Life Sciences Commons^™

Behind Emammal’S Success: A Data Curator With A Data Standard, Jennifer Y. Zhao, William J. Mcshea

Journal of eScience Librarianship

This paper explores the data challenges of a major collection method in the field of ecology: using infrared-activated cameras to detect wildlife. One such solution, eMammal, is now available to address these struggles. We delineate the key reason behind its success: a data curator who manages an established data standard and communicates with eMammal’s users and stakeholders. We outline the tasks of this data curator, mention how they can work with data librarians, and demonstrate that the data curator position is already applicable in several biological science fields with a few examples. We end by emphasizing the growth of ...

Top-Down And Bottom-Up Effects On Collembola Communities In Soil Food Webs, Jordan Kustec

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Anthropogenic changes are causing shifts within soil food web communities, which may alter ecosystem processes such as nutrient cycling, carbon storage and decomposition. I quantified ecological stressor effects on the abundance, richness, community composition and body size of a soil-dwelling microarthropod (Collembola: Hexapoda). I quantified the effects of warming and nitrogen deposition in two separate field studies and demonstrated that warming shifts Collembola community structure and decreases community body size. I quantified the interactive effects of top-down and bottom-up forces mediated by warming as ecological stressors in Collembola communities. I found that bottom-up effects of nutrient addition did not affect ...

Fall Migration And Winter Habitat Use Of Northern Saw-Whet Owls (Aegolius Acadicus) In The Ozark Highlands, Mitchell L. Pruitt

Theses and Dissertations

Studying movement ecology is important not only in understanding the distribution of a species, but in understanding the magnitude of migration through certain regions, as well as explaining regional differences in demographics. The Northern Saw-whet Owl (Aegolius acadicus) is a small, migratory forest owl found throughout much of North America. Despite being captured widely during fall migration, the species’ movement ecology is poorly understood. Exploratory studies outside the saw-whet owl’s normal range have successfully captured the species during fall migration. In the Ozark Highlands ecoregion of the central United States, their status has been considered vagrant during fall and ...

Where Are All Of Arkansas' Chinquapins? An Ecological Assessment Of Castanea Throughout The State, Logan Pierce Estes

Theses and Dissertations

Around the turn of the twentieth-century, the chestnut blight fungus (Cryphonectria parasitica) was accidentally introduced into North America. This strong pathogen, which specializes on trees of the genus Castanea, spread rapidly and within half a century had nearly extirpated North America’s Castanea natives from their ranges. During this catastrophe, the American chestnut (Castanea dentata) garnered much of the scientific attention, pushing the other Castanea natives – the chinquapins – to the wayside. More than a century following the spread of the blight, little research into the ecology of North America’s chinquapins had been performed, leaving these trees significantly underrepresented. The ...

Ncer Assistance Agreement Annual Progress Report For Grant #83582401 - Assessment Of Stormwater Harvesting Via Manage Aquifer Recharge (Mar) To Develop New Water Supplies In The Arid West: The Salt Lake Valley Example, R. Ryan Dupont, Joan E. Mclean, Richard Peralta, Sarah Null, Douglas B. Jackson-Smith

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

The goals of the original proposed project remain the same, that is, to test the hypothesis that Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) for stormwater harvesting is a technically feasible, socially and environmentally acceptable, economically viable, and legally feasible option for developing new water supplies for arid Western urban ecosystems experiencing increasing population, and climate change pressures on existing water resources. The project is being carried out via three distinct but integrated components that include: 1) Monitoring of existing distributed MAR harvesting schemes involving a growing number of demonstration Green Infrastructure (GI) test sites; 2) Integrated stormwater/vadose zone/groundwater/ ecosystem services ...

Molecular Fossils From Phytoplankton Reveal Secular Pco2 Trend Over The Phanerozoic, Caitlyn R. Witkowski, Johan W. H. Weijers, Brian S. Blais, Stefan Schouten, Jaap S. Sinninghe Damsté

Science and Technology Faculty Journal Articles

Past changes in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide (PCO2) have had a major impact on earth system dynamics; yet, reconstructing secular trends of past PCO2 remains a prevalent challenge in paleoclimate studies. The current long-term PCO2reconstructions rely largely on the compilation of many different proxies, often with discrepancies among proxies, particularly for periods older than 100 million years (Ma). Here, we reconstructed Phanerozoic PCO2 from a single proxy: the stable carbon isotopic fractionation associated with photosynthesis (Ɛp) that increases as PCO2 increases. This concept has been widely applied to alkenones, but here, we expand ...

