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Characterization Of Three-Dimensional Spatial Aggregation And Association Patterns Of Brown Rot Symptoms Within Intensively Mapped Sour Cherry Trees, Sydney E. Everhart, Ashley Askew, Lynne Seymour, Imre J. Holb, Harald Scherm

Department of Plant Pathology: Faculty Publications

Characterization of spatial patterns of plant disease can provide insights into important epidemiological processes such as sources of inoculum, mechanisms of dissemination, and reproductive strategies of the pathogen population. While two-dimensional patterns of disease (among plants within fields) have been studied extensively, there is limited information on three-dimensional patterns within individual plant canopies. Reported here are the detailed mapping of different symptom types of brown rot (caused by Monilinia laxa) in individual sour cherry tree (Prunus cerasus) canopies, and the application of spatial statistics to the resulting data points to de-termine patterns of symptom aggregation and association. …

Sampling Assemblages Of Turtles In Central Illinois: A Case Study Of Capture Efficiency And Species Coverage, Robert D. Bluett, Eric M. Schauber, Craig K. Bloomquist, Douglas A. Brown

Publications

Low and variable rates of capture are chronic problems in chelonian studies. We conducted a pilot study to evaluate protocols for future inventories of turtles in Illinois by comparing capture efficiency and species coverage for 2 devices (hoop net and cage trap), baits (fresh and day-old fish), habitats (lentic and lotic) and time periods . We accrued 402 captures of 378 individuals representing 7 species. At Sanganois State Fish and Wildlife Area (Sanganois), hoop nets produced more captures of more species (n = 231; 6 species) than cage traps (n = 119; 4 species). Statistical tests were equivocal for a …

Population Viability Analysis Of Swift Fox (Vulpes Velox) At The Badlands National Park, Indrani Sasmal

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The swift fox (Vulpes velox) was historically distributed in southwestern South Dakota including the region surrounding Badlands National Park (BNP). The species declined during the mid-1900s due to habitat fragmentation, non-target poisoning, and harvest. A remnant population occurred on USDA Forest Service lands in Fall River County, South Dakota. Following the successful reintroduction of the species in Canada (1983), a reintroduction program was initiated in BNP in the year 2003. Free-ranging swift fox from Colorado and Wyoming were translocated to BNP from 2003 to 2006. Despite these releases and observations of free-ranging swift fox occurring throughout western South Dakota, it …

To Learn Or Not To Learn: When Policy And Pedagogy Collide, Priscilla Shannon Gutierrez

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

No abstract provided.

Stream Restoration In A Post-Agricultural System: Indirect Effects On Density And Secondary Production Of Aquatic Insects, Lyle Stanley Dandridge Jr

Master's Theses

Restoration of stream habitats, with the goal of increasing biodiversity through increasing habitat heterogeneity, has been an ongoing trend in recent decades. Current investigations suggest most of those projects fail to significantly influence ecological structure and function when evaluated in light of their affect on species richness. In order to assess the <&ldquo>success of restoration on a prairie stream in northern Illinois traditional metrics such as community composition and density were examined in addition to macroinvertebrate secondary production. Restoration of Nippersink Creek, McHenry County, Illinois was completed in 2000 and this study was conducted 8 years post-restoration. Benthic samples were …

Uncertainty In Modelling Of Faecal Coliform Overland Transport Associated With Manure Application In Maryland, A. K. Guber, Y. A. Pachepsky, A. M. Yakirevich, D. R. Shelton, A. M. Sadeghi, D. C. Goodrich, C. L. Unkrich

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Concerns for microbial safety of surface water facilitate development of predictive models that estimate concentrations and total numbers of pathogen and indicator organisms leaving manure-fertilized fields in overland flow during runoff events. Spatial variability of bacterial concentrations in applied manure introduces high uncertainty in the model predictions. The objective of this work was to evaluate the uncertainty in model predictions of the manure-borne bacteria overland transport caused by limited information on the spatial distribution of bacteria in surface-applied manure. Experiments were carried out at the ARS Beltsville experimental watershed site (OPE3) in Maryland. Dairy bovine manure was applied at a …

