Digital Commons Network^™

Microplastic Concentrations In Orange City Wastewater, Garrett Raymon, Garrett Snyder, April Van Tol, Lindsey Craig, Marshall Kleinhesselink, Lane Mulder, Daniel Strand, Gideon Fynaardt, Kaytlin Wojciechowski, Todd Tracy

Celebration of Research

Microplastics are increasingly polluting both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Researchers have found that wastewater treatment plants are an entry point for microplastics into surface waters, and we wondered how effective our local wastewater treatment plant is in removing microplastics from wastewater, given that it was not engineered for the removal of microplastics. We sampled effluent water from the new wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) in Orange City, Iowa, to determine the amount of microplastics released from the plant into Orange City Slough. We found concentrations of 498 pieces of microplastic/cubic meter (0.498/L) in the effluent water, which is similar to published …

Invertebrate Pitfall Surveys At Glacial Hills Preserve And Buena Vista County Park, April Van Tol, Lindsey Craig, Marshall Kleinhesselink, Garrett Raymon, Garrett Snyder, Katie Meyer, Gideon Fynaardt, Kaytlin Wojciechowski, Lane Mulder, Daniel Strand, Laurie Furlong, Todd Tracy

Celebration of Research

Invertebrates are integral members of the ecosystems they inhabit. However, they are often overlooked and understudied. We performed two pitfall surveys in Buena Vista County in September 2021 to study the diversity and abundance of invertebrate species in the presence and absence of two invasive species: Eastern Redcedar (Juniperus virginiana) and Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiola). We collected pitfall samples and brought them back to the lab for identification. We found no significant differences in invertebrate abundance between cedar and non-cedar samples, nor between mustard and non-mustard samples. We propose further research focusing on seasonal changes, as these invasives may have …

The Effect Of Cold Stratification On The Germination Of Grassland Seeds, Katie Meyer, Gideon Fynaardt, Kaytlin Wojciechowski, April Van Tol, Marshall Kleinhesselink, Lindsey Craig, Garrett Snyder, Garrett Raymon, Lane Mulder, Daniel Strand, Todd Tracy

Celebration of Research

One factor that must be considered when reconstructing a prairie is how the prairie seeds being planted need to be prepared for germination. The probability of successful germination of these seeds is dependent on many factors, including exposure to cold temperatures for a prolonged period of time. To explore this idea, we collected seeds from 13 species of forbs and grasses, both native and non-native, and stored them at various temperatures for several weeks. We predicted that the germination of the seeds of native grassland species would be enhanced by cold stratification, while non-natives (especially forbs common to flower gardens) …

Development And Validation Of An Edna Protocol For Monitoring Endemic Asian Spiny Frogs In The Himalayan Region Of Pakistan, Muhammad Saeed, Muhammad Rais, Ayesha Akram, Maggie R. Williams, Kenneth F. Kellner, Syed A. Hashsham, Drew R. Davis

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Wildlife monitoring programs are instrumental for the assessment of species, habitat status, and for the management of factors affecting them. This is particularly important for species found in freshwater ecosystems, such as amphibians, as they have higher estimated extinction rates than terrestrial species. We developed and validated two species-specific environmental DNA (eDNA) protocols and applied them in the field to detect the Hazara Torrent Frog (Allopaa hazarensis) and Murree Hills Frog (Nanorana vicina). Additionally, we compared eDNA surveys with visual encounter surveys and estimated site occupancy. eDNA surveys resulted in higher occurrence probabilities for both A. …

Understanding The Natural History Of Juvenile Amblyomma Maculatum In Southeastern Virginia, Christina Espada, Holly Gaff

