Life Sciences Commons^™

An Evaluation Of Landscape, Climate, And Management Impacts On Bumble Bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Bombus) In Agroecosystems, Morgan Elizabeth Christman

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Bumble bees play pivotal roles in pollinating wild and cultivated plant communities. Unfortunately, bumble bee populations are declining due to disturbances such as landscape conversion and climate change. Additionally, traps used to monitor pest insect populations often capture bumble bees, leading to a concern that trap captures increase bumble bee mortality. First, I studied bumble bee communities based on land cover and weather variables in agricultural fields in Utah. Bumble bee communities were more diverse in agricultural fields with more agricultural land in the surrounding area, low temperatures, and high humidity during the growing season, and less diverse in fields …

Connecting Above- And Belowground Effects Of Climate Warming On Bumble Bee Health, Francis Mullan

Master of Science in Integrative Biology Theses

Climate warming has been identified as one of the primary factors causing worldwide pollinator declines. One of the most at-risk groups of pollinators is bumble bees (Bombus spp.). Bumble bees are common, widespread, and key pollinators of a wide range of crops and wild plants. Although studies have examined the thermal physiological traits of individual bumble bees to understand how they may be impacted by climate warming, little to no studies have examined how climate warming may impact whole bumble bee colonies both in their ability to thermoregulate their nest for their brood or in their ability to forage …

Analysis Of Hawk Mountain Sanctuary Observation Data From 1976 Through 2021, Dale E. Parson

Computer Science and Information Technology Faculty

The primary objective is to correlate climate change data to changes in raptor observations at the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in northern Berks County, Pennsylvania. Additional objectives include uncovering trends in climate observations at Hawk Mountain's North Lookout and the Allentown Airport throughout the observation period, and to examine trends in raptor observation properties independent of climate changes.

Increasing The Resilience Of Plant Immunity To A Warming Climate, Jong Hum Kim, Christian Castroverde, Shuai Huang, Chao Li, Richard Hilleary, Adam Seroka, Reza Sohrabi, Diana Medina-Yerena, Bethany Huot, Jie Wang, Sharon Marr, Mary Wildermuth, Tao Chen, John Macmicking, Sheng Yang He

Biology Faculty Publications

Extreme weather conditions associated with climate change affect many aspects of plant and animal life, including the response to infectious diseases. Production of salicylic acid (SA), a central plant defence hormone, is particularly vulnerable to suppression by short periods of hot weather above the normal plant growth temperature range via an unknown mechanism. Here we show that suppression of SA production in Arabidopsis thaliana at 28 °C is independent of PHYTOCHROME B (phyB) and EARLY FLOWERING 3 (ELF3), which regulate thermo-responsive plant growth and development. Instead, we found that formation of GUANYLATE BINDING PROTEIN-LIKE 3 (GBPL3) defence-activated biomolecular condensates (GDACs) …

Modeling The Impact Of Climate Change On Cervid Chronic Wasting Disease In Semi-Arid South Texas, Md Rafiul Islam, Ummugul Bulut, Teresa Patricia Feria-Arroyo, Michael G. Tyshenko, Tamer Oraby

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a spongiform encephalopathy disease caused by the transmission of infectious prion agents. CWD is a fatal disease that affects wild and farmed cervids in North America with few cases reported overseas. Social interaction of cervids, feeding practices by wildlife keepers and climate effects on the environmental carrying capacity all can affect CWD transmission in deer. Wildlife deer game hunting is economically important to the semi-arid South Texas region and is affected by climate change. In this paper, we model and investigate the effect of climate change on the spread of CWD using typical climate scenarios. …

Biodiversity And Global Change In Terrestrial Ecosystems, Timothy J. Ohlert

Biology ETDs

Terrestrial ecosystems are critical to human and ecological processes but many gaps in our knowledge remain regarding how terrestrial plant communities assemble and respond to global change. I used field experiments distributed around the world, including long-term experiments from the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge (SNWR) in New Mexico and deserts of the southwestern U.S., to evaluate the consequences of drought and other abiotic stressors on plant communities. Dominant grasses were particularly important for the productivity and structure of grasslands at SNWR. In general, the structure of desert plant communities had high resistance to extreme drought, though grasses and other perennial …

