Digital Commons Network^™

Estimating Dispersal And Evolutionary Dynamics In Diploporan Blastozoans (Echinodermata) Across The Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event, Adriane R. Lam, Sarah L. Sheffield, Nicholas J. Matzke

School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Echinoderms make up a substantial component of Ordovician marine invertebrates, yet their speciation and dispersal history as inferred within a rigorous phylogenetic and statistical framework is lacking. We use biogeographic stochastic mapping (BSM; implemented in the R package BioGeoBEARS) to infer ancestral area relationships and the number and type of dispersal events through the Ordovician for diploporan blastozoans and related species. The BSM analysis was divided into three time slices to analyze how dispersal paths changed before and during the great Ordovician biodiversification event (GOBE) and within the Late Ordovician mass extinction intervals. The best-fit biogeographic model incorporated jump dispersal, …

Effect Of Installing Osprey (Pandion Haliaetus) Nesting Platforms Above Stadium Lights On Osprey Productivity, Henley E. Guill, Elizabeth A. Forys

Florida Field Naturalist

No abstract provided.

Expansion Of Roseate Spoonbill Breeding Distribution In Southwest Florida, Emily P. Wolfe, Kara L. Lefevre, Kelsey Lang

Florida Field Naturalist

No abstract provided.

Method For Identifying And Estimating Karst Groundwater Runoff Components Based On The Frequency Distributions Of Conductivity And Discharge, Zejun Wang, Qianlong Chen, Ziqi Yan, Mingming Luo, Hong Zhou, Wei Liu

KIP Articles

Identification and estimation of groundwater runoff components in karst groundwater systems to improve understanding of karst water circulation and water-rock interactions is essential for water resources assessment and development. A Gaussian mixture model is presented for identifying and estimating karst groundwater runoff components based on the frequency distributions of conductivity and discharge. Successful application of this method in the Heilongquan karst spring in South China showed that groundwater runoff components can be divided into 6–8 grades, corresponding to the grades of groundwater in karst fissures. The conductivity and discharge thresholds dividing fast and slow flow were determined to be approximately …

Improving The Integration Of Restoration And Conservation In Marine And Coastal Ecosystems: Lessons From The Deepwater Horizon Disaster, Richard L. Wallace, Gilbert Gilbert, John E. Reynolds Iii

C-IMAGE Publications

In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, much has been learned about the biological, ecological, physical, and chemical conditions of the Gulf of Mexico. In parallel, the research community has also gained insight about the social and organizational structures and processes necessary for oil spill response and subsequent marine and coastal restoration. However, even with these lessons from both the Deepwater Horizon and previous spills, including 1989’s Exxon Valdez and the Ixtoc 1 in 1979, our understanding of how to avoid future crises has not advanced at the same pace as offshore oil and gas development. We argue that …

Cave Temperature And Management Implications In Lehman Caves, Great Basin National Park, Usa, Stanka Šebela, Gretchen Baker, Barbara Luke

KIP Articles

Cave air temperature was measured at six locations in Lehman Caves (USA) for one year at hourly intervals. Lehman is a show cave in a national park, treasured for its geological and biological resources. The two monitoring locations that are off of the tour route and, also, relatively distant from the cave’s entrances displayed nearly constant air temperature during the year. The other four sites, along the tour route, show daily temperature variation as well as annual fluctuation. After visitation levels decreased in the autumn, cave temperatures lagged but eventually reached an equilibrium which demonstrates recovery in the quiet winter. …

Et Tu, Picoides? Understanding Why Bird Names Change, R. Peter Dorn, Howard E. Horne, Michael D. Collins

The Migrant - Tennessee Ornithological Society

No abstract provided.

Ross Sea West Antarctic Ice Sheet History, Robert M. Mckay, Laura De Santis, Denise K. Kulhanek, Imogen M. Browne, Amelia E. Shevenell, Expedition 374 Scientists

Marine Science Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Global Observational Needs And Resources For Marine Biodiversity, Enrique Montes-Herrera, Frank Muller-Karger

Marine Science Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Diversity And Richness Of Non Vascular Epiphytes On Strangler Figs: Effects Of Elevation On Emergent Trees, June 2019, Kimberlie M. Sullivan

