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Full-Text Articles in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Foraging Challenges: Unsuitable Prey And Limited Information, Travis M. Hinkelman
Foraging Challenges: Unsuitable Prey And Limited Information, Travis M. Hinkelman
School of Biological Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research
Food acquisition is a complicated task. The profitability of potential food items depends on numerous factors, including the spatial distribution, probability of detection and capture, and suitability of the food. Animals faced with such challenges can use relatively simple mechanisms to maximize foraging efficiency. However, mechanisms that maximize foraging efficiency under some ecological conditions (e.g., prey scarcity) may produce ostensibly suboptimal behavior under different ecological conditions (e.g., prey abundance). In the work presented here, we explore two facets of foraging: (1) consuming unsuitable prey, and (2) searching for resources with limited information about resource location. To explore the consequences of …
Gene Duplication And The Evolution Of Hemoglobin Isoform Differentiation In Birds, Michael T. Grispo
Gene Duplication And The Evolution Of Hemoglobin Isoform Differentiation In Birds, Michael T. Grispo
School of Biological Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research
The majority of bird species co-express two functionally distinct hemoglobin (Hb) isoforms in definitive erythrocytes: HbA (the major adult Hb isoform, with α-chain subunits encoded by the αA-globin gene) and HbD (the minor adult Hb isoform, with α-chain subunits encoded by the αD-globin gene). The αD-globin gene originated via tandem duplication of an embryonic α-like globin gene in the stem lineage of tetrapod vertebrates, which suggests the possibility that functional differentiation between the HbA and HbD isoforms may be attributable to a retained ancestral character state in HbD that harkens back to a primordial, …
Herbivory Affects Patterns Of Plant Reproductive Effort And Seed Production, Natalie M. West
Herbivory Affects Patterns Of Plant Reproductive Effort And Seed Production, Natalie M. West
School of Biological Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research
Insect herbivory can have a major influence on plant reproduction, and potentially drive selection for strategies that reduce or resist herbivore effects. I used a combination of field experiments and ecological modeling to examine how modifications in the patterns and timing of reproductive investment might ameliorate the consequences of herbivore damage for plant reproduction. I performed experiments to examine how changes in reproductive effort after apical damage and reduction of insect herbivory affected seed production in two thistles native to Nebraska. I then used field data to parameterize a life history model predicting the resource allocation among buds and size …