Digital Commons Network^™

Biodegradation Of Textile Dye Anthraquinone Vat Blue 4 By Pseudomonas Aeruginosa, Rajee Olaganathan, Jamila Patterson

Publications

Uncontaminated and Vat blue 4 contaminated soil were screened for heterotrophic bacterial population and the bacterial density were found to be 19.3 X 104 and 5.5 X 104 CFU/gm respectively. The bacterial genera of dye contaminated soil was dominated by Pseudomonas sp. (32.5 %) followed by Bacillus sp. (27.5 %), Aeromonas sp. (15.0 %), Micrococcus sp. (12.5 %) and Achromobacter sp. (12.5 %). The optimum inoculums load, pH and temperature were found to be 5%, 7 and 35oC respectively. The initial pH of the effluent prepared using Vat Blue 4 was 8.5. The free cells of P. aeruginosa reduced the …

Notes On The Distribution And Habitat Of Omethes Marginatus Leconte (Coleoptera: Omethidae), Arthur V. Evans, Kyle E. Schnepp

Insecta Mundi

The known distribution of a rarely collected omethid, Omethes marginatus LeConte (Coleoptera), includes Arkansas, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Indiana, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. Collection and ecological notes on recent collections in Arkansas, Indiana, and Virginia are presented.

Specimen Catalog & Field Notes, Bethany L. Abrahamson

Division of Mammals - Field Notes and Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Lessons Learned From Citizen Science In The Classroom. A Response To "The Future Of Citizen Science.", Steven A. Gray, Kristina Nicosia, Rebecca C. Jordan

Democracy & Education

Mueller, Tippins, and Bryan’s contrast of the current limitations of science education with the potential virtues of citizen science provides an important theoretical perspective about the future of democratized science and K–12 education. However, the authors fail to adequately address the existing barriers and constraints to moving community-based science into the classroom. We contend that for these science partnerships to be successful, teachers, researchers, and other program designers must reexamine questions about traditional science education and citizen-science programs and attend to certain dimensions, including: framing these projects around the nature of science, creating a dialog with experts and allowing access …

Morphological Correlates Of A Combat Performance Trait In The Forked Fungus Beetle, Bolitotherus Cornutus, K. M. Benowitz, E. D. Brodie Iii, Vincent A. Formica

Biology Faculty Works

Combat traits are thought to have arisen due to intense male-male competition for access to females. While large and elaborate weapons used in attacking other males have often been the focus of sexual selection studies, defensive traits (both morphological and performance) have received less attention. However, if defensive traits help males restrict access to females, their role in the process of sexual selection could also be important. Here we examine the morphological correlates of grip strength, a defensive combat trait involved in mate guarding, in the tenebrionid beetle Bolitotherus cornutus. We found that grip strength was repeatable and differed between …

Impacts Of Climate Variability And Human Colonization On The Vegetation Of The Gala´Pagos Islands, Alejandra Restrepo, Paul A. Colinvaux, Mark B. Bush, Alexander Correa-Metrio, Jessica L. Conroy, Mark R. Gardener, Patricia Jaramillo, Miriam Steinitz-Kannan, Jonathan T. Overpeck

Biomedical Engineering and Sciences Faculty Publications

A high-resolution (2-9 year sampling interval) fossil pollen record from the Galapagos Islands, which spans the last 2690 years, reveals considerable ecosystem stability. Vegetation changes associated with independently derived histories of El Niño Southern Oscillation variability provided evidence of shifts in the relative abundance of individual species rather than immigration or extinction. Droughts associated with the Medieval Climate Anomaly induced rapid ecological change that was followed by a reversion to the previous state. The paleoecological data suggested nonneutral responses to climatic forcing in this ecosystem prior to the period of human influence. Human impacts on the islands are evident in …

Comparative Phylogeography Of Central African Duikers Using Non-Invasive Sampling Methods, Stephan Ntie

