Food webs consist of a combination of bottom-up (resource-driven) and top-down (predator-driven) effects. The strength of these effects depends on the context in which they occur. I investigated food web (trophic) relationships between wolf (Canis lupus) predation, elk (Cervus elaphus) herbivory, aspen (Populus tremuloides Michaux) recruitment, and fire. The study setting, in the central portion of the Crown of the Continent Ecosystem, spans the US/Canada border and encompasses Glacier National Park (GNP), Montana and Waterton Lakes National Park (WLNP), Alberta. I stratified my observations across three spatially distinct areas, the North Fork Valley, in the western portion of GNP; the Waterton Valley, in the eastern portion of WLNP; and the Saint Mary Valley, in the eastern portion of GNP. All valleys are elk winter range (low-lying grasslands with patches of aspen). The valleys have three different observed wolf population levels (Saint Mary: low; Waterton: moderate; North Fork: high), which represent three levels of long-term predation risk (the probability of an elk encountering a wolf). Ecological characteristics (e.g., climate, soils, elevation, plant associations) are comparable among valleys. Fire has occurred in 90% of the North Fork. My objective was to examine the relative influence of bottom-up (fire) and top-down (predation risk) factors and the context-dependence of these relationships via data gathered during a three-year time span. I found complex elk responses to bottom-up and top-down factors that could influence habitat use by elk. Pellet transect data demonstrated that elk exhibited the same risk reduction behavior at all wolf population levels, even at very low levels. Predation risk variables that provided impediments to detecting or escaping wolves had a similar and negative influence on occurrence of elk (pellet piles), regardless of wolf population density. Fire had a negative effect on elk density and a positive effect on wolf density (per scat piles) in aspen communities where a high wolf population existed. Aspen cover, which may be riskier than open grassland, also had a negative effect on elk density, except at very high wolf levels without fire. The risk of wolf predation alone did not drive elk behavior. Conversely, focal animal (elk vigilance behavior) data suggested a positive relationship between wolf population and elk vigilance. However, when I deconstructed vigilance, elk demonstrated complex, context-dependent adaptive behavior in response to the long-term risk of predation by wolves. Commonly identified drivers of elk vigilance (group size, impediments to wolf detection and escape) appeared to be important drivers at an intermediate level of long-term predation risk (e.g., Waterton). These drivers ceased to function in this manner when the long-term predation risk level increased (The North Fork). At high levels of long-term predation risk, vigilance was high, but not driven by these common factors. In some cases, the relationship between vigilance and risk factors was reversed (e.g., group size). And at a low level of long-term predation risk (Saint Mary), elk did not respond to these drivers of vigilance. When I measured aspen demography (browse, recruitment), browse was lower in the North Fork, where there was a high wolf population, suggesting a top-down effect. However, I found low aspen recruitment in the absence of fire in all valleys, which indicates a bottom-up effect in that aspen is highly fire-dependent. Top-down predictors of aspen recruitment (e.g., plot position and stand size, which are related to predation risk) had no effect on browse levels regardless of wolf population level. In sum, the risk of wolf predation alone did not drive the food web relationships I observed. Bottom-up and top-down forces worked together in valleys that contained well-established wolf populations, and to a lesser degree in a valley with a low wolf population. Commonly used measures of predation risk responses (e.g., vigilance) reversed their relationship as the wolf population increased. Low aspen recruitment in the absence of fire demonstrates the importance of bottom-up effects. Bottom-up and top-down effects may be important joint engineers of aspen communities. My findings invite deeper inquiry into the interaction between bottom-up and top-down effects in large mammal systems. / Graduation date: 2012

In the late 19th century, an English entrepreneur arrived on the B.C. frontier eager to learn the whereabouts of coal seams in the area. In exchange for this knowledge he courted and promised to marry an "Indian Princess." After receiving the information, he jilted the woman and submitted the first coal syndicate application for the Elk Valley. Indigenous people cast a curse on William Fernie, on the region and its residents. They would suffer from fires, floods and famine. This narrative forms the backbone of my dissertation. It is deeply ingrained in expressions of local identity, tied to personal histories and ideas of social justice. Ktunaxa traditionalists officially lifted the curse in a public ceremony in Fernie in 1964. I trace how participants speak about this event and the legend across generations and within shifting ideological contexts. Cursing is an important theme throughout this work. It implies the power that stories have to carry and construct meanings about who people are. My dissertation is an ethnography of ideas about human difference generated and transmitted through time and through narratives. Fernie, B.C. is currently transforming from a predominantly working-class resource-based town to an internationally recognized destination ski resort. I trace images, legends and theories as powerful narrative resources in the contexts of colonialism, war, immigration, labour strife, natural disaster, treaty-making and development for tourism. Folklore, mass media, scholarly theories and political discourses propagate narratives about human difference shaping the ways that people are imagined. Although rephrased and sometimes disguised, fundamental forms of race, gender, class, nationality, religion, age, locality and sexual preference remain intact. In Part I, I look at ideas of difference perpetuated in hegemonic discourses during three overlapping time periods. More contemporary taxonomies of difference appear in Part II. Ideas are transmitted across generations, they are evident in public performances and in narratives of place and space. Through participants' accounts I examine intersections between personal expressions and official narratives.

