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2006 - The Eleventh Annual Symposium Of Student Scholars

Symposium of Student Scholars Program Books

The full program book from the Eleventh Annual Symposium of Student Scholars, held on April 7, 2006. Includes abstracts from the presentations and posters.

Nitrogen Spatial Heterogeneity Influences Diversity Following Restoration In A Ponderosa Pine Forest, Montana, Michael J. Gundale, Kerry L. Metlen, Carl E. Fiedler, Thomas H. Deluca

Forest Management Faculty Publications

The resource heterogeneity hypothesis (RHH) is frequently cited in the ecological literature as an important mechanism for maintaining species diversity. The RHH has rarely been evaluated in the context of restoration ecology in which a commonly cited goal is to restore diversity. In this study we focused oil the spatial heterogeneity of total inorganic nitrogen (TIN) following restoration treatments in a ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa)/Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga inenziesii) forest in western Montana, USA. Our objective was to evaluate relationships between understory species richness and TIN heterogeneity following mechanical thinning (thin-only), prescribed burning (burn-only), and mechanical thinning with prescribed burning (thin/burn) to …

Alaska Reflections, Volume 18, Number 1 – Spring 2006

United States Fish and Wildlife Service: Publications

Table of Contents:

Reflecting
Outreach News
“Chinese” Dunlin in Barrow!
Life’s Work
Out Foxed
Jack Paniyak
Submerged Salmon Surveilance
Awards
Fish Schticks

Abstracts Of Papers, 84th Annual Meeting Of The Virginia Academy Of Science

Virginia Journal of Science

Full abstracts of papers for the 84th Annual Meeting of the Virginia Academy of Science, May 25-26, 2006, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA

Creating & Evaluating Artificial Domiciles For Bumble Bees, Douglas A. Golick, Marion D. Ellis, Brady Beecham

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

Most biologists agree that the availability of suitable nesting sites is a limiting factor for bumble bee populations (Free, 1959). Bumble bees always select areas with preexisting insulation for nesting. Fur-lined abandoned rodent dens are especially attractive, but occasionally, abandoned man-made materials are inhabited. It is not rare to find multiple dead queens in a nest indicating that they have fought for ownership.

Despite our knowledge of bumble bee nest site selection, most efforts to attract bumble bees to artificial domiciles have been met with limited success (Fye & Medler, 1954; Hobbs et al.,1960). Creating and evaluating artificial domiciles provides …

Accuracy Assessment Of Land Cover Maps Derived From Multiple Data Sources, Daniel Unger, Hillary Tribby, Hans Michael Williams, I-Kuai Hung

Faculty Publications

Maximum Likelihood (ML) and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) supervised classification methods were used to demarcate land cover types within IKONOS and Landsat ETM+ imagery. Three additional data sources were integrated into the classification process: Canopy Height Model (CHM), Digital Terrain Model (DTM) and Thermal data. Both the CHM and DTM were derived from multiple return small footprint LIDAR. Forty maps were created and assessed for overall map accuracy, user's accuracy, producer's accuracy, kappa statistic and Z statistic using classification schemes from U.S.G.S. 1976 levels 1 and 2 and T.G.l.C. 1999 levels 2 and 4. Results for overall accuracy of land …

Poster Session, Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute, University Of Kentucky

Kentucky Water Resources Annual Symposium

• Limestone-Based Material for Arsenic Removal from Drinking Water, Chelsea Campbell and others, Dept of Chemistry, WKU
• Opportunistic Water Education, Amanda Abnee Gumbert, Extension Associate for Environmental and Natural Resources Issues, UK
• Ten-Year Solute Concentration Patterns in Two Streams of Contrasting Land-Use in Western Kentucky and Tennessee, Susan P. Hendricks, Hancock Biological Station, Murray State University
• Pathogen TMDL Development using Load Duration Curves for Two Stream Segments in Rockcastle County, Kentucky, Joseph M. Ferguson, Kentucky DOW
• Beargrass Creek Water Quality Tool and TMDLs, Ward Wilson and others, Tetra Tech
• Pathogen and Sediment Transport in Muddy Creek …

Session 2b: Sediments, Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute, University Of Kentucky

