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Gascoyne Demersal Scalefish Resource: Oceanic Pink Snapper Recovery Plan 2018-2037, Department Of Fisheries

Fisheries Management Papers

No abstract provided.

Temporal Factors Affecting Foraging Patterns Of A Diurnal Orb-Weaving Spider, Micrathena Gracilis (Araneae: Araneidae), Mitchell Davis Long

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Several studies have investigated the ecological factors that affect behavior in Micrathena gracilis, a diurnal orb-weaving spider that forages on flying insects during the day. However, none yet have considered how the temporal distributions of prey and predator occurrences shape their daily behavioral rhythms, especially web construction, which involves a heavy energetic investment well in advance of potential nutritional benefit. Recently, several orb-weaving spider species have been shown to exhibit a variety of abnormal rhythms, suggesting that circadian clock-controlled rhythms may play an unexpected role in behavioral evolution. Despite the appearance of significant insect abundance in the evenings, M. gracilis …

Soil Microbial Diversity And Litter Decomposition Increase With Time Since Land Use Disturbance In Tropical Montane Forests Of Malaysian Borneo, Renee Sniegocki

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Logging and forest conversion are occurring at alarming rates in the tropical forests of Southeast Asia. These disturbances alter soil chemistry, microbial diversity, and disrupt carbon cycling through shifts in litter decomposition. Direct links between microbial diversity and soil properties such as pH are well established; however, the indirect impacts of logging and forest conversion on microbial diversity and litter decomposition are poorly understood. We used surface (5 cm) soil to assess soil physicochemical properties, next-generation DNA sequencing to assess soil microbial diversity, and standardized litterbags to assess litter decomposition stabilization at five sites along a land use disturbance gradient …

Diatom Morphology In Light Of A Changing Climate: A Focus On Aulacoseira Crenulata, Brighid Welchans

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Fossilized diatoms are arguably the most vital proxy record utilized in paleolimnology. Diatoms are unicellular microalgae that are the basis of countless food webs, are invaluable bioindicators, and generate nearly a quarter of global net primary productivity. Diatoms are affected by a variety of environmental factors but there is relatively little research on how environmental conditions impact diatom valve morphology, and in particular whether there is a correlation between incoming light and diatom pore morphology. This report focuses on the Amazon lowland lake Garzacocha, and analyzes the relationship between light levels and the corresponding size of Aulacoseira crenulata pores. We …

Habitat Selection And Host Detection In The Salamander Mussel, Simpsonaias Ambigua, Eric A. Stegmann

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The native freshwater mussels, Order Unionida, have suffered many species extinctions and loss of abundance. Two important threats to native mussels are loss of habitat and loss of access to the vertebrate hosts of the parasitic mussel larvae. The Salamander mussel, Simpsonaias ambigua, is a habitat specialist, living under flat rocks. It is often found in direct association with its only known host, the common mudpuppy, Necturus maculosus. This association could result from movement and habitat selection by the mussels themselves. Alternatively, it might result from the deposition of juveniles by a resident host. Habitat selection and host …

Estimating Taxonomic Diversity Using Centrum Growth Profiles And Stinger Morphology Of 36 Million Year Old Stingrays From North Dakota, Persia S. Tillman

Theses and Dissertations

Stingrays are a diverse and popular group of vertebrates; however, nothing is known about the relationships between growth biology and climate change. Freshwater stingrays once inhabit the United States and Canada during very warm times in the geologic record. No stingray material has been recorded from the northern part of the United States for the last 33 million years. The Earth’s climate cooled from 50 to 33 million year ago when many warm adapted organisms were relegated to warmer, southern latitudes in North America. Today, freshwater stingrays only inhabit subtropical and tropical environments. We are interested in the freshwater stingrays …

Earliest Known Material Of Amia, Bowfin, From The Sentinel Butte Formation (Paleocene), Medora, North Dakota, Abby Grace Moore

