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Articles 1 - 9 of 9
Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Evaluating Bat Roost Abundance: A Comparison Of Drone-Acquired Thermal Imagery And Acoustic Estimates With Visual Observations, Karah Jaffe
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Roosts provide an opportunity to census philopatric populations of bats. Comparing the efficacy of traditional methods with novel methods can provide guidance on the use of new technologies in the field. This project aims to compare the count efficacy of external emergence methodologies, i.e., drone-acquired thermal imagery, acoustic estimates, and visual counts. Surveys were conducted ten nights at two emergence sites and synchronized to compare counts. Acoustic estimates could not be established as there was a weak prediction of the linear relationship between root-mean-square pressure and emergence count; therefore, this method was removed from the comparative analysis. A linear mixed-effects …
Chronoecology Of A Cave-Dwelling Orb-Weaver Spider, Meta Ovalis (Araneae: Tetragnathidae), Rebecca Steele
Chronoecology Of A Cave-Dwelling Orb-Weaver Spider, Meta Ovalis (Araneae: Tetragnathidae), Rebecca Steele
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Circadian clocks enable coordination of essential biological and metabolic processes in relation to the 24-hour light cycle. However, there are many habitats that are not subject to this light cycle, such as the deep sea, arctic regions, and cave systems. This study analyzes the circadian pattern of isolated populations of a subterranean spider, Meta ovalis from two Tennessee caves and five Indiana caves. Locomotor activity was recorded with TriKinetics LAM50 Locomotor Activity Monitor under a 12-hour light (L), 12-hour dark (D) (LD 12:12) cycle preceding total darkness (DD). Significant differences were found within and among populations found in Tennessee cave …
Differentiating Black Bears (Ursus Americanus) And Brown Bears (U. Arctos) Using Linear Tooth Measurements And Identification Of Ursids From Oregon Caves National Monument, Emily Bogner
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
North American black bears and brown bears can be difficult to distinguish in the fossil record due to similar dental and skeletal morphologies. Challenges identifying ursid material from Oregon Caves National Monument (ORCA) called for an accurate tool to distinguish the species. This study utilized a large database of lower tooth lengths and ratios in an attempt to differentiate black and brown bears in North America. Further, this project examined how these linear measurements differ geographically. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) found significant differences between black and brown bears from across North America for every variable studied. Stepwise discriminant analyses (DA) …
Ecometric Estimation Of Present And Past Climate Of North America Using Crown Heights Of Rodents And Lagomorphs: With Application To The Middle Miocene Climatic Optimum, Julia Schap
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Continental scale studies on ungulate crown heights in relation to climate and habitat changes have revealed a correlation between increasing hypsodonty and a shift to more arid environments. Small mammals have been shown to adapt to changing habitats millions of years earlier than larger mammals. In this study I examined fossil localities throughout the last 37 Ma across North America. Diversity of rodents and lagomorphs were analyzed through this time period, with examination of community structure characterized by relative percentages of taxa with different crown heights. Overall, a decrease in precipitation and temperature was found across North America from 37 …
Range-Wide Prevalence And Impacts Of Pseudocercosporella Inconspicua On Lilium Grayi And An Assessment Of L. Superbum And L. Michauxii As Reservoirs, Cindy L. Barrett
Range-Wide Prevalence And Impacts Of Pseudocercosporella Inconspicua On Lilium Grayi And An Assessment Of L. Superbum And L. Michauxii As Reservoirs, Cindy L. Barrett
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Lilium grayi (Gray’s Lily), a southern Appalachian endemic species, is threatened by a Lilium-specific fungal pathogen, Pseudocercosporella inconspicua. The disease is characterized by tan lesions that can cause early senescence, while also lowering seed production and viability. This project tested for P. inconspicua conidia and accessed health at nine locations. The disease was present and ubiquitous across the range of L. grayi. Through identification of P. inconspicua conidia in the field, L. superbum (Turk’s Cap Lily) was identified as an additional host, while L. michauxii (Michaux’s Lily) was disease-free. However, infection was inducible in both species. With …
Demography And Disease Of The Rare Shrub Buckleya Distichophylla (Santalaceae) In Northeastern Tennessee, William Seth Ratliff
Demography And Disease Of The Rare Shrub Buckleya Distichophylla (Santalaceae) In Northeastern Tennessee, William Seth Ratliff
Undergraduate Honors Theses
Piratebush (Buckleya distichophylla (Nutt.) Torr.) is a rare, hemiparasitic shrub with the only extant populations in western North Carolina, northeastern Tennessee, and southwestern Virginia. The preferred natural hosts of piratebush, Carolina and eastern hemlocks, have seen sharp declines over the last decade due to the invasive hemlock woolly adelgid. Virginia pine, another important host of piratebush, is also susceptible to disease, specifically Cronartium appalachianum, a rust fungus for which piratebush is the secondary host. This study described and analyzed current demographic parameters of three Tennessee piratebush populations. Additionally, spatial patterns of disease and demographic characters were analyzed. These …
An Agent-Based Model Of Ant Colony Energy And Population Dynamics: Effects Of Temperature And Food Fluctuation, Guo Xiaohui
An Agent-Based Model Of Ant Colony Energy And Population Dynamics: Effects Of Temperature And Food Fluctuation, Guo Xiaohui
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The ant colony, known as a self-organized system, can adapt to the environment by a series of negative and positive feedbacks. There is still a lack of mechanistic understanding of how the factors, such as temperature and food, coordinate the labor of ants. According to the Metabolic Theory of Ecology (MTE), the metabolic rate could control ecological process at all levels. To analyze self-organized process of ant colony, we constructed an agent-based model to simulate the energy and population dynamics of ant colony. After parameterizing the model, we ran 20 parallel simulations for each experiment and parameter sweeps to find …
Inter-And Intra-Population Variability Across The Transcriptome Of Lake Baikal’S Endemic Copepod With Ramifications For Adapting To Climate Change, Larry L. Bowman Jr
Inter-And Intra-Population Variability Across The Transcriptome Of Lake Baikal’S Endemic Copepod With Ramifications For Adapting To Climate Change, Larry L. Bowman Jr
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The future of Lake Baikal’s biodiversity is uncertain in response to climate change. Unlike its diverse benthos, Lake Baikal’s zooplankton is species poor, with up to 96% of its biomass being composed of a single Calanoid copepod species, Epischura baikalensis. This study characterizes the genetic differentiation and differential gene expression of E. baikalensis. Using partial-transcriptome sequences obtained by 454 Rosche and Illumina sequencing technologies, the genetic differentiation at inferred single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) sites and differential gene expression in populations sampled from various parts of the lake were analyzed. The functional genomics of genes showed significant differential …
Cause And Impacts Of The Early Season Collapse Of Lilium Grayi (Gray’S Lily), On Roan Mountain, Tn/Nc, Russell J. Ingram
Cause And Impacts Of The Early Season Collapse Of Lilium Grayi (Gray’S Lily), On Roan Mountain, Tn/Nc, Russell J. Ingram
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
A population of the rare Southern Appalachian endemic species Lilium grayi, (Gray’s lily) Roan Mountain, TN/NC was monitored for 2 years to determine the cause and impact of an early season collapse. High concentrations of the Lilium spp. host-specific fungal phytopathogen, Pseudocercosporella inconspicua (G. Winter) U. Braun were associated with 19/20 symptomatic and 0/30 asymptomatic plants. Strength of the association between pathogen and disease and the replication of disease symptoms in 4/4 healthy hosts showed that P. inconspicua was the causal agent of the disease referred to as lily leaf spot. Disease had a severe impact on the population …