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Keeping Track Of Change: Developmental Insights Into The Ability To Represent Objects In Episodic Terms, Emily Yearling

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Relationships On Youth Developmental Outcomes In A Sport-Based Setting, Khalil Griffith

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Floral Preformation In The Warming Boreal Forest: The Effects Of Temperature On The Development Of Vaccinium Vitis-Idaea, Eileen Schaub

Master's Theses

The boreal forest is experiencing climate change at twice the rate of other regions. Although changes in flowering phenology are a known consequence of warming temperatures, much is unknown about the effects of temperature anomalies on floral development. Boreal angiosperms preform flowers a year or more in advance and are consequently subject to varied environmental conditions across that time. My thesis examines the effects of temperature on floral development in order to understand how boreal taxa will respond to climate change.

Collection of Vaccinium vitis-idaeafrom natural populations in Fairbanks, Alaska was carried out over the growing seasons of 2017 …

The Proteomic Response Of Northern Elephant Seal (Mirounga Angustirostris) Pups To Physiological Stress During Development, Melissa P. Voisinet

Master's Theses

Background: Northern elephant seals transition from terrestrial nursing pups to pelagic foraging juveniles in a short period of just 8-12 weeks. During the post-weaning period, pups rely solely on the energy reserves gained during nursing for their caloric demands and water supply. The prolonged absence of food after weaning is the first of many fasts for which the seals have evolved adaptations such as decreased urine production and increased blubber reserves. The stressors experienced from learning to dive for the first time are also stressors that they will experience frequently as an adult and for which they have evolved adaptations. …

Play Behavior And The Development Of Boldness And Caution In Juvenile Belding’S Ground Squirrels (Urocitellus Beldingi), Madelene Shehan

Master's Theses

The ubiquity of play among juvenile mammals suggests it provides adaptive benefits, potentially through influences on the development of temperament in young animals. Juvenile Belding’s ground squirrels (Urocitellus beldingi) must balance competing demands for boldness and caution imposed by the fundamental trade-off between their short active season and their vulnerability to predation. In this study, I evaluated whether play helps to facilitate the development of an appropriate balance between boldness and caution in juvenile U. beldingi.I observed the play behavior of juvenile U. beldingiand conducted flight-initiation distance tests to measure boldness-caution at the beginning and toward …

The Long-Run Effects Of Tropical Cyclones On Infant Mortality, Isabel Miranda

Master's Theses

In the United States alone, each tropical cyclone causes an average of $14.6 billion worth of damages. In addition to the destruction of physical infrastructure, natural disasters also negatively impact human capital formation. These losses are often more difficult to observe, and therefore, are over looked when quantifying the true costs of natural disasters. One particular effect is an increase in infant mortality rates, an important indicator of a country’s general socioeconomic level. This paper utilizes a model created by Anttila-Hughes and Hsiang, that takes advantage of annual variation in tropical cyclones using annual spatial average maximum wind speeds and …

The Biomechanics And Evolution Of Air-Breathing In Anuran Tadpoles, Jackson Phillips

Master's Theses

The fact that tadpoles breathe air is an oft over-looked aspect of anuran biology. The air-breathing behavior of small tadpoles is particularly interesting, as they are not large enough to overcome the physical constraints imposed by surface tension. Instead of breaching the water’s surface to access air, small tadpoles perform “bubble-sucking”, a breathing mode that circumvents the need to breach the water’s surface tension. In my first chapter, I find that Hyla versicolor (Anura: Hylidae) tadpoles are bubble-sucking specialists that perform both the typical, single bubble-suck seen in other tadpole species as well as an undescribed, double bubble-suck. A combination …

First Thirty Days Of Life: Examining Calf Behavioral Development In Beluga Whales (Delphinapterus Leucas) And Pacific White-Sided Dolphins (Lagenorhyncus Obliquidens) At One Zoological Facility, Kendal Smith

Master's Theses

Cetacean development is important for general comparative understanding and the implementation of informed husbandry policies. Due to the inaccessibility of many of these species in the wild, researchers can study managed care populations to better understand basic developmental patterns of cetaceans, as well as to improve husbandry policies for facility animals. However, no previous studies have attempted to observe the behavioral development of Pacific white-sided dolphins (Lagenorhyncus obliquidens). Eight beluga whale calves and four Pacific white-sided dolphin calves were observed for the first 30 days of life to determine the developmental trajectory of several typically monitored behaviors. The …