College of Sciences Posters

Amblyomma maculatum, the Gulf Coast tick, is a species of increasing public health concern. Adult A. maculatum is a known vector of several pathogens including Rickettsia parkeri, the causative agent of Rickettsia parkeri rickettsiosis. Amblyomma maculatum has expanded northward from its historic range along the Gulf Coast, with populations reportedly establishing in southeastern Virginia in 2010. Recently established populations of A. maculatum tend to have higher R. parkeri infection prevalence compared to longer established populations. This pattern holds for all populations found so far in southeastern Virginia, with a prevalence of R. parkeri in about 60% of A. …

Hot Spot Analysis Of Potential Sanitary Sewer Exfiltration In Crystal Creek Watershed, Adam Schumacher, Michael Reisner, Kevin Geedey

Independent Research Projects

Crystal Creek in Davenport Iowa drains suburban and park areas before draining into Duck Creek, a tributary of the Mississippi River. Contact recreation is a designated use for all the streams. As a pilot project with the city of Davenport, Augustana College’s Upper Mississippi Center assessed this stream in the summer of 2021 to determine if relatively inexpensive monitoring tools could be used to assess possible sewage contamination in that stream. Running through multiple residential areas, sewer lines follow the studied region of the creek, leading to the hotspot focus that was conducted by student researchers. Fecal coliform, optical brighteners, …

Alleviating Human-Elephant Conflict Through Deterrent Fences And Environmental Monitoring In Southern Kenya, Sophia Carmen Corde

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Human-wildlife conflict is present across the world. In areas where human settlements overlap with elephant habitats, human-elephant conflict can result from crop raiding events, compromising farmers’ food and economic security, and putting humans and elephants in danger through farmer retaliation. Elephants raid crops primarily at night, when detection by humans is lowest, and during the dry season, as crops are developing towards harvest and natural forage quality drops. People living in these areas facing HEC have developed mitigation strategies to lessen the impacts and move towards coexistence. As a team member on the Elephants and Sustainable Agriculture in Kenya project, …

Evolution And Adaptations - Choose An Organism To Explore, Stephanie A. Rose

Open Educational Resources

Homework assignment for Principles of Environmental Science course for teachers.

To help students think about evolution and adaptations, and how organisms evolve to live in particular places and conditions.

The Microbial Nitrogen Cycling, Bacterial Community Composition, And Functional Potential In A Natural Grassland Are Stable From Breaking Dormancy To Being Dormant Again, Bikram Kumar Das, Satoshi Ishii, Linto Antony, Alexander Smart, Joy Scaria, Volker Brozel

Native Plant Focused Publications

The quantity of grass-root exudates varies by season, suggesting temporal shifts in soil microbial community composition and activity across a growing season. We hypothesized that bacterial community and nitrogen cycle-associated prokaryotic gene expressions shift across three phases of the growing season. To test this hypothesis, we quantified gene and transcript copy number of nitrogen fixation (nifH), ammonia oxidation (amoA, hao, nxrB), denitrification (narG, napA, nirK, nirS, norB, nosZ), dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonia (nrfA), and anaerobic ammonium oxidation (hzs, hdh) using the pre-optimized Nitrogen Cycle Evaluation (NiCE) chip. Bacterial community composition was characterized using V₃-V₄ of the …

A Checklist Of The Hawkmoths (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae) Of The Cayman Islands: With Implications For The Pollination Of The Ghost Orchid Dendrophylax Fawcettii Rolfe (Orchidaceae: Angraecinae) And Consideration Of Bat Predation, M. C. Rose-Smyth, R. R. Askew, P. A. Van B. Stafford, M. J. Simon, G. J. Gross, R. Rozycki

Insecta Mundi

This checklist synthesises historic collections of Sphingidae (Lepidoptera) made during the summer months in the Cayman Islands in 1938 and 1975 with modern records drawn from a variety of sources. We report observations and collections made in all seasons of the year and provide natural history and larval food details. Four species, Phryxus caicus (Cramer) in all three islands, plus Isognathus rimosa (Grote), Enyo lugubris (Linnaeus), and Eumorpha satellitia (Linnaeus) in Grand Cayman only, are here reported as new records, for a total of 25 sphingid species occurring in the Cayman Islands. Seven species are new records for Grand Cayman, …

