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Quantifying Life History Energetics Of An Oviparous Elasmobranch Subject To Future Warming Water, Carolyn R. Wheeler
Quantifying Life History Energetics Of An Oviparous Elasmobranch Subject To Future Warming Water, Carolyn R. Wheeler
Graduate Doctoral Dissertations
Marine ectothermic fishes – fishes that do not regulate internal body temperature independent from the water temperature – are some of the most vulnerable organisms to rapid and alarming increases in environmental temperature occurring due to climate change mediated-ocean warming. For tropical fish species that live near their thermal maxima, this warming could be of grave consequence to individuals, populations, and whole marine ecosystems. Certain key life stages such as embryos and reproducing adults may be particularly vulnerable to warming given the excess energetic costs of these life stages, which may disallow compensation for extreme changes in temperature. One taxonomic …
Landscape Genomics Of The Tussock Cottongrass (Eriophorum Vaginatum) And The Dwarf Birch (Betula Nana) In North Central Alaska, Elizabeth Stunz
Landscape Genomics Of The Tussock Cottongrass (Eriophorum Vaginatum) And The Dwarf Birch (Betula Nana) In North Central Alaska, Elizabeth Stunz
Open Access Theses & Dissertations
Global climate change has resulted in geographic range shifts of flora and fauna at a global scale. Extreme environments, like the Arctic, are seeing some of the most pronounced changes. This region covers 14% of the Earthâ??s land area, and while many arctic species are widespread, understanding ecotypic variation at the genomic level will be important for elucidating how range shifts will affect ecological processes. Increase in shrub cover is a major effect of ongoing climate change in arctic tundra ecosystems. The relative increases in abundance and cover of shrub species such as birch, willow, and alder (Betula, Salix, and …
Chihuahuan Desert Rock Pool Community Assemblages: Patterns Of Taxonomic Diversity, Joseph Lee Mcdaniel
Chihuahuan Desert Rock Pool Community Assemblages: Patterns Of Taxonomic Diversity, Joseph Lee Mcdaniel
Open Access Theses & Dissertations
As climate change continues to become more prevalent, increasing temperatures and altering precipitation patterns will disrupt the environmental balance of ecosystems and spark the imminent threat of a 6th mass extinction event. Many researchers believe this has already begun, as losses for numerous taxonomic clades have been well documented; however, the loss of invertebrates is still unknown and may be much more severe than those of other animal clades. A significant factor contributing to the shortfall of invertebrate biodiversity loss is rooted in the lack of understanding of the diversity and distribution of these animals. There is still much to …
An Evaluation Of Landscape, Climate, And Management Impacts On Bumble Bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Bombus) In Agroecosystems, Morgan Elizabeth Christman
An Evaluation Of Landscape, Climate, And Management Impacts On Bumble Bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Bombus) In Agroecosystems, Morgan Elizabeth Christman
All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023
Bumble bees play pivotal roles in pollinating wild and cultivated plant communities. Unfortunately, bumble bee populations are declining due to disturbances such as landscape conversion and climate change. Additionally, traps used to monitor pest insect populations often capture bumble bees, leading to a concern that trap captures increase bumble bee mortality. First, I studied bumble bee communities based on land cover and weather variables in agricultural fields in Utah. Bumble bee communities were more diverse in agricultural fields with more agricultural land in the surrounding area, low temperatures, and high humidity during the growing season, and less diverse in fields …
Chromosome Number Evolution, Phylogeography, And The Effects Of Climate Change On Species Distributions In Polyploid Plant Systems, Courtney H. Babin
Chromosome Number Evolution, Phylogeography, And The Effects Of Climate Change On Species Distributions In Polyploid Plant Systems, Courtney H. Babin
University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations
Polyploidy, a term used to describe organisms with cells having more than two paired sets of chromosomes, is a significant driver of diversification among land plants. Over a century of research has advanced our understanding of polyploidization in some taxa, but polyploid organisms remain understudied. In this dissertation, I investigate chromosome number evolution, phylogeographic structure, genetic differentiation, and the effects of climate change on ploidy level distribution using polyploid plant systems. In the first chapter, I inferred a molecular phylogeny of Allium, an economically important genus that includes cultivated crops and ornamentals, to investigate evolutionary transitions in chromosome number …
