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Environmental Dna Identifies Coastal Plant Community Shift 1,000 Years Ago In Torrens Island, South Australia, Nicole R. Foster, Alice R. Jones, Oscar Serrano, Anna Lafratta, Paul S. Lavery, Kor-Jent Van Dijk, Ed Biffin, Bronwyn M. Gillanders, Jennifer Young, Pere Masque, Patricia S. Gadd, Geraldine E. Jacobsen, Atun Zawadzki, Andria Greene, Michelle Waycott Dec 2024

Environmental Dna Identifies Coastal Plant Community Shift 1,000 Years Ago In Torrens Island, South Australia, Nicole R. Foster, Alice R. Jones, Oscar Serrano, Anna Lafratta, Paul S. Lavery, Kor-Jent Van Dijk, Ed Biffin, Bronwyn M. Gillanders, Jennifer Young, Pere Masque, Patricia S. Gadd, Geraldine E. Jacobsen, Atun Zawadzki, Andria Greene, Michelle Waycott

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Anthropogenic activities are causing detrimental changes to coastal plants– namely seagrass, mangrove, and tidal marshes. Looking beyond recent times to past vegetation dynamics is critical to assess the response and resilience of an environment to change. Here, we develop a high-resolution multi-proxy approach, providing a new evidence base to decipher long-term change in coastal plant communities. Combining targeted environmental DNA analysis with chemical analysis of soils, we reconstructed 4,000 years of change at a temperate wetland on Torrens Island South Australia and identified an ecosystem shift that occurred ~ 1000 years ago. What was once a subtidal seagrass system shifted …


An Examination Of The Ways In Which Transdisciplinary Research Could Be Used To Incentivize Local Communities To Combat The Illegal Wildlife Trade, Jessica Rios May 2024

An Examination Of The Ways In Which Transdisciplinary Research Could Be Used To Incentivize Local Communities To Combat The Illegal Wildlife Trade, Jessica Rios

FIU Undergraduate Research Journal

The illegal wildlife trade (IWT) is currently one of the most critical conservation concerns, given its direct impact on biodiversity loss, endangering local ecosystems, and adding pressure to all species at a point when they face dangers like deforestation and mass extinctions. This industry also significantly impacts local communities, many of which are compelled to engage in it as a result of their precarious socioeconomic conditions. While effective countermeasures to this global issue have been identified, successful implementation of these countermeasures require diverse disciplines and collaborators. This paper argues that a transdisciplinary approach that converges knowledge and skills from social …


Consequences Of The Megafauna Extinction: Changes In Food Web Networks On The Edwards Plateau Across The Pleistocene-Holocene Transition, Quentin A. Smith Jr. May 2024

Consequences Of The Megafauna Extinction: Changes In Food Web Networks On The Edwards Plateau Across The Pleistocene-Holocene Transition, Quentin A. Smith Jr.

School of Biological Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

We are experiencing biodiversity loss due to climate change and human impacts, which is not only harmful to the environment but can also alter the composition of communities and interactions among species. The late Pleistocene experienced a loss of large-bodied mammals which resulted in significant changes in community structure due to changes in body size, diet, and species associations. The impact of these changes on species interactions and community structure across the Pleistocene-Holocene transition remains poorly understood. Using a robust data set of species composition, stable isotopes, body size, and climate variables, we constructed and compared ecological networks of mammal …


Mercury Biomagnification In Aquatic Food Webs Of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Zachary Winston Clark May 2024

Mercury Biomagnification In Aquatic Food Webs Of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Zachary Winston Clark

Masters Theses

Mercury is a widespread pollutant threatening human, fish, and ecosystem health on a global scale. Biomagnification concentrates mercury in upper trophic level organisms including predatory fishes, a primary route of dietary mercury exposure for humans. However, mercury biomagnification is not well understood in stream ecosystems, especially in places with no known point sources of contamination. A 2016 study revealed that Smallmouth Bass Micropterus dolomeiu mercury concentrations varied between three streams in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP), Tennessee USA. However, the reason for this spatial variation in mercury concentrations is not understood. Our objectives were to (1) measure environmental and …


Evaluation Of Avian Use Of Agricultural Cover Crops During The Winter, Migration Stopover, And The Breeding Season In Tennessee, Brittany Panos May 2024

Evaluation Of Avian Use Of Agricultural Cover Crops During The Winter, Migration Stopover, And The Breeding Season In Tennessee, Brittany Panos

Masters Theses

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service administers the cover crop program to provide technical and financial assistance to agricultural producers to sow herbaceous plant seeds to establish cover crops to protect agricultural fields from soil erosion during the non-growing season (late fall through spring). Soil retention and water quality benefits have been documented, but potential benefits for avian wildlife remain largely unknown. I used line-transect avian and vegetation surveys to examine use of cover crop fields by birds during the non-breeding period (winter), migration, and the breeding season. I compared avian use of cover crop fields with …


