In Oregon, the Black-backed Woodpecker is considered a “keystone” species and indicator of bird community health. They create critical nest holes for other cavity-nesting birds and small mammals. Black-backed Woodpeckers are described as post-burn specialists that prefer burned conifer forests, particularly because it is where bark beetle larvae and other food sources are abundant after wildfires. However, Black-backed Woodpeckers are also known to inhabit green, unburned conifer forests, but the extent to which they use green forests throughout their range is poorly understood.

Mark Kerstens, a third year PhD student in Sustainable Forest Management under the mentorship of Dr. Jim Rivers, studies these fickle birds with the hope to understand what drives them to inhabit green forests. His main research interests are how to manage forests both before and after wildfires to provide habitat for cavity-nesting birds, and to use these species as indicators for ecosystem health. As a masters student he studied Black-backed Woodpecker vital rates in fire-prone landscapes in South/Central Oregon. For his PhD he is expanding this work, potentially redefining Black-backed Woodpeckers not as post-burn specialists, but rather “early decayed wood specialists”. Through his work he hopes to better inform forest management for biodiversity, and use these woodpeckers as a biodiversity indicator.

To hear all about beautiful birds, Oregon’s incredible lodgepole pine ecosystems, and the pre-med to scientist pipeline, tune in to 88.7FM KBVR Corvallis at 7PM PST on May 31, or listen after the show wherever you get your podcasts!

Written by Hannah Stuwe

Many wildlife populations experience change over time. For some, this can be defined as “boom” and “bust” periods – cycles of change where population numbers rise and fall. Understanding these can be a major challenge for scientists and wildlife managers, particularly for species who have not historically been monitored. One such species with limited data is the gray-tailed vole, a rodent species endemic to the Willamette Valley.

Our guest this week is Austin Nash – a first-year PhD student seeking to better understand and manage the population cycles of gray-tailed voles. His research focuses on how disease and weasel predators may influence vole movement, survival, and reproduction. To do so, Austin is deploying a wide range of methods, including landscape scale genetics, field experiments, establishing a long-term monitoring program, and running population simulation models.

To hear more about Austin’s plans to better understand vole populations in Oregon, as well as his unique array of experiences leading him to OSU and making him the ideal person for the task, tune in to KBVR 88.7FM this Sunday (April 26) at 6:30pm. You can listen to the episode anywhere you listen to your podcasts, including on KBVR, Spotify, Apple, or anywhere else!

Written by Matthew Vaughan.

The central dogma of molecular biology is a theory stating that genetic information flows only in one direction, from DNA, to RNA, to protein. However, since the fundamental theory was developed by Francis Crick in 1958, scientists have discovered several exceptions to the theory. This includes prions and retroviruses. Prions are infectious proteins which replicate without going through DNA or RNA intermediates and are responsible for diseases such as mad cow disease, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. A retrovirus is a virus that uses RNA as its genomic material, rather than DNA. In addition to the expansion of the central dogma, molecular biology has expanded its knowledge of the functionality of RNA beyond producing protein. A non-coding RNA (ncRNA) is an RNA molecule that is not translated into a protein. It is estimated that as much as 80% of the human genome encodes ncRNAs. Many of the newly identified ncRNAs have unknown functions, making it a new and exciting frontier in molecular biology.
This week’s guest is Sanjay Ramprasad, a post-doctoral researcher in the lab of David Hendrix, and recent PhD grad from the department of Biochemistry and Biophysics. Sanjay’s research focuses on using computational techniques to discover new functions and structures of ncRNAs. To hear all about the transition from PhD to post doc, the expansive frontier of RNA biology, and how one goes from the social sciences to biophysics, tune in at 7PM on April 19th to 88.7 FM KBVR Corvallis, or check out the show on our podcast pages.

One of the greatest modern day science tools is satellite imagery. The remote capture of images from space allows researchers to understand spatial ecology better than ever before. However, it’s imperative to know that what you can glean from remote sensing is accurate to what’s occurring at the ground (or sea) level. In fact, if you were looking at a satellite image the minute it’s taken, and zoomed all the way in, you might see a research vessel with Alexander Bailess on board.

Alexander is a second-year Ph.D. student in the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, joint-advised by Dr. Maria Kavanaugh and Dr. Andrew Barnard. Part of his doctoral research is ground-truthing, or verifying, remote sensing data by sailing the seas and collecting data at the same time that satellites are.

At sea, Alexander is also looking for a phytoplankton called Pseudo-nitzschia. Almost half of Pseudo-nitzschia species produce a potent neurotoxin called domoic acid (DA) which can cause a disorder in humans called amnesic shellfish poisoning. Harmful algae blooms (HABs) occur during dense aggregations of Pseudo-nitzschia, poisoning organisms with DA across the trophic web. Work like Alexander’s is important because it can help establish monitoring and management systems for HABs, allowing recreational and commercial fisheries to avoid toxic conditions. Fishermen citizen scientists also assist in this research by collecting water at-sea for researchers, like Alexander, to analyze.

Alexander’s work has taken him on dozens of research cruises all along the U.S. west coast. He is also a Scientific Diver and Divemaster, meaning his work often takes him below the sea surface as well — conducting surveys that connect what satellites see from above to what is living in the water below.

Written by: Taylor Azizeh