Digital Commons Network^™

A Presence-Absence Survey To Monitor Montezuma Quail In Western Texas, Cristela Gonzalez Sanders, Fidel Hernández, Leonard A. Brennan, Andrew N. Tri, Robert Perez

National Quail Symposium Proceedings

Developing an effective monitoring program for Montezuma quail (Cyrtonyx montezumae) is challenging because the technique must be practical for surveying vast, remote landscapes while accounting for the species’ low detectability. We used call-back surveys within a presence–absence framework to estimate occupancy and detection probability of Montezuma quail and used this information in conjunction with habitat data to develop an estimated probability of occurrence map for the species. We established survey points at 4 sites in western Texas (n = 20–30 points/site) and conducted 5 repeat surveys/season during June–August 2007 and 2008. We documented abiotic conditions (temperature, time …

Do Movement Patterns And Habitat Use Differ Between Optimal- And Suboptimal-Sized Northern Bobwhite Coveys?, Christopher K. Williams, Roger Applegate, Anthony R. Ives

National Quail Symposium Proceedings

The group size of social animals and spatial structure of the environment can affect group behavior and movement decisions. Our objective was to investigate movement patterns and habitat use of northern bobwhite coveys (Colinus virginianus) of different size. Using radiotelemetry, we continuously monitored covey group size, daily movement, and habitat use on 12 independent 259-ha study areas in eastern Kansas, USA, during the winters between 1997 and 2000. We used correlated random walk models and fractal dimension models to determine if covey size affected movement characteristics or habitat selection. Intermediate-sized coveys (9–12 individuals, close to optimal covey size) …

Shrubs Facilitate Recruitment Of Caragana Stenophylla Pojark: Microhabitat Amelioration And Protection Against Herbivory, Li-Na Xie, Hong-Yu Guo, Zhe Liu, Christopher A. Gabler, Wei-Zhong Chen, Song Gu, Cheng-Cang Ma

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Key message

Mature Caragana stenophylla shrubs facilitated intraspecific sapling establishment by two mechanisms: microhabitat amelioration and protection against herbivory. Facilitation was mediated by climate, grazing, and sapling age.

Context

Pre-existing shrubs could facilitate sapling establishment of woody plants; however, how these facilitation vary across abiotic and biotic stress gradients and the underlying mechanisms remain unclear.

Aims

The aim of this study is understanding the facilitation of shrub on sapling establishment and how the two underlying mechanisms, microhabitat amelioration and protection against herbivory, vary across climatic aridity gradients, grazing gradients, and sapling age.

Methods

We conducted field sowing experiments to examine …

Stable Isotopes In The Eye Lenses Of Doryteuthis Plei: Exploring Natal Origins And Migratory Patterns In The Eastern Gulf Of Mexico, Brenna A. Meath

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Stable isotope analysis is an emerging tool to examine trophic pathways and migratory patterns of marine organisms. Squid are widely distributed in coastal and deep water regions of the Gulf of Mexico. Stable isotope ratios of carbon and nitrogen found within cephalopod tissues can provide information on both trophic level and habitat of their food sources. More recently, ontogenetic changes in stable isotope ratios within squid eye lenses have been documented. Concentric layers of crystallin proteins are added to the lens as the squid ages; the center of the lens contains the oldest layer and the youngest layers are on …

Landscape Genetics Of The California Tiger Salamander: Inferences From Multiple Methods, Samantha Gabrielle Thomas

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Landscape genetics is a rapidly growing field of study that compares patterns of gene flow among populations with habitat heterogeneity across a landscape to infer the interaction between dispersal of individuals and their physical environment. Empirical data generated from a landscape genetics study can inform conservation and management strategies, making the field increasing popular. However, concerns have arisen in the literature that the field is expanding faster than the analytic framework that supports it. Multiple methods for generating estimates of the association among habitat types and dispersal (i.e., least-cost paths and resistance surfaces) have been proposed, and there is a …

Exposures To Fine Particulate Matter And Ozone Above Usa Standards Are Associated With Auditory Brainstem Dysmorphology And Delayed Auditory Brainstem Evoked Potentials In Healthy Dogs, Partha S. Mukherjee

Mathematics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: Delayed central conduction times in the auditory brainstem have been observed in Mexico City (MC) healthy children breathing fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) and ozone (O₃) above the current United States Environmental Protection Agency (US-EPA) standards. MC children have α synuclein brainstem accumulation and medial superior olivary complex (MSO) dysmorphology. The present study used a dog model to further investigate the potential effects of air pollution on the function and morphology of the auditory brainstem.

