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Concepts In Animal Parasitology: Permission To Publish Agreement, University Of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries

Concepts in Animal Parasitology

Blank Permission to Publish agreement form for authors of the Concepts in Animal Parasitology textbook/open educational resource.

Condition-Dependent Life History Strategies, Shivani Vijayraj Jadeja

School of Biological Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Many organisms evolve condition-dependent life history strategies to maximize their lifetime fitness in response to intrinsic and extrinsic processes. I investigated a sequentially flowering plant’s strategy to allocate resources to retain flowers versus grow existing basal fruits to a larger size, using the plant Yucca glauca. The sink strength hypothesis suggests basal fruits are nutrient sinks depriving distal flowers of resources and reducing their probability of retention. A low probability of retention of distal flowers can also be explained by the architectural effects hypothesis. This hypothesis posits inherent positional differences in structures along an inflorescence such as flower size …

Determining The Physiological And Behavioral Aspects Of Salinity Tolerance In The Asian Clam, Corbicula Fluminea, John Roden

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The Asian clam, Corbicula fluminea, is an invasive bivalve species that now occurs through most of the lower 48 United States. While a significant degree of salinity tolerance has been observed in C. fluminea, owing to its estuarine lineage, the physiological and behavioral responses to changes in salinity by these organisms are not completely understood. It was hypothesized that Corbicula would initially avoid elevated salinity levels (>1 g/L) behaviorally through valve closure, but would eventually have to open to dispel anaerobic waste products and deal with the salinity. To explore this, Corbicula were collected and put through …

Linkages Between Marsh Fragmentation, Prey Availability, And Blue Crab (Callinectes Sapidus) Abundance And Mortality, Lennah Shakeri

Master's Theses

Coastal marshes are important nursery habitats for many commercially important invertebrate species, yet these marshes are being lost worldwide at an unprecedented rate due to subsidence, erosion, climate change, and human activity. As marsh is lost, it creates the opportunity for submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) colonization and establishment in newly created open water areas. Blue crabs, Callinectes sapidus, use both marsh edge and SAV habitat during the juvenile stages and support one of the largest fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico, worth over $70 million in 2015. This thesis studied the linkages between habitat type, SAV cover, benthic prey …

Life-History Characteristics And Fishery Dynamics Of Red Drum (Sciaenops Ocellatus), In The North-Central Gulf Of Mexico, Corbin Bennetts

Master's Theses

Red Drum (Sciaenops ocellatus) are highly targeted recreationally in the Gulf of Mexico, and support a small commercial fishery in Mississippi. Despite their popularity, the stock is assessed using data limited approaches that necessitate accurate life history information. I estimated the year-specific and year-aggregated escapement rates for the Mississippi stock (years 2004 to 2015), which were sensitive to mortality estimation methods; year-aggregated estimates were 6.9 to 28.2 % depending on the method, but temporal patterns were consistent. I then addressed concerns with previously estimated life-history characteristics by describing the sex-specific growth and reproductive dynamics. The three-parameter von Bertalanffy …

Spatial Variation In Basal Resources And Trophic Position Of Selected Fishes Of The North-Central Gulf Of Mexico, Christopher Fleming

Master's Theses

The North-central Gulf of Mexico is a complex hydrologic environment with freshwater influx that varies on spatial and temporal scales. Freshwater input exerts influence on the isotope values of organisms living in coastal ecosystems. The objectives of this study were to determine relationships between total length and isotope value, estimate basal resource usage and trophic position of target species from Mississippi Sound, reef, and pelagic environments, and identify differences and similarities in spatial patterns of collection. Muscle tissue samples were collected from October 2014 through September 2015. Stable isotope analysis identified a trophic gradient extending from nearshore to offshore, with …

Genetic Estimates Of The Number Of Breeding Adults In Alligator Gar From The Choke Canyon Reservoir, Texas, E. Blayne Newsome