An Analysis Of The Effects Of Temperature And Other Environmental Factors On Microorganismal Productivity Within Aquatic Ecosystems Using Long-Term Data From Various Lter And Ilter Sites, Andrew Dorbu

Theses and Dissertations

Global climate change is a phenomenon resulting in more extreme weather patterns and species diversity loss. In this study, I explore the impacts of climate change on regional patterns of microbial productivity. Variation in microbial productivity was explained using temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen as predictors in regression models with data from the LTER and iLTER network of sites that ranged from the poles to the equator. I found a positive relationship between temperature and productivity. Antarctica and Arctic sites exhibited the strongest positive relationships supporting prior research demonstrating temperature as one of the driving forces of productivity change in …

The Potential Impact Of Climate Change On The Distributions Of Eleutherodactylus Cystignathoides And E. Planirostris (Anura: Eleutherodactylidae), Rebecca T. Chastain

Theses and Dissertations

Climate change is inducing changes in the distributions of many species, causing range shifts and habitat loss as well as facilitating invasions. It is a broad contributor to global amphibian decline, already causing mass extinctions and extirpations of amphibian populations, a phenomenon which is expected to continue. The understudied direct-developing frog Eleutherodactylus cystignathoides is a notable outlier, having rapidly expanded its distribution in recent years. This is of particular interest given that other eleutherodactylids, such as E. coqui and E. planirostris, have already shown propensity for rapid dispersal and invasion. Originally found in the southernmost tip of …

Sex, Body Size, And Winter Weather Explain Migration Strategies In A Partial Migrant Population Of American Kestrels (Falco Sparverius), Sadie Claire Ranck

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Partially migratory systems describe populations that consist of both individuals that migrate away from the breeding grounds for the winter, and others that remain resident near their nesting sites year-round. Partial migration is the most common type of migration across all animal taxa, but the evolution, maintenance, and consequences associated with different movement strategies are still poorly understood. Studying the factors that drive migratory strategies and the associated consequences of those decisions is important to understand how migratory animals may adapt to climate change. Partial migrant populations offer a great opportunity for which to study these questions because individuals with …

Seasonal Trends In Adult Apparent Survival And Reproductive Trade-Offs Reveal Potential Constraints To Earlier Nesting In A Migratory Bird, Kathleen R. Callery, John A. Smallwood, Anjolene R. Hunt, Emilie R. Snyder, Julie A. Heath

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Birds aim to optimize resources for feeding young and self-maintenance by timing reproduction to coincide with peak food availability. When reproduction is mistimed, birds could incur costs that affect their survival. We studied whether nesting phenology correlated with the apparent survival of American kestrels (Falco sparverius) from two distinct populations and examined trends in clutch-initiation dates. We estimated apparent survival using multi-state mark-recapture models with nesting timing, nesting success, sex, age, and weather covariates. Nesting timing predicted the apparent survival of successful adults; however, the effect differed between populations. Early nesting kestrels had higher apparent survival than later …

Epidemiology And Impacts Of A Leaf Spot Disease In Veratrum Viride (Melanthiaceae), Leeah R. Sutton, Foster Levy

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Fungal phytopathogens can cause disease epidemics in crops, weeds, and
populations of native plants. To investigate the impact of a foliar phytopathogen on the native herbaceous species, Veratrum viride, a demographic and disease assessment was carried out on two high elevation grassy bald populations on Roan Mountain, Tennessee. A leaf spot disease impacted all plants in both populations, causing widespread premature senescence of leaves and stems. Disease severity increased over the course of the growing season. Based on host disease symptoms and fungal conidia morphology, Pseudocercosporella sublineolata was shown to be the causal pathogen. A study of herbarium specimens …

From Individuals To Communities: The Effect Of Climate Change On Ectothermic Predators, Matthew Lawrence Meehan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The living components of ecological systems exist within a nested hierarchy, consisting of individuals, populations, and communities. Because of this nestedness, climate change can greatly impact ecological systems, as whole-organism metabolic and physiological demands change for ectotherms under warming, the effects of which may compound with every succeeding level. Therefore, a multi-level approach can better isolate how climate change will reshape ecological systems. In my doctoral research, I used feeding and mesocosm experiments to examine how climate change affects ectothermic predators at the individual-, population-, and community-level, using mesostigmatic mites (Arachnida: Parasitiformes) as my model predator. My research objectives were …