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The present study sets out to assess patterns of evolutionary diversification in central African duikers (subfamily Cephalophinae). The sampling strategy consisted of collecting geo-referenced duiker feces across 43 sites and seven countries. However, several challenges related to the use of non-invasive samples needed to be addressed prior to large scale DNA amplification. First, the best storage method for obtaining DNA from fecal samples needed to be established. Our study revealed that while silica is best for nuclear microsatellite analyses, RNAlater is the best storage medium for maximal mitochondrial amplification. Moreover, extracting DNA as early as possible always provided the …

Evolution Of Nuclear Integrations Of The Mitochondrial Genome In Great Apes And Their Potential As Molecular Markers, Ivan D. Soto-Calderon

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The mitochondrial control region (MCR) has played an important role as a population genetic marker in many taxa but sequencing of complete eukaryotic genomes has revealed that nuclear integrations of mitochondrial DNA (numts) are abundant and widespread across many taxa. If left undetected, numts can inflate mitochondrial diversity and mislead interpretation of phylogenetic relationships. Comparative analyses of complete genomes in humans, orangutans and chimpanzees, and preliminary studies in gorillas have revealed high numt prevalence in great apes, but rigorous comparative analyses across taxa have been lacking.

The present study aimed to systematically compare the evolutionary dynamics of MCR numts in …

A Genetic Survey Of English Sole Populations In The Salish Sea, Elizabeth S. Gutierrez, Gary A. Winans, Jon Baker, Amanda Cope

STAR Program Research Presentations

This summer I interned at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle, WA and participated in NOAA’s Salish Sea Project. The Salish Sea Project’s goal is to identify genetically distinctive groups of species in the Salish Sea that may have unique evolutionary and/or adaptive backgrounds. These findings will allow NOAA to promote and monitor the natural production of species in the Salish Sea, to select representative populations for experimental work regarding pollution, ocean acidification and climate change, to contribute to managing the ecosystem for intra- and inter-species diversity, and to help make informed decisions about adaptive management and marine protected …

Functional Response Of Protected Larval Stage Delta Smelt (Hypomesus Transpacificus), Jorge Ruiz, Lindsay Sullivan, Wim Kimmerer, Joan Lindberg

STAR Program Research Presentations

Delta smelt (Hypomesus transpacificus) is a protected slender-bodied fish endemic to the San Francisco Estuary. Smelt prey upon various zooplankton including the copepods such as Pseudodiaptomus forbesi. This experiment studied the prey maximum feeding rate of 2 larval stages (21 DHP, 35 DPH) of Delta smelt on various concentrations of P. forbesi. The copepod prey was offered at 7 different concentrations (2No./L–120No./L). After feeding was terminated the free prey and ingested prey were counted and analyzed to find the feeding rate of Delta smelt. Maximum feeding rate was found to be at much higher prey densities …

Developing Monitoring Methods For Leptasterias Spp. As Sentinel Species In Detecting Local Environmental Changes, Zachary Sturbaum, Kathryn Nuessly, Riley J. Smith, C. Sarah Cohen

STAR Program Research Presentations

Leptasterias spp., a six-rayed sea star, is found in rocky intertidal habitats ranging from Alaska to central California. Leptasterias spp. can be monitored on a broad scale throughout their range by a variety of means using timed counts and random plot censusing in order to detect both large-scale and local-level changes in the environment due to climate change, land-based human activity, or other environmental events. Leptasterias brood their young externally until the embryos grow into fully developed juveniles. These juveniles disperse by crawling away, limiting their dispersal potential. This localized dispersal provides an opportunity to use Leptasterias spp …

Testing The Salinity Tolerance Levels Of Similar Invasive Species Found In The San Francisco Bay, Julia M. Smith, C. Sarah Cohen, Elizabeth Sheets

STAR Program Research Presentations

Testing the salinity tolerance levels of similar invasive species found in the San Francisco Bay

Julia Smith^1,2, Elizabeth Sheets², and C. Sarah Cohen²

¹Department of Teacher Education, California State University, Sacramento ²Department of Biology and Romberg Tiburon Center, San Francisco State University

Three non-indigenous colonial ascidian species, Botrylloides violaceus, Botrylloides diegensis, and Botryllus schlosseri, have become well established in San Francisco Bay. Two species, B. violaceous and B. schlosseri, are globally distributed, and understanding the salinity ranges and tolerances of these successful invaders in their introduced habitats is important for …

