Digital Commons Network^™

Do Different Relevance Attributes Indicate The Same Conservation Priorities? A Case Study In Caves Of Southeastern Brazil, Maysa F.V.R. Souza, Denizar A. Alvarenga, Marconi Souza-Silva, Rodrigo L. Ferreira

International Journal of Speleology

In the last decade, the scientific community brought to the debate gaps that slow down the advance of knowledge regarding global biodiversity. More recently, this discussion has reached subterranean environments, where these gaps are even more dramatic due to the relict and vulnerable nature of their species. In this context, we tested ecological metrics related to some of these gaps, checking if the biological relevance of the caves would change depending on ecological attributes related to each metric. The study was carried out in caves from southeastern Brazil, located in a region presenting a high richness of troglobitic species restricted …

Downscaling Of Far-Red Solar-Induced Chlorophyll Fluorescence Of Different Crops From Canopy To Leaf Level Using A Diurnal Data Set Acquired By The Airborne Imaging Spectrometer Hyplant, Bastian Siegmann, Maria Pilar Cendrero-Mateo, Sergio Cogliati, Alexander Damm, John Gamon, David Herrera, Christopehr Jedmowski, Laura Verena Junker-Frohn, Thorsten Kraska, Onno Muller, Patrick Rademske, Christiaan Van Der Tol, Juan Quiros-Vargas, Peiqi Yang, Uwe Rascher

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Remote sensing-based measurements of solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) are useful for assessing plant functioning at different spatial and temporal scales. SIF is the most direct measure of photosynthesis and is therefore considered important to advance capacity for the monitoring of gross primary production (GPP) while it has also been suggested that its yield facilitates the early detection of vegetation stress. However, due to the influence of different confounding effects, the apparent SIF signal measured at canopy level differs from the fluorescence emitted at leaf level, which makes its physiological interpretation challenging. One of these effects is the scattering of SIF …

Comparative Study Of Leachate Characterization: Implication For Sustainable Environmental Management, Osakpolor Marvellous Omorogieva, Victory Itua Igberase

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Understanding the sources of environmental stressors, the role of geology, climate and technology would provide a guide to solving the problems posed by such stressor. The study examine the sources of wastes in Ikhueniro open dumpsite located in Benin city, Nigeria and characterize the leachate emanating from it. This will assist in adequate design of managerial scheme to tackle the menace posed by it while putting into consideration the role of geology, climate and technology. The key objectives are to carry out field study, characterize wastes in the dumpsite and collect raw leachate emanating from the wastes heap in order …

The Future Of Wildlife Conservation Funding: What Options Do U.S. College Students Support?, Lincoln R. Larson, Markus Nils Peterson, Richard Von Furstenberg, Victoria R. Vayer, Kangjae Jerry Lee, Daniel Y. Choi, Kathryn Stevenson, Adam A. Ahlers, Christine Anhalt-Depies, Taniya Bethke, Jeremy T. Bruskotter, Christopher J. Chizinski, Brian Clark, Ashley A. Dayer, Kelly Heber Dunning, Benjamin Ghasemi, Larry Gigliotti, Alan Graefe, Kris Irwin, Samuel J. Keith, Matt Kelly, Gerard Kyle, Elizabeth Metcalf, Wayde Morse, Mark D. Needham, Neelam C. Poudyal, Michael Quartuch, Shari Rodriguez, Chelsie Romulo, Ryan L. Sharp, William Siemer, Matthew T. Springer, Brett Stayton, Richard Stedman, Taylor Stein, Timothy R. Van Deelen, Jason Whiting, Richelle L. Winkler, Kyle Maurice Woosnam

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Insufficient funding is a major impediment to conservation efforts around the world. In the United States, a decline in hunting participation threatens sustainability of the “user-pay, public benefit” model that has supported wildlife conservation for nearly 100 years, forcing wildlife management agencies to contemplate alternative funding strategies. We investigated support for potential funding options among diverse college students, a rapidly expanding and politically active voting bloc with a potentially powerful influence on the future of conservation. From 2018 to 2020, we surveyed 17,203 undergraduate students at public universities across 22 states. Students preferred innovative approaches to conservation funding, with 72% …

Butte Treatment Lagoons Daily Pts Field Dump, Pioneer Technical Services, Inc.