Kentucky Water Resources Annual Symposium

• The New Contractor EPSC Certification Program Developed by the City of Bowling Green Kentucky: Educating and Involving Contractors in NPDES Phase II Compliance, Jeff Lashlee, City of Bowling Green, Beth Chesson, CEC, Inc., and April Barker, AMEC Earth and Environmental, Nashville, TN
• Kentucky Best Management Practices for Controlling Erosion, Sediment, and Pollutant Runoff from Construction Sites: Planning and Technical Specifications Manual, Richard Walker and Barry Tonning, Tetra Tech, Lexington
• Sediment Monitoring Efforts in the Upper Green River Basin in Support of the Kentucky Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program, S.T. Kenworthy, Dept of Geography and Geology, WKU
• Land-Use Fingerprinting …

Session 2a: Nonpoint Source, Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute, University Of Kentucky

Kentucky Water Resources Annual Symposium

• Little River Watershed Delineation and “Misbehaved” Karst Drainage, J.A. Ray and R.J. Blair, Kentucky Division of Water
• Comprehensive Commonwealth Water Education Project, David Howarth, Keith Mountain, and Kristen Dunaway, Dept of Geography and Geosciences, U of L
• Assessment of Water Quality Trends in the Upper Cumberland River Basin: Focus on Pathogen Impairment, Lindell Ormsbee and Ramesh Teegavarapu, KWRRI, UK
• Watershed & Land Use Planning: A BMP Technology Transfer Project (A Case Study of the Dry Run Watershed Basin), Rachel Phillips, Brad Frazier, and Sandy Camargo, Georgetown/Scott County Planning Commission

Proceedings Of 2006 Kentucky Water Resources Annual Symposium, Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute, University Of Kentucky

Kentucky Water Resources Annual Symposium

This symposium was funded in part by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, with Clean Water Act, Section 319(h) grant money through the Kentucky Division of Water and the Kentucky Waterways Alliance, #C9994861-00.

Planning for this conference was conducted as part of the state water resources research annual program with the support and collaboration of the Department of Interior, U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Kentucky Research Foundation, under Grant Agreement No. 01HQGR0133.

The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the abstract authors and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies, either expressed …

Preliminary Checklist Of Bolivian Cerambycidae (Coleoptera), James E. Wappes, Roy F. Morris Ii, Eugenio H. Nearns, Michael C. Thomas

Insecta Mundi

Abstract:
A list of the Cerambycidae of Bolivia is presented. It totals 1,259 species including 496 new country records. When available the known geographical distribution by department is shown for each species.

Resumen:
Se presenta una lista de los Cerambycidae de Bolivia. En total son 1.259 especies incluyendo 496 que son nuevas para el país. En los casos que ha sido posible, la distribución departamental se presenta para cada especie.

Estimates Of Breeding Bird Populations In The Sheyenne National Grassland, North Dakota, Mary Ann Cunningham, Douglas Johnson, Daniel N. Svingen

The Prairie Naturalist

We conducted a two-year survey of breeding birds in the Sheyenne National Grassland, North Dakota, to estimate total populations of breeding birds. The Grassland is of interest because it provides wildlife habitat and recreational birding opportunities. Indicated breeding pairs were counted on 100-m wide belt transects during morning surveys from late May to early July in 2002 and 2003. We surveyed approximately 6 to 7% of the Grassland each year. The most abundant species in both years were grasshopper sparrow (Ammodramus savannarum), red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus), claycolored sparrow (Spizella pallida), Savannah sparrow (Passerculus …

Systematics Of The Endangered Mauremys Mutica And Mauremys Annamensis, Jonathan Julio Fong

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Almost all turtle species in Asia are going extinct due to the demand for turtle products as food and medicine. A difficulty in creating effective conservation measures is that very little is known about the evolutionary relationships between populations and species. It is believed that several lineages we are currently calling species could in actuality be a complex of several species. One of these supposed species is the Yellow Pond Turtle, Mauremys mutica. Previous research has shown this group to have a tremendous amount of morphological and molecular diversity. In this study, I have used a combination of known-locality, farm, …

Sex Determination Of Red-Tailed Hawks (Buteo Jamaicensis Calurus) Using Dna Analysis And Morphometrics, Kara C. Donohue, Alfred M. Dufty Jr.