Monteverde Institute: Tropical Ecology and Conservation

The Monteverde cloud forest is characterized by its high precipitation levels, frequency of cloud immersion, and extraction of cloud water, but global climate models indicate a reduction in low level cloudiness, suggesting cloud forests may soon be replaced by forests that occur at lower altitudes. Studies found that non- vascular epiphytes are very sensitive to changes in moisture and temperature, resulting in a substantial deterioration in health, such as reduced growth rates, water holding capacity, and ability to fix nitrogen, which makes non- vascular epiphytes a compelling indicator of climate change. I conducted a survey that contrasts epiphyte diversity and …

A Deeper Understanding Of The Minima Caste Function Of The Leafcutter Ants (Atta Cephalotes), June 2019, Crystal Ramirez

Monteverde Institute: Tropical Ecology and Conservation

Leafcutter ants Atta cephalotes (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), common to Central and South America, have a profound caste system to ensure the cultivation of a special fungus, Leucocoprinus gongylophorus, which is their main food source. Within the caste system, the workers job is to forage and carry back pieces of leaves that are necessary for fungus farming. The minima have long been thought to be protecting the worker ants from parasitic phorid flies (Diptera: Phoridae), who have been studied to await near the entrance of the nest to land on a leaf and lay eggs on the head of the worker ant. …

Reimagining The Potential Of Earth Observations For Ecosystem Service Assessments, Frank E. Muller-Karger

Marine Science Faculty Publications

The benefits nature provides to people, called ecosystem services, are increasingly recognized and accounted for in assessments of infrastructure development, agricultural management, conservation prioritization, and sustainable sourcing. These assessments are often limited by data, however, a gap with tremendous potential to be filled through Earth observations (EO), which produce a variety of data across spatial and temporal extents and resolutions. Despite widespread recognition of this potential, in practice few ecosystem service studies use EO. Here, we identify challenges and opportunities to using EO in ecosystem service modeling and assessment. Some challenges are technical, related to data awareness, processing, and access. …

Reimagining The Potential Of Earth Observations For Ecosystem Service Assessments, Frank Muller-Karger

Marine Science Faculty Publications

The benefits nature provides to people, called ecosystem services, are increasingly recognized and accounted for in assessments of infrastructure development, agricultural management, conservation prioritization, and sustainable sourcing. These assessments are often limited by data, however, a gap with tremendous potential to be filled through Earth observations (EO), which produce a variety of data across spatial and temporal extents and resolutions. Despite widespread recognition of this potential, in practice few ecosystem service studies use EO. Here, we identify challenges and opportunities to using EO in ecosystem service modeling and assessment. Some challenges are technical, related to data awareness, processing, and access. …

Environmental Legacies Of Pre-Contact And Historic Land Use In Antigua, West Indies, Anthony Richard Tricarico

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Hurricanes Irma and Maria have recently demonstrated once again the susceptibility of contemporary populations across the Caribbean to climate-driven events. For islands such as Antigua in the eastern Caribbean, this vulnerability is partly a legacy of prior land use. As such, the actions of pre-Contact and historic period inhabitants are intertwined with contemporary socio-ecological challenges faced by Antiguans today. This research sought to understand the relationship between land use and land degradation from ca. AD 100 to the present in eastern Antigua utilizing two markers of anthropic activity: soil stability and soil quality. Specifically, this research sought to examine how …

Low-Income Access To Employer-Based Transit Benefits: Evidence From 10 Large Metropolitan Regions, Andrea Hamre

Journal of Transportation Demand Management Research

While national aggregate statistics suggest employer-based transit subsidies may be inaccessible to the majority of the working poor, this is the first study to investigate the subject with disaggregate data while controlling for additional factors. This study uses household travel surveys for 10 of the largest Metropolitan Planning Organizations, grouped into seven cases. In each case, the share of workers offered an employer-based transit subsidy is lowest for workers in the lowest income quintile. Binary logistic regression results for the odds of being offered an employer-based transit subsidy are presented for two cases, Washington, DC, and Denver, CO, and the …

Off-The-Grid In An On-Grid Nation: Household Energy Choices, Intra-Community Effects, And Attitudes In A Rural Neighborhood In Utah, Eileen Smith-Cavros, Arianna Sunyak

