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Killi-Data News (Fall), Tyrone Genade

Killifish Research Review

Many interesting papers have been published over the last three months. The large volume of papers coupled with the start of the new college semester (and the workload it brings) delayed this issue of Killi-Data News. But better late than never—or so I hope! In this issue Richard van der Laan provides an insightful review of the recent Aphanius papers as to their taxonomic implications and questions. The systematic issues he raises show the importance of the Molecular project: we need to get more samples of the various cyprinodontiforme families to resolve unsettled systematic and taxonomic issues. In the Next …

Killi-Data News (Summer), Tyrone Genade

Killifish Research Review

Over the last three months several interesting and exciting pa- pers have been published. By now most of you have heard the Nothobranchius fish poo news emanating from the Valenzano lab. That paper is reviewed and certainly has repercussions for the health of our captive fish. Polaçik et al have published interesting data with ramifications as to how we breed and incubate annual killifish. The big news in this issue is the paper from the Reznick lab which Jean Huber reviews. The contents of that paper goes to the heart of the question of just what a killifish is. The …

Killi-Data News (Spring), Tyrone Genade

Killifish Research Review

This is the start of Killi-Data News’ second year. In this first issue of the year we have the usual review of research pub- lications as well as input from Martin Reichard on his lab’s Nothobranchius research. Martin is responding to my reviews of his lab’s work in the previous edition. I am serious about making sure the content in this newsletter is reliable but I erred in the previous edition and Martin has written extensively to correct my mistake in the section “Erratum”. This reply is welcomed and owed to readers. I must confess that I don’t know everything …

Killi-Data News (Winter), Tyrone Genade

Killifish Research Review

This is the fourth edition, and concluding issue of the first volume, of Killi-Data News and I am happy that it has been well received by readers. At 25 pages this issue is a bit thin- ner than the last but this is because we agreed to make the cut-off for submissions the 1 st of December so we could get this edition out by the New Year. This is an exciting edition full of new species descrip- tions and analyses that will keep taxonomists busy for years to come. Costa has given us two molecular phylogenies on Melanorivulus as …

Killi-Data News (Spring), Tyrone Genade

Killifish Research Review

This is the start of Killi-Data News’ second year. In this first issue of the year we have the usual review of research pub- lications as well as input from Martin Reichard on his lab’s Nothobranchius research. Martin is responding to my reviews of his lab’s work in the previous edition. I am serious about making sure the content in this newsletter is reliable but I erred in the previous edition and Martin has written extensively to correct my mistake in the section “Erratum”. This reply is welcomed and owed to readers. I must confess that I don’t know everything …

Sublethal Effects Of Crude Oil And Chemical Dispersant On The Eastern Oyster (Crassostrea Virginica) At Multiple Life History Stages, Sara Marie Garcia

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Oil spills in the marine environment can threaten vulnerable ecosystems that support ecologically and economically significant organisms, such as the eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica), in coastal habitats. The use of chemical dispersant (Corexit 9500) was applied as a cleanup effort in response to the Deepwater Horizon blowout to minimize crude oil slicks, but also resulted in increased concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the water column. The effects of increased soluble fractions of crude oil and dispersant components may be harmful to marine organisms. This study aimed to investigate possible sublethal impacts to the eastern oyster at multiple life history …

Alluvial Substrate Mapping By Automated Texture Segmentation Of Recreational-Grade Side Scan Sonar Imagery, Daniel Hamill, Daniel Buscombe, Joseph Michael Wheaton

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

Side scan sonar in low-cost ‘fishfinder’ systems has become popular in aquatic ecology and sedimentology for imaging submerged riverbed sediment at coverages and resolutions sufficient to relate bed texture to grain-size. Traditional methods to map bed texture (i.e. physical samples) are relatively high-cost and low spatial coverage compared to sonar, which can continuously image several kilometers of channel in a few hours. Towards a goal of automating the classification of bed habitat features, we investigate relationships between substrates and statistical descriptors of bed textures in side scan sonar echograms of alluvial deposits. We develop a method for automated segmentation of …

Taxonomy Based On Science Is Necessary For Global Conservation [Formal Comment], Scott A. Thomson, Richard L. Pyle, Scott Monks, Neal L. Evenhuis, Ronald H. Pine, Luis A. Ruedas, Jorge A. Salazar-Bravo, Robert M. Timm, Douglas Yanega, 163 Other Co-Authors

