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Articles 1 - 6 of 6
Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Prevalence Of Rats And Rodent Borne Pathogens Across Post-Katrina New Orleans, Bruno Marco Ghersi
Prevalence Of Rats And Rodent Borne Pathogens Across Post-Katrina New Orleans, Bruno Marco Ghersi
Doctoral Dissertations
Disasters are happening at an increasingly higher rate and intensity a trend that is expected to continue as more humans migrate to coastal urban areas. Disasters, and as importantly, disaster recovery can affect how native and pest populations will recover. My aim was to improve understanding of disease risk by evaluating the socioecological conditions that have shaped commensal rat recovery and distribution, as well as the pathogens they carry, across New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. I first estimated relative abundance and distribution of commensal rats from rodent trapping conducted between mid-2014 and early-2017 across 96 sites in 10 areas of …
Root Stage Distributions And Their Importance In Plant-Soil Feedback Models, Tyler Poppenwimer
Root Stage Distributions And Their Importance In Plant-Soil Feedback Models, Tyler Poppenwimer
Doctoral Dissertations
Roots are fundamental to PSFs, being a key mediator of these feedbacks by interacting with and affecting the soil environment and soil microbial communities. However, most PSF models aggregate roots into a homogeneous component or only implicitly simulate roots via functions. Roots are not homogeneous and root traits (nutrient and water uptake, turnover rate, respiration rate, mycorrhizal colonization, etc.) vary with age, branch order, and diameter. Trait differences among a plant’s roots lead to variation in root function and roots can be disaggregated according to their function. The impact on plant growth and resource cycling of changes in the distribution …
A High Resolution Study Of Long-Term Vertebrate Decomposition In Human And Animal Model Systems, Lois S. Taylor
A High Resolution Study Of Long-Term Vertebrate Decomposition In Human And Animal Model Systems, Lois S. Taylor
Doctoral Dissertations
The effects of vertebrate decomposition are wide-ranging across multiple foodwebs, and have been shown to persist in the environment, however there is a lack of systematic assessment of these changes over long periods of time or in sufficiently high resolution as to resolve seasonal flux patterns. The ultimate aim of this body of research was to explore nematode systematics in decomposition environments, culminating in a pair of long-term human decomposition seasonal trials, in high resolution, with the specific intent of integrating the fields of soil chemistry, microbial ecology, and nematology in order to assess the relationships of cross-disciplinary impacts. Of …
Costs Of Protected Areas In The United States, Diane Lebouille
Costs Of Protected Areas In The United States, Diane Lebouille
Doctoral Dissertations
Protected areas, or land owned in fee by agencies and non-profits to further conservation goals, have traditionally been the go-to choice for conservation interests. The UN Environment World Conservation Monitoring Centre estimates that, currently, close to 15% of all terrestrial and inland water areas are protected. This figure falls short of the Aichi Biodiversity Target of 17% in 2020, that was added to the Convention on Biological Diversity by its 196 signatories in 2010. But as the Convention prepares to set new post-2020 targets, this percentage is expected to keep increasing. Although acquiring a parcel of land is only one …
Incorporating The “Invisibles” In Ant Seed Dispersal: Microbial Mortality Agents In Myrmecochory, Chloe L. Lash
Incorporating The “Invisibles” In Ant Seed Dispersal: Microbial Mortality Agents In Myrmecochory, Chloe L. Lash
Doctoral Dissertations
Ant-mediated seed dispersal, myrmecochory, is a diffuse mutualism in which ants are rewarded for seed dispersal services with food via a seed-coat derived appendage, the elaiosome. Seeds gain dispersal benefits including escape from distance- and density- dependent mortality agents, protection from seed predators, and a nutrient-rich germination site in or near ant nests. However, microbes, have been essentially overlooked in this mutualism, despite their pathogenicity to the ants and plants involved. The work presented here investigates the effects of microbial mortality agents on the risks and benefits offered to ant and plant partners in myrmecochory. First, I investigate the effects …
From Genes To Ecosystems: Resource Availability And Dna Methylation Drive The Diversity And Abundance Of Restriction Modification Systems In Prokaryotes, Spiridon E. Papoulis
From Genes To Ecosystems: Resource Availability And Dna Methylation Drive The Diversity And Abundance Of Restriction Modification Systems In Prokaryotes, Spiridon E. Papoulis
Doctoral Dissertations
Together, prokaryotic hosts and their viruses numerically dominate the planet and are engaged in an eternal struggle of hosts evading viral predation and viruses overcoming defensive mechanisms employed by their hosts. Prokaryotic hosts have been found to carry several viral defense systems in recent years with Restriction Modification systems (RMs) were the first discovered in the 1950s. While we have biochemically elucidated many of these systems in the last 70 years, we still struggle to understand what drives their gain and loss in prokaryotic genomes. In this work, we take a computational approach to understand the underlying evolutionary drivers of …