Confirming World-Wide Distribution Of An Agriculturally Important Lacewing, Chrysoperla Zastrowi Sillemi, Using Songs, Morphology, Mitochondrial Gene Sequencing, And Phylogenetic Reconstruction, Zoe Mandese

Honors Scholar Theses

The Chrysoperla carnea-group of green lacewings is a cryptic species complex. Species within the group are morphologically similar, yet isolated from one another via reproductive mating song. Chrysoperla zastrowi, a species within the carnea-group, is currently described with a distribution ranging from South Africa to the Middle East and India. However, recent collections of carnea-group lacewings from Guatemala and California were preliminarily identified as Chrysoperla zastrowi based upon similarities in their vibrational courtship songs. This analysis aims to place six specimens, collected by collaborators in Guatemala, Armenia, Iran, and California, into a pre-existing phylogeny of the Chrysoperla ...

The Ecology Of A Tallgrass Treasure: Audubon’S Spring Creek Prairie, Paul A. Johnsgard

Zea E-Books

This book describes the major plant and animal components of Spring Creek Prairie Audubon Center, an 850-acre National Audubon Society tallgrass prairie in Lancaster County, southeastern Nebraska. In addition to providing a species list of the area’s plants (368 species), there are comprehensive annotated lists of its birds (240), mammals (43), reptiles (23), and amphibians (10). There are also variably complete annotated lists of the area’s butterflies (76), sphinx moths (30), silk moths (7), dragonflies (24), damselflies (11), grasshoppers (9), katydids (11), mantids (2), and walkingsticks (2). Brief profiles of life histories and ecologies of 55 animal and ...

The Population Ecology And Behavior Of The Cave Salamander, Eurycea Lucifuga (Rafinesque, 1822)., Joseph Gavin Bradley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Cave Salamander, Eurycea lucifuga (Rafinesque, 1822), is a little-known species, yet a common inhabitant of caves in the eastern United States. Salamanders are often important components of ecological communities and ecosystems, influencing critical processes such as nutrient cycling and community composition through their predation on invertebrates. Cave-dwelling salamanders such as E. lucifuga may thus appreciably influence the relatively simple ecosystems and communities of caves. Any such influence may be particularly important because these habitats and the organisms that reside in them are often of conservation concern. I used non-invasive methods to study the demographics, movements, and habitat selection of ...

The Real Snowbirds Of South Florida: Using Citizen Science To Assess The Ranges Of South Florida's Overwintering Birdsh, Alexander V. Levine

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The overwintering ranges of North American bird populations are shifting and the winter ranges of south Florida’s landbirds remain understudied. Expert-drawn range maps used for scientific studies and environmental public policy could therefore be depicting inaccurate ranges for many migratory birds. This study used citizen science data from eBird (2001–2017) to evaluate patterns in overwintering avian species richness and identify discrepanciesin expert-drawn species range maps for overwintering passerines in south Florida. Most of Florida’s overwintering bird species were sighted in south Florida. Of the species observed there between 2001 and 2017, 66% had range map discrepancies. Fifteen ...

Woodpeckers In The City: Habitat Use And Minimum Area Requirements Of Woodpeckers In Urban Parks And Natural Areas In Portland, Oregon, Adam Baz

Dissertations and Theses

Urbanization has contributed to the fragmentation and alteration of natural habitats around the globe, and is rapidly increasing. In this context, forested parks play a critical role for many species by providing patches of usable habitat within the urban matrix. Such patches may be particularly valuable to forest-specialists like woodpeckers (Picidae). Yet many woodpeckers require large forest patches, which are limited in fragmented landscapes. Despite their recognized value as ecosystem engineers and keystone species, almost no research exists on woodpecker ecology or space-use in urban settings. What habitat components influence woodpecker abundance and what are their functional minimum area requirements ...

Nonlinearities In Prey Growth, Size-Dependent Predation Risk, And Functional Responses: Understanding The Effects Of Multiple Predators On A Shared Prey Using Agent-Based Models, Russell Dixon, Jeremy Wojdak

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Spatial Spread Of Defective Interfering Particles And Its Role In Suppressing Viral Load, Qasim Ali Qa, Ruian Ke

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Predicting Critical Transitions In Spatially Distributed Populations With Cubical Homology, Laura Storch, Sarah Day

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Effect Of Excess Food Nutrient On Producer-Grazer Model Under Stoichiometric And Toxicological Constraints, Md Nazmul Hassan, Kelsey Thompson, Gregory Mayer, Angela Peace

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Modeling Allee Effects In A Transgenic Mosquito Population During Range Expansion, Lauren M. Childs

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

A Quantitative Analysis Of The Effects Of Urbanization, Mesophication And Prescribed Burns On Oak Woodlands In The Chicago Metropolitan Area, Chad Populorum

Celebration of Learning

Urban expansion has had devastating impacts on forest ecosystems, especially within the past century. Human attempts to dominate nature have diminished natural disturbance regimes, which have maintained the biodiversity and historic composition of these ecosystems. Fires have been a prominent force in maintaining the structure of oak, hickory and other heliophytic (sun loving and fire-adapted) forest systems. Human induced fire suppression has led to mesophication across North America. Mesophication is the transition from drier conditions with open canopies to wetter conditions with closed canopies. These new conditions decrease the survival rates of these important species and begin to favor mesophytic ...