Honors Theses

Alligator gar were historically found across the coastal drainages of the Gulf of Mexico and up into the Mississippi River basin. However, their populations are experiencing decline in many portions of their range. Texas seems to have large populations of alligator gar, but state resource officers are seeking to better understand its biology so as to provide appropriate management recommendations to maintain the recreational fishery. In this study, I used genetic techniques to examine a cohort of 144 juvenile alligator gar collected in 2016 in the Choke Canyon Reservoir. By estimating the effective number of breeders and number of spawning …

Using Remotely Piloted Aircraft And Infrared Technology To Detect And Monitor Greater Sage-Grouse, Thomas R. Thompson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In wildlife management, using cutting edge technology and science to monitor greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; sage-grouse) populations, enables land managers to better assess the impact of their management decisions. Having precise counts of sage-grouse lek attendance, and specifically male lek attendance, is an important metric used to evaluate population status and response to conservation actions (Gifford et.al, 2013, Dahlgren et al., 2016). Leks are seasonal breeding sites where males perform a ritualistic courtship dance for females.

Our case study examined if a Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) was effective in detecting, and counting, sage-grouse during the lek season (early …

The Influence Of Conservation Tillage And Conventional Tillage On Soil Bacterial Diversity In Southern Illinois, Nasser Syed

Dissertations

Agriculture in the Midwest United States (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin) is a critically important component of the United States economy and also for world exports of food grain. This is well reflected in the 2012 Census of Agriculture which showed that these states had a market value of crop and livestock products sold in excess of $80,000,000,000 (USDA, 2012). Within the U.S. the three Midwest states, Illinois, Iowa, and Minnesota are ranked 2nd, 3rd, and 4th for the economic value of crops sold. This economic value of agriculture in the Midwest encompasses not only corn, soybeans, …

Sibship Reconstruction For Inferring The Number Of Breeders Of Gulf Sturgeon In The Apalachicola River, Robbilyn Verges

Honors Theses

The Gulf sturgeon is an anadromous fish that inhabits the Gulf of Mexico and its neighboring river drainages. The species is currently listed as threatened due to habitat alterations and overfishing. In this study, we focused on the Apalachicola River in Florida, which has had several historic spawning locations of the sturgeon blocked by the Jim Woodruff Lock and Dam. Age-1 juvenile sturgeon from the year 2013 (n=31) and 2014 (n=131) were genotyped using fourteen microsatellite loci. Sibship reconstruction and parentage assignment was performed in order to determine the effective number of breeders (Nb) and the total number of spawning …

Personality In California Sea Lions (Zalophus Californianus) And Harbor Seals (Phoca Vitulina): Methodological Convergence And Species-Specific Emotional Repertoires, Amber De Vere

Dissertations

Despite the wide acceptance of animal personality as a valid area of study, research on marine mammal personality remains remarkably scarce. What literature does exist predominantly focuses on bottlenose dolphins (Frick, 2016; Highfill & Kuczaj, 2007; Kuczaj, Highfill & Byerly, 2012; Lilley, de Vere, Yeatre & Kuczaj, 2018; Moreno, Highfill & Kuczaj, 2017). There is also strong evidence for individual differences in grey seals (Robinson et al., 2015; Twiss & Franklin, 2010; Twiss, Culloch & Pomeroy, 2011; Twiss, Cairns, Culloch, Richards & Pomeroy, 2012), and preliminary research has provided evidence of broad personality factors in pinniped species using behavioral coding …

Using Molecular Markers To Trace The Population History Of Volant Organisms At Differing Temporal Scales, Noah A. Burg

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Using molecular markers to test phylogenetic and phylogeographic hypotheses is critical for tracking the population origin of invasive, introduced species (Chapter 2, Chapter 4) and to identify the systematic relationships of disparate lineages at both shallow and deep evolutionary time scales (Chapters 3, Chapter 4). In this thesis, Sanger Sequencing was used to generate datasets based on fresh and preserved tissue from specimens collected in the field, as well as museum tissue vouchers granted from various institutions in the US and Europe. In combining these source materials, data were generated for three focal studies: 1) In the first research section …