Methodology: Twenty-four dogs living in clean air v MC, average age 37.1± 26.3 months, underwent brainstem auditory evoked potential (BAEP) measurements. …

Distributions Of Polychaetes As A Function Of Sediment Composition In A Subtropical Lagoon, Anthony William Cox

Theses and Dissertations

Fine-grained organic-rich sediments (FGORS) in the Indian River Lagoon (IRL), Florida, the human activities and nutrient inputs and have a varied composition, including water content, silt-clay content, and organic matter. When these constituents reach, by weight, 75%, 60% dry, and 10% dry, respectively, this is sometimes referred to as IRL “muck”. Many polychaetes inhabit the benthic sediments of estuaries and must tolerate various degrees of FGORS. The Cox IRL Muck Index (CMI) is proposed as a mechanism for determining the organic sediment tolerances of infaunal species in a simple and direct manner. IRL muck will have a minimum CMI of …

Lung Ct Radiomics: An Overview Of Using Images As Data, Samuel Hunt Hawkins

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States and worldwide. Early detection of lung cancer can help improve patient outcomes, and survival prediction can inform plans of treatment. By extracting quantitative features from computed tomography scans of lung cancer, predictive models can be built that can achieve both early detection and survival prediction. To build these predictive models, first a detected lung nodule is segmented, then image features are extracted, and finally a model can be built utilizing image features to make predictions. These predictions can help radiologists improve cancer care.

Building predictive models based …

A Synergistic Approach For Evaluating Climate Model Output For Ecological Applications, Rachel D. Cavanagh, Eugene J. Murphy, Thomas J. Bracegirdle, John Turner, Cheryl A. Knowland, Stuart P. Corney, Walker O. Smith Jr., Claire M. Waluda, Nadine M. Johnston, Richard G. J. Bellerby, Eileen E. Hofmann

CCPO Publications

Increasing concern about the impacts of climate change on ecosystems is prompting ecologists and ecosystem managers to seek reliable projections of physical drivers of change. The use of global climate models in ecology is growing, although drawing ecologically meaningful conclusions can be problematic. The expertise required to access and interpret output from climate and earth system models is hampering progress in utilizing them most effectively to determine the wider implications of climate change. To address this issue, we present a joint approach between climate scientists and ecologists that explores key challenges and opportunities for progress. As an exemplar, our focus …

Rethinking Urban Green Infrastructure As A Means To Promote Avian Conservation, Allen Lau

Master's Projects and Capstones

There is an under-recognized potential for cities to use urban green infrastructure to contribute to avian biodiversity conservation. At the global scale, climate change and growing urbanization are primary global drivers leading to decline and homogenization in world bird populations. Birds are fundamental and intricate species in ecosystems, and even in urban areas, act as indicator and regulator species contributing to healthy ecosystem function. While many cities have recognized the economic and social benefits associated with green spaces, such as the vast benefits ecosystem services provide to the urban dweller, the use of green spaces to concurrently contribute to avian …

Using Stable Isotope Geochemistry To Determine Changing Paleohydrology And Diagenetic Alteration In The Late Cretaceous Kaiparowits Formation, Ut Usa, Daigo Yamamura

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Western Interior Basin of the North America preserves one of the best sedimentary and paleontological records of the Cretaceous in the world. The Upper Cretaceous Kaiparowits Formation is a rapidly deposited fluvial sequence and preserves one of the most complete terrestrial fossil record of the North America. Such a unique deposit provides an opportunity to investigate the interaction between the physical environment and ecology. In an effort to decipher such interaction, stable isotope composition of cements in sedimentary rocks, concretions and vertebrate fossils were analyzed.

Despite the difference in facies and sedimentary architecture, the isotope composition does not change …

A Comparison Of Five Statistical Methods For Predicting Stream Temperature Across Stream Networks, Maike F. Holthuijzen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The health of freshwater aquatic systems, particularly stream networks, is mainly influenced by water temperature, which controls biological processes and influences species distributions and aquatic biodiversity. Thermal regimes of rivers are likely to change in the future, due to climate change and other anthropogenic impacts, and our ability to predict stream temperatures will be critical in understanding distribution shifts of aquatic biota. Spatial statistical network models take into account spatial relationships but have drawbacks, including high computation times and data pre-processing requirements. Machine learning techniques and generalized additive models (GAM) are promising alternatives to the SSN model. Two machine learning …

Socioeconomic Status, Air Quality And Geographic Variation In Emergency Room Visits For Acute Bronchitis On The California Central Coast, Sean Lang-Brown, Heather W. Starnes, Gary B. Hughes

Symposium

IMPORTANCE: Analysis of geospatial variation in acute bronchitis due to socioeconomic and environmental factors can allow the efficient delivery of resources to populations most at risk.

