Life Sciences Commons^™

Evolution In The Deep Sea: Scales And Mechanisms Of Population Divergence, Amanda E. Glazier

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

The deep sea is the Earth’s largest ecosystem and harbors a unique and largely endemic fauna. Although most research has focused on the ecological mechanisms that allow coexistence, recent studies have begun to investigate how this remarkable fauna evolved.. My work quantifies geographic patterns of genetic variation and investigates potential mechanisms that shape evolution in the deep ocean.

Bathymetric genetic divergence is common in the deep sea with population structure typically decreasing with depth. The evolutionary mechanisms that underlie these patterns are poorly understood. Geographic patterns of genetic variation indicated that the protobranch bivalve Neilonella salicensis was composed of two …

U.S. Drought Monitor, December 27, 2016, Brad Rippey

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of U.S. for December 27, 2016 (12/27/16) plus: U.S. crop areas experiencing drought (map), Approximate percentage of crop located in drought, by state (bar graph), Percent of crop area located in drought, past 52 weeks (line graph) for: Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Winter wheat.

Bioremoval Of Phenol From Aqueous Solutions Using Native Caribbean Seaweed, Abel E. Navarro, Anibal Hernandez-Vega, Md Emran Masud, Loretta M. Roberson, Liz M. Diaz-Vázquez

Publications and Research

Among several Puerto Rican algae, Sargassum sp. (SG) and Chaetomorpha (CM) showed the highest phenol adsorption capacity from aqueous solutions and were used in optimized adsorption batch experiments at room temperature. The effects of pH, adsorbent dose, phenol concentration, salinity and presence of interfering substances were evaluated. Initial solution pH exhibited a strong effect, mainly on the phenol aqueous chemistry; showing the maximum adsorption at pH 10. Sorption isotherm results were modelled according to the Langmuir, Tempkin and Freundlich equations. Isotherm modelling indicated a maximum adsorption capacity (qmax) of 82.10 and 17.7 mg of phenol per gram of SG and …

A Mineralized Alga And Acritarch Dominated Microbiota From The Tully Formation (Givetian) Of Pennsylvania, Usa, John A. Chamberlain Jr., Rebecca B. Chamberlain, James O. Brown

Publications and Research

Sphaeromorphic algal cysts, most probably of the prasinophyte Tasmanites, and acanthomorphic acritarch vesicles, most probably Solisphaeridium, occur in a single 20 cm thick bed of micritic limestone in the lower part of the Middle Devonian (Givetian) Tully Formation near Lock Haven, Pennsylvania. Specimens are composed of authigenic calcite and pyrite crystals about 5–10 µm in length. Some specimens are completely calcitic; some contain both pyrite and calcite; and many are composed totally of pyrite. The microfossils are about 80 to 150 µm in diameter. Many show signs of originally containing a flexible wall composed of at least two layers. Some …

Impacts Of Long-Term Precipitation Manipulation On Hydraulic Architecture, Xylem Function, And Canopy Status In A Piñon-Juniper Woodland, Patrick J. Hudson

Biology ETDs

The Southwestern US is predicted to become hotter and drier, as global climate change forces increasing temperatures and variability in timing and size of precipitation inputs. Drought stress has become more frequent in recent decades, and resulted in massive forest mortality in piñon-juniper woodlands. During recent severe droughts (2000-2003, 2009-2012), piñon pine (Pinus edulis Englem.) suffered disproportionately high mortality compared to co-occurring one-seed juniper (Juniperus monosperma [Engelm.] Sarg.). A large-scale precipitation manipulation experiment was established in a piñon-juniper woodland in central New Mexico to test hypotheses regarding tree survival and mortality with respect to altered water regimes. Our …

Flight Of The Freshwater Fish, Michael H. Wilson

Capstones

Michael H. Wilson

Capstone Abstract

December 27, 2016

Flight of the Freshwater Fish

The Hudson River provides for millions of people as a path for commercial and private transportation, a source of food and energy, and perhaps most importantly for many living in the tri-state area as a destination for recreation and relaxation. The most overlooked feature of the river is how the wildlife shows clear signs of a changing climate and rapid environmental response to the impacts of global warming on the river.

