Jessica Keppel Higgins: RAPID EVOLUTION AND POPULATION DIVERGENCE IN RESPONSE TO ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE IN COLIAS BUTTERLIES (Under the direction of Joel Kingsolver)

Gynodioecy is a mode of sex expression where male sterlie (hereafter female) plants and hermaphroditic plants coexist within a population. In order for the females to be maintained by natural selection, they must have experienced an increased fitness. Fitness is defined as the ability of genotype or

Animal pollination represents one of the key innovations of the flowering plants, and constitutes

Effective water resources planning and management requires skillful decisions on multiyear or decadal timeframes. In basins such as the Colorado River Basin (CRB), streamflow is not stationary but exhibits variability that reflects teleconnections with large scale climate indices such as Atlantic Mu

In the northeast San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado lie the Powderhorn and La Garita Wilderness Areas, full of high peaks and alpine plateaus bordered by volcanic hoodoos, vast forests, and arid steppe. A floristic inventory was performed to describe and catalog the vascular plant diversity of

A Mid-Tertiary igneous intrusion into the Upper Cretaceous Mancos Shale provides an excellent natural laboratory to study the thermal effects of an intrusion on the organic geochemistry and water-rock system across a contact metamorphic profile. The intrusion, is believed to have established a high

Biotic and Abiotic Drivers of Plant-Pollinator Interaction Rewiring

Cheaters affect most mutualisms, but their effects remain misunderstood. This thesis

Snowfall, temperature and wind are three factors that quickly change avalanche conditions. Ridge-top winds have been used to assess avalanche conditions with mixed success due to high variability. Few analyses have tested the effect upper atmospheric winds have on avalanche conditions. This study at

Pennsylvanian (Desmoinesian) sedimentary rocks within the Paradox Basin Four Corners area of the western United States afford a unique opportunity to study the development of sedimentary successions in a complex marine to nonmarine depositional setting. The close association of thick intervals of no

This collection of short literary fiction springs loosely from a contemplation of the enduring influence of Washington Irving’s Gothic in the Hudson Valley. The first story, “Life Is Good,” centers on a fictionalized account of a morbidly obese bear named Allen and a resilient child, Henny, who form

In 1846, the United States of America began a war with the Republic of Mexico. When it was over, one of the results was the acquisition of much of current California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, southern Colorado and New Mexico. The region was occupied by Catholic Mexicans, a fact not lost on the America

Phenology, or the timing of biological events, is critical for the development, reproduction, and

The Global list of endangered species of flora and fauna is growing, with the most highly specialized species often at ‘critically endangered’ status. Managing these populations effectively involves numerous and varied organizations, conflicting motivations, arbitrary anthropogenic boundaries and of

The Mesaverde Group in the Piceance Basin of northwestern Colorado is a continuous tight gas accumulation that has established itself as one of the more prolific producers of natural gas in the Rocky Mountain Region.In the Piceance Basin, the most significant producing intervals within the Mesaverde

This work is the product of an archaeological investigation of the former townsite of Dallas, Colorado. Archival research, drone photography, shovel test pits (STPs), and a test excavation unit were employed to learn more about how the people of Dallas lived, and how they interacted with national sy