The Relationship Between Measures Of Annual Livestock Disturbance In Western Riparian Areas And Stream Conditions Important To Trout, Salmon, And Char, Lindsey M. Goss, Brett B. Roper

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

Managing livestock disturbance in riparian zones in a manner that provides economic returns to ranchers while protecting streams is an important aspect of rangeland management on public lands in the western United States. Attempts to balance economic and ecologic outcomes have been made more difficult due to the presence of several salmonid species that are protected under the Endangered Species Act. One approach to proper management of livestock use near streams has been to define the allowable limits of disturbance using 2 metrics, streambank alteration and stubble height. We evaluated 153 stream reaches within the Interior Columbia Basin to determine …

Advancing The Understanding Of Environmental Transformations, Bioavailability And Effects Of Nanomaterials, An International Us Environmental Protection Agency—Uk Environmental Nanoscience Initiative Joint Program, Mitch M. Lasat, Kian Fan Chung, Jamie Lead, Steve Mcgrath, Richard J. Owen, Sophie Rocks, Jason M. Unrine, Junfeng Zhang

Plant and Soil Sciences Faculty Publications

Nanotechnology has significant economic, health, and environmental benefits, including renewable energy and innovative environmental solutions. Manufactured nanoparticles have been incorporated into new materials and products because of their novel or enhanced properties. These very same properties also have prompted concerns about the potential environmental and human health hazard and risk posed by the manufactured nanomaterials. Appropriate risk management responses require the development of models capable of predicting the environmental and human health effects of the nanomaterials. Development of predictive models has been hampered by a lack of information concerning the environmental fate, behavior and effects of manufactured nanoparticles. The United …

Ecological Studies Of Wolves On Isle Royale, 2017-2018, Rolf O. Peterson, John A. Vucetich, Sarah R. Hoy

Ecological Studies of Wolves on Isle Royale

Annual Report 2017-2018

Function Of The Posterior Laryngeal Constrictor In The Túngara Frog (Engystomops Pustulosus), Ashna Rahman Haque, Marcos Gridi-Papp

Pacific Research & Scholarship Day

No abstract provided.

Comparative Study Of Photosynthesis Rates Between Native Red Maple And Invasive Norway Maple In The Eastern Deciduous Forest, Evan M. Bourtis, Lindsey R. Heckman

The Review: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Research

Invasive species, such as the Norway Maple, are often able to outcompete native species, such as the Red Maple by performing more efficiently in the environment compared to the native species. In this study, we examined if the Norway maple was able to outcompete the Red Maple in the Eastern Deciduous Forest because the Norway Maple had a higher rate of photosynthesis. The study found that the Norway Maple leaves had a slightly higher rate of carbon dioxide consumption than Red Maple leaves and that the Red Maple leaves had a higher rate of oxygen production compared to the Norway …

Comparison Of Habitat And Water Quality In The Blue River's South And Salem Forks In Southern Indiana To Support Watershed Management, Erin Crone

Undergraduate Theses

A stream’s habitat and water quality are heavily influenced by land use and geology within its watershed. Pollutants and sediment loading from watershed drainage can make streams less habitable for certain species, reducing biodiversity. Watershed management strategies, such as the promotion of best management practices in agriculture, can help to combat stream degradation from watershed inputs. The upper Blue River in southern Indiana is a biodiversity hotspot but is experiencing degradation and biodiversity loss due to watershed inputs. This is exemplified by the disappearance of the eastern hellbender salamander, an indicator species, from this area. Fine sediment loading is particularly …

Devonian Stromatoporoid Interactions At The Falls Of The Ohio State Park, Clarksville, Indiana, Morgan Sierra Hall

Undergraduate Theses

Stromatoporoids are calcitic sponges that occurred in the fossil record from the Early Ordovician to Late Devonian period. These sponges interacted with other organisms, especially rugose and tabulate corals. Some corals appear to benefit from the rigidity of stromatoporoids in response to turbulent waters. Stromatoporoids and many corals went extinct during the Frasnian-Famennian crisis when paleoenvironmental parameters were shifting. Studying the relationships between these taxa may provide insight to their vulnerability during the extinction.