Entire populations of fish species in the lower Hudson have been forced to leave the river …

An Analysis Of Gulf Of Maine Cod Metapopulation Structure And Localized Stability, With Application To Area-Based Fisheries Management, Derek Olson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The complex metapopulation structure of groundfish stocks in the Gulf of Maine, particularly Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua), is largely ignored under the current system of broad-scale stock assessment and management. This mismatch of biological and administrative scales has contributed to severe overall stock decline and localized serial depletion of Gulf of Maine cod. Such chronic management failure has led to growing calls for a more area-based, finer-scale approach to managing groundfish in the Gulf of Maine. A primary difficulty hindering the development of finer-scale groundfish management has been the challenge of estimating fishing mortality upon local stock components. …

An Assessment Of Data Related To Inspections Of Risk Factors For Public Swimming Pools, Shanita Shack, Maurice Redmond, R. Christopher Rustin

Environmental Health Sciences Faculty Publications

Background: The Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) is mandated to ensure that public swimming pools are safe for those who use them. This mandate is carried out by the DPH and local environmental health professionals through regulations and inspections. In 2015, legislation was introduced proposing to reduce the authority of the DPH to inspect certain pool types (apartments, subdivision, condominiums) and thus reduce regulatory protections in place for swimmers. To ensure that the DPH had current information on the risks associated with pools, the EH team, with assistance from a graduate student, analyzed inspection data to evaluate risk factors …

A Preliminary Examination Of Elevated Blood Lead Levels In A Rural Georgia County, R. Christopher Rustin, Yu Sun, Chris Calhoun, Christy Kuriatnyk

Environmental Health Sciences Faculty Publications

Background: Rural areas are often viewed as lower risk for lead poisoning and toxic exposures seriously impacting development of the brain and central nervous system; this report examines the prevalence of elevated blood lead levels for children <6 years of age in rural Ben Hill County, GA.

Methods: Lead surveillance data from the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) were analyzed using SAS®v-9.3 to calculate the prevalence of elevated blood lead levels (≥5ug/dL) among those children in Ben Hill County who had been tested for lead; the results were compared to Georgia and national data.

Results: A preliminary analysis of 2010-2015 screening data for Ben Hill County indicates that 8.73% …

Sea Level Change In The Gulf Islands National Park Reserve, Southern British Columbia: Implications For The Interpretation Of Nearshore Archaeological Features, Glenda J. Wyatt

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Sea level along the B.C. coastline has changed dramatically over the past 10,000 years due to isostatic rebound following deglaciation from the Fra ser Glaciation (Clague & James, 2002). In the future, sea levels globally are also predicted to rise according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (2014), due to climate change. Lemmen et al. (2008), suggest that in the near future some B.C. coastal communities will have to deal with changes in shorelines due to rising sea levels, and hence erosional patterns, modifications to ecosystems and habitats, and potentially an altered marine food supply. This thesis examines …

Pacific Great Blue Heron Population Monitoring On Vancouver Island And The Surrounding Gulf Islands, Trudy A. Chatwin, Travis Heckford

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

The Pacific or Great Blue Heron fannini subspecies winters and breeds on Vancouver Island in locations within 5 km of the marine shoreline. Its visibility and close connection to the Salish Sea make it an important flagship species. Due to population concerns and threats associated with urban development, the Province of BC has coordinated monitoring of Great Blue Heron colonies on Vancouver Island and the adjacent Gulf Islands from 1997 through 2015. Starting in 2005, I trained volunteer stewards and technicians to use a standardized methodology to locate and assess heron colonies, count active nests, determine nest success and follow …

Influence Of A Suite Of Environmentally Relevant Conditions On Pbt Leaching From, And Sorption To, Marine Microplastic Debris, Robert C. Hale, Da Chen

Reports

Synthetic polymers (plastics) enter marine environments from terrestrial and marine-based sources. The manner of release, the plastic’s composition/properties and ambient marine conditions determine debris fate and its impacts on living resources. It was long assumed that all plastics were persistent and inert, possessing negligible potential for chemical impacts. However, in reality, commercial polymers exhibit a range of potentials for interactions. Persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT) chemicals are lipophilic and may concentrate from ambient waters by orders of magnitude on polymer surfaces (Teuten et al., 2007). The type of polymer affects the degree of PBT sorption. Indeed, plastics have been found …

Watershed Modeling And Sediment Yield Prediction Of The Los Olmos Creek Watershed In South Texas, Rockford Miller, Jungseok Ho, Chu-Lin Cheng

