Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Life Sciences Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Ecology

Publication Year

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Using Spatial Methods To Analyse Anthropogenic Predation Risk And Movement Ecology Of White-Tailed Deer (Odocoileus Virginianus), Rhiannon D. Kirton Dec 2021

Using Spatial Methods To Analyse Anthropogenic Predation Risk And Movement Ecology Of White-Tailed Deer (Odocoileus Virginianus), Rhiannon D. Kirton

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Hunting has been used as a central tool by wildlife managers to maintain populations of game species, however, we still lack a good understanding of exactly how hunting influences deer biology. Technological advances in GPS data over the last two decades now enable us to perform more detailed analysis on the effects of human hunters on wildlife populations. This research explores the spatial ecology of hunters and White-tailed deer in the Cross Timbers ecoregion of Oklahoma. Using new statistical methodologies to analyse simultaneous GPS tracking data on deer and hunters to study their spatial interactions. The results show how new …


Top-Down And Bottom-Up Effects On Collembola Communities In Soil Food Webs, Jordan Kustec Dec 2018

Top-Down And Bottom-Up Effects On Collembola Communities In Soil Food Webs, Jordan Kustec

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Anthropogenic changes are causing shifts within soil food web communities, which may alter ecosystem processes such as nutrient cycling, carbon storage and decomposition. I quantified ecological stressor effects on the abundance, richness, community composition and body size of a soil-dwelling microarthropod (Collembola: Hexapoda). I quantified the effects of warming and nitrogen deposition in two separate field studies and demonstrated that warming shifts Collembola community structure and decreases community body size. I quantified the interactive effects of top-down and bottom-up forces mediated by warming as ecological stressors in Collembola communities. I found that bottom-up effects of nutrient addition did not affect …