Life Sciences Commons^™

Temperature Alters The Shape Of Predator–Prey Cycles Through Effects On Underlying Mechanisms, John P. Delong, Shelby Lyon

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Background: Predicting the effects of climate warming on the dynamics of ecological systems requires understanding how temperature influences birth rates, death rates and the strength of species interactions. The temperature dependance of these processes—which are the underlying mechanisms of ecological dynamics—is often thought to be exponential or unimodal, generally supported by short-term experiments. However, ecological dynamics unfold over many generations. Our goal was to empirically document shifts in predator–prey cycles over the full range of temperatures that can possibly support a predator–prey system and then to uncover the effect of temperature on the underlying mechanisms driving those changes.

Methods: We …

Trade-Offs Between Morphology And Thermal Niches Mediate Adaptation In Response To Competing Selective Pressures, Stella F. Uiterwaal, Ian T. Lagerstrom, Thomas M. Luhring, Miranda E. Salsbery, John P. Delong

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Abstract

The effects of climate change—such as increased temperature variability and novel predators—rarely happen in isolation, but it is unclear how organisms cope with multiple stressors simultaneously. To explore this, we grew replicate Paramecium caudatum populations in either constant or variable temperatures and exposed half to predation. We then fit thermal performance curves (TPCs) of intrinsic growth rate (r_max) for each replicate population (N = 12) across seven temperatures (10°C–38°C). TPCs of P. caudatum exposed to both temperature variability and predation responded only to one or the other (but not both), resulting in unpredictable outcomes. These changes in …

Incorporating Physiology Into Species Distribution Models Moderates The Projected Impact Of Warming On Mediterranean Marine Species, Inbal Gamliel, Yehezkel Buba, Tamar Guy-Haim, Tal Garval, Demian A. Willette, Gil Rilov, Jonathan Belmaker

Biology Faculty Works

Species distribution models (SDMs) correlate species occurrences with environmental predictors, and can be used to forecast distributions under future climates. SDMs have been criticized for not explicitly including the physiological processes underlying the species response to the environment. Recently, new methods have been suggested to combine SDMs with physiological estimates of performance (physiology-SDMs). In this study, we compare SDM and physiology-SDM predictions for select marine species in the Mediterranean Sea, a region subjected to exceptionally rapid climate change. We focused on six species and created physiology-SDMs that incorporate physiological thermal performance curves from experimental data with species occurrence records. We …

Seasonal Weather And Climate Prediction Over Area Burned In Grasslands Of Northeast China, Ali Hassan Shabbir, Jiquan Zhang, John W. Groninger, Eddie J. B. Van Etten, Samuel Asumadu Sarkodie, James A. Lutz, Carlos Valencia

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© 2020, The Author(s). Grassland fire dynamics are subject to myriad climatic, biological, and anthropogenic drivers, thresholds, and feedbacks and therefore do not conform to assumptions of statistical stationarity. The presence of non-stationarity in time series data leads to ambiguous results that can misinform regional-level fire management strategies. This study employs non-stationarity in time series data among multiple variables and multiple intensities using dynamic simulations of autoregressive distributed lag models to elucidate key drivers of climate and ecological change on burned grasslands in Xilingol, China. We used unit root methods to select appropriate estimation methods for further analysis. Using the …

Comparative Transcriptomics Of Spotted Seatrout (Cynoscion Nebulosus) Populations To Cold And Heat Stress, Jingwei Song, Jan Mcdowell

VIMS Articles

Resilience to climate change depends on a species' adaptive potential and phenotypic plasticity. The latter can enhance survival of individual organisms during short periods of extreme environmental perturbations, allowing genetic adaptation to take place over generations. Along the U.S. East Coast, estuarine‐dependent spotted seatrout (Cynoscion nebulosus) populations span a steep temperature gradient that provides an ideal opportunity to explore the molecular basis of phenotypic plasticity. Genetically distinct spotted seatrout sampled from a northern and a southern population were exposed to acute cold and heat stress (5 biological replicates in each treatment and control group), and their transcriptomic responses …

Investigating The Effects Of Climate Co-Stressors On Surf Smelt Energy Demands, Megan Russell

