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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
The Effects Of Global Climate Change On Canadian Boreal Forest Collembola Communities, Matthew S. Turnbull
The Effects Of Global Climate Change On Canadian Boreal Forest Collembola Communities, Matthew S. Turnbull
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
Soil fauna are an integral component of terrestrial ecosystem function. The effects of global environmental change on soil biodiversity are poorly studied, particularly interactions among temperature, atmospheric CO2, precipitation intensity, and nutrient loading. Body size distributions can be used to quantify soil community responses to perturbation and consequences for ecosystem function. I quantified top-down and bottom-up effects of environmental change on the abundance, richness, and size distribution of the soil microarthropod group Collembola. I demonstrated negative effects in a lab experiment of increased precipitation on collembolan density and richness across all size groups. I demonstrated positive effects in …
The Adaptive Capacity Of Thermal Tolerance In Chinook Salmon, Nicolas Muñoz
The Adaptive Capacity Of Thermal Tolerance In Chinook Salmon, Nicolas Muñoz
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
With global temperatures projected to surpass the limits of thermal tolerance for many species, evaluating the capacity for evolutionary and phenotypically plastic changes in thermal tolerance is key to our understanding of the biological consequences of climate change. Within quantitative genetic breeding designs and multiple rearing environments, I measured the thermal performance of cardiac function among families of two populations of chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha). I found significant indirect genetic, plastic, and additive genetic effects contributing to cardiac performance and thermal tolerance, representing a variety of adaptive mechanisms available to salmon populations faced with climate change. These results …