/.

Recent Submissions

Access status: Open Access ,
For the aspiring wildlife biologist
(2025) Fuhrmann, Christy, author; White, Cecilia, advisor; Egret, Cookie, committee member
For the Aspiring Wildlife Biologist is a narrative-based resource designed to provide practical advice, personal insight, and motivation for undergraduate students pursuing wildlife biology. While classes build necessary knowledge and skills, they often lack the storytelling and personal perspectives that help students understand the realities of the field. To bridge this gap, each chapter features an interview with a wildlife professional – ranging from graduate students and professors to those outside of academia – highlighting pivotal career moments, field experiences, lessons learned, and advice for students. By presenting these perspectives through creative nonfiction, the project emphasizes the power of storytelling to make guidance for aspiring wildlife biology students more memorable and accessible. Ultimately, the book serves as both an introduction to the variety of paths within wildlife biology and a source of encouragement for students navigating their own academic and professional journeys.
Access status: Open Access ,
Sustainability and the Thoroughbred breeding and racing industries: an enhanced one welfare perspective
(2023-01-31) Stallones, Lorann, author; McManus, Phil, author; McGreevy, Paul, author; MDPI, publisher
As society debates the use of animals in sport, entertainment, and leisure, there is an increasing focus on the welfare, social, and ecological impacts of such activities on the animals, human participants, people close to them, and the physical environment. This article introduces the "Enhanced One Welfare Framework" to reveal significant costs and benefits associated with Thoroughbred breeding and racing globally. In addition, relative to calls to ban horseracing and similar activities as part of sustainability approaches that focus chiefly on animals, the "Enhanced One Welfare Framework" is better positioned politically to guide discussions that renegotiate the conditions under which horses are used for sport and the impact racing has on humans and the planet. In 2020, the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities issued its minimum horse welfare standards based on the Five Domains model, positioning lifelong horse welfare as "fundamentally important to the viability and sustainability of the industry". In this article, we critique the One Welfare framework's historic lack of focus on sport and enhance it by including sport, leisure, and entertainment and framing it within the Five Domains model. We offer a novel extension of the Five Domains model beyond animal welfare to consider human welfare and the physical environmental impacts of the sport, leisure, and entertainment industries and propose innovations that may help thoroughbred breeding and racing assure a sustainable future.
Access status: Open Access ,
The potential usefulness of standardized assessments to measure participant outcomes of adaptive/therapeutic horseback riding: a survey study
(2023-11-30) Hanson, Moriah R., author; Alm, Kathy, author; Fields, Beth, author; Gabriels, Robin, author; Schmid, Arlene A., author; Stallones, Lorann, author; Peters, B. Caitlin, author; Frontiers, publisher
Adaptive or therapeutic riding (A/TR) is a recreational activity which provides mounted and ground-based horsemanship opportunities adapted to the abilities of the participants. A/TR provides physical and psychological benefits to participants with diverse disabilities, including physical, developmental, cognitive, and age-related disabilities, promoting higher quality of life. A/TR professionals may be limited in their capacity to implement outcome assessments and report the benefits of their community-based A/TR services to a broad audience. The purpose of this study was to identify whether and how A/TR professionals currently measure participant outcomes; benefits and barriers to implementing standardized assessments in A/TR; and characteristics which would make assessments useful in the community-based A/TR environment. To address this purpose, we conducted a survey among A/TR professionals. We found that while A/TR professionals measure outcomes among their participants, they typically do not use standardized assessments. Survey respondents believed benefits of implementing standardized assessments included bolstering the A/TR profession, acquiring funding, and communicating about A/TR services to a broad audience. Respondents also identified several barriers to implementing standardized assessments including time, systemic, and expertise constraints. Respondents reported that useful standardized assessments would be relevant to all age groups and populations who receive A/TR services. Finally, respondents shared that for standardized assessments to be useful, they would need to be low-cost, require less than 10-20 min, and available in either paper or computer format. This study revealed that standardized assessments may be a strong support to the A/TR profession; however, assessments must meet the unique needs of A/TR professionals.
Access status: Open Access ,
Metatranscriptomic investigation of single Ixodes pacificus ticks reveals diverse microbes, viruses, and novel mRNA-like endogenous viral elements
(2024-05-14) Martyn, Calla, author; Hayes, Beth M., author; Lauko, Domokos, author; Midthun, Edward, author; Castaneda, Gloria, author; Bosco-Lauth, Angela, author; Salkeld, Daniel J., author; Kistler, Amy, author; Pollard, Katherine S., author; Chou, Seemay, author; mSystems, publisher
Ticks are increasingly important vectors of human and agricultural diseases. While many studies have focused on tick-borne bacteria, far less is known about tick-associated viruses and their roles in public health or tick physiology. To address this, we investigated patterns of bacterial and viral communities across two field populations of western black-legged ticks (Ixodes pacificus). Through metatranscriptomic analysis of 100 individual ticks, we quantified taxon prevalence, abundance, and co-occurrence with other members of the tick microbiome. In addition to commonly found tick-associated microbes, we assembled 11 novel RNA virus genomes from Rhabdoviridae, Chuviridae, Picornaviridae, Phenuiviridae, Reoviridae, Solemovidiae, Narnaviridae and two highly divergent RNA virus genomes lacking sequence similarity to any known viral families. We experimentally verified the presence of these in I. pacificus ticks across several life stages. We also unexpectedly identified numerous virus-like transcripts that are likely encoded by tick genomic DNA, and which are distinct from known endogenous viral element-mediated immunity pathways in invertebrates. Taken together, our work reveals that I. pacificus ticks carry a greater diversity of viruses than previously appreciated, in some cases resulting in evolutionarily acquired virus-like transcripts. Our findings highlight how pervasive and intimate tick-virus interactions are, with major implications for both the fundamental biology and vectorial capacity of I. pacificus ticks.
Access status: Open Access ,
Transdisciplinary research priorities for a One Health approach to human-wildlife coexistence
(2025-05-21) Salerno, Jonathan, author; Aguirre, A. Alonso, author; Aguirre, Luis F., author; Bonacic, Cristian, author; Bosco-Lauth, Angela, author; Breck, Stewart W., author; Gitonga, Pauline N., author; Goldstein, Tracey, author; Gonzalez, Mireille N., author; Hoag, Dana L. K., author; Mayo, Christie, author; Mizia, John, author; Raynor, Edward J., author; Ritten, John, author; Sherman, Tyler J., author; Shockley, Kenneth, author; Sukumar, Raman, author; Thekaekara, Tarsh, author; Titcomb, Georgia, author; Wilson, Seth M., author; Wolfe, Barbara A., author; Yovovich, Veronica, author; Crooks, Kevin R., author; Oxford University Press, publisher