Dryland Cropping Systems Influence The Microbial Biomass And Enzyme Activities In A Semiarid Sandy Soil, Veronica Acosta-Martinez, Robert Lascano, Francisco Calderón, Jill D. Booker, Ted M. Zobeck, Dan R. Upchurch

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Indicators of soil quality, such as microbial biomass C and N (MBC, MBN) and enzyme activities (EAs), involved in C, P, N, and S cycling, as affected by dryland cropping systems under conventional (ct) and no tillage (nt) practices were evaluated for 5 years. The soil is sandy loam with an average of 16.4% clay, 67.6% sand, and 0.65 g kg⁻¹ OM at 0– 10 cm. The crops evaluated were rotations of grain sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) or forage sorghum (also called haygrazer), cotton (Gossypium hirsutum), and winter rye (Secale cereale): grain sorghum–cotton (Sr …

Significance Of Absorption Spectra For The Chemotaxonomic Characterization Of Pigmented Bacteria, Nuretti̇n Şahi̇n

Turkish Journal of Biology

A method for characterizing pigmented bacteria based on the numerical analysis of their carotenoid absorption spectra was examined. To achieve this, some non-phototrophic pigmented bacteria that were isolated from various environments and closely related types of species were used. Bacterial carotenoid pigments were extracted with an acetone:methanol (7:2) mixture and the absorption spectra were determined. Data were normalized, and their first derivatives were analyzed using Ward clustering algorithms. Based on the spectral data, isolates were separated into 7 groups. Characterization based on derivative pigment spectral data showed good agreement statistically with biochemical characterization results. The Mantel test indicated that the …

Detection Of Prokaryotic Microbial Communities Of Çamaltı Saltern, Turkey, By Fluorescein In Situ Hybridization And Real-Time Pcr, Mehmet Burçi̇n Mutlu, Kiymet Güven

Turkish Journal of Biology

Knowledge of the functions, interactions, and diversity of extremely halophilic microorganisms mostly comes from the results of studies performed in different salterns throughout the world. As model habitats, salterns allow the comparison of different techniques used for qualitative and quantitative analysis of halophilic communities in these hypersaline environments. Çamaltı Saltern is the biggest coastal solar saltern located on the Aegean coast of Turkey, and it produces most of the salt consumed in the country. In the present study, detection of prokaryotic communities of the Çamaltı Saltern was performed using 2 culture-independent methods. Real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and fluorescein in …

A Comparative Assessment Of Fruit Formation In Some Orchid Species From The Southern Caucasus Region, Houshang Nosrati, Roghieh Hajiboland, Ahmad Razban-Haghighi, Maryam Nikniazi

Turkish Journal of Botany

The distribution and population size of 5 orchid species (Cephalanthera longifolia, Orchis simia, Platanthera bifolia, Dactylorhiza romana, and Ophrys scolopax) were studied in the southern Caucasus based on the individual numbers in a given area. The fruit set was recorded for the latter 3 species and compared in natural and control groups (pollinators prevented) for D. romana and O. scolopax. We compared the obtained fruit set values with those reported from other regions. The distributions of the 5 species were completely fragmented and the population sizes were extremely small. This is the first report of O. scolopax from the region, …

Mapping Biomass And Stress In The Sierra Nevada Using Lidar And Hyperspectral Data Fusion, Anu Swatantran, Ralph Dubayah, Dar A. Roberts, Michelle Hofton, J. Bryan Blair

United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration: Publications

In this paper, we explored fusion of structural metrics from the Laser Vegetation Imaging Sensor (LVIS) and spectral characteristics from the Airborne Visible Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) for biomass estimation in the Sierra Nevada. In addition, we combined the two sensors to map species-specific biomass and stress at landscape scale. Multiple endmember spectral mixture analysis (MESMA) was used to classify vegetation from AVIRIS images and obtain sub-pixel fractions of green vegetation, non-photosynthetic vegetation, soil, and shade. LVIS metrics, AVIRIS spectral indices, and MESMA fractions were compared with field measures of biomass using linear and stepwise regressions at stand (1 ha) …

