Digital Commons Network^™

Animal Science Collection Development Policy, Dana W.R. Boden

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries: Collection Development Policies

The Animal Science collection supports the teaching, research and service activities of the entire university community. Its primary audience is the faculty, staff, and students of the Animal Science department in the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources within the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources. The collection’s primary focus is support for the undergraduate and graduate curricula for Animal Science. Specific and transient research needs of Animal Science faculty and graduate students are supplemented through Interlibrary Loan.

The focus of the Animal Science collection is diverse in nature as it encompasses disciplines that are well established within colleges …

Scampering In The City: Examining The Ecological And Social Viability Of Black-Tailed Prairie Dogs (Cynomys Ludovicianus) In Denver, Colorado, Lauren K. Morse

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The conservation of prairie dogs is highly contested due to the embedded view that they are pests. This research addressed the ecological and social viability of prairie dog colonies in Denver, Colorado. Remote sensing analysis was applied to identify potentially viable areas for urban prairie dog colonies. In order to assess the social viability of urban colonies, knowledge and attitudinal surveys were distributed to residents near existing colonies and residents near potential colonies. Statistical analysis of responses provided insight into relationships between proximity to colonies, ecological knowledge, attitudes towards prairie dogs, demographics, and the presence of educational literature. Results indicated …

Linking Environmental Nutrient Enrichment And Disease Emergence In Humans And Wildlife, Pieter T. J. Johnson, Alan R. Townsend, Cory C. Cleveland, Patricia M. Glibert, Robert W. Howarth, Valerie J. Mckenzie, Eliska Rejmankova, Mary H. Ward

Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences Faculty Publications

Worldwide increases in human and wildlife diseases have challenged ecologists to understand how large-scale environmental changes affect host–parasite interactions. One of the most profound changes to Earth's ecosystems is the alteration of global nutrient cycles, including those of phosphorus (P) and especially nitrogen (N). Along with the obvious direct benefits of nutrient application for food production, anthropogenic inputs of N and P can indirectly affect the abundance of infectious and noninfectious pathogens. The mechanisms underpinning observed correlations, however, and how such patterns vary with disease type, have long remained conjectural. Here, we highlight recent experimental advances to critically evaluate the …

Are Forested Buffers An Effective Conservation Strategy For Riparian Fauna? An Assessment Using Meta-Analysis, Laurie B. Marczak, Takashi Sakamaki, Shannon L. Turvey, Isabelle Deguise, Sylvia L. R. Wood, John S. Richardson

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Historically, forested riparian buffers have been created to provide protection for aquatic organisms and aquatic ecosystem functions. Increasingly, new and existing riparian buffers are being used also to meet terrestrial conservation requirements. To test the effectiveness of riparian buffers for conserving terrestrial fauna, we conducted a meta-analysis using published data from 397 comparisons of species abundance in riparian buffers and unharvested (reference) riparian sites. The response of terrestrial species to riparian buffers was not consistent between taxonomic groups; bird and arthropod abundances were significantly greater in buffers relative to unharvested areas, whereas amphibian abundance decreased. Edge-preferring species were more abundant …

Latitudinal Variation In Seasonal Activity And Mortality In Ratsnakes (Elaphe Obsoleta), Jinelle H. Sperry, Gabriel Blouin-Demers, Gerardo L.F. Carfagno, Patrick J. Weatherhead

Biology Faculty Publications

The ecology of ectotherms should be particularly affected by latitude because so much of their biology is temperature dependent. Current latitudinal patterns should also be informative about how ectotherms will have to modify their behavior in response to climate change. We used data from a total of 175 adult black ratsnakes (Elaphe obsoleta) radio tracked in Ontario, Illinois, and Texas, a latitudinal distance of > 1500 km, to test predictions about how seasonal patterns of activity and mortality should vary with latitude. Despite pronounced differences in temperatures among study locations, and despite ratsnakes in Texas not hibernating and switching from diurnal …

Undergraduate Schedule Of Classes For 2010, Summer [Summer I - C Session] | Academic Calendar | Class Schedule, Office Of The Registrar, Stony Brook University

Calendars

No abstract provided.

