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Biology

Utah State University

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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Demographic Assessment Of The Triploid Parthenogenetic Lizard Aspidoscelis Neotesselatus At The Northern Edge Of Its Range, Lise M. Aubry, Douglas Eifler, Kaera Utsumi, Susannah S. French Aug 2019

Demographic Assessment Of The Triploid Parthenogenetic Lizard Aspidoscelis Neotesselatus At The Northern Edge Of Its Range, Lise M. Aubry, Douglas Eifler, Kaera Utsumi, Susannah S. French

Biology Faculty Publications

Aspidoscelis neotesselatus (Colorado Checkered Whiptail) is a hybrid-derived triploid parthenogenetic lizard with a natural range overlapping with six counties in southeastern Colorado, USA. It has also become established by anthropogenic causation in Grant County, Washington State, approximately 1,600 km northwest of its range in Colorado. Large parts of its natural range are within military reservations. Reduced genetic variation in all-female species makes them especially susceptible to environmental disturbances, such as military activities. At Fort Carson (FC), we estimated an abundance index via a catch-per-unit estimator, weekly survival using Cormack-Jolly-Seber models, and body condition and clutch size as indicators of population …


Wild Bees Of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument: Richness, Abundance, And Spatio-Temporal Beta-Diversity, Olivia Messinger Carril, Terry Griswold, James Haefner, Joseph S. Wilson Nov 2018

Wild Bees Of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument: Richness, Abundance, And Spatio-Temporal Beta-Diversity, Olivia Messinger Carril, Terry Griswold, James Haefner, Joseph S. Wilson

All PIRU Publications

Interest in bees has grown dramatically in recent years in light of several studies that have reported widespread declines in bees and other pollinators. Investigating declines in wild bees can be difficult, however, due to the lack of faunal surveys that provide baseline data of bee richness and diversity. Protected lands such as national monuments and national parks can provide unique opportunities to learn about and monitor bee populations dynamics in a natural setting because the opportunity for large-scale changes to the landscape are reduced compared to unprotected lands. Here we report on a 4-year study of bees in Grand …


Evolution Of Mammalian Migrations For Refuge, Breeding, And Food, Gitanjali E. Gnanadesikan, William D. Pearse, Allison K. Shaw Jun 2017

Evolution Of Mammalian Migrations For Refuge, Breeding, And Food, Gitanjali E. Gnanadesikan, William D. Pearse, Allison K. Shaw

Biology Faculty Publications

Many organisms migrate between distinct habitats, exploiting variable resources while profoundly affecting ecosystem services, disease spread, and human welfare. However, the very characteristics that make migration captivating and significant also make it difficult to study, and we lack a comprehensive understanding of which species migrate and why. Here we show that, among mammals, migration is concentrated within Cetacea and Artiodactyla but also diffusely spread throughout the class (found in 12 of 27 orders). We synthesize the many ecological drivers of round-trip migration into three types of movement—between breeding and foraging sites, between breeding and refuge sites, and continuous tracking of …


Human Observers Differ In Ability To Perceive Insect Diversity, Joseph S. Wilson, Joshua P. Jahner, Matthew L. Forister Aug 2016

Human Observers Differ In Ability To Perceive Insect Diversity, Joseph S. Wilson, Joshua P. Jahner, Matthew L. Forister

Biology Faculty Publications

Human perception of biological variation is an important and understudied issue in the conservation and management of natural resources. Here, we took a novel approach by asking 1152 participants, primarily college biology students, to score examples of insect mimicry by the number of distinct kinds of animals they saw. Latent class analysis successfully separated participants based on their accuracy of perception as well as demographic information and opinions about biodiversity. Contrary to expectations, factors such as childhood experience (growing up in urban, suburban or rural areas) did not affect the ability to see biodiversity as much as political views (location …