This research was performed at the Falls of the Ohio in Clarksville, Indiana. Organisms in the Coral Zone were studied using transect sampling. Each fossil along …

Chapter 18 - Large Mammals, Janice M. Glime

Bryophyte Ecology Volume 2: Bryological Interaction

Explore the contents of Bryophyte Ecology, Volume 2, Chapter 18 - Large Mammals by clicking the links above. For the Contents section of this ebook, as well as Volumes 1 through 5, please visit the Bryophyte Ecology Main Page.

Use CTRL+F to easily search within PDF files.

Ebook sponsored by Michigan Technological University and the International Association of Bryologists.

Ecofeminism In The Speculative Fiction Of Ursula K. Le Guin, Octavia Butler, And Margaret Atwood, Cara Williams

Honors Scholar Theses

The aim of this article is to explore the speculative fiction works of three prominent, female speculative fiction writers: Ursula K. Le Guin, Margaret Atwood,and Octavia Butler through an ecofeminist lens. Ecofeminism, as first coined by Francois D'Eaubonne in 1974, is a philosophy that compares the oppression and abuse of women to that of the environment. This article notes how Le Guin, Atwood, and Butler portray women and the environment in post-apocalyptic science fiction. Specifically, this article looks at how these authors explore food acquisition and consumption in their various worlds. This article asks the question, how does our relationship …

The Ecology Of Nest Cavity Use By Arboreal Ants In The Brazilian Cerrado: Resource Availability, Nest Modification, And Trophic Interactions, Galen Priest

Dissertations

Arboreal ants in the Brazilian Cerrado rely on cavities in living trees as nest sites. These cavities are created by a community of, wood-boring beetles, which act as ecosystem engineers. Despite the importance of these cavities as a resource, little is known about their natural abundance and heterogeneity, how ants use and modify them as nest sites, and how this interaction between cavities and their ant occupants influences trophic interactions on cerrado trees. Here I use natural history observations and manipulative experiments to address these questions. In the first chapter I quantified the occurrence, heterogeneity, and use of beetle-created cavities …

Body Size Downgrading Of Mammals Over The Late Quaternary, Felisa A. Smith, Rosemary E. Elliott Smith, S. Kathleen Lyons, Jonathan L. Payne

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Since the late Pleistocene, large-bodied mammals have been extirpated from much of Earth. Although all habitable continents once harbored giant mammals, the few remaining species are largely confined to Africa. This decline is coincident with the global expansion of hominins over the late Quaternary. Here, we quantify mammalian extinction selectivity, continental body size distributions, and taxonomic diversity over five time periods spanning the past 125,000 years and stretching approximately 200 years into the future. We demonstrate that size-selective extinction was already under way in the oldest interval and occurred on all continents, within all trophic modes, and across all time …

Toward Effective Partially Protected Areas In Tanzania: A Review On Experiences From Ugalla Ecosystem, Paulo Wilfred

Tanzania Journal of Science

Tanzania is understandably concerned about the deterioration of its partially protected areas (PPAs, e.g. game controlled and open areas) due to unauthorised resource use activities. Its 2007 wildlife policy recognises that PPAs are managed as buffer zones so they provide a cushion against land use impacts on core protected areas, and support local livelihoods. Ensuring effective protection of PPAs is especially timely given the fact that Tanzania’s human population is now large and growing rapidly, with rising demand for natural resources, and that protected areas are becoming increasingly isolated. This paper draws insight from research activities in Ugalla ecosystem, western …

Application Of Regression Model To Identify A Parameter That Best Defines Species Diversity In The Coastal Forests Of Tanzania, Cosmas Mligo

