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Life Sciences

Honors Theses

Theses/Dissertations

2011

Speciation

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The Tradeoff Between Polyuronic Acid Content And Photosynthesis Rates In Sphagnum, Michael J. Danise Jun 2011

The Tradeoff Between Polyuronic Acid Content And Photosynthesis Rates In Sphagnum, Michael J. Danise

Honors Theses

Sphagnum mosses often dominate peatland ecosystems. Because of the low availability of nutrients in these environments, Sphagnum mosses have developed a cation exchange system within their cell walls to take up nutrients using polyuronic acids (PUA). Increasing amounts of PUA may come at a physiological tradeoff and cause decreasing photosynthetic rates. The objectives of this study were 1) to assess variation in polyuronic acid content and structure by analyzing component monomers from three different Sphagnum species representative of different microhabitats, 2) to investigate how this variation affects the cation exchange capacity of the peat moss species, and 3) to evaluate …


Color Vision And Color Discrimination In Anolis Sagrei, Rachael A. Singleton Jun 2011

Color Vision And Color Discrimination In Anolis Sagrei, Rachael A. Singleton

Honors Theses

Anolis is a genus of fairly common lizards; over 300 species of Anolis inhabit areas close to the equator. One of their most unique features is the dewlap, a colorful throat fan that the lizards can extend and contract to denote certain behaviors. Dewlap color and pattern varies between species, and therefore aids in species identification. For this reason, color vision and color discrimination is especially important in Anolis lizards. Over a 10-week period a series of training experiments using color markers were done with four lizards of the Anolis sagrei species. The lizards were trained to move a color …