Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 2 of 2
Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Supplementing East Tennessee Landscapes For Pollinators With Native Perennials, Amani Khalil
Supplementing East Tennessee Landscapes For Pollinators With Native Perennials, Amani Khalil
Masters Theses
Tennessee, home to the Great Smoky Mountains, is a biodiversity hotspot for many plant and animal species, yet it receives relatively few conservation dollars (Jenkins et al., 2015). As a biodiversity hotspot, this region may be home to many endemic species, but little is known about the abundance or diversity of insect pollinators. In order to both estimate pollinator communities in East Tennessee and pollinator forage preferences for native Tennessee plants, we established four plots, comprised of three plant families across five common land use types. Over two field seasons we collected nearly 7,300 insect specimens with a total sampling …
Urbanization Impacts On Land Snail Community Composition, Mackenzie N. Hodges
Urbanization Impacts On Land Snail Community Composition, Mackenzie N. Hodges
Masters Theses
Urbanization has tremendous impacts on most native species. Urban ecosystems are becoming increasingly prevalent, while urban ecology is a relatively underdeveloped field. This is especially true for terrestrial mollusks, which are a surprisingly understudied organism. Due to their low mobility and dispersal potential, land snails are valuable indicators of ecosystem disturbance. For this study, land snails were collected in 54 city parks along an urban gradient to understand influences of urbanization on snail communities. Sampled parks include small extensively landscaped downtown parks, neighborhood and community parks, district parks, and large nature parks, each with variable vegetation, soil characteristics, disturbance regimes, …