Behavioral Choices Of Apple Snails, Pomacea Maculata, Under Varied Chemical Landscapes, Andrea Adams

Theses

Habitat choice is a critical behavior for organisms to successfully survive and reproduce. These choices are dictated by available environmental information about potential predation risks or food patches that form the organism’s sensory landscape. This study specifically focused on the behavioral choices of two invasive apple snail (Pomacea maculata) populations exposed to varying predation threats. We collected snails from Florida and Alabama which were used in laboratory experiments with varied sensory landscapes. Trials consisted of controls with no cues (FL: n = 7, AL: n= 7), an attractive treatment with introduced food cues (FL: n = 4, AL: …

The Relationship Between Substrate Composition, Community Structure And Feeding Preferences Of Parrot Fishes (Scaridae) In Anmardub, Guna Yala Coastal Reefs, Caitlin Amman

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Coral reefs are important marine ecosystems, as they support biodiversity and generate buffer zones, yet their abundance is incredibly limited globally. One of the main threats that coral reefs face is excessive macroalgal coverage, which limits sunlight from reaching corals, and thus, limits the energy that can reach them. Parrot fish (Scaridae) are keystone herbivores, as they consume macroalgae growing on corals, which aids in reef survivability. While there is previous research on the abundances, sizes, and feeding habits of Scaridae species in the Caribbean, there is no published research on how community structure and feeding preferences of parrot fishes …

Macrophyte Abundance And Nitrate Dynamics Of Silver Bow Creek, Katelyn Reichle

Graduate Theses & Non-Theses

Butte, Montana has an extensive mining history contributing to the contamination degradation of terrestrial and aquatic systems, amongst Silver Bow Creek (SBC). The contamination of the stream and the floodplain created a toxic environment that could not support aquatic life. Although the remediation of the floodplain was successful in removing metal contamination, the recovery of the ecosystem from both the initial pollution and subsequent remediation is ongoing. SBC has also been impacted by the urbanization of Butte, leading to multidimensional ecological disruption. The stream is currently subject to nutrient loading by nitrate, nitrogen, and phosphorus. A possible effect of nutrient …

Cryptic Hybridization In The Temperate Bamboos: Is Pleioblastus Simonii A Species Of Hybrid Origin?, Morgan Brown

Theses

Japanese river bamboo (Pleioblastus simonii, ‘medake,’‘kawadake’) is an ecologically important species of temperate bamboo native to Japan. This species is widely known and historically important in Japanese rural farm life. Based on morphological data, Japanese river bamboo is classified in Pleioblastus section Medakea (Poaceae: Bambusoideae) along with five other Japanese species, which are collectively considered to represent a phylogenetically distinct lineage. However, recent studies suggest that Japanese river bamboo may have arisen as a result of previously undetected hybridization (i.e., cryptic hybridization), while also calling into question the diversity of section Medakea. The role of hybridization in natural plant populations …

Estimating Fish Diet In Lake Turkana, Kenya, Julia G. Sharapi

Student Publications

Lake Turkana, located in northern Kenya on the Ethiopian border, is the world’s largest permanent desert lake. Over 90% of its flow originates from the Omo River in Ethiopia, which causes the lake to have seasonal rises and falls in water level. The Omo River has been subject to the construction of five dams (the Gilgel Gibe dams) and several irrigation projects. These developments will impact the amount of water entering the lake, with implications for lake chemistry and productivity, littoral habitat availability, and the breeding biology of the lake’s fishes. Though ongoing upstream changes are likely to have serious …

The North ‘Helicoptering’ Into The South: A Meta-Analysis Of Parachute Science In Ecological Field Studies, Alexandros Economou-Garcia

