Digital Commons Network^™

Pre-Dispersal Seed Predators And Fungi Differ In Their Effect On Luehea Seemannii Capsule Development, Seed Germination, And Dormancy Across Two Panamanian Forests, Pimonrat Tiansawat, Noelle G. Beckman, James W. Dalling

Biology Faculty Publications

Pre-dispersal seed predation can greatly reduce crop size affecting recruitment success. In addition, non-fatal damage by seed predators may allow infection by fungi responsible for post-dispersal seed losses. The objectives of this study were (1) to quantify pre-dispersal seed predation and fungal infection in a Neotropical tree species, Luehea seemannii, that produces dehiscent fruits and wind-dispersed seeds, and (2) to link pre-dispersal effects on seed quality to seed survival in the soil. To examine how seed predators and fungi influence seed losses, mesh exclosures, fungicide, and the combination of both treatments were applied to separate branches in the canopy …

Digitalcommons@Usu Fiscal Year Report 2016-2017, Dylan Burns

Digital Commons Reports

No abstract provided.

To Stress Or Not To Stress: Physiological Responses To Tetrodotoxin In Resistant Garter Snakes Vary By Sex, Lorin A. Neuman-Lee, Edmund D. Brodie Jr., Tyler Hansen, Edmund D. Brodie Jr., Susannah S. French

Biology Faculty Publications

The activation of the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis is one of the most important physiological processes in coping with any deviation in an organism’s homeostasis. This activation and the secretion of glucocorticoids, such as corticosterone, allow organisms to cope with perturbations and return to optimal physiological functioning as quickly as possible. In this study, we examined the HPA axis activation in common gartersnakes (Thamnophis sirtalis) as a response to a natural toxin, tetrodotoxin (TTX). This neurotoxin is found in high levels in the Rough-skinned Newt (Taricha granulosa), which is a prey item for these snakes. …

Cache Valley Resident Exposure To Pm2.5, Kristina Krepinski

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Air pollution poses one of the largest environmental risks to human health, and greatly contributes to increased mortality within populations. Of the different types of pollutants, fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) has the most adverse health effects. Long-term exposure to PM_2.5 is known to have serious health outcomes; however, evidence has indicated that even short-term exposure to moderate concentrations of PM_2.5 is detrimental to human health. While PM_2.5 does contribute to various respiratory conditions by affecting lung function, it also significantly affects the cardiovascular system. Elevated PM_2.5 exposure increases risk for cardiovascular disease, congestive heart …

Continuous Electrospinning Prototype Development For Spider Silk, Justin A. Jones

Funded Research Records

No abstract provided.

Trees And Climate Change, Megan Dettenmaier, Michael R. Kuhns, Bethany Unger, Darren Mcavoy

All Current Publications

This fact sheet describes the complex relationship between forests and climate change based on current research. It explains ways that trees can mitigate some of the risks associated with climate change. It details the impacts that forests are having on the changing climate and discuss specific ways that trees can be used to reduce or counter carbon emissions directly and indirectly.

Brown Marmorated Stink Bug [Halyomorpha Halys (Stal)], Mark Cody Holthouse, Diane G. Alston, Lori R. Spears, Erin Petrizzo

All Current Publications

This fact sheet describes the brown marmorated stink bug, an invasive insect pest from eastern Asia. It includes a description of where it is found in Utah, host plants, crop injury and plant damage, general description of life stages, agricultural risks, monitoring, management, insecticides, and what to do if you find it.