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Effect Of Forage Management Strategies And Land Use Change On Nitrogen Budget And Soil Health Parameters In Pasture Systems, Yili Meng

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Pastures produce hay for livestock, and they conserve soil, water, and air resources. However, high nitrogen (N) fertilizer demands in pasture production have significant implication on greenhouse gas emission and environmental pollution. Appropriate forage management strategies can reduce environmental N loss and improve soil health, to enhance the long-term pasture productivity. Therefore, this study was carried out to investigate the effects of management strategies on N budgets and soil health parameters in subtropical pastures. Both field and laboratory experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of N stabilizers including urease inhibitor and nitrification inhibitor on pasture yield, greenhouse gas emission, …

Distilling Professional Opinion To Gauge Vulnerability Of Guam Avifauna To Brown Treesnake Predation, Robert M. Mcelderry, Eben H. Paxton, Andre V. Nguyen, Shane R. Siers

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

The avifauna of Guam was devastated by the introduction of the Brown Treesnake, and the restoration of native birds would need to address the problem with eradication or suppression of BTS. With eradication of the snake unlikely in the near term, and suppression capabilities limited to specific finite areas, key information for reintroductions is how low BTS abundance will likely need to be for each bird species to be re-established based on their vulnerability to BTS predation. Here, we estimate vulnerability, which can no longer be measured directly, so biologists who are familiar with one or more of seven Guam …

Assessing Climate Change Impacts On Live Fuel Moisture And Wildfire Risk Using A Hydrodynamic Vegetation Model, Wu Ma, Lu Zhai, Alexandria Pivovaroff, Jacquelyn Shuman, Polly Buotte, Junyan Ding, Bradley O. Christoffersen, Ryan G. Knox, Max Moritz, Rosie A. Fisher

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences (Formerly Dept. of Biology)

Live fuel moisture content (LFMC) plays a critical role in wildfire dynamics, but little is known about responses of LFMC to multivariate climate change, e.g., warming temperature, CO2 fertilization, and altered precipitation patterns, leading to a limited prediction ability of future wildfire risks. Here, we use a hydrodynamic demographic vegetation model to estimate LFMC dynamics of chaparral shrubs, a dominant vegetation type in fire-prone southern California. We parameterize the model based on observed shrub allometry and hydraulic traits and evaluate the model's accuracy through comparisons between observed and simulated LFMC of three plant functional types (PFTs) under current climate conditions. …

Application Of Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry To Monitor Surface Deformations Of The Trans-European Transport Network (Ten-T) – A Case Study Of The Motorways Crossing Areas Of Mining Operations In The Upper Silesian Coal Basin, Poland, Adam Smoliński, Mariusz Stawinoga, Tomasz Pindel

Journal of Sustainable Mining

Underground hard coal mining causes surface deformations. When the mining operations are conducted beneath linear objects, such as motorways, there is a risk of deformations of the axis of the road and its horizontal and vertical alignment (additional bends and vertical curvatures, longitudinal inclinations, deformations of crosssections). In the areas subjected to mining operations, mining plants conduct geodetic monitoring. Due to their labour intensity and costs, geodetic measurements are usually made only a few times a year. The article discusses the possibility of applying Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) to monitor the subsidence of the vertical alignment of motorways caused …

In Pursuit Of Comparability: Evaluating Influence And Interaction Among Components Of The Home Range Estimation Process In Chimpanzee Datasets, Jillian J. Rutherford

Geography ETDs

The home range (HR) is a fundamental manifestation of an animal’s spatial behavior, but its study has been limited by unclear, unreliable, and unstandardized methodological approaches for measurement. The lack of a comprehensive evaluation of the influence of components of the HR estimation process has hampered consensus over best practices for collecting and analysing movement data. This leads to wide variation in practice, thwarting direct comparability between HR estimates and curtailing the cohesive power of cross-study findings necessary for testing hypotheses and developing appropriate conservation and management strategies. In this thesis I explore the influence of and interaction between common …

Economic Implications Of Disasters On Cooperative Sector In Calabarzon, Philippines, Ceptryl S. Mina, Liezel S. Cruz

