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Influence Of Normal Daytime Fat Deposition On Laboratory Measurements Of Torpor Use In Territorial Versus Nonterritorial Hummingbirds, Donald R. Powers, A R. Brown, J A. Van Hook

Faculty Publications - Department of Biological & Molecular Science

Fat deposition and torpor use in hummingbirds exhibiting distinct foraging styles should vary. We predicted that dominant territorial hummingbirds will use torpor less than subordinate nonterritorial species because unrestricted access to energy by territory owners allows for fat storage. Entry into torpor was monitored using open-flow respirometry on hummingbirds allowed to accumulate fat normally during the day. Fat accumulation was measured by solvent fat extraction. Territorial blue-throated hummingbirds (Lampornis clemenciae) had the highest fat accumulation and used torpor only 17% of the time. Fat storage by L. clemenciae averaged 26% of lean dry mass (LDM) in 1995 and 18% in …

Effects Of Weather On Autumn Hawk Movements At Fort Morgan, Alabama, Stefan Woltmann, David Cimprich

Faculty Publications

Migrating hawks were observed at Fort Morgan, Alabama during autumn 1995-1998. The three most abundant migrants were Sharp-shinned Hawk (Accipiter striatus), Broad-winged Hawk (Buteo platypterus) and American Kestrel (Falco sparverius). The three species accounted for 84% of all observations. Most individuals (> 80%) were seen heading west. Compared with days with east and south winds, days with north winds were associated with significantly higher passage rates for all species, and passage rates of Broadwinged Hawks were significantly higher on days when both a cold front and north winds occurred than on days with north winds only. …

Reproductive Response Of Adult Siberian Hamsters To One-Hour Melatonin Infusions, Bülent Gündüz, Milton H. Stetson

Turkish Journal of Biology

The pineal hormone melatonin is known to play an important role in mediating photoperiodic messages to the reproductive system in seasonal breeding animals. In this study, we investigated whether a 1 h subcutaneous infusion of 50 ng of melatonin at 2000-2100 hours, effective in causing inhibition of testicular development in the juvenile Siberian hamsters (Phodopus sungorus), would cause testicular regression in adults of this species housed on a long photoperiod (LD16:8). Pinealectomized adult hamsters received programmed subcutaneous infusions of 50 or 500 ng of melatonin or vehicle (0.12 ml) at 2000-2100 hours each day for 8 weeks. We found that …

The Tadpole Of Phrynobatrachus Mababiensis Fitzsimons, 1932 (Anura, Ranidae, Petropedetinae), Rafael O. De Sá, Alan Channing

Biology Faculty Publications

The puddle frog genus Phrynobatrachus Günther, 1862 comprises about 64 currently recognized species (Frost, 1985). Of these, only the tadpoles of P. natalensis (Smith, 1849) (Power, 1927; Channing, 2001), P. guineensis Guibé & Lamotte, 1961(Rödel,1998) and P. alticola Guibé & Lamotte, 1961 (Rödel & Ernst, 2002) have been described. Phrynobatrachus mababiensis FitzSimons, 1932 (Dwarf Puddle frog, Wager, 1986; Mababe River frog, Frank & Ramus, 1996) is a small frog that usually calls from low in thick vegetation on flooded terrains close to the water. Very little has been published about the biology of this species. Passmore & Carruthers (1979) reported …

John Russell Bozeman Papers, Zach S. Henderson Library Special Collections

Finding Aids

This collection consists of research materials belonging to Georgia Southern College instructor, John Russell Bozeman. Materials span 1948-1994 and include research files on beach erosion, the ecology of the Georgia barrier islands, and general information on Southeastern ecology and topography.

Find this collection in the University Libraries' catalog.

