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Articles 1 - 12 of 12
Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Pushing It To The Limit: Determining Asian Elephant (Elephas Maximus) Olfactory Sensitivity And Discrimination Through A Behavioral Choice Task, Matthew S. Rudolph
Pushing It To The Limit: Determining Asian Elephant (Elephas Maximus) Olfactory Sensitivity And Discrimination Through A Behavioral Choice Task, Matthew S. Rudolph
Theses and Dissertations
Elephants have shown remarkable olfactory capabilities. Their sense of smell impacts their foraging choices, behavior, and ultimately, survival. Being able to detect a target odor can allow elephants to locate specific resources, identify threats, and find receptive conspecifics. Previous studies have shown that elephants can consistently detect target odors, but have not identified the limits of this detection. Thus, to investigate the extent of elephants’ odor detection capabilities, we tested Asian elephants in a two-step odor discrimination task. First, we investigated whether elephants could detect odors at varying levels of dilution after a training procedure, and then whether they could …
Connecting Communities To Coastal Resilience: Enhancing Sustainability Through Public Participation In Salt Marsh Management And Restoration In Suffolk County, Ny, Jennifer L. Mcgivern
Connecting Communities To Coastal Resilience: Enhancing Sustainability Through Public Participation In Salt Marsh Management And Restoration In Suffolk County, Ny, Jennifer L. Mcgivern
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Coastal resiliency is becoming significantly more critical to the livelihood of coastal communities as the frequency and intensity of storm events increases and is exacerbated by rising sea levels due to climate change. In October 2012 Superstorm Sandy impacted the New York-New Jersey area costing over $70 billion in storm damages and 147 lives lost, as storm surges surpassed record highs for the region. Protruding more than 100 miles into the Atlantic Ocean with over 1,000 miles of shoreline, Long Island is particularly vulnerable to the increasingly ferocious and numerous storms as well as the rising sea levels that climate …
Vertebrate Scavenger Diversity And Ecosystem Services Along An Elevational Gradient In Central Nepal, Aishwarya Bhattacharjee
Vertebrate Scavenger Diversity And Ecosystem Services Along An Elevational Gradient In Central Nepal, Aishwarya Bhattacharjee
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
A growing number of studies recognize the ecological significance of vertebrate scavengers, and several species belonging to this diverse, functional guild are of high conservation importance around the globe. Studies on taxonomic and functional components of biodiversity often use elevation gradients to comprehensively examine patterns and drivers across multiple spatial scales. Yet, there are relatively few elevational studies on large vertebrates or multi-taxa guilds, and the related variation of their ecosystem services. In particular, scavenger research has largely focused on local-scale studies or regional/global comparisons of local-scale investigations. Moreover, these studies primarily consider taxonomic community characteristics and the patterns of …
From Psychology To Phylogeny: Bridging Levels Of Analysis In Cultural Evolution, Mason Youngblood
From Psychology To Phylogeny: Bridging Levels Of Analysis In Cultural Evolution, Mason Youngblood
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Cultural evolution, or change in the socially learned behavior of a population over time, is a fascinating phenomenon that is widespread in humans and present in some non-human animals. In this dissertation, I present an array of cultural evolutionary studies that bridge pattern and process in a wide range of research models including music, extremism, and birdsong. The first chapter is an introduction to the field of cultural evolution, including a bibliometric analysis of its structure. The second and third chapters are studies on the cultural dynamics of music sampling traditions in hip-hop and electronic music communities and far-right extremism …
Microbial-Host Dynamics And The Evolution Of Nearshore Diversity In Hippocampus Abdominalis, Jimiane L. Ashe
Microbial-Host Dynamics And The Evolution Of Nearshore Diversity In Hippocampus Abdominalis, Jimiane L. Ashe
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Local adaptation is a fundamental concept at the core of evolutionary process. Devising means to break down larger concepts and systematically test internal mechanisms are key to understanding the driving forces behind the influence of environmental differences on biological systems. To understand dynamic processes in the natural world, we must strip away layers and confounding variables that may mask the signal we hope to understand. In this case seahorse species, Hippocampus abdominalis, or the pot-bellied seahorse, made an unlikely but ideal study system. The first layer to strip away was neutral genetic variation within the population. A multilocus genetic …
Understanding And Predicting The Distribution Of Biodiversity In The Atlantic Forest, Andrea Paz Velez
Understanding And Predicting The Distribution Of Biodiversity In The Atlantic Forest, Andrea Paz Velez