Le cancer papillaire de la thyroïde (CPT) est la tumeur endocrine la plus fréquente. Des anomalies moléculaires activant la voie des MAPK (Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases) sont identifiées, de façon mutuellement exclusive, dans environ 70% des cas. Il s’agit de réarrangements chromosomiques, le plus souvent de type RET/PTC (10%), de mutations ponctuelles activatrices des trois isoformes de l’oncogène RAS (H, N et K-RAS) (10%), ou de l’oncogène B-RAF (50%). La mutation « hot spot » B-RAFV600E est la plus fréquemment identifiée, elle est associée à une plus grande agressivité clinique (diagnostic à un stade tardif, risque de récidives et de décès accru). Ces évènements moléculaires ont pour conséquence commune l’activation de la voie des MAPK, se traduisant en aval par la phosphorylation de MEK (Mitogen-activated Extracellular signal-Regulated Kinase) puis de ERK (Extracellular signal-Regulated Kinase). Cette dernière est régulée négativement par des phosphatases, appartenant à la famille des Dual Specificity Phosphatases (DUSPs), d’expression ubiquitaire, et en particulier de deux phosphatases spécifiques de ERK, l’une cytoplasmique (DUSP6) et l’autre nucléaire (DUSP5). Nous avons fait l’hypothèse que ces phosphatases pouvaient être soit des gènes suppresseurs de tumeurs (leur perte d’expression conduisant à une augmentation de phosphorylation de ERK et une prolifération accrue), soit des marqueurs du degré d’activation de la voie MAPK dans le cadre d’une boucle de rétrocontrôle négatif. Ceci nous a conduits à analyser la régulation et l’expression de ces phosphatases dans trois modèles : la lignée cellulaire PCCL3 (thyroïde de rat), exprimant l’un des trois principaux oncogènes mutés dans les CPT (RET/PTC3 ou H-RASV12 ou B-RAFV600E) sous le contrôle d’un promoteur inductible par la doxycycline, des lignées cellulaires humaines dérivant de CPT et des CPT humains. (...) / Papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) is the most common endocrine malignancy. Mutually exclusive and activating alterations of the MAPK pathway (Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases) are identified in 70% of cases. Common mutations found in PTCs are point mutation of the B-RAF (50%) and RAS genes (10%) as well as RET/PTC chromosomal rearrangements (10%). The hot spot B-RAFV600E mutation is the most frequently alteration identified and is connected with agressive clinical characteristics (high stage at diagnosis, high recurrence risk and death). These molecular events lead to constitutive activation of the MAPK pathway, resulting in MEK (Mitogen-activated Extracellular signal-Regulated Kinase) and ERK (Extracellular signal-Regulated Kinase) phosphorylation. ERK is negatively regulated by phosphatases and among them, Dual Specificity Phosphatases (DUSPs), ubiquitary expressed, in particular two ERK-specific phosphatases DUSP5 (nuclear) and DUSP6 (cytosolic). We hypothesized that these phosphatases could have tumor supressor properties (i.e. their loss would be associated with an increase in MAPK pathway activation) or may serve as a surrogate marker of MAPK pathway activation in the context of a negative feedback loop. We analysed regulation and expression of both phosphatases in 3 models: three PCCL3 cell lines (rat thyroid cells) expressing one of the most common oncogene identified in PTCs (RET/PTC3 or H-RASV12 or B-RAFV600E) under the control of a doxycycline-inducible promoter, human PTC-derived cell lines and human PTC. We demonstrated that MAPK pathway activation was correlated with induction of DUSP5 and DUSP6. These phosphatases are involved in a negative feedback loop that contributes to a tight regulation of phospho-ERK levels. DUSP5 and DUSP6 mRNA are overexpressed in human PTCs, especially in B-RAF mutated tumors suggesting a higher MAPK signaling output in these agressive PTCs. Silencing of DUSP5 and/or DUSP6 by small interfering RNA does not affect proliferation of human B-RAFV600E thyroid carcinoma-derived cell lines, suggesting the lack of tumor suppressor gene role. Compensatory changes in expression of DUSPs when a specific one is inactivated may explain this lack of effect. On the opposite, a DUSP6 pharmacological inhibitor induced a concentration dependent decrease in proliferation of human B-RAFV600E cells, suggesting « off-target » effect of this inhibitor. In a second part, we analysed the regulation of DUSP5 expression, which is a target of the MAPK pathway activation. We demonstrated, using pharmacological inhibitors, that DUSP5 is an early response gene, regulated mostly by the MAPK pathway, at the transcriptional level. Two contiguous CArG boxes that bind serum response factor (SRF) were found in a 1Kb promoter region, as well as several E twenty-six transcription factor family binding sites (EBS). These sites potentially bind Elk-1, a transcription factor activated by ERK1/2. Using wild type or mutated DUSP5 promoter reporters, we demonstrated that SRF plays a crucial role in serum induction of DUSP5 promoter activity, the proximal CArG box being important for SRF binding in vitro and in living cells. Moreover Elk-1 was bound in vitro to a promoter region containing the proximal CArG box and a putative EBS. Its specific binding to SRF was necessary to elicit promoter response to dominant positive Elk-VP16 and to enhance the response to serum stimulation. Altogether our results suggest that the MAPK pathway is more active in B-RAFV600E PTC than in PTC with other genetic alteration and could explain their clinical agressivity. DUSP5 and DUSP6, as well as phosphorylated MEK, are markers of activation of the MAPK pathway. Neither phosphatase has tumor suppressor properties in our thyroid cancer cell models. Our results suggest redundancy and functional compensation among DUSPs. (...)