Theses and Dissertations

Amia calva is an icon in the field of comparative osteology, yet we have a poor understanding of the evolution of the genus because many fossil amiid bones have gone unidentified. Here we identify new material of the genus, Amia, with evidence of two unidentified species. Previously, the oldest known material identifiable as Amia cf. A. pattersoni, was a specimen from the Paleocene epoch of Alberta, Canada approximately 58 million years in age. Fossils of the two unidentified species of Amia were found in the Sentinel Butte Formation, a geologic formation of Paleocene age (~ 60 million years …

Association Between Wild Bee Communities And Floral Resources In The Conservation Reserve Program, Allison Eagan

Honors Program Theses

Due to the significance of the plant-pollinator relationship, the loss of pollinators may impose widespread effects on plant communities. Pollinator declines raise questions for the future of agricultural productivity, food security, and human health. Due to the large diversity of the wild bee population and their essential role as pollinators of natural land and agricultural crops, implementing conservation practices are necessary to preserve decreasing populations. Previous conservation efforts have been limited to planting native flowering forbs in unused fields or hedgerows bordering farms and roadsides in order to establish sufficient floral resources. However, restored prairies have the ability to support …

Pismo Clams (Tivela Stultorum) In Califorina: Population Status, Habitat Associations, Reproduction, And Growth, Alexandria R. Marquardt

Master's Theses

Marine shellfish play a vital role in intertidal ecosystems and coastal communities, but many of these fisheries are small-scale and lack the necessary monitoring to ensure long-term sustainability. Effective management often requires information on key demographic parameters, such as population status, reproduction and growth. Pismo clams (Tivela stultorum) are a culturally important and iconic species in California, which supported a thriving commercial and recreational fishery throughout much of the 1900’s. However, Pismo clam populations have declined statewide in recent decades and are attributed to human harvest and predation by California sea otters (Enhydra lutris); However, no …

Paleoecology Of Columbian And Pygmy Mammoths In Southern Nevada And California: How Terminal Pleistocene Ecosystems Shaped Mammoths At The Individual, Population, And Community Level, Lauren Elizabeth Parry

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this dissertation research is to examine the paleoecology of the Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi) and the pygmy mammoth (M. exilis) on the individual, population, and community level, emphasizing factors internal to their ecosystem that may have contributed to their extinction. I focus specifically on mammoths from Southern Nevada and Southern California to add regional data to the complex and evolving study of North American mammoth paleoecology.

Chapter 2 documents the permitted excavation of a partial mammoth (Mammuthus sp.) between 2016-2018 from late Pleistocene groundwater-discharge deposits near Fairbanks Spring in the Amargosa Valley, Nevada. A preliminary radiocarbon date …

Interspecific Differences In Stressor Tolerance Drive Community-Level Changes In A Small Aquatic Ecosystem, Jennifer M. Weathered

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The global human population is expected to reach 9.8 billion by 2050 and an increase in food yield will be needed to provide for the future generations. Insects are among the biggest threats to food production and are therefore the subject of intense chemical control through the application of pesticides. The ability of insects to evolve resistance to pesticides after repeated use has been documented. However, how evolved responses affect individuals’ behaviors, their interactions with others, and how these factors impact overall patterns in distribution remains relatively unexplored in the bromeliad.

The aquatic insect communities housed in water-holding tropical plants …

Chronoecology Of A Cave-Dwelling Orb-Weaver Spider, Meta Ovalis (Araneae: Tetragnathidae), Rebecca Steele

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Circadian clocks enable coordination of essential biological and metabolic processes in relation to the 24-hour light cycle. However, there are many habitats that are not subject to this light cycle, such as the deep sea, arctic regions, and cave systems. This study analyzes the circadian pattern of isolated populations of a subterranean spider, Meta ovalis from two Tennessee caves and five Indiana caves. Locomotor activity was recorded with TriKinetics LAM50 Locomotor Activity Monitor under a 12-hour light (L), 12-hour dark (D) (LD 12:12) cycle preceding total darkness (DD). Significant differences were found within and among populations found in Tennessee cave …