Modified Landscapes, Esther Nooner

Theses and Dissertations

Modified Landscapes is a body of work that reflects serious thought regarding Nature and its future. My personal experience and beliefs are at the core of why I believe this subject to be of great importance and why it will sustain many artists’ investigations for the time to come. The influences that informed this process are explored through experiences I had traveling, reading and exploring the photograph as a material object. The manipulation of the photograph is meant to question the beautiful, untouched scene and break the Romantic gaze that is historically tied to representations of Nature and insist upon ...

The Savegre: Completing The Case Study, Aggie R. Veld, Emilie R. Janes

Scholar Week 2016 - present

Since case studies garner the interest of students necessary for engagement in general biology classes (Himschoot, 2012), the purpose of this project was to create a case study based on the history of San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica and Leo and Zana Finkenbinder’s involvement in its transition to sustainability. Travel to Costa Rica occurred in the summer of 2015. Authors Aggie Veld and Emilie Janes presented the story of the case study and progress to date during Honors Week 2016. Since then, the case study was submitted to SUNY Buffalo’s National Center for Case Study Teaching in ...

Introduction To Ecology, Ching-Yu Huang, Janice Crook-Hill, Andrea Darracq, Hugo Collantes, James Wilkison, Enes Aganovic, Terri Bell

Biological Sciences Grants Collections

This Grants Collection for Introduction to Ecology was created under a Round Eight ALG Textbook Transformation Grant.

Affordable Learning Georgia Grants Collections are intended to provide faculty with the frameworks to quickly implement or revise the same materials as a Textbook Transformation Grants team, along with the aims and lessons learned from project teams during the implementation process.

Documents are in .pdf format, with a separate .docx (Word) version available for download. Each collection contains the following materials:

• Linked Syllabus
• Initial Proposal
• Final Report

A New Species Of Cybianthus (Myrsinaceae) From The Cordillera Del Condor (Ecuador And Peru), John J. Pipoly Iii, Jon M. Ricketson

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

Cybianthus condorensis Pipoly & Ricketson, a new species from the Cordillera del Condor of Ecuador and Peru, is described herewith. Because of its alternate, coriaceous, and revolute leaves; scattered to densely appressed lepidote branchlets, inflorescence rachises, and calyces; subsessile pistillate flowers; and sandy habitat, this species is easily recognized.

Introduction To Environmental Science: 2nd Edition, Caralyn Zehnder, Kalina Manoylov, Samuel Mutiti, Christine Mutiti, Allison Vandevoort, Donna Bennett

Biological Sciences Open Textbooks

2nd Edition: Revised by Kalina Manoylov, Allison Rick VandeVoort, Christine Mutiti, Samuel Mutiti and Donna Bennett in 2017.

Authors' Description:

This course uses the basic principles of biology and earth science as a context for understanding environmental policies and resource management practices. Our planet is facing unprecedented environmental challenges, from oil spills to global climate change. In ENSC 1000, you will learn about the science behind these problems; preparing you to make an informed, invaluable contribution to Earth’s future. I hope that each of you is engaged by the material presented and participates fully in the search for, acquisition ...

Authors And Editors Assort On Gender And Geography In High-Rank Ecological Publications, Kezia R. Manlove, Rebecca M. Belou

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Peer-reviewed publication volume and caliber are widely-recognized proxies for academic merit, and a strong publication record is essential for academic success and advancement. However, recent work suggests that publication productivity for particular author groups may also be determined in part by implicit biases lurking in the publication pipeline. Here, we explore patterns of gender, geography, and institutional rank among authors, editorial board members, and handling editors in high-impact ecological publications during 2015 and 2016. A higher proportion of lead authors had female first names (33.9%) than editorial board members (28.9%), and the proportion of female first names among ...

