Digital Commons Network^™

Native Species Response To Goat Foraging In A Shrub-Invaded California Coastal Grassland, John Inman

AES Theses

California coastal grasslands have been frequent targets of preservation efforts due to the habitat they provide for native perennial bunchgrasses, such as purple needlegrass (Stipa pulchra), which have been nearly completely replaced by non-native annual grasses in much of the state. Once protected from ecological disturbance, however, these grasslands become subject to invasion by coyote brush (Baccharis pilularis), potentially resulting in permanent loss of habitat. Goats have successfully been used to control woody vegetation in other contexts but to date there have been no studies published on using goats to restore ecological disturbance in coyote brush-invaded …

What Smells? Developing In-Field Methods To Characterize The Chemical Composition Of Wild Mammalian Scent Cues, Cynthia Thompson, Kimberly N. Bottenberg, Andrew Lantz, Maria A.B. De Oliverira, Leonardo C.O. Melo, Christopher J. Vinyard

Open Access Publishing Support Funded Articles

Olfactory cues play an important role in mammalian biology, but have been challenging to assess in the field. Current methods pose problematic issues with sample storage and transportation, limiting our ability to connect chemical variation in scents with relevant ecological and behavioral contexts. Real-time, in-field analysis via portable gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) has the potential to overcome these issues, but with trade-offs of reduced sensitivity and compound mass range. We field-tested the ability of portable GC-MS to support two representative applications of chemical ecology research with a wild arboreal primate, common marmoset monkeys (Callithrix jacchus). We developed methods …

Ecological Studies Of Wolves On Isle Royale, 2019-2020, Sarah R. Hoy, Rolf O. Peterson, John A. Vucetich

Ecological Studies of Wolves on Isle Royale

Annual Report 2019-2020

Integrating The Ecosystem Services Framework To Define Dysbiosis Of The Breastfed Infant Gut: The Role Of B. Infantis And Human Milk Oligosaccharides, Rebbeca M. Duar, Bethany M. Henrick, Giorgio Casaburi, Steven A. Frese

Department of Food Science and Technology: Faculty Publications

Mounting evidence supports a connection between the composition of the infant gut microbiome and long-term health. In fact, aberrant microbiome compositions during key developmental windows in early life are associated with increased disease risk; therefore, making pertinent modifications to the microbiome during infancy offers significant promise to improve human health. There is growing support for integrating the concept of ecosystem services (the provision of benefits from ecosystems to humans) in linking specific microbiome functions to human well-being. This framework is widely applied in conservation efforts of macro-ecosystems and offers a systematic approach to guide restoration actions aimed to recover critical …

A Global Regression Method For Thermal Sharpening Of Urban Land Surface Temperatures From Modis And Landsat, James. W. Wang, Winston T. L. Chow, Yi-Chen Wang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Land surface temperatures (LST) in urban landscapes are typically more heterogeneous than can be monitored by the spatial resolution of satellite-based thermal infrared sensors. Thermal sharpening (TS) methods permit the disaggregation of LST based on finer-grained multispectral information, but there is continued debate over which spectral indices are most appropriate for urban TS, and how they should be configured in a predictive regression framework. In this study, we evaluate the stability of various TS kernels with respect to LST at different spatial (Landsat 8) and diurnal (MODIS) scales, and present a new TS method, global regression for urban thermal sharpening …

Insect Diversity And Association With Plants: A Case Study In Rural Areas Of Dhirkot, Azad Kashmir Pakistan, Abu Ul Hassan Faiz, Mehboob Ul Hassan, Mikhail F. Bagaturov, Majid Mahmood, Ghazal Tariq, Lariab Zahra Faiz

Journal of Bioresource Management

Insects play a vital role for proper functioning of forest ecosystem, including positive roles as pollinators, seed dispersers, genetic linkers and detrimental effects by feeding on and/or killing trees. The present study was conducted to find insect association with plants in rural areas of Dhirkot. The study was conducted from March, 2019 to September, 2019. The sampling was carried out by line transect method. Thirty transects were taken for sampling insects. Sixty-five species of insects in association with 150 plants were recorded.

Diversity And Ethnobotanical Importance Of Pine Species From Sub-Tropical Forests, Azad Jammu And Kashmir, Kishwar Sultana, Sher Wali Khan, Safdar Ali Shah

Journal of Bioresource Management

A general investigation of sub-tropical forests, from Pir Chinasi National Park, Tolipir National Park, Dhirkot Nature Reserve and Banjosa Game Reserve was carried out during different months from February 2008 to May 2010. The relative abundance of species was calculated using line transects of 50m. A total of five different species (Abies pindrow. Cedrus deodara, Pinus wallichiana, Pinus roxburgii and Picea smithiana) from the Pinaceae family were recorded. The main reported use of Cedrus deodara and Pinus wallichiana by the local people was for furniture and construction purposes. Pinus wallichiana was observed as the dominant …

Density And Aboriginal Uses Of Wild Tree Species In Milawilila Forest Reserve In Morogoro Region, Tanzania, David Sylvester Kacholi

Tanzania Journal of Science

This study assessed density and local uses of wild tree species in Milawilila forest reserve, Morogoro rural district. A total of six transects were set in the forest for assessing density and diversity of trees. In each transect, three plots of 20 m x 20 m were established and all trees with Diameter at Breast Height (DBH) ≥ 10 cm were identified, counted and DBH recorded in each plot. A semi structured questionnaire was used to obtain data on the use of tree species by the locals. Data were analyzed using Microsoft Excel and Statistical Package for Social Science software. …

Steppes And Grasslands In Morocco: Diversity, Functional Ecology And Socio-Economic Role, Mohammed Sghir Taleb, Jalal El Oualidi

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

With Morocco’s geographical situation (at the crossroads between Europe and Africa, the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean), its diverse climate and habitats supports a varied natural vegetation. The floristic richness of the country is related to the heterogeneity of biotypes. From the desert to the high mountains and the littoral to the continental borders, Morocco offers varied ecological conditions that support many different plant species. Steppes and grasslands are important parts of the main plant associations encountered in Morocco. They contain a wealth of flora, play important ecological roles and, from a socioeconomic perspective, are highly significant.

Weather And Exposure Period Affect Coyote Detection At Camera Traps, Anastasia E. Madsen, Lucia Corral Hurtado, Joseph J. Fontaine

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

Abstract Camera traps are an increasingly popular means to monitor wildlife populations. However, like other techniques for measuring populations, camera traps are subject to sources of error that may bias population estimates. Past studies accounting for detection error have failed to account for a simple but potentially widely pervasive source of environmental error: weather conditions. Using 5,108,416 photographs from 804 scent‐lured camera traps deployed in western Nebraska, USA, during spring and autumn of 2014 and 2015, we analyzed the relationship between weