Digital Commons Network^™

Delta‐Flux: An Eddy Covariance Network For A Climate‐Smart Lower Mississippi Basin, Benjamin R. K. Runkle, James R. Rigby, Michele L. Reba, Saseendran S. Anapalli, Joydeep Bhattacharjee, Ken W. Krauss, Lu Liang, Martin A. Locke, Kimberly A. Novick, Ruixiu Sui, Kosana Suvocarev, Paul M. White Jr.

Biological and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Networks of remotely monitored research sites are increasingly the tool used to study regional agricultural impacts on carbon and water fluxes. However, key national networks such as the National Ecological Observatory Network and AmeriFlux lack contributions from the Lower Mississippi River Basin (LMRB), a highly productive agricultural area with opportunities for soil carbon sequestration through conservation practices. The authors describe the rationale to create the new Delta‐Flux network, which will coordinate efforts to quantify carbon and water budgets at seventeen eddy covariance flux tower sites in the LMRB. The network structure will facilitate climate‐smart management strategies based on production‐scale and …

A Model Of The Use Of Evolutionary Trees (Muet) To Inform K-14 Biology Education, Yi Kong, Ankita Thawani, Trevor R. Anderson, Nancy Pelaez

PIBERG Publications

Evolutionary trees are powerful tools used in modern biological research, and also commonly used in textbooks and classroom instruction. Studies have shown that K-14 students have difficulties interpreting evolutionary trees. To improve student learning about this topic, it is essential to teach them how to understand and use trees like professional biologists. Unfortunately, few currently used teaching frameworks for evolution instruction are designed for this purpose. In this study we developed the Model of the Use of Evolutionary Trees (MUET), a conceptual model that characterizes how evolutionary trees were used by professional biologists as represented in their research publications. The …

Estimating Biomass Of Berries Consumed By Gray Wolves, Thomas Gable, Steve K. Windels, John G. Bruggink

Journal Articles

Gray wolves (Canis lupus) consume berries and other wild fruits seasonally when available or abundant. However, a method to convert percent frequency of occurrence or percent volume of berries in wolf scats to percent biomass has not yet been developed. We used estimates of the average number of blueberry (Vaccinium spp.) seeds in 10 individual wolf scats collected in and adjacent to Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota, USA, along with published values of the number of seeds per blueberry and blueberry masses to estimate that a wolf scat containing only berries equated to an average of 0.468 kg …

An Assessment Of Potential False Positive E.Coli Pyroprints In The Cplop Database, Skyler A. Gordon

Master's Theses

The genetic information found in each species of organism is unique, and can be used as a tool to differentiate at the molecular level. This has caused rapid genotyping methods to become the cornerstone of a new area of research dependent on reading the genome as a form of identification. One of these specific identification methods, known as pyroprinting, relies on the small variation of DNA sequences within the same species to develop a unique, reproducible fingerprint. By simultaneously pyrosequencing multiple polymorphic loci within the ribosomal operons known as the intergenic transcribed spacers, a reproducible output is obtained, known as …

Multiple Mating By Females In The Chesapeake Bay Blue Crab Callinectes Sapidus Population, S. Wells, J. Mcconaugha, L. Horth

OES Faculty Publications

Mature females of the Chesapeake Bay (USA) blue crab Callinectes sapidus population mate multiple times. Microsatellite DNA analysis of sperm stored in the spermathecae has shown that virtually all (~97%, 104 out of 107) females collected in a 2009−2010 study mated with at least 2 males. Enumeration of stored sperm revealed that despite multiple mating, some females did not have enough sperm to fulfill their lifetime reproductive potential, suggesting that female blue crabs may experience varying levels of sperm limitation. This could result from multiple factors. The average body size of males in the population has decreased, which reduces the …

Experimental Impacts Of Climate Warming And Ocean Carbonation On Eelgrass Zostera Marina, Richard C. Zimmerman, Victoria J. Hill, Malee Jinuntuya, Billur Celebi, David Ruble, Miranda Smith, Tiffany Cedeno, W. Mark Swingle