Elm Seed Bug, Ryan S. Davis

All Current Publications

In July 2014, the Utah Plant Pest Diagnostic Lab and USDA APHIS confirmed the first reported occurrence of elm seed bug (Lygaeidae: Arocatus melanocephalus) in the state of Utah (Fig. 1). A native of Europe, the elm seed bug was first identified in the U.S. in Idaho in 2012. It has since been found in Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, Canada and in various locations throughout Asia and Europe. While Utah’s first submission originated from Salt Lake County, elm seed bug is now widely distributed along the Wasatch Front and Cache Co., and has been reported west to Duchesne Co., east …

Making Lifestyle Choices To Reduce Late-Life Depression Risk, Maria C. Norton, Elizabeth B. Fauth, Jessica Weyerman

All Current Publications

Depression is a complex condition involving insufficient levels of brain chemicals, life stressors, thought processes, behaviors, and coping mechanisms. Medications and counseling therapy are effective in treating depression, and research suggests that several lifestyle practices also help to protect us from depression, and speed up our recovery if we do experience it. These behaviors, such as being socially connected, eating healthy and exercising, cost little to nothing but can have profound benefits on our overall quality of life and help us to stay depression-free.

Intraspecific Variation And Ecosystem Function: Implications For More Effective Post-Restoration Monitoring, Donald J. Benkendorf, Howard H. Whiteman

Watershed Sciences Student Research

The effectiveness of stream restoration is often measured by the recolonization of certain focal species. However, important information regarding intraspecific variation (e.g. size structure) of these species is often ignored. Recent research suggests that intraspecific variation such as body size can have profound effects on food web dynamics and ecosystem functioning. Specifically, intraspecific predator size variation has been posited as a major determinant of a species’ ability to control lower trophic levels and even has the potential to alter trophic cascade intensity. The importance of predator feeding strategy (e.g. omnivory) and changes with body size may also be an important …

Movement Of Cryptosporidium Parvum Oocysts Through Soils Without Preferential Pathways: Exploratory Test, Christophe J.G. Darnault, Zhenyang Peng, Chan Yu, Biting Li, Astrid R. Jacobson, Philippe C. Baveye

Plants, Soils, and Climate Faculty Publications

Groundwater contamination by oocysts of the waterborne pathogen Cryptosporidium parvum is a significant cause of animal and human disease worldwide. Although research has been undertaken in the past to determine how specific physical and chemical properties of soils affect the risk of groundwater contamination by C. parvum, there is as yet no clear conclusion concerning the range of mobility of C. parvum that one should expect in field soils. In this context, the key objective of this research was to determine the magnitude of C. parvum transport in a number of soils, under conditions in which fast and preferential …

Collaborative Research: Ehr Core: Exploring The Emotional And Motivational Lives Of Undergraduate Engineering Students, Idalis Villanueva

Funded Research Records

No abstract provided.

Evolution Of Mammalian Migrations For Refuge, Breeding, And Food, Gitanjali E. Gnanadesikan, William D. Pearse, Allison K. Shaw

Biology Faculty Publications

Many organisms migrate between distinct habitats, exploiting variable resources while profoundly affecting ecosystem services, disease spread, and human welfare. However, the very characteristics that make migration captivating and significant also make it difficult to study, and we lack a comprehensive understanding of which species migrate and why. Here we show that, among mammals, migration is concentrated within Cetacea and Artiodactyla but also diffusely spread throughout the class (found in 12 of 27 orders). We synthesize the many ecological drivers of round-trip migration into three types of movement—between breeding and foraging sites, between breeding and refuge sites, and continuous tracking of …

Interacting Stressors And The Potential For Adaptation In A Changing World: Responses Of Populations And Individuals, Gareth R. Hopkins, Susannah S. French, Edmund D. Brodie Jr.

Biology Faculty Publications

To accurately predict the impact of environmental change, it is necessary to assay effects of key interacting stressors on vulnerable organisms, and the potential resiliency of their populations. Yet, for the most part, these critical data are missing. We examined the effects of two common abiotic stressors predicted to interact with climate change, salinity and temperature, on the embryonic survival and development of a model freshwater vertebrate, the rough-skinned newt (Taricha granulosa) from different populations. We found that salinity and temperature significantly interacted to affect newt embryonic survival and development, with the negative effects of salinity most pronounced …

Reconciling Niches And Neutrality In A Subalpine Temperate Forest, Tucker J. Furniss, Andrew J. Larson, James A. Lutz

