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Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology

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Leveraging Mammal Mycophagy To Determine Environmental Drivers Of Truffle Diversity, Brittany Hartsock Dec 2026

Leveraging Mammal Mycophagy To Determine Environmental Drivers Of Truffle Diversity, Brittany Hartsock

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many mycorrhizal fungi are hypogeous (truffle-forming), producing underground fruiting bodies. Studying truffles is inherently challenging due to their hidden nature. However, mycophagous mammals provide a unique opportunity to study hypogeous fungi because they rely on truffles as a food source. Although several truffle species have recently been described in the southern Appalachian region, their fruiting patterns remain poorly understood. To address this, we quantified truffle richness and spore loads from 670 Peromyscus scat samples collected across 42 sites spanning an environmental gradient during 2024 in the Blue Ridge Mountains of East Tennessee. We found that truffle richness and spore abundance …

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Reconstructing Stand-Age Structure In A Wet Miombo Woodland Using Dendrochronology, Zambia, Clara Tiyembekeze Zulu Aug 2026

Reconstructing Stand-Age Structure In A Wet Miombo Woodland Using Dendrochronology, Zambia, Clara Tiyembekeze Zulu

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Dendrochronological research in tropical Africa has remained limited, leaving critical gaps in stand-age structure and climate-growth relationships in seasonally dry tropical woodlands. This study reconstructed stand-age structure and assessed climate sensitivity in the wet Miombo woodland of African Explosives Limited (AEL) forest, Copperbelt Province, Zambia. Field sampling was conducted during four African Dendrochronology Fieldschools (2021-2024) using a Modified Variable Area Transect (MVAT) design across nine plots. The series intercorrelation was 0.351; the average mean sensitivity was 0.423. The oldest tree was 170 years old, and more than 70% of the sampled species showed potential for dendrochronology. Markhamia obtusifolia was the …

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Gaining Mussel: Evaluating Reintroduction Success Of Native Freshwater Mussels In Nebraska And Eastern Wyoming, Travis A. Moore May 2026

Gaining Mussel: Evaluating Reintroduction Success Of Native Freshwater Mussels In Nebraska And Eastern Wyoming, Travis A. Moore

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

Freshwater mussels are one of the most imperiled groups of organisms in North America, with over two-thirds of species considered threatened, endangered, or of special concern. These long-lived bivalves are essential to stream ecosystems, acting as filter feeders that improve water quality and as indicators of aquatic health. In Nebraska and Wyoming, native mussel populations have declined sharply due to habitat modification, pollution, and reduced connectivity. Two species of particular concern are the Plain Pocketbook Lampsilis cardium, listed as Tier I at-risk in Nebraska, and the Fatmucket Lampsilis siliquoidea, a Tier II at-risk species. In response, state agencies …

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Aquatic Interrelations In Malika Mokeddem’S Novel N’Zid (2001), Laura C. Klein Feb 2026

Aquatic Interrelations In Malika Mokeddem’S Novel N’Zid (2001), Laura C. Klein

Green Humanities: A Journal of Ecological Thought in Literature, Philosophy & the Arts

This article offers an ecological analysis of Malika Mokeddem's novel N'Zid (2001), moving beyond postcolonial and anthropocentric interpretations. It centers on the protagonist Nora's individuation, arguing this process is intrinsically linked to her evolving relationship with the aquatic environment from which she emerges. The article aims to situate N'Zid within an ecological perspective, particularly relevant in the Anthropocene, an era compelling a reassessment of humanity's place. Echoing Bruno Latour, addressing inter-relationality is essential as the stable physical framework of the Moderns becomes unstable. This view necessitates rethinking environmental issues and encourages a scientific interpretation of the novel, drawing on neurosciences, …

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Long-Term Compositional Shifts In The Fish Community Of The Wabash River, Olivia R. Wertman Jan 2026

Long-Term Compositional Shifts In The Fish Community Of The Wabash River, Olivia R. Wertman

