Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Biology Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 6 of 6

Full-Text Articles in Biology

An Evaluation Of The Genetic Structure Of Mapleleaf Mussels (Quadrula Quadrula) In The Lake Erie Watershed, Wendy L. Paterson, Traci A. Griffith, Robert A. Krebs, Lyubov E. Burlakova, David T. Zanatta Dec 2015

An Evaluation Of The Genetic Structure Of Mapleleaf Mussels (Quadrula Quadrula) In The Lake Erie Watershed, Wendy L. Paterson, Traci A. Griffith, Robert A. Krebs, Lyubov E. Burlakova, David T. Zanatta

Biological, Geological, and Environmental Faculty Publications

Physical barriers, habitat fragmentation, invasive species and geographic distance have isolated remnant populations of unionids in Great Lakes coastal refuges. Dreissenid species (Dreissena polymorpha and Dreissena rostriformis bugensis) may be the greatest threat to the survival of unionids in the Great Lakes since their introduction in the late 1980s and early 1990s; however, native unionids remain in coastal habitats of western Lake Erie. One of the most abundant unionid species in Lake Erie, Quadrula quadrula, was collected along coastal areas within the lake and from three tributaries, the Maumee River, Huron River (Ohio), and Grand River (Ontario, Canada) and genotyped …


Plant Community Associations Of Two Invasive Thistles, Emily S.J. Rauschert, Katriona Shea, Sarah Goslee Jun 2015

Plant Community Associations Of Two Invasive Thistles, Emily S.J. Rauschert, Katriona Shea, Sarah Goslee

Biological, Geological, and Environmental Faculty Publications

In order to combat the growing problems associated with biological invasions, many researchers have focused on identifying which communities are most vulnerable to invasion by exotic species. However, once established, invasive species can significantly change the composition of the communities that they invade. The first step to disentangling the direction of causality is to discern whether a relationship with other vegetation exists at all. Carduus nutans and C. acanthoides are similar invasive thistles, which have caused substantial economic damage worldwide. We assessed the associations between the thistles and the standing flora in four sites in central Pennsylvania in which they …


A Unifying Gravity Framework For Dispersal, Eelke Jongejans, Olav Skarpaas, Matthew J. Ferrari, Eric S. Long, Joseph T. Dauer, Carrie M. Schwarz, Emily S.J. Rauschert, Randa Jabbour, David A. Mortensen, Scott A. Isard, David A. Lieb, Zeynep Sezen, Andrew G. Hulting, Katriona Shea May 2015

A Unifying Gravity Framework For Dispersal, Eelke Jongejans, Olav Skarpaas, Matthew J. Ferrari, Eric S. Long, Joseph T. Dauer, Carrie M. Schwarz, Emily S.J. Rauschert, Randa Jabbour, David A. Mortensen, Scott A. Isard, David A. Lieb, Zeynep Sezen, Andrew G. Hulting, Katriona Shea

Biological, Geological, and Environmental Faculty Publications

Most organisms disperse at some life-history stage, but different research traditions to study dispersal have evolved in botany, zoology, and epidemiology. In this paper, we synthesize concepts, principles, patterns, and processes in dispersal across organisms. We suggest a consistent conceptual framework for dispersal, which utilizes generalized gravity models. This framework will facilitate communication among research traditions, guide the development of dispersal models for theoretical and applied ecology, and enable common representation across taxonomic groups, encapsulating processes at the source and destination of movement, as well as during the intervening relocation process, while allowing each of these stages in the dispersal …


Colonization Of Lake Erie Tributaries By Allocapnia Recta (Capniidae), Alison L. Yasick, Robert A. Krebs, Julie Wolin Feb 2015

Colonization Of Lake Erie Tributaries By Allocapnia Recta (Capniidae), Alison L. Yasick, Robert A. Krebs, Julie Wolin

Biological, Geological, and Environmental Faculty Publications

Plecoptera display a variety of dispersal mechanisms. The most reduced of these, walking, is common for winter stoneflies in the family Capniidae. To examine dispersal in a winter stonefly, Allocapnia recta, we sequenced a fragment of the 16s rRNA mitochondrial gene from four adjacent Lake Erie drainages. Nineteen unique haplotypes were obtained from 107 specimens. The four watersheds explained 37% of the haplotype diversity and all pairwise contrasts among streams were statistically significant; not one haplotype was common to all four watersheds. This extreme level of divergence among populations separated briefly in both space and time suggest minimal if …


The Impact Of Dreissenid Mussels On Growth Of The Fragile Papershell (Leptodea Fragilis), The Most Abundant Unionid Species In Lake Erie, Robert A. Krebs, Elizabeth M. Barkett, Matthew T. Begley Jan 2015

The Impact Of Dreissenid Mussels On Growth Of The Fragile Papershell (Leptodea Fragilis), The Most Abundant Unionid Species In Lake Erie, Robert A. Krebs, Elizabeth M. Barkett, Matthew T. Begley

Biological, Geological, and Environmental Faculty Publications

The arrival of zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha (Pallas, 1771)) and subsequently quagga mussels (Dreissena bugensis Andrusov, 1897) (Dreissenidae) in the Great Lakes in the 1980s induced many changes, most notably the devastation of native freshwater mussel species. Recently, empty shells of the fragile papershell (Leptodea fragilis (Rafinesque, 1820)) have become common, particularly in the western basin of Lake Erie, suggesting that this fast-growing species may be increasing in numbers in the lake. To examine continued competition with dreissenids, shell age and length of L. fragilis were used to contrast lifespan and growth rate, estimated as the slope …


Dna Double-Strand Breaks And Telomeres Play Important Roles In Trypanosoma Brucei Antigenic Variation, Bibo Li Jan 2015

Dna Double-Strand Breaks And Telomeres Play Important Roles In Trypanosoma Brucei Antigenic Variation, Bibo Li

Biological, Geological, and Environmental Faculty Publications

Human-infecting microbial pathogens all face a serious problem of elimination by the host immune response. Antigenic variation is an effective immune evasion mechanism where the pathogen regularly switches its major surface antigen. In many cases, the major surface antigen is encoded by genes from the same gene family, and its expression is strictly monoallelic. Among pathogens that undergo antigenic variation, Trypanosoma brucei (a kinetoplastid), which causes human African trypanosomiasis, Plasmodium falciparum (an apicomplexan), which causes malaria, Pneumocystis jirovecii (a fungus), which causes pneumonia, and Borrelia burgdorferi (a bacterium), which causes Lyme disease, also express their major surface antigens from loci …