Digital Commons Network^™

Associations Between Avian Spruce-Fir Species, Harvest Treatments, Vegetation, And Edges, Brian W. Rolek

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Habitat loss is the primary cause of species loss and declines of global biodiversity. Several birds associated with the spruce-fir forest type (hereafter spruce-fir birds) have declining populations across the continent in the Atlantic Northern Forest, and the extent of coniferous forest has declined in some areas. This region is extensively and intensively managed for timber products.

To investigate the influence from harvest treatments on the spruce-fir bird assemblage during the breeding and post-breeding period in lowland conifer and mixed-wood forests, we used avian point count detection data to test for associations between avian assemblages and seven common harvest treatments. …

The Effects Of Habitat And Connectivity On Tropical Ant Ecology And Behavior., Benjamin Jacob Adams

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the role that physical connections among and within habitats play in determining the local diversity and behaviors of cursorial organisms. Understanding the processes that regulate local community assembly and that contribute to the maintenance of species diversity is a cornerstone of community ecology. Ants are a useful model for studies of local communities because they are abundant and fulfill a variety of ecological roles. Chapter one of the dissertation examines the how lianas (woody vines) function as connective structures among tree crowns and how these connections affect arboreal ant community structure within a tropical forest canopy. Trees …

The Effect Of Environmental Perturbations On The Plant Phyllosphere Microbiome, Bram W. Stone

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Applying ecological concepts to microbial communities has proved to be challenging, often revolving around the relative importance of stochastic and deterministic processes applied heterogeneously across the habitat in time or space. The phyllosphere is the aboveground surface of plants on which microbial communities, composed primarily of Bacteria, but also including Archaea and microbial eukaryotes, exist and is characterized by stochastic immigration balanced with strong selective forces. Variation in bacterial community composition was characterized across space and time, with special attention given to the exposure of phyllosphere communities to rain as a plausible mechanism of ecological disturbance. Bacterial communities were characterized …