In the late 19th century, an English entrepreneur arrived on the B.C. frontier eager to learn the whereabouts of coal seams in the area. In exchange for this knowledge he courted and promised to marry an "Indian Princess." After receiving the information, he jilted the woman and submitted the first coal syndicate application for the Elk Valley. Indigenous people cast a curse on William Fernie, on the region and its residents. They would suffer from fires, floods and famine. This narrative forms the backbone of my dissertation. It is deeply ingrained in expressions of local identity, tied to personal histories and ideas of social justice. Ktunaxa traditionalists officially lifted the curse in a public ceremony in Fernie in 1964. I trace how participants speak about this event and the legend across generations and within shifting ideological contexts. Cursing is an important theme throughout this work. It implies the power that stories have to carry and construct meanings about who people are. My dissertation is an ethnography of ideas about human difference generated and transmitted through time and through narratives. Fernie, B.C. is currently transforming from a predominantly working-class resource-based town to an internationally recognized destination ski resort. I trace images, legends and theories as powerful narrative resources in the contexts of colonialism, war, immigration, labour strife, natural disaster, treaty-making and development for tourism. Folklore, mass media, scholarly theories and political discourses propagate narratives about human difference shaping the ways that people are imagined. Although rephrased and sometimes disguised, fundamental forms of race, gender, class, nationality, religion, age, locality and sexual preference remain intact. In Part I, I look at ideas of difference perpetuated in hegemonic discourses during three overlapping time periods. More contemporary taxonomies of difference appear in Part II. Ideas are transmitted across generations, they are evident in public performances and in narratives of place and space. Through participants' accounts I examine intersections between personal expressions and official narratives. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Biology / Philip S. Gipson / Understanding factors that influence genetic variability, demographic vital rates, and resource selection is important for conservation and management of wildlife populations. I examined factors influencing microsatellite variability, demographic vital rates, and habitat use for a reintroduced elk (Cervus elaphus) population at Fort Riley, Kansas based on data collected from 2003 – 2007. Levels of allelic richness, observed heterozygosity, and expected heterozygosity for the Fort Riley population were intermediate to other North American elk populations. Genetic variability in restored North American elk populations was not well explained by founding population size, number of founding populations, or number of years since the last translocation. I examined the influence of demographic vital rates on the rate of population change to test the hypothesis that variability in calf survival has a greater influence on rates of population change than adult survival. Survival for prime-age adult elk had the highest stage-specific elasticity value, but life-stage simulation analysis indicated that variation in calf survival had the highest correlation with variation in population growth rate. These results suggest that calf survival varies temporally and is the vital rate most directly related to variation in population growth rate for this population. I assessed the relative influence of risk-related and resource-related factors on elk habitat selection by comparing predictor variables included in top resource selection function models at the landscape and home range scales. All predictor variables, with the exception of fall and spring prescribed burns, were included in top models across seasons at both spatial scales. Elk selected low elevation areas, gentle slopes, edge habitat, and areas close to streams at both spatial scales. At the landscape scale, elk generally avoided roads and preferred areas on or near Fort Riley. At both spatial scales, elk used riparian woodlands more frequently than grasslands and selected for agricultural crops when seasonally available. These findings do not support the idea that risk-related factors are the primary determinant of elk habitat use at the landscape scale as has been found for ungulates in areas with natural predators.