Tanzania Journal of Science

Coastal forests of Tanzania are diverse in plant species that make them included as part of the 34 world biodiversity hotspots. This study aimed atdetermining plant species diversity, richness, and evenness as well as to identify the parameter that best defines plant species diversity in the three coastal forests; namely Zaraninge, Kazimzumbwi and Pande. Transect method was used for vegetation data collection and subjected to Analysis of variance and regression techniques. The plant species composition among forests ranged between 75 and 146 with a significantly lower diversity index in Zaraninge (2.057 ± 0.112) than those in Pande (2.415 ± 0.022) …

From Outside To Online: Unanticipated Directions For Utah Master Naturalist, Mark Larese-Casanova, Jennifer Perkins

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Utah Master Naturalist is an award-winning Utah State University Extension program that promotes stewardship of Utah’s natural world through place-based, experiential field courses across the state. Although successful in eliciting positive short- and long-term impacts, Utah Master Naturalist’s traditional five-day field courses were unavailable to many students and instructors due to constraints of time and location. This case study examines Utah Master Naturalist’s first hybrid course, Desert Explorations, and describes the positive results from our pilot study, how a hybrid course solves availability issues, and how field-based learning theories can be adapted to online education through careful design.

Scorpions Of The Horn Of Africa (Arachnida, Scorpiones). Part Xvi. Compsobuthus Maidensis Sp. N. (Buthidae) From Somaliland, František Kovařík

Euscorpius

Compsobuthus maidensis sp. n. from Somaliland is described and fully complemented with color photos of specimens, as well as its habitat. Data on the occurrence of the genus Compsobuthus Vachon, 1949 in the Horn of Africa is summarized.

Energetic Tradeoffs Control The Size Distribution Of Aquatic Mammals, William Gearty, Craig R. Mcclain, Jonathan Payne

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Four extant lineages of mammals have invaded and diversified in the water: Sirenia, Cetacea, Pinnipedia, and Lutrinae. Most of these aquatic clades are larger bodied, on average, than their closest land-dwelling relatives, but the extent to which potential ecological, biomechanical, and physiological controls contributed to this pattern remains untested quantitatively. Here, we use previously published data on the body masses of 3,859 living and 2,999 fossil mammal species to examine the evolutionary trajectories of body size in aquatic mammals through both comparative phylogenetic analysis and examination of the fossil record. Both methods indicate that the evolution of an aquatic lifestyle …

The Ecology And Feeding Behavior Of Mosquitoes In The Galapagos Islands, Samoa S. Asigau

Dissertations

Mosquitoes remain important vectors in transmitting wildlife diseases. This dissertation aims to understand the role that mosquitoes play in transmitting wildlife diseases such as avian malaria, a protozoan parasite belonging to the genus Plasmodium. Using data from wild-caught mosquitoes captured in multiple years and across multiple islands on the Galapagos Archipelago, we describe distributional patterns of mosquitoes, their range limits and assess whether there exists a disease-free refuge as occurs in Hawaii. We show that altitudinal ranges for disease transmission of avian malaria may not be bounded by a stable disease-free refuge, since mosquitoes are found at all elevations, …

Recovering Parasites From Mummies And Coprolites: An Epidemiological Approach, Morgana Camacho, Adauto Araújo, Johnica J. Morrow, Jane E. Buikstra, Karl Reinhard

Karl Reinhard Publications

In the field of archaeological parasitology, researchers have long documented the distribution of parasites in archaeological time and space through the analysis of coprolites and human remains. This area of research defined the origin and migration of parasites through presence/absence studies. By the end of the 20th century, the field of pathoecology had emerged as researchers developed an interest in the ancient ecology of parasite transmission. Supporting studies were conducted to establish the relationships between parasites and humans, including cultural, subsistence, and ecological reconstructions. Parasite prevalence data were collected to infer the impact of parasitism on human health. In the …