Journal of Economics, Management and Agricultural Development

Cooperatives serve as an important tool for improving the living conditions of members and their community. However, like any other business enterprise, cooperatives are also exposed to disasters that may affect their
operations. This study analyzed the economic effects of disasters on cooperatives in CALABARZON, Philippines. Results of the Pearson’s chi-square test showed that cooperatives are exposed to various types of natural, biological, and humaninduced disasters. It was found out that disasters lead to increased operational costs and reduced net surplus. Using emergency-use-only cell phones and generators, changing production patterns, limiting high risk-customers, buying insurance, and establishing online and offline …

Quantifying The Representation Of Plant Communities In The Protected Areas Of The U.S.: An Analysis Based On The U.S. National Vegetation Classification Groups, Alexa Mckerrow, Anne Davidson, Matthew Rubino, Don Faber-Langendoen, Daryn Dockter

Public Policy and Administration Faculty Publications and Presentations

Plant communities represent the integration of ecological and biological processes and they serve as an important component for the protection of biological diversity. To measure progress towards protection of ecosystems in the United States for various stated conservation targets we need datasets at the appropriate thematic, spatial, and temporal resolution. The recent release of the LANDFIRE Existing Vegetation Data Products (2016 Remap) with a legend based on U.S. National Vegetation Classification allowed us to assess the conservation status of plant communities of the U.S. The map legend is based on the Group level of the USNVC, which characterizes the regional …

Determining The Causal Link Of Honey Bee Gut Microbial Composition On Behavioral Maturation, Thi Lan Anh Nguyen, Cassondra L. Vernier, Gene E. Robinson

PRECS student projects

Emerging studies have supported the association between gut microbiome and host behaviors. However, it is unclear whether changes in the gut microbiome cause changes in host behaviors or vice versa. The European honey bee, Apis mellifera, is an excellent animal model for identifying the causal link between microbiome and behavioral changes over the lifetime of the host as the honey bee gut contains a simple microbiome composed of only nine bacterial taxa clusters. In honey bees, division of labor occurs through behavioral maturation where age determines what task a bee does. For example, older bees forage while younger bees perform …

The Effects Of Forest Management Practices On Wild Bee Abundance And Functional Traits, Harvey Vela, Marissa H. Chase, Alexandra Harmon-Threatt

PRECS student projects

Both wild and managed bees are in decline due to the combined and interactive effects of anthropogenic disturbances such as habitat loss and pesticide use. This is concerning because bees are important not only for the pollination of agricultural lands, but also for plants in both natural and managed landscapes. North America is home to about 4000 native species of bees, all of which can be further classified by various characteristics such as body size, nesting strategy, diet breadth, and sociality. These traits are considered functional traits because they can impact the function – pollination – bees contribute to an …

Mapping Traits In A Soybean Recombinant Inbred Line Population, Gabriela Ortiz, Chris Montes, Lisa Ainsworth

PRECS student projects

What is SoyFACE?

• Soybean Free Air Concentration Enrichment
• Field conditions mimic the future's atmosphere, temperature, and soil
• Connect physiological responses of crops under these conditions to their genes (aka mapping)

What is a recombinant inbred line population?

Method for mapping traits

• Two parents with variance in a certain trait (in this case, response to elevated carbon dioxide)
• The parents used: HS93-4118 and Loda
• Allows understanding of what regions (quantitative trait loci) respond to atmospheric change

Gems Student: Biofilm Production In Rhizobia Influences Clover Drought Response, Faith Smith, Kevin Ricks, Anthony Yannarell

PRECS student projects

Rhizobia serve as model system for examining how phenotypic changes in rhizobia influence the plant. Rhizobium-legume symbioses result in the formation of nodules on the root systems of host plants. Compositional and functional changes in microbial communities facilitate the host plants’ response to environmental stressors (i.e.; drought stress). Physiological effects of soil moisture on microbial communities result in specialized communities that can tolerate much low soil-moisture habitats while others are limited to high soil-moisture environments. This suggests microbial communities can assist in maintaining plant fitness when exposed to nonideal environmental conditions.

The Applicability, Efficacy And Risks Of Natural Sequence Farming In The Dryland Agricultural Zone Of South West Western Australia, Nik Callow, Rose Anne Bell

Natural resources commissioned reports

Natural sequence farming (NSF) is an approach to restoring degraded agricultural land, developed by Peter Andrews on his property Tarwyn Park in New South Wales. The approach aims to rehydrate the landscape by slowing the movement of water with a series of structures and then using this water to drive plant growth and improve soil function.

