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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Exploring The Relationships Between Mammalian Functional Trait Distributions And Regional Biomes, With Application To Miocene Paleoecology, Devra Hock-Reid
Exploring The Relationships Between Mammalian Functional Trait Distributions And Regional Biomes, With Application To Miocene Paleoecology, Devra Hock-Reid
Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research
Paleoecology relies on understanding relationships between modern animals and their environment. Animals are adapted to niches in their environments, and those physical adaptations, or functional traits, are utilized as proxies to interpret aspects of paleo-ecosystems. Much is known about individual functional traits in extant mammals and their relationship to the environment. Less is known about how multiple functional traits across a community can be utilized for paleoecological interpretations. I develop models utilizing traits in mammalian communities at the biome level. For Chapter 1, I build a model for North American regional biomes using mammalian trait frequencies. I quantify changes in …
Biogeography Of Special Metabolites Produced By Ant-Associated Bacteria, Katherine Hansen
Biogeography Of Special Metabolites Produced By Ant-Associated Bacteria, Katherine Hansen
Scripps Senior Theses
There is an urgent and growing need for novel antibiotics with the growing prevalence of antibiotic-resistant pathogens. Ecologically-guided discovery is a strategy that focuses on how and where specially evolved metabolites such as antibiotics are used in nature. This strategy reveals unique active molecules with potential for human use. An unexplored niche with great potential for antibiotic discovery exists with Southwestern fungus-farming Trachymyrmex ants and their Actinobacteria symbionts. In exchange for nutrients from the ant, the ants’ bacterial symbiont produces antifungal molecules that protect the ants’ fungal cultivar from invasion by pathogenic microorganisms. They also produce antibacterial molecules to protect …