Encephalization In Commensal Raccoons: A Unique Test Of The Cognitive Buffer Hypothesis, Peter M. Anderson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated selective pressures associated with encephalization in mammals and discussed broader implications. Relative brain size as measured by EQ (Encephalization Quotient) was compared between ecological categories. Omnivores had higher average EQ than ecological specialists. Since specialists are disproportionately affected by extinction events, selection for ecological generalism is proposed as encephalization mechanism. This mechanism may reinforce the more widely known Cognitive Buffer Hypothesis (CBH)—the idea that possessing relatively large brains has buffered lineages against environmental change. CBH is tested here by comparing EQs in Procyon lotor (raccoon) in urban and rural environments. CBH predicts that raccoons in the most …

A Tale Of Two Species: Black-Tailed And White-Tailed Prairie Dog Biogeography From The Last Interglacial To 2070, April Dawn Bledsoe

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ecological niche models (ENMs) were created for White-tailed and Black-tailed prairie dogs and projected into the Last Interglacial (LI), the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), and mid-Holocene (mid-H) to discern possible past suitable habitat for both species. Additionally, ENMs were projected into the future year 2070 representative concentration pathways (RCPs) 2.6 and 8.5 to discern how climate change may affect future habitat suitability. Kernel density estimations, minimum convex polygons, and median distribution centers of White-tailed and Black-tailed occurrence records were examined between time-periods to discern the effects of anthropogenic westward expansion on both species’ distributions. Current ENMs were constructed from commonly …

Effects Of Non-Photic Zeitgebers On The Circadian Clock In The Common House Spider, Parasteatoda Tepidariorum (Araneae: Theridiidae), Mattea Garmany, Darrell Moore, Thomas C. Jones

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Circadian rhythms are endogenous cycles that control physiological and behavioral changes that can be affected by environmental factors which allow most eukaryotic organisms to synchronize their daily activities with the 24-hour day. Parasteatoda tepidariorum,the common house spider, demonstrates a short-period circadian clock averaging 21.6 hours when left in constant darkness, yet they are able to entrain to a 24-hour light cycle. We tested whether these spiders were able to use non-photic Zeitgebers to entrain to the 24-hour day. Periodic presentation of food and disturbance were not found to be effective cues for the spiders’ entrainment. A few individuals were clearly …

Disease Ecology And Adaptive Management Of Brucellosis In Greater Yellowstone Elk, Gavin G. Cotterill

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Brucellosis is a bacterial infection that primarily affects livestock and can also be transmitted to humans. In the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE), elk (Cervus canadensis) and bison (Bison bison) are habitual carriers of Brucella abortus, which arrived to the region with cattle over a century ago. The disease was eliminated from cattle in the United States through widespread control efforts, but is now periodically transmitted back to cattle on open rangelands where they can come into contact with fetal tissues and fluids from disease-induced abortions that occur among elk during the late winter and spring. …

Do Didymosphenia Geminata Blooms Affect Fishes In The Kootenai River Basin?, Niall G. Clancy

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Didymosphenia geminata (Didymo) is a nuisance algae that can cover entire streambeds under certain environmental conditions. Numerous studies have shown that it changes the composition of stream invertebrates. Fishes in many headwaters are known to feed almost exclusively on invertebrates. Thus, there is concern changes to the amount or type of invertebrates caused by Didymo blooms will impact fishes such as trout, charr, and sculpin. In the Kootenai River basin of Montana and British Columbia, we examined stream invertebrates and fish diets, condition, and growth across 25 streams during the summers of 2018 and 2019. The severity of Didymo blooms …

Forage Inventory And Modeling In Uintah And Ouray Reservation Rangelands, Scott N. Zimmer

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Uintah and Ouray Reservation in northeastern Utah has not been widely studied, and access to non-tribal members is highly restricted. We sampled vegetation to summarize condition in 300,000 acres of unsurveyed Reservation lands in 2017-2018, combining these data with data collected by the Bureau of Indian Affairs from 2010-2015 to complete an initial rangeland vegetation inventory of the Reservation. This survey was designed to inform management of the area by determining cattle stocking rates and overall ecological condition across the Reservation. Both the density of forage available to cattle and appropriate cattle stocking rates vary greatly throughout management units …