Life Cycle Of A Torrenticolous Hawaiian Chironomid (Telmatogeton Torrenticola): Stream Flow And Microhabitat Effects, Mark Eric Benbow, Albert J. Burky, C. M. Way

Biology Faculty Publications

In this study we documented the instar densities and life cycle of Telmatogeton torrenticola Terry (Chironomidae : Telmatogetoninae) from Kinihapai Stream, Maui, Hawaii. Greatest larval densities of this midge are found on substrates of high velocity, shallow flows of cascades, and splash zones of waterfalls, with lower densities in riffles. In the summer of 1994 we compared the effects of two microhabitats (termed optimal and suboptimal) on inter-instar density and relative abundance. In a second year (1995), we evaluated the effect of long-term reduced stream flow on these variables only in optimal microhabitats. A significant reduction in stream flow from …

Fecal Coliforms And Antibiotic Resistance Of Tuckahoe Creek, Catherine C. Parker

Honors Theses

The Tuckahoe Creek has been classified impaired by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) indicating that one of the following parameters exceed the accepted limits: pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen (DO), phosphates, nitrates, and concentration of fecal coliforms. Throughout the course of this study, two selected sites have been monitored monthly in order to measure these parameters. Route 288 is located near a construction site, and Route 621 is near Sycamore Creek Golf Course in a more rural area. The results from this study have shown that the fecal coliforms have been uniformly within the set legal limit of 1,000 …

Thermal Time: Body Size, Food Quality And The 10c Rule, Eric Charnov, James Gillooly

Biology Faculty & Staff Publications

Developmental rates of ectotherms (y) are often linearly related to temperature (Tc in C) within some biologically relevant range of temperatures as y = (1/S)(Tc - Tb), where Tb is the estimated temperature at zero development, and the thermal constant S is the development time multiplied by the temperature above Tb (i.e. degree days above Tb). Among similar species, it has been widely shown that S and Tb are negatively related across environments, that S is positively related to body size, and that Tb is independent of body size but increases with mean environmental temperature. Here we present a model …

Web Orientation Of The Banded Garden Spider Argiope Trifasciata (Araneae, Araneidae) In A California Coastal Population, Martina G. Ramirez

Biology Faculty Works

Magnetic heading (direction the spider’s ventrum faced) and web inclination (degree of slant from the vertical) in Argiope trifasciata Forska°l, a diurnal orb-weaving spider, were studied at a coastal site in southern California for nine weeks in fall 1999. Throughout the study, A. trifasciata largely occupied east-west oriented webs with their venters facing south and southwest. Mean magnetic heading was unaffected by ambient temperature extremes. Inclination levels varied from week to week over an approximately 58 range. However, these changes followed no discernible pattern and were independent both of the sun’s decrease in maximum altitude during the course of the …

Proteasome Inhibition Stabilizes Tau Inclusions In Oligodendroglial Cells That Occur After Treatment With Okadaic Acid, Deepa V. Dabir

Biology Faculty Works

Tau-positive inclusions in oligodendrocytes are consistent neuropathological features of corticobasal degeneration, progressive supranuclear palsy, and frontotemporal dementias with Parkinsonism linked to chromosome 17. Here we show by immunohistochemistry that tau-positive oligodendroglial inclusion bodies also contain the small heat-shock protein (HSP) αB-crystallin but not H HSP70. To study the molecular mechanisms underlying inclusion body formation, we engineered an oligodendroglia cell line (OLN-t40) to overexpress the longest human tau isoform. Treatment of OLN-t40 cells with okadaic acid (OA), an inhibitor of protein phosphatase 2A, caused tau hyperphosphorylation and a decrease in the binding of tau to microtubules. Simultaneously, tau-positive aggregates that also …

Putative Subunits Of The Maize Origin Of Replication Recognition Complex Zmorc1±Zmorc5, Xiaohong Witmer, Raul Alvarez-Venegas, Phillip San-Miguel, Olga Danilevskaya, Zoya Avramova

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

The finding in animal species of complexes homologous

to the products of six Saccharomyces cerevisiae

genes, origin of replication recognition

complex (ORC), has suggested that ORC-related

mechanisms have been conserved in all eukaryotes.

