Life Sciences Commons^™

Evaluation Of Differences In Testosterone Concentration Among Species, Sexes, And Reproductive Tactics In Two-Lined Salamanders, Zaynab Massenburg

Symposium of Student Scholars

Fall 2022 symposium abstract:

Evaluation of differences in testosterone concentration among species, sexes, and reproductive tactics in two-lined salamanders

Zaynab Massenburg(1), Michelle Ross(1)

[zmassenb@students.kennesaw.edu, mross105@students.kennesaw.edu]

(1) Kennesaw State University

Inhabiting streams in the Appalachian Mountains in northern Georgia are two sympatric and closely related species of plethodontid salamanders—Brown-backed Salamanders (Eurycea aquatica) and Blue Ridge Two-lined Salamanders (Eurycea cf. wilderae). Male Eurycea cf. wilderae exhibit a morphological polymorphism corresponding to alternative reproductive tactics. “Searching” males display brighter coloration, the presence of cirri and a mental glad, and mate-searching behavior, while “guarding” males display hypertrophied jaw musculature, lack cirri and a mental …

An Integral Projection Modeling Approach To Understanding Demographic Effects Of Multispecies Mutualisms, Alexandra Campbell

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Modeling The Role Of Land Conversion On The Spread Of An Epizootic Disease, Dustin Padilla

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Is Cleaning Up The Ocean Helpful Or Hurtful?, Megan O. Powell

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Covid-19 And Challenges To The Classical Theory Of Epidemics, Simon Levin

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

The Brain-Gut Axis Of Honeybees: Testing How Microbiota Affect Individual And Social Behaviour, Julia F. Lacika, Shenella George

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

No abstract provided.

Inside Insects - Climate Change And Metamorphosis, Cailyn R. Mckay

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Climate change is causing extreme environmental conditions including an increase in the frequency of heat waves which have the potential to seriously impact insect species, particularly during the sedentary pupal stage. The true armyworm is used here as a model species to evaluate the effects of simulated heat waves on reproductive activity and output later in life. Heat waves had a negative impact on moth reproduction and could be impacting the ecology of the species today and in the future.

Multigene Phylogeny Of Mushroom Genus Hohenbuehelia (Fungi = Pleurotaceae), Beau Claude Daigneault

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

A multigene phylogenetic study of mushroom genus Hohenbuehelia. Four gene loci (ITS, LSU, Tef1, RPB2) were examined, sequence data collected and available Genbank data was concatenated into a supermatrix alignment, with a RAxML phylogenetic tree as output.

Investigating The Biological Function Of Female-Specific Fruitless Transcripts, Liam Mcfarlane

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

In Drosophila, the fruitless (fru) gene encodes an array of alternatively spliced transcription factors, some of which are sex-specifically spliced. The male-specific transcript (fru^M) has been previously determined to be involved in male courtship behaviours. The female counterpart (fru^F) however, has been assumed to have no function due to the incorporation of a stop codon near the 5' end of the transcript. Interestingly, RNAseq data shows that expression levels of fru^F in females exceeds that of fru^M in males in the brain and thoracoabdominal ganglion, bringing to …

Exploring The Use Of Covellite As A Proxy For Corrosion Of Native Copper By Sulphur Reducing Bacteria, Manan K. Joshi

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

We are analyzing the effect of sulphate reducing bacteria on native copper, and using that evidence to further support the initiative of having a deep geological repository to store nuclear material. Sulphate reducing bacteria are a concern for the deep geological repository as they cause the corrosion of regular copper. However native copper has gone billions of years without corrosion, which could either mean that it had not been exposed to sulphate reducing bacteria over the billions of years, or native copper is able to withstand corrosion despite the contact of sulphate reducing bacteria. We can find out by trying …

Farming For The Future; Managing Lowland Grassland For Biodiversity, Sally Griffin

ORBioM (Open Research BioSciences Meeting)

Grassland is Ireland’s most expansive terrestrial habitat type covering >58% of the land cover but its biodiversity is under serious threat of agricultural intensification or land abandonment. While the decline in Irish grassland biodiversity has been recognised, there is a paucity of research into the restoration of lowland mesotrophic grassland. Most of Ireland’s grasslands are privately farmed mainly for pasture, therefore, appropriate agricultural management techniques for biodiversity restoration are vital. The purpose of this research was to first classify the lowland grassland vegetation in Killarney National Park, Co. Kerry in the west of Ireland (Approx. 244ha). Then to investigate selected …

Epidemiological Assessment Of Wolbachia-Based Biocontrol For Reduction Of Dengue Morbidity, Olga Vasilieva, Oscar E. Escobar, Hector J. Martinez, Pierre-Alexandre Bliman, Yves Dumont

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

De-Coupling Cell-Autonomous And Non-Cell-Autonomous Fitness Effects Allows Solution Of The Fokker-Planck Equation For The Evolution Of Interacting Populations, Steph J. Owen