An Evaluation Of Arthropod Assemblages In Great Salt Lake Wetland Habitats: Differences Between Native And Invasive Vegetation And Implications For Restoration, Emily E. Leonard

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Wetlands provide important habitat for various birds. Invasive plants can disrupt wetland food webs by altering the arthropod assemblages (invertebrate animals such as spiders, mites, insects, centipedes, and millipedes) on which these birds rely. However, differences between the wetland arthropods found in invasive vs. native vegetation are poorly defined. Wetlands are often managed for the creation of bird habitat through invasive species removal and native plant revegetation, yet few studies have examined the effects of these restoration methods on arthropod bird food sources. Phragmites australis (common reed), is an aggressive grass species in wetlands surrounding the Great Salt Lake, Utah, …

North Dakota Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus Urophasianus) Recovery Project: Using Translocation To Prevent State-Wide Extirpation And Develop Rangewide Protocols, Kade D. Lazenby

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Greater sage-grouse (Centrocurcus urophasianus; hereafter sage-grouse) are the largest grouse species in North America. Sage-grouse occupy 11 western states, extending into North Dakota. North Dakota sage-grouse population is part of the Great Plains Management Zone. Conservation of sage-grouse has been on the forefront of conservation management 1990s. In 2015 the USFWS declared sage-grouse were not warranted for listing based on significant management efforts. Translocations of sage-grouse to prevent populations from extirpation are an example of these efforts.

Translocations have been described as movement and release of animals into a novel environment. There have been more than 7200 sage-grouse …

Human-Wildlife Interactions In Bryce Canyon National Park, Chad H. Wildermuth

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Public lands such as National Parks protect some of America’s most spectacular and iconic natural, cultural, and historic landscapes. These lands are managed with a goal of preserving their unique features for the recreational use of the public. Therefore, it is important to understand the effects, if any, that public visitation has on these natural systems. This study investigated human-wildlife interactions in Bryce Canyon National Park (BRCA), Utah in order to better understand factors that lead to human-wildlife conflicts and how the attitudes and perceptions of visitors affect their actions towards wildlife.

Observations of human-wildlife interactions were observed and measured …

Forest Grouse Ecology And Management In The Bear River Range Northern Utah, Skyler Y. Farnsworth

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

To better manage dusky grouse (Dendragapus obscurus) and ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus), hereafter forest grouse, managers require better information on forest grouse population status and habitat selection. To address this need, from 2015-2017, I conducted research on a sympatric populations inhabiting the Bear River Range of northern Utah to develop a breeding survey protocol, assess habitat selection, evaluate dusky grouse response to livestock grazing, and determine hunter harvest rates.

The breeding census protocol that I developed compared listening intervals with and without electronic playback calls at designated survey stop locations. Using digital mapping software, I plotted …

Glare Reduction By Dark Facial Markings And Bills In Birds, Clara Lebow

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Avian facial plumage, bill coloration, and feather microstructure may serve one or more adaptive functions. Several researchers have proposed that dark eyestripes, bills, and facial masks aid in reducing glare, however, there have been relatively few tests of this hypothesis. Dark facial markings have been shown to have an adaptive glare-reduction function in recent field studies of a few species, but this hypothesis has never been tested in a broad multispecies analysis. It is likely that feather microstructure influences feather brightness and has an effect on the efficacy of glare reduction properties of feathers. I examined the link between dark …

A Comparative Taxonomic And Diversity Study Of Litter-Associated Fungi In Northwest Arkansas Forests, Rajaa Abdulrazzaq Abbas Al Aanbagi

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Fungi are taxonomically the most species-rich group of organisms on the earth, ecologically occupy distinctive niches and interact with diverse other organisms throughout their biogeographic distributions and functionally play key roles through their various lifestyles. Plant litter, in particular, is a keystone component in ecosystems and provides heterogeneous microhabitats for the often overlooked litter-decomposing fungi and other organisms on the floor of temperate deciduous forests. Litter fungi involve indirect interactions with the plant, soil and whole food web network. However, the community structure and functions of litter-associated fungi as well as patterns of species richness distributed across various litter microhabitats …

