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Factors Affecting Nest Success Of Colonial Nesting Waterbirds In Southwest Louisiana, Karis A. Ritenour Jul 2019

Factors Affecting Nest Success Of Colonial Nesting Waterbirds In Southwest Louisiana, Karis A. Ritenour

LSU Master's Theses

As the coastline of Louisiana shifts with global climate change, subsidence, and accelerated sea level rise, important breeding islands for colonial nesting waterbirds are disappearing. In many recent studies flooding has been a leading cause of nest failure for a variety of species, especially those that nest on the ground. I examined the nest success of four species of colonial nesting waterbirds with various nesting strategies on Rabbit Island in southwestern Louisiana during 2017 and2018 by determining nest and fledging success. I monitored 855 nests, including 457 Brown Pelicans nests with an estimated hatch probability of 70%, 270 Forster’s Terns …


Reproductive Parameters And Methodologies For The Culture Of Golden Topminnows (Fundulus Chrysotus) And Bluenose Shiners (Pteronotropis Welaka), Jacob A. Fetterman Jun 2019

Reproductive Parameters And Methodologies For The Culture Of Golden Topminnows (Fundulus Chrysotus) And Bluenose Shiners (Pteronotropis Welaka), Jacob A. Fetterman

LSU Master's Theses

The global ornamental fish trade has expanded over the past 20 years, requiring captive rearing methods to be improved or developed for species of interest. Aquaculture of desirable species is preferable over wild harvest to conserve natural habitats and biodiversity. This thesis focused on improving culture methods for Golden Topminnows Fundulus chrysotus and developing culture methods for Bluenose Shiners Pteronotropis welaka, both native fishes of the southeastern United States with ornamental demand. A combination of reproductive metric analyses, examination of historical collections, and captive spawning trials were employed to target specific objectives for each species. In female Golden Topminnows, …


Can Assisted Reproductive Technologies Help Conserve 300 Million Years Of Evolution? A First Attempt At Developing These Technologies For Male Reptiles, Sean M. Perry Mar 2019

Can Assisted Reproductive Technologies Help Conserve 300 Million Years Of Evolution? A First Attempt At Developing These Technologies For Male Reptiles, Sean M. Perry

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Biodiversity loss is the most critical environmental problem threatening ecosystem, animal, and human health today. Increases in extinction rates have been observed over the past 50 years, with reptile losses occurring twelve times faster than traditional extinction rates. This demonstrated biodiversity loss is secondary to climate change, habitat destruction, infectious disease, invasive species, poaching, and unsustainable trade. Approximately 20% of all reptiles are threatened with extinction and population declines are approaching rates similar to the current amphibian extinction crisis. Preventing the extinction of reptiles will require humans to acknowledge these losses and develop plans to preserve these evolutionary sentinel species. …


Conservation Adoption Among Owners And Tenantfarmers In The Southern United States, Naveen Adusumilli, Hua Wang Mar 2019

Conservation Adoption Among Owners And Tenantfarmers In The Southern United States, Naveen Adusumilli, Hua Wang

Faculty Publications

© 2019 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This study investigates owner and tenant characteristics and differences between these two groups in their participation in federal conservation initiatives. Bivariate probit model analysis, based on a 2016–2017 Louisiana row-crop producer’s survey show that owners, relative to tenant farmers, are more likely to adopt conservation in early years of ownership. The results emphasize the need for mechanisms for tenants in short-term contracts to invest in long-term conservation. Moreover, conservation initiatives should be tailored, as tenant farmers are increasingly farming more land and policies should carefully account for this growing group of …


Quantifying Amphibian Range Fragmentation In The Southeastern United States, Catherine E. Newman, Christopher C. Austin Jan 2019

Quantifying Amphibian Range Fragmentation In The Southeastern United States, Catherine E. Newman, Christopher C. Austin

Faculty Publications

© the authors. An often overlooked component of research on factors that drive amphibian geographic distributions is description of species range shape. Broad-scale range disjunction has implications for phylogeography, ecology, and conservation, but descriptions of fragmentation are usually based on subjective visual assessment of range maps. Here, we describe a method for objectively quantifying range fragmentation and use this method to describe the patterns of amphibian species range shapes in the southeastern United States, home to the highest amphibian species richness in North America. Species ranges varied widely in degree of fragmentation, from completely contiguous to highly fragmented, and degree …