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Currently the sex of Red-tailed hawks (Buteo jamaicensis) cannot be determined by in-hand methods. Males and females do not differ in plumage and overlap in size. During migration, we collected feather samples and morphological measurements from birds at four sites in the Western United States. Sex was determined for individual birds using sex-specific DNA markers and Polymerase Chain Reaction was used to identify these DNA markers. Through Discriminant Function Analysis, we created equations for determining the sex of Red-tailed hawks using in-hand measurements based on the DNA-determined sexes. We formed two equations, one for adults, which was 98% …

Phylogenetic Analyses Of Mtdna Sequences Reveal Three Cryptic Lineages In The Widespread Neotropical Frog Leptodactylus Fuscus (Schneider, 1799) (Anura, Leptodactylidae), Arley Camargo, Rafael O. De Sá, W. Ronald Heyer

Biology Faculty Publications

Leptodactylus fuscus is a neotropical frog ranging from Panamá to Argentina, to the east of the Andes mountains, and also inhabiting Margarita, Trinidad, and the Tobago islands. We performed phylogenetic analyses of 12S rRNA, 16S rRNA, tRNA-Leu, and ND1 mitochondrial (mt) DNA sequences from specimens collected across the geographic distribution of L. fuscus to examine two alternative hypotheses: (i) L. fuscus is a single, widely distributed species, or (ii) L. fuscus is a species complex. We tested statistically for geographic association and partitioning of genetic variation among mtDNA clades. The mtDNA data supported the hypothesis of several cryptic species within …

Exmouth Gulf Prawn Fishery, Mervi Kangas, A F. Mccrea, W.J Fletcher, E. C. Sporer, V. Weir

Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD) series

Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD) is the concept that seeks to integrate short and long-term economic, social and environmental effects in all decision-making. The Western Australian Government is committed to the concepts of ESD and these principles are implicitly contained in the objectives of the Fisheries Resources Management Act 1994 (FRMA).

1st Susquehanna River Symposium Program, Bucknell Center For Sustainability And The Environment

Susquehanna River Symposium -- Conference materials

From the Branches to the Confluence : The Upper Susquehanna River Basin and its Communities held September 23, 2006. The six page program lists panel discussions, presentations, and abstracts. Topics included environmental science, acid mine drainage, environmental protection and restoration, the river and community, historical geography, and environmental humanities.

Effect Of In Ovo Exposure To Pcbs And Hg On Clapper Rail Bone Mineral Chemistry From A Contaminated Salt Marsh In Coastal Georgia, Alejandro Rodriquez-Navarro, Christopher S. Romanek, Pedro Alvarez-Lloret, Karen F. Gaines

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

The effect of Hg and PCBs (Aroclor 1268) on bone characteristics was investigated in a population of Clapper Rails (Rallus longirostris) inhabiting contaminated and unimpacted estuarine marsh systems in coastal Georgia. Exposure to contaminants did not affect the length or weight of leg bones, but it significantly altered the chemical composition of the bone. Specifically, bone in the contaminated site had a higher Ca to P, and lower carbonate and acid phosphate content. These characteristics are typical of more mature bone mineral and indicate that toxicants have accelerated bone maturation. FTIR spectroscopy data revealed a dose dependent change in the …

A New Moustache Wasp In Dominican Amber, With An Account Of Apoid Wasp Evolution Emphasizing Crabroninae (Hymenoptera: Crabronidae), Daniel J. Bennett, Michael S. Engel

Faculty Publications

A new, extinct species of the wasp genus Lindenius (Crabroninae: Crabronini: Crabronina) is described and figured from two exquisitely preserved specimens discovered in Early Miocene Dominican amber. Lindenius paleomystax, new species, represents the first record for the tribe Crabronini in Dominican amber and the southernmost record for the genus in the New World. The unique locality and habitat data begin to reveal a more complicated natural history for the genus than that suggested by Recent taxa alone. A checklist of fossil apoid wasps in amber is provided and the new species is discussed within the context of an overview …

The Ethics Of Wildlife Control In Humanized Landscapes, John Hadidian, Camilla H. Fox, William S. Lynn