Masters Theses

There is concern about declining biodiversity in the world today and an increasing need to monitor biodiversity through collecting data and gauging changes occurring in biodiversity over time. Large river fish communities are one area of particular interest due to their sensitivity to environmental changes. One program seeking to address this is the Long-Term Survey and Assessment of Large River Fishes, LTEF, which monitors fish populations in the large rivers of Illinois. In this study, I assessed changes in the fish community of the lower 322 km of the Wabash River from 2010-2025 using annual direct current boat electrofishing surveys …

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Indigenizing Aquaculture: In Pursuit Of An Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture System For Enhanced Self-Sufficiency In Akaroa Harbour, Aotearoa New Zealand, Cali R. Trainor Dec 2025

Indigenizing Aquaculture: In Pursuit Of An Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture System For Enhanced Self-Sufficiency In Akaroa Harbour, Aotearoa New Zealand, Cali R. Trainor

Capstone Collection

This study assessed the feasibility of integrating two pre-existing aquaculture activities in Akaroa Harbour, Aotearoa New Zealand into an integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA) system. The cultivation of giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) presents an opportunity to improve the sustainability of Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) farming by introducing alternative food sources for salmon, which can be used to produce fish feed locally, enhancing the self-sufficiency of the community and boosting the holistic efficiency of the system. Macroinvertebrates residing in giant kelp wrack were collected, identified, and quantified to determine if any of the Macrocystis-associated specimens could serve as …

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Preliminary Survey Of Subtidal Crustaceans On Southeast Sapelo Island, Georgia, Elise C. Mirabella, Kali Holierhoek, Kristine N. White Ph.D. Dec 2025

Preliminary Survey Of Subtidal Crustaceans On Southeast Sapelo Island, Georgia, Elise C. Mirabella, Kali Holierhoek, Kristine N. White Ph.D.

Georgia Journal of Science

The subtidal zone is the area below the low tide line that supports a wide variety of organisms, including subtidal crustaceans, which are understudied on Sapelo Island, GA. To investigate the impact of wave action on biodiversity and develop baseline data, the biodiversity of subtidal crustaceans from two beaches was compared. It was hypothesized that the beach protected from wave action would have higher biodiversity than the beach exposed to wave action. To collect the crustaceans, three different sampling methods were used on each beach: D-net, beam trawl, and Yabbi pump. The beach exposed to wave action yielded higher biodiversity …

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Taxonomy Of Endophytic Fungi Associated With Vallisneria Neotropicalis, Md. Arafat Rashid Dec 2025

Taxonomy Of Endophytic Fungi Associated With Vallisneria Neotropicalis, Md. Arafat Rashid

Graduate Theses and Dissertations (2019 - present)

This study presents the first comprehensive taxonomic and ecological investigation of endophytic fungi (EF) associated with the submerged aquatic macrophyte Vallisneria neotropicalis in the southern United States. Over a 12 month period, from April 2023 to March 2024, leaf samples were collected from two distinct sites in Mobile Bay, Alabama a disturbed, brackish Causeway location and a cleaner, less impacted site at Meaher State Park. Using culture dependent methods, a total of 257 fungal endophytes were isolated from 1,200 leaf segments. All isolates belonged to the phylum Ascomycota, distributed across 3 classes, 6 orders, 10 families, and 19 taxa. The …

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Crayfish Microhabitats Provide A Close Association With Benthic Microbiomes To Support Cleaning Symbionts., Kyle J. Harris, John Hoverson, Matthew Becker, Matthew M. Cooke Mr Jun 2025

Crayfish Microhabitats Provide A Close Association With Benthic Microbiomes To Support Cleaning Symbionts., Kyle J. Harris, John Hoverson, Matthew Becker, Matthew M. Cooke Mr