Student Publications

Science is increasingly collaborative, but scientists from the Global North (GN) often fail to collaborate with local scientists or to build local scientific capacity when conducting research in the Global South (GS). This practice is known as “parachute science” or “helicopter science”. In addition to ethical concerns, this practice is problematic in the field of ecology because it may reduce the likelihood that the research will inform local resource management and science policy. I hypothesized that, because research has become increasingly collaborative, there would be a decline in parachute science over time. In addition, I hypothesized that papers that included …

An Assessment Of Burbot Life History In Minnesota With A Focus On Movement Dynamics And Spawning Vulnerability, Tyler Robinson

Biology Graduate Theses

Burbot have a circumpolar range spanning from rivers of Alaska to lentic systems in Minnesota. Although Burbot population dynamics have been studied, their movement dynamics have been rarely investigated. Our objectives were to assess seasonal home range changes of Burbot in a closed-lentic system and quantify the scale of spawning aggregations. Sixty-six Burbot were implanted with acoustic transmitters in Bad Medicine Lake, Minnesota, with 32 surviving the length of the study period between 10 April 2019 to 11 June 2020. The peak spawning date for Burbot in Bad Medicine Lake was estimated to be mid-March, when home range estimates were …

Summer Food Habits Of Myotis Leibii In The Central Appalachians Ecoregion And Comparison To Similar Studies, John O. Whitaker Jr., Virgil Brack Jr., James D. Kiser Jr.

Virginia Journal of Science

Food habits of Myotis leibii, Eastern Small-footed Myotis, were studied during summer in the Central Appalachians Ecoregion. Moths were 70.0% of the diet by volume and were in 97.7% of samples (percent frequency). Beetles, flies, and spiders comprised much of the remaining diet. Percent volume and percent frequency metrics produce similar results. These data and past studies indicate this bat eats a relatively low-diversity diet centered on terrestrial-based arthropod prey across a broad geographical area, irrespective of season, sex, or age. The presence of spiders in the diet may indicate gleaning.

3d Library From Body Size From Unconventional Specimens: A 3d Geometric Morphometrics Approach To Fishes From Ancestral Pueblo Contexts, Jonathan Dombrosky, Thomas F. Turner, Alexandra Harris, Emily Lena Jones

Anthropology Faculty & Staff Publications

Animal body size estimation from zooarchaeological specimens often relies on specific, one-dimensional (i.e., conventional) measures from skeletal elements. Here, we introduce an animal body size estimation technique for archaeological fishes that relies on 3D reference scans and the calculation of centroid size, a standard 3D geometric morphometric proxy measure for organism size. Centroid size-based estimations on whole caudal vertebrae are strongly correlated with a widely accepted measure (i.e., centrum width), but the scalability and flexibility of the centroid size-based approach allows for use on a wide variety of fragmented remains. We use zooarchaeological fish remains (subfamily Ictiobinae) from late pre-Hispanic …

Larval Fish Abundance In The Benthic And Surface Drift Of The Missouri River, Ryan L. Ruskamp

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Knowledge of the larval fish community of the Missouri River is one of the biggest gaps in fisheries research. The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission has sampled the drift of the Missouri River for many years (1983-2015), but these data have not been compiled into a unified assessment. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to: 1) quantify temporal and spatial aspects of larval fish community composition (richness) and structure (abundance) of the surface drift, 2) quantify associations of larval fish communities of the drift to different discharges of the Missouri River, 3) quantify the larval benthic drift community, and …

Soybean Gall Midge (Resseliella Maxima Gagné): Insecticide Efficacy And Seasonal Larval Abundance, Vilma Maria Montenegro Castro

Department of Entomology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Soybean gall midge, Resseliella maxima Gagné was recently identified as a new species injuring soybean in Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Missouri. Resseliella maxima injury is caused by its three instars that feed on tissues within the soybean stem. Infested plants exhibit a darkening of the stem, disrupting nutrient flow within the plant and can lead to wilting or death of plants. Total yield losses can occur in the first 30 m of the field in heavily infested sites. The biology and behavior of this newly described insects is not well understood and management strategies for the management of …

