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Articles 1 - 16 of 16
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Tri-Colored Bat Habitat Use And Selection In Northwestern South Carolina, Eduardo Rosales
Tri-Colored Bat Habitat Use And Selection In Northwestern South Carolina, Eduardo Rosales
All Theses
North American bat populations continue to be decimated by many factors, with the largest contributor being white-nose syndrome (WNS). In recent years researchers have noted the importance of fat reserves pre- and post-hibernation (fall and spring) and how they may influence WNS survival and recovery respectively. Tri-colored bats (Perimyotis subflavus) are one of the four species most impacted by WNS but have received the least research. Further, thus far all research on tri-colored bat resource selection has been gathered during summer and winter, highlighting the need for habitat selection studies during the fall and spring pre- and post-hibernation …
Patterns And Drivers Of Wiregrass Gap Longleaf Pine (Pinus Palustris Mill.) Woodland Succession As Part Of Restoration Efforts, Armin Weise
All Theses
Longleaf Pine (Pinus palustris) communities are widespread throughout the Southeastern United States with a dominant understory vegetation of wiregrass (Aristida spp.) in most of its range. A small area in central South Carolina that is naturally free of wiregrass is called the “Wiregrass Gap”. Here, the understory vegetation is dominated by bluestems grasses (Andropogon spp. and Schizachyrium spp.) which drive the disturbance regime of frequent low-intensity fire. The successful establishment of these grasses is key for longleaf pine woodland restoration efforts in this region, but few resources detail the ecological drivers at play that enable successful restoration in these longleaf …
Growth, Mortality, And Movement Of Endemic Bartram's Bass And Invasive Alabama Bass In Upper Savannah River Basin Tributaries, Tyler Zumwalt
Growth, Mortality, And Movement Of Endemic Bartram's Bass And Invasive Alabama Bass In Upper Savannah River Basin Tributaries, Tyler Zumwalt
All Theses
Bartram’s Bass are an endemic to the Upper Savannah River basin in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Bartram’s Bass are facing many risks, primary among them being hybridization with nonnative Alabama Bass. More recently, nonnative Alabama Bass and their hybrid congeners have been observed moving from reservoirs into tributaries where the remaining Bartram’s Bass populations exist. Thus, for Chapter 1 we sought to better understand the threat of nonnative gene spreading in tributary systems. To do this, we 1) quantified the movement of pure Alabama Bass, Bartram’s Bass, and their hybrids, 2) assessed correlations between movement and abiotic variables, …
Drivers Of White-Tailed Deer (Odocoileus Virginianus) Behavior, Survival, And Population Growth In The Piedmont Of South Carolina, Michael Muthersbaugh
Drivers Of White-Tailed Deer (Odocoileus Virginianus) Behavior, Survival, And Population Growth In The Piedmont Of South Carolina, Michael Muthersbaugh
All Dissertations
Prey species adjust behaviors in response to various stimuli, responding to both top-down and bottom-up pressures. Large herbivores must attempt to avoid predation either through adjusting behaviors or seeking spatial or temporal refugia, which can scale up to influence individual fitness and ultimately population dynamics. Specifically, predation risk has a great potential to influence ungulate populations by impacting behaviors and survival. Our objective was to quantify ungulate behavioral and population response to a regionally important predator through a case study – white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) responses to coyotes (Canis latrans) on private lands in the Piedmont …
15 Years Of Fire And Fire Surrogate Treatment Effects On Understory Vegetation In The Southern Appalachian Mountains, Usa, Emily Catherine Oakman
15 Years Of Fire And Fire Surrogate Treatment Effects On Understory Vegetation In The Southern Appalachian Mountains, Usa, Emily Catherine Oakman
All Theses
Decades of fire exclusion in the Southern Appalachian region have caused the forests to convert from open woodlands to closed canopy mesic forests with sparse understories. The main objectives of this study were 1) to assess the effects of four fuel reduction methods (burned [B], mechanical fuel treatment [M], mechanical treatment + burned [MB], and control [C]) on understory vegetative functional groups from 2001-2016; and 2) to investigate understory community-level responses after 15 years of treatment effects. In response to the first objective, oak species had significant increases in MB and B, relative to other treatments. However, mesic hardwood species …
Biology And Behavior Of The Asian Needle Ant, Brachyponera Chinensis , Hamilton Ross Allen
Biology And Behavior Of The Asian Needle Ant, Brachyponera Chinensis , Hamilton Ross Allen