NEXUS: The Liberty Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies

Stream ecosystems promote variable microhabitats along a longitudinal gradient. These microhabitats support dynamic biotic assemblages. One such microhabitat in freshwater streams involves the external surface of crayfish. We investigated the microbiome of crayfish exoskeletons and the surrounding environment (water and substrate) in association with the presence and abundance of crayfish cleaning ectosymbionts (branchiobdellidans). These ectosymbionts actively consume the biofilm on crayfish as they live and reproduce in association with crayfish microhabitats. Sequenced microbes of the environment and crayfish were compared for dominant taxa. While the sample types (water, substrate, and crayfish) had significantly different microbiomes, there was not a significant …

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When Trees Disappear: Understory Successional Implications Of Sudden Oak Death And High-Severity Wildfire In Big Sur, California, Sam J. Balthazard Jun 2025

When Trees Disappear: Understory Successional Implications Of Sudden Oak Death And High-Severity Wildfire In Big Sur, California, Sam J. Balthazard

Master's Theses

The rapidly emerging disease sudden oak death, caused by the non-native pathogen Phytophthora ramorum, is transforming coastal California forests by driving extensive mortality of tanoak (Notholithocarpus densiflorus) and increasing fire severity. As a novel disturbance, sudden oak death and its interaction with wildfire may catalyze unexpected shifts in successional trajectories and reconfigure forest understory communities. Furthermore, how tanoak influences the forest understory and how its decline might reshape understory dynamics remain poorly understood. We hypothesize that disease alone and the compounding disturbances of disease and wildfire alter successional dynamics, and that the potential functional extinction of N. …

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Movement Ecology Of Sandhills Chub, A Carolina Endemic, Zachary Adam Ramsey May 2025

Movement Ecology Of Sandhills Chub, A Carolina Endemic, Zachary Adam Ramsey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Fish movement studies have traditionally focused on species that support commercial and recreational fisheries, but recently more focus has been given to non-game, stream fishes because of their recognized importance in maintaining biodiversity within these ecosystems. Stream fish movement is described as being “restricted” and following a leptokurtic distribution via diffusive spread related to environmental and biological factors. Many studies of stream fish movement ecology in North America have occurred in high-gradient streams with coarse substrate in mountains or in streams of the interior plains. Sandhills streams of the southeastern USA are characterized as warm-water, low gradient, and dominated by …

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Potamogeton Crispus Invasion: Impacts On Native Aquatic Plants And Associated Faunal Habitat, Meghan-Grace Slocombe May 2025

Potamogeton Crispus Invasion: Impacts On Native Aquatic Plants And Associated Faunal Habitat, Meghan-Grace Slocombe

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Aquatic invasive plants are non-native plants that invade a water body and displace native aquatic plants. Invasion depletes the native plant community's ability to provide ecosystem services, including improved water quality, decreased problematic algae, and increased animal habitat. The loss of these ecosystem services reduces the value of fishing, boating, and swimming opportunities in aquatic ecosystems. The potential changes in plant communities and services are particularly important at sites targeted for restoration because project goals typically include increasing ecosystem services, including wildlife habitat. Curly-leaf pondweed (Potamogeton crispus L.) is a problematic invasive species in North America. To better manage …

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A Population Study Of The Freshwater Turtles Of The Recently Expanded Lake Hydaway In Campbell County, Virginia, Joshua Sorenson Apr 2025

A Population Study Of The Freshwater Turtles Of The Recently Expanded Lake Hydaway In Campbell County, Virginia, Joshua Sorenson

Senior Honors Theses

Freshwater turtles are an important part of the ecological systems in central Virginia. At the recently expanded Lake Hydaway, there are several turtle species for which their population characteristics were unknown, especially the prolific Eastern Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta picta) and Red-bellied Cooter (Pseudemys rubriventris). For five weeks, the lake was surveyed for turtles using hoop nets, and the turtles were marked and measured. Population characteristics such as carapace length and sex ratio for the Eastern Painted Turtle and Red-bellied Cooter were calculated, as well as population estimates for those two species. The Red-eared Slider ( …

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Measuring Spatial And Temporal Variation In Species Composition Of Ephemeral Pond Amphibian Assemblages Using Metabarcoding, Elizabeth Strasko Jan 2025