OES Faculty Publications

CO₂ is a critical and potentially limiting substrate for photosynthesis of both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. In addition to being a climate-warming greenhouse gas, increasing concentrations of CO₂ will dissolve in the oceans, eliciting both negative and positive responses among organisms in a process commonly known as ocean acidification. The dissolution of CO₂ into ocean surface waters, however, also increases its availability for photosynthesis, to which the highly successful, and ecologically important, seagrasses respond positively. Thus, the process might be more accurately characterized as ocean carbonation. This experiment demonstrated that CO₂ stimulation of primary production enhances …

Bioethics In The Work Of Ernest Everett Just: + Missing - Some 400 Pages, Theodore Walker

Perkins Faculty Research and Special Events

Biology + ethics = bioethics. Here we see that Howard University biologist Ernest Everett Just (born 1883, died 1941) connected biology to ethics.

According to Just, various forms of specific biology (including especially cell biology) plus “general biology” are necessary for explaining adequately the origin of ethical behaviors. Social ethical behaviors, especially mutual aid and cooperative interactions with others and the environment, are essential to evolutionary advances among living creatures, ranging from humans to cells. Accordingly, theory of ethics (moral theory) should have roots in biology.

Also, Just wrote an unpublished book-length manuscript—“some 400 typed pages” (Just 1940)—on seeking the …

Habitat Selection By The Northern Long-Eared Myotis (Myotis Septentrionalis) In The Midwestern United States: Life In A Shredded Farmscape, Jeremy A. White, Patricia Freeman, Cliff A. Lemen

Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences and Affiliated Societies

Populations of the Northern Long-Eared Myotis (Myotis septentrionalis) have declined dramatically in recent years in eastern North America due to white-nose syndrome. Although M. septentrionalis was once common in parts of eastern North America, few studies have examined habitat selection of this species in an agricultural landscape. We used acoustical methods to quantify bat activity and construct a habitat model of M. septentrionalis in an intensively farmed area in the Midwestern United States, where mortality from white-nose syndrome has not yet been observed. Our study confirms that M. septentrionalis prefers forest and avoids open habitats in this agricultural …

The Subject Librarian Newsletter, Biology, Spring 2017, Sandy Avila

Libraries' Newsletters

No abstract provided.

Nitrogen Sustainability: Impediments To Action And Communication, Eric E. Jorgensen

Journal of Environmental Sustainability

“Sustainability” is widely used to imply the presence of explicit consideration of environmentally friendly needs and that high societal-value is placed on those needs. However, it is abundantly clear after 30 years that talking about sustainability and achieving it are two entirely different things. The core concept underlying sustainability is that current human practices and activities be conducted so as to not degrade prospects for future generations. With nitrogen, conflicts about sustainability in-theory and sustainability in-practice are close to the surface because of nitrogen’s central role in food production and economic activity. Measures of nitrogen inputs commonly range as high …

Policing A Negotiated World: A Partial Test Of Klinger’S Ecological Theory Of Policing, Travis A. Taniguchu, Christopher Salvatore

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The primary goal of the current study is to examine a portion of Klinger’s theory. Specifically, we test the influence of organizational and environmental contextual factors, guided by Klinger’s theory, on one measure of officer vigor. To date, few studies have taken this approach to examine Klinger’s theory. The study builds on prior research that has tested aspects of Klinger’s theory and adds new analytic strategies that prior studies have not used. The results of this study have implications for both theory and practice, and they add to the growing literature examining the influence of ecological and organization factors on …

Restoration Of The Iconic Pando Aspen Clone: Emerging Evidence Of Recovery, Paul C. Rogers, Jody A. Gale

Aspen Bibliography

Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) is being stressed across the America West from a variety of sources including drought, herbivory, fire suppression, development, and past management practices. Rich assemblages of plants and animals that utilize aspen forests, as well as economic values of tourism, grazing, hunting, and water conservation, make aspen ecosystems among the most valuable vegetation types in this region. The 43-ha Pando clone near Fish Lake, Utah, is an iconic example of an aspen community undergoing rapid decline due to overstory mortality and chronic recruitment failure. As part of a larger project to restore Pando, we fenced, …

