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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Is Diet Selection By Greater Sage-Grouse Influenced By Biomass Availability Or Toxins?, Jacqueline Peña, Marcella Fremgen
Is Diet Selection By Greater Sage-Grouse Influenced By Biomass Availability Or Toxins?, Jacqueline Peña, Marcella Fremgen
McNair Scholars Research Journal
Foraging herbivores must meet nutritional requirements by not only finding enough plant biomass to consume, but also finding plants with high protein content and low concentrations of potentially toxic plant secondary metabolites (PSMs). Greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; hereafter, sage-grouse) are sagebrush obligate herbivores that consume relatively high concentrations of PSMs. To meet their nutritional needs and avoid ingesting high amounts of PSMs, sage-grouse may select species of sagebrush for food that have lower concentrations of PSMs than a more abundant species with higher concentration of PSMs. Diet selection by sage-grouse may also be driven by chemical factors at finer scales …
It’S In Your Genes, Cody Gowan
It’S In Your Genes, Cody Gowan
McNair Scholars Research Journal
There’s a vast misunderstanding of how cells function amongst the general public. Many people understand that our genes are what make us who we are. However, many people don’t understand how. Proteins are the functional units of the cell that allow the genome to express itself. The Central Dogma of biology is that DNA is transcribed to messenger RNA and then translated to protein, and everything about our physical being is a result of how proteins function—from the color of our eyes to life-threatening diseases that we endure, such as cancer. It is this idea (that the function of proteins …
Reclaiming Lost Territory: The Response Of Owyhee Harvester Ants To Forager Intrusions By Neighboring Colonies, Brett D. Howell
Reclaiming Lost Territory: The Response Of Owyhee Harvester Ants To Forager Intrusions By Neighboring Colonies, Brett D. Howell
McNair Scholars Research Journal
Neighboring colonies of the Owyhee harvester ant, Pogonomyrmex salinus, often share non-overlapping foraging boundaries in the areas between their nests. We found that interactions between neighbors along these foraging boundaries were infrequent but peaceful, and usually resulted in one or both individuals becoming agitated and scurrying away in opposite directions. Interactions between neighbors were necessary to maintain the foraging ranges of their respective colonies. An exclusion experiment showed that when one colony of a pair situated 5-7 m apart was denied access to its foraging range, individuals from the other colony would usually (i.e., in 7 out of 10 cases) …