Social perspectives on natural resources management have become an increasingly valuable part of natural resources management decision making, especially at the policy or governance level. However, due to the range of social contexts that can exist around management questions, not every technique for incorporating stakeholders into management is suited for every management problem. My research examines the social landscape around chronic wasting disease (CWD) management on the Canadian prairies in order to identify a way forward for stakeholder involvement in CWD management. CWD is a prion disease that results in neurodegeneration and death in cervids. CWD has the potential for broad social impact because it infects elk and deer, species which are both hunted and ranched. Furthermore, management and monitoring efforts in free-ranging cervids frequently incorporate hunting activity. Q methodology was used to survey stakeholders in Saskatchewan and Manitoba and synthesize perspectives about stakeholder understanding of CWD as a problem and preferences for potential solutions. The perspectives that emerged emphasized the importance of increasing knowledge about CWD and a generalized trust in government management, coupled with a desire for stakeholder consultation under the auspices of government leadership. I found that CWD management may not be ready for stakeholder spearheaded management activity due to ambivalence and uncertainty among stakeholders, but stakeholder involvement in CWD management can still offer valuable insight for managers. This is especially notable in light of the recent loss of Saskatchewan’s CWD monitoring program.

No description available.

The southwest Yukon social-ecological system (SES) is marked by complex changes, including a climate induced directionally changing landscape, an increasing shift away from traditional subsistence lifestyles, and changing species composition. The addition of “new” ungulate species through human and non-human introductions has spawned many management questions. This study developed qualitative scenarios through a participatory process, utilizing scientific and traditional knowledge from within the social-ecological system’s local context. The study worked with local management groups to address two main objectives: 1.) Collaboratively envision alternate future scenarios with management groups from which to collaboratively develop management goals for wood bison, elk, and mule deer to cope with the changing social and ecological landscape of the southwest Yukon and 2.) Discover resource managers’ and local stakeholders’ perceptions of scenario planning as a method identify wildlife management goals. A series of three workshops with the Alsek Renewable Resource Council, the Yukon Wood Bison Technical Team, and the Yukon Elk Management Planning Team addressed the first objective, while two surveys addressed the second objective. Major findings included southwest Yukon-specific wildlife management goals and considerations for using scenario planning in a wildlife management context. The scenarios themselves warn of plausible events that might unfold, such as novel disease and pest outbreaks. Several participants mentioned that the value attributed to different species will change based on scenario context. This prompts warnings for wildlife managers not to “shut the door” on a species today that may be highly valuable for solving food security challenges of the future. Findings suggest that one of scenario planning’s most significant contribution is a forum for people to share perspectives and develop trust and understanding of one another. All participants valued the holistic and long-term thinking aspects of scenario planning, seeing it as a complementary tool to enhance existing planning processes. Major resource management plans and/or resource development projects in the future should consider using a scenarios approach to better articulated goals in terms of whole system impacts.

Migratory behaviour of the Ya Ha Tinda (YHT) elk population is diminishing while the number of residents remaining on the YHT winter range year-round is increasing. Previous research addressing the fitness consequences of each migratory strategy assumed there was no advantage to either segment when they shared the YHT winter range. In testing this assumption, I found no spatial segregation of migrant and resident home-ranges during winter. Both groups were exposed to similar forage resources and residents were exposed to higher night-time, but not day-time predation risk. Residents were better than migrants at reducing the foraging costs of vigilance and increased vigilance in areas of high wolf predation risk, but not near human activity because of habituation. Migrants were not habituated to humans and exhibited more constant vigilance regardless of spatial variations in risk. My results do not support the previous assumption. Instead, I found residents may be at an advantage on the winter range while forage is abundant and no snow is present. / Ecology

The subject of this study is the exploitation of marrow in European elk (Alces alces), at two Stone Age settlements in northern Sweden. The bone material presented in this study originate from Bellsås in Jämtland county, and Bastuloken in Västernorrland county. Only bones containing white marrow have been analysed: the mandibula, the long bones, and the first and second phalanges. This study aims to understand if, and how the extraction and use of bone marrow varied between the two sites. Is there a difference in which elements that were chosen for exploitation between the two sites? What can differences in the choice of elements for marrow extraction tell us about changes in local preferences and alterations in practises over time? Can the stone material from the two sites in combination with the bones give any clue to how the localities were used? The results of this study shows that the difference in marrow exploitation between the two sites lies mainly in the choice to exploit phalanges as a source for marrow at Bastuloken but not at Bellsås. The reasons for this are discussed and the conclusion is that cultural choices or preferences, rather than nutritional stress, are the cause for the choice to use these elements as a source for marrow. The bone and stone material in combination show that the two localities have been used in different ways.