OBJECTIVE: We sought to determine if small scale variation in socioeconomic factors and emergency room (ER) visits for acute bronchitis are associated in small cities or rural communities. We also modeled the effects of air quality on daily rates of ER visits for acute bronchitis in the context of socioeconomic factors to investigate modifying relationships.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: We examined ER visits for acute bronchitis in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties …

Divergence In Life History Traits Between Two Populations Of A Seed-Dimorphic Halophyte In Response To Soil Salinity, Fan Yang, Jerry M. Baskin, Carol C. Baskin, Xuejun Yang, Dechang Cao, Zhenying Huang

Biology Faculty Publications

Production of heteromorphic seeds is common in halophytes growing in arid environments with strong spatial and temporal heterogeneity. However, evidence for geographic variation (reflecting local adaptation) is almost nonexistent. Our primary aims were to compare the life history traits of two desert populations of this halophytic summer annual Suaeda corniculata subsp. mongolica and to investigate the phenotypic response of its plant and heteromorphic seeds to different levels of salt stress. Dimorphic seeds (F₁) of the halophyte S. corniculata collected from two distant populations (F₀) that differ in soil salinity were grown in a common environment under …

Relative Selection Strength: Quantifying Effectsize In Habitat- And Step-Selection Inference, Tal Avgar, Subhash R. Lele, Jonah L. Keim, Mark S. Boyce

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Habitat-selection analysis lacks an appropriate measure of the ecological significance of the statistical estimates-a practical interpretation of the magnitude of the selection coefficients. There is a need for a standard approach that allows relating the strength of selection to a change in habitat conditions across space, a quantification of the estimated effect size that can be compared both within and across studies. We offer a solution, based on the epidemiological risk ratio, which we term the relative selection strength (RSS). For a "used-available" design with an exponential selection function, the RSS provides an appropriate interpretation of the magnitude of the …

Incorporating Place And Space: A Hierarchical Spatial Approach To Exploring Preventable Congestive Heart Failure Hospitalizations In New York City, Rachael Weiss Riley

Dissertations and Theses

Background: Faced with rising medical care costs, increasing prevalence, and widening health disparities, preventing congestive heart failure (CHF) hospitalizations is a central public health concern. Despite evidence of geographical clustering in preventable CHF admissions, there is a lack of research designed to examine spatial patterning of CHF and the local area neighborhood determinants that contribute to this variability. This study sought to assess and evaluate the importance of both space and place in analyzing preventable CHF hospitalizations and readmissions by applying appropriate statistical techniques, clarifying the assumption inherent in each method, and interpreting the findings within the context of existing …

Flood Risk Assessment Using The Updated Fema Floodplain Standard In The Ellicott City, Maryland, United States, Ranjeet Thakali, Ranjit Bhandari, Giles-Arnaud Arif-Deen Kandissounon, Ajay Kalra, Sajjad Ahmad

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Faculty Research

Every Year, flooding causes a calamitous impact on the people, economy, and environment all over the world. In recent years, the flood-related damages have been increasing in the United States regardless of several investments in the flood control measures. Floodplain mapping is an important tool for management that aids in the planning of infrastructures within the floodplain zone. With the magnifying effects of climate change on the hydrological cycle the study of floodplain is becoming a key tool in the water management. Federal Emergency Management Agency has recently updated their floodplain standard as per the presidential executive order 2015 on …

Larval Rockfish Diversity Abundance Dynamics In Association With A Marine Protected Area In The Southern California Bight, Dustin Chen

Theses

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are areas aimed at protecting natural and cultural resources that are often proposed as a way to alleviate the effects of overfishing on populations of targeted species; these areas have varying degrees of fishing and recreational use restrictions. In order to assess MPA efficacy, it is important to determine the mechanisms by which the presence of MPAs affect reproductive output within and potentially even beyond their boundaries. I attempted to address this through studying the responses of rockfish (Sebastes spp.) larval abundances to the presence of the Cowcod Conservation Areas (CCAs) located within the Southern California …

