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Full-Text Articles in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Clarifying Patterns In Host Plant Use By Adelpha Butterflies (Nymphalidae: Limenitidinae), Karina Torres
Clarifying Patterns In Host Plant Use By Adelpha Butterflies (Nymphalidae: Limenitidinae), Karina Torres
University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations
The remarkable diversity of plant-feeding insects could be explained by the dynamics of their plant associations, where host plant shifts and specialization onto a small fraction of available plants may promote diversification. Neotropical Adelpha butterflies contain a large number of species, and previous work indicated the colonization of a novel host plant family (Rubiaceae) fueled its rapid diversification. However, accumulating host records indicate wide taxonomic host breadth at family level and below. Here, we categorize Adelpha diet breadth based on known host plant relationships across the Neotropics and from Costa Rica, Ecuador and Brazil. We also use a diet breadth …
Using Phylogenetic Comparative Methods To Understand Diversification And Geographic Range Evolution, Kathryn Aurora Massana
Using Phylogenetic Comparative Methods To Understand Diversification And Geographic Range Evolution, Kathryn Aurora Massana
Doctoral Dissertations
Two key processes that have been modeled in a phylogenetic comparative framework are diversification and historical biogeography. Many questions arise on what process have shaped the abundance (or lack) of species we see today and what influences their survival and interconnectedness with other species. Many methods have been developed to answer these questions. Over the past several decades there has been a rise in parametric modeling and development of more adequate frameworks to answer biological questions of interest. However, many models still lack the incorporation of ecological, mainly biotic factors, which influence the evolution and ecology of species, while accounting …
Phylogenetic Relationships And Evolution Of Snakes, Alex Figueroa
Phylogenetic Relationships And Evolution Of Snakes, Alex Figueroa
University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations
Snakes represent an impressive evolutionary radiation of over 3,500 widely-distributed species, categorized into 515 genera, encompassing a diverse range of morphologies and ecologies. This diversity is likely attributable to their distinctive morphology, which has allowed them to populate a wide range of habitat types within most major ecosystems. In my first chapter, I provide the largest-yet estimate of the snake tree of life using maximum likelihood on a supermatrix of 1745 taxa (1652 snake species + 7 outgroup taxa) and 9,523 base pairs from 10 loci (5 nuclear, 5 mitochondrial), including previously unsequenced genera (2) and species (61). I then …
Bird Use Of Cumberland Island's Freshwater Wetlands, Lisa Dlugolecki
Bird Use Of Cumberland Island's Freshwater Wetlands, Lisa Dlugolecki
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Cumberland Island is the southernmost barrier island off the coast of Georgia. Its freshwater wetlands are an important, rare habitat to have on a barrier island surrounded by saltmarsh and ocean. Many species of birds require freshwater wetlands as feeding, roosting and nesting grounds. However, the freshwater wetlands on Cumberland Island have been impacted by humans for centuries causing birds to abandon their historic nesting ground. Known land use histories of Cumberland Island's freshwater wetlands were gathered to try and determine how the wetlands changed over time Wetlands were analyzed for presence of wetland-dependent birds and recorded. Thirty-six species of …