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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Memory Acquisition By Brainless Juvenile Terrestrial Planarians (Bipalium Kewense), Christina Chueiri, Christine Gildea
Memory Acquisition By Brainless Juvenile Terrestrial Planarians (Bipalium Kewense), Christina Chueiri, Christine Gildea
Transformations: Presentation Slides
Learning is how organisms build and store memories in their brains to aid them in survival. This process occurs as organisms experience new stimuli. Bipalium kewense, a terrestrial planarian, has a very minimal central nervous system. The nervous system of planarians consists of only two nerve cords and two ganglion which serve as a “brain.” This species reproduces by segmenting a small piece of their posterior end as a fragment, which initially lacks most adult structures. The fragments must regenerate the head, brain, mouth, functioning digestive system, and reproductive organs. To determine where memory is stored in these terrestrial planarians, …
Ecological Stressors Impact Soil Biodiversity, Kaleb Frierson, John Carlile
Ecological Stressors Impact Soil Biodiversity, Kaleb Frierson, John Carlile
Transformations: Presentation Slides
Soil biodiversity serves ecologically important roles like nutrient cycling and is used as an indicator of community disturbance. North American forests host a multitude of ecological stressors, including invasive plants, earth worms, and deer abundance. While relationships between deer and invasive species, as well as relationships between macroinvertebrates and worms have been heavily investigated, the effects of invasive plant species like Pale Swallowwort on soil biodiversity are unknown. To test our hypothesis that Pale Swallowwort affects soil biodiversity, we collected leaf litter from three state parks throughout Central New York at sites with and without the invasive plant. Samples were …
Altered Gametogenesis Gene Expression Of The Eastern Oyster (Crassostrea Virginica) In Response To Plastic Exposure, Marissa Kordal
Altered Gametogenesis Gene Expression Of The Eastern Oyster (Crassostrea Virginica) In Response To Plastic Exposure, Marissa Kordal
Transformations: Presentation Slides
Marine plastic pollution leaches chemicals that cause detrimental effects such as reduced fecundity and feminization of males in marine species. The eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica, is a valuable species to study the effects of plastic on sex differentiation because it is a protandric hermaphrodite that undergoes gametogenesis yearly. My objective was to investigate a potential cause of an observed female-skew in the sex ratio of first year oysters exposed to plastic by measuring differential gene expression of eight gametogenesis genes from oysters grown on plastic compared to those on shell. Plastic exposure increased the expression of genes involved in egg …
Determining The Abundance And Range Of The Invasive Terrestrial Planarian Bipalium Adventitium, Samantha Robbins
Determining The Abundance And Range Of The Invasive Terrestrial Planarian Bipalium Adventitium, Samantha Robbins
Transformations: Presentation Slides
The terrestrial planarian, Bipalium adventitium, is an invasive predator on earthworms. Despite having a wide range in the United States, neither its population densities, country of origin, nor ecological impacts are known. A factor contributing to this limited knowledge is the lack of an effective sampling technique for determining planarian abundance. Although scientists have begun to study the ecological impacts of some planarians using selected field techniques, there has not been a study analyzing the effectiveness of multiple techniques. My study investigates the effectiveness of five sampling techniques commonly used on organisms of similar microhabitats to B. adventitium: …