Life Sciences Commons^™

Length-Weight Relationship Of Flier (Centrarchus Macropterus) In Moro Creek, Jeffrey G. Phillips

ATU Research Symposium

Length-weight relationships provide foundational knowledge for managing fisheries populations. However, there are many species where the length-weight relationships are not widely understood. The Flier (Centrarchus macropterus) is one species where there is a lack of information regarding its length-weight relationship and spatial variation associated with this relationship. A new study was needed to assess the length-weight relationship for this species. Fliers were collected from upper Moro Creek during October 2023. Multiple gears (backpack electrofishing and seining) were employed to increase detection of this species. Length (mm), and weight (g) were recorded for every individual observed. A total of 85 Flier …

A Survey Of Mussels In Small Tributaries Of The Ouachita River Headwaters, Aaron J. Huckeba, Seth Drake, Kendall Moles, Risa Mccollough, Nathan Mansor

ATU Research Symposium

Understanding species distributions is of utmost importance for effective conservation of aquatic resources. Freshwater mussels are among the most imperiled taxonomic groups as they are experiencing rapid declines in the southeastern United States. Standard mussel surveys are typically conducted on larger streams and rivers, leaving small headwater tributaries unsampled. Our study looked to document mussels in headwater tributaries of the Ouachita River watershed. We conducted standardized time-based surveys at 19 sites across nine tributaries using snorkeling, grubbing, and raking methodologies in the summer of 2023. Furthermore, we collected measurements on water quality (pH, conductivity, salinity, total dissolved solids, and temperature) …

Changes In Animal Vocalizations In Response To A Total Solar Eclipse, Colton W. Morris

ATU Research Symposium

My proposed research project will study the changes in animal vocalizations in response to the total solar eclipse that will take place in Russellville, Arkansas, on April 8, 2024. I will use audio recordings before, during, and after the eclipse to quantify changes in animal vocalizations. Most recordings will be in the range of normal hearing, and will primarily detect birds, frogs, and insects. Additionally, I will deploy one ultrasonic recorder capable of detecting bats. From these recordings I will be able to quantify overall and species-specific call rates. Audio recordings will be paired with continuous measurements of light intensity …

Summer 2024 Research Proposal: Swanberg Sanctuary Prairie Plant Community Characterization And Management Testing, Jillian Becksfort

Scholar Week 2016 - present

Prairie management is an involved process that is focused on maintaining existing grassland plant and animal communities. Invasive species and the spread of woody shrubs and trees presents a real threat to the existing prairie. Woody stems can affect resources such as water access and nutrient availability, which may cause changes to the prairie’s unique plant communities. Management techniques like burning and mowing are commonly used to prevent woody stems from causing changes to the prairie ecosystem. The Sanctuary was restored to natural prairie habitat in 2008 and a list of planted species is available. However, no plant surveys have …

Water Lily Leaf Beetle Ecology On Hourglass Lake In Big Lake, Alaska, Haley Lloyd, Grace Beatty

Scholar Week 2016 - present

The Water-Lily Leaf beetle, Galerucella nymphaeae, is a beetle commonly found on Western Pond Lily pads, Nuphar lutea, in Hourglass Lake. Hourglass Lake is located in Big Lake, Alaska. This area is surrounded by boreal forest and bogs and is situated roughly twenty miles North of Anchorage. Within this ecosystem, the Water-Lily Leaf Beetle and the Western Pond Lily are intrinsically linked, as the lily pads serve as a site of feeding and reproduction for the beetles. Dr. Derek Rosenberger of Olivet Nazarene University noticed an abundance of these beetles as he was kayaking through Hourglass Lake, and a project …

A Comparative Study Of Butterfly And Bumblebee Communities At The Onu Prairie And Perry Farm, Kathryn S. Bell

Scholar Week 2016 - present

The decline in many pollinator communities has been a topic of great concern for many years. The primary causes of these declines are habitat loss from urbanization and agriculture, pesticide usage, and climate change. Surveys of pollinator populations are important because they can help determine the health of the pollinator communities. No systematic surveys have assessed the pollinator populations at Olivet Nazarene University’s Prairie or at the LaGesse Prairie at Perry Farm Park in Bourbonnais Township, IL. Thus, little is known about the abundance or the species richness of bumble bees or butterflies in these areas. To address this lack …

Hgs-3 The Influence Of A Tandem Cycling Program In The Community On Physical And Functional Health, Therapeutic Bonds, And Quality Of Life For Individuals And Care Partners Coping With Parkinson’S Disease, Leila Djerdjour, Jennifer L. Trilk

SC Upstate Research Symposium

Purpose Statement: Several studies have shown that aerobic exercise can have a positive impact on alleviating symptoms experienced by individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD). Despite this evidence, the potential benefits of exercise for both PD patients and their care partners (PD dyad) remain unexplored. This research project investigates the effectiveness, therapeutic collaborations, and physical outcomes of a virtual reality (VR) tandem cycling program specifically designed for PD dyads.

