Life Sciences Commons^™

Species Invasion Vs. Abundance In The Northern And Southern Regions Of Lake Powell, Amanda Lebarge, Mark Belk

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2022

Lake Powell is a dynamic system, evidenced by its yearly fluctuations in water level. In the last 20 years, this reservoir has experienced invasions from two different invasive species: the gizzard shard, and quagga mussel. Due to the unique nature of Lake Powell, our research seeks to understand if there were catastrophic effects of these invasions on fish biomass and abundance patterns, and do these impacts vary based on region? We hypothesize that both species will have a major impact in all regions on the native species in Lake Powell; however, the southern region will be more catastrophic.

Dietary And Energetic Trends Of The Invasive Asian Shore Crab, Tanner Reese, Blaine D. Griffen

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2022

The Asian shore crab, Hemigrapsus sanguineus , is an invasive crab species that lives on the East Coast of the United States. It has become an important part of its invaded ecosystems and their energetic interactions. We studied this species’ energetics to better understand how they vary across season and latitude.

• The ratio of gut width to carapace width (“standardized gut size”) is indicative of long term diet quality in crabs (a larger gut corresponds to a lower average diet quality) (Griffen & Mosblack 2011)
• We measured standardized gut size and gut energy content to examine how this species’ diet …

Does Habitat Restoration Increase Coexistence Of Native Stream Fishes With Introduced Brown Trout: A Case Study On The Middle Provo River, Utah, Usa, Mark C. Belk, Eric J. Billman, Craig Ellsworth, Brock R. Mcmillan

Faculty Publications

Restoration of altered or degraded habitats is often a key component in the conservation plan of native aquatic species, but introduced species may influence the response of the native community to restoration. Recent habitat restoration of the middle section of the Provo River in central Utah, USA, provided an opportunity to evaluate the effect of habitat restoration on the native fish community in a system with an introduced, dominant predator—brown trout (Salmo trutta). To determine the change in distribution of fish species and community composition, we surveyed 200 m of each of the four study reaches both before …

Small Mammals Matter? Linking Plant Invasion, Biotic Resistance, And Climate Change In Post-Fire Plant Communities, Rory Charles O'Connor

Theses and Dissertations

The introduction and establishment of exotic species can profoundly alter ecosystems. Two exotic species drastically changing the landscape of deserts in western North America are Bromus tectorum L. and Bromus rubens L. Through the buildup of biomass and slow decomposition rates in deserts these two exotic annual grasses can alter fire regimes that change the plant and animal community dynamics in the ecosystems. To better understand the ecological mechanisms that could restrict or alter the patterns of invasive plant establishment we established a replicated full factorial experiment in the Great Basin and Mojave Desert. The combinations of factors being manipulated …

An Invasive Species Reduces Aquatic Insect Flux To Terrestrial Food Webs, Steven S. Merkley

Theses and Dissertations

Although it is well documented how introduced species can negatively affect native species, we only poorly understand how they may alter ecosystem functions. We investigated how an invasive fish affected the flux of aquatic insects to terrestrial food webs using mesocosms in a desert spring ecosystem. We compared aquatic insect emergence between alternative community states with monocultures and polycultures of two native species of fish, least chub (Iotichthys phlegethontis) and Utah chub (Gila atraria) plus, introduced western mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis). We tested three hypotheses: (1) aquatic insect biomass will be greater than terrestrial insect …