The Structural Basis Of Flaviviridae Interaction With Antibodies And Receptors, Vincent Luca

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

Flaviviridae are a family of enveloped, positive-stranded RNA viruses responsible for a variety of diseases including encephalitis, hemorrhagic fever and hepatocellular carcinoma. The envelope: E) proteins that coat the outer surface of these viruses provide the molecular machinery that drives receptor interaction and membrane fusion. The assignment of biological functions to specific structural elements of these E proteins has proven crucial to the understanding of viral entry into host cells. Clearance is dependent upon the presence of neutralizing antibodies that are able to disrupt several stages of this process. Given their fundamental role in the viral life cycle, we sought …

Demographic Response Of American Ginseng (Panax Quinquefolius L.) To Climate Change, Sara Souther

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Ecological response to recent climate change has been documented for a multitude of species worldwide. Climate models predict further increases in temperature, as much as 8 times the degree of warming that has already occurred. Given observations of species response to contemporary climate change and the unprecedented degree of warming expected over the next century, climate change will no doubt determine future ecosystem composition and affect global species diversity. In order to prevent loss of biodiversity, it is necessary to understand and accurately project species' response to climate, and to identify species that are vulnerable to climate change driven extinctions. …

The Evolution And Reproductive Ecology Of Oenothera (Onagraceae), Kyra Krakos

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

This dissertation describes the role of pollination in the floral diversification of Oenothera with an integration of both ecological and phylogenetic approaches. Oenothera: Onagraceae) is a model system for studying plant reproductive biology. It provides excellent examples of shifts in reproductive traits such as pollination and breeding system, features that have been important in angiosperm diversification. These systems are evolutionarily labile; they easily shift between different states. These different reproductive traits may shift in a concerted fashion; therefore, a more comprehensive approach to understanding the evolution of these plant systems simultaneously addresses shifts in pollination and breeding system. Using 54 …

An Ecosystem-Scale Model For The Spread Of A Host-Specific Forest Pathogen In The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, Jaclyn A. Hatala, Michael C. Dietze, Robert L. Crabtree, Katherine Kendall, Diana Six, Paul R. Moorcroft

Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences Faculty Publications

The introduction of nonnative pathogens is altering the scale, magnitude, and persistence of forest disturbance regimes in the western United States. In the high-altitude whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) forests of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE), white pine blister rust (Cronartium ribicola) is an introduced fungal pathogen that is now the principal cause of tree mortality in many locations. Although blister rust eradication has failed in the past, there is nonetheless substantial interest in monitoring the disease and its rate of progression in order to predict the future impact of forest disturbances within this critical ecosystem.

This …

Applications Of Airborne And Portable Lidar In The Structural Determination, Management, And Conservation Of Southeastern U.S. Pine Forests, Claudia De Mendonca Costa Synek Listopad

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Active remote sensing techniques, such as Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), have transformed the field of forestry and natural resource management in the last decade. Intensive assessments of forest resources and detailed structural assessments can now be accomplished faster and at multiple landscape scales. The ecological applications of having this valuable information at-hand are still only being developed. This work explores the use of two active remote sensing techniques, airborne and portable LiDAR for forestry applications in a rapidly changing landscape, Southeastern Coastal Pine woodlands. Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of airborne and portable LiDAR, the tools used to extract …

Multiscale Effects Of Forest Roads On Black Bears (Ursus Americanus), Benjamin S. Jimenez

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

As the vast network of roads continues to expand across the continent, so too does the necessity to understand the associated ecological effects. To appropriately assess the impacts of these roads on wildlife it is necessary to evaluate how they affect ecological processes at multiple spatial and temporal scales. In particular, where hunting is associated with road access, roads may induce heightened behavioral responses. I assessed the effects of forest roads on habitat selection and activity patterns of a population of black bears (Ursus americanus) in the Coeur d’Alene Mountains of northern Idaho, USA. This black bear population is exposed …