Evolutionary Inference From Admixed Genomes: Implications Of Hybridization For Biodiversity Dynamics And Conservation, Tyler Chafin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Hybridization as a macroevolutionary mechanism has been historically underappreciated among vertebrate biologists. Yet, the advent and subsequent proliferation of next-generation sequencing methods has increasingly shown hybridization to be a pervasive agent influencing evolution in many branches of the Tree of Life (to include ancestral hominids). Despite this, the dynamics of hybridization with regards to speciation and extinction remain poorly understood. To this end, I here examine the role of hybridization in the context of historical divergence and contemporary decline of several threatened and endangered North American taxa, with the goal to illuminate implications of hybridization for promoting—or impeding—population persistence in …

Investigating The Effects Of Temperature On Lesser Celandine, Regina Bellian

The Downtown Review: An Interdisciplinary Journal Written and Peer-Reviewed by Mandel Honors College Students at Cleveland State University

This paper explores invasive species Ficaria verna (Lesser celandine) and the effects of temperature on its growth. Trials were completed with two treatments, 13OC cold temperature and 20OC ambient temperature. Germinated bulbils of Lesser celandine were planted on February 15, 2017 and placed in their respective growing chambers. The plants were watered weekly and monitored for growth until harvest on March 29, 2017. Upon harvest, the plants’ height, largest leaf diameter and biomass were measured after extraction from soil and the removal of the leftover soil debris. Average height was found to be 11.66cm for the cold treatment and 5.14cm …

Investigating The Effects Of Sea-Level Rise And Increasing Salinity On Procambarus Lunzi Of Sapelo Island, Georgia, Samuel Long

Biology Theses

Barrier islands have great ecological and economical importance and face a threat from increasing sea-level due to climate change. Erosion of existing freshwater lens and ocean inundation could greatly change freshwater availability on the island. This could have significant impacts on freshwater crayfish like Procambarus lunzi, which are complexly intertwined into the trophic food web of the island. This study’s goal was to investigate the salinity tolerance of this crayfish on Sapelo Island, Georgia, in an attempt to predict the possible effects and response to sea-level rise by this crayfish. Crayfish were wild-caught from the island in March, June, and …

Hives, Rachel Selvaraj '22, Nicolette Schmidling '22, Abigail Ryner '22

Student Leadership Exchange (SLX)

Bees are a capstone species and the world’s most important animal as ranked by the Royal Geographic Society in London. They play a key role in the production of many food products which certain communities may depend on; however, their population has rapidly been declining as of lately. Hives is an organization which takes this issue into extreme consideration. We believe that habitat restoration efforts for bees is the strongest way to make an impact. We will work with numerous local gardens to install our artificial bee homes. These homes are created solely from recyclable materials. Not only are our …

What Roadkills Did We Miss In A Driving Survey? A Comparison Of Driving And Walking Surveys In Baldwin County, Georgia, Kori A. Ogletree, Alfred J. Mead

Georgia Journal of Science

Accurate estimates of vertebrate road mortalities are necessary prior to the consideration of mitigation measures by resource managers. Due to ease of implementation, driving surveys are more common than walking surveys. From February 2018 to February 2019, two survey methods, driving and walking, were used to monitor a 1.16 km section of Highway 212 in Baldwin County, Georgia. Roadkills were identified and monitored for persistence from sunrise to noon two days a week. Twenty-nine roadkills were recorded over the survey period: 48.3% mammals (14/29), 27.6% herpetofauna (8/29), and 24.1% birds (7/29). Forty-eight percent (14/29) of roadkills were missed by the …

Sea Level Rise Vulnerability Analysis Of Mangrove Ecosystems Using Gis, Kayla Caldwell

HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations

Climate change is accelerating beyond what is natural due to excessive emissions from human activities. The sea level has been rising for many years and is currently at a rate of 3.6 mm/yr. Mangroves are known to only keep pace with a sea level rate of less than 1.2 mm/yr. Mangroves are particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels if they are not able to keep pace through vertical sediment accretion or inland migration. To test the vulnerability of the south Florida mangrove ecosystems to sea level rise, this study analyzed changes in the mangrove forest coverage of the Oleta River …