School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Studying the sediment that accumulates in a stream is an important aspect in the study of water quality and resources. With respect to water quality, the main issue is the turbidity of the water. Increased losses of natural landscape increase the erosion process in turn raising the turbidity of the water and reducing the light that can penetrate to the water reducing the growth of aquatic life. With respect to water resources, sediment accumulates in the river ways, harbors, and in dams reducing the effectiveness of these resources. This study focused on determining the amount of sediment that is outputted …

Sea Surface Temperature Rises Shift Migration Patterns Due To Ecosystem Changes, Alexia Skrbic, Hesham El-Askary

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The continuing climate change is negatively impacting ecosystems, specifically oceans which are declining and food webs are being altered by the increase of greenhouse gases. The increase of the carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases is increasing sea surface temperature of the world’s oceans. Certain organisms lower on the food chain like phytoplankton and zooplankton are directly affected by the warming which alters how they process nutrients and their productivity. The limited amount of these primary producers in the oceans and specifically the location they inhabit directly affects all the organisms above them on the food chain. Several marine animals …

Habitat Quality Modeling For Bird Species At Furman University, Emma Cook

Earth and Environmental Sciences Presentations

In rapidly urbanizing areas, such as Greenville County in Upstate South Carolina, it is important to study habitat use and quality across land cover types in order to maximize conservation. Habitat fragmentation is a threat to many species of birds in areas with increasing development, especially those species that utilize larger forest patches for nesting and foraging. While land cover type and patch size are extremely important factors in determining habitat quality for birds, recent research has shown that the matrix of surrounding landscape proves to be very important as well. The landscape matrix, sometimes called landscape mosaic, considers the …

Mapping The Impact Of Intensive Rotational Grazing On Soil Fertility Over Time On Greenbrier Farms In Pickens County, South Carolina, Emily Kirby

Earth and Environmental Sciences Presentations

Intensive rotational grazing (IRG) is a management technique that involves a more intentional management approach which includes increased paddock numbers, shorter grazing periods, larger livestock presence per acre, and longer periods of rest on pastures. Potential advantages of this management technique include improved forage quality, greater yield, decreased erosion, stable production during adverse growing condition, and improved soil fertility. This study collects and analyzes data to understand the impact of rotational grazing on soil fertility as measured by SOC (soil organic carbon) and SON (soil organic nitrogen) on Greenbrier Farms in Easley, South Carolina. This study analyzes the transition from …

The Impact Of Organic Farms: Biodiversity And Climate Change Resilience In The Southeast, Josie Newton

Earth and Environmental Sciences Presentations

Resilience to climate change serves as an indicator of the effectiveness of organic farming practices. Resilience means that an area is able to return to a stable state after a disturbance. In this context, it means that the area is able to function regularly even in the face of climate change, an instance that affects species health and biodiversity. By mapping the locations of organic farms across the southeastern United States along with the resilience scores of areas as evaluated by The Nature Conservancy and comparing this map to farm locations and biodiversity measures, we are able to determine the …

Exploration Of Student Biodiversity Knowledge And Decision-Making For A Wildlife Conservation Socioscientific Issue, Ashley R. Alred

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Global biodiversity, a foundation for ecosystem function, is diminishing at a rate unprecedented in the last 50 years. Biodiversity loss and ecosystem services deterioration is linked to increased food insecurity, reduced water quality and availability, decreased energy security, higher economic losses and human suffering (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005). Consequently, educators should invest in supporting students in their development of ecological understanding and formal decision-making skills so they are equipped with meaningful tools they can use as scientifically literate citizens. To contribute to that mission, this study seeks to explore student 1) comprehension and explanation of biodiversity concepts and 2) decision-making …

Finding The Best Remaining Black Hills Montane Grasslands, The First Step In Conservation, Hollis Marriott, Don Faber-Langendoen, David J. Ode

The Prairie Naturalist

Black Hills Montane Grassland is a rare and endangered plant community endemic to the Black Hills of western South Dakota and northeastern Wyoming. It is restricted to higher elevations on the Limestone Plateau in the western part of the uplift. Early visitors to the Black Hills wrote glowing reports of flower-filled grasslands on the Limestone Plateau. Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer and his soldiers reveled in lush grass, and decorated the headgear of their horses with flowers (Custer 1875). Expedition botanist A. B. Donaldson “estimated the number of flowers in bloom in Floral Valley at 50, while an equal number …