Experimental Litterfall Manipulation Effects On Soil Bacterial Community Structure And Soil Carbon Cycling In A Wet Tropical Forest, Jonathan Winston Leff

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Global changes such as increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations or climate change are likely to drive shifts in plant-derived carbon (C) inputs to terrestrial ecosystems via changes in litterfall and plant net primary production (NPP). However, the effects of shifting detrital C inputs on belowground microbial community function, C cycling and fluxes remain largely unknown, especially in tropical forest ecosystems. To investigate how shifts in bacterial community composition resulting from differences in C availability affect organic matter decomposition and how soil C pools and fluxes respond to shifts in C inputs, I utilized an in situ litter manipulation experiment …

Diet Of Three Mormoopid Bats (Mormoops Blainvillei, Pteronotus Quadridens, And Pteronotus Portoricensis ) On Puerto Rico, Ashley K. Rolfe

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This study used visual analysis to determine the percent volume and percent frequency of orders of insects in the guano of the Antillean ghost-faced bat (Mormoops blainvillei), sooty mustached bat (Pteronotus quadridens), and Puerto Rican mustached bat (Pteronotus portoricensis). The most common orders for all three species were Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, and Lepidoptera, although the relative proportions of these orders differed among species. Variation in diet was primarily due to species, but season, habitat, and sex also affected the composition of insects in the feces. In addition, species-level identification of prey was achieved through molecular techniques …

The Relationship Between Sunlight And Cerebrovascular Health, Shia T. Kent

All ETDs from UAB

Sunlight radiation may be related to stroke risk through increased vitamin D production. The latter has been associated with a number of conditions including stroke, cognitive function and cardiovascular disease. We performed three sets of analyses to determine whether higher levels of sunlight radiation were associated with lower rates of stroke incidence, all-cause mortality, and cognitive decline. We explored these relationships using the REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study, a national longitudinal cohort of 30,239 participants. We merged the participants' residential histories with a ground and satellite-derived NASA dataset to characterize 15-year average sunlight radiation and …

Mapping And Modeling Of Neglected Tropical Diseases In Brazil And Bolivia, Paula Mischler

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Accurately defining disease distributions and calculating disease risk is an important step in the control and prevention of diseases. This study used geographical information systems and remote sensing technologies within the MaxEnt ecological niche modeling program to create predictive risk maps for leprosy and Schistosomiasis in Brazil and Chagas disease in both Brazil and Bolivia. New disease cases were compiled for leprosy, Schistosomiasis, and Chagas disease from the Brazilian ministry of Health for 2001 to 2009 and the data was stratified to a 10,000 population for each municipality. Bolivian Chagas prevalence rates were calculated from 2007 to 2009 survey data. …

Observing Copepods Through A Genomic Lens, Grace Wyngaard

Selected Works

No abstract provided.

Influence Of Industrial Activities On The Spatial Distribution Of Wildlife In Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda, Samuel Ayebare

Open Access Master's Theses

Activities carried out by resource extraction industries in and adjacent to protected areas have increased the risk to biodiversity conservation in different parts of the world. Oil and natural gas developments in the Albertine rift, one of Africa’s biodiversity hotspots, have raised concerns about the potential impacts to wildlife populations and the associated land-cover change. The influence of oil and gas industrial activities on the spatial distribution of wildlife in Murchison Falls National Park was examined by conducting wildlife surveys along 2-km long transects that radiated away from well pads and access roads. The position of large mammal sightings were …

New Records And Notes On The Natural History Of Vertebrates From Arkansas, M. B. Connior, R. Tumlison, H. W. Robison

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

Fifty Years On The Fringe: Murray Bookchin And The American Revolutionary Tradition, 1921-1971, Aaron David Hyams

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Hyams, Aaron, M.A., Spring 2011 History Fifty Years on the Fringe: Murray Bookchin and the American Revolutionary Tradition 1921-1971 Chairperson: Dr. Michael Mayer Murray Bookchin was an American revolutionary and political theorist born in New York City in 1921. His career as both an activist and a theorist through the thirties, forties, fifties and sixties, made him an active participant and influential voice for both the American Old Left, and the New Left. Writing for Contemporary Issues, a left wing journal edited by Josef Weber, Bookchin became an important part of the schismatic Left, a loose conglomeration of Marxist and …