Measuring Spatial And Temporal Variation In Species Composition Of Ephemeral Pond Amphibian Assemblages Using Metabarcoding, Elizabeth Strasko

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Amphibian populations worldwide face severe threats, heightening the need for reliable monitoring methods. In this thesis, I explored and tested environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding protocols to survey amphibian assemblages in ephemeral ponds of the the Green River Preserve in central Kentucky, USA. First, I evaluated whether the commonly used mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene could effectively capture species-level variation in local amphibians for eDNA metabarcoding. Extensive primer design and testing revealed significant challenges in amplifying fragmented eDNA from water samples. In a second study, I applied a metabarcoding approach using the mitochondrial 12S ribosomal RNA (12S) gene …

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Assessing Genetic Diversity And Population Structure In The Imperiled Aconitum Reclinatum (White Monkshood), An Endemic Wildflower Of Central Appalachia, Diamanda A. Zizis Jan 2025

Assessing Genetic Diversity And Population Structure In The Imperiled Aconitum Reclinatum (White Monkshood), An Endemic Wildflower Of Central Appalachia, Diamanda A. Zizis

Master’s Theses

Aconitum reclinatum, white monkshood (Ranunculaceae), is a Pennsylvania critically imperiled plant species found in five states of the Appalachian region of the United States: Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. This plant is adapted to cool, moist environments but faces threats from increasing habitat loss, deer browse, logging, and changes in rainfall and temperature associated with climate change. Comprehensive knowledge of A. reclinatum genetic population structure remains limited. To address this, we collaborated with Natural Heritage programs within the range of A. reclinatum to sample populations across the species distribution and generate a genotyping-by-sequencing data set of …

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Aspen Stands Enrich Bird Communities Following A Wildfire In A Montane, Mixed Conifer Forest, Cody Q. Lane Jan 2025

Aspen Stands Enrich Bird Communities Following A Wildfire In A Montane, Mixed Conifer Forest, Cody Q. Lane

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Fire is a major ecological force in most terrestrial systems, but the responses of animal communities to fire vary markedly across ecosystems due to variability in fire regimes and vegetation communities. Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) is unique within coniferous forests of western North America for its ability to regenerate following wildfire via vegetative resprouting. As managers employ techniques to restore fire regimes and conserve declining aspen forests, it becomes important to understand how aspen alters postfire communities. Our objectives were to (1) assess how aspen interacted with fire severity and years since fire to influence avian species and …

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Carbon Dynamics Across The Mangrove-Tidal Flat Ecotone In A Tropical Seascape, E. S. Yando, I. J.B. Alemu, L. Kiah Eng, T. M. Sloey, M. Van Breugel, Bhatia N. Friess Jan 2025

Carbon Dynamics Across The Mangrove-Tidal Flat Ecotone In A Tropical Seascape, E. S. Yando, I. J.B. Alemu, L. Kiah Eng, T. M. Sloey, M. Van Breugel, Bhatia N. Friess

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Mangroves and other blue carbon ecosystems are important for climate through the storage and sequestration of carbon. Most research estimates carbon dynamics by subsampling central portions of the ecosystem and are then upscales using habitat maps to patch, landscape, or regional levels. However, heterogeneity is rarely accounted for - particularly at edges. Further, adjacent tidal flat ecosystems have only recently been considered for carbon storage, but may be undervalued if areas where they transition with vegetated systems are not accounted for. To address the lack of information at coastal ecotones, we examined both soil carbon storage and carbon dioxide flux …

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Assessing Ecological And Food Web Responses To Small-Scale Stream Restorations In Urban And Agricultural Streams, Sydney Mcandrews Jan 2025

Assessing Ecological And Food Web Responses To Small-Scale Stream Restorations In Urban And Agricultural Streams, Sydney Mcandrews

