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

Select a community to browse its collections.

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3

Colorado State University, Fort Collins 26699
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 ,
Variation in emperor goose (Anser canagicus) body mass at the geographic extremes of their wintering range
(2025) Scholl, Sophie, author; Aubry, Lise, advisor; Thomas, Robyn, committee member
The emperor goose (Anser canagicus) is a waterfowl species that is endemic to the Bering Sea and holds great ecological, recreational, and cultural value. Emperor geese are unique in their wintering behaviors as they migrate only slightly south of their summer breeding grounds in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta to non-breeding wintering grounds that are at relatively high latitudes along the Aleutian Islands, Alaska Peninsula, and the Kodiak Archipelago. Recent declines in emperor goose populations brings to light the importance of developing a more comprehensive understanding of emperor goose ecology, with a particular focus on understanding previously understudied aspects of their wintering ecology. This study explores differences of body mass as a proxy for individual fitness between two wintering sites that represent the geographic extremes of the emperor goose wintering distribution: Shemya Island and the Kodiak Archipelago. A significant difference in body mass between Kodiak and Shemya was observed amongst all adult geese, specifically amongst female adults, with geese on Shemya having lower body mass than the geese on Kodiak in these demographic groups. Additionally, it was observed that variation in body mass among emperor geese could be explained by additive effects of age class, sex, and field site. These findings indicate that differences in environmental conditions, food source availability, and migration distance to the different wintering sites between Shemya and Kodiak could explain why some demographic groups of emperor geese displayed significantly lower body masses, and therefore lower fitness, at Shemya (i.e. longer winter migration, extreme environment, lower access to protein-rich food). Understanding the wintering ecology of emperor geese and dedicating more time and resources to explaining variability in fitness experienced by emperor geese at their wintering sites is critical for understanding how to best move forward with conservation and management strategies that prevent further population declines.
Access status: Open Access ,
Vertical transmission in the culicoid vector as a possible mechanism for bluetongue virus transeasonality
(1995) Deines, Susan Marie, author; Blair, Carol D., advisor; Beaty, Barry, committee member; Salman, Mowafak, committee member
Bluetongue virus (BTV) is transmitted between vertebrate hosts by arthropod vectors in the genus Culicoides. In tropical and sub-tropical climates the virus is maintained in a continual cycle between the culicoid vector and the vertebrate host; however, bluetongue disease is also enzootic in temperate regions, such as northeastern Colorado. The mechanism by which BTV overwinters in these regions, where the adult culicoid vector does not survive cold winter months, is unknown. The primary objective of this study was to determine if vertical transmission of BTV in the culicoid vector is the mechanism for BTV transeasonality in regions of temperate climate.
Access status: Open Access ,
Juan Bobo, postcoloniality and Frantz Fanon's theory of violence
(2007) Rodríguez, Enid Sepúlveda, author; Taylor, Cynthia, advisor; Sheidley, William, committee member; Taylor, Ted, committee member
In the postcolonial written adaptations of the oral tales and stories about Juan Bobo political violence is generated against the Jibaros by colonial, postcolonial and neocolonial discourses that are still perpetuated in Puerto Rico through unaltered colonial attitudes, political, socioeconomic structures, institutions and literatures that legitimize the negative perception of the Jibaros as the Other. After 1898, redactors of the written tales of Juan Bobo purged the tales of much of their overt anti-colonial, anti-elitist and subversive implications-the undisguised violence, lies, trickery and resistance to oppression that are so evident in the oral tales. With every subsequent version, Juan Bobo dwindles from trickster to mere tonto (“fool/noodlehead”), making Juan Bobo and the Jibaros he represents objects to laugh at or scorn. Colonial ideologies are evident and inscribed in the texts, in the fact that Juan Bobo seems to always be rescued, saved by a privileged and seemingly benevolent whiter, landowning, and more educated character. These redactions constitute a compromise and betrayal of the authentic Jibaro while deepening the split between Puerto Rico’s elite class and the rural peasantry. They play right into colonialism’s hands.
Access status: Open Access ,
Ecological literacy in a context of first-year college students
(2003) Bruyere, Brett L., author
This research focused on the knowledge and behavior components of ecological literacy as it pertains to a sample of first-year students at a large land grant university. Specifically, a four-point typology of environmentally responsible behaviors for first-year college students was identified that included dimensions related to consumer, disposal, reuse and conservation activities. The results of the typology were subsequently used to develop attitude and behavior scales to determine the viability of a value-attitude-behavior hierarchy as it relates to environmentally responsible behavior of first-year college students.
Access status: Open Access ,
Fire, climate, and forest structure in ponderosa pine forests of the Black Hills
(2003) Brown, Peter Mark, author; Binkley, Dan, advisor; Laurenroth, William, committee member; Romme, William H., committee member; Smith, Skip, committee member; Sieg, Carolyn Hull, committee member
A prevailing model for historical conditions in ponderosa pine forests is that frequent surface fires maintained open, low-density forest stands composted primarily of old, large trees. However, this model may not apply uniformly to ponderosa pine forests in the Black Hills of southwestern South Dakota and northeastern Wyoming. Infrequent, extensive stand-replacing fires also may have occurred and apparently resulted in large landscapes of dense, even-aged forest. I examined this alternative model for the Black Hills using fire-sear and tree-age data. Fire chronologies from over 1000 trees collected at over 50 locations span the past four to six centuries. Compared to other ponderosa pine forests in the southwest US or southern Rocky Mountains, these communities burned less frequently. Surface fire frequency varied from an average of every 10 to 13 years at lower elevation sites on the ponderosa pine - northern Great Plains prairie ecotone to as much as 30 to 33 years at higher elevations. Mid-elevation interior sites at Jewel Cave National Monument burned on average every 20 to 26 years. Fires largely ceased in all areas shortly after Euro-American settlement began in the 1870s. Pre-settlement age structure documents very pulsed patterns of tree establishment, with the most abundant cohort occurring from 1770 to 1805. Cohorts established during wet periods in the northern Great Plains. Extended wet conditions likely promoted abundant tree regeneration, fast growth, and longer periods between surface fires that would have permitted more trees to reach canopy status, therefore becoming more “fireproof’ during later surface fires. The absence of fire was likely more critical to structuring the current forest than any potential variation in fire behavior. The late 1700s cohort also followed an extended drought from1756 to 1761, and tree mortality caused by moisture stress may have contributed to stand opening. Patchy crown mortality from fire coupled with other disturbances undoubtedly contributed to stand opening before pulses of climatically driven seedling establishment. Mortality and regeneration were likely completely uncoupled processes and even-aged structure is not definitive evidence of stand-replacing fires in ponderosa pine forests. However, abundant fire scars indicate that surface fires were ubiquitous across the Black Hills landscape. Thus, the prevailing historical model of frequent surface fires promoting and maintaining mostly open forest stands is largely supported by the tree-ring evidence, although the Black Hills had a greater range of variability in fire behavior than ponderosa pine forests of other regions as documented by historic descriptions of the forest at settlement.