Journal of Ecological Anthropology

This research is an investigation of the perceived positive and negative aspects of off grid living in a middle to upper-class neighborhood in rural Utah in which no public utility grid was available for connection. Off-grid living is defined as unconnected to a public utility power grid, water, or sewer system. In the researched community, all individuals lived off-grid on minimum twenty-acre lots of land with single-household dwellings. We used surveys with closed and open-ended questions to qualitatively explore the local social effects (from individual attitudes to group identity to household economics to conservation attitudes) off-grid living had on individuals …

Going To School In The Forest: Changing Evaluations Of Animal-Plant Interactions In The Kichwa Amazon, Jeffrey T. Shenton

Journal of Ecological Anthropology

For rural, indigenous communities the ways structural modernization, exposure to Western-scientific epistemologies, and formal schooling affect environmental reasoning remain unclear. For one Kichwa community in the Napo region of Ecuador, daily routines have re-oriented toward formal schooling but environmental learning opportunities remain intact. Here, while a Species Interaction Task elicited consensus across ages on inferred ecological interactions, younger people reasoned differently than older people: for them, animal interactions with flora were considered damaging, not neutral. Aspirational practices like schooling can thus reorient environmental reasoning, even in contexts in which young people share cultural understandings of local ecological relationships with adults.

Remarks, Memorial And Tribute For Dr. David R. Carr, February 19, 2010, J. M. Tschiderer

USF St. Petersburg Biographical Materials

Remarks given during a celebration of life ceremony for University of South Florida St. Petersburg History professor Dr. David R. Carr. The remarks were compiled and edited by J.M. "Sudsy" Tschiderer.

Crow's Nest, February 11, 2019, Crow's Nest Staff

Crow's Nest

The February 11, 2019, issue of the Crow's Nest.

Pinngortitaq – A Place Of Becoming, Ann E. Lennert, Jørgen Berge

Journal of Ecological Anthropology

Arctic ecosystems are on the verge of changes that are unprecedented in both magnitude and velocity. We stress that statements of a changing climate and environment have ambiguous definitions in both theoretical and metaphorical senses. Inuit have embraced the idea of an environment in a process of Pinngortitaq – a place of becoming – rather than a process of changing. In this note, we accentuate how a philosophy of a world becoming can inspire to answer some of the complex environmental questions asked today by enabling more flexible management regimes in the future.

4dee—What's Next? Designing Instruction And Assessing Student Learning, Luanna Prevost, Amanda E. Sorensen, Jennifer H. Doherty, Diane Ebert-May, Bob Pohlad

Integrative Biology Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Stable Isotope Ratios And Speleothem Chronology From A High-Elevation Alpine Cave, Southern San Juan Mountains, Colorado (Usa): Evidence For Substantial Deglaciation As Early As 13.5 Ka, Ray Kenny

KIP Articles

No abstract provided.

The Caricomp Network Of Caribbean Marine Laboratories (1985–2007): History, Key Findings, And Lessons Learned, Jorge Cortes, Hazel A. Oxenford, Brigitta I. Van Tussenbroek, Eric Jordan-Dahlgren, Aldo Croquer, Carolina Bastidas, John C. Ogden

Integrative Biology Faculty and Staff Publications

Caribbean Coastal Marine Productivity (CARICOMP) was a basin-wide cooperative, international network of marine laboratories established in 1985. Recognizing major trends of change in coastal ecosystems and the importance of the linkages among them, our goal was to monitor synoptically with standardized methods the physical environment and to document trends in measures of the structure and functioning of coral reefs, seagrasses and mangroves. Between 1985 and 1993, the CARICOMP Steering Committee established a data management center and wrote a methods manual. Marine laboratories joined the program by appointing a Site Director and signing an agreement specifying the cost sharing and responsibilities …

Sources Of Carbon To Suspended Particulate Organic Matter In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Kelsey L. Rogers, Samantha H Bosman, Sarah Weber, Cedric Magen, Joseph P. Montoya, Jeffrey Chanton

C-IMAGE Publications

Suspended particulate organic carbon (POC_susp) in the Gulf of Mexico is unique compared to other seas and oceans. In addition to surface primary production, isotopic analysis indicates that microbial cycling of oil and riverine inputs are primary sources of carbon to POC_susp in the Gulf. To characterize POC_susp from seep sites and non-seep north central Gulf (NCG) sites potentially affected by the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) spill, we analyzed 277 and 123 samples for δ¹³C and Δ¹⁴C signatures, respectively. Depth, partitioned into euphotic ( < 300 m) and deep ( > 300 m), was the main driver of spatial δ …