All Dissertations
Ants are among the most successful invasive organisms in the world. To curb the spread of invasive ants in non-native environments, their ecological, biological, and behavioral characteristics must be identified. The Asian needle ant, Brachyponera (= Pachycondyla ) chinensis (Emery) is an emerging invasive pest in urban areas and forests in the southeastern United States. However, general basic biological information on B. chinensis and subsequent management options are deficient. This work contributes to the standing biological information on B. chinensis by examining the seasonal life cycle, social nesting habits, and transport behaviors of B. chinensis colonies. To determine the seasonal …
North American Bat Monitoring Program (Nabat) In South Carolina: Acoustic Detection And Landscape Occupancy Of Bats, Benjamin D. Neece
North American Bat Monitoring Program (Nabat) In South Carolina: Acoustic Detection And Landscape Occupancy Of Bats, Benjamin D. Neece
All Theses
Bats are under threat from habitat loss, energy development, and the disease white-nose syndrome. The North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat) suggests standardized, large scale monitoring to benefit ecologists and managers. Our first objective was to determine the efficacy of NABat in South Carolina. Detection probabilities differ within and among species and among survey conditions. Thus, our second objective was to determine factors affecting detection probabilities. Finally, effective management strategies addressing large scale threats require landscape scale analyses. Thus, our third objective was to conduct state-wide assessments of environmental factors influencing landscape occupancy and generate predicted distributions. We conducted NABat …
Applied Statistics In Environmental Monitoring: Case Studies And Analysis For The Michigan Bald Eagle Biosentinel Program, Katherine Leith
Applied Statistics In Environmental Monitoring: Case Studies And Analysis For The Michigan Bald Eagle Biosentinel Program, Katherine Leith
All Dissertations
The bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) is an extensively researched tertiary predator. Its life history and the impact of various stressors on its reproductive outcomes have been documented in many studies, and over many years. Furthermore, the bald eagle population recovery in Michigan has been closely monitored since the 1960s, as it has continued to recover from a contaminant-induced bottleneck. Because of its position at the top of the aquatic food web and the large body of ethological knowledge, the bald eagle has become a sentinel species for the Michigan aquatic ecosystem. In April 1999, the Michigan Department of Environmental Qualtity, …
A Memento Of Complexity: The Rhetorics Of Memory, Ambience, And Emergence, Glen Southergill
A Memento Of Complexity: The Rhetorics Of Memory, Ambience, And Emergence, Glen Southergill
All Dissertations
Drawing from complexity theory, this dissertation develops a schema of rhetorical memory that exhibits extended characteristics. Scholars traditionally conceptualize memory, the fourth canon in classical rhetoric, as place (loci) or image (phantasm). However, memory rhetoric resists the traditional loci-phantasm framework and instead emerges from enmeshments of interiority, collectivity, and technology. Emergence considers the dynamics of fundamental parts that generate complex systems and offers a methodological lens to theorizing memory. The resulting construct informs everyday life, which includes interfacing with pervasive computing or sensing familiarity. Further, congruently with a neurological turn that contradicts simplification, this dissertation resituates rhetorical memory as generative …
Investigating The Impact Of Novel Iron Oxide Nanoparticles On Legionella Pneumophila Biofilms And Trophic Interactions, Brennen Jenkins
Investigating The Impact Of Novel Iron Oxide Nanoparticles On Legionella Pneumophila Biofilms And Trophic Interactions, Brennen Jenkins
All Theses
Microbial biofilms serve as the base of food webs and are important for nutrient cycling in aquatic ecosystems. Nanoparticles (NPs) that enter into these aquatic systems have the potential to settle and become trapped within biofilms. As NPs become further integrated into consumer products, understanding their fate and effects on aquatic ecosystems is of paramount importance. Previous studies from our lab show that gold NPs induce dispersal of Legionella pneumophila biofilms. NPs with platinum and iron oxide core chemistries also lead to similar dispersal events, however, silver core NPs do not seem to induce these events due to NP aggregation. …
Range Collapse, Genetic Differentiation, And Climate Change: An Ecological History Of The Diana Fritillary, Speyeria Diana And Projections For Its Future, Carrie Wells
All Dissertations
