Biology Commons^™

Combining Environmental History And Soil Phytolith Analysis At The City Of Rocks National Reserve: Developing New Methods In Historical Ecology, Lesley Morris

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Historical ecology is an emerging and interdisciplinary field that seeks to explain the changes in ecosystems over time through a synthesis of information derived from human records and biological data. The methods in historical ecology cover a wide range of temporal and spatial scales. However, methods for the more recent past (about 200 years) are largely limited to the human archive and dendrochronological evidence which can be subject to human bias, limited in spatial extent or not appropriate for non-forested systems. There is a need to explore new methods by which biological data can be used to understand historic vegetation …

Genetic Change Following Fire In Populations Of A Seed-Banking Perennial Plant, Rebecca W. Dolan, Pedro F. Quintana-Ascencio, Eric S. Menges

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Disturbances such as fire have the potential to remove genetic variation, but seed banks may counter this loss by restoring alleles through a reservoir effect. We used allozyme analysis to characterize genetic change in two populations of the perennial Hypericum cumulicola, an endemic of the fire-prone Florida scrub. We assessed genetic variation before and 1, 2, and 3 years after fire that killed nearly all aboveground plants. Populations increased in size following fire, with most seedlings likely recruited from a persistent seed bank. Four of five loci were variable. Most alleles were present in low frequencies, but our large sample …

Traversing Swanton Road, 1st Ed., James A. West

Academic, Government & Associated Organizational Research Resources

Situated at the northwest end of Santa Cruz County and occupying circa 30 square miles of sharply contrasted terrain, the Scott Creek Watershed concentrates within its geomorphological boundaries, at least 10-12% of California's flora, both native and introduced. Paradoxically, the use/abuse that the watershed has sustained over the past 140+ years, has not necessarily diminished the biodiversity and perhaps parallels the naturally disruptive but biologically energizing processes (fire, flooding, landslides and erosion), which have also been historically documented for the area for +60 years. This is an early edition of an extensive document by James A. West. Please visit the …

Mojave Applied Ecology Notes Fall 2008, Alice Miller, Joshua Hoines, Scott R. Abella

Mojave Applied Ecology Notes

Effects of wildfires in Joshua Tree National Park, Blackbrush masting volunteer seed collection effort, new book chapter on Mojave revegetation, Natural Areas Association presentations.

Conversion Of Traditional Observation-Based Botany Labs To Investigative Inquiry Learning, Hajara Mahmood

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

“Tell me and I forget, show me and I remember, involve me and I understand.” - Chinese Proverb. Involvement in learning implies possessing skills and attitudes that permit students to seek resolutions to questions and issues while constructing new knowledge.

Low enrollment in Plant Biology and Diversity and upper level plant science courses has been noticed at Western Kentucky University. In addition, graduating students performed below the national average on the senior assessment examination in the area of botany content knowledge offered by WKU’s Biology Department. This may be due to the fact that observation-based botany has been taught in …

Mojave Applied Ecology Notes Summer 2008, Doug Merkler, Scott R. Abella, Dianne N. Bangle, Donovan J. Craig, Jessica E. Spencer, Alex Suazo

Mojave Applied Ecology Notes

Soil climate project, rare plant monitoring, JFS update, granivory and Sahara mustard

Botany At Eastern Illinois University, Marissa C. Jernegan, Nancy Coutant, Janice M. Coons

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

Eastern Illinois University was established in 1899, and from its beginning recognized the importance of the botanical sciences. Two terms of botany were required for the four year program. Otis W. Caldwell, a botanist, was one of the original faculty members. He taught all of the biology courses and initiated the acquisition of a greenhouse. Caldwell was the first of a series of talented and dedicated botany professors including Edgar N. Transeau, Ernest L. Stover, Hiram F. Thut and John E. Ebinger. These and many other professors incorporated a field component into almost all classes. This dedication to the study …

Mojave Applied Ecology Notes Spring 2008, Lesley Defalco, E. Cayenne Engel, Scott R. Abella, Jessica E. Spencer, Jill E. Craig

Mojave Applied Ecology Notes

Post-fire restoration, fire chronosequence study, Joint Fire Science update, Weed Sentry program and DNWR surveys

Anisotropic Contraction In Forisomes: Simple Models Won't Fit, Winfried Peters, Michael Knoblauch, Stephen Warmann, William Pickard, Amy Shen

Winfried S. Peters

A Journey Through The Scott Creek Watershed, James A. West

Academic, Government & Associated Organizational Research Resources

This PDF contains content captured from: West, James. A Journey Through the Scott Creek Watershed, https://swanton.ucscarboretum.org/index.html. Accessed 9 July 2020. The website was created for the University of California Santa Cruz Arboretum and Botanic Garden. It serves as the beginnings and provides a basic outline of the content within "Traversing Swanton Road," an essay by James A. West. A most recent version of the essay can be found at https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/spr_assocres/1/

Plant Succession On Gopher Mounds In Western Cascade Meadows: Consequences For Species Diversity And Heterogeneity, Chad C. Jones, Charles B. Halpern, Jessica Niederer

Botany Faculty Publications

Pocket gophers have the potential to alter the dynamics of grasslands by creating mounds that bury existing vegetation and locally reset succession. Gopher mounds may provide safe sites for less competitive species, potentially increasing both species diversity and vegetation heterogeneity (spatial variation in species composition). We compared species composition, diversity and heterogeneity among gopher mounds of different ages in three montane meadows in the Cascade Range of Oregon. Cover of graminoids and forbs increased with mound age, as did species richness. Contrary to many studies, we found no evidence that mounds provided safe sites for early successional species, despite their …

A Watershed Analysis Of Pattee Pond: Implications For Water Quality And Land Use Management, Problems In Environmental Science Course (Biology 493), Colby College, Colby Environmental Assessment Team, Colby College

Colby College Watershed Study: Pattee Pond (2008, 1992)

The Colby Environmental Assessment Team (CEAT) investigated the impact of land use patterns on the water quality of Pattee Pond in Winslow, Maine, during the summer and fall of 2008. Physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of water quality were analyzed to evaluate the current health of the lake. Data collected were compared with previous studies conducted by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and CEAT to examine changes in water quality and land use over time. Trends in Pattee Pond water quality suggest an improvement since the 1970s. However, the lake is still experiencing algal blooms resulting from phosphorus …

Insertion Of The Enzyme Cyclopropane Fatty Acid Synthase Into Plastids Through Agrobacterium Mediated Transformation, Jason L. Rush

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Under natural conditions, Agrobacterium is a plant pathogen that infects plants by inserting genes into the plant's genome that are desirable to the bacterium itself. A tumor is then formed and the infected plant tissue makes molecules that the bacterium uses as food.

The Plant Ontology Database: A Community Resource For Plant Structure And Developmental Stages Controlled Vocabulary And Annotations, Shulamit Avraham, Chih-Wei Tung, Katica Ilic, Pankaj Jaiswal, Elizabeth Kellogg, Susan Mccouch, Anuradha Pujar, Leonore Reiser, Seung Rhee, Martin Sachs, Mary Schaeffer, Lincoln Stein, Peter Stevens, Leszek Vincent, Felipe Zapata, Doreen Ware

Biology Department Faculty Works

The Plant Ontology Consortium (POC, http://www.plantontology.org ) is a collaborative effort among model plant genome databases and plant researchers that aims to create, maintain and facilitate the use of a controlled vocabulary (ontology) for plants. The ontology allows users to ascribe attributes of plant structure (anatomy and morphology) and developmental stages to data types, such as genes and phenotypes, to provide a semantic framework to make meaningful cross-species and database comparisons. The POC builds upon groundbreaking work by the Gene Ontology Consortium (GOC) by adopting and extending the GOC's principles, existing software and database structure. Over the past year, POC …

Mojave Applied Ecology Notes Winter 2008, Scott R. Abella, E. Cayenne Engel, Jill E. Craig

Mojave Applied Ecology Notes

Mojave Desert collaborative projects, fire history in Spring Mountains, Northshore Road rehabilitation, wildfires and invasive plants in American deserts conference, weed sentry surveys

Investigation Of Kalanchoe Homeobox 1 (Kh1) Gene In Apical Meristems Of Kalanchoe Pinnatum, Jessica Lynn Kirkpatrick

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Kalanchoe pinnatum (syn. Bryophyllum pinnatum) is a succulent plant that is notable for developing small plantlets on the outer edges of its leaves, when its leaves are detached (Kulka 2006). These plantlets eventually drop off and root, which is a unique way for the plant to asexually reproduce. In most other plants, leaves exhibit determinate growth, meaning once they reach their maturity, they do not continue to grow.

The Plant Ontology Database: A Community Resource For Plant Structure And Developmental Stages Controlled Vocabulary And Annotations, Shulamit Avraham, Chih-Wei Tung, Katica Ilic, Pankaj Jaiswal, Elizabeth A. Kellogg, Susan Mccouch, Anuradha Pujar, Leonore Reiser, Seung Yon Rhee, Martin M. Sachs, Mary L. Schaeffer, Lincoln Stein, Peter Stevens, Leszek Vincent, Felipe Zapata, Doreen Ware

Peter Stevens