Interactions Among Top-Down Regulators In A Temperate Forest Floor Ecosystem;Effects On Macrofauna, Mesofauna, Microbes And Litter Decay, Cari-Ann M. Hickerson

ETD Archive

High species diversity and complexity of forest-floor food webs present a challenge for understanding the role of species interactions (e.g. competition and predation) as regulatory mechanisms for ecosystem processes such as decomposition and nutrient cycling. In particular, we understand very little about the roles of forest-floor predators in regulating diversity and abundance of lower trophic levels and ecosystem processes. However, ecological theory and several studies suggest that interactions among intraguild predators (IGP) may be important controls of diversity and abundance of organisms and detritus in lower trophic levels within food webs. A key prediction is that interactions among predators weaken …

Illustrated Beetles Of Quail Ridge Reserve, Ann Donohue

Department of Entomology: Distance Master of Science Projects

Introduction

The Quail Ridge Reserve is part of the University of California Natural Reserve System and is located in Napa County on a peninsula at the southern end of Lake Berryessa. The reserve is composed of land owned by the US Bureau of Land Management, US Bureau of Reclamation, Quail Ridge Wilderness Conservation, California Department of Fish and Game, and UC Regents. The University NRS continues to expand on the reserve as private property owners become willing to sell parcels, thereby increasing the size of this amazing protected wildlife and ecological study site.

Vegetation on Quail Ridge consists primarily of …

Lichens Of Myakka River State Park Water Tolerance, Vertical Stratification And Canopy Diversity, Barry Kaminsky

Theses & ETDs

Lichens are an understudied organism in Florida, especially on the southwest coast. The goal of this thesis was to collect data on lichens at Myakka River State Park, a large area of preserved land, and to explore areas of lichenology that deserve more research. The first experiment tested the tolerance to submergence in water of six species over a 6 day period. There were significant health differences between low trunk and canopy lichens, with low trunk lichens having a higher vigor under conditions of submergence. Second, I surveyed vertical distribution of lichen diversity, and the total cover of lichens. The …

Fall 2010, Nsu Oceanographic Center

Currents

No abstract provided.

Using Climatology To Predict The First Major Summer Corn Earworm (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) Catch In North Central Illinois, David Changnon, Michael A. Sandstrom, Joseph Astolfi, Jonathan Kopczyk, Matias Sich

Faculty Articles, Papers, and Other Scholarship

One of the largest food production companies in the United States, with sales in the billions of dollars, must closely monitor anything that may affect their vegetable crops. This includes harmful insects, such as the corn earworm (CEW) (Helicoverpa zea), that can reduce sweet corn yields and cause losses of approximately 12 million dollars annually in the Midwest. For this study, a major sweet corn production area located in north central Illinois was used to evaluate CEW moth flight characteristics. The initial major CEW catch (i.e. when 10 or more CEWs were caught in a field trap within a 24 …

Nepa At The Limits Of Risk Assessment: Whether To Discuss A Potential Terrorist Attack On A Nuclear Power Plant Under The National Environment Policy Act, Michael Hill

Fordham Law Review

This Note explores the question of whether to address the environmental impacts of a potential terrorist attack on a nuclear power plant under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit assert that the risk of terrorism is unquantifiable and too remote to warrant consideration under NEPA. In contrast, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit concludes that the risk is foreseeable enough that it cannot be disregarded as a matter of law and that a qualitative discussion of a range of potential impacts is …

Social Entrepreneurship In Context: Identity Emergence And Legitimation, Noushi Rahman Phd, Imran Chowdhury Phd

Wilson Center for Social Entrepreneurship

Community ecologists, who consider the interdependence among organizations of different forms (Hannan and Freeman, 1986), have argued that that legitimacy can flow between organizational forms if they are sufficiently related or proximate in cognitive space (Ruef, 2000). De alio legitimation, the process by which an established population can facilitate the institutionalization of an emergent population, greatly minimizes the time period needed for the new form to achieve a taken-for-granted status (Dobrev, 2001). While some studies have looked at how this process operates across populations of organizations within the commercial sector, no study has looked at how this legitimacy might travel …

Using Lidar-Derived Vegetation Profiles To Predict Time Since Fire In An Oak Scrub Landscape In East-Central Florida, James J. Angelo, Brean W. Duncan, John F. Weishampel

Faculty Bibliography 2010s

Disturbance plays a fundamental role in determining the vertical structure of vegetation in many terrestrial ecosystems, and knowledge of disturbance histories is vital for developing effective management and restoration plans. In this study, we investigated the potential of using vertical vegetation profiles derived from discrete-return lidar to predict time since fire (TSF) in a landscape of oak scrub in east-central Florida. We predicted that fire influences vegetation structure at the mesoscale (i.e., spatial scales of tens of meters to kilometers). To evaluate this prediction, we binned lidar returns into 1m vertical by 5 x 5 m horizontal cells and averaged …

Comparative Morphology Of Two Sympatric Species Of Hedgehog In Ikh Nart Nature Reserve, Mongolia, Richard P. Reading, David Kenny, Sodnomphil Batdorj, James Murdoch

Erforschung biologischer Ressourcen der Mongolei / Exploration into the Biological Resources of Mongolia, ISSN 0440-1298