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Gene Drives And The Consequences Of Over-Suppression, Cole Butler

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Bioeconomic Analysis In A Predator-Prey System With Harvesting: A Case Study In The Chesapeake Bay Fisheries, Iordanka Panayotova, Maila Hallare

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Parameter Estimation Using Nudging On The Logistic Growth Equation, Susan Rogowski

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Marine Species At Risk: A Salish Sea Transboundary Indicator With More Potential, Dr. Joseph Gaydos

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Species at risk are native species, sub-species or ecologically significant units that warrant special attention to ensure their conservation. The number of marine species at risk within the Salish Sea is used by the US Environmental Protection Agency and Environment and Climate Change Canada as one of ten transboundary ecosystem indicators. Four jurisdictions within the Salish Sea have formal listing processes for marine species: the Province of British Columbia, the State of Washington, the Canadian Federal Government, and the United States Federal Government. As of October 15, 2021, there were 135 species listed as at risk in the Salish Sea: …

A Collaborative Approach To Developing A Model For Oil Spill Policy Decision Support: Building A Better Model While Learning Together, Jd Ross Leahy

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

The Washington State Department of Ecology is developing a quantitative model to evaluate risk of oil spills in Washington waters. The model provides a long-term resource for evaluating oil spill policy and oil spill risks in Washington waters. To do so, it must produce understandable and accessible information for effective decision-making support and characterize risk in a way that addresses the concerns of tribes and stakeholders. Guided by the analytic-deliberative process recommended by the National Research Council, our team approached model development with a focus on collaboration and empirical rigor. Between the summer of 2020 and fall of 2021, we …

Filling The Gap: An Analysis Of Stormwater Utility Fees In The Puget Sound Watershed, Washington, Usa, Raye Evrard

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

The Puget Sound region was an early adopter of funding local stormwater management programs via stormwater utility fees (SUFs). This paper presents a case study characterizing the use of SUFs in this rapidly growing watershed with over 5 million people. We systematically compiled and evaluated data on SUF rate structure for 124 jurisdictions and program budgets for 80 jurisdictions to describe the overall composition of revenues, the distribution of expenditures between capital and operating expenses, and the influence of National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) municipal stormwater permit status. We also calculated SUFs applied to individual parcels in 11 jurisdictions …

Getting From One Size Fits All To Variable Width Riparian Buffer Recommendations, Kollin Higgins

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

In 2014, King County began an effort called, Fish Farm Flood, to recover Chinook salmon in the Snoqualmie River while also maintaining a healthy viable agricultural industry. An initial agreement in 2017 called for the formation of a Buffer Task Force with the goal of providing the foundation and guidance for a scientifically credible, context-sensitive, locally derived decision support framework that describes the potential of variable-width riparian buffers along all watercourses in the Snoqualmie Valley Agricultural Production District. The agricultural district is mostly contained within the roughly mile wide floodplain of the Snoqualmie River. The district includes more than 150 …

Assessment Of Vulnerabilities And Trade-Offs For Coordinated Investment In Regional Ecosystem Recovery And Flood Resilience, Nisqually Delta, Washington State, Usa, Dr. Eric Grossman

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Projected changes in coastal sediment dynamics and flood exposure in the coming decades have important implications for estuary ecosystem recovery strategies and principal barriers to their implementation, namely transportation and flood control infrastructure. A numerical sediment transport model was used to evaluate whether the flux of sediment from the Nisqually River to the 308-hectare 2009 Brown’s Farm restoration project is sufficient to recover 1–2 m of subsided marshes given projected sea level rise. The effectiveness of distributary channel restoration alternatives in rerouting and introducing Nisqually River sediment to the restoration area were also assessed. Model and measurements indicate that ~10% …

A Novel Social-Ecological Clam Garden Site Selection Process, Courtney Greiner

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Clam gardens are intertidal features modified by Northwest Coastal Indigenous people to enhance clam habitat for optimal shellfish production. The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community (SITC) recently initiated a clam garden project to address declining clam populations and community concerns regarding climate change and ocean acidification. This effort will integrate traditional ecological knowledge into contemporary resource management and climate adaptation strategies, encourage local food security and sovereignty, and promote sustainable seafood production. SITC’s Fisheries Department and Community Environmental Health Program have co-designed a social-ecological site selection process focused on community participation to promote the long-term success of the project. This presentation …

Howe Sound/Átl’Ḵa7tsem Marine Stewardship Initiative: A Bottom-Up And Community Based Approach To Marine Spatial Planning In The Salish Sea, Bridget John, Nikita Wallia

