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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Responses Of Arthropods To Fire And How Pollinators And Pollination Services Are Affected By Fire Severity, Blyssalyn V. Bieber
Responses Of Arthropods To Fire And How Pollinators And Pollination Services Are Affected By Fire Severity, Blyssalyn V. Bieber
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Fires impact ecosystems globally and due to climate change, there are shifts in fire regimes that impact ecological communities which provide essential ecosystem services. Focusing on arthropods, fire can influence this ubiquitous animal group in various way. We performed a comprehensive meta-analysis evaluating how fires impact differing arthropod functional groups. We found that overall, fire negatively effects community level responses for most functional groups with herbivores as the only exception showing some positive effects of fire. We also studied mixed-severity fires that burned >20 years ago and compared floral visitor communities across fire severities. We implemented a pollinator exclusion experiment …
Congruence And Temporal Variation Of Floral Visitation And Pollen Transport Networks In Southern Appalachia, Daniel A. Barker
Congruence And Temporal Variation Of Floral Visitation And Pollen Transport Networks In Southern Appalachia, Daniel A. Barker
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Observation of floral visitation is an accepted method to describe plant-pollinator interactions despite potential biases. Collecting pollen from pollinators offers new insights on the structure and function of plant-pollinator communities. Furthermore, the strength and frequency of plant-pollinator interactions can vary across temporal scales. However, within-season and within-day (morning vs. evening) variation in plant-pollinator networks has been little studied. By evaluating variation in network structure across these biologically relevant time scales, we will gain a better understanding of the factors that shape plant-pollinator communities. The objectives of this study are to 1) Compare the structure of plant-pollinator networks built on floral …
Phenotypic Plasticity Of Native And Invasive Cool-Season Grasses In Response To Frequency Of Moisture Availability, Ming-Yu Stephens
Phenotypic Plasticity Of Native And Invasive Cool-Season Grasses In Response To Frequency Of Moisture Availability, Ming-Yu Stephens
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Phenotypic plasticity, the ability of an individual to alter its growth in response to environmental conditions, is an attribute that is considered a likely invader attribute, as it provides the opportunity to expand its ecological niche breadth. Adaptive phenotypic plasticity can affect not only the ability to establish in a new environment, but also the ability to outperform the existing vegetation over time. Bromus inermis (smooth brome) and Poa pratensis (Kentucky bluegrass) are invasive species in tall- and mixed-grass prairie ecosystems. The objectives of this two-part study were to quantify the adaptive plasticity of biomass accumulation and tiller production in …