Lori Kayes

Oregon State University | OSU · Department of Integrative Biology

We investigated the effects of a laboratory curriculum developed using the socio--scientific issues (SSI) framework to contextualize scientific and socially relevant issues for students. Using self-determination theory and hierarchical linear modeling, we examined the effects of the SSI curriculum relative to a control curriculum on student motivat...

In this paper, we update progress through the second year of the NSF WIDER funded ESTEME@OSU Project. The ESTEME@OSU Project is summarized below, and more detail can be found elsewhere. ESTEME@OSU seeks to catalyze broad institutional change through scaling and cross-pollination of efforts utilizing two evidence-based instructional practices (EBIPs...

Recent reform initiatives in undergraduate biology call for curricula that prepare students for dealing with real-world issues and making important links between science and society. In response to this call, we have developed an issues-based laboratory module that uses guided inquiry to integrate the concepts of animal behavior and population biol...

Background/Question/Methods Forested ecosystems provide important ecosystem services, including playing an important role in the global carbon cycle. The capacity of forested landscapes to sustain themselves and the production of ecosystem services, including the capture and storage of carbon, is strongly affected by natural disturbance regimes s...

Rocky Mountain forests are currently experiencing a bark beetle epidemic of unprecedented severity and extent. Forest regeneration following bark beetle outbreaks is driven by the survival and density of understory trees (advance regeneration). The composition and density of the advance regeneration may differ substantially from the pre-outbreak ov...

Question: How are dynamics of early-seral post-fire vascular plant and bryoid (terrestrial mosses, lichens, and fungi) vegetation impacted by reforestation activities, particularly manual vegetation removal and planting density? Does the relationship between vegetation dynamics and vegetation removal differ between harsh (west-facing) and moderate...

Although mixed-severity fires are among the most widespread disturbances influencing western North American forests, they remain the least understood. A major question is the degree to which mixed-severity fire regimes are simply an ecological intermediate between low-and high-severity fire regimes, versus a unique disturbance regime with distinct...

Question: How does vegetation develop during the initial period following severe wildfire in managed forests? Location: Southwestern Oregon, USA. Methods: In severely burned plantations, dynamics of (1) shrub, herbaceous, and cryptogam richness; (2) cover; (3) topographic, overstory, and site influences were characterized on two contrasting aspects...

The lichenized ascomycete, Usnea longissima, occurs in cool forests with coastal climates in Europe, Asia and North America and is threatened throughout its range. The Pacific Northwest region of North America is considered a stronghold of this species. While many studies have focused on the ecology of U. longissima, knowledge of the secondary chem...

Bryophytes are often the dominant vegetation layer with patchy distributions in early post-fire succession. Little is known about early-seral bryophyte habitat requirements or their influence on germination and establishment of vascular plants. In the presence of seed or spore sources, microsite conditions can affect distributions of bryophytes, co...