Oviposition Traits Generate Extrinsic Postzygotic Isolation Between Two Pine Sawfly Species, Emily E. Bendall, Kim L. Vertacnik, Catherine R. Linnen

Biology Faculty Publications

Background: Although empirical data indicate that ecological speciation is prevalent in nature, the relative importance of different forms of reproductive isolation and the traits generating reproductive isolation remain unclear. To address these questions, we examined a pair of ecologically divergent pine-sawfly species: while Neodiprion pinetum specializes on a thin-needled pine (Pinus strobus), N. lecontei utilizes thicker-needled pines. We hypothesized that extrinsic postzygotic isolation is generated by oviposition traits. To test this hypothesis, we assayed ovipositor morphology, oviposition behavior, and host-dependent oviposition success in both species and in F1 and backcross females.

Results: Compared to N. lecontei, N. …

Do Elephants Eat More Trees When Less Grass Is Available? A Field Study In Kruger National Park, South Africa., Emily Goldberg

Yale Day of Data

Although African bush elephants are often responsible for the majority of herbivore-driven savanna tree mortality, confusion remains regarding the factors that influence their diet. Some elephants either browse or graze almost exclusively, while others balance the two, and the determinants of this variation remain poorly understood. I seek to determine whether grass availability controls the proportion of woody plants in elephant diet and, therefore, the amount of damage elephants do to trees while foraging. Preliminary analysis using already-available data on grass biomass, elephant density, and elephant damage to trees suggest that tree damage is in fact negatively correlated with grass …

Symposium Volume 3, Issue 1

Symposium

Collection of research projects conducted by students of the College of Science and Math at California Polytechnic State University

A New Species Of The “Apacheanus” Group Of Genus Pseudouroctonus From Western Texas (Scorpiones: Vaejovidae), Richard F. Ayrey, Michael E. Soleglad

Euscorpius

A new species of the “apacheanus” group of genus Pseudouroctonus is described from western Texas, USA, Pseudouroctonus brysoni, sp. nov. This new species is closely related to P. apacheanus (Gertsch et Soleglad, 1972) and two other species recently described from southern Arizona. A combination of morphological differences in the hemispermatophore, the mating plug, and several morphometric-based characters are identified as diagnostic.

The Paucity Of Frugivores In Madagascar May Not Be Due To Unpredictable Temperatures Or Fruit Resources, Sarah Federman, Miranda Sinnott-Armstrong, Andrea L. Baden, Colin A. Chapman, Douglas C. Daly, Alison R. Richard, Kim Valenta, Michael J. Donoghue

Publications and Research

The evolution of ecological idiosyncrasies in Madagascar has often been attributed to selective pressures stemming from extreme unpredictability in climate and resource availability compared to other tropical areas. With the exception of rainfall, few studies have investigated these assumptions. To assess the hypothesis that Madagascar's paucity of frugivores is due to unreliability in fruiting resources, we use statistical modeling to analyze phenology datasets and their environmental correlates from two tropical wet forests, the Réserve Naturelle Intégrale Betampona in Madagascar, and Kibale National Park in Uganda. At each site we found that temperature is a good environmental predictor of fruit availability. …

Effect Of Seed Morph And Light Level On Growth And Reproduction Of The Amphicarpic Plant Amphicarpaea Edgeworthii (Fabaceae), Keliang Zhang, Jerry M. Baskin, Carol C. Baskin, Xuejun Yang, Zhenying Huang

Biology Faculty Publications

Amphicarpic plants produce aerial and subterranean fruits on an individual plant, and these heteromorphic diaspores give rise to plants that differ in growth and ecology. Amphicarpaea edgeworthii is a summer annual amphicarpic species that grows over a range of light levels. We aimed to compare the response to shading intensity of plants of A. edgeworthii grown throughout their life cycle from aerial seeds (ASP) and from subterranean seeds (SSP). We hypothesized that vegetative and reproductive growth of plants from ASP and SSP respond differently to light. Plants were grown from ASP and SSP under 0, 46, 71 and 90% shading …

