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Full-Text Articles in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Testing For Relationships Between Animal Personality Traits, Activity Level And Voracity, And The Underlying Influence Of Body Size In The Dragonfly Predator, Epitheca Canis, Flynn Gorman Apr 2023

Testing For Relationships Between Animal Personality Traits, Activity Level And Voracity, And The Underlying Influence Of Body Size In The Dragonfly Predator, Epitheca Canis, Flynn Gorman

Senior Theses and Projects

Animal personality, defined as among-individual variation in behavior, is taxonomically widespread, but its ecological implications remain unclear. While associations between animal personality and ecological traits have been examined, methodological shortcomings, such as lack of repeated measurements, limit the insights these studies provide. Here, I measured the repeatability of activity level and feeding rate behaviors in the nymph stage of the dragonfly predator, Epitheca canis, taking 10 repeated measurements of each trait over a 10-week period. Moreover, I tested for a relationship between among-individual variation in activity level and feeding rate while accounting for the underlying influence of nymph body …


Biomechanics Of Mantis Prey Capture, Danielle S. Taylor Jan 2023

Biomechanics Of Mantis Prey Capture, Danielle S. Taylor

Honors Theses

Mantis species have a variety of different morphologies, so do the extreme forms of mantis limbs trade prey catching capability for camouflage? We hypothesize that some extreme forms of mantis limbs that are associated with cryptic species may be associated with a tradeoff of the capability of those limbs. Previous research has developed 2D morphologies of several hundred species of mantises. We are creating a 3D morphology by using micro dissection, micro CT imaging to construct our 3D biomechanical model. We found the attachment points of the ligaments and muscles from a Tenodera forearm and have constructed a 2D biomechanical …


How Akron Affects The Water Quality Of The Cuyahoga River, Allyson Darst Jan 2023

How Akron Affects The Water Quality Of The Cuyahoga River, Allyson Darst

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of this study was to analyze whether the city of Akron had negative effects on the Cuyahoga river, and determine if the Cuyahoga River was naturally able to remediate these effects downstream. The pollutants measured in this study include hardness, bromine, residual chlorine, iron, copper, lead, nitrate, nitrite, ammonium chloride, total chlorine, fluoride, carbonate, pH, total alkalinity and cyanuric acid. This study was done using water testing strips (JNW Direct) to test the water at four different locations along the Cuyahoga River downstream (North) of Akron. This study found that the city of Akron does have a negative …