Life Sciences Commons^™

Conservation In The Context Of Climate Change: Practical Guidelines For Land Protection At Local Scales, Kevin Ruddock, Peter August, Christopher Damon, Charles Labash, Pamela Rubinoff, Donald Robadue Jr.

Peter August

Climate change will affect the composition of plant and animal communities in many habitats and geographic settings. This presents a dilemma for conservation programs – will the portfolio of protected lands we now have achieve a goal of conserving biodiversity in the future when the ecological communities occurring within them change? Climate change will significantly alter many plant communities, but the geophysical underpinnings of these landscapes, such as landform, elevation, soil, and geological properties, will largely remain the same. Studies show that extant landscapes with a diversity of geophysical characteristics support diverse plant and animal communities. Therefore, geophysically diverse landscapes …

Biology Department Receives Grant To Assess Juvenile Horseshoe Crab Populations In Long Island Sound, Jennifer Mattei

Jennifer Mattei

No abstract provided.

Biology Department Receives Grant To Assess Juvenile Horseshoe Crab Populations In Long Island Sound, Mark Beekey

Mark Beekey

No abstract provided.

The North American Carbon Program Multi-Scale Synthesis And Terrestrial Model Intercomparison Project – Part 1: Overview And Experimental Design, D. N. Huntzinger, C. Schwalm, A, M, Michalak, K. Schaefer, A. W. King, Y. Wei, A. Jacobson, S. Liu, R. B. Cook, W. M. Post, G. Berthier, D Hayes, M. Huang, A. Ito, H. Lei, Chaoqun (Crystal) Lu, J. Mao, C. H. Peng, S. Peng, B. Poulter, D. Ricciuto, X. Shi, Hanqin Tian, W. Wang, N. Zeng, F. Zhao, Q. Zhu

Chaoqun (Crystal) Lu

Terrestrial biosphere models (TBMs) have become an integral tool for extrapolating local observations and understanding of land–atmosphere carbon exchange to larger regions. The North American Carbon Program (NACP) Multi-scale synthesis and Terrestrial Model Intercomparison Project (MsTMIP) is a formal model intercomparison and evaluation effort focused on improving the diagnosis and attribution of carbon exchange at regional and global scales. MsTMIP builds upon current and past synthesis activities, and has a unique framework designed to isolate, interpret, and inform understanding of how model structural differences impact estimates of carbon uptake and release. Here we provide an overview of the MsTMIP effort …

La Diversidad De Los Analisis De Diversidad [The Diversity Of Diversity Analyses], Victor D. Carmona

Victor D. Carmona-Galindo

There is a lack of consistency with respect to the use of the terms like species richness, diversity and biodiversity, which extends to the analysis of diversity indices and the merit of using diversity indices in the evaluation (comparison and contrast) of biological communities. The purpose of this article is to provide working definitions for these terms and cite examples from the primary literature that demonstrate the utility of estimating richness, evaluating proportional abundance patterns, as well as comparing indices of diversity and similarity to study patterns of biological organization at different ecological scales. Additionally, we provide a manual in …

New 'Cities By The Sea' Study Abroad Program Offers Rich Mix Of Science And Culture, John Rapaglia

John Rapaglia

Five Sacred Heart University students gained extensive insight into the field of coastal management and were introduced to Geographical Information System software all while being immersed in the rich culture of two of Europe’s most unique cities last summer as part of “Cities By The Sea,” the university’s first marine science study abroad program.