The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development engaged the University of Western Australia to review the applicability, efficacy and risks associated with using NSF principles and practices in the south-west dryland agricultural zone in Western Australia. The review has combined information from the …

Assimilation Of Seasonal Moisture Variability In North America And Asia For The Last Millennium, Chang Liu

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The seasonal tree-ring chronologies that recorded discrete moisture signal for warm and cool season have been used to reconstruct the North America Seasonal Precipitation Atlas (NASPA) by the point-by-point regression method, and the results indicated that they can fairly reproduce the seasonal precipitation variability in the past. Compared with reconstructions using only paleoclimate proxy data, the paleoclimate data assimilation (PDA) considers both proxy data and climate model output, so the PDA reconstructions are consistent with both the climate signals reflected by the proxy data and the physical mechanisms represented by climate models. Based on the tree rings with discrete seasonal …

Can In Vitro Phenotypes Of Fusarium Graminearum Indicate In Planta Aggressiveness?, Harrison Hall, Santiago Mideros

PRECS student projects

What is Fusarium graminearum and what does it do? Fusarium graminearum (F. graminearum), causes Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) in wheat and barley. FHB results in crop destruction and toxins that are harmful for human and animal consumption. There are several populations of F. graminearum present in North America and rates of in planta aggressiveness and toxin levels vary by Population. Visually, it is difficult to determine the aggression or toxin levels of an infection. However, it may be possible to determine this through in vitro growth. By using in vitro growth, it may be possible to determine in planta aggressiveness …

Effects Of Color Polymorphism And Lighting Environments On Male Bluefin Killifish Behavior, Elijah Davis, Ratna Karatgi, Becky Fuller

PRECS student projects

Polymorphism occurs when multiple, discrete phenotypes exist for a trait within the same species. Polyphenism, a form of phenotypic plasticity, occurs when the environment in which animals develop determines which discrete, morph is expressed. Color polymorphism occurs in male killifish anal fins where red, yellow, and blue color morphs are observed. Populations are found in both spring and swamp habitats. A polyphenism is present where males develop blue anal fins when raised in tea-stained water, which mimics swamps. My goal was to determine whether this plasticity is adaptive. Do blue males have an advantage in swamp water? Previous research involving …

Behavioral Plasticity In Response To Environmental Cues In Poison Frog Tadpoles, Samta Oza, Lisa Surber, Eva K. Fischer

PRECS student projects

Behavioral plasticity is the ability of an organism to detect cues in their environment and respond by modifying behavior. In the wild, dyeing poison frog (Dendrobates tinctorius) tadpoles are delivered by their dads to pools that vary in predation risk, resource availability, con-and hetero-specific density. Conspecific density is especially important as these tadpoles are aggressive and often cannibalistic. Behavioral plasticity in response to environmental cues may help tadpoles to compete for resources and survival.

Bioinformatics Protocol For Assessing Contamination Level And Quality On Genomics Data Of Ensifer Meliloti, Soohyun Lee, Mario Ceròn Romero, Katy Heath

PRECS student projects

Nitrogen (N) fixing bacteria have a symbiotic relationship with host plants. The legume plants provide sugar, a product of its photosynthesis, to rhizobacteria. Rhizobacteria, one of the various N fixing bacteria, utilize the sugar for its energy source needed for conversion of N2into NH4+. The rhizobacteria would provide fixed nitrogen to legume plant for its growth in exchange of energy source. There are various symbiotic relationships between microbes and plants, and the Heath Lab is especially interested in relationship between rhizobacteria and legume plants. Various genomic methods to study rhizobacteria require sequence data in Heath Lab. However, there is high …

Evaluating The Efficiency In The Application Of Transformation And Crispr/Cas9 Gene-Editing Technique On Pumpkins, Min Rung (Nicole) Hsu, Maria Malvino, Sarah R. Hind

PRECS student projects

With the simplicity of a unique genome engineering mechanism, CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing technique has amazed scholars with its effectiveness and efficiency in manipulating gene sequences.[1] As this advanced technique develops, its applications on different species arise as prominent subjects yet to be determined. Due to the great economic value of pumpkins and the need for examining CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing efficiency, Casperita pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo) is chosen as the subject to be investigated on. Through introducing CRISPR/Cas9 system —for modifying phytoene desaturase (PDS) gene— into pumpkin seeds with Agrobacterium-mediated transformation, we regenerate transgenic pumpkins and expect to observe albino leaves in the transformed …