Masters Theses

Urban and agricultural streams across the Midwestern United States are vulnerable to elevated pollution, eutrophication, habitat simplification, and losses of sensitive species. Instream habitat restoration is increasingly used to mitigate the impacts of rapid land-use change. This study synthesizes habitat and biological responses from a 2020 urban stream restoration in the Saline Branch (Urbana, Illinois) and evaluates food web responses from both the Saline Branch and a 2010 restoration in Kickapoo Creek (Charleston, Illinois), an agricultural stream. In the Saline Branch, four years of fish and three years of habitat and macroinvertebrate pre-restoration surveys were compared to three years of …

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Binoculars To Bytes: Development And Field Validation Of An Ai-Driven System For Avian Monitoring, Christian J. Dupree Jan 2025

Binoculars To Bytes: Development And Field Validation Of An Ai-Driven System For Avian Monitoring, Christian J. Dupree

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Autonomous camera-trap arrays coupled with artificial-intelligence (AI) vision can lift bird monitoring beyond the spatial, temporal, and labor limits of traditional field surveys. We present Binoculars to Bytes (B2B), an open-source pipeline that turns 180–360° time-lapse imagery into analysis-ready avian data. At Freezout Lake Wildlife Management Area (Montana, USA) the system ran four-hour morning deployments during spring and fall migrations (2023–2024). A YOLO-NAS detector, incrementally refined with a “Specialized Localized Iterative Model” workflow, quadrupled local accuracy and, after confidence-based species-binning, cut false-positive rates in half. Daily AI species lists were benchmarked against contemporaneous eBird citizen-science checklists and recovered ≥ …

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Assessing Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungal Community Composition And Diversity Across A Land-Use Gradient In Eastern Washington Prairies, Katherine I. Cole Jan 2025

Assessing Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungal Community Composition And Diversity Across A Land-Use Gradient In Eastern Washington Prairies, Katherine I. Cole

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are key to healthy, functioning terrestrial ecosystems worldwide. Associating with over 80% of all extant land plants, they play a pivotal role in nutrient cycling, and contribute to overall plant health. Given their significance to terrestrial ecosystems, AMF have a crucial role to play in the successful restoration of Eastern Washington’s native prairies. However, AMF community composition is significantly altered by the commercial agricultural practices used extensively in this region for over 100 years. The Eastern Washington University (EWU) Prairie Restoration Project aims to restore ~120 acres of farmland to native prairie. This research provides insight …

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Using Advanced Machine Learning To Evaluate The Spatial And Temporal Patterns Of Human–Bear Interactions In Maryland, Usa, Katherine A. Kurth, Jonathan K. Trudeau Jan 2025

Using Advanced Machine Learning To Evaluate The Spatial And Temporal Patterns Of Human–Bear Interactions In Maryland, Usa, Katherine A. Kurth, Jonathan K. Trudeau

Human–Wildlife Interactions

American black bears (Ursus americanus) are highly adaptable to human-dominated areas, which can lead to interactions with humans. Managing these interactions is a priority for many wildlife agencies in North America. Climate-induced shortages in natural food can exacerbate human–bear interactions, as bears are driven to seek alternative food sources in human-dominated areas. However, few studies have investigated the impact of climate or weather on the frequency and severity of human–bear interactions. In Maryland, USA, no research has examined the anthropogenic or environmental factors contributing to human–bear interactions, even though reported interactions have consistently increased since the 1990s. Our …

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Working In Pairs Increases Consistency Of Georgia Adopt-A-Stream's Habitat Assessment, Christopher H. Kodani, Robert Bourne, Cody Jones, Michael Kahle, Cecilia Nachtmann Oct 2024

Working In Pairs Increases Consistency Of Georgia Adopt-A-Stream's Habitat Assessment, Christopher H. Kodani, Robert Bourne, Cody Jones, Michael Kahle, Cecilia Nachtmann