Methods: Following approval from the Prisma Health Institutional Review Board, individuals with PD were identified and screened by clinical neurologists. The pre-testing measures for PD dyads (N=9) included emotional and cognitive status …

Drone Imagery Of Submarine Groundwater Discharge Effects On Coastal Primary Productivity On Coral Reefs In Maunalua Bay, Hawai'i, Lulu Wang, Florybeth Flores La Valle, Grace Kim

Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium

Submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) plays a crucial role in coastal ecosystems, especially coral reefs, by introducing terrestrial nutrients and freshwater, significantly affecting the primary productivity of coastal ecosystems and potentially altering ecological balances. La Valle et al. (2023) emphasized the importance of SGD in nutrient distribution and algal productivity, highlighting the need for comprehensive understanding and management strategies in the face of increasing nutrient runoff due to land use changes due to increased population. To better understand the impact, our experiments utilize remote sensing and data science by using a DJI Mavic 3 Enterprise drone with a thermal imaging camera …

A Tick's Quest: The Effects Of Climatic Stress On Host-Seeking Behavior Of Wild Ticks, Lawson Trimmell, Peter Briggs, Javier Monzón

Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium

The Lone Star Tick (Amblyomma americanum) is one of the most epidemiologically relevant tick species in the United States and is experiencing a range expansion. Our study aimed to investigate the effects of climatic stress on the behavior and physiology of the Lone Star Tick at the expansion front. We hypothesized that there are differences in survivorship, questing (host-seeking) behavior, and dehydration tolerance based on sex or geographic origin. We also predicted that ticks increase their host-seeking behavior as they approach death due to dehydration stress. We collected adult ticks from six sites across Oklahoma and New York/New Jersey. We …

Checking For Ticks: Analyzing The Efficiency Of Different Tick Collection Methods, Peter Briggs, Lawson Trimmell, Javier Monzón

Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium

Ticks are the most important arthropod disease vectors in both North America and Europe. Field collection of wild ticks is vital for research on the ecology of vector-borne diseases. Dragging and trapping are the two most common methods for collecting wild ticks. Dragging involves a researcher pulling a canvas through a field to collect ticks searching for a host, while trapping exploits ticks’ natural attraction to carbon dioxide to lure them onto a canvas where they get caught on tape. Our study aimed to evaluate which of these two methods is more effective. We chose six sites across three states, …

Effectiveness Of Frog Skin Secretions Against Uv-B Radiation, Connor Mcgaha, Kinkade Mcmurray, Lee B. Kats

Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium

As an increasing number of their species face possible extinction, amphibian populations have been steadily declining over the past decades (IUCN). While various factors have been suggested or proven to be partially responsible for this reduction, increased ultraviolet B radiation (UVBR) appears to be one of the more prominent explanations, especially when considering the continual thinning of the Earth’s ozone layer due to anthropogenic climate change. However, it has also been discovered that skin secretions, which are reported to function as a component of amphibians’ innate immune systems, may have an effect on UVBR (Cramp and Franklin). With this in …

Materials And Methods Developed For The Recording And Analysis Of Behavior In The Common Marmoset (Callithrix Jacchus)., Christian Wintle

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Materials and methods developed for the recording and analysis of behavior in the common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus).

Christian J. Wintle^a, Jordan B. Hernandez^a,b,c, Dobromir Dotov^d, and Jonathan B. Clayton^a,b,e,f,g

^aDepartment of Biology, University of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha, NE, USA

^bNebraska Food for Health Center, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA

^cDepartment of Genetics, Cell Biology, and Anatomy, University of Nebraska Medical Center, NE, USA

^dDepartment of Biomechanics, University of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha, NE, USA

^eDepartment of Food Science and Technology, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, …

Quantifying The Role Of Water Quality On Nitrogen Cycling In A Trophic Estuary, Kayla Gonzalez-Boy

Symposium of Student Scholars

Jobos Bay Estuary is an intertidal, tropical estuary located in southern Puerto Rico. The estuary covers about 12 km² and has a variety of habitats, such as seagrass beds, mangroves, mud flats, and coral reefs, which play important roles in sediment trapping and water quality maintenance. Seagrasses also serve as nursery and feeding grounds and provide shelter for macrofauna. Currently, the role of seagrasses and water quality on nitrogen (N) cycling in trophic estuaries is not well constrained. Understanding variations in sediment-based effects on N cycling rates and transformations, and how they are associated with water quality, is an …

Culled Lionfish Sexual Maturity Over A Four-Year Timespan​, Christina Bland, Jurgen Hauer, Bilal Saleem, Noelle James

