Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons^™

Rare Occurrences Of Free-Living Bacteria Belonging To Sedimenticola From Subtidal Seagrass Beds Associated With The Lucinid Clam, Stewartia Floridana, Aaron M. Goemann

Masters Theses

Lucinid clams and their sulfur-oxidizing endosymbionts comprise two compartments of a three-stage, biogeochemical relationship among the clams, seagrasses, and microbial communities in marine sediments. A population of the lucinid clam, Stewartia floridana, was sampled from a subtidal seagrass bed at Bokeelia Island Seaport in Florida to test the hypotheses: (1) S. floridana, like other lucinids, are more abundant in seagrass beds than bare sediments; (2) S. floridana gill microbiomes are dominated by one bacterial operational taxonomic unit (OTU) at a sequence similarity threshold level of 97% (a common cutoff for species level taxonomy) from 16S rRNA genes; …

Environmental Controls On The Diversity And Distribution Of Endosymbionts Associated With Phacoides Pectinatus (Bivalvia: Lucinidae) From Shallow Mangrove And Seagrass Sediments, St. Lucie County, Florida, Thomas Walters Doty

Masters Theses

Lucinid bivalves are capable of colonizing traditionally inhospitable shallow marine sediments due to metabolic functions of bacterial endosymbionts located within their gills. Because lucinids can often be the dominant sediment infauna, defining their roles in sediment and pore fluid geochemical cycling is necessary to address concerns related to changes in coastal biological diversity and to understanding the sensitivity of threatened coastal ecosystems over time. However, there has been limited research done to understand the diversity and distribution of many lucinid chemosymbiotic systems. Therefore, the goals of this thesis were to evaluate the distribution of Phacoides pectinatus and its endosymbiont communities …

Determination Of Dispersal Patterns And Characterization Of Important Habitats For Lake Sturgeon Restoration In The Upper Tennessee River System, Christina Grace Saidak

Masters Theses

Lake Sturgeon, Acipenser fulvescens, are one of the slowest to reach sexual maturity and longest-lived freshwater fish species in North America. These fish are a species of special concern by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a vulnerable species by the American Fisheries Society (Jelks et al. 2008), and a threatened species in Tennessee (Chiasson et al. 1997; Williams et al. 1989). They have been reintroduced into the Upper Tennessee River system since 2000.

Since December 2013, 49 Lake Sturgeon have been implanted with ultrasonic acoustic transmitters, and 26 fixed-station receivers installed throughout the Upper Tennessee River System to …

Evidence Of Late Quaternary Fires From Charcoal And Siliceous Aggregates In Lake Sediments In The Eastern U.S.A., Joanne P. Ballard

Doctoral Dissertations

The late-glacial transition to the Holocene, 15,000–11,600 cal yr BP, is an enigmatic period of dynamic global changes and a major extinction event in North America. Fire is an agent of disturbance that transforms the environment physically and chemically, and affects plant community composition. To improve understanding of the linkages between fire, vegetation, and climate over the late glacial and Holocene in the eastern U.S., I analyzed lake-sediment cores for charcoal and indicators of wood ash, and compared results to existing pollen records. A new microscopic charcoal record from Anderson Pond, Tennessee revealed high fire activity from 23,000–15,000 cal yr …

Survival And Growth Rate Of Translocated Freshwater Mussels Lampsilis Fasciola And Medionidus Conradicus, Laura L. Pullum

Masters Theses

Freshwater mussels (Family Unionidae and Margaritiferidae) are a widely threatened group of bivalve molluscs, particularly in the Southeastern United States. Translocation of freshwater mussels is an increasingly common conservation method. However, there are relatively few studies that quantitatively investigate the factors influencing translocation success or failure. In October 2013, hundreds of Medionidus conradicus and Lampsilis fasciola were translocated to the Pigeon and Nolichucky Rivers in Tennessee, with an interim partial survey (June 2014) and a full survey (October 2014). In this study, I analyze this field-collected data to determine the mechanism(s) that currently influence the outcomes of Tennessee mussel translocation. …

Mechanisms For Social Influence, Jeremy David Auerbach

Masters Theses

Throughout the thesis, I study mathematical models that can help explain the dependency of social phenomena in animals and humans on individual traits. The first chapter investigates consensus building in human groups through communication of individual preferences for a course of action. Individuals share and modify these preferences through speaker listener interactions. Personality traits, reputations, and social networks structures effect these modifications and eventually the group will reach a consensus. If there is variation in personality traits, the time to reach consensus is delayed. Reputation models are introduced and explored, finding that those who can best estimate the average initial …

To Play Or Not To Play? That’S A Resource Abundance Question, Jeremy David Auerbach, Andrew R. Kanarek, Gordon M. Burghardt

Faculty Publications and Other Works -- Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Although play occurs in a wide variety of animals, models of the origins of play behavior are lacking. We propose a novel computational model exploring the evolution of non-social frivolous play. Asexually reproducing semelparous animals can either rest or forage. Foraging occurs when an organism is below an energy threshold. Success is determined by the combination of skill and availability of resources, which declines over time but replenishes for each generation. Play was introduced as a mutant strategy: a frivolous activity that uses energy and increases the probability of dying over resting with no direct fitness benefit. Simulations show that …