Ecology Collection

The 21st century is witness to an unprecedented and rapid growth of human settlements, from urban centers to wilderness vacation resorts. Concurrent with this has been the growing tolerance and acceptance of many wild animals and humans for one another. This has created an expanding ‘zone’ of human-animal contacts, some number of which invariably result in conflicts. While the vast majority of our interactions with wild animals are undoubtedly benign, it is the conflict between wildlife and people that draws particularly close attention from the public. Animals viewed as vertebrate “pests” range from the small to the large, the timid …

“Nuisance” Wildlife Control Trapping: Another Perspective, Brad Gates, John Hadidian, Laura Simon

Wildlife Population Management Collection

Urban wildlife control is a rapidly growing profession in which many practitioners apparently still come from a recreational or commercial trapping background. Perhaps for that reason, much of the “control” in resolving human-wildlife conflicts in cities and suburbs seems to revolve around the use of lethal traps to eliminate “problem” animals. Although some states allow relocation and most apparently allow for nuisance animals to be released on site, the extent to which these practices occur is little known. Further, the biological impacts of continual trapping cycles on urban wildlife populations remain little known as well. An alternative approach to trapping …

Patterns Of Floral Structure And Orientation In Japonolirion , Narthecium, And Tofieldia, Margarita V. Remizowa, Dmitry D. Sokoloff, Paula J. Rudall

Aliso: A Journal of Systematic and Floristic Botany

Floral evolution requires reassessment in basal monocots, including species formerly assigned to Melanthiaceae, in the light of recent developments in the molecular phylogenetics of monocots. We have investigated flowers of Tofieldia (Tofieldiaceae), Japonolirion (Petrosaviaceae), and Narthecium (Nartheciaceae). We confirm Engler's (1888) hypothesis that orientation of lateral flowers in monocots is dependent on presence and position of additional phyllomes on the pedicel. The type of floral orientation that occurs in Tofieldia is unusual for monocots, since the additional phyllomes are represented by calyculus scales rather than a bracteole, and the outer whorl tepals are initiated alternating with the calyculus scales. In …

The Role Of Phylogenetic Constraints In The Evolution Of Pollination Mechanisms In Iridaceae Of Sub-Saharan Africa, Peter Bernhardt, Peter Goldblatt

Aliso: A Journal of Systematic and Floristic Botany

Novel, specialized systems exploiting bibionid flies, oil-collecting bees, wasps, or crepuscular settling moths as pollen vectors are added to the range of recorded pollination mechanisms in sub-Saharan Africa Iridaceae, while knowledge of the pollination of previously understudied genera such as Aristea, Bahiana, Ferraria, Hesperantha, and Tritoniopsis is expanded. The pollination of 357 species of the sub-Saharan African Iridaceae now includes 17 discrete systems. Based on repetitive interlinked suites of floral attractants and rewards we now infer pollination mechanisms for an additional 883 species. Many pollination systems recur in genera containing > 10 species. The ancestral pollination in African Iridaceae, and …

Subtribal Relationships In Tribe Tradescantieae (Commelinaceae)Based On Molecular And Morphological Data, Dylan J. Wade, Timothy M. Evans, Robert B. Faden

Aliso: A Journal of Systematic and Floristic Botany

Tribe Tradescantieae (Commelinaceae) consists of seven subtribes and 25 genera. Previous attempts to evaluate phylogenetic relationships within the group using morphology or the chloroplast-encoded rbcL have either been highly homoplasious (morphology) or provided only weak support for subtribal relationships due to insufficient variability (rbcL). In this study, phylogenetic analysis of nucleotide sequence data from the chloroplast-encoded ndhF and rbcL genes, as well as 47 morphological and anatomical characters, were used to evaluate relationships within and among the subtribes of Tradescantieae. The addition of ndhF resulted in a more highly resolved phylogeny and greater bootstrap …

Missing Links Between Disjunct Populations Of Androcymbium (Colchicaceae) In Africa Using Chloroplast Dna Noncoding Sequences, Alberto Del Hoyo, Joan Pedrola-Monfort