Seagrasses Under Times Of Change - Editorial, Gidon Winters, Mirta Teichberg, Hauke Reuter, Inés G. Viana, Demian A. Willette

Biology Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Influence Of Temperature On Passage Rate In Sceloporus Consobrinus, With Comparison To Congeners, Allison Litmer

Arkansas Women in STEM Conference

Variation in energy acquisition, genetics, and environment determine life history traits among individuals, populations, and species. Therefore, influence of climate change may differ by population or even individual. Sceloporus lizards are used as model organisms for thermal biology, and climate modeling. However, it is often assumed that locally-measured thermal and bioenergetic responses apply among broadly similar species, and throughout intraspecific geographic range. The objective of this project was twofold: 1) to quantify the influence of temperature on passage rate in Sceloporus consobrinus from Arkansas, and 2) compare the influence of temperature on passage rate between S. consobrinus, and published …

Temperature-Dependent Developmental Plasticity In The Cardiorespiratory System Of Atlantic Salmon, Carlie A. Muir

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Anthropogenic climate change is expected to have pervasive impacts on the performance and viability of fishes, as increasing temperatures create aerobically constrained environments for many species. Given the rapid rates of projected temperature increases, it is critical to evaluate the capacity for fish to respond to a changing thermal environment through phenotypic plasticity. In this thesis, I examined the capacity for developmental plasticity in the thermal performance of juvenile Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) reared under two thermal regimes from fertilization, and investigated potential mechanistic underpinnings within the cardiorespiratory system. Cardiac performance was examined using a noninvasive Doppler echocardiograph …

Importance Of Local Weather And Environmental Gradients On Demography Of A Broadly Distributed Temperate Frog, Hallie Lingo, James C. Munger

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Amphibian populations are sensitive to environmental temperatures and moisture, which vary with local weather conditions and may reach new norms and extremes as contemporary climate change progresses. Using long-term (11–16 years) mark-recapture data from 10 populations of the Columbia spotted frog (Rana luteiventris) from across its U.S. range, we addressed hypotheses about how demographic relationships to weather depend upon a population’s position along climate gradients. We estimated the effect of seasonal weather on annual survival probability and recruitment rates both within populations and across the species’ range from subalpine forests to semi-arid deserts. We calculated population-specific weather variables …

A Tipping Point In The Ecuadorian Amazon Rainforest: Current And Future Land-Use And Climate Change Trends, Alula Shields

Masters Theses

Many regions of the Amazon are experiencing drastic changes as deforestation and climate change drive the world’s largest continuous rainforest towards a ‘tipping point’. These disturbances are changing natural cycles that once past a critical threshold, will mark an unstoppable transition to an altered ecosystem. Losing areas of the Amazon rainforest will have implications for the global climate, global carbon budget, and global hydrological regimes. Scholars have projected these tipping points for areas of the eastern Amazon rainforest, but much less scholarship focuses on the headwaters of the Western Amazon, an area of great cultural and biological importance. Ecuador is …

Laurentian Great Lakes Warming Threatens Northern Fruit Belt Refugia, Robert Warren

Biology Faculty Datasets

Climate refugia are anomalous ‘pockets’ of spatially or temporally disjunct environmental conditions that buffer distinct flora and fauna against prevailing climatic conditions. Physiographic landscape features, such as large water bodies, can create these micro-to-macro-scale terrestrial habitats, such as the prevailing westerly winds across the Laurentian Great Lakes that create relatively cooler leeward conditions in spring and relatively warmer leeward conditions in autumn. The leeward Great Lakes climate effects create a refugia (popularly known as a ‘fruit belt’) favorable for fruit-bearing trees and shrubs. This fruit belt refugia owes its existence to seasonal inversions whereby spring cooling prevents early flower budding …

Impacts Of Changing Permafrost Conditions On Vegetation Productivity In The Northern Boreal Forest, Emily Ogden

