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Full-Text Articles in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Competition Among Three Forensically Important Blow Fly Species (Diptera: Calliphoridae): Phormia Regina, Lucilia Sericata, And Chrysomya Rufifacies, Amber Macinnis Jul 2018

Competition Among Three Forensically Important Blow Fly Species (Diptera: Calliphoridae): Phormia Regina, Lucilia Sericata, And Chrysomya Rufifacies, Amber Macinnis

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The aim of this study was to use interspecific competition between three species of blow flies (Diptera: Calliphoridae) to determine if interspecific competition might explain the successional patterns. A replacement series model was used for three species of blowflies: Phormia regina, Lucilia sericata, and Chrysomya rufifacies. A total of 20 maggots were used for each treatment and the proportion of each species was varied. The graphic evidence and the relative crowding coefficient of P. regina versus L. sericata indicated a significant competitive advantage of P. regina. One of the life history traits of L. sericata is that it oviposits on …


Multimodal Signalling In The North American Barn Swallow: A Phenotype Network Approach, Daizaburo Shizuka, Matthew R. Wilkins, Maxwell Joseph, Joanna K. Hubbard, Rebecca Safran Jan 2015

Multimodal Signalling In The North American Barn Swallow: A Phenotype Network Approach, Daizaburo Shizuka, Matthew R. Wilkins, Maxwell Joseph, Joanna K. Hubbard, Rebecca Safran

Papers in Behavior in Biological Sciences

Complex signals, involving multiple components within and across modal- ities, are common in animal communication. However, decomposing complex signals into traits and their interactions remains a fundamental challenge for studies of phenotype evolution. We apply a novel phenotype network approach for studying complex signal evolution in the North American barn swallow (Hirundo rustica erythrogaster). We integrate model testing with correlation-based phenotype networks to infer the contributions of female mate choice and male–male competition to the evolution of barn swallow communication. Overall, the best predictors of mate choice were distinct from those for competition, while moderate functional overlap suggests …


Possible Competition Between Waterfowl And Sandhill Cranes At Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge, Tennessee, David A. Aborn Jan 2010

Possible Competition Between Waterfowl And Sandhill Cranes At Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge, Tennessee, David A. Aborn

Proceedings of the North American Crane Workshop

As a result of crop planting for waterfowl, numbers of eastern greater sandhill cranes (Grus canadensis tabida) staging and overwintering at the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge in eastern Tennessee have sharply increased over the last 30-40 years. Peak numbers of wintering cranes have reached 14,000, and this large increase in crane numbers raises the possibility that they may be competing with waterfowl for food and space. I examined broad-scale changes in waterfowl numbers using Christmas Bird Count data, as well as small-scale changes using observations of waterfowl numbers and locations in relation to cranes on individual days. Preliminary results …


Do Arctic-Nesting Geese Compete With Sandhill Cranes For Waste Corn In The Central Platte River Valley, Nebraska?, Gary L. Krapu, David A. Brandt, Robert R. Cox Jr. Jan 2005

Do Arctic-Nesting Geese Compete With Sandhill Cranes For Waste Corn In The Central Platte River Valley, Nebraska?, Gary L. Krapu, David A. Brandt, Robert R. Cox Jr.

Proceedings of the North American Crane Workshop

Numbers of arctic-nesting geese staging in spring in the Central Platte River Valley (CPRV) of southcentral Nebraska increased dramatically from the 1970s to the 1990s, raising concerns that geese may be competing with the mid-continental population of sandhill cranes (Grus canadensis) for waste corn. From late February to mid-April 1998-2001, we measured temporal patterns of cropland use, evaluated habitat preferences, and compared numbers of geese using the primary crane-occupied parts of the CPRV area with numbers of sandhill cranes. Numbers of Canada geese (Branta canadensis), lesser snow geese (Chen caerulescens)/ Ross’ geese (Chen …