Water Stress Strengthens Mutualism Among Ants, Trees, And Scale Insects, Elizabeth G. Pringle, Erol Akc¸Ay, Ted K. Raab, Rodolfo Dirzo, Deborah M. Gordon

Ted K. Raab

Abiotic environmental variables strongly affect the outcomes of species interactions. For example, mutualistic interactions between species are often stronger when resources are limited. The effect might be indirect: water stress on plants can lead to carbon stress, which could alter carbon-mediated plant mutualisms. In mutualistic ant–plant symbioses, plants host ant colonies that defend them against herbivores. Here we show that the partners’ investments in a widespread ant–plant symbiosis increase with water stress across 26 sites along a Mesoamerican precipitation gradient. At lower precipitation levels, Cordia alliodora trees invest more carbon in Azteca ants via phloem-feeding scale insects that provide the …

A Free-Ranging, Feral Mare Equus Caballus Affords Similar Maternal Care To Her Genetic And Adopted Offspring, Cassandra M.V. Nuñez, James S. Adelman, Daniel I. Rubenstein

Cassandra M.V. Nuñez

Adoption of nongenetic offspring occurs in a variety of species but is rare in equids. We report a case of adoption by a free-ranging, feral mare Equus caballus and compare the maternal care received by her genetic offspring (born 1995) to that of her adopted offspring (born 1996) for the first 30 weeks of development. We compare five measures of care: (1) total time spent suckling, (2) mare aggression during suckling, (3) number of mare-terminated suckling bouts, (4) contact maintenance, and (5) mare-foal distance. For most behaviors, we detected no difference in the mare’s treatment of the two foals; however, …

Evaluation Of The Utility Of Deciduous Molar Morphological Variation In Great Ape Phylogenetic Analysis, Anna M. Hardin, Scott S. Legge

Scott Legge

Non-metric dental traits are well- established tools for anthropologists investigating population affiliation and movement in humans. Nonetheless, similar traits in the great apes have received considerably less attention. The present study provides data on non-metric trait variability in the deciduous molars of great apes from museum context. Twenty-eight traits are observed in the upper and lower deciduous molars in specimens of Pan troglodytes, Pan paniscus, Gorilla gorilla, and Gorilla beringei. These groups are compared based on trait frequencies and mean measures of divergence. This study demonstrates the variability of non-metric traits in the deciduous molars of chimpanzees and gorillas. These …

Effects Of Natural Flooding And Manual Trapping On The Facilitation Of Invasive Crayfish-Native Amphibian Coexistence In A Semi-Arid Perennial Stream, Lee Kats, Gary Bucciarelli, Thomas Vandergon, Rodney Honeycutt, Evan Mattiasen, Arthur Sanders, Seth Riley, Jacob Kerby, Robert Fisher

Lee Kats

Aquatic amphibians are known to be vulnerable to a myriad of invasive predators. Invasive crayfish are thought to have eliminated native populations of amphibians in some streams in the semi-arid Santa Monica Mountains of southern California. Despite their toxic skin secretions that defend them from native predators, newts are vulnerable to crayfish attacks, and crayfish have been observed attacking adult newts, and eating newt egg masses and larvae. For 15 years, we have observed invasive crayfish and native California newts coexisting in one stream in the Santa Monica Mountains. During that period, we monitored the densities of both crayfish and …

Shu And Ct Audubon Receive Grant To Implement Coastal Protection Project At Stratford Point, Jennifer Mattei

Jennifer Mattei

Sacred Heart University and Connecticut Audubon Society have been awarded a $59,000 Long Island Sound Futures Fund grant to construct an innovative “living shoreline” project at Stratford Point to both improve critical bird and wildlife habitat and protect the state’s coastline from storms like Hurricane Sandy.

Shu And Ct Audubon Receive Grant To Implement Coastal Protection Project At Stratford Point, Mark Beekey

Mark Beekey

Sacred Heart University and Connecticut Audubon Society have been awarded a $59,000 Long Island Sound Futures Fund grant to construct an innovative “living shoreline” project at Stratford Point to both improve critical bird and wildlife habitat and protect the state’s coastline from storms like Hurricane Sandy.

Welcome To The Journal Of Evolution And Health, Aaron Blaisdell, Paul Jaminet, David C. Pendergrass

Aaron P Blaisdell

Welcome to the first issue of the Journal of Evolution and Health! The Journal of Evolution and Health is the peer-reviewed, open-access journal of the Ancestral Health Society, a community of scientists, healthcare professionals, and laypersons who collaborate to understand health challenges from an evolutionary perspective.