Connecting Above- And Belowground Effects Of Climate Warming On Bumble Bee Health, Francis Mullan
Connecting Above- And Belowground Effects Of Climate Warming On Bumble Bee Health, Francis Mullan
Master of Science in Integrative Biology Theses
Climate warming has been identified as one of the primary factors causing worldwide pollinator declines. One of the most at-risk groups of pollinators is bumble bees (Bombus spp.). Bumble bees are common, widespread, and key pollinators of a wide range of crops and wild plants. Although studies have examined the thermal physiological traits of individual bumble bees to understand how they may be impacted by climate warming, little to no studies have examined how climate warming may impact whole bumble bee colonies both in their ability to thermoregulate their nest for their brood or in their ability to forage …
Biodiversity And Global Change In Terrestrial Ecosystems, Timothy J. Ohlert
Biodiversity And Global Change In Terrestrial Ecosystems, Timothy J. Ohlert
Biology ETDs
Terrestrial ecosystems are critical to human and ecological processes but many gaps in our knowledge remain regarding how terrestrial plant communities assemble and respond to global change. I used field experiments distributed around the world, including long-term experiments from the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge (SNWR) in New Mexico and deserts of the southwestern U.S., to evaluate the consequences of drought and other abiotic stressors on plant communities. Dominant grasses were particularly important for the productivity and structure of grasslands at SNWR. In general, the structure of desert plant communities had high resistance to extreme drought, though grasses and other perennial …
An Analysis Of The Effects Of Temperature And Other Environmental Factors On Microorganismal Productivity Within Aquatic Ecosystems Using Long-Term Data From Various Lter And Ilter Sites, Andrew Dorbu
Theses and Dissertations
Global climate change is a phenomenon resulting in more extreme weather patterns and species diversity loss. In this study, I explore the impacts of climate change on regional patterns of microbial productivity. Variation in microbial productivity was explained using temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen as predictors in regression models with data from the LTER and iLTER network of sites that ranged from the poles to the equator. I found a positive relationship between temperature and productivity. Antarctica and Arctic sites exhibited the strongest positive relationships supporting prior research demonstrating temperature as one of the driving forces of productivity change in …
Sex, Body Size, And Winter Weather Explain Migration Strategies In A Partial Migrant Population Of American Kestrels (Falco Sparverius), Sadie Claire Ranck
Sex, Body Size, And Winter Weather Explain Migration Strategies In A Partial Migrant Population Of American Kestrels (Falco Sparverius), Sadie Claire Ranck
Boise State University Theses and Dissertations
Partially migratory systems describe populations that consist of both individuals that migrate away from the breeding grounds for the winter, and others that remain resident near their nesting sites year-round. Partial migration is the most common type of migration across all animal taxa, but the evolution, maintenance, and consequences associated with different movement strategies are still poorly understood. Studying the factors that drive migratory strategies and the associated consequences of those decisions is important to understand how migratory animals may adapt to climate change. Partial migrant populations offer a great opportunity for which to study these questions because individuals with …
Epidemiology And Impacts Of A Leaf Spot Disease In Veratrum Viride (Melanthiaceae), Leeah R. Sutton, Foster Levy
Epidemiology And Impacts Of A Leaf Spot Disease In Veratrum Viride (Melanthiaceae), Leeah R. Sutton, Foster Levy
Undergraduate Honors Theses
Fungal phytopathogens can cause disease epidemics in crops, weeds, and
populations of native plants. To investigate the impact of a foliar phytopathogen on the native herbaceous species, Veratrum viride, a demographic and disease assessment was carried out on two high elevation grassy bald populations on Roan Mountain, Tennessee. A leaf spot disease impacted all plants in both populations, causing widespread premature senescence of leaves and stems. Disease severity increased over the course of the growing season. Based on host disease symptoms and fungal conidia morphology, Pseudocercosporella sublineolata was shown to be the causal pathogen. A study of herbarium specimens …
The Potential Impact Of Climate Change On The Distributions Of Eleutherodactylus Cystignathoides And E. Planirostris (Anura: Eleutherodactylidae), Rebecca T. Chastain
The Potential Impact Of Climate Change On The Distributions Of Eleutherodactylus Cystignathoides And E. Planirostris (Anura: Eleutherodactylidae), Rebecca T. Chastain
Theses and Dissertations