Evolution Of Noble Gas And Water Isotopes Along The Regional Groundwater Flow Path Of The Konya Closed Basin, Turkey, N. Nur Ozyurt, C. Serdar Bayari

International Journal of Speleology

Noble gas and water isotope compositions of regional groundwater were investigated along two transects in the Konya Closed Basin (KCB) of central Turkey. According to the ³He/⁴He versus Ne/He plot of samples, crust (up to 86%) and mantle (up to 26%) appear to be the primary and secondary sources of dissolved He in groundwater, respectively. After the beginning of both transects where the flow domain is confined, both ³He and ⁴He accumulate steadily in groundwater. Thereafter, the intermediate recharge from the surface in the unconfined part of regional flow system disrupts the steady accumulation trend …

Integrated Observations And Informatics Improve Understanding Of Changing Marine Ecosystems, Abigail Benson, Cassandra M. Brooks, Gabrielle Canonico, Emmett Duffy, Frank Muller-Karger, Heidi M. Sosik, Patricia Miloslavich, Eduardo Klein

Marine Science Faculty Publications

Marine ecosystems have numerous benefits for human societies around the world and many policy initiatives now seek to maintain the health of these ecosystems. To enable wise decisions, up to date and accurate information on marine species and the state of the environment they live in is required. Moreover, this information needs to be openly accessible to build indicators and conduct timely assessments that decision makers can use. The questions and problems being addressed demand global-scale investigations, transdisciplinary science, and mechanisms to integrate and distribute data that otherwise would appear to be disparate. Essential Ocean Variables (EOVs) and marine Essential …

Crow's Nest, October 22, 2018, Crow's Nest Staff

Crow's Nest

The October 22, 2018, issue of the Crow's Nest.

On Biospeleothems From A Venezuelan Tepui Cave: U-Th Dating, Growth Rates, And Morphology, Joyce Lundberg, Charles Brewer-Carías, Donald A. Mcfarlane

International Journal of Speleology

Seven silica biospeleothems from Cueva Charles Brewer, Chimantá Plateau, Venezuela have been successfully U-Th dated despite very low U and high detrital Th concentrations. Growth rates are low, between ~100 to ~800 µm/ka, and are greater closer to water level. Dates in unaltered material are in good stratigraphic order, but secondary silicification may compromise the U-Th system, yielding unreliable sequences of ages. Detritally-enriched layers correlate with global climate cycles of the Late Quaternary, in particular the cooler, drier phases of MIS 5d, 5a, and 4. SEM studies indicate that the peloidal material is made up of silica nano-particles assembled to …

Forewarned Is Forearmed: Review Of Curbing Catastrophe: Natural Hazards And Risk Reduction In The Modern World By Timothy H. Dixon (2017), Jason Makansi

Numeracy

Timothy H. Dixon. 2017. Curbing Catastrophe: Natural Hazards and Risk Reduction in the Modern World. (New York, NY: Cambridge University Press) 300 pp. ISBN 978-1108113663.

Curbing Catastrophe for the most part lives up to what is claimed in the foreword: “…a compelling account of recent and historical disasters, both natural and human-caused, drawing on common themes and providing a holistic understanding of hazards, disasters, and mitigation for anyone interested in this important and topical subject.” This is a pretty thorough treatment of an extraordinarily complex subject, and the gaps identified in this review should be considered explications more than …

Biotime: A Database Of Biodiversity Time Series For The Anthropocene, Maria Dornelas, Laura H. Antão, Faye Moyes, Amanda E. Bates, Anne E. Magurran, Dušan Adam, Asem A. Akhmetzhanova, Ward Appeltans, José M. Arcos, Christopher D. Stallings

Marine Science Faculty Publications

Motivation: The BioTIME database contains raw data on species identities and abundances in ecological assemblages through time. These data enable users to calculate temporal trends in biodiversity within and amongst assemblages using a broad range of metrics. BioTIME is being developed as a community‐led open‐source database of biodiversity time series. Our goal is to accelerate and facilitate quantitative analysis of temporal patterns of biodiversity in the Anthropocene.

Main types of variables included: The database contains 8,777,413 species abundance records, from assemblages consistently sampled for a minimum of 2 years, which need not necessarily be consecutive. In addition, the database contains …