Review Of Estimation Of Parameters For Animal Populations: A Primer For The Rest Of Us By Larkin A. Powell And George A. Gale, Max Post Van Der Burg

The Prairie Naturalist

“Me? A modeler? Never!” This is the opening challenge of the book, Estimation of Parameters for Animal Populations: A Primer for the Rest of Us, by Larkin Powell and George Gale. I say “challenge” because I think this book attempts to challenge the misconception that quantitative methods are out of reach for most biologists and wildlife scientists. When many of us attend college or graduate school to study wildlife science there’s a sense that, at some point, there will be math. But it appears that the attitude of many students toward this reality is to simply suffer through the …

Spatial Variation In Germination Of Two Annual Brome Species In The Northern Great Plains, Erin K. Espeland, Jane M. Mangold, Natalie M. West

The Prairie Naturalist

Downy brome or cheat grass (Bromus tectorum L.) and field brome (B. arvensis L.; Synonym = Bromus japonicus Thunb. ex Murr.; Japanese brome) are two annual exotic species that have increased the intensity and frequency of fire cycles in the Intermountain West of the United States, with millions of dollars in associated costs (DiTomaso 2000). These invasive brome species have a different impact in the Northern Great Plains of North America where they commonly co-occur in disturbed sites (White and Currie 1983, Haferkamp et al. 1993). In these mixed-grass prairie rangelands, annual bromes compete against other forage species …

Changes In The Prairie Naturalist For 2017: Some Bumps In The Road During Transition, Christopher N. Jacques

The Prairie Naturalist

By now it is obvious to most of our members and authors that The Prairie Naturalist (TPN) has experienced some delays in conducting journal-related business over the past few months. Publication of the June 2016 issue was slightly delayed and the December 2016 was mailed much later than planned. So I wanted to update our members on the current status, and other aspects, of TPN. As most of you know, when I transitioned into the Editorship of TPN, one of my first orders of business was to secure a new publication venue for the journal. Fortunately, the Department …

Review Of Waterfowl Of North America, Europe, And Asia: An Identification Guide By Sébastien Reeber, William L. Hohman

The Prairie Naturalist

Ducks, geese and swans (Family Anatidae) are the most popular and best studied group of birds in the world. The group has been the subject of classical books by Kortright (1942), Delacour (1954-1964), Bellrose (1976), Palmer (1976), Johnsgard (1978), and, most recently, Kear (2005) and Baldassarre (2014). The latest contribution to this rich legacy is an impressively illustrated identification guide for waterfowl found in North America, Europe and Asia by author and artist, Sébastien Reeber. This is an English-language version of Canards, Cygnes et Oies d’Europe, d’Asie et d’Amérique du Nord, published by Delachaux and Niestlé in late 2015. …

Review Of Plants Have So Much To Give Us, All We Have To Do Is Ask: Anishinaabe Botanical Teachings By Mary Siisip Geniusz (Edited By Wendy Makoons Geniusz, Illustrated By Annmarie Geniusz), Natasha Myhal, Kelly Kindscher

The Prairie Naturalist

Plants Have So Much to Give Us, All We Have to Do Is Ask offers a new look at Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) ethnobotany as told through traditional stories. Botanical teachings through stories are a way to pass down traditional knowledge from generation to generation. For example, Anishinaabe knowledge on plants was written and recorded in communities willing to share their knowledge with early scholars, such as Albert B. Reagan (1928), Huron H. Smith (1932), and Melvin R. Gilmore (1933). Each of these scholars spent time with an Anishinaabe community to learn about plants and primarily to provide written descriptions of plants …

Assessment Of Smallmouth Bass Growth And Mortality In Nebraska Waters, Benjamin J. Schall, Keith D. Koupal, Casey W. Schoenebeck, Keith L. Hurley

The Prairie Naturalist

Smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu) have been introduced across Nebraska into a variety of waterbodies. However, an estimate of smallmouth bass growth and mortality in Nebraska waters has not been produced. The objectives of this study were to use historic sampling data to describe the growth of smallmouth bass in Nebraska lakes in relation to other regional models, growth among waterbody types (reservoirs, Interstate 80 [I-80] lakes, and rivers), estimates of age at quality, preferred, and memorable lengths, and mortality for Nebraska smallmouth bass populations. Mean length ± SE of Nebraska smallmouth bass at age 7 was 383 ± …