Iterative Near-Term Ecological Forecasting: Needs, Opportunities, And Challenges, Michael C. Dietze, Andrew Fox, Lindsay M. Beck-Johnson, Julio L. Betancourt, Mevin B. Hooten, Catherine S. Jarnevich, Timothy H. Keitt, Melissa A. Kenney, Christine M. Laney, Laurel G. Larsen, Henry W. Leoscher, Claire K. Lunch, Bryan C. Pijanowski, James T. Randerson, Emily K. Read, Andrew T. Tredennick, Rodrigo Vargas, Kathleen C. Weathers, Ethan P. White

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Two foundational questions about sustainability are “How are ecosystems and the services they provide going to change in the future?” and “How do human decisions affect these trajectories?” Answering these questions requires an ability to forecast ecological processes. Unfortunately, most ecological forecasts focus on centennial-scale climate responses, therefore neither meeting the needs of near-term (daily to decadal) environmental decision-making nor allowing comparison of specific, quantitative predictions to new observational data, one of the strongest tests of scientific theory. Near-term forecasts provide the opportunity to iteratively cycle between performing analyses and updating predictions in light of new evidence. This iterative process ...

Should I Stay Or Should I Go? Complex Environments Drive The Developmental Plasticity Of Flight Capacity And Flight-Related Tradeoffs, Jordan R. Glass

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Animals must balance multiple, fitness-related traits in environments that are complex and characterized by co-varying factors, such as co-variation in temperature and food availability. Thus, experiments manipulating multiple environmental factors provide valuable insight into the role of the environment in shaping not only important traits (e.g., dispersal capacity or reproduction), but also trait-trait interactions (e.g., trade-offs between traits). We employed a multi-factorial design to manipulate variation in temperature (constant 28°C vs. 28±5°C daily cycle) and food availability (unlimited vs. intermittent access) throughout development in the sand field cricket, Gryllus firmus. We found that fitness-related, life-history ...

Compositional Changes In Two Small Mammal Communities During Succession In Southeastern Virginia, Robert K. Rose, Robyn M. Nadolny, Jay Kiser, Stephen E. Rice, Heather Green Salamone, Jana Eggleston, Holly D. Gaff

Virginia Journal of Science

Changes in the composition of two small mammal communities were studied during 8 and 9 years of ecological succession in southern Chesapeake. Virginia. Using monthly live-trapping on grids of similar size and history since their abandonment as agricultural fields, we learned that house mice were early colonists on one grid but not the other. Two species of herbivorous rodent and the granivorous eastern harvest mouse were numerically dominant on both grids across the study. Some species disappeared early on one grid but persisted to the end at the other. The two arboreal small mammals, golden and white-footed mice, were most ...

Monitoring Ohio Bat Communities And Populations Using Mobile Acoustics, Molly C. Simonis

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

The goal of my thesis is to: 1) provide baseline information of where Ohio bats are foraging in Wright State University's (WSU) campus woods in relation to forest age and habitat (Chapter 1), 2) determine potential roost availability for local bats (Chapter 1), and 3) examine changes in state-wide species composition following the introduction of White-nose Syndrome (WNS; Chapter 2). In Chapter 1, I created walking bat acoustic routes and used generalized linear models to determine what forest ages and habitats had the greatest bat activity in the WSU campus woods. I conducted habitat transects throughout all forest ages ...

Biochar As A Soil Amendment For Willow And Cottonwood Plantings In A Riparian Restoration, Brian Clyde Sechler

Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Graduate Theses & Dissertations

Riparian areas provide some of the most valuable ecosystem services of any habitat type, both for native flora and wildlife, as well as human society. The global degradation of these critical systems makes their restoration imperative for the preservation of overall ecological integrity since depleted riparian corridors will have cascading effects that pervade upland and downstream regions alike. In western river systems there are two key limiting factors that can lead to failures during re-vegetation efforts along riparian stream banks: one is a lack of available soil nutrients, and the other is a lack of soil moisture. Biochar has been ...

The Under-Appreciated Roles Of Viruses In Agroecosystem Management, Kacy Wentzell

Creative Components

Increasing food demand and diminishing resources require food production practices to become more productive with fewer external inputs. Agroecology uses ecological principles to inform agroecosystem management that results in ecosystem services replacing external inputs to the system and an economically and environmentally sustainable system. Viruses have historically been ignored in ecological studies. Understanding the ecological role of viruses in agroecosystems is key to managing crop production systems that utilize ecosystem services rather than rely on external inputs. The role of viruses in microorganism communities, where most research has been conducted, provides insight into the ecological role of viruses in other ...

Spatial And Temporal Dynamics Of Batesian Mimicry Between Adelpha Californica And Limenitis Lorquini, Louis Albert Prusa

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Conspicuous coloration is one of the main ways that animals communicate. The use of eye-catching color patterns to warn predators of an unprofitable trait is referred to as aposematism. Once predators learn to recognize the color pattern, a new signaling niche becomes available where other species can share the same signal. This mimicry niche can involve a “hide in plain sight” strategy by mimicking or parasitizing this signal, with mimics lacking the defense and associated costs that make them unprofitable. This is termed Batesian mimicry, and it decreases predation by taking advantage of the memory and learning of the predator ...