Size And Weight Changes Of Leatherback Hatchlings Among Emergence Groups, Shane Morales, Kelly Stewart

STAR Program Research Presentations

In ideal leatherback sea turtle nests, all the hatchlings move together as a single group through the sand to leave the nest. Often, though, hatchlings emerge in two separate groups hours or days apart while others remain stuck in the sand where they may die unless they are dug out (excavation). First emergence groups spend the shortest amount of time in the sand while excavated hatchlings spend the longest amount of time in the sand (typically three days longer than first emergence hatchlings). Individuals from each of the separate emergences were weighed and measured (carapace only) in order to compare …

Greater Galagos Near Mt. Kasigau, Kenya: Population Density Estimates, Andrea Falcetto

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This study examined population density and habitat use of a species of greater galago, genus Otolemur, around Mt. Kasigau, Kenya. Mt. Kasigau has a unique regional microclimate, a cloud forest, which provides many different flora and fauna a home. To examine population density, two different methods were used. The first method was using line transects and analyzing results using Distance 6.0. These surveys were conducted during both dry and wet season and results were compared after the study. The second method was to trap individuals and use mark-recapture to determine population density. When caught in a trap, individuals were …

Next Generation Sequencing Reveals Gene Expression Patterns In The Zebrafish Inner Ear Following Growth Hormone Injection, Gopinath Rajadinakaran

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Loss of hair cells due to acoustic trauma results in the loss of hearing. In humans, unlike other vertebrates, the mechanism of hair cell regeneration is not possible. The molecular mechanisms that underlie this regeneration in nonmammalian vertebrates remain elusive. To understand the gene regulation during hair cell regeneration, our previous microarray study on zebrafish inner ears found that growth hormone (GH) was significantly upregulated after noise exposure. In this current study, we utilized Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) to examine the genes and pathways that are significantly regulated in the zebrafish inner ear following sound exposure and GH injection. Four …

Evaluation Of The Effects Of September Hunting Seasons On Canada Geese In Nebraska, Scott R. Groepper, Mark P. Vrtiska, Larkin A. Powell, Scott E. Hygnstrom

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Populations of temperate-nesting Canada geese (Branta canadensis) have increased in Nebraska, USA, resulting in an increased number of nuisance and damage complaints. September hunting seasons were initiated in southeastern Nebraska in 2004 to reduce populations of Canada geese. We analyzed band recoveries from Canada geese banded in southeastern Nebraska during their hatch-year (HY) or after-hatch-year (AHY) to determine whether September hunting seasons affected survival, harvest, and recovery rates. Survival analyses revealed that HY geese had higher survival than AHY geese (SAHY = 0.696, 95% CI = 0.679–0.713; SHY = 0.896, 95% CI = 0.786–0.953) and September seasons did …

Nature's Perfect Food, Geoffrey D. Reynolds

Faculty Publications

Nature's Perfect Food is an article that describes the history of local beekeeper Jack Hartman and the benefit of local honey bees to agriculture and honey consumers.

Discovering The Light Bulb Tunicate, James F. Reinhardt Phd, Margaret (Peg) A. Van_Patten (Editor) Ms.

Wrack Lines

An article by a former UCONN marine sciences graduate student about a new invasive tunicate in Long Island Sound, the light bulb tunicate.

Modeling And Mathematical Analysis Of Plant Models In Ecology, Eric A. Eager

Department of Mathematics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Population dynamics tries to explain in a simple mechanistic way the variations of the size and structure of biological populations. In this dissertation we use mathematical modeling and analysis to study the various aspects of the dynamics of plant populations and their seed banks.

