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Articles 1 - 12 of 12
Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
The Effects Of Prescribed Fire On Ant Community Composition In A Temperate Deciduous Forest., Emma Jones
The Effects Of Prescribed Fire On Ant Community Composition In A Temperate Deciduous Forest., Emma Jones
College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses
Prescribed fire is a tool commonly used in land management to decrease wildfire frequency and promote plant diversity. However, the effects of prescribed fire on invertebrate communities, especially those within temperate deciduous forest, are poorly understood. I measured the response of epigeic ant communities in mixed mesophytic forest in Berea, Kentucky following prescribed burning. I used pitfall traps to repeatedly sample epigeic ants in replicate burned and unburned plots for up to 21 months postburn following two separate (2021 and 2022) prescribed fires. Ant species richness was similar between treatments (burn vs. control) and by burn year. Ant community composition …
Impacts Of Bacterial Evolution On Host Lethality In Drosophila, Andrew Preston
Impacts Of Bacterial Evolution On Host Lethality In Drosophila, Andrew Preston
College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses
Evolution is the process by which species change their genetic traits, such as the pathogenicity of bacteria, over time in response to changes in their environment. Although the genetic mechanisms underlying many evolutionary processes have been revealed, it is still not well understood how opportunistic pathogens, such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, become virulent. The overall goal of this thesis is to test the Coincidental Evolution Hypothesis, which proposes that the virulence of opportunistic pathogens evolves coincidentally as a by-product of their interaction with their natural predators. I hypothesized that the virulence of ancestral Pseudomonas aeruginosa changes over time if it co-evolves …
The Effects Of Prescribed Fire On Ant Community Composition In A Temperate Deciduous Forest, Emma Jones
The Effects Of Prescribed Fire On Ant Community Composition In A Temperate Deciduous Forest, Emma Jones
2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference
Prescribed fire is a tool commonly used in land management to decrease wildfire frequency and promote plant diversity. However, the effects of prescribed fire on invertebrate communities, especially those within temperate deciduous forest, are poorly understood. We measured the response of epigeic ant communities in mixed mesophytic forest in Berea, Kentucky following prescribed burning. We used pitfall traps to repeatedly sample epigeic ants in replicate burned and unburned plots for up to 21 months postburn following two separate (2021 and 2022) prescribed fires. Ant species richness was similar between treatments (burn vs. control) and by burn year. Ant community composition …
Evolution Of A Genus Of Gall Wasp Kleptoparasites, Guerin E. Brown
Evolution Of A Genus Of Gall Wasp Kleptoparasites, Guerin E. Brown
2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference
Kleptoparasites do not directly parasitize their hosts but instead steal food and resources, reducing host fitness. Like direct parasites, kleptoparasites can be highly dependent on their hosts such that their evolutionary histories may be linked. Here, we study the evolution of a kleptoparasitic wasp genus, Synergus (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae: Synergini), in relation to their hosts, oak gall wasps (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae: Cynipini). Ovipositing oak gall wasps induce the formation of galls on oaks (Fagaceae) that provide food and shelter to one or more developing gall wasps. Galls induced by different gall wasp species are diverse in size, shape, color, and location …
Environmental Factors Shaping A Sawfly-Associated Community Of Parasitoids, Carson Kephart, Robin K. Bagely
Environmental Factors Shaping A Sawfly-Associated Community Of Parasitoids, Carson Kephart, Robin K. Bagely
2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference
A major goal of evolutionary biology is to understand the mechanisms that shape biodiversity, especially amongst highly speciose lineages such as parasitic wasps. However, most of these lineages are poorly described, with very little available natural history information. This lack of information limits our ability to uncover the environmental factors that contribute to their patterns of divergence, distribution, and abundance. To that end, here we take advantage of a community of hymenopteran parasites that has an unusually large amount of available information since they attack an economically important pine sawfly species, Neodiprion lecontei. We build upon a set of …
Efficacy Of Biocontrol Against Chrysomelid Pests In Lab Vs Field Studies: Potential Biases Of Setting And Phylogenetic Subgroups, Blake Hudson
2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference
The beetle family Chrysomelidae is a speciose group of voracious herbivores with a wide number of ecological implications. While some Chrysomelid species have been introduced or augmented as biological control agents of invasive plants, many other species have found success as economically important pests of field crops and stored grains, leading to severe yield losses in cucurbits, legumes, and other systems. Controlling such pests, especially in the field, is particularly difficult due to the timing of their complex life cycles, the fossorial nature of many species’ larvae, and ability to produce multiple generations in a single growing season. This study …