Georgia Journal of Science

Habitat assessment is a skill that is important to stream ecologists of all levels, including volunteers of water quality monitoring programs such as Georgia Adopt-A-Stream (AAS). Some aspects of habitat assessment can be subjective because observers must use their best judgement in assessing some variables, therefore, it is worthwhile to examine the variation in volunteer stream monitor observations, the effect of training, and the reliability of habitat metrics calculated from the data collected. To gain some insight, we asked volunteers attending a workshop at AAS’s 2022 Confluence Conference to complete a Habitat Assessment Worksheet both before and after a short …

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Examining Context Dependency Of Invasion Hypotheses At The Continental Scale Using Riverine Fish Communities, Lily Thompson May 2024

Examining Context Dependency Of Invasion Hypotheses At The Continental Scale Using Riverine Fish Communities, Lily Thompson

All Dissertations

Many well-supported hypotheses seek to explain invasion dynamics, but evidence for common patterns among regions and taxa remains inconclusive and often contradictory. Invasion ecology is fundamentally linked to spatial scale, and discrepancies in results among invasion studies may be attributed, in part, to a failure to fully consider scale dependency. In this dissertation, I investigate the sources of inconsistencies across spatial scales and large geographic extents using riverine fish communities across the conterminous United States. To do so, I tested three main ideas. First, that cross-scale interactions contextualize estimated invasion mechanisms among regions. My results demonstrate that local empirical support …

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Consequences Of The Megafauna Extinction: Changes In Food Web Networks On The Edwards Plateau Across The Pleistocene–Holocene Transition, Quentin A. Smith Jr. May 2024

Consequences Of The Megafauna Extinction: Changes In Food Web Networks On The Edwards Plateau Across The Pleistocene–Holocene Transition, Quentin A. Smith Jr.

School of Biological Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

We are experiencing biodiversity loss due to climate change and human impacts, which is not only harmful to the environment but can also alter the composition of communities and interactions among species. The late Pleistocene experienced a loss of large-bodied mammals which resulted in significant changes in community structure due to changes in body size, diet, and species associations. The impact of these changes on species interactions and community structure across the Pleistocene-Holocene transition remains poorly understood. Using a robust data set of species composition, stable isotopes, body size, and climate variables, we constructed and compared ecological networks of mammal …

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Trophic Ecology Of Black Swallowers (Scombriformes: Chiasmodontidae: Chiasmodon) In The Deep-Pelagic Gulf Of Mexico, Travis J. Kirk Apr 2024

Trophic Ecology Of Black Swallowers (Scombriformes: Chiasmodontidae: Chiasmodon) In The Deep-Pelagic Gulf Of Mexico, Travis J. Kirk

All HCAS Student Capstones, Theses, and Dissertations

The ecology of deep-pelagic predatory fishes remains poorly understood despite their importance as ecosystem regulators and energy transfer vectors. This study investigated the trophic ecology of three species of the predatory fish genus Chiasmodon (“black swallowers”) in the Gulf of Mexico, a region that serves as an analog for the global low-latitude deep pelagial, the world’s largest cumulative ecosystem. Foraging habits (e.g., selectivity, chronology, daily ration) of an “advanced” evolutionary fish in a system that is otherwise dominated by basal fish taxa, were quantitatively estimated via high-resolution stomach content analysis. A quantitative dataset of both predator and prey abundance, the …

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Spatial Mapping Of The Benthic Community And How It Is Used To Research Effects Of Dredging In Louisiana's Lake Borgne., Meghan Johnson Apr 2024

Spatial Mapping Of The Benthic Community And How It Is Used To Research Effects Of Dredging In Louisiana's Lake Borgne., Meghan Johnson

LSU Master's Theses

Benthic communities are vitally important for healthy aquatic ecosystems across Louisiana’s coast. Specifically in Lake Borgne, ecologically important species of fish like the Gulf Sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrinchus desotoi) rely on benthic macrofauna as their main food source. The purpose of this study was to determine the spatial landscape of biodiversity and abundance of the benthic macrofauna community in Lake Borgne. Environmental conditions played a key role in community structure during the study period (fall 2021 through summer 2023) with a major drought occurring in 2023. In 2023, the decline in the abundance of most benthic invertebrates and in …