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Vegetation productivity across the boreal forest has increased over the past several decades. However, at a regional scale there is large variation from increased (greening) to decreased (browning) productivity and large areas with no measured change. Some of this variation can be explained by disturbances, such as wildfire, or by increased climate variability. In northern regions underlain by permafrost, the interactions between climate, disturbance, and vegetation productivity may be more complex. For my thesis, I used a time-series of ground thermal data from permafrost monitoring sites established by the Geological Survey of Canada along a latitudinal transect of the Northwest …

Improving The Heat Tolerance Of Vulnerable Corals Through Their Algal Symbionts, Cathryn M. Bowling

OUR Journal: ODU Undergraduate Research Journal

Tropical coral reefs are one of the most impressive and diverse ecosystems on the face of the earth. Found in warm, tropical waters around the globe, these reefs are major supporters of the immense biodiversity of the area. The health of coral reefs is highly influential on the overall health of the entire ecosystem. In recent years, intensifying climate change has resulted in an accelerated rise in seawater temperatures and the frequency and severity of coral bleaching. Coral bleaching occurs in response to harsh environmental conditions that cause corals to enter a period of extreme stress. During this time, corals …

Effects Of Elevated Temperature, Reduced Hydroperiod, And Invasive Bullfrog Larvae On Pacific Chorus Frog Larvae, Bailey R. Tasker, Karli Honebein, Allie M. Erickson, Julia E. Misslin, Paul Hurst, Sarah Cooney, Skylar Riley, Scott A. Griffith, Betsy A. Bancroft

Biology Faculty Scholarship

Climate change and invasive species threaten many ecosystems, including surface freshwater systems. Increasing temperatures and reduced hydroperiod due to climate change may promote the persistence of invasive species and facilitate new invasions due to potentially higher tolerance to environmental stress in successful invaders. Amphibians demonstrate high levels of plasticity in life history characteristics, particularly those species which inhabit both ephemeral and permanent water bodies. We tested the influence of two projected effects of climate change (increased temperature and reduced hydroperiod) on Pacific chorus frog (Pseudacris regilla) tadpoles alone and in combination with the presence of tadpoles of a …

The Effects Of Average Annual Temperature On Flowering Times And Flower Count, Angela Copploe

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Over a course of 15 years, three different species of flowers were examined to see the relationship between the increase in average annual temperature, flowering time, and flower count.

Phenology Dictates The Impact Of Climate Change On Geographic Distributions Of Six Co-Occurring North American Grasshoppers, Nathan P. Lemoine

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

Throughout the last century, climate change has altered the geographic distributions of many species. Insects, in particular, vary in their ability to track changing climates, and it is likely that phenology is an important determinant of how well insects can either expand or shift their geographic distributions in response to climate change. Grasshoppers are an ideal group to test the hypothesis that phenology correlates with range expansion, given that co-occurring confamilial, and even congeneric, species can differ in phenology. Here, I tested the hypothesis that early- and late-season species should possess different range expansion potentials, as estimated by habitat suitability …

Breeding And Feeding Habitat Selection By An Island Endemic Bird May Increase Its Vulnerability To Climate Change, Paul M. Radley, Eddie J. B. Van Etten, David Blake, Robert A. Davis

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Characterizing patterns of habitat use is an important first step for effective conservation planning. Species restricted to low-lying islands are at greatest risk from climate change-related sea level rise, and requirements for breeding and foraging habitat may determine their risk from tidal inundation. The endangered Micronesian Scrubfowl (Megapodius laperouse senex) is a model species for understanding these impacts. This species faces the cumulative challenges of tourist visitation, invasive species, and rising sea levels, yet little is understood about its habitat use in the Rock Islands Southern Lagoon Conservation Area (RISL) of Palau. We studied the habitat requirements of this mound-nesting …

Golden Eagle Dietary Shifts Following Wildfire And Shrub Loss Have Negative Consequences For Nestling Survivorship, Julie A. Heath, Michael N. Kochert, Karen Steenhof

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Wildfires and invasive species have caused widespread changes in western North America’s shrub-steppe landscapes. The bottom–up consequences of degraded shrublands on predator ecology and demography remain poorly understood. We used a before–after paired design to study whether Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) diet and nestling survivorship changed following wildfires in southwestern Idaho, USA. We assessed burn extents from 1981 to 2013 and vegetation changes between 1979 (pre-burn) and 2014 (post-burn) within 3 km of Golden Eagle nesting centroids. We measured the frequency and biomass of individual prey, calculated diet diversity indexes, and monitored nestling survivorship at 15 territories in …