In Chapter 2 we investigate the impact of structural model uncertainty by considering different nonlinear recruitment functions in an integral projection model for Cirsium canescens. We show that, while having identical equilibrium populations, these two models can elicit drastically different transient dynamics. We then derive a formula for the sensitivity of the equilibrium population to …

Phylogenetic Relationships Within Columnea Section Angustiflorae: Insights Into Forces Driving Speciation, Lacie Janelle Schulte

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Determining the specific factors that played a role in speciation previously took extensive resources that made such studies nearly intractable. Despite the difficulties presented by speciation studies, we are still interested in determining what forces drive the process of evolution to gain a better understanding of divergence among species. Advances in technology allow for a new approach to speciation studies, beginning with molecular phylogenetic analyses that identify the species within a monophyletic clade and generate a species-level phylogeny. Molecular data are an independent source of data and provide a phylogeny to map both morphological characters and ecological parameters. Identifying patterns …

Resilience Limitations And Resistance Of Hyporheic Microbial Communities From Chronic Heavy Metal Contamination Environments: Analysis With The Novel Resazurin Resorufin Smart Tracer, Daniel Joseph Stanaway

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

River ecosystems are among the most threatened and rapidly altering systems in the world because of anthropogenic disturbance. Chronic heavy metal contamination of lotic environments is a global concern and a widespread environmental and human health threat. This persistent stressor can shape microbial community structure and function, often selecting for the genotypic and phenotypic characteristics that increase fitness in toxic environments and may encumber the microbial community hosting metal resistance mechanisms with additional energetic costs. This cost should be expressed in heterotrophic aerobic microbial metabolism, a primary ecological process variable and can be estimated through respiration measurements. Hyporheic respiration is …

Scorpion Phylogeography In The North American Aridlands, Matthew Ryan Graham

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Understanding the geographic, geologic, and climatic forces responsible for generating current patterns of biodiversity has been a central objective of phylogeography. To develop a better understanding of these processes in the North American arid lands, I used DNA sequence data and species distribution modeling to conduct three phylogeographic assessments incorporating four species of arid-adapted scorpions:Hadrurus arizonensis, H. jedediah, H. spadix,and Paruroctonus becki. In an assessment of H. arizonensis, phylogeographic patterns indicate that Pleistocene climate cycles and associated glacial refugia played a central role in structuring the genetic diversity of this species in the Mojave and Sonoran deserts, mostly supporting predictions …

Foraging Challenges: Unsuitable Prey And Limited Information, Travis M. Hinkelman

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

Food acquisition is a complicated task. The profitability of potential food items depends on numerous factors, including the spatial distribution, probability of detection and capture, and suitability of the food. Animals faced with such challenges can use relatively simple mechanisms to maximize foraging efficiency. However, mechanisms that maximize foraging efficiency under some ecological conditions (e.g., prey scarcity) may produce ostensibly suboptimal behavior under different ecological conditions (e.g., prey abundance). In the work presented here, we explore two facets of foraging: (1) consuming unsuitable prey, and (2) searching for resources with limited information about resource location. To explore the consequences of …

The Ecological Interactions Of Sanak, Nancy Huntly, Spencer Wood, Roly Russell

Biology Faculty Publications

Ecology is not only about the interesting biology of organisms, as described for Sanak Island in the last chapter, but also about interactions: interactions between animals (including people), plants, microbes, the habitats that they live in, and the environments that surround them. The ecology of Sanak Island today reflects not only today's conditions, but also shows the imprint of the distant history of interactions of the island, especially, as we will see below, the imprint of the Aleut people that have made this island their home.

How Sanak Aleut Fit Into The Intertidal Food Web, Jennifer A. Dunne, Spencer Wood, Roly Russell, Nancy Huntly, Matthew Betts, Herbert Maschner

Biology Faculty Publications

Almost everyone learns about the concept of ecological "food chains" in grade school. An example of a marine food chain is shown on the left-hand side of the chart to the left: phytoplankton are eaten by mussels, which are eaten by octopus, which are eaten by sea otters, which are eaten by humans. These feeding interactions can be abstractly represented as five "nodes" connected in a single chain by four links, as shown on the right-hand side of the diagram to the left. The food chain shown is one of the thousands of interlinked food chains that make up the …

The Breeding Biology Of The Northern Pygmy Owl: Do The Smallest Of The Small Have An Advantage?, John F. Deshler, Michael T. Murphy