Can Plant Or Lichen Natural Abundance N-15 Ratios Indicate The Influence Of Oil Sands N Emissions On Bogs?, R. Kelman Wieder, Melanie A. Vile, Dale H. Vitt, Kimberli D. Scott, Bin Xu, James C. Quinn, Cara M. Albright

Public Health Sciences Faculty Publications

Study region: The 140,329 km(2 )Athabasca Oil Sands Administrative Area (OSAA), which contains 8982 km(2) of bogs. Since the late 1970s, N emissions from oil sands development in the OSAA have steadily increased, reaching over 80,000 metric tonnes yr(-1) in 2017.& nbsp;Study focus: If oil sands N emissions have distinct stable isotopic signatures, it may be possible to quantify the extent to which these emissions have affected N cycling in surrounding aquatic, wetland, and terrestrial ecosystems. To assess the potential for 15N as a tracer of oil sands N emissions, we measured natural abundance 15N ratios and tissue N concentrations …

Resolving The Drivers Of Algal Nutrient Limitation From Boreal To Arctic Lakes And Streams, Maria Myrstener, Megan Fork, Ann-Kristin Bergstrom, Isolde Callisto Puts, Demian Hauptmann, Peter D. F. Isles, Ryan M. Burrows, Ryan A. Sponseller

Biology Faculty Publications

Nutrient inputs to northern freshwaters are changing, potentially altering aquatic ecosystem functioning through effects on primary producers. Yet, while primary producer growth is sensitive to nutrient supply, it is also constrained by a suite of other factors, including light and temperature, which may play varying roles across stream and lake habitats. Here, we use bioassay results from 89 lakes and streams spanning northern boreal to Arctic Sweden to test for differences in nutrient limitation status of algal biomass along gradients in colored dissolved organic carbon (DOC), water temperature, and nutrient concentrations, and to ask whether there are distinct patterns and …

Economic Consequences Of The Wolf Comeback In The Western United States, Dana Hoag, Stewart W. Breck, Kevin Crooks, Becky Niemiec

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Gray wolves were eradicated from most of the United States in the 1940’s but have made a comeback in parts of their historic range over the last two decades. First reintroduced into the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and central Idaho in the mid-1990’s, wolves have subsequently dispersed into at least 7 western states. Coloradoans became the latest state to take interest in bolstering wolf populations, as residents passed a ballot initiative in November 2020 to reintroduce a self-sustaining population of gray wolves by the end of 2023. Conflicts between people in rural areas that might incur costs (such as livestock loss) …

Environment-Driven Shifts In Inter-Individual Variation And Phenotypic Integration Within Subnetworks Of The Mussel Transcriptome And Proteome, Richelle L. Tanner, Lani U. Gleason, W. Wesley Dowd

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

The environment can alter the magnitude of phenotypic variation among individuals, potentially influencing evolutionary trajectories. However, environmental influences on variation are complex and remain understudied. Populations in heterogeneous environments might exhibit more variation, the amount of variation could differ between benign and stressful conditions, and/or variation might manifest in different ways among stages of the gene-to-protein expression cascade or among physiological functions. Here, we explore these three issues by quantifying patterns of inter-individual variation in both transcript and protein expression levels among California mussels, Mytilus californianus Conrad. Mussels were exposed to five ecologically relevant treatments that varied in the mean …