Daurian hedgehog (Mesechinus dauuricus) and long-eared hedgehog (Hemiechinus auritus) inhabit Ikh Nart Nature Reserve, Mongolia and both species appear to occupy similar niches. We gathered morphological measurements to test for differences between species and sexes. We hoped to gain insight into the mechanisms that allow the species to coexist. We collected morphometric data from 10 long-eared hedgehogs (6 male, 4 female) and 18 Daurian hedgehogs (10 male, 7 female, and 1 unknown sex). Only total body length in Daurian hedgehogs differed significantly between males and females. Otherwise, we found no significant differences between morphometric measures of …

Natural History Of Belonuchus Nordmann Spp. And Allies (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) In Heliconia L. (Zingiberales: Heliconiaceae) Flower Bracts, J. H. Frank, R. Barrera

Insecta Mundi

Adults, and in some species larvae, of several members of Belonuchus Nordmann (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Staphylininae) and a few related genera seem to be to various degrees consistently associated with flower bracts of the genus Heliconia (Zingiberales: Heliconiaceae). They are predators and eat various dipterous and lepidopterous larvae in that habitat. Adults of at least Belonuchus cephalotes (Sharp) and Odontolinus fasciatus Sharp are able to immerse completely in water to capture larvae and/or pupae of mosquitoes (Culicidae).

Adults and larvae of Belonuchus satyrus Erichson, and adults of B. cacao Blackwelder and B. rufipennis (F.) were found in water-filled flower bracts of …

Making The Rain: Cloud Seeding, The Imminent Freshwater Crisis, And International Law, Virginia Simms

The International Lawyer

No abstract provided.

The Vegetation Outlook (Vegout): A New Method For Predicting Vegetation Seasonal Greenness, Tsegaye Tadesse, Brian D. Wardlow, Michael J. Hayes, Mark D. Svoboda, Jesslyn F. Brown

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

The vegetation outlook (VegOut) is a geospatial tool for predicting general vegetation condition patterns across large areas. VegOut predicts a standardized seasonal greenness (SSG) measure, which represents a general indicator of relative vegetation health. VegOut predicts SSG values at multiple time steps (two to six weeks into the future) based on the analysis of “historical patterns” (i.e., patterns at each 1 km grid cell and time of the year) of satellite, climate, and oceanic data over an 18-year period (1989 to 2006). The model underlying VegOut capitalizes on historical climate–vegetation interactions and ocean–climate teleconnections (such as El Niño and the …

Diversity Of Interactions: A Metric For Studies Of Biodiversity, Lee A. Dyer, Thomas R. Walla, Harold F. Greeney, John O. Stireman Iii, Rebecca F. Hazen

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Multitrophic interactions play key roles in the origin and maintenance of species diversity, and the study of these interactions has contributed to important theoretical advances in ecology and evolutionary biology. Nevertheless, most biodiversity inventories focus on static species lists, and prominent theories of diversity still ignore trophic interactions. The lack of a simple interaction metric that is analogous to species richness is one reason why diversity of interactions is not examined as a response or predictor variable in diversity studies. Using plant-herbivore-enemy trophic chains as an example, we develop a simple metric of diversity in which richness, diversity indices (e.g., …

Home And School Literacy Practices In Africa: Listening To Inner Voices, Jacob Marriote Ngwaru, Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa

Institute for Educational Development, East Africa

The voices of the main stakeholders in literacy and schooling – pupils and parents – have seldom been given adequate space in studies of school and classroom discourse in sub-Saharan Africa. The present paper attempts to redress this imbalance by presenting the voices of pupils from a multilingual urban primary school in Ghana and of parents from a rural bilingual school in Zimbabwe. The Ghanaian study highlights challenges associated with using an unfamiliar language, English, as the medium of instruction, selective teacher treatment in the classroom that leaves some children lacking confidence to participate and the strong influence of the …

Ornithological Monographs No. 67, John Faaborg

Ornithological Monographs

No abstract provided.

Journal Of The Arkansas Academy Of Science - Volume 64 2010, Academy Editors

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

94th Annual Meeting, 2010. Program., Academy Editors

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

Temperature Dependent Development Of The Egg-Larval Parasitoid Chelonus Oculator On The Factitious Host, Ephestia Cautella, Hi̇lal Tunca, Cem Özkan, Ahmet Neşet Kilinçer

Turkish Journal of Agriculture and Forestry

Development, fecundity, and longevity of the egg-larval parasitoid Chelonus oculator Panzer (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) were studied on the factitious host, Ephestia cautella (Walker) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) at 4 different temperatures (15 °C, 20 °C, 25 °C, and 30 °C). Developmental time from egg to adult was inversely related to temperature. Egg to adult development time ranged from 188 days at 15 °C to 28 days at 30 °C. Complete development required 489 degree-days with a developmental threshold of 12.5 °C. Adult male and female longevity ranged from 43 days at 20 °C to 17 days at 30 °C. Maximum production of offspring …