In plants, however, the only cloned putative homologs

of ORC subunits are the Arabidopsis ORC2 and

the rice ORC1. Homologs of other subunits of plant

origin have not been cloned and characterized. A

striking observation was the absence from the

Arabidopsis genome of an obvious candidate genehomolog

of ORC4. This fact raised compelling

questions of whether plants, in general, and

Arabidopsis, in particular, may have lost the …

Multistate Estimates Of Survival And Movement In Relation To Colony Size In The Sociable Weaver, Charles R. Brown, Rita Covas, Mark D. Anderson, Mary Bomberger Brown

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

We estimated survival and movement probabilities in relation to breeding-colony size in the sociable weaver (Philetairus socius) by using multistate statistical methods, in which survival and movement to time t + 1 is conditional on an individual’s colony size at time t. The sociable weaver is a colonial, cooperatively breeding species that builds a massive communal nest, with colony size ranging from fewer than 20 to more than 500 individuals in some areas. We conducted an 8-year capture/mark/re-capture study of sociable weavers near Kimberley, South Africa. By comparing the fit of different multistate models to our data, we found evidence …

Testis Size Increases With Colony Size In Cliff Swallows, Charles R. Brown, Mary Bomberger Brown

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

By using a sample of more than 800 male cliff swallows (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) that died during a rare climatic event in our Nebraska study area in 1996, we investigated how testis size was related to body size, age, parasite load, a bird’s past colony-size history, and spleen size. Testis volume in-creased with body size. After correcting for body size, testis volume was lowest for birds age 1 and 2 years but did not vary with age for males 3 years old or more. Birds occupying parasite-free (fumigated) colonies had significantly larger testes than did birds at non-fumigated sites. …

Leptodactylus Mystacinus, M. M. Heyer, W. R. Heyer, Rafael O. De Sá

Biology Faculty Publications

Adult Leptodactylus mystacinus are of moderate size, the head is as wide as long, and the hind limbs are moderately short (see Table; Heyer and Thompson 2000 provided definitions of adult size and leg length categories for Leptodactylus). Male vocal sacs are not visible externally or at best are weakly expanded laterally and slightly darker than female throats. Male snouts are more spatulate than those of females. Male forearms are not hypertrophied. Males lack asperities on the thumbs and chest. One or two pairs of dorsolateral folds (indicated by dark/light outlining in indifferently preserved specimens) are present: one …

The Reactive Genome, Scott F. Gilbert

Biology Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Predator-Induced Polyphenism In The Evolution Of Cognition: A Baldwinian Speculation, Scott F. Gilbert

Biology Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

First Nesting Attempt Of Yellow-Faced Grassquit (Tiaris Olivacea) In The United States, Timothy Brush

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences (Formerly Dept. of Biology)

No abstract provided.

Mosquitoes, West Nile Virus, Attractants, Competition, Environmental Conditions, And Insecticide Resistance, Alan Bradley Wells

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations (1964–2006)

The six main objectives of this project were: 1) test for levels of West Nile Virus in mosquitoes collected at a Fulton County Recreational Facility, 2) assay various mosquito oviposition attractants on West Nile virus positive female mosquitoes, 3) test effects of distance between mosquito infusion attractants, 4) determine effects of study site location, treatment, and competition distances on mosquito collections, 5) test for any correlation between environmental factors and mosquito abundance, and 6) measure levels of enzymatic insecticide resistance present in species of female mosquitoes that tested positive for the presence of West Nile Virus. Ofthe two species that …

Effects Of Social Interaction On The Electric Organ Discharge In A Mormyrid Fish, Gnathonemus Petersii (Mormyridae, Teleostei), Thomas A. Terleph, Peter Moller

Biology Faculty Publications

African weakly discharging electric fish (Mormyridae) use their self-generated electric signals and electroreceptive abilities for orientation and communication in the context of courtship and territorial interactions. This paper documents socially mediated changes in the electric organ discharge (EOD) of subadult Gnathonemus petersii under non-breeding environmental conditions. Increases in EOD duration and changes in the relative phase amplitudes occurred in dominant fish during same-sex (male–male, female–female) and opposite-sex interactions. Similar changes were also observed in fish that were restricted in their physical interactions, suggesting that direct contact is not necessary to induce dominance-typical EOD waveforms. The possible communicative functions of these …