Understanding Continent-Wide Variation In Vulture Ranging Behavior To Assess Feasibility Of Vulture Safe Zones In Africa: Challenges And Possibilities, Adam Kane, Ara Monadjem, H. K.Ortwin Aschenborn, Keith Bildstein, André Botha, Claire Bracebridge, Evan R. Buechley, Ralph Buij, John P. Davies, Maria Diekmann, Colleen T. Downs, Nina Farwig, Toby Galligan, Gregory Kaltenecker, Chris Kelly, Ryno Kemp, Holger Kolberg, Monique L. Mackenzie, John Mendelsohn, Msafiri Mgumba, Ran Nathan, Aaron Nicholas, Darcy Ogada, Morgan Pfeiffer, W. Louis Phipps, Matteuns D. Pretorius, Sascha Rösner, Dana G. Schabo, Gabriel Lita Shatumbu, Orr Spiegel, Lindy J. Thompson, Jan A. Venter, Munir Virani, Kerri Wolter, Corinne J. Kendall

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Protected areas are intended as tools in reducing threats to wildlife and preserving habitat for their long-term population persistence. Studies on ranging behavior provide insight into the utility of protected areas. Vultures are one of the fastest declining groups of birds globally and are popular subjects for telemetry studies, but continent-wide studies are lacking. To address how vultures use space and identify the areas and location of possible vulture safe zones, we assess home range size and their overlap with protected areas by species, age, breeding status, season, and region using a large continent-wide telemetry datasets that includes 163 individuals …

European Starling Use Of Nest Boxes Relative To Human Disturbance, Bradley Blackwell, Bruce N. Buckingham, Morgan B. Pfeiffer

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

gars and to engine and flight surfaces of moored aircraft. We questioned whether consistent removal of nest material would negatively affect use of a nest site, measured by a reduction in material accumulation. We conducted our study on a 2,200-ha site in Erie County, Ohio, USA (41° 22’ N, 82° 41’ W), from April 15 through June 2, 2020. We used 120 wooden nest boxes on utility poles, protected by an aluminum predator guard below the box. Our treatments included (1) twice weekly, repeated nest material removal (RMR; n = 40 nest boxes); (2) complete nest removal, but only after …

Impacts Of Land-Use Change And Urban Development On Carbon Sequestration In Tropical Seagrass Meadow Sediments, Martin Dahl, Rashid Ismail, Sara Braun, Pere Masqué, Paul S. Lavery, Martin Gullström, Ariane Arias-Ortiz, Maria E. Asplund, Andrius Garbaras, Liberatus D. Lyimo, Matern S.P. Mtolera, Oscar Serrano, Chanelle Webster, Mats Björk

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Seagrass meadows store significant carbon stocks at a global scale, but land-use change and other anthropogenic activities can alter the natural process of organic carbon (Corg) accumulation. Here, we assessed the carbon accumulation history of two seagrass meadows in Zanzibar (Tanzania) that have experienced different degrees of disturbance. The meadow at Stone Town has been highly exposed to urban development during the 20th century, while the Mbweni meadow is located in an area with relatively low impacts but historical clearing of adjacent mangroves. The results showed that the two sites had similar sedimentary Corg accumulation rates (22–25 g m−2 yr−1) …

Group And Individual Social Network Metrics Are Robust To Changes In Resource Distribution In Experimental Populations Of Forked Fungus Beetles, R. A. Costello, P. A. Cook, Vincent A. Formica, E. D. Brodie Iii

Biology Faculty Works

1. Social interactions drive many important ecological and evolutionary processes. It is therefore essential to understand the intrinsic and extrinsic factors that underlie social patterns. A central tenet of the field of behavioural ecology is the expectation that the distribution of resources shapes patterns of social interactions. 2. We combined experimental manipulations with social network analyses to ask how patterns of resource distribution influence complex social interactions. 3. We experimentally manipulated the distribution of an essential food and reproductive resource in semi-natural populations of forked fungus beetles Bolitotherus cornutus. We aggregated resources into discrete clumps in half of the populations …

Ecological Studies Of Wolves On Isle Royale Annual Report 2021-2022, Sarah R. Hoy, Rolf O. Peterson, John A. Vucetich

Ecological Studies of Wolves on Isle Royale

Annual Report 2021-2022