Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons^™

American Eel (Anguilla Rostrata) And Other Fishes As Surveyed By Environmental Dna In The Bronx River And Hudson River Watershed, Sam C. Chin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Mounting an effective response to the threats faced by freshwater fish may require expansions to aquatic biomonitoring in excess of what is feasible using the capture-based survey techniques currently relied upon by natural resource managers. Methods for analyzing environmental DNA (eDNA) are emerging as a minimally invasive and cost-effective approach for surveying fish and other organisms. By detecting taxon-specific DNA sequences recovered from environmental samples (e.g. water, sediment), eDNA methods are able to infer species presence from samples that can be collected rapidly with simple equipment. In many cases, eDNA detection rates of fish species have been shown to meet …

Eavesdropping On Animals: Can Bioacoustics Help Save Species?, Zoe Grueskin

Capstones

Around the world, scientists are using sound to study the natural world in a growing field called bioacoustics. Researchers are eavesdropping on frogs and fish, elephants and earthworms, and many hope what they hear can inform and inspire conservation action around the world. From the field’s auspicious beginning with accidentally-recorded whales, to researchers today listening to locations as diverse as the Arctic seafloor and India’s Western Ghats mountain range, this capstone project explores the potential — and limitations — of conservation bioacoustics. Read the story, see photos and listen to audio pieces featuring three bioacousticians and their field recordings here: …

Body States Of Asian Elephants Within And Around Protected Areas In The Salakpra Wildlife Sanctuary, Kanchanaburi, Thailand, Caitlyn Thai

Theses and Dissertations

Researchers are becoming increasingly aware that studying a species’ landscape of fear or, more broadly, their emotional states, can better inform cognitive questions about how animals navigate their environments. Vigilance behaviors are one way to determine how certain species perceive and respond to risky situations. Due to rapid environmental change, large animals such as elephants are experiencing risky encounters with humans more often than ever before. This study aims to investigate Asian elephants’ expressions of body states and how they might regulate their behavior based on perceived environmental risk or change. Specifically, we investigated the behavioral responses of Asian elephants …

Assessment Of Wild Ring-Tailed Lemur (Lemur Catta) Populations In Southwestern Madagascar With Implications For The Illegal Pet Trade, Samantha D. Calkins

Theses and Dissertations

Accurate population estimates are critical to inform conservation management of species. Incomplete sampling can lead to population underestimates and lacking conservation efforts. Population surveys are important for assessing human and animal welfare to allow for targeted conservation action. Recent ring-tailed lemur (Lemur catta) surveys have led researchers to conclude that L. catta populations are crashing. This has generated much attention and alarm, but may also be based on incomplete information. To better understand population dynamics, more thorough sampling is needed. Here, we survey five such sites to reassess the presence and abundance of L. catta in these locations. …

Integrating The Effects Of Biotic Interactions Into Models Of Species Distributions, Jamie M. Kass

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The study of species geographic distributions and their environmental drivers has developed at a fast pace in recent years, owing to improvements in technology and data availability, and is increasingly relevant in this era of advancing global change. Currently, the field focuses heavily on a variety of techniques to statistically estimate species’ ranges I refer to collectively as species distribution models (SDMs). These models are now used across a wide range of disciplines, but inadequacies remain in implementation, methodology, and theory that are in need of new insight. In this thesis I will address two key shortcomings that require improvement …

Flight Of The Freshwater Fish, Michael H. Wilson

Capstones

Michael H. Wilson

Capstone Abstract

December 27, 2016

Flight of the Freshwater Fish

The Hudson River provides for millions of people as a path for commercial and private transportation, a source of food and energy, and perhaps most importantly for many living in the tri-state area as a destination for recreation and relaxation. The most overlooked feature of the river is how the wildlife shows clear signs of a changing climate and rapid environmental response to the impacts of global warming on the river.

Entire populations of fish species in the lower Hudson have been forced to leave the river …