Climate change is inducing changes in the distributions of many species, causing range shifts and habitat loss as well as facilitating invasions. It is a broad contributor to global amphibian decline, already causing mass extinctions and extirpations of amphibian populations, a phenomenon which is expected to continue. The understudied direct-developing frog Eleutherodactylus cystignathoides is a notable outlier, having rapidly expanded its distribution in recent years. This is of particular interest given that other eleutherodactylids, such as E. coqui and E. planirostris, have already shown propensity for rapid dispersal and invasion. Originally found in the southernmost tip of …
From Individuals To Communities: The Effect Of Climate Change On Ectothermic Predators, Matthew Lawrence Meehan
From Individuals To Communities: The Effect Of Climate Change On Ectothermic Predators, Matthew Lawrence Meehan
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
The living components of ecological systems exist within a nested hierarchy, consisting of individuals, populations, and communities. Because of this nestedness, climate change can greatly impact ecological systems, as whole-organism metabolic and physiological demands change for ectotherms under warming, the effects of which may compound with every succeeding level. Therefore, a multi-level approach can better isolate how climate change will reshape ecological systems. In my doctoral research, I used feeding and mesocosm experiments to examine how climate change affects ectothermic predators at the individual-, population-, and community-level, using mesostigmatic mites (Arachnida: Parasitiformes) as my model predator. My research objectives were …
Temperature-Dependent Developmental Plasticity In The Cardiorespiratory System Of Atlantic Salmon, Carlie A. Muir
Temperature-Dependent Developmental Plasticity In The Cardiorespiratory System Of Atlantic Salmon, Carlie A. Muir
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
Anthropogenic climate change is expected to have pervasive impacts on the performance and viability of fishes, as increasing temperatures create aerobically constrained environments for many species. Given the rapid rates of projected temperature increases, it is critical to evaluate the capacity for fish to respond to a changing thermal environment through phenotypic plasticity. In this thesis, I examined the capacity for developmental plasticity in the thermal performance of juvenile Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) reared under two thermal regimes from fertilization, and investigated potential mechanistic underpinnings within the cardiorespiratory system. Cardiac performance was examined using a noninvasive Doppler echocardiograph …
A Tipping Point In The Ecuadorian Amazon Rainforest: Current And Future Land-Use And Climate Change Trends, Alula Shields
A Tipping Point In The Ecuadorian Amazon Rainforest: Current And Future Land-Use And Climate Change Trends, Alula Shields
Masters Theses
Many regions of the Amazon are experiencing drastic changes as deforestation and climate change drive the world’s largest continuous rainforest towards a ‘tipping point’. These disturbances are changing natural cycles that once past a critical threshold, will mark an unstoppable transition to an altered ecosystem. Losing areas of the Amazon rainforest will have implications for the global climate, global carbon budget, and global hydrological regimes. Scholars have projected these tipping points for areas of the eastern Amazon rainforest, but much less scholarship focuses on the headwaters of the Western Amazon, an area of great cultural and biological importance. Ecuador is …
The Effects Of Average Annual Temperature On Flowering Times And Flower Count, Angela Copploe
The Effects Of Average Annual Temperature On Flowering Times And Flower Count, Angela Copploe
Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects
Over a course of 15 years, three different species of flowers were examined to see the relationship between the increase in average annual temperature, flowering time, and flower count.
Impacts Of Changing Permafrost Conditions On Vegetation Productivity In The Northern Boreal Forest, Emily Ogden
Impacts Of Changing Permafrost Conditions On Vegetation Productivity In The Northern Boreal Forest, Emily Ogden
Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)
Vegetation productivity across the boreal forest has increased over the past several decades. However, at a regional scale there is large variation from increased (greening) to decreased (browning) productivity and large areas with no measured change. Some of this variation can be explained by disturbances, such as wildfire, or by increased climate variability. In northern regions underlain by permafrost, the interactions between climate, disturbance, and vegetation productivity may be more complex. For my thesis, I used a time-series of ground thermal data from permafrost monitoring sites established by the Geological Survey of Canada along a latitudinal transect of the Northwest …