Analysis Of Culturable Bacteria From Soil Of Three Sites On Anchorage Island, Antarctic Peninsula, Karimian Maryam

Student Works (2010-2019)

Since soil-borne bacteria represent the world's greatest source of biological diversity, the diversity of culturable bacteria associated with soil from three different regions of the Anchorage Island on the Antarctic Peninsula was investigated. Soil samples analysed included Sandy coarse soil (AI1), Black & fine soil (AI2) and High nutrient (AI3). A total of 196 bacteria were isolated under aerobic conditions at 4°C using Nutrient agar as medium. The isolates were grouped using morphology and amplified rRNA gene restriction analysis fingerprinting and identified by partial sequencing of 16S rRNA gene. Out of 14 different RFLP patterns and different morphologies that were …

Quantitative Approaches In Climate Change Ecology, Christopher J. Brown, David S. Schoeman, William J. Sydeman, Keith Brander, Lauren B. Buckley, Michael Burrows, Carlos M. Duarte, Pippa J. Moore, John M. Pandolfi, Elvira Poloczanska, William Venables, Anthony J. Richardson

Research outputs 2011

Contemporary impacts of anthropogenic climate change on ecosystems are increasingly being recognized. Documenting the extent of these impacts requires quantitative tools for analyses of ecological observations to distinguish climate impacts in noisy data and to understand interactions between climate variability and other drivers of change. To assist the development of reliable statistical approaches, we review the marine climate change literature and provide suggestions for quantitative approaches in climate change ecology. We compiled 267 peer-reviewed articles that examined relationships between climate change and marine ecological variables. Of the articles with time series data (n = 186), 75% used statistics to test …

Distribution, Growth, And Disturbance Of Catalina Island Rhodoliths, Paul Anthony Tompkins

Master's Theses

Rhodoliths are free-living coralline algae (Rhodophyta) that form large beds on the seafloor. Rhodolith beds are globally widespread and biologically diverse shallow marine habitats. Beds are ecologically sensitive, disturbed by humans, and in Europe are protected by law. While rhodolith beds have been found in California waters at Catalina Island, no literature exists regarding their distribution or ecological significance. This study sought to (1) map the distribution and characterize the rhodolith beds around Catalina, (2) determine the seasonal growth rates, and (3) investigate the effect of common sources of disturbance. A systematic search of shallow subtidal (0-40 meters) areas revealed …

Nearshore Fish Assemblage Patterns With Respect To Landscape-Scale Habitats In Central California, Kristin Irene Hunter-Thomson

Master's Theses

In most ecosystems, the distribution of species across a landscape is greatly influenced by the type, amount, and spatial configuration of habitats. Studies in terrestrial environments have shown that species diversity, density, and length frequency often positively correlate with the size of a habitat patch, patch shape, and proximity to a patch edge. These patterns, however, have not been conclusively shown in temperate sub-tidal marine studies. Data from visual strip–transects collected from the Delta submersible were used to characterize fish assemblages with respect to rocky bank habitat patches. Specifically, the density, diversity, and length frequency of nearshore fishes were examined …

Using Whatman Fta® Cards To Collect Dna For Bird-Strike Identifications, Carla J. Dove, Nor Faridah Dahlan, Marcy A. Heacker, James F. Whatton

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Identification of species of birds is fundamental to implementation of all management and mitigation issues involving bird–aircraft collisions (bird strikes). Methods of identifying bird remains have recently been enhanced to include the use of molecular techniques but the degraded condition of the fi eld sample remains problematic. The Whatman FTA® card is a novel way to instantly fi x DNA and inhibit degradation of DNA samples post-collection. During 2008–2009, we analyzed >200 FTA cards containing tissue blots, body fluids, or blood samples from bird strikes to evaluate the performance of these cards in real-time situations. We analyzed the success of …