Unbalanced Nature, Unbounded Bodies, And Unlimited Technology: Ecocriticism And Karen Traviss’S Wess’Har Series, Heather Sullivan

Heather I Sullivan

While nature is often claimed to be a space of harmonized balance or an antidote to the chaos of the modern world, we need a more grounded assessment of nature as endlessly changing and much less predictable than we like to assume. In this essay, I explore Karen Traviss’ provocative exploration of unbalanced nature and unbounded bodies in her wess’har series with the guidance of two ecocritics who reject the concept of balanced nature, Dana Phillips and Ursula Heise. Additionally, I turn to the environmental philosopher Val Plumwood for insights regarding Traviss’ spurious yet rather standard vision of an unlimited …

Modelling C3 Photosynthesis From The Choroplast To The Ecosystem, Andy Vanloocke, Carl J. Bernacchi, Justin E. Bagley, Shawn P. Serbin, Ursula M. Ruiz-Vera, David M. Rosenthal

Andy VanLoocke

Moving Across The Border: Modeling Migratory Bat Populations, Ruscena Wiederholt, Laura López-Hoffman, Jon Cline, Rodrigo A. Medellín, Paul Cryan, Amy L. Russell, Gary Mccracken, Jay Diffendorfer, Darius Semmens

Amy L. Russell

Darwin Correspondence Project, Betty Landesman

Betty Landesman

Review of the Darwin Correspondence Project web site, http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/

A New Skeleton Of The Cryptoclidid Plesiosaur Tatenectes Laramiensis Reveals A Novel Body Shape Among Plesiosaurs, F. Robin O’Keefe, Hallie P. Street, Benjamin C. Wilhelm, Courtney D. Richards, Helen Zhu

F. Robin O’Keefe

Current knowledge of plesiosaurs of clade Cryptoclidia is constrained by a lack of fossils from outside the Oxford Clay deposits of England. Recent fieldwork in the Sundance Formation of the Bighorn Basin, Wyoming, has resulted in the recovery of significant new fossils of cryptoclidid plesiosaurs, including the small-bodied form Tatenectes laramiensis. A new partial skeleton of this taxon is reported here; it is the most complete and best-preserved example of the taxon found to date, comprising a complete dorsal vertebral series, many ribs and gastralia, and a complete pelvic girdle. This skeleton illuminates several unique features of the taxon, including …

Osteology Of The Cryptocleidoid Plesiosaur Tatenectes Laramiensis, With Comments On The Taxonomic Status Of The Cimoliasauridae, F. Robin O’Keefe, Hallie P. Street

F. Robin O’Keefe

Recent field work in the Bighorn Basin, Wyoming has recovered significant new material of the plesiosaur Tatenectes laramiensis. The majority of cryptocleidoid plesiosaurs have been recovered from Middle and Upper Jurassic units (Oxford and Kimmeridge Clays, respectively) in the United Kingdom, but Tatenectes laramiensis is one of at least two cryptocleidoids known from the Upper Sundance Member of the Sundance Formation (Oxfordian) of North America. Although poorly known, they bear directly on both the phylogeny and biogeography of the cryptocleidoid plesiosaurs. Here we describe new fossil material of Tatenectes, and reevaluate the phylogenetic position of this genus based on all …

Molecular Pedomorphism Underlies Craniofacial Skeletal Evolution In Antarctic Notothenioid Fishes, R. Albertson, Yi-Lin Yan, Tom Titus, Eva Pisano, Marino Vacchi, Pamela Yelick, H. Detrich, John Postlethwait

H. William Detrich III

Background Pedomorphism is the retention of ancestrally juvenile traits by adults in a descendant taxon. Despite its importance for evolutionary change, there are few examples of a molecular basis for this phenomenon. Notothenioids represent one of the best described species flocks among marine fishes, but their diversity is currently threatened by the rapidly changing Antarctic climate. Notothenioid evolutionary history is characterized by parallel radiations from a benthic ancestor to pelagic predators, which was accompanied by the appearance of several pedomorphic traits, including the reduction of skeletal mineralization that resulted in increased buoyancy. Results We compared craniofacial skeletal development in two …