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

The Unified Neutral Theory of Biodiversity has been put forth to explain species coexistence in forests worldwide, but its assumption of species equivalence has been met with much debate. Theoretical advancements have reconciled the opposing concepts of neutral and niche theories as two ends of a continuum, improving our understanding of global patterns in diversity and community assembly. However, the relative importance of niche and neutral processes remains understudied in temperate forests. To determine the balance of niche and neutral processes in climatically limited subalpine temperate forests, we established the Utah Forest Dynamics Plot, a 13.64-ha plot comprising 27,845 stems …

Temperature Dependence Of Electron Yield In Low-Density Polyethylene, Jordan Lee

Senior Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.

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 …

Body Condition Of Endangered Humpback Chub In Relation To Temperature And Discharge In The Lower Colorado River, Forest P. Hayes, Michael J. Dodrill, Brandon S. Gerig, Colton Finch, William E. Pine Iii

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

Determining the population status of endangered Humpback Chub Gila cypha is a major component of the adaptive management program designed to inform operation of Glen Canyon Dam upstream from Grand Canyon, Arizona. In recent decades, resource managers have identified a portfolio of management actions (with intermittent implementation) to promote population recovery of Humpback Chub, including nonnative fish removal, changes in water release volumes and discharge ramping schedules, and reductions in hydropower peaking operations. The Humpback Chub population in Grand Canyon has increased over this same period, causal factors for which are unclear. We took advantage of unusual hydrology in the …

Disturbance Ecology Bibliography, Paul C. Rogers

Disturbance Ecology Bibliography

No abstract provided.

Characterizing Growth And Condition Of Endangered Humpback Chub In The Lower Colorado River, William E. Pine Iii, Brandon S. Gerig, Colton Finch

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

This paper is a preface to the two papers that follow in this issue. The two papers (by Pine et al. and Hayes et al.) use long-term fish sampling data from ongoing Humpback Chub monitoring efforts and archival otolith samples (from museums) collected in the lower Colorado and Little Colorado Rivers during periods of both cold- and warm-water conditions to assess whether Humpback Chub growth characteristics may have responded to changes in water temperature. Growth patterns are often of interest to resource managers because growth integrates a large range of environmental and ecological factors, including habitat conditions. Together, these papers …

Growth Of Endangered Humpback Chub In Relation To Temperature And Discharge In The Lower Colorado River, W. E. Pine Iii, K. Limburg, B. Gerig, Colton Finch, D. Chagaris, L. Coggins, D. Speas, D. A. Hendrickson

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

Assessments of growth can provide information needed to understand how fish populations respond to changing environmental conditions and management actions, including ecosystem experimentation. We estimated growth rates and parameter uncertainty from otoliths of endangered Humpback Chub Gila cypha from the Colorado River in Grand Canyon, Arizona. We then compared growth of Humpback Chub , age 2 that were 1) occupying the mainstem Colorado River during a period of variable discharge and cooler water temperatures (1980–1998; epoch 1), 2) occupying the Colorado River during a period of moderate discharge variability and warmer water (2001–2011; epoch 2), and 3) occupying the unregulated …

Usu Space Environment Effects Materials Test Facility Flyer, Jr Dennison

Posters

No abstract provided.

Piping Water From Rural Counties To Fuel Growth In Las Vegas, Nevada: Water Transfer Risks In The Arid Usa West, Lisa Welsh, Joanna Endter-Wada

Environment and Society Faculty Publications

The Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) plans to build a 300-mile pipeline to transfer groundwater from five rural basins in north-eastern Nevada south to the greater Las Vegas metropolitan area. Relying on the path dependence literature, we trace the policy choices and legal battles that have led to southern Nevada’s proposed Groundwater Development Project. We find that policy decisions over time, often initiated by powerful water policy entrepreneurs, have fuelled southern Nevada’s rapid growth and development. After emphasising water demand management for more than two decades, SNWA has revived its controversial plans to increase water supplies by importing water from …