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

We explored the breeding biology of the Northern Pygmy-Owl (Glaucidium gnoma) from 2007 to 2009 in a forested reserve in Portland, Oregon. Large body size is often assumed to give animals reproductive advantages, and we tested whether body size affected timing of breeding and examined variation in diet, breeding date, clutch size, and reproductive success to explore whether the presumed benefits of large body size are evident in this species. The average size of 13 clutches was 5.8, and nest success was high (92%); 22 successful nests fledged an average of 5.2 young. Dates of first laying varied …

Interactions Between Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep Ovis Canadensis Canadensis And Domestic Sheep Ovis Aries And The Biological, Social, Economic, And Legal Implications Of These Interactions On Usda Forest Service Lands In The Evanston/Mt. View Ranger District, Ashly Nicole Herrera

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Strong evidence exists indicating domestic sheep (Ovis aries) can infect Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis canadensis), a United States Forest Service (USFS) Region 4 sensitive species, with pneumonia (Callan 1991; Foreyt 1989, 1992, 1994; Foreyt and Lagerquist 1996; George et al 2008; Wehausen et al. 2011). Since the transmission of the pneumonic bacteria between the domestic and wild sheep is a result of bighorn sheep coming into contact with the bacteria carried in the mucous membranes of the domestic sheep, bighorn sheep at risk of initially contracting the bacteria are those individuals that enter areas currently being grazed or …

Performance Of Subsurface Flow Constructed Wetland For Domestic Wastewater Treatment, Jp Mairi, Tj Lyimo, Kn Njau

Tanzania Journal of Science

Constructed wetlands (CW) have recently emerged as efficient technology for secondary treatment of wastewater in developing countries because of its low cost, ease operation, maintenance and generally good performance. At present there are a number of small scale units of CW for wastewater treatment in Tanzania but information on their performance is scarce. This study investigated the removal efficiency of fecal bacteria indicators, inorganic nutrients and Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) from wastewater by a CW at the University of Dar es Salaam. The CW received wastewater from a primary facultative pond and was a monoculture system planted with Phragmites mauritianus …

Trophy Hunting And Trophy Size In Ugalla Game Reserve, Western Tanzania, P Wilfred

Tanzania Journal of Science

The present paper explores trends and variations in trophy size among wildlife species hunted in the Ugalla Game Reserve (UGR) of western Tanzania, in relation to hunting success (animals shot species-1 quota-1). Data on trophy hunting from 2006 – 2010 were obtained from the UGR office in Tabora Region. Forty-seven species were targeted by trophy hunters. Hunting success differed significantly across the species (Generalised Linear Model [GLM] with a binomial error structure: deviance chi-square [X2] = 9.64, d.f. = 44, p<0.001). Twenty-eight species had trophy size measurements, but only 6 species had measurements taken consistently throughout the data period. Although most of the shot animals were above their minimum trophy size limits (official trophy limits below which animals could not be removed) there was significant variation among species (GLM with normal errors: F5,201 = 509.12, p<0.001). Time (years) had no significant effect on trophy size, but the trend over time in trophy size differed significantly among species (F5,194 = 5.42, p<0.001). Of the trophy species, greater kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros) had the largest mean trophy size, whereas warthog (Phacochoerus africanus) had  the lowest trophy size and showed a considerable decline. The majority of the animals had trophy sizes hovering just above their minimum limits. This should be monitored rigorously to avoid removing large numbers of actively breeding animals.

The Spatial Signature Of Biotic Interactions Of A Clonal And A Non-Clonal Palmetto In A Subtropical Plant Community, Mizuki Takahashi, Toshiro Kubota, Liana M. Horner, Nathan A. Keller, Warren G. Abrahamson Ii

Faculty Journal Articles

Spatial analyses of plant-distribution patterns can provide inferences about intra- and interspecific biotic interactions. Yet, such analyses are rare for clonal plants because effective tools (i.e., molecular markers) needed to map naturally occurring clonal individuals have only become available recently. Clonal plants are unique in that a single genotype has a potential to spatially place new individuals (i.e., ramets) in response to intra- and interspecific biotic interactions. Laboratory and greenhouse studies suggest that some clonal plants can avoid intra-genet, inter-genet, and inter-specific competition via rootplacement patterns. An intriguing and yet to be explored question is whether a spatial signature of …