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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
An Ecological Survey Of East Texas Salamanders Across The Camp Tyler Outdoor Field School In Smith County, Texas, Justin C. Hunt
An Ecological Survey Of East Texas Salamanders Across The Camp Tyler Outdoor Field School In Smith County, Texas, Justin C. Hunt
Biology Theses
Amphibians are a unique class of organisms with a very long and storied evolutionary history of survival. Many modern amphibian clades occupy several vital ecological roles within their native freshwater environments. One of these roles, typically includes functioning as an ecological indicator species, whereby the presence of stable and diverse populations of many amphibian species, including salamanders, within a freshwater ecosystem have long been considered ecological indicators of good habitat quality and stable ecosystem health. Similarly, salamanders also function as important members of their local food webs and act as valuable mediators of complex trophic hierarchies to facilitate nutrient cycling …
Monitoring The Effects Of Poultry Waste On Fishes And Macroinvertebrates In The Sabine River, Karley R. Parker
Monitoring The Effects Of Poultry Waste On Fishes And Macroinvertebrates In The Sabine River, Karley R. Parker
Biology Theses
Freshwater is a vital resource that provides life and sustainability for almost all organisms on Earth. It is important to maintain its health and protect it from emerging pollutants that pose a threat to the organisms that use it. Pollution continues to threaten the well-being of the environment’s freshwater sources all around the world that could lead to damaging effects in the future. The Sabine River is a major freshwater resource in the east Texas and western Louisiana areas that provides a habitat for thousands of organisms as well as other domestic uses for humans. In 2019, a waste discharge …
Regional-Scale Climate-Induced Variation In Ant Physiology And Morphology, Daniel E. Murphy
Regional-Scale Climate-Induced Variation In Ant Physiology And Morphology, Daniel E. Murphy
Biology Theses
The biology of ectotherms such as insects is influenced by ambient thermal conditions. Ants are a ubiquitous and ecologically important group of insects and are well-established as bioindicators of thermal conditions. Ants are sensitive to the thermal extremes that vary with latitude, elevation, and land use, and these thermal gradients influence their spatial and temporal distributions. As a result, ants have evolved physiological and morphological thermal adaptations in response to the thermal environment of their habitats. These adaptations include increased physiological and morphological tolerance for temperature extremes. In Western New York (WNY), temperatures are temporally and spatially heterogeneous, changing with …
Ecological Analyses Of Macroinvertebrates And Fish Species In Six Streams On A Louisiana Military Base From 2001 To 2019, Danielle Joerger
Ecological Analyses Of Macroinvertebrates And Fish Species In Six Streams On A Louisiana Military Base From 2001 To 2019, Danielle Joerger
Biology Theses
An in-depth ecological analysis of how and why the aquatic community changes over time was conducted for 6 streams on the Fort Polk military base in Louisiana using data collected from 2001 to 2019. Fort Polk is a unique location as nineteen first-order streams are located on the premises belonging to three separate drainages. The primary goal was to determine whether temporal or between-drainage variation has a larger effect on community structure. To accomplish this the effects of disturbance on fish and macroinvertebrate assemblages was determined temporally and between drainages. Several hypotheses were drawn from this: 1) temporally, assemblages exhibit …
Microbial Mercury Methylation At Caddo Lake: A Molecular Ecology Approach, Nevada King
Microbial Mercury Methylation At Caddo Lake: A Molecular Ecology Approach, Nevada King
Biology Theses
Caddo Lake in northeastern Texas is a cypress-Spanish moss dominated lake ecosystem. Contamination of mercury (Hg), especially methylmercury (MeHg), was reported in this lake a decade ago. MeHg is a neurotoxicant accumulated in major fish species and reptiles. Due to the biomagnification feature of MeHg transfer, Hg contamination in the fishes of Caddo Lake has caused health concerns for the wildlife and local people. However, the source and synthesis of MeHg in this lake, primarily the microbial Hg methylation mechanisms, have not been investigated. We investigated the lake for the past three years (2016-2018), by taking sediment and plant samples …
Home Range, Habitat Use, And Movements Of Native Northern Map Turtles (Graptemys Geographica), And Sympatric Invasive Red-Eared Slider Turtles (Trachemys Scripta Elegans), In The Upper Niagara River, Brian E. Haas
Biology Theses
Turtle populations throughout the world are in decline due to the effects associated with anthropogenic disturbances. Northern map turtles in the Upper Niagara River are facing the same effects associated with shoreline development, pollution, and human induced mortality. A biotelemetric study was conducted to understand the population structure, habitat use, and behavior of northern map turtles in the Upper Niagara River. Turtles were trapped, outfitted with radio and sonic transmitters, and tracked from August 2013 until April 2015. Invasive red-eared sliders, which also inhabit the Niagara River were captured and tracked to allow for comparison. This invasive species is a …
Forest Sustainability In An Altered Landscape Requires Human Intervention, Adam C. Labatore
Forest Sustainability In An Altered Landscape Requires Human Intervention, Adam C. Labatore
Biology Theses
Recruitment success determines the abundance and composition of plant communities. Successful recruitment can be summarized as a simple dichotomy of establishment versus seed limitations. Establishment limitation occurs when plant populations are inhibited by habitat availability and quality, whereas seed limitation occurs when seeds fail to arrive in necessary densities. Recruitment failure undermines overstory sustainability if the existing trees cannot replace themselves. Preliminary analysis indicated tree recruitment failure at an urban nature preserve with too few tree seedlings to replace mature canopy trees. These data suggested that the urban forest was not sustainable. The overarching goal of the study was to …
The Effects Of Calcium Concentration And Food Levels On Daphnia, Fawn Goodberry
The Effects Of Calcium Concentration And Food Levels On Daphnia, Fawn Goodberry
Biology Theses
Many physiological processes of Daphnia are negatively affected at low calcium concentrations. The concentration of calcium within lake water influences how Daphnia populations will survive and reproduce in natural environments. An experiment was designed to test the effects of calcium concentration and food level on the growth and reproduction of a Daphnia hybrid. Daphnia pulex x Daphnia pulicaria were reared in a soft water medium at three calcium concentrations (2.5mg/L, 1.0mg/L, 0.50mg/L) and high and low food levels (5.6 x 105 and 5.6 x 104 cells of the algae Ankistrodesmus sp.) in a 2 x 3 factorial …