Effects Of Pesticides And Their Combinations On Human Fibroblast Cells, Yijun Deng

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Pesticides are widely used in Iowa due to its primarily agricultural economy. Many studies have shown that the water sources in Iowa are contaminated by multiple pesticides. Most of the information about the adverse human health effects due to such environmental contaminants comes from studies that focus on exposure to single rather than multiple pesticides. Additionally, many of the environmental regulations regarding levels of pesticide contamination refer only to single, individual pesticides. Many questions remain about the human health effects of exposure to pesticide combinations. This study attempts to understand the effects of pesticide combinations on human cells. A cell …

Avian Population Trends Within The Evolving Agricultural Landscape Of The Eastern And Central United States, Michael T. Murphy

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

State-level Breeding Bird Survey (1980-1998) and U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics were used to test the hypothesis that changes in agricultural land use within the eastern and central U.S. have driven population trends of grassland and shrub habitat birds over the past two decades. The degree to which population trends differed between grassland and shrub habitats was evaluated with respect to migratory and nesting behavior. Grassland birds declined significantly between 1980 and 1999, but, on average, shrub habitat species did not. Grassland-breeding, long-distance migrants exhibited the strongest negative trends. Most species (78%; n = 63) exhibited at least one significant …

Comparative Studies Of Evolutionary Responses To Light Environments In Arabidopsis, Massimo Pigliucci, Heidi Pollard, Mitchell B. Cruzan

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this article, we compare the reaction norms to foliage shade (changes in light quality, spatially fine-grained environmental variation) and photoperiod (day length, spatially coarse-grained environmental variation) in several haplotypes of Arabidopsis thaliana from Scandinavia. We found that both across-environment means and phenotypic plasticities evolved continuously and very rapidly within this group. Both character means and trait plasticities were highly integrated, in part as predicted by the adaptive plasticity hypothesis for response to foliage shade (the so-called shade-avoidance syndrome). We found that a significant but small fraction of the variance in across-treatment trait means and plasticities in response to one …

The Effects Of Prescribed Fire On Millipede And Salamander Populations In A Southern Appalachian Deciduous Forest., Alison Baird Gagan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Prescribed fire has increased as a forest management practice in southern Appalachia, but investigations into the effects of this silvicultural treatment on non-game wildlife inhabiting the region is limited. This study investigated the effects of prescribed fire on millipede and salamander populations. Seventeen sites within the Cherokee National Forest in east Tennessee that were treated once with prescribed fire between 1998 and 2002 were examined in the spring of 2002. Each burned plot was paired with an adjacent unburned plot.

The number of individual millipedes and salamanders collected from burned plots was compared to the corresponding control plot. Millipedes declined …

Rotational Lift: Something Different Or More Of The Same?, Jeffrey A. Walker Phd

Faculty Publications

This paper addresses the question, do the rotational forces in the hovering fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster reflect something different (the Magnus effect) or more of the same (circulatory-and-attached-vortex force)? The results of an unsteady blade-element model using empirically derived force coefficients from translating (root-oscillating) wings are compared with recent results derived from both the measured forces on a dynamically scaled Drosophila wing and the computational fluid dynamic (CFD)-modeled forces on a virtual Drosophila wing. The behavior of the forces in all three models during wing rotation supports the hypothesis that rotational lift is not a novel aerodynamic mechanism but is …

Nonadditive Genetic Effects In Animal Behavior, Lisa M. Meffert, Sara K. Hicks, Jennifer L. Regan

Faculty Publications

Heritabilities, commonly used to predict evolutionary potential, are notoriously low for behaviors. Apart from strong contributions of environmental variance in reducing heritabilities, the additive genetic components can be very low, especially when they are camouflaged by nonadditive genetic effects. We first report the heritabilities of courtship traits in founder‐flush and control populations of the housefly (Musca domestica L.). We estimated the heritability of each male and female display through the regression of the courtships involving daughters and sons (with randomly selected mates) onto the “midparental” courtship values of their parents. Overall, the average heritability was significantly higher for the …