Symposium of Student Scholars

Lionfish are invasive in the Atlantic and the Caribbean. Like many other invasive species, they do not have any natural predators in these areas, so their population can grow unchecked. This can decrease the population of native fish species due to lionfish eating to excess. Because of their impact on native species, resource managers have incentivized lionfish hunting. Hunters were paid $6 USD for every pound of lionfish they brought in, so they possibly favored larger lionfish to increase their reward which would lead to an adaptive advantage for fish of smaller sizes. We hypothesized that the lionfish bounty program …

Msis-Capaldi: Using Mathematical Models To Evaluate Strategies For Managing White-Nose Syndrome In Little Brown Bats, Julie Blackwood

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

An Integrated Pest Management Model Incorporating Prey Refuge And Movement Between Regions, Aashima Singh Sisodia, Timothy Comar

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Using A Coupled Integral Projection Model To Investigate Interspecific Competition During An Invasion: An Application To Silver Carp (Hypophthalmichthys Molitrix) And Gizzard Shad (Dorosoma Cepedianum), James Peirce

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Distinguishing Community Assembly Through Functional Redundancy Models., Sandra A. Tsiorintsoa, Sharon Bewick, Matthew Macauley

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Nutrient Driven Dynamics Of Ecosystem Diseases, Rebecca Everett

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Modeling The Long-Distance Effects Of Predation, Henry Ogu

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Msis-Glenn: Natural Selection In Wolves Leads To Domesticated Dogs Predicted By Agent-Based Model Simulations, Alex Capaldi, David C. Elzinga

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Msis-Kondrashov: Data-Driven Modeling With Integral Projection Models, James Peirce

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Msis-Udiani: Tactics And Trade-Offs: The Evolution Of Host Resource Provisioning In Microbiome Management, Oyita Udiani, Nina Fefferman

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Msis-Ledder: Introductory Undergraduate Research Projects Using Netlogo, Timothy Comar

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Mathematical Model Of Competing Nest Founding Strategies By Queen Harvester Ant Pogonomyremex Californicus, Tamantha Pizarro, Yun Kang

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Peace Cafe, Ana Cynthia Saenz Jaimes

Peace and Conflict Studies Journal Conference

GAMIP Latin America presents Peace Cafe, a participatory and dialogued meeting space, virtual, face-to-face or hybrid, for critical reflection, study, promotion, and practices of Cultures of Peace. We want the exchange and respect of opinions and ideas without polarization.

Peace Cafe is for all GAMIP members and civil society actors, researchers, educational institutions, activists, business people, and governments. We hope to share a good coffee, listen and learning common issues and problems in the region.

This project is organized by GAMIP ALC and is supported for its execution by a registered member, by someone from an organization whose objectives are …

Study Abroad, Open-Source Laboratories, And Citizen Science, Brandon Winters

Day of Scholarship

For over 30 years, students and faculty from Bethel University, St. Paul have been traveling to the Amazon rainforest of Ecuador each January. In the course titled, Ecology in the Tropics: Natural History & Future Prospects- Ecuador & the Galapagos Islands students spend three weeks engaging in ecological, cultural, and research-focused activities while also observing and discussing the various impacts of human occupation on the natural environment. The need for cheap and portable laboratory equipment for these research activities along with the growing popularity of open-source equipment development and the growth of relationships with local communities have given rise to …

Ethical Issues And Standards Of Responsible Research Conduct And Monitoring In An Adventist Institution Of Higher Learning - The Babcock Experience, Kayode O. Ogunwenmo, Godswill N. Anyasor, Grace O. Tayo

Adventist Human-Subject Researchers Association

Ethical issues and standards of responsible research conduct involving human participants are important considerations in any institution of higher learning and in particular Adventist institutions. Research conduct and ethics are reviewed and approved before they begin by the Babcock University Health Research Ethics Committee (BUHREC)

A Baseline Assessment Of Migratory And Resident Bird Use Of A Prairie Restoration Site In Eastern Washington, Madilyn J. Odiorne, Brynn A. Richey, Ruby L. Hammond

2023 Symposium

Prairies, and other types of grassland ecosystems, have suffered some of the most profound losses worldwide, due to anthropogenic factors such as fossil fuel extraction, agriculture, and climate change. Likewise, organisms inhabiting grassland ecosystems have become extirpated across much of their historical range, not the least of which has been a 50% decline in grassland birds since the 1960s. In response to losses of intact prairie in eastern Washington, a 120-ac site has been established on the EWU campus to regenerate native prairie and monitor changes in the ecosystem as native plants recolonize and replace non-natives. Because birds are an …

A Novel Family Of Chain Binomial Models To Investigate Correlated Vaccination And Infection Rates In Sveirs Epidemic Dynamics, Divine Wanduku

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.