Cognition-Mediated Evolution Of Low-Quality Floral Nectars, Vladislav Nachev, Kai Petra Stich, Clemens Winter, Alan B. Bond, Alan Kamil, York Winter

Alan Bond Publications

Plants pollinated by hummingbirds or bats produce dilute nectars even though these animals prefer more concentrated sugar solutions. This mismatch is an unsolved evolutionary paradox. Here we show that lower quality, or more dilute, nectars evolve when the strength of preferring larger quantities or higher qualities of nectar diminishes as magnitudes of the physical stimuli increase. In a virtual evolution experiment conducted in the tropical rainforest, bats visited computer-automated flowers with simulated genomes that evolved relatively dilute nectars. Simulations replicated this evolution only when value functions, which relate the physical stimuli to subjective sensations, were nonlinear. Selection also depended on …

Chapter 1 - The Fauna: A Place To Call Home, Janice M. Glime

Bryophyte Ecology Volume 2: Bryological Interaction

Explore the contents of Bryophyte Ecology, Volume 2, Chapter 1 - The Fauna 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.

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

Chapter 6 - Onychophora, Janice M. Glime

Bryophyte Ecology Volume 2: Bryological Interaction

Explore the contents of Bryophyte Ecology, Volume 2, Chapter 6 - Onychophora 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.

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

Chapter 8 - Arthropods: Harvestmen And Pseudoscorpions, Janice M. Glime

Bryophyte Ecology Volume 2: Bryological Interaction

Explore the contents of Bryophyte Ecology, Volume 2, Chapter 8 - Arthropods: Harvestmen by clicking the link above. For the Contents section of this ebook, as well as Volumes 1 through 5, please visit the Bryophyte Ecology Main Page.

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

Chapter 2 - Protozoa, Janice M. Glime

Bryophyte Ecology Volume 2: Bryological Interaction

Explore the contents of Bryophyte Ecology, Volume 2, Chapter 2 - Protozoa 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.

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

Chapter 9 - Arthropods: Mites, Janice M. Glime

Bryophyte Ecology Volume 2: Bryological Interaction

Explore the contents of Bryophyte Ecology, Volume 2, Chapter 9 - Arthropods: Mites 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.

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

This video of a mite feeding on antheridia of Haplomitrium mnioides accompanies this chapter: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/bryophyte-ecology-video/2/

Chapter 10 - Arthropods: Crustacea, Janice M. Glime

Bryophyte Ecology Volume 2: Bryological Interaction

Explore the contents of Bryophyte Ecology, Volume 2, Chapter 10 - Arthropods: Crustacea 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.

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

Chapter 13 - Fish, Janice M. Glime

Bryophyte Ecology Volume 2: Bryological Interaction

Explore the contents of Bryophyte Ecology, Volume 2, Chapter 13 - Fish by clicking the link above. For the Contents section of this ebook, as well as Volumes 1 through 5, please visit the Bryophyte Ecology Main Page.

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

Chapter 5 - Tardigrades, Janice M. Glime

Bryophyte Ecology Volume 2: Bryological Interaction

Explore the contents of Bryophyte Ecology, Volume 2, Chapter 5 - Tardigrades 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.

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

Chapter 7 - Arthropods: Spiders, Janice M. Glime, Jørgen Lissner

Bryophyte Ecology Volume 2: Bryological Interaction

Explore the contents of Bryophyte Ecology, Volume 2, Chapter 7 - Arthropods: Spiders 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.

Subchapters 7-3 through 7-5 have been coauthored by Jørgen Lissner.

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

Chapter 15 - Reptiles, Janice M. Glime

Bryophyte Ecology Volume 2: Bryological Interaction

Explore the contents of Bryophyte Ecology, Volume 2, Chapter 15 - Reptiles by clicking the link above. For the Contents section of this ebook, as well as Volumes 1 through 5, please visit the Bryophyte Ecology Main Page.

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

Chapter 11 - Aquatic Insects, Janice M. Glime

Bryophyte Ecology Volume 2: Bryological Interaction

Explore the contents of Bryophyte Ecology, Volume 2, Chapter 11 - Aquatic Insects 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.

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