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Vertebrate Diversity In The La Amistad International Park Buffer Zone, Guadalupe, Chiriqui, Panamá, Mina Olson Apr 2024

Vertebrate Diversity In The La Amistad International Park Buffer Zone, Guadalupe, Chiriqui, Panamá, Mina Olson

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Forest fragmentation and increasing agricultural land use are posing threats to the diversity of vertebrates in Panama and across the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor. Protected areas are crucial for providing connectivity and maintaining vertebrate populations. For endemic species with small native ranges, these protected areas are critical for their survival due to sensitivity of habitat change. Higher species diversity and occupancy has been reported for both birds and mammals in protected and forested areas. This pilot survey of vertebrate species was conducted to determine which species live in a primary forest within the buffer zone of La Amistad International Park near …

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The Role Of Geomorphological Context In Vegetative Succession Within The Breiðamerkurjökull Glacial Foreland, Lucas Nerbonne Apr 2024

The Role Of Geomorphological Context In Vegetative Succession Within The Breiðamerkurjökull Glacial Foreland, Lucas Nerbonne

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

As glaciers retreat worldwide at an accelerating pace, understanding primary succession in these newly exposed landscapes becomes increasingly critical. This study examines the initial vegetative colonization patterns in glacial forelands, focusing on the influence of geomorphological formations of resulting plant communities. By analyzing vegetative communities in glaciofluvial and push moraine deposits, this study highlights how the more varied, channelized morphologies of fluvial deposits create potential microclimates better conducive to heterogenous plant colonization than the homogenous terrain of the nearby push moraine. Vegetative coverage, sediment size, and species abundance was collected at 480 sites across 6 different historical glacial extents across …

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An Ecological Analysis Of The Elevational Gradient Effect On Mushroom Community Diversity Near Andasibe, Madagascar, Zoe Garver Apr 2024

An Ecological Analysis Of The Elevational Gradient Effect On Mushroom Community Diversity Near Andasibe, Madagascar, Zoe Garver

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The effect of elevational gradients on biodiversity has been widely studied in the field of ecology (Rahbek, 1995). The evidence supports a trend for highest biodiversity at mid latitudes and decreasing biodiversity as elevation increases (Rahbek, 1997; Grytnes, 2003; Hariharan and Buckley, 2022). This effect has primarily been explained by variation of temperatures and resource availability at different elevations. However, the effect that elevation plays on fungal communities is relatively underrepresented in the literature (Dahlberg, 2001). This study analyzes changes in mushroom diversity across an elevational gradient in Mitsinjo Reserve and Analamazaotra National Park found in Madagascar. Using the Braun-Blanquet …

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High Thermal Quality Rookeries Facilitate High Thermoregulatory Accuracy In Pregnant Female Rattlesnakes, Haley A. Moniz, Jack Henry Buck, Hayley L. Crowell, Scott M. Goetz, Trevor D. Ruiz, Emily N. Taylor, Scott M. Bobacks Jan 2024

High Thermal Quality Rookeries Facilitate High Thermoregulatory Accuracy In Pregnant Female Rattlesnakes, Haley A. Moniz, Jack Henry Buck, Hayley L. Crowell, Scott M. Goetz, Trevor D. Ruiz, Emily N. Taylor, Scott M. Bobacks

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Temperature is a primary factor influencing organismal development, and the fluctuating daily and seasonal thermal regimes of temperate climates may challenge the ability of viviparous reptiles to optimize body temperatures during gestation. Testing how viviparous reptiles navigate highly variable thermal conditions (e.g., relatively cold nights and/or highly fluctuating temperatures) is a powerful way to understand how they use microhabitats for thermoregulatory benefits. We assessed the thermal ecology of pregnant and non-pregnant female prairie rattlesnakes (Crotalus viridis) inhabiting a high-elevation, montane shrubland in northwest Colorado throughout their short summer active season, addressing the thermal consequences of microhabitat selection with …

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