The geographic ranges of most plant and animal species are tied closely to climatic factors, including temperature, precipitation, and soil moisture. For this reason, recent changes in the global climate due to human activities are predicted to have profound effects on natural populations, communities and ecosystems over a relatively short period of time. Combined effects from global warming and other anthropogenic activities such as land-use changes, pollution, and habitat loss/fragmentation, are altering species' distributions faster than they can be documented. Recent climate change has also been shown to alter species' breeding behaviors and alter the synchrony and timing of species' …
Zoos As Experiment Environments: Biology Of Larval And Adult Mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae), Holly Tuten
Zoos As Experiment Environments: Biology Of Larval And Adult Mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae), Holly Tuten
All Dissertations
Zoos are a unique environment where humans and animals are in close daily contact, potential mosquito habitats exist, exotic plants and animals are introduced regularly, and wild animals roam. Studies of mosquito behaviors in zoos will lead to a better understanding, both within and outside zoos, of disease transmission routes and mosquito biology. To investigate whether the unique assemblage of habitats in zoos affects mosquito behavior, I sampled larvae and adults in the Greenville Zoo and the Riverbanks Zoo, South Carolina, USA, from March 2008 to January 2011. The objectives of my study were to investigate mosquito oviposition behavior, blood-host …
Epigeic Spider (Araneae) Diversity And Habitat Distributions In Kings Mountain National Military Park, South Carolina, Sarah Stellwagen
Epigeic Spider (Araneae) Diversity And Habitat Distributions In Kings Mountain National Military Park, South Carolina, Sarah Stellwagen
All Theses
This study examined the epigeic spider fauna in Kings Mountain National Military Park. The aim of this study is to make this information available to park management for use in the preservation of natural resources. Pitfall trapping was conducted monthly for one year in three distinct habitats: riparian, forest, and ridge-top. The study was conducted from August 2009 to July 2010. One hundred twenty samples were collected in each site. Overall, 289 adult spiders comprising 66 species were collected in the riparian habitat, 345 adult comprising 57 species were found in the forest habitat, and 240 adults comprising 47 species …
The Role Of Behavioral Temperaments On The Ecology Of The Caribbean Reef Octopus, Octopus Briareus, Timothy Jordan
The Role Of Behavioral Temperaments On The Ecology Of The Caribbean Reef Octopus, Octopus Briareus, Timothy Jordan
All Theses
Traditional studies of predator-prey interactions have primarily focused on direct consumption as the most important effect on prey. Recent studies, however, have illustrated that nonlethal, risk effects may have an even greater impact. In this study, I evaluated the role of direct consumption and risk effects of the Caribbean reef octopus, Octopus briareus, on multiple species of crab and spiny lobster prey in Florida Bay, Florida. I conducted 13 monthly censuses of 8 nearshore field sites and observed the density and distribution of octopuses, crabs and lobsters. I found a significant negative correlation between the density of octopus predators and …
Biology And Ecology Of Wild Radish (Raphanus Raphanistrum), Mayank Malik
Biology And Ecology Of Wild Radish (Raphanus Raphanistrum), Mayank Malik
All Dissertations
Wild radish ( L.), a facultative winter annual is a troublesome weed in small grain crops of the Southeastern United States. Besides being a weed, it may also be used as a cover crop for weed management due to its production of glucosinolates. Studies were conducted to evaluate the biology and ecology of wild radish as well as its glucosinolate production and its weed management possibilities.
Wild radish emerging in fall months formed a rosette of leaves which aided its winter survival. Plants emerging from December through March that did not form a rosette had minimal survival. Wild radish life …
Feeding Performance In Hawaiian Stream Goby Fishes: Morphological And Functional Analysis, Takashi Maie
Feeding Performance In Hawaiian Stream Goby Fishes: Morphological And Functional Analysis, Takashi Maie
All Theses
Distributions of Hawaiian stream fishes are typically interrupted by waterfalls that divide streams into lower and upper segments. Larvae hatched upstream are flushed into the ocean, and must climb these waterfalls to reach adult habitats when returning back to freshwater as part of an amphidromous life cycle. Stream surveys and studies of climbing performance show that Lentipes concolor can reach fast-flowing upper stream segments, but that Awaous guamensis reaches only slower, lower stream segments. Gut content analyses for these two species indicate that diet differs between them only by 10% or less dry weight for most major components (mostly green …