Insect Developmental Plasticity: The Role In A Changing Environment, Lindsey A. Barnes
Insect Developmental Plasticity: The Role In A Changing Environment, Lindsey A. Barnes
The Cardinal Edge
Climate change has been recognized as a severe threat to biodiversity. In the rapidly growing collection of literature on the consequences of global change, researchers have recently noticed a dramatic decrease in insect populations in a wide range of habitats. Insects are extremely susceptible to climatic change, especially with regard to fluctuations in moisture and temperature. However, insects often exhibit phenotypic plasticity, where organisms will express different phenotypes when presented with a specific environmental stimulus. In developmental plasticity, environmental stimuli at the larval stage can determine adult phenotypes. This review focuses on case studies of developmental plasticity in insects, with …
Community Structure And Dynamics Of Benthic Macroinvertebrates In A Recreated Headwater Stream System On A Valley Fill In A Retrofitted Watershed Located In The Appalachian Coalfields Of Southeastern Kentucky (U.S.A.), Steven W. Bailey
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The extraction of coal from steep-gradient surface mining sites such as in the Appalachian Coalfields of the U.S. produces excess debris that is often placed in adjacent valleys resulting in the creation of valley fills. Not only are headwater streams buried in the process, but watershed functions are either destroyed outright, or become fragmented and disconnected from adjacent ecosystems resulting in adverse effects to downstream biological communities. In this dissertation, the dynamics of stream macroinvertebrate community structure, composition, diversity, and biotic integrity are assessed at a “proof of concept” stream system recreated on a retrofitted valley fill. For comparison, two …
Role Of Plant Volatile Organic Compounds (Vocs) In Seed Priming And Plant-Herbivore Interactions., Abhinav Kumar Maurya
Role Of Plant Volatile Organic Compounds (Vocs) In Seed Priming And Plant-Herbivore Interactions., Abhinav Kumar Maurya
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This dissertation explores and expands the existing knowledge on the role of plant volatiles in facilitating seed priming and providing direct defense against herbivore. Although the roles of plant volatiles in priming a plant’s defenses and providing direct defense against pests is well known, information regarding their effects on seed and the fitness of future plants and direct toxicity to herbivores is understudied. This dissertation does a thorough examination of these two understudied aspects of plant volatiles and provides novel insight into the role of plant volatiles in seed priming and direct defense (Chapter I). Seeds in the soil can …
Olfactory Tissue Investment In Tropical Rainforest Ants Scales With Body Size., Heather Evon Short
Olfactory Tissue Investment In Tropical Rainforest Ants Scales With Body Size., Heather Evon Short
College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses
Differential tissue allocation in animal sensory systems is common and varies with habitat. Worker ants perform a variety of complex tasks that depend on neural capacity, with chemical cues considered central to ant behavior. The antennal (olfactory) lobes of ant brains are often highly developed relative to other insects; however, arboreal ants that live in environments with higher light levels tend to rely more on visual cues than olfaction compared to terrestrial ants. The extent to which habitat-driven behavior affects neural investment in tropical rainforest ants is unknown. Here, I focused on three common tropical ant species (Pseudomyrmex boopis, P. …
Indole Sensitivity In Various Insect Herbivores., Rakhi Patel
Indole Sensitivity In Various Insect Herbivores., Rakhi Patel
College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses
When plants in nature are attacked by herbivores, they frequently release airborne volatiles. These herbivore-induced plant volatiles (HIPVs) help plants defend themselves against herbivore attack by calling in natural enemies, but HIPVs may also be directly toxic to herbivores. Indole (C8H7N) is a common HIPV that is toxic to caterpillars, but its relative toxicity to different caterpillars has not been explored. I tested the toxicity of indole on six caterpillar species (Spodoptera frugiperda, Trichoplusia ni, Spodoptera exigua, Anticarsia gemmatalis, Heliothis virescens, and Helicoverpa zea). Results show that indole is …
The Effects Of Habitat And Connectivity On Tropical Ant Ecology And Behavior., Benjamin Jacob Adams
The Effects Of Habitat And Connectivity On Tropical Ant Ecology And Behavior., Benjamin Jacob Adams
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This dissertation explores the role that physical connections among and within habitats play in determining the local diversity and behaviors of cursorial organisms. Understanding the processes that regulate local community assembly and that contribute to the maintenance of species diversity is a cornerstone of community ecology. Ants are a useful model for studies of local communities because they are abundant and fulfill a variety of ecological roles. Chapter one of the dissertation examines the how lianas (woody vines) function as connective structures among tree crowns and how these connections affect arboreal ant community structure within a tropical forest canopy. Trees …