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The Metabolic Ecology Of Tropical Amphibians Across An Elevational Gradient In The Andes Of Southeastern Peru, Michael R. Britton

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Metabolism is a fundamental biological process that determines the rate at which organisms process energy and materials, and determines the availability of resources for growth, maintenance and reproduction. Metabolic rates scale across levels of organization from cells to whole organisms and affect population, community, and ecosystem processes. Anthropogenic climate change and other environmental changes are predicted to have major impacts on the energetics of organisms that will be mediated through metabolic physiology. Tropical ectotherms, such as amphibians, may be among the most vulnerable to metabolic impacts of climate change as a result of being ectothermic, having high thermal sensitivity, and …

Survival At The Summits: Amphibian Responses To Thermal Extremes, Disease, And Rapid Climate Change In The High Tropical Andes, Kelsey E. Reider

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Understanding biological responses to climate change is a primary concern in conservation biology. Of the ecosystems being rapidly impacted by climate change, those in the high-elevation tropics are among the most poorly studied. The tropical Andean biosphere includes record elevations above 5000 meters, where extreme environmental conditions challenge many organisms. In the Cordillera Vilcanota of southern Peru, frogs including Pleurodema marmoratum and Telmatobius marmoratus have expanded their ranges to 5244 – 5400 m into habitats created by glacial recession, making them among the highest recorded amphibians on Earth. To understand how hydrologic alterations from loss of glacial meltwater and climatic …

Reimagining Movements: Towards A Queer Ecology And Trans/Black Feminism, Gabriel Benavente

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis seeks to bridge feminist and environmental justice movements through the literature of black women writers. These writers create an archive that contribute towards the liberation of queer, black, and transgender peoples.

In the novel Parable of the Talents, Octavia Butler constructs a world that highlights the pervasive effects of climate change. As climate change expedites poverty, Americans begin to blame others, such as queer people, for the destruction of their country. Butler depicts the dangers of fundamentalism as a response to climate change, highlighting an imperative for a movement that does not romanticize the environment as heteronormative, but …

Effects Of Catastrophic Seagrass Loss And Predation Risk On The Ecological Structure And Resilience Of A Model Seagrass Ecosystem, Robert J. Nowicki

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As climate change continues, climactic extremes are predicted to become more frequent and intense, in some cases resulting in dramatic changes to ecosystems. The effects of climate change on ecosystems will be mediated, in part, by biotic interactions in those ecosystems. However, there is still considerable uncertainty about where and how such biotic interactions will be important in the context of ecosystem disturbance and climactic extremes.

Here, I review the role of consumers in seagrass ecosystems and investigate the ecological impacts of an extreme climactic event (marine heat wave) and subsequent widespread seagrass die-off in Shark Bay, Western Australia. Specifically, …

The Effects Of Climate Warming On Plant-Herbivore Interactions, Nathan Lemoine

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Rising temperatures associated with climate change will alter the fundamental physiological processes of most ectothermic species. Drastic changes in catabolic and anabolic reaction rates exert strong effects on growth, reproduction, and consumption rates that cascade up through all levels of the biological hierarchy. This dissertation determined how climate warming might alter the important relationship between plants and insect herbivores, as mediated through changes in herbivore physiology. Consumption and fitness increased with temperature for almost all consumers. However, all consumers also exhibited a critical temperature, beyond which consumption declined rapidly through metabolism continued to increase. This mismatch in metabolic demands and …