Harold W. Manter Laboratory of Parasitology: Faculty Publications

Taxonomy is a scientific discipline that has provided the universal naming and classification system of biodiversity for centuries and continues effectively to accommodate new knowledge. A recent publication by Garnett and Christidis expressed concerns regarding the difficulty that taxonomic changes represent for conservation efforts and proposed the establishment of a system to govern taxonomic changes. Their proposal to “restrict the freedom of taxonomic action” through governing subcommittees that would “review taxonomic papers for compliance” and their assertion that “the scientific community's failure to govern taxonomy threatens the effectiveness of global efforts to halt biodiversity loss, damages the credibility of science, …

Bats Of Sint Eustatius, Caribbean Netherlands, Scott C. Pedersen, Peter A. Larsen, Sil A. Westra, Ellen Van Norren, Wesley Overman, Gary G. Kwiecinski, Hugh H. Genoways

University of Nebraska State Museum: Mammalogy Papers

The bat fauna of the Caribbean island of Sint Eustatius consists of five documented species—Monophyllus plethodon, Brachyphylla cavernarum, Artibeus jamaicensis, Ardops nichollsi, and Molossus molossus—and one provisional species—Tadarida brasiliensis. The Insular Single-leaf Bat, M. plethodon, is reported in the scientific literature for the first time from Sint Eustatius based on material presented herein. The bat fauna of the island is considered to be unbalanced because only three species, which are the environmental generalists, are abundant, whereas the more specialized species are rare or absent from the fauna. It is our hypothesis …

A Naturalist’S Guide To The Great Plains, Paul A. Johnsgard

Zea E-Books Collection

This book documents nearly 500 US and Canadian locations where wildlife refuges, nature preserves, and similar properties protect natural sites that lie within the North American Great Plains, from Canada’s Prairie Provinces to the Texas-Mexico border. Information on site location, size, biological diversity, and the presence of especially rare or interesting flora and fauna are mentioned, as well as driving directions, mailing addresses, and phone numbers or internet addresses, as available. US federal sites include 11 national grasslands, 13 national parks, 16 national monuments, and more than 70 national wildlife refuges. State properties include nearly 100 state parks and wildlife …

Olfactory Learning Capabilities Of Paraphrynus Laevifrons, John Perez

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Amblypygids, a species of nocturnal arachnids from the tropics and subtropics are incredibly intelligent and are able to not only navigate through difficult tropical terrain but also, it is believed, possess olfactory learning capabilities that aid in navigation and recollection of environments. It is hypothesized that through sensitive olfactory receptors on their antenniform legs and highly developed mushroom bodies, Amblypygi can not only learn smells but also learn to associate smells with certain stimuli such as a crevice to take refuge in. To test this hypothesis, Paraphrynus laevifrons, a species of amplypygid was subjected to four different learning treatment groups …

Recovery Of Zooplankton Communities To Whole-Lake Disturbance, Brian Newton Mcgann

Dissertations and Theses

Community assembly following disturbance is a key process in determining the composition and function of the future community. However, replicated studies of community assembly at whole ecosystem scales are rare. Here is described a series of whole-lake experiments in which the recovery of zooplankton communities is tracked following an ecosystem-scale disturbance. Fourteen lakes in eastern Washington were chosen: seven lakes were treated with rotenone, while the remaining seven were reference. Each lake was monitored up to six months before and one to two years after the rotenone treatments. Zooplankton tows were taken monthly, at a shallow, intermediate, and deep site …

P-46 A Periodic Matrix Model Of Seabird Behavior And Population Dynamics, Mykhaylo M. Malakhov, Benjamin Macdonald, Shandelle M. Henson, J. M. Cushing

Honors Scholars & Undergraduate Research Poster Symposium Programs

Rising sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in the Pacific Northwest lead to food resource reductions for surface-feeding seabirds, and have been correlated with several marked behavioral changes. Namely, higher SSTs are associated with increased egg cannibalism and egg-laying synchrony in the colony. We study the long-term effects of climate change on population dynamics and survival by considering a simplified, cross-season model that incorporates both of these behaviors in addition to density-dependent and environmental effects. We show that cannibalism can lead to backward bifurcations and strong Allee effects, allowing the population to survive at lower resource levels than would be possible otherwise.