WWU Graduate School Collection

Surf smelt (Hypomesus pretiosus) are ecologically and economically important to the Pacific Northwest. They play a critical role in the food web and support numerous commercially important species and are an economically important baitfish. Surf smelt interact closely with the nearshore environment, utilizing approximately 10% of Puget Sound coastlines for spawning throughout the year. Surf smelt spawn at high tide and adhere fertilized eggs to beach sediment, causing their embryos to be exposed to air and seawater throughout embryonic development. Because of this unique life history, surf smelt may be susceptible to anthropogenic stressors including coastal development and …

Effects Of Multiple Stressors: Hydroperiod, Introduced Bullfrogs, And Food Limitation On Northern Red-Legged Frogs (Rana Aurora), Lindsey L. Gordon

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

As human activities reach every corner of the globe, climate change, invasive species, habitat destruction, and other stressors causing species’ declines no longer act alone. Climate change has the potential to exacerbate (or mitigate) other stressors (e.g. invasive species or pathogens) affecting amphibian populations. I assessed the combined effects of increased pond drying rates (potential impact of climate change), invasive bullfrogs (Lithobates catesbeianus) presence, and food availability on northern red-legged frog (Rana aurora) survival and body size after metamorphosis by rearing tadpoles under incrementally shortened hydroperiods with and without the presence of invasive bullfrog tadpoles in …

Will Ferulago Glareosa Kandemir And Hedge (Apiaceae) Be Extinct In The Near Future?, İdri̇s Sari, Ali̇ Kandemi̇r

Turkish Journal of Botany

Turkey is one of the most important temperate countries on Earth in terms of plant diversity. There is a growing interest in understanding habitat suitability and future distributions of species in the scientific world. Because climate change has impacted ecosystems with major consequences, species are shifting and declining much faster than in the past. Some global climate models used for predicting climate in the future better represent and have higher reliability for some climate types.Ferulago glareosa , which lives in Turkey, is a rare endemic plant species. In this study, we investigated current and future distributions of the species determined …

Physiological Ecology Of Overwintering And Cold-Adapted Arthropods, Leslie Jean Potts

Theses and Dissertations--Entomology

Given their abundance and diversity, arthropods are an excellent system to investigate biological responses to winter. Winter conditions are being majorly impacted by climate change, and therefore understanding the overwintering biology of arthropods is critical for predicting ecological responses to climate change. In Chapters 2 and 3, I investigate the winter biology of a winter-active wolf spider. I show that winter-active spiders can take advantage of periodic prey resources and grown in the winter, which may allow them to get a jumpstart on spring reproduction. I also investigate spiders’ ability to track changes in their environment by quantifying low temperature …

The Impact Of Climate Change On The Migration Phenology Of New England’S Anadromous River Herring And American Shad, Charles K. Cobb

Honors Theses

Anadromous fish play important roles in food webs and nutrient cycling in both aquatic and marine ecosystems. As a result of climate change however, anadromous fish’s migration timing has begun to change, with potentially deleterious consequences to both anadromous fish, and the species that depend on them. Western coastal US studies have linked earlier anadromous fish returns to warming marine temperatures and changes in river flow regimes, but the exact temperatures thresholds that anadromous fish respond to, and the relative importance of temperatures and river flows, remain somewhat unknown. Additionally, there has been relatively little research on anadromous fish phenology …

Heat For The Masses: Thermal Ecology Of The Western Tent Caterpillar, Victoria Dahlhoff

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

A unique feature of some gregarious, colonial insects is their ability to create external structures that alter environmental conditions for the entire (often family) group. A combination of physical alteration of local microhabitats and behavioral thermoregulation allows many of these animals to actively control their body temperatures, which allows them to regulate energy use and metabolism in variable thermal environments. Here I describe mechanisms of microhabitat modification and thermal regulation in the western tent caterpillar, Malacosoma californicum pluviale. Tent caterpillars build communal silk tents, whose temperatures can rise substantially above ambient air temperature. I experimentally manipulated colony sizes and examined …

Genetic Analysis Of The Endangered Gray Bat Species (Myotis Grisescens), Emma Fitzgerald

Lewis Honors College Capstone Collection

This study attempts to analyze the genetics using specific haplotype sequences of the endangered gray bat to determine genetic events that have happened in the past as well as determining how the species population has changed over time. We were able to conduct a Tajima’s D test to investigate whether a potential bottleneck has occurred. A linear regression of the genetic vs. geographical distance was produced to investigate the patterns of haplotype distribution. The species past distribution was compared to the current distribution using known collected specimens. A map of future predictions was constructed using present and future climate layers …