An Elevational Gradient In Thermal Tolerance Among Daphnia From Western Maine Lakes, Wheeler Lowell

HON 499 Honors Thesis or Creative Project

With climate change threatening biodiversity worldwide, it is important to understand species’ physiological responses to changing thermal environments. This study examined whether thermal tolerance (measured as time to immobilization, Timm) in the zooplankton Daphnia catawba and D. schødleri varied along an elevational gradient in Western Maine. Specimens collected from five lakes were subjected to heat stress trials to look for inter-population variation. Thermal tolerance was strongly correlated with several elevation-driven lake temperature variables, with the percent of variation explained ranging from 13-37%. Daphnia from cooler, high-elevation lakes were more sensitive to elevated temperatures. While latitudinal gradients have been examined extensively, …

Intra-Specific Variation In Migration Phenology Of American Kestrels (Falco Sparverius) In Response To Spring Temperatures, Breanna F. Powers, Jason M. Winiarski, Juan M. Requena-Mullor, Julie A. Heath

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

In migratory birds, among- and within-species heterogeneity in response to climate change may be attributed to differences in migration distance and environmental cues that affect timing of arrival at breeding grounds. We used eBird observations and a within-species comparative approach to examine whether migration distance (with latitude as a proxy) and weather predictors can explain spring arrival dates at the breeding site in a raptor species with a widespread distribution and diverse migration strategies, the American Kestrel Falco sparverius. We found an interactive effect between latitude and spring minimum temperatures on arrival dates, whereby at lower latitudes (short-distance migrants) …

Three Lc-Ms Plant Metabolomics Studies Of Hop (Humulus) Species: Wild H. Neomexicanus, Drought Stress, And Agricultural Terroir, Taylan Morcol

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The hop plant (Humulus L., Cannabaceae) is a dioecious, perennial, twining vine with a long history of human use. Nowadays, hop plants are generally grown for their inflorescences (“cones”), which are used in brewing for their phytochemical metabolites. Many of these metabolites are involved in plant stress response and communication. Genetics and environment are two major factors that affect plant metabolism. In three separate metabolomics studies, this project examined the effects of both genetic and environmental factors on hop phytochemistry.

In the first study, 23 hop genotypes were grown in two different locations in the Pacific Northwest region of …

Is The Life History Flexibility Of Cold Desert Annuals Broad Enough To Cope With Predicted Climate Change? The Case Of Erodium Oxyrhinchum In Central Asia, Huiliang Liu, Yanfeng Chen, Lingwei Zhang, Jerry M. Baskin, Carol C. Baskin, Lan Zhang, Yan Liu, Daoyuan Zhang, Yuanming Zhang

Biology Faculty Publications

Interannual seasonal variability in precipitation may strongly affect the life history and growth of desert annual plants. We compared the effects of dry and wet springs and dry and wet autumns on growth and F2 seed dormancy of plants from spring (SG)- and autumn (AG)-germinated seeds of the cold desert annual Erodium oxyrhinchum. Vegetative and reproductive growth and F2 seed dormancy and germination were monitored from September 2016 to November 2020 in the sandy Gurbantunggut Desert in NW China in Central Asia. Dry autumns decreased the density of AG plants, and dry springs decreased the density of SG plants …

Diminishing Opportunities For Sustainability Of Coastal Cities In The Anthropocene: A Review, John W. Day, Joel D. Gunn, Joseph Robert Burger

Biology Faculty Publications

The world is urbanizing most rapidly in tropical to sub-temperate areas and in coastal zones. Climate change along with other global change forcings will diminish the opportunities for sustainability of cities, especially in coastal areas in low-income countries. Climate forcings include global temperature and heatwave increases that are expanding the equatorial tropical belt, sea-level rise, an increase in the frequency of the most intense tropical cyclones, both increases and decreases in freshwater inputs to coastal zones, and increasingly severe extreme precipitation events, droughts, freshwater shortages, heat waves, and wildfires. Current climate impacts are already strongly influencing natural and human systems. …