Life Sciences Commons^™

Habitat Modeling Of Three Endemic Crayfish Species In The Black River Drainage Of Missouri And Arkansas: Factors Affecting Distribution And Abundance, Matthew Stephen Nolen

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Ozark faunal region of Missouri and Arkansas harbors a high level of aquatic biological diversity, especially in regards to endemic crayfish. Orconectes eupunctus, Orconectes marchandi, and Cambarus hubbsi are three such endemics that are threatened by a limited natural distribution and the invasions of Orconectes neglectus. I sought to determine how natural and anthropogenic factors influence these three species across multiple spatial scales. Local and landscape data were used in decision tree analyses (CART) to determine their influence effect on presence/absence and density of the three species. Predictive models were validated using k-fold cross validation. O. eupunctus presence was …

Phenotypic Plasticity Of Rattlesnake Trophic Morphology, Matthew Thomas Smith

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The trophic morphology of gape-limited predators constrains the shape and size of prey items they can ingest. Trophic morphology consists of any morphological feature that is involved in the handling and ingestion of food. Diet has a profound effect on the morphology of many gape-limited predators. Identifying how prey type and resource level affect the morphology of different populations is an essential step in understanding the mechanisms contributing to patterns of morphological diversity. Species interactions (Chapter 1) induce plasticity in morphology that can lead to increased fitness, morphological divergence, and eventually speciation.

In Chapter 2, a laboratory study tested the …

Life History Variation Of Common Terns In The Gulf Of Maine, Jeffery Bryant Kimmons

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Life history is the inheritable rules that determine energy and time allocation towards different competing functions in the energy budget of an organism. Reproductive effort varies as organisms make reproductive decisions based on available energy. Factors influencing life histories are those that change energy and time budgets such as diet, competition, and environmental conditions.

Common tern (Sterna hirundo) life history phenotypes vary between islands in the Gulf of Maine. Common terns on offshore islands (>10km from mainland) and nearshore islands (5 to 10km from mainland) lay smaller clutches, hatching chicks with slower growth rates than common terns …

Stable Isotope Analysis (Delta Nitrogen-15 And Delta Carbon-13) And Bioenergetic Modeling Of Spatial-Temporal Foraging Patterns And Consumption Dynamics In Brown And Rainbow Trout Populations Within Catch-And-Release Areas Of Arkansas Tailwaters, Jon M. Flinders

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

I examined spatial and temporal consumption dynamics using an energy intake model and a bioenergetics model of rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, and brown trout, Salmo trutta, within three catch-and-release (C-R) areas in Bull Shoals and Norfork tailwaters to determine whether trout populations were limited by food supply. I also examined the seasonal and ontogenetic shifts in the foraging patterns of brown and rainbow trout within these areas using gut content analysis (GCA) and stable isotope analysis (SIA) of C and N. I examined 605 brown trout and 768 rainbow trout for GCA and SIA at Bull Shoals, Norfork, …