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Microbial Ecology Of Waterborne Pathogens In Sus Scofra And Odocoileus Virginianus In The Jackson Bienville Wildlife Management Area, Jaymes Hunter Collins

Doctoral Dissertations

Previous studies have demonstrated that feral swine (Sus scofra ) are significant reservoirs for a number of pathogens that present a potential threat to wildlife and humans. Despite this, few studies have gone beyond quantifying the incidence of these pathogens to further probe their ecology within a specific habitat or ecosystem.

Overall, the objective of this study was to characterize three potential reservoirs in a feral swine infested habitat; two ungulates, and one aquatic reservoir. Our study area was the Jackson-Bienville Wildlife Management Area (J-B WMA). We chose four waterborne bacteria: Brucella spp., Leptospira interrogans, Salmonella enterica, and Helicobacter …

Ant Diversity And Community Structure In Coastal Dunes And Wetlands, Xuan Chen

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

How do many species live in a certain place? How does species composition changes among habitats? And what mechanisms decide species distribution? These are fundamental questions in community ecology. I first investigated ant diversity in two coastal ecosystems (dunes and wetlands) in the northern Gulf of Mexico, and then used the distribution patterns to infer assembly processes that structure ant communities in coastal areas. Specifically, the following hypotheses are tested: (1) coastal systems support lower ant diversity due to the unsuitable environment; (2) species living near the seashore are a subset of those exist near inland; (3) deterministic processes are …