Studying mesocarnivore interactions is vital to understanding ecosystem function, particularly in the absence of apex predators. Competition and niche partitioning between bobcats (Lynx rufus) and coyotes (Canis latrans), two abundant mesocarnivores, is poorly understood but may have significant impacts on prey dynamics and ecosystem structure. Understanding how bobcats and coyotes coexist will provide insights into the context and occurrence of intraguild exploitative competition. This study aims to determine if exploitative competition between bobcats and coyotes is occurring in the Eastern Cascades of Washington state by analyzing the diet and habitat use of sympatric and allopatric bobcat and coyote populations. I hypothesize that sympatric bobcat and coyote populations will occupy smaller niche spaces than allopatric bobcat and coyote populations due to the niche partitioning of shared resources. To test this hypothesis, I will compare the frequency of occurrence of food items in bobcat and coyote scats using DNA metabarcoding and Next-Generation sequencing. Using microsatellite analysis, I will genotype a subset of coyote and bobcat scat samples to determine the number of individuals and their home range size. I will also determine the habitat type of the georeferenced scat using geographic information systems. This will be the first study comparing allopatric and sympatric bobcat and coyote populations and will clarify the conflicting literature on the occurrence of exploitative competition between bobcats and coyotes.

Global climate change is likely to have an effect on plants, pollinators, and the interactions between the two ecological groups. Recent studies have suggested that climate change may affect the growth and development of these organisms in the long-term, but variations in temperature could also change the short-term behavior of pollinators when they visit plants. For instance, pollinators with certain physical traits might be better suited to forage in areas with higher or lower temperatures. In this study, I explored this idea with the assumption that the foraging decisions of pollinators are indicative of the temperatures that they are flying at. I addressed the questions of 1) how variation in temperature affects pollinator traits? and 2) are certain pollinator traits correlated with differences in the identities and traits of the plants that they are captured visiting? To answer these questions, I measured the size of bees collected in the Rocky Mountains during the summer of 2021, and I compared these sizes to the temperatures at the sites at which the bees were caught. I predicted that 1) pollinator traits would correlate with temperature, and 2) the interactions in my data analysis would show trait matching between the pollinators and the plants that they were visiting when caught. The results of this study should help illustrate how the impacts of climate change might affect plant-pollinator communities, which could help to identify potentially advantageous traits as well as interactions that may be flexible or persistent during changing climatic conditions.

Asian Americans are underrepresented in public health research in the U.S. My research aims to explore the historical, social, and institutional factors that contribute to this, both in Seattle and the broader U.S. I will identify these factors through an extended literature review and demonstrate their role in constraining the scope of Asian public health research using a case-study on industrial pollution in Seattle’s Duwamish Waterway. The case-study will focus on Seattle’s Industrial District, Beacon Hill, and surrounding neighborhoods because of their proximity to the Duwamish Waterway and high exposure to industrial pollutants, such as benzene. This region also has a large Asian population. Genome-wide studies have shown that Asians are genetically predisposed to pancreatic dysfunction when chronically exposed to benzene and other volatile-organic-compounds. Pancreatic dysfunction can lead to diabetes mellitus, a health condition in which the body is unable to process glucose naturally. The spatial overlap of Asian residents and industrial pollution around the Duwamish Waterway is concerning and merits investigation. My methodology includes an extended literature review and a quantitative geospatial analysis of a Seattle case-study. The literature review explores systemic limitations of public health research on Asian Americans, examining factors like systemic racism and data collection issues through a critical Science and Technology Studies (STS) lens. The geospatial analysis will be used during the Duwamish Waterway case-study. I will use publicly available data to map and compare Asian population sizes, diabetes incidence, and industrial pollution in Seattle. The gaps in existing data for these factors will make it difficult to draw conclusive generalizations from the case-study, but paired with STS analysis, highlighting these gaps can contribute to improving public health research by demonstrating the limitations that currently hinder Asian public health research in Seattle and pointing the way to future research to fill in what is missing.