The Relationship Between Species Richness And Ecosystem Variability Is Shaped By The Mechanism Of Coexistence, Andrew T. Tredennick, Peter B. Adler, Frederick R. Adler

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Theory relating species richness to ecosystem variability typically ignores the potential for environmental variability to promote species coexistence. Failure to account for fluctuation-dependent coexistence may explain deviations from the expected negative diversity–ecosystem variability relationship, and limits our ability to predict the consequences of increases in environmental variability. We use a consumer-resource model to explore how coexistence via the temporal storage effect and relative nonlinearity affects ecosystem variability. We show that a positive, rather than negative, diversity–ecosystem variability relationship is possible when ecosystem function is sampled across a natural gradient in environmental variability and diversity. We also show how fluctuation-dependent coexistence …

Noxious Weed Field Guide For Utah, Brenda Jarvis Lowry, Corey Ransom, Ralph Whitesides, Heather Olsen

All Current Publications

Invasive noxious weeds have been described as a raging biological wildfire – out of control, spreading rapidly, and causing enormous economic losses. Millions of acres in North America have been invaded or are at risk of being invaded by weeds, including cropland, pastures, rangelands, forests, wilderness areas, national parks, recreation sites, wildlife management areas, transportation corridors, waterways, wetlands, parks, golf courses, even yards and gardens. Noxious weeds are capable of spreading at rates of up to 60% annually (Smith et al. 1999).

Devastation caused by noxious weeds is enormous. Economic losses from weeds exceed $30 billion (Pimentel et al. 2005) …

Community Supported Agriculture: Legal Concerns, Kenna Mcmurray, Kelsey Hall, Roslynn Brain

All Current Publications

As with all businesses, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) growers may experience legal concerns. This fact sheet will walk growers through certain steps that may be taken to minimize the liability of your CSA operation and manage possible risks.

Volume 71 Issue 1 (Spring/Summer 2017)

Utah Science

2: Social vs. Solitary Bees

Social bees are celebrated for their cooperative industry, but how did their innovative division of labor evolve? A starting point for examining this question may be study of their solitary cousins, say Utah State University biologists.

5: Getting to the Root of the Problem

In terms of plant systems, roots are the under-appreciated, behind-the-scenes hard workers. Despite being vital to a plant's survival, surprising little is understood about how roots interact with the water and soil around them. But researchers are developing techniques to understand the interactions that take place underground.

8: Large Animal Genetic …

Women's Leadership Aspirations, Lynne E. Devnew, Ann Berhout Austin, Marlene Janzen Le Ber, Mary Shapiro

Human Development and Family Studies Faculty Publications

Although it is quite easy to identify women leaders, men continue to occupy the vast majority of leadership roles in the world. It has been argued that one of the reasons for this differential is women's aspirations for leadership are less than men's. Women's leadership aspirations are defined in this chapter as girls' and women's longing for and intentional seeking after a future that catalyze their visions, goals, or calling for themselves into reality, whether or not they use the term leadership to describe their aspirations.

Biosynthetic Secrets: How Fungi Make Bioactive Compounds | College Of Engineering, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

Biological engineers at Utah State University successfully decoded and reprogrammed the biosynthetic machinery that produces a variety of natural compounds found in fungi.

Decoding And Reprogramming Fungal Iterative Nonribosomal Peptide Synthetases, Daya Yu, Fuchao Xu, Shuwei Zhang, Jixun Zhan

Biological Engineering Faculty Publications

Nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs) assemble a large group of structurally and functionally diverse natural products. While the iterative catalytic mechanism of bacterial NRPSs is known, it remains unclear how fungal NRPSs create products of desired length. Here we show that fungal iterative NRPSs adopt an alternate incorporation strategy. Beauvericin and bassianolide synthetases have the same C₁-A₁-T₁-C₂-A₂-MT-T_2a-T_2b-C₃ domain organization. During catalysis, C₃ and C₂ take turns to incorporate the two biosynthetic precursors into the growing depsipeptide chain that swings between T₁ and T …