Changes In Frontoparietotemporal Connectivity Following Do-As-I-Do Imitation Training In Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes), Sarah M. Pope, Jared P. Taglialatela, Sara A. Skiba, William D. Hopkins

Faculty Articles

Human imitation is supported by an underlying ‘mirror system’ principally composed of inferior frontal (IF), inferior parietal (IP), and superior temporal (ST) cortical regions. Across primate species, differences in fronto-parieto-temporal connectivity have been hypothesized to explain phylogenetic variation in imitative abilities. However, if and to what extent these regions are involved in imitation in non-human primates is unknown. We hypothesized that ‘Do As I Do’ (DAID) imitation training would enhance white matter integrity within and between fronto-parieto temporal regions. To this end, four captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) were trained to reproduce 23 demonstrated actions, while four age/sex-matched controls were trained …

Annual Color Photo Section 2018

Nebraska Bird Review

American White Pelican, Wildlife Safari Park, Cass Co., 17 April 2018. Photo by Sheryl Cooley

Trumpeter Swans, Carter Lake, Douglas Co., 1 Jan. 2016. Photo by Brian Peterson.

Bonaparte's Gull, Pawnee Lake SRA, Lancaster Co., 20 June 2018. Photo by Esa Jarvi.

Adult male Longtailed Duck in winter plumage, Carter Lake, Douglas Co., 20 Nov 2017. Photo by Phil Swanson.

Reddish Egret, Platte River bridge, Alda, Hall Co., 24 June 2018. Photo by John Carlini.

Adult Blackcrowned Night Heron, northeast of Lakeside, Sheridan Co., 3 July 2017. Photo by Thomas Gannon.

Juvenile Yellowcrowned Night Heron, Holmes Lake, Lancaster Co., 24 …

The Nebraska Bird Review, Volume 86 March 2018 Number 1

Nebraska Bird Review

NOU Annual Treasurer's Report for 2017, by Jan Johnson … 2

Winter Field Report, Dec. 2017 - Feb. 2018, by W. Ross Silcock …3-20 & 29-30

Annual Color Photo Section …21-28

2017 - 2018 Christmas Bird Counts, by Don Paseka …31-46

Revision of Johnsgard’s Birds of Nebraska Published ........ 33

Subscription and Organization Information … 47

Winter Field Report, December 2017 To February 2018, W. Ross Silcock

Nebraska Bird Review

This was not a spectacular fall by most measures, but, as usual, there was much to chew on. Continuing the trend seen in recent falls, lingering has become the norm; this phenomenon is across the board, involving, for example, Baird’s Sandpiper, Greater Yellowlegs, Mourning Dove, American White Pelican, Barn Owl, Lesser Goldfinch, several native sparrow species, Palm and Orange-crowned Warblers, and even rearof- the-order Dickcissel. Apparent range expansion is occurring with Red-shouldered Hawk and Barred Owl, the former northward and the latter westward. A couple of taxonomic notes relate to the subspecies Buteo jamaicensis abieticola of Red-tailed Hawk and subspecies …

2017-2018 Christmas Bird Counts, Don Paseka

Nebraska Bird Review

Sixteen counts were held during the 2017-18 Christmas Bird Count season, which is one more than has ever been done in the past. Although the Crawford count was not done this season, the new Lower Platte River count, centered at the junction of Platteview Road and 204th St. south of Gretna, was added. A total 236 observers took part in at least one count, 26 did two counts, four did three counts, five did four counts and four persons did six counts. However, special recognition goes to Gary Roberts, who did eight counts this season. I am not aware of …

First Stewards: Ecological Outcomes Of Forest And Wildlife Stewardship By Indigenous Peoples Of Wisconsin, Usa, Donald M. Waller, Nicholas J. Reo

Dartmouth Scholarship

Indigenous peoples manage forestlands and wildlife differently than public and private forestland managers. To evaluate ecological outcomes from these differences, we compared the structure, composition, and diversity of Ojibwe and Menominee tribal forests to nearby nontribal forestlands in northern Wisconsin. These indigenous peoples seek to manage forests for mature conditions, accommodate wolves and other predators, and hunt deer to sustain traditional livelihood values. Their forests are often more mature with higher tree volume, higher rates of tree regeneration, more plant diversity, and fewer invasive species than nearby nontribal forestlands. In contrast, nontribal forestlands lost appreciable plant diversity in the 20th …