Sometimes, When It Rains It Pours: How Does Flooding Alter Plant-Herbivore Relationships?, Lauren R. Urie, Erinn Dady, Esther N. Ngumbi

PRECS student projects

Flooding, an under-studied abiotic stressor, creates hostile soil conditions, including hypoxia, which hinder the growth and development of plants. Plants respond to abiotic and biotic stressors. A common response is the production of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which modulate stress responses and mediate plant and insect interactions. Flooding causes significant losses in crops of agricultural and economic importance including tomato. Understanding how flooding impacts plant growth, plant chemistry, caterpillar performance and chemical mediated plant-herbivore interactions will create fundamental knowledge to an emerging challenge brought about by climate change and inform pest management decisions post flooding events. This study investigated how …

Gems Student: Can Improved Diet Quality Alleviate Harmful Effects Of Pesticides And Viruses In Honey Bees?, Brittney Bailey, Ed Hsieh, Adam Dolezal

PRECS student projects

This study investigates interacting effects of viruses and pesticides within honey bees and how improved diet quality can mitigate these effects. This experiment allows a multivariate problem which exists in natural conditions of the honey bee community to be observed in a controlled cage bioassay. • The virus used in this study is the Israeli acute-paralysis virus (IAPV). Neonicotinoid thiamethoxam is the pesticide used in both trials shown in the ‘Results’ section. This experiment has not begun the use of the pyrethroid at this time.

The Genetics Of Aggression In Unique Three-Spined Stickleback Populations, Megan Tucker, Colby Behrens, Alison M. Bell

PRECS student projects

No abstract provided.

Stemloop-Finder: A Tool For The Detection Of Dna Hairpins With Conserved Motifs., Alyssa A. Pratt, Ellis L. Torrance, George W. Kasun, Kenneth M. Stedman, Ignacio De La Higuera

Center for Life in Extreme Environments Publications

Nucleic acid secondary structures play important roles in regulating biological processes. StemLoop-Finder is a computational tool to recognize and annotate conserved structural motifs in large data sets. The program is optimized for the detection of stem-loop structures that may serve as origins of replication in circular replication-associated protein (Rep)-encoding single-stranded (CRESS) DNA viruses.

Behavior And Genomics Of Nicotine-Seeking Larval Zebrafish, Kuzivakwashe Chinyanya, Andrew Button, Henning Schneider Phd

Annual Student Research Poster Session

Nicotine-use behavior is one of the main causes of preventable diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Helping people quit nicotine products is a main goal of our projects. Developing a zebrafish model for nicotine use behavior could provide a tool for studying the underlying genetic, environmental and neuronal elements of nicotine use behavior. The high reproductive rate and short generation time of zebrafish as well as available genetic tools represent major advantages for studying potential links between behavior and genes in zebrafish. In our experiments, we use a behavioral assay for studying nicotine-choice behavior …

Edge Influence On Forest Composition In A Pine-Oak Forest In Central Mexico, Isidro Avila, Dana Dudle Phd

Annual Student Research Poster Session

Deforestation in central Mexico comes as a direct consequence of the increase in agriculture demand and has resulted in the creation of more habitat edges. Changes in land usage for agriculture and resource extraction has resulted in habitat destruction and degradation; these same mechanisms have led to habitat fragmentation by producing smaller, and isolated fragments separated by human-transformed land cover. The loss of continuous area has resulted in greater exposure to human dominated landscapes resulting in changes to the structure and function of the remaining fragment. To quantify, document, and describe the edge influence on forest composition fragmented by an …

Life On The Rocks: Small-Scale Primary Succession In An Abandoned Limestone Quarry, Sophia P. Atkinson, Diana Borse, Cedrick Chandler, Daniel L. Saltz, Dana A. Dudle Phd

Annual Student Research Poster Session

Abandoned quarries, from which all soil and plant life have been removed, represent an opportunity to study primary succession at a small scale. Using a framework suggested by Gilardelli et al. (2016), we assessed the stage of primary succession in an abandoned limestone quarry in Greencastle, Indiana, where gravel extraction ceased in 1977. From 2018-2021 we surveyed the quarry floor to describe the species composition and distribution of flowering plant species that have established at the site, then described each species in terms of its plant form, life history, native and wetland status, and invasive rank using the USDA website. …