Review Of Booming From The Mists Of Nowhere: The Story Of The Greater Prairie-Chicken By Greg Hoch, Ross H. Hier

The Prairie Naturalist

The Greater Prairie-Chicken (Tympanuchus cupido pinnatus) is an iconic species inhabiting one of the most iconic and rarest habitats in the world—the tallgrass prairies of central North America. To tell the story of the Greater Prairie-Chicken is a monumental task. Its history is intricately woven into pre- and post-European settlement of the North American prairies in such a way that knowledge of the species is spread over several centuries. Thus, researching the “old and the new” regarding the Greater Prairie-Chicken requires a substantial literature review, much of which occurs in publications from the 1800s. Hoch has done a …

Reproductive Characteristics Of Landlocked Fall Chinook Salmon From Lake Oahe, South Dakota, Kelsen L. Young, Michael E. Barnes, Jeremy L. Kientz

The Prairie Naturalist

Lake Oahe, South Dakota, USA, landlocked fall Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) reproductive characteristics were examined over a 27 year period, from 1988 to 2015. Mean total lengths of spawning females ranged from 665 mm (1995) to 812 mm (2015) with considerable year-to-year variation. Post-spawn female weights varied, ranging from 2.02 kg (2000) to 5.55 kg (2015), with an overall mean of 3.04 kg. Fecundity peaked at 4,555 eggs per female in 2003, which was just 3 years after a low of 2,011 eggs per female in 2000. Relative fecundity based on female weight was greatest at 1,211 eggs/kg …

Reducing Emissions From Agriculture To Meet The 2 °C Target, Eva Wollenberg, Meryl Richards, Pete Smith, Petr Havlík, Michael Obersteiner, Francesco N. Tubiello, Martin Herold, Pierre Gerber, Sarah Carter, Andrew Reisinger, Detlef P. Van Vuuren, Amy Dickie, Henry Neufeldt, Björn O. Sander, Reiner Wassmann, Rolf Sommer, James E. Amonette, Alessandra Falcucci, Mario Herrero, Carolyn Opio, Rosa Maria Roman-Cuesta, Elke Stehfest, Henk Westhoek, Ivan Ortiz-Monasterio, Tek Sapkota, Mariana C. Rufino, Philip K. Thornton, Louis Verchot, Paul C. West, Jean François Soussana, Tobias Baedeker

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

More than 100 countries pledged to reduce agricultural greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the 2015 Paris Agreement of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Yet technical information about how much mitigation is needed in the sector vs. how much is feasible remains poor. We identify a preliminary global target for reducing emissions from agriculture of ~1 GtCO2e yr−1 by 2030 to limit warming in 2100 to 2 °C above pre-industrial levels. Yet plausible agricultural development pathways with mitigation cobenefits deliver only 21–40% of needed mitigation. The target indicates that more transformative technical and policy options will be needed, …

Plant Community Composition And Structure Monitoring For Scotts Bluff National Monument, 2016 Data Report, Molly B. Davis, Daniel J. Swanson

United States National Park Service: Publications

Abstract

This report presents the results of vegetation monitoring efforts in 2016 at Scotts Bluff National Monument (SCBL) by the Northern Great Plains Inventory and Monitoring Network (NGPN) and Northern Great Plains Fire Ecology Program (NGPFire).

During the sixth full year of field work, crew members from NGPN visited eight long-term monitoring plots on May 23-25, 2016 to collect data on the plant communities at SCBL. This is part of a long-term monitoring effort to better understand the condition of the vegetation at SCBL. NGPN staff captured data relating to species richness, herb-layer height, abundance of individual native and non-native …

Determining The Impacts Of Environmental Contaminants To Zebra Mussels Using Genetic Biomarkers, Nicklaus James Neureuther

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

DETERMINING THE IMPACTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONTAMINANTS TO ZEBRA MUSSELS USING GENETIC BIOMARKERS

by

Nicklaus James Neureuther

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2016

Under the Supervision of Professor Rebecca Klaper, PhD

Persistent legacy contaminants and emerging chemicals of concern continue to be a threat to the function and health in the Great Lakes Areas of Concern (AOCs). While chemical monitoring programs traditionally sample water and sediment, these studies can only provide information of the type and level of contamination within an (AOC). This being said, information on the biological impacts to the biota are needed to measure impairments of chemical exposure, …