Neoteny And The Plesiomorphic Condition Of The Plesiosaur Basicranium, F. Robin O’Keefe

F. Robin O’Keefe

The purpose of this paper is to describe the condition of the braincase in stratigraphically early and morphologically primitive plesiosaurs. Information on the braincase of plesiomorphic taxa is important because it establishes the polarity of characters occurring in more derived plesiosaurs. This paper begins with a short review of braincase anatomy in stem-group sauropterygians. Data on braincase morphology of the plesiomorphic plesiosaur genera Thalassiodracon and Eurycleidus are then presented and interpreted via comparison with other plesiosaurs, stemgroup sauropterygians, and stem diapsids (Araeoscelis). Early diapsids are relevant because plesiosaur skulls more closely resemble early diapsids than stem-group sauropterygians in several key …

Physiological Effects Of Nickel Chloride On The Freshwater Cyanobacterium Synechococcus Sp. Iu 625, Brian Nohomovich, Bao T. Nguyen, Michael Quintanilla, Lee H. Lee, Sean R. Murray, Tin-Chun Chu

Tinchun Chu, Ph.D.

Iron Oxidation Stimulates Organic Matter Decomposition In Humid Tropical Forest Soils, Steven J. Hall, Whendee L. Silver

Steven J. Hall

Humid tropical forests have the fastest rates of organic matter decomposition globally, which often coincide with fluctuating oxygen (O2) availability in surface soils. Microbial iron (Fe) reduction generates reduced iron [Fe(II)] under anaerobic conditions, which oxidizes to Fe(III) under subsequent aerobic conditions. We demonstrate that Fe (II) oxidation stimulates organic matter decomposition via two mechanisms: (i) organic matter oxidation, likely driven by reactive oxygen species; and (ii) increased dissolved organic carbon (DOC) availability, likely driven by acidification. Phenol oxidative activity increased linearly with Fe(II) concentrations (P < 0.0001, pseudo R2 = 0.79) in soils sampled within and among five tropical forest sites. A similar pattern occurred in the absence of soil, suggesting an abiotic driver of this reaction. No phenol oxidative activity occurred in soils under anaerobic conditions, implying the importance of oxidants such as O2 or hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in addition to Fe(II). Reactions between Fe(II) and H2O2 generate hydroxyl radical, a strong nonselective oxidant of organic compounds. We found increasing consumption of H2O2 as soil Fe(II) concentrations increased, suggesting that reactive oxygen species produced by Fe(II) oxidation explained variation in phenol oxidative activity among samples. Amending soils with Fe(II) at field concentrations stimulated short-term C mineralization by up to 270%, likely via a second mechanism. Oxidation of Fe(II) drove a decrease in pH and a monotonic increase in DOC; a decline of two pH units doubled DOC, likely stimulating microbial respiration. We obtained similar results by manipulating soil acidity independently of Fe(II), implying that Fe(II) oxidation affected C substrate availability via pH fluctuations, in addition to producing reactive oxygen species. Iron oxidation coupled to organic matter decomposition contributes to rapid rates of C cycling across humid tropical forests in spite of periodic O2 limitation, and may help explain the rapid turnover of complex C molecules in these soils.

Will Hubbard Brook Soils Be A Source Or Sink Of Carbon In A Changing Climate?, Chris E. Johnson

Chris E Johnson

No abstract provided.