Rhoa Kinase And Protein Kinase C Participate In Regulation Of Rabbit Stomach Fundus Smooth Muscle Contraction, Paul H. Ratz, Joel T. Meehl, Thomas J. Eddinger

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

1. The degree to which the RhoA kinase (ROK) blockers, Y-27632 (1 µM) and HA-1077 (10 µM), and the PKC blocker, GF-109203X (1 µM), reduced force produced by carbachol, a muscarinic receptor agonist, and phenylephrine, an α-adrenoceptor agonist, was examined in rabbit stomach fundus smooth muscle.

2. When examining the effect on cumulative carbachol concentration-response curves (CRCs), ROK and PKC blockers shifted the potency (~EC50) to the right but did not reduce the maximum response.

3. In a single-dose carbachol protocol using moderate (~EC50) and maximum carbachol concentrations, Y-27632 and HA-1077 reduced peak force, but GF-109203X had no effect. By …

Shar-Pei Mediates Cell Proliferation Arrest During Imaginal Disc Growth In Drosophila, Madhuri Kango-Singh, Riitta Nolo, Chunyao Tao, Patrik Verstreken, P. Robin Hiesinger, Hugo J. Bellen, Georg Halder

Biology Faculty Publications

During animal development, organ size is determined primarily by the amount of cell proliferation, which must be tightly regulated to ensure the generation of properly proportioned organs. However, little is known about the molecular pathways that direct cells to stop proliferating when an organ has attained its proper size. We have identified mutations in a novel gene, shar-pei, that is required for proper termination of cell proliferation during Drosophila imaginal disc development. Clones of shar-pei mutant cells in imaginal discs produce enlarged tissues containing more cells of normal size. We show that this phenotype is the result of both …

Gag Proteins Of The Two Drosophila Telomeric Retrotransposons Are Targeted To Chromosome Ends, Svetlana Rashkova, Sarah E. Karam, Rebecca Kellum, Mary-Lou Pardue

Biology Faculty Publications

Drosophila telomeres are formed by two non-LTR retrotransposons, HeT-A and TART, which transpose only to chromosome ends. Successive transpositions of these telomeric elements yield arrays that are functionally equivalent to the arrays generated by telomerase in other organisms. In contrast, other Drosophila non-LTR retrotransposons transpose widely through gene-rich regions, but not to ends. The two telomeric elements encode very similar Gag proteins, suggesting that Gag may be involved in their unique targeting to chromosome ends. To test the intrinsic potential of these Gag proteins for targeting, we tagged the coding sequences with sequence of GFP and expressed the constructs …

Individual, Temporal, And Seasonal Variation In Sperm Concentration In Tree Swallows, Michael P. Lombardo, Armetris N. Forman, Matthew R. Czarnowski, Patrick A. Thorpe

Peer Reviewed Publications

We determined sperm concentrations in Tree Swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) by manually expressing semen samples from males during prelaying, egg-laying, incubation, and nestling periods. Sperm concentrations varied by orders of magnitude (0-10⁹ sperm mL^-1) among males. Sperm concentrations were highest during the incubation period and lowest during the prelaying period. None of the samples collected during the prelaying, egg-laying, and incubation periods were devoid of sperm. In contrast, 45% of samples collected during the nestling period lacked sperm. Sperm concentrations (1) did not vary over the course of the morning during prelaying, egg-laying, and incubation periods …

Brief Communications: Rapid And Costly Ageing In Wild Male Flies, Russell Bonduriansky, Chad Brassil

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Ageing (senescence) has never been demonstrated convincingly in any insect in the wild, where mean life-spans are probably much shorter than in the laboratory¹, and most evidence for senescence in other wild animals (such as mammals) is limited to their reduced survival with age². Here we show that ageing is detectable in wild populations of a very short-lived insect, the antler fly (Protopiophila litigata), and causes debilitating and costly effects that force a decline not only in survival probability, but also in the reproductive rate of males. Our findings argue against the possibility of …