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Reproductive Success Of American Kestrels (Falco Sparverius) Nesting In Boxes Along An Interstate In Northeastern Tennessee., Jennifer Robertson Powers

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Nest box programs provide supplemental nest sites for American Kestrels, Falco sparverius. When the availability of nest sites is a limiting factor, the addition of nest boxes can increase local breeding populations. These programs also facilitate the collection of data on breeding kestrels.

This study focuses on an American Kestrel (Falco sparverius) nest box trail along Interstate 26 in northeastern Tennessee during the breeding seasons of 1998, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2004, 2006, and 2009. Productivity measures and reproductive success of nesting birds are provided and compared to other programs. The data are analyzed across years and by …

Investigating Saxitoxin Resistance In Softshell Clams (Mya Arenaria): Patterns Of Inheritance And Improvements On Methodology For Tracking And Identification, Scott A. Hamilton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Attempts to characterize and study the population dynamics of the softshell clam Mya arenaria in relation to a mutation which confers resistance to paralytic shellfish toxins are complicated by a lack of non-lethal genotyping techniques, reliable tagging methods and an understanding of the inheritance patterns of the marker. Presented here, is a straightforward and non-lethal technique for clam genotyping, a new method for the long term tagging of clams, and the offspring genotype frequencies from a number of pair matings between clams of known genotype. Hemolymph extracted from M. arenaria was used directly in a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to …

Mapping The Dorsal Skin Pigmentation Patterns Of Two Sympatric Populations Of Ambystomatid Salamanders, Ambystoma Opacum And A. Maculatum From Northeast Tennessee., Lok Raj Pokhrel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Because of growing concern of habitat fragmentation and its adverse effects on salamander communities in Appalachian region, sympatric populations of ambystomatid salamanders A. opacum and A. maculatum were studied in Northeast Tennessee to address a number of questions: i) the extent of sexual size dimorphism (SSD) in both species, ii) what traits influence the dorsal skin pigmentation and how, iii) whether gender differences in developmental stability occur, and iv) the extent of phenotypic variation within each species. The findings of this study revealed SSD in both species of salamanders. The most parsimonious statistical model was developed that explained the influence …

Host And Seasonal Effects On The Infection Dynamics Of Skrjabinoptera Phrynosoma (Ortlepp) Schulz, 1927, A Parasitic Nematode Of Horned Lizards, Kathryn Claire Hilsinger

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Author's Abstract: Skrjabinoptera phrynosoma (Ortlepp) Schulz, 1927 is a common parasitic nematode of horned lizards. The life cycle of S. phrynosoma was described by Lee in 1957, but has received little attention since. The present study addressed effect of season as well as host characteristics on the infection dynamics in lizard hosts. In the Alvord Basin in southeastern Oregon, S. phrynosoma were collected from Phrynosoma platyrhinos Gerard 1852 horned lizards via stomach flushes, cloaca flushes and fecal pellet collections. Parasite load variables (number of nematodes per host, length of those nematodes, and total worm burden (ΣL)) were analyzed within three …

Reintroduction Of Bison (Bison Bison) On Reservations In South Dakota: Four Case Studies, Trudy M. Ecoffey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research explored and documented issues of sustainability associated with the reintroduction of bison in four different bison herds on Reservations in South Dakota. The four herds were managed by: a tribal family cooperative, an individual tribal member, a tribal university and a tribal fish and wildlife agency. The objectives were to identify management practices associated with the sustainability of bison introduction by American Indians; to explore the role of American Indian culture in the management of bison for sustainability; and to investigate rangeland criteria that could be used to measure sustainability of bison reintroduced by American Indians. This project …