Effects Of Nitrogen On The Growth Of Hyparrhenia Diplandra, J Nkandza Apr 2024

Effects Of Nitrogen On The Growth Of Hyparrhenia Diplandra, J Nkandza

IGC Proceedings (1997-2023)

The nitrogen effects on Hyparrhenia diplandra were studied. Plants were grown on nutrient solutions of variable concentrations in nitrogen. The supplied nitrogen increased tillering, leaf production, lamina area, total dry matter accumulation and total nitrogen accumulation in lamina. A detailed examination showed that the effect on tillering was the main cause of the differences observed in dry weights between different treatments. The nitrogen supply elongated significantly the lamina and nitrogen deficiency increased its thickness; but this was not enough to compensate the loss of weight in lower nitrogen treatment. The lamina area as well as nitrogen accumulation in the lamina …


Movement Of Allelopathic Compound Coumarin From Plant Residue Of Sweet Vernalgrass (Anthoxanthum Odoratum L.) To Soil, Yoshito Yamamoto Apr 2024

Movement Of Allelopathic Compound Coumarin From Plant Residue Of Sweet Vernalgrass (Anthoxanthum Odoratum L.) To Soil, Yoshito Yamamoto

IGC Proceedings (1997-2023)

This study investigated the movement of coumarin, an allelopathic compound, from the plant residue of sweet vernalgrass (Anthoxanthum odoratum L.) to soil, as well as the dynamics of coumarin in soil. The level of coumarin dissolved from sweet vernalgrass plant residue in both Andosols and Cambisols, which were watered every day, peaked on the 5th day after the beginning of watering, and fell gradually with each additional of day. Specifically, the coumarin content in Cambisols on the 5th day was 14.2 ppm, which is 4 times the coumarin level found in Andosols. The recovery percentage of coumarin extracted with …


Stability Of Predator-Prey Model For Worm Attack In Wireless Sensor Networks, Rajeev Kishore, Padam Singh Mar 2024

Stability Of Predator-Prey Model For Worm Attack In Wireless Sensor Networks, Rajeev Kishore, Padam Singh

Applications and Applied Mathematics: An International Journal (AAM)

In this paper, we propose a predator-prey mathematical model for analyzing the dynamical behaviors of the system. This system is an epidemic model, and it is capable of ascertaining the worm's spreading at the initial stage and improving the security of wireless sensor networks. We investigate different fixed points and examine the stability of the projected model.


Comparison Of Ketamine-Xylazine, Butorphanol-Azaperone-Medetomidine, And Nalbuphine-Medetomidine-Azaperone For Raccoon (Procyon Lotor) Immobilization, Shylo R. Johnson, Christine K. Ellis, Chad Wickham, Molly R. Selleck, Amy T. Gilbert Jan 2024

Comparison Of Ketamine-Xylazine, Butorphanol-Azaperone-Medetomidine, And Nalbuphine-Medetomidine-Azaperone For Raccoon (Procyon Lotor) Immobilization, Shylo R. Johnson, Christine K. Ellis, Chad Wickham, Molly R. Selleck, Amy T. Gilbert

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Raccoons (Procyon lotor) are frequently handled using chemical immobilization in North America for management and research. In a controlled environment, we compared three drug combinations: ketamine-xylazine (KX), butorphanol-azaperone-medetomidine (BAM), and nalbuphinemedetomidine- azaperone (NalMed-A) for raccoon immobilization. In crossover comparisons, raccoons received a mean of the following: 8.66 mg/kg ketamine and 1.74 mg/kg xylazine (0.104 mL/kg KX); 0.464 mg/kg butorphanol, 0.155 mg/kg azaperone, and 0.185 mg/kg medetomidine (0.017 mL/kg BAM); and 0.800 mg/kg nalbuphine, 0.200 mg/kg azaperone, and 0.200 mg/kg medetomidine (0.020 mL/kg NalMed-A). Induction time was shortest with KX (mean6SE, 10.060.7 min) and longest with NalMed-A (13.061.3 min). …


Identifying Nutrient Dynamics And Relative Groundwater Contribution In Wetlands At Fish Lake Environmental Center, Lapeer Mi, Rose Allen Jan 2024

Identifying Nutrient Dynamics And Relative Groundwater Contribution In Wetlands At Fish Lake Environmental Center, Lapeer Mi, Rose Allen

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

Wetlands are complex ecosystems that are dependent on hydrologic processes and water chemistry. Understanding the role that water chemistry and nutrients play in wetland ecosystems is crucial to wetland management and restoration. The Fish Lake Environmental Education Center near Lapeer Michigan, is glacially influenced, and contains a large bog. Between the bog and lake there are multiple kettles that contain ephemeral wetlands in the spring. Bogs are primarily precipitation sourced, whereas the kettle wetlands may be a combination of precipitation and groundwater sourced. Previous studies indicated that groundwater flow direction is towards Fish Lake, but it was unclear to what …