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Infestation Intensities, Attachment Patterns, And The Effect On Host Contest Behavior Of The Tick Ixodes Pacificus On The Lizard Sceloporus Occidentalis, Dylan M. Lanser Aug 2019

Infestation Intensities, Attachment Patterns, And The Effect On Host Contest Behavior Of The Tick Ixodes Pacificus On The Lizard Sceloporus Occidentalis, Dylan M. Lanser

Master's Theses

Parasites often have profound effects on the survival and evolution of their hosts, and hence on the structure and health of entire ecosystems. Yet basic questions, such as the degree of virulence of a given parasite on its host, and factors influencing which hosts in a population are at the greatest risk of infection, are vexingly difficult to resolve. The western blacklegged tick-western fence lizard (Ixodes pacificus-Sceloporus occidentalis) system is important, primarily because I. pacificus, a vector of the Lyme disease spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi, is dependent on S. occidentalis for blood meals in its subadult stages, …


Mother Convict Cichlids Inflict More Bites Upon An Intruder In Hot Temperatures, Jesse L. Heckendorf Aug 2014

Mother Convict Cichlids Inflict More Bites Upon An Intruder In Hot Temperatures, Jesse L. Heckendorf

STAR Program Research Presentations

Convict cichlids (Archocentrus nigrofasciatus) have developed to be extremely good parents by protecting their brood. Parental care leads to aggressive biting, chasing, and gill flaring to intimidate known predators. In this experiment, we show that environmental factors, such as the changing of temperature in this case, affect a female convict cichlid’s aggression toward caring for her offspring when an intruder is introduced. Females attack more in warmer water.


A Sociological And Statistical Analysis Of Fraternity Men's Attitudes On Rape And Sexual Assault, Cierra Ensign Jun 2013

A Sociological And Statistical Analysis Of Fraternity Men's Attitudes On Rape And Sexual Assault, Cierra Ensign

Social Sciences

Hostility, aggression, and empathy levels of 488 fraternity men were measured using portions of the Burt Rape Myth Acceptance Scale, Malamuth’s Behavioral Intent to Rape Question, Hostility Toward Women Scale, and Survey Measure of Emotional Empathy. Thirteen out of the fifteen Interfraternity Council (IFC) chapters at a west coast public university campus volunteered to participate in the study. The survey consisted of thirty-five questions aimed at finding a correlation between the respondents housing location, year in school, position of office in his fraternity, and number of siblings and hostility, aggression, and empathy. Although no significant findings relating hostility, aggression, and …


Physical Habitat And Social Conditions Across A Coral Reef Shape Spatial Patterns Of Intraspecific Behavioral Variation In A Demersal Fish, Meagan N. Schrandt, Kristin M. Hardy, Kaitlin M. Johnson, Sean C. Lema Jan 2011

Physical Habitat And Social Conditions Across A Coral Reef Shape Spatial Patterns Of Intraspecific Behavioral Variation In A Demersal Fish, Meagan N. Schrandt, Kristin M. Hardy, Kaitlin M. Johnson, Sean C. Lema

Biological Sciences

As coral reef ecosystems decline in health worldwide, reef-associated fishes are being impacted by changes to their coral reef habitats. While previous studies have shown coral reef structure to affect the demography of reef fishes, changes in reef conditions may also impact the behavior of reef fishes as they cope with altered habitats. In this study, we examined spatial patterns of intraspecific behavioral variation in the bicolor damselfish (Stegastes partitus) across the fringing reefs of Curaçao (Caribbean Sea), and explored how this behavioral variation associated with physical and social conditions on the reef. Principal components analysis (PCA) condensed …


Assessment Of Spectator Behavior At Youth Soccer Games, Teagan Lazzarotti Dec 2010

Assessment Of Spectator Behavior At Youth Soccer Games, Teagan Lazzarotti

Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Administration

Sports have always played an important role in children’s lives. American Youth Soccer Organization provides youth athletes the opportunity to participate in a soccer league that focuses on teaching good sportsmanship and player development. The purpose of this study was to assess fan behavior at middle school age female and male AYSO soccer games in San Luis Obispo. The subjects of this study were spectators (i.e. coaches and parents) of AYSO. The researcher and the research assistant attended six games during October 2010. At each game, notes were recorded on comments and behaviors, both positive and negative. After the data …


Population Divergence In Plasticity Of The Avt System And Its Association With Aggressive Behaviors In A Death Valley Pupfish, Sean C. Lema Aug 2006

Population Divergence In Plasticity Of The Avt System And Its Association With Aggressive Behaviors In A Death Valley Pupfish, Sean C. Lema

Biological Sciences

Behavioral differences can evolve rapidly in allopatry, but little is known about the neural bases of such changes. Allopatric populations of Amargosa pupfish (Cyprinodon nevadensis) vary in aggression and courtship behaviors in the wild. Two of these wild populations were recently found to differ in brain expression of arginine vasotocin (AVT)—a peptide hormone shown previously to modulate aggression in pupfish. These populations have been isolated for less than 4000 years, so it remained unclear whether the differences in behavior and neural AVT phenotype were evolved changes or plastic responses to ecologically dissimilar habitats. Here, I tested whether these …


The Effects Of Resource Availability On Alternative Mating Tactics In Guppies (Poecilia Reticulata), Gita R. Kolluru, Gregory F. Grether Jan 2005

The Effects Of Resource Availability On Alternative Mating Tactics In Guppies (Poecilia Reticulata), Gita R. Kolluru, Gregory F. Grether

Biological Sciences

Food availability can influence the optimal allocation of time and energy among alternative behaviors such as foraging, courting, and competing for mates. If populations differ consistently in food availability, selection may cause geographic divergence in allocation strategies. At the opposite extreme, a norm of reaction may evolve such that food intake influences the allocation strategy of individuals in the same way in all populations. Between these two extremes, food intake reaction norms may diverge genetically among populations. For example, at sites where food is scarce, selection may strengthen the effect of food intake on behavior, whereas at sites with abundant …


Exogenous Vasotocin Alters Aggression During Agonistic Exchanges In Male Amargosa River Pupfish (Cyprinodon Nevadensis Amargosae), Sean C. Lema, Gabrielle A. Nevitt Dec 2004

Exogenous Vasotocin Alters Aggression During Agonistic Exchanges In Male Amargosa River Pupfish (Cyprinodon Nevadensis Amargosae), Sean C. Lema, Gabrielle A. Nevitt

Biological Sciences

Pupfishes in the Death Valley region have rapidly differentiated in social behaviors since their isolation in a series of desert streams, springs, and marshes less than 20,000 years ago. These habitats can show dramatic fluctuations in ecological conditions, and pupfish must cope with the changes by plastic physiological and behavioral responses. Recently, we showed differences among some Death Valley populations in brain expression of arginine vasotocin (AVT). As AVT regulates both hydromineral balance and social behaviors in other taxa, these population differences may indicate adaptive changes in osmoregulatory and/or behavioral processes. To test whether AVT is relevant for behavioral shifts …