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Effects Of Vegetation Structure On Fire Behavior And Wiregrass Seedling Establishment In Xeric Sandhills, Evelyn Wenk Aug 2009

Effects Of Vegetation Structure On Fire Behavior And Wiregrass Seedling Establishment In Xeric Sandhills, Evelyn Wenk

All Theses

The xeric sandhills on Carolina Sandhills National Wildlife Refuge have a monospecific overstory of longleaf pine and an understory dominated by turkey oak and wiregrass. The understory vegetation is spatially heterogeneous within stands, with small patches dominated by either turkey oak or wiregrass, or lacking understory vegetation. I described the fuel complexes created by the variable vegetation structure, in terms of their chemical and physical properties, and used prescribed fire to test for differences in fire behavior among the vegetation types. In addition, I compared the effects of the vegetation structure and below-ground competition on the establishment of wiregrass.
Turkey …


Population Ecology Of The Floodplain Herb Macbridea Caroliniana (Lamiaceae) With Investigations On The Species' Habitat, Breeding System And Genetic Diversity, Katherine Weeks Aug 2009

Population Ecology Of The Floodplain Herb Macbridea Caroliniana (Lamiaceae) With Investigations On The Species' Habitat, Breeding System And Genetic Diversity, Katherine Weeks

All Dissertations

The perennial herbaceous mint Macbridea caroliniana is known from 36 locations in discrete watersheds of the Carolinas and Georgia. It is one of relatively few conspicuously flowering herbs that occupy bottomland hardwood forests. The general project goal was to gain knowledge that is applicable to the species' conservation both at the Congaree National Park (CNP) where the largest known population of this species occurs and range-wide. Specific objectives were to (1) quantify the population size and describe the distribution of M. caroliniana within CNP, and determine the extent of co-occurrence with wild hogs and the non-native Murdannia keisak; (2) identify …


Potential For Introduced-Range Expansion Of Chinese Tallow Tree (Triadica Sebifera) In The Southeastern United States, Isaac Park May 2009

Potential For Introduced-Range Expansion Of Chinese Tallow Tree (Triadica Sebifera) In The Southeastern United States, Isaac Park

All Theses

The potential for populations of invasive plants to differ in their response to stressful environmental conditions or in their invasiveness is an underexplored issue in determining introduced species' range limits. Introduced genotypes might differ in their response to freezing temperatures, soil type, or differing biotic factors within their introduced range. We examined the potential of Chinese tallow tree seeds (Triadica sebifera (L.) Small) collected from two genetically distinct areas of its introduced range in the United States (North Carolina and South Carolina) as well as from the northern and southern portions of its native range in China to germinate and …


Comparative Genomics And Molecular Evolution: New Genomic Resources For The Hymenoptera And Evolutionary Studies On The Genes Of The Nasonia Vitripennis Hox Complex., Monica Munoz-Torres May 2009

Comparative Genomics And Molecular Evolution: New Genomic Resources For The Hymenoptera And Evolutionary Studies On The Genes Of The Nasonia Vitripennis Hox Complex., Monica Munoz-Torres

All Dissertations

Research on insects, the most successful group from all metazoans on earth, has important societal, as well as scientific benefits. Insects occupy a wide range of roles, which have an effect on human life either because the former pose serious threats to public health and commercial crops as well as in some cases represent the only way to propagate food resources. Despite their tremendous importance, insect genomics remained an uneven territory dominated by studies in the Drosophila group and the mosquitoes. This dissertation attempts to: 1) report on advances in the development and characterization of genomic tools for species of …


Roosting And Foraging Ecology Of Forest Bats In The Southern Appalachian Mountains, Joy O'Keefe May 2009

Roosting And Foraging Ecology Of Forest Bats In The Southern Appalachian Mountains, Joy O'Keefe

All Dissertations

Although most bats in the southeastern United States depend on forests for roosting and foraging, we know little about the ecological requirements of bats that live in this region. The objective of this study was to use radio telemetry, acoustic sampling, Akaike's information theoretic procedures, occupancy modeling, and discriminant function analyses to: 1) examine multi-scale roost-site selection for three forest bat species [eastern pipistrelles (Perimyotis subflavus), eastern red bats (Lasiurus borealis), and northern long-eared bats (Myotis septentrionalis)], 2) test the effects of timber harvest on bat foraging ecology in riparian areas, and 3) compare and relate methods of assessing vegetative …


The Ants Of South Carolina, Timothy Davis May 2009

The Ants Of South Carolina, Timothy Davis

All Dissertations

The ants of South Carolina were surveyed in the literature, museum, and field collections using pitfall traps. M. R. Smith was the last to survey ants in South Carolina on a statewide basis and published his list in 1934. VanPelt and Gentry conducted a survey of ants at the Savanna River Plant in the 1970's. This is the first update on the ants of South Carolina since that time.
A preliminary list of ants known to occur in South Carolina has been compiled. Ants were recently sampled on a statewide basis using pitfall traps. Two hundred and forty-three (243) transects …