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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Global Worming: A Quantitative Study About Greenhouse Gas Flux In Surface Soils Facilitated By The Anecic Earthworm, Lumbricus Terrestris, Under Rising Global Temperature, Rachel Briden Frei, Jose A. Amador May 2016

Global Worming: A Quantitative Study About Greenhouse Gas Flux In Surface Soils Facilitated By The Anecic Earthworm, Lumbricus Terrestris, Under Rising Global Temperature, Rachel Briden Frei, Jose A. Amador

Senior Honors Projects

Climate change is the long-term alteration in the Earth’s average weather conditions believed to be driven by greenhouse gases (GHG): carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O). These alterations are expected to cause more extreme weather events, gradually warmer global temperatures and greater amounts of precipitation. Roughly 20% of the Earth’s CO2, one-third of CH4 and two-thirds of N2O emissions, originate from soils, and earthworms are known to accelerate GHG. As climate change proceeds, there is expected to be an increase in global temperature of 2-6ºC. Temperature …


Effects Of Environmental Factors On The Abundance Of Blacklegged Ticks, Jasmine L. Miller, Roger A. Lebrun, Howard S. Ginsberg Apr 2016

Effects Of Environmental Factors On The Abundance Of Blacklegged Ticks, Jasmine L. Miller, Roger A. Lebrun, Howard S. Ginsberg

Senior Honors Projects

The nymphal stage of the blacklegged tick, Ixodes scapularis, is the major vector of Lyme disease, the most common vector-borne disease in North America. Tick abundance has generally been estimated using either flag/drag samples or samples from hosts. However, the biases of these sampling methods have not been adequately studied. We compared samples using both methods from sites in Massachusetts and Wisconsin. Tick abundance was compared with variables related to weather (temperature, relative humidity, and tick adverse moisture events), vegetation (canopy cover, tree density, shrub density, ground vegetation, and leaf litter cover), and host abundance (mice, small mammals, medium …