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Life in the ocean faces myriad anthropogenic pressures that vary in their spatial scales, from global climate change to site-specific industrial projects. Marine spatial planning (MSP) is one approach to manage these pressures while protecting ocean health and human access. Unfortunately, many coastal communities have restricted capacity to lead MSP processes due to two barriers: limited access to high resolution local data, and insufficient knowledge sharing across jurisdictions. Our project seeks to address these barriers by implementing a bottom-up approach to MSP in the Salish Sea, Canada. The Howe Sound/Átl’?a7tsem Marine Stewardship Initiative’s goal is to protect the diverse human …

Citizen Based Salmon Recovery In The Salish Sea, Rachel Vasak

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Citizen Based Salmon Recovery in the Salish Sea Since 1990, the Washington State Regional Fisheries Enhancement Groups (RFEGs) have been working to involve local communities, citizen volunteers, and landowners in salmon recovery e??orts in Washington State. The RFEGs strive to actively engage diverse communities across the state and provide meaningful ways for thousands of community members to take action to help salmon. The RFEG motto is, “Our program is statewide, our priorities are local.” Each of the state’s 14 RFEGs is an independent nonpro??t organization with a unique mission and specific goals driven by local salmon recovery priorities from habitat …

Marine Shoreline Armor Mapping, Change Analysis (2009-2019) And Regulatory Compliance And Effectiveness Assessment For San Juan County, Washington, Tina Whitman

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Significant improvements have occurred in our technical understanding of the impacts shoreline armoring has on coastal processes and habitats. In response, expanded voluntary and regulatory efforts to remove armor, reduce demand for new armor, and reduce impacts of authorized armor have been implemented across the region. While some progress in removing armor and limiting new armor appears to be happening, tracking armor trends relies on a review of state permit records. Assessments of actual changes in the extent of armor along marine shorelines are limited. Friends of the San Juans recently completed a Shoreline Armor Mapping, Change Analysis, and Regulatory …

Mapping, Prioritizing, And Promoting The Removal Of The 15,564 Pilings In The Snohomish Estuary, Elisa Dawson

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

The Snohomish County Marine Resources Committee has been leading a multi-year project to promote the removal of pilings in the Snohomish River estuary that are not associated with a dock, marina, or bulkhead. Using a mapping technique and previous data, 15,564 pilings were identified in the Snohomish estuary downstream of Highway 2, many of these pilings are leftover from the logging industry and other previous infrastructure in the Snohomish Estuary. Field work was done to collect detailed ecosystem and feasibility data on the pilings to help evaluate and prioritize pilings for removal. Nearly 7,000 pilings were identified as high priority …

Government Of Canada: Reducing Vessel Noise And Disturbance, Sara German

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

This presentation describes Canada's comprehensive approach to reducing underwater radiated noise (URN) from ships, as well as some of Canada's national and international efforts to reduce and tackle the URN issue. One of the goals of these efforts is to better understand and manage the cumulative effects of shipping activities on endangered whales in different parts of the country, particularly the Southern Resident Killer Whale on our West Coast. Given the complexity of reducing underwater noise and physical disturbance from ships, the Government of Canada has taken a multidimensional approach to this issue. This approach includes both operational and technical …

Delivering Science Support For Avian Conservation And Management In Salish Sea Estuaries, Trina Bayard

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

The Avian Monitoring in Estuaries project, led by the Stillaguamish Tribe, Audubon Washington, Ecostudies Institute, and WDFW, seeks to build a stronger scientific basis for avian conservation and the integration of birds into habitat management and restoration through delivery of science products and monitoring tools. In this talk we will highlight our progress to date and share opportunities for participation. The project team has conducted extensive end-user engagement with avian monitoring practitioners and estuary managers, synthesizing existing monitoring data and identifying priority avian management needs and concerns. In Phase I we conducted an inventory and synthesis of avian monitoring associated …

Data-Limited Fisheries Methods Shed Light On The Exploitation History And Population Dynamics Of Esa-Listed Yelloweye Rockfish In Puget Sound, Washington, Markus Min

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Yelloweye Rockfish in the Puget Sound/Georgia Basin were listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 2010, and a formal recovery plan for these species was published by NOAA Fisheries in 2017. Under this recovery plan, the criteria for delisting or downlisting are specified as certain levels of spawning potential ratio (SPR), which compares the reproductive capacity of a stock in its current condition relative to an unfished condition. SPR is a proxy for relative stock biomass, a commonly used metric of stock status. Although these metrics can be estimated without catch histories, catch histories improve our understanding of population …

Traffic Separation Scheme Feasibility Study, Sara German

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Southern Resident Killer Whales are endangered and face three key threats to their survival: prey availability, physical and acoustic disturbance, and contaminants. In an effort to mitigate the threat of physical and acoustic disturbance, Transport Canada has worked with an external contractor over the last two years to assess the feasibility of making changes to the Traffic Separation Scheme, as a potential way to reduce physical and acoustic disturbance from vessels in southern BC coastal waters. The goal of the project was to assess and recommend options to amend the TSS that balance the protection of the Southern Resident killer …