Burned Area Mapping Of An Escaped Fire Into Tropical Dry Forest In Western Madagascar Using Multi-Season Landsat Oli Data, Anne C. Axel

Biological Sciences Faculty Research

A human-induced fire cleared a large area of tropical dry forest near the Ankoatsifaka Research Station at Kirindy Mitea National Park in western Madagascar over several weeks in 2013. Fire is a major factor in the disturbance and loss of global tropical dry forests, yet remotely sensed mapping studies of fire-impacted tropical dry forests lag behind fire research of other forest types. Methods used to map burns in temperature forests may not perform as well in tropical dry forests where it can be difficult to distinguish between multiple-age burn scars and between bare soil and burns. In this study, the …

Haemosporidian Parasites And Host Immune Function Of Galapagos Avifauna, Maricruz Jaramillo

Dissertations

The large number of emergent infectious diseases witnessed in the past few decades has increased interest in the ecology and distribution of potentially threatening pathogens worldwide. Island species are often considered more vulnerable to parasites due to their impoverished parasite communities, long isolation from disease and low genetic diversity. Avian surveys done by our group on the Galapagos Islands have found various pathogens infecting their endemic avifauna, including haemosporidian parasites of the genera Plasmodium and Haemoproteus. My research seeks to understand the relationships between two haemosporidian parasites (blood parasites) and their multiple bird hosts in Galapagos and to explore …

Learning To See The Forest For The Corn: Establishing Sense Of Place And Community In A Field-Based Ecology Course For Pre-Service Educators, Michelle Edgcomb Friday

Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation grounded theory techniques were used to characterize pre-service educators’ experiences in a semester-long, field-based ecology course. Through participation in a citizen science project, participants formed a community of practice that extended their conceptions of themselves as ecology students and scientists. Extended field experiences in a variety of local ecosystems contributed to the development of a sense of place. Paired fieldwork with lecture aided their developing ecological literacy and their understanding of place-based pedagogy. All of these combined to support their growing understanding of their role in field-based ecology education. Lack of background in ecology and ecology pedagogy …

Hydraulic Fracturing Fluid Biocide, Tributyl Tetradecyl Phosphonium Chloride, Causes Mitochondrial Dysfunction That Is Enhanced By Sodium Chloride In Chironomus Riparius, Zainab Hussain Alali

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Tributyl tetradecyl phosphonium chloride (TTPC) is a biocide utilized in the hydraulic fracturing process to extract oil and natural gas from deep underground. This study used 4^th instar Chironomus riparius to investigate the toxicity of TTPC, NaCl, and TTPC+NaCl. Our results show that the 24 h LC₅₀s for TTPC, NaCl, and TTPC+NaCl were 0.57 mg/L, >10,000 mg/L, and 0.32 mg/L, respectively, while the 48 h LC₅₀s for the same treatments were 0.48 mg/L, 9808 mg/L, and 0.22 mg/L, respectively. Additionally, TTPC’s mechanism of action was investigated by measuring the levels of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), superoxide …

Scorpions Of Sri Lanka (Arachnida, Scorpiones). Part Ii. Family Hormuridae, František Kovařík, Kithsiri B. Ranawana, V. A. Sanjeewa Jayarathne, Sanjaya Karunarathna, Alexander Ullrich

Euscorpius

Liocheles australasiae (Fabricius, 1775) is reported for the first time from Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan population is fully complemented with color photos of live and preserved females, as well as its habitat.

Two New Tityus C. L. Koch, 1836 (Scorpiones: Buthidae) From Hispaniola, Greater Antilles, Rolando Teruel, Gabriel De Los Santos

Euscorpius

Two new species of Buthidae scorpions of the genus Tityus C. L. Koch, 1836 are herein described from the Greater Antillean island of Hispaniola. One of them belongs to the "crassimanus" species-group and is known from an adult pair collected at Massif de la Hotte, in southwestern Haiti. The other belongs to the "quisqueyanus" species-group and is known from a single adult female from a high peak in the Central Range (= Cordillera Central), in northwestern Dominican Republic. Moreover, two fossil taxa from this island are retained as junior synonyms of Tityus geratus Santiago-Blay, 1988†.