Use Of First Pelvic, Second Pelvic, And Fourth Anal Rays For Estimating Age Of Muskellunge (Esox Masquinongy), Marinda R. Cornett

Honors Theses

While cleithra are the most popularly used calcified structure used to estimate age of Muskellunge (Esox masquinongy), the use of fin rays as an age estimation structure has been investigated as a nonlethal alternative. My objectives were to: (1) to compare the accuracy and precision of estimating age using first pelvic, second pelvic, and fourth anal rays from 46 known age Muskellunge and (2) to analyze a larger sample (n = 120) of fourth anal rays to estimate age. Ages were estimated blindly by three readers independently from all available structures. Different analyses of precision and accuracy had conflicting results, …

Application Of Anthromes To Frame Scenario Planning For Landscape-Scale Conservation Decision Making, Dainee Gibson, John Quinn

Biology Publications

Complexities in the rates and patterns of change necessitate the consideration of alternate futures in planning processes. These scenarios, and the inputs and assumptions used to build them, should reflect both ecological and social contexts. Considering the regional landscape as an anthrome, a priori, assumes human needs and institutions have a fundamental role and place in these futures, but that institutions incorporate ecological limits in decision making. As a case study of conservation scenario planning under the anthrome paradigm, we used a suite of InVEST models to develop and explore land use and land cover scenarios and to measure the …

Heterogeneity Of Avian Breeding Habitat On Grazing Lands Of The Northern Great Plains, Maggi S. Sliwinski

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Native rangelands in the Great Plains are largely privately owned and used for beef production. Vegetation heterogeneity is important for maintaining biodiversity, but private land may be more homogenous than desired. My research had two components: 1) to examine whether a variety of grazing strategies created vegetation heterogeneity in a large, intact rangeland, and 2) to understand beef producers’ attitudes about vegetation heterogeneity.

First, I sampled vegetation structure, composition, and bird abundance at multiple plots on eleven management units in Cherry County, Nebraska. Units were managed with commonly used grazing strategies (e.g., short-duration grazing and season-long continuous grazing). I examined …

Cranial Morphological Distinctiveness Between Ursus Arctos And U. Americanus, Benjamin James Hillesheim

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite being separated by millions of years of evolution, black bears (Ursus americanus) and brown bears (Ursus arctos) can be difficult to distinguish based on skeletal and dental material alone. Complicating matters, some Late Pleistocene U. americanus are significantly larger in size than their modern relatives, obscuring the identification of the two bears. In the past, fossil bears have been identified based on differences in dental morphology or size. This study used geometric morphometrics to look at overall differences in cranial shape and used step-wise discriminant analysis to identify specific characters that distinguish cranial morphology between …

Decadal Vegetation Succession Along A Chronosequence Within Eucalyptus Obliqua Wet Forest, Southern Tasmania, Christine Dobbin

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Southern Tasmania is home to fire dependent mixed forests, which, if not maintained, will eventually be replaced by the rainforest understorey. Wet eucalypt forest succession after disturbance events was investigated through floristic and vertical measurements of four north facing chronosequence plots with labels describing the age class of each, from regrowth to mature sites. This study was possible due to the establishment of permanent 50m x 50m plots in 2007 for longitudinal monitoring and subsequent illustration of forest dynamics following disturbance, including clearfell burns and wildfire. The contents of this report are the comparative analyses of the findings from the …

Herpetoplogical Survey Across Three Distinct Habitats In Ankarana National Park: Long-Term Effects Of Past Land Use On Species Composition In And Around The Park, Julia Park

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Ankarana National Park is home to a diverse population of herpetofauna. In this study, three distinct habitats in and around Ankarana National Park were surveyed for herpetological diversity. These habitats were defined as the deciduous forest located within the “tsingy” limestone karst canyons, the dry deciduous forest outside of the canyons, within the borders of the park, and the anthropogenically affected forest outside of the park’s borders, which is subject to logging and fruit tree harvesting. A total of 27 species of herpetofauna – six amphibian and 21 reptile species were found over the course of twelve days of surveying …

