Digital Commons Network^™

Recreation Ecology Of Colorado Fourteeners: An Assessment Of Trail Usage And Impacts, James C. Ewing

Master's Theses

The popularity of climbing Colorado’s 14,000 ft. peaks, or “Fourteeners”, has risen dramatically in recent years, raising important sustainability and management questions. Moreover, groups managing the peaks operate with major capital constraints so their efforts need to be informed, prioritized, and efficient. This paper gauges the dynamics of trail usage, explanatory variables, and recreational impacts across all 58 Fourteeners, and details evaluation adjustments that minimize error and produce results in-step with the resource management framework. Relative to a baseline study completed in 2005, substantial changes occurred in trail usage and impact dynamics. The greatest changes were concentrated on peaks previously …

Increased Taxonomic And Functional Similarity Does Not Increase The Trophic Similarity Of Communities, Thomas K. Pool, Julien Cucherousset, Stéphanie Boulêtreau, Sébastien Villéger, Angela L. Strecker, Gaël Grenouillet

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Aim: Despite a long-standing research interest in the association between the biodiversity (i.e. taxonomic and functional composition) and trophic structure of communities, our understanding of the relationship remains limited. Community assembly theory predicts that niche partitioning will result in communities with a diverse array of functional traits, which in turn may facilitate a correspondingly diverse array of trophic interactions that define the trophic niche of those communities. The aim of our study is to test this prediction.

Methods: We built a database composed of functional traits and stable isotope values (δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N) for …

A Comparison Of Fish Communities In Southwestern Lake Ontario Tributaries From One Century Ago, Ben Carson

Theses

I evaluated a study performed by Albert Hazen Wright between 1902 and 1904, on the Tributaries of Lake Ontario in Monroe County, NY. I extracted data from Wright's original graphical analysis, and analyzed these data with Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA), to assess the value of these data for use as historical benchmarks for future studies on the same tributaries. Wright identified 52 species of fish within his distribution diagrams, eight of the species were rare species and were not analyzed with the CCA. Of the 44 remaining species analyzed, 37 matched very well between Wright's interpretations of his data, and …

Climate-Driven Change In Himalayan Rhododendron Phenology, Robert Evan Hart

Dissertations

Phenology – the seasonal timing of life-history events – is a critical dimension of natural history. It is also one of the earliest and most noticeable traits by which organisms respond to climate change. However, these responses are complex, and only beginning to be understood, especially in the montane and alpine environments that are among the ecosystems most vulnerable to climate change. Drawing from diverse data sets and employing multiple methodologies, I examined how climate affects phenology in Himalayan Rhododendron spp. Comprehensively monitoring flowering phenology over gradients of season and elevation on Mt. Yulong, China – home to a diverse …

Microhabitat Use Affects Brain Size And Structure In Intertidal Gobies, Gemma E. White, Culum Brown

Veterinary Science and Medicine Collection

The ecological cognition hypothesis poses that the brains and behaviours of individuals are largely shaped by the environments in which they live and the associated challenges they must overcome during their lives. Here we examine the effect of environmental complexity on relative brain size in 4 species of intertidal gobies from differing habitats. Two species were rock pool specialists that lived on spatially complex rocky shores, while the remainder lived on dynamic, but structurally simple, sandy shores. We found that rock pool-dwelling species had relatively larger brains and telencephalons in particular, while sand-dwelling species had a larger optic tectum and …

Factors Contributing To The Conservation Of Phacelia Submutica (Boraginaceae), A Threatened Species In Western Colorado: Reproductive Biology And Seed Ecology, Alicia M. Langton

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Conservation and recovery plans for rare species require biological and ecological information to discern how they may be susceptible to human disturbances. Phacelia submutica is a threatened annual species in western Colorado. Human activities including energy development, recreation, and livestock grazing are occurring within the species’ range. To provide conservation practitioners with a scientific basis for management, this research aimed to elucidate elements of the species’ ecology. Chapter 2 describes the reproductive biology of P. submutica. Potential insect pollinators were not observed during two years of observations. Floral traits and development ensure self-pollination and reduce the likelihood that insects …

Investigation Of Bioactive Metabolites From The Antarctic Sponge Dendrilla Membranosa And Marine Microorganisms, Chris G. Witowski

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Natural products continue to be a valuable source of compounds in research involving chemical ecology and drug discovery. Secondary metabolites are biosynthesized to benefit the host organism in its environment (feeding deterrence from predators, antibiotic properties to avoid infection, etc.) but these compounds also serve as useful scaffolds in drug discovery applications. The research herein describes both aspects of these two branches of natural products chemistry. The Antarctic sponge Dendrilla membranosa produces diterpenes, of which membranolide A, deters feeding of the predatory amphipod Gondogenia antarctica. A metabolomic study of several sponges was undertaken to determine environmental factors that govern …

Distribution, Natural History And The Conservation Status Of Hemiphyllodactylus Typus And Lepidodactylus Lugubris (Reptilia: Gekkonidae) In Sri Lanka, D.M.S.S. Karunarathna, Thilina Dilan Surasinghe, M.B. Madawala, S.M. Wellappulli-Arachchi, H.K.D. Kandambi, T.G.T. Kusuminda, T.M.T.S. Priyadarshana, B.N.H. Perera

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Sri Lanka has a rich assemblage of gekkonid fauna. Among Sri Lankan geckos, rare species such as Hemiphyllodactylus typus and Lepidodactylus lugubris are poorly studied; both are considered vulnerable in national conservation assessments. Detailed ecological studies are needed for robust conservation assessments of these species, especially with the focus on island-wide distribution and microhabitat requirements. This study was conducted via patch sampling to record relative abundance and distribution of H. typus and L. lugubris based on random walks to 82 locations representing the three major bioclimatic zones of Sri Lanka. Morphological characteristics, behavior, and habitat use of the focal species …

The Biology Of Fun: Do Birds Just Want To Have A Good Time?, Carley J. Langley, Jonathan R. Moore

Undergraduate Research Posters

The intention of this research project was to delve into the ecological study of playfulness and what appears to be fun in a broad range of bird species. (1) Do all birds exhibit playfulness and use fun? And if so, (2) how have these behaviors contributed to their evolutionary success? Past research has already been underway to biological define what constitutes both “fun” and “play” in animal species. In the past the majority of all test subjects have been mammals, however in the past decade (and especially in the past five years) other vertebrate species such as birds are beginning …