Overdispersed Spatial Patterning Of Dominant Bunchgrasses In Southeastern Pine Savannas, Katherines A. Hovanes, Kyle E. Harms, Paul R. Gagnon, Jonathan A. Myers, Bret D. Elderd

Biology Faculty Research

Spatial patterning is a key natural history attribute of sessile organisms that frequently emerges from and dictates potential for interactions among organisms. We tested whether bunchgrasses, the dominant plant functional group in longleaf pine savanna groundcover communities, are nonrandomly patterned by characterizing the spatial dispersion of three bunchgrass species across six sites in Louisiana and Florida. We mapped bunchgrass tussocks of >5.0 cm basal diameter in three [Formula: see text] plots at each site. We modeled tussocks as two-dimensional objects to analyze their spatial relationships while preserving sizes and shapes of individual tussocks. Tussocks were overdispersed (more regularly spaced than …

Homogenization Of Plant Diversity, Composition, And Structure In North American Urban Yards, William D. Pearse, Jeannine Cavender-Bares, Sarah E. Hobbie, Meghan L. Avolio, Neil Bettez, Rinku Roy Chowdhury, Lindsay E. Darling, Peter M. Groffman, J. Morgan Grove, Sharon J. Hall, James B. Heffernan, Jennifer Learned, Christopher Neill, Kristen C. Nelson, Diane E. Pataki, Benjamin L. Ruddell, Meredith K. Steele, Tara L. E. Trammell

Ecology Center Publications

Urban ecosystems are widely hypothesized to be more ecologically homogeneous than natural ecosystems. We argue that urban plant communities assemble from a complex mix of horticultural and regional species pools, and evaluate the homogenization hypothesis by comparing cultivated and spontaneously occurring urban vegetation to natural area vegetation across seven major U.S. cities. There was limited support for homogenization of urban diversity, as the cultivated and spontaneous yard flora had greater numbers of species than natural areas, and cultivated phylogenetic diversity was also greater. However, urban yards showed evidence of homogenization of composition and structure. Yards were compositionally more …

Global Macroevolution And Macroecology Of Passerine Song, William D. Pearse, Ignacio Morales-Castilla, Logan S. James, Maxwell Farrell, Frédéric Boivin, T. Jonathan Davies

Ecology Center Publications

Studying the macroevolution of the songs of Passeriformes (perching birds) has proved challenging. The complexity of the task stems not just from the macroevolutionary and macroecological challenge of modeling so many species, but also from the difficulty in collecting and quantifying birdsong itself. Using machine learning techniques, we extracted songs from a large citizen science dataset, and then analyzed the evolution, and biotic and abiotic predictors of variation in birdsong across 578 passerine species. Contrary to expectations, we found few links between life‐history traits (monogamy and sexual dimorphism) and the evolution of song pitch (peak frequency) or song complexity (standard …

Scorpions Of The Horn Of Africa (Arachnida, Scorpiones). Part Xiv. Hottentotta Somalicus Sp. N. (Buthidae) From Somalia, František Kovařík

Euscorpius

Hottentotta somalicus sp. n. from Somalia is described and fully complemented with color photos. Morphologically it is similar to H. polystictus (Pocock, 1896). These two species have very narrow metasomal segments (1.63–1.73 in both sexes versus 1.31–1.61 in both sexes of other Hottentotta species from the Horn of Africa). H. polystictus and H. somalicus sp. n. occur in separate areas (Somaliland versus Somalia) and can be differentiated by color.

Advancing Behavioural Genomics By Considering Timescale, Clare C. Rittschof, Kimberly A. Hughes

Entomology Faculty Publications

Animal behavioural traits often covary with gene expression, pointing towards a genomic constraint on organismal responses to environmental cues. This pattern highlights a gap in our understanding of the time course of environmentally responsive gene expression, and moreover, how these dynamics are regulated. Advances in behavioural genomics explore how gene expression dynamics are correlated with behavioural traits that range from stable to highly labile. We consider the idea that certain genomic regulatory mechanisms may predict the timescale of an environmental effect on behaviour. This temporally minded approach could inform both organismal and evolutionary questions ranging from the remediation of early …