Abundance And Habitat Preferences Of Introduced Muscovy Ducks (Cairina Moschata), Jacqueline Marie Perry Cahanin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Muscovy ducks are native only to Central and South America, Mexico, and parts of southern Texas and are considered invasive in some areas outside of their native range. Although they have been introduced worldwide, they remain largely unstudied. The primary focus of this study was to relate Muscovy duck abundance to habitat characteristics of wetlands in Tampa, Florida. Muscovy abundance was measured using point count methods at 21 wetland sites that occur within an eight km radius of the University of South Florida’s main campus. Habitat features at these sites were assessed using field methods and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) …

Geographical Information Systems (Gis) Applied To Urban Nutrient Management: Data Scarce Case Studies From Belize And Florida, Charlotte Juliane Haberstroh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Nutrient inputs into the environment greatly impact urban ecosystems. Appropriate management strategies are needed to limit eutrophication of surface water bodies and contamination of groundwater. In many existing urban environments, retrofits or complete upgrades are needed for stormwater and/or wastewater infrastructure to manage nutrients. However, sustainable urban nutrient management requires comprehensive baseline data that is often not available. A Framework for Urban Nutrient (FUN) Management for Geographic Information Systems (GIS) was developed to specifically address those areas with limited data access. Using spatial analysis in GIS, it links water quality, land use, and socio-demographics, thereby reducing data collection and field-based …

Climate Drives Fire Synchrony But Local Factors Control Fire Regime Change In Northern Mexico, Larissa L. Yocom Kent, Peter Z. Fule, J. Brown, E. Cerano, E. Cornejo-Oviedo, C. Cortés Montaño, S. A. Drury, D. A. Falk, J. Meunier, H. M. Poulos, C. N. Skinner, S. L. Stephens, J. Villanueva-Diaz

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

The occurrence of wildfire is influenced by a suite of factors ranging from “top-down” influences (e.g., climate) to “bottom-up” localized influences (e.g., ignitions, fuels, and land use). We carried out the first broad-scale assessment of wildland fire patterns in northern Mexico to assess the relative influence of top-down and bottom-up drivers of fire in a region where frequent fire regimes continued well into the 20th century. Using a network of 67 sites, we assessed (1) fire synchrony and the scales at which synchrony is evident, (2) climate drivers of fire, and (3) asynchrony in fire regime changes. We found high …

Using Ranked Auxiliary Covariate As A More Efficient Sampling Design For Ancova Model: Analysis Of A Psychological Intervention To Buttress Resilience, Rajai Jabrah, Hani Samawi, Robert Vogel, Haresh Rochani, Daniel Linder

Biostatistics: Faculty Publications

Drawing a sample can be costly or time consuming in some studies. However, it may be possible to rank the sampling units according to some baseline auxiliary covariates, which are easily obtainable, and/or cost efficient. Ranked set sampling (RSS) is a method to achieve this goal. In this paper, we propose a modified approach of the RSS method to allocate units into an experimental study that compares L groups. Computer simulation estimates the empirical nominal values and the empirical power values for the test procedure of comparing L different groups using modified RSS based on the regression approach in analysis …

Habitat And Community Associations And The Population Dynamics Of A Temporary Coral-Reef Fish Ectoparasite, John Michael Artim

Student Theses and Dissertations

Coral reef is habitat constructed by the scleractinian coral after which the habitat is named. While scleractinian coral colonies are often meters in extent, they are composed of small individual organisms—typically on the scale of millimeters across. Coral reefs that include an abundance of many coral species support a diverse abundance of fish and conspicuous invertebrate life. These macro constituents of coral reefs—coral colonies, reef fish and conspicuous invertebrates—have been the primary focus for much of the existing body of coral reef ecology research. One of the inconspicuous and understudied coral reef invertebrate constituents are gnathiid isopod fish parasites. These …

Common Carp Disrupt Ecosystem Structure And Function Through Middle-Out Effects, Mark A. Kaemingk, Jeffrey C. Jolley, Craig P. Paukert, David W. Willis, Kjetil Henderson, Richard S. Holland, Greg A. Wanner, Mark L. Lindvall

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Middle-out effects or a combination of top-down and bottom-up processes create many theoretical and empirical challenges in the realm of trophic ecology. We propose using specific autecology or species trait (i.e. behavioural) information to help explain and understand trophic dynamics that may involve complicated and nonunidirectional trophic interactions. The common carp (Cyprinus carpio) served as our model species for whole-lake observational and experimental studies; four trophic levels were measured to assess common carp-mediated middle-out effects across multiple lakes. We hypothesised that common carp could influence aquatic ecosystems through multiple pathways (i.e. abiotic and biotic foraging, early life feeding, nutrient). Both …