Renegotiating Barbuda's Commons: Recent Changes In Barbudan Open-Range Cattle Herding, Andrew Sluyter, Amy E. Potter

Faculty Publications

Barbuda remains little developed and sparsely populated relative to its neighbors in the Leeward Lesser Antilles, a rather extraordinary and relatively unknown Caribbean place. Much of its distinctiveness derives from the communal land-tenure system, itself rooted in three centuries of open-range cattle herding. Yet, as revealed through interviews, newspaper archives, and landscape observations, openrange cattle herding has declined over the past three decades, with related changes in land tenure. As the new Barbuda Land Act came into effect in 2008, codifying the communal tenure system, the very landscape elements that manifest open-range herding have become obscure. In particular, the rock-walled …

Multiple Endpoints Of Endocrine Disruption In Gravid Watersnakes (Colubridae:Nerodia) As A Function Of Ingestion Of A Common Herbicide, Lorin Anne Neuman-Lee

Masters Theses

Ecotoxicological studies that focus on a single endpoint might not accurately represent the true ecological effects of a contaminant. Exposure to atrazine, a widelyused herbicide, disrupts endocrine function and sexual development in amphibians, but studies involving reptilian species are lacking. This study examines several effects of atrazine ingestion on gravid females and neonates exposed in utero of the Northern Watersnake (Nerodia sipedon). Twenty-five gravid N. sipedon were collected and kept in the lab for the entirety of their gestation period. Each snake received one of four doses of atrazine: control, 2, 20, or 200 ppb. Blood samples were drawn each …

Combining A Dispersal Model With Network Theory To Assess Habitat Connectivity, Todd R. Lookingbill, Robert H. Gardner, Joseph R. Ferrari, Cherry E. Keller

Geography and the Environment Faculty Publications

Assessing the potential for threatened species to persist and spread within fragmented landscapes requires the identification of core areas that can sustain resident populations and dispersal corridors that can link these core areas with isolated patches of remnant habitat. We developed a set of GIS tools, simulation methods, and network analysis procedures to assess potential landscape connectivity for the Delmarva fox squirrel (DFS; Sciurus niger cinereus), an endangered species inhabiting forested areas on the Delmarva Peninsula, USA. Information on the DFS’s life history and dispersal characteristics, together with data on the composition and configuration of land cover on the peninsula, …

Phylogenetic Relationships Of Some Turkish Crocus (Iridaceae) Taxa Based On Morphological And Anatomical Characters, Fati̇h Coşkun, Selami̇ Selvi̇, Fati̇h Satil

Turkish Journal of Botany

In this study, relationships among the 15 taxa of the genus Crocus L. distributed in Turkey were analysed using 29 morphological and 4 anatomical characters. Analysis of the data set utilising maximum parsimony criterion with Branch-and-Bound search algorithm yielded 32 most parsimonious trees. Bootstrap analysis with the majority rule consensus algorithm generated a consensus tree supporting some branches. Our data mostly did not agree with the previous sectional and serial treatments. The most interesting result was the condition of Crocus pallasii, which was previously included in the section Crocus. C. pallasii showed a sister group relationship with C. cancellatus from …

Community-Level Crime Control : A Closer Look At The Mediating Variables Of Social Disorganization Theory, David Paul Armstrong

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The present study focuses on the mediating factors of social disorganization theory. To be more specific, this study combines the insights from the classical social disorganization model, the systemic model of crime, and the more recent work of Sampson and colleagues on collective efficacy and Carr (2003) on the new parochialism to answer some of the lingering questions within the perspective. The three mediating factors examined are social ties, collective efficacy, and organizational activism, a concept derived from Carr's work on the new parochialism. The concept organizational activism refers to using local organizations with access to outside resources to indirectly …

Morphological Analyses Of Some Palaearctic Stenopogon Loew, 1847 (Diptera: Asilidae: Stenopogoninae) Based On The Spermatheca Structure, Abdullah Hasbenli̇, Fatma Bayrakdar, Selami̇ Candan, Üzeyi̇r Çağlar

Turkish Journal of Zoology

Females of some Stenopogon species were compared both systematically and phylogenetically utilizing spermatheca morphology. The spermathecae of 8 species and 2 subspecies of Stenopogon (S. coracinus, S. elongatus S. flavibarbis, S. junceus, S. laevigatus, S. nigriventris, S. schisticolor, S. strateagus, S. sabaudus harpax, and S. xanthotrichus xanthomelas) were examined using a scanning electron microscope and subsequently analyzed with cluster analysis. Taxa of evaluated Stenopogon were found to be separated into 2 primary groups, A and B, based on the number of spirals and the diameter of the reservoir. Group A further separated into the sub-groups A1, A2, and A3, while …