Aliso: A Journal of Systematic and Floristic Botany

With the objective of clarifying some aspects of the biogeography, phylogeny, and taxonomy of the genus Androcymbium, we sequenced three chloroplastic DNA noncoding regions (trnL intron, trnL-trnF IGS, and trnY-trnD IGS). These data were analyzed with maximum parsimony and the ancestral areas methods following Bremer. Results show that Androcymbium is not monophyletic and that the origin of its distribution and speciation is situated in western South Africa. Later, it dispersed to North Africa, going first to eastern South Africa. Androcymbium austrocapense and A. roseum allow us to phylogenetically connect the species of …

Gondwanan Vicariance Or Dispersal In The Tropics? The Biogeographic History Of The Tropical Monocot Family Costaceae (Zingiberales), Chelsea D. Specht

Aliso: A Journal of Systematic and Floristic Botany

Costaceae are a pantropical family, distinguished from other families within the order Zingiberales by their spiral phyllotaxy and showy labellum comprised of five fused staminodes. While the majority of Costaceae species are found in the neotropics, the pantropical distribution of the family as a whole could be due to a number of historical biogeographic scenarios, including continental-drift mediated vicariance and long-distance dispersal events. Here, the hypothesis of an ancient Gondwanan distribution followed by vicariance via continental drift as the leading cause of the current pantropical distribution of Costaceae is tested, using molecular dating of cladogenic events combined with phylogeny-based biogeographic …

When Reintroductions Are Augmentations: The Genetic Legacy Of Fishers (Martes Pennanti) In Montana, Ray S. Vinkey, Michael K. Schwartz, Kevin S. Mckelvey, Kerry R. Foresman, Kristine L. Pilgrim, Brian J. Giddings, Eric C. Lofroth

United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Fishers (Martes pennanti) were purportedly extirpated from Montana by 1930 and extant populations are assumed to be descended from translocated fishers. To determine the lineage of fisher populations, we sequenced 2 regions of the mitochondrial DNA genome from 207 tissue samples from British Columbia, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Montana. In northwestern Montana, fishers share haplotypes with samples from the upper Midwest and British Columbia; in west-central Montana, we detected haplotypes found in British Columbia samples, but also detected a control region and cytochrome-b haplotype not found in source populations. Based on the unique haplotypes found in west-central Montana, …

Santa Clara Magazine, Volume 48 Number 3, Winter 2006, Santa Clara University

Santa Clara Magazine

8 - WELCOME HOME, STEVE By Steven Boyd Saum. Basketball superstar Steve Nash '96 comes home to Santa Clara for a unique honor: a ceremony retiring his Bronco jersey. In a convocation address, he tells how Santa Clara changed his life. Now he wants the University to take its mission global.

12 - THE SCHOOL OF HOPE By Martha Ellen Stortz. Scholar and teacher Bill Spohn earned deep affection and the respect of the Santa Clara community in his years directing the Bannan Center for Jesuit Education. When he was stricken with cancer, he and his wife, Marty Stortz, looked …

Conservation Of Louisiana's Coastal Wetland Forests, William Conner, Jim L. Chambers, Richard F. Keim, John W. Day Jr, Stephen P. Faulkner, Emile S. Gardiner, Melinda S. Hughes, Sammy L. King, Kenneth W. Mcleod, Craig A. Miller, J Andrew Nyman, Gary P. Shaffer

Publications

No abstract provided.

Long-Term Success Of Stump Sprouts In High-Graded Baldcypress-Water Tupelo Swamps In The Mississippi Delta, William Conner, Richard F. Keim, Jim L. Chambers, Melinda S. Hughes, Luben D. Dimov, Gary P. Shaffer, Emile S. Gardiner, John W. Day

Publications

Regeneration of baldcypress (Taxodium distichum (L.) Rich.) and water tupelo (Nyssa aquatica L.) in swamps of the deltaic plain of the Mississippi River are of major importance for ecosystem sustainability and forest management in the context of regional hydrological changes. Water tupelo often forms prolific sprouts from cut stumps, and baldcypress is one of few conifers to produce stump sprouts capable of becoming full-grown trees. Previous studies have addressed early survival of baldcypress stump sprouts, but have not addressed the likelihood of sprouts becoming an important component of mature stands. We surveyed stands in southeastern Louisiana that were partially logged …