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Understanding how biodiversity is distributed in geography is essential for conservation. This requires an understanding of the multiple dimensions of biodiversity: species, their ecological functions, and their evolutionary history. For my Ph.D. dissertation, I devised a study to explore the environmental drivers of biodiversity patterns in Neotropical species. I first investigated broad macroecological patterns in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, combining occurrence data and phylogenetic information from multiple clades of animals and plants (Chapter 1). I discovered that one can accurately predict the accumulation of species richness and phylogenetic diversity based on current climatic descriptors – particularly precipitation – but not …
Genomic And Ecological Dimensions Of Malagasy Reptile And Amphibian Biodiversity, Arianna L. Kuhn
Genomic And Ecological Dimensions Of Malagasy Reptile And Amphibian Biodiversity, Arianna L. Kuhn
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
A long history of isolation coupled with complex topographic and ecological landscapes makes Madagascar ideal for exploring the historical factors that have shaped patterns of population diversity and endemism. Many species-level studies have suggested Late Quaternary climate change may have influenced population dynamics in the tropics, but Madagascar’s ecologically unique biomes or individual species properties may have driven idiosyncratic responses to these shifts. Using community-scale population genetic data I implement a hierarchical approximate Bayesian computation (hABC) approach to evaluate the degree of synchronous population expansion during glacial cycles across herpetofaunal assemblages both within and across discrete biomes and taxonomic groups. …
Some (Im)Material Girls, Living In (Im)Material Worlds, With Seeds, Stars, And Shit, Matthew Weiderspon
Some (Im)Material Girls, Living In (Im)Material Worlds, With Seeds, Stars, And Shit, Matthew Weiderspon
Theses and Dissertations
This writing situates material and gestural vocabularies cultivated in my artwork in relation to my lived experience; primarily my rural upbringing in Colorado. Scattered floor dispersals, calling sounds, and bodily movements desire reconsiderations of hope in precarity through a disorientation of place, association, scale, and language.
Pre- And Post-Partum Observations Of Signature Whistle Characteristics Of The Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops Truncatus), Robert Dutchen
Pre- And Post-Partum Observations Of Signature Whistle Characteristics Of The Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops Truncatus), Robert Dutchen
Theses and Dissertations
This study analyzes whistle usage in an Atlantic bottlenose dolphin during birth. Findings show the mother produces two predominant whistle contours. Congruities between the whistles were compared and showed that the type 1 contour bears structural similarity to the first component of the type 2 contour, indicating combinatorial whistle construction.
Influence Of Group Change On Scent Marking In A Wild Population Of Verreaux’S Sifaka (Propithecus Verreauxi), Julia C. Dickerson
Influence Of Group Change On Scent Marking In A Wild Population Of Verreaux’S Sifaka (Propithecus Verreauxi), Julia C. Dickerson
Theses and Dissertations
This study analyzed scent marking rates of wild Verreaux’s sifaka during dispersals to investigate the impact of group changes on olfactory communication. Our results indicate that scent marking is affected by changes in group structure, but other methods of communication likely play a larger role in mediating group membership changes.
Body States Of Asian Elephants Within And Around Protected Areas In The Salakpra Wildlife Sanctuary, Kanchanaburi, Thailand, Caitlyn Thai
Body States Of Asian Elephants Within And Around Protected Areas In The Salakpra Wildlife Sanctuary, Kanchanaburi, Thailand, Caitlyn Thai
Theses and Dissertations
Researchers are becoming increasingly aware that studying a species’ landscape of fear or, more broadly, their emotional states, can better inform cognitive questions about how animals navigate their environments. Vigilance behaviors are one way to determine how certain species perceive and respond to risky situations. Due to rapid environmental change, large animals such as elephants are experiencing risky encounters with humans more often than ever before. This study aims to investigate Asian elephants’ expressions of body states and how they might regulate their behavior based on perceived environmental risk or change. Specifically, we investigated the behavioral responses of Asian elephants …
Spatial And Non-Spatial Patterns Of Genetic Diversity In Neotropical Bats, Andrea J. Calderon Brito
Spatial And Non-Spatial Patterns Of Genetic Diversity In Neotropical Bats, Andrea J. Calderon Brito
Dissertations and Theses
Macroecological studies that predict genetic diversity and its correlation with other biodiversity dimensions are essential to conservation in a rapidly changing environment. However, in bats (order Chiroptera), studies associating abiotic or ecological traits that could help to predict genetic diversity are scarce, even for singular species. In the Neotropics, the highest concentration of mammal and amphibian genetic diversity has been found in the Andes mountains and the Amazon Rainforest, yet it is an open question whether bat genetic diversity is also higher in these regions, or even if any abiotic factors are correlated with bat genetic diversity. Additionally, it is …