Encyclopedia Of Animal Behavior, A. Payne, P. Starks, Aviva Liebert

Aviva E Liebert

The Encyclopedia of Animal Behavior has engaged-with great success-the efforts of many of the best behavioral biologists of the 21st century. Section editors drawn from the most accomplished behavioral scientists of their generation have enrolled an international cast of highly respected thinkers and writers-all of whom have taken great care and joy in illuminating every imaginable corner of animal behavior. This comprehensive work covers not only the usual topics such as communication, learning, sexual selection, navigation, and the history of the field, but also emerging topics in cognition, animal welfare, conservation, and applications of animal behavior. The large section on …

Nature Notes: Environews # 6, Richard B. Philp

Richard B. Philp

This paper reviews rewcent informaion regarding invasive species and vindicates the lowly beaver

The World’S Deepest Subterranean Community - Krubera-Voronja Cave (Western Caucasus), Alberto Sendra, Ana Sofia P.S. Reboleira

Ana Sofia P.S. Reboleira

Subsurface biota extends over a wide variety of habitats that can be spatially interconnected. The largest communities of this subsurface biota inhabit cavities and are well known mainly in caves where biologists are able to have access. Data about deep subterranean communities and arthropods living under one thousand meters was unknown. An expedition to world’s deepest cave, Krubera-Voronja in Western Caucasus, revealed an interesting subterranean community, living below 2000 meters and represented by more than 12 species of arthropods, including several new species for science. This deep cave biota is composed of troglobionts and also epigean species, that can penetrate …

Effect Of Continued Nitrogen Enrichment On Greenhouse Gas Emissions From A Wetland Ecosystem In The Sanjiang Plain, Northeast China: A 5 Year Nitrogen Addition Experiment, Changchun Song, Lili Wang, Hanqin Tian, Deyan Liu, Chaoqun (Crystal) Lu, Xiaofeng Xu, Lihua Zhang, Guisheng Yang, Zhongmei Wan

Chaoqun (Crystal) Lu

Mounting evidence supports that wetland ecosystems, one of the largest carbon pools on the earth, are exposed to ample nitrogen (N) additions due to atmospheric deposition or N loading from upstream agricultural fertilizer application. However, our understanding of how N enrichment affects the fluxes of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in wetlands is weak. A 5 year N addition experiment was conducted to examine the responses of CH4 and N2O fluxes as well as ecosystem respiration from wetlands in the Sanjiang Plain, Northeast China, through 2005 to 2009. Four levels of N addition (control, 0 kg N ha−1 yr−1; low-level, 60 kg …

Evidence Of Pachyostosis In The Cryptocleidoid Plesiosaur Tatenectes Laramiensis From The Sundance Formation Of Wyoming, Hallie P. Street, F. Robin O’Keefe

F. Robin O’Keefe

In this paper we present evidence for pachyostosis in the cryptocleidoid plesiosaur Tatenectes laramiensis Knight, 1900 (O'Keefe and Wahl, 2003a). Pachyostosis is not common in plesiosaurs and is particularly rare in non-pliosaurian plesiosaurs, although enlarged gastralia were first recognized in Tatenectes by Wahl (1999). This study aims to investigate the nature of the disproportionately large gastralia of Tatenectes m greater depth, based on new material. A recently discovered partial skeleton consisting of a dorsal vertebral series, ribs, gastralia, and a complete pelvic girdle was collected from the Jurassic-aged Sundance Formation of the Bighorn Basin in Wyoming during the summer of …

On The Cranial Anatomy Of The Polycotylid Plesiosaurs, Including New Material Of Polycotylus Latipinnis, Cope, From Alabama, F. Robin O’Keefe

F. Robin O’Keefe

The cranial anatomy of plesiosaurs in the family Polycotylidae (Reptilia: Sauropterygia) has received renewed attention recently because various skull characters are thought to indicate plesiosauroid, rather than pliosauroid, affinities for this family. New data on the cranial anatomy of polycotylid plesiosaurs is presented, and is shown to compare closely to the structure of cryptocleidoid plesiosaurs. The morphology of known polycotylid taxa is reported and discussed, and a preliminary phylogenetic analysis is used to establish ingroup relationships of the Cryptocleidoidea. This study also presents new material referable to Polycotylus latipinnis from the Mooreville Chalk Formation of Alabama. This skeleton is largely …