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Spatio-Temporal Dynamics Of Fungal Communities And Their Effects On Plants, Kel Cook
Spatio-Temporal Dynamics Of Fungal Communities And Their Effects On Plants, Kel Cook
Biology ETDs
Fungi perform several critical functions in the environment. Spatiotemporal distributions of fungal communities will mediate when and where these functions happen and how they vary across the landscape. I first explored tropical tree canopy fungal community variation at small spatial scales and documented near total turnover of fungi across sub-meter distances and among adjacent substrates. The second chapter analyzed fungal turnover over the course of three years, where community stability was driven primarily by abundant fungi. In the third chapter, I tested effects of the environment, including host plant and habitat, on canopy fungal communities and found only small effects, …
Evolutionary Ecology Of Host-Parasite Relationships: Role Of Host Ecology, Phylogeny, And Demographics In Shaping Parasite Evolution, Erika Taylor Gendron
Evolutionary Ecology Of Host-Parasite Relationships: Role Of Host Ecology, Phylogeny, And Demographics In Shaping Parasite Evolution, Erika Taylor Gendron
Biology ETDs
Host-parasite systems exist across complex and ecologically heterogeneous landscapes, and may occur across taxonomically and ecologically disparate host species. Under these conditions, mechanisms underlying microevolutionary processes (i.e. gene flow, genetic drift) are not always clear, and may be mediated by numerous co-occurring factors specific to individual hosts. Host traits such as host immunology, demographics, phylogeny and ecology may act in concert to shape host-parasite relationships, and ultimately evolutionary processes. The research described herein used phylogeographic, phylogenomic, and population genetic methods to further understanding of how host traits impact the evolutionary ecology of trematode systems, using avian schistosomes (Digenea: Schistosomatidae) as …
Driver Of Avian Haemosporidian Diversity And Host Specificity In The Solomon Islands, Xena Marie Mapel
Driver Of Avian Haemosporidian Diversity And Host Specificity In The Solomon Islands, Xena Marie Mapel
Biology ETDs
Avian haemosporidians are protist parasites that are distributed worldwide. We investigated these parasites in a tropical South Pacific archipelago to answer two questions: 1) Which community characteristics influence haemosporidian diversity; 2) Does host specificity vary across islands? To answer these questions we sequenced a mitochondrial gene and created linear models to establish relationships between select variables and diversity. In addition, we calculated host breadth of each lineage and constructed models to infer predictors of diversity. The percent of infected individuals on each island was correlated with island area. Haemosporidian phylogenetic diversity on a given island was associated with the proportion …