Life Sciences Commons^™

Blacklegged Tick (Ixodes Scapularis) Distribution In Maine, Usa, As Related To Climate Change, White-Tailed Deer, And The Landscape, Susan P. Elias

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Lyme disease is caused by the bacterial spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi, which is transmitted through the bite of an infected blacklegged (deer) tick (Ixodes scapularis). Geographic invasion of I. scapularis in North America has been attributed to causes including 20th century reforestation and suburbanization, burgeoning populations of the white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) which is the primary reproductive host of I. scapularis, tick-associated non-native plant invasions, and climate change. Maine, USA, is a high Lyme disease incidence state, with a history of increasing I. scapularis abundance and northward range expansion. This thesis addresses the question: “To …

Biogeography Of Endemic Dragonflies Of The Ozark-Ouachita Interior Highlands, Wade Alexander Boys

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A common pattern across many taxonomic groups is that relatively few species are widespread while the majority are restricted in their geographic ranges. Such species distributions are used to inform conservation status, which poses unique challenges for rare or cryptic species. Further, priority status is often designated within geopolitical boundaries, which may include only a portion of a species range. This, coupled with lack of distributional data, has resulted in species being designated as apparently rare throughout some portions of their range, which may not accurately reflect their overall conservation need. The Interior Highlands region of the central United States …

The Role Of Temperature In Affecting Carry-Over Effects And Larval Competition In The Globally Invasive Mosquito Aedes Albopictus, Nnaemeka F. Ezeakacha, Donald Yee

Faculty Publications

Background

Ectotherms, like mosquitoes, have evolved specific responses to variation in environmental conditions like temperature, and these responses could confer a fitness benefit or cost when carried-over to different life stages. However, effects of temperature on animals with complex life-cycles often only focus on part of their life-cycle, or only consider how single aspects of life-history may carry over to new stages. Herein we investigated how temperature affects intraspecific larval competition and carry-over effects from larval to adult stages in the widespread invasive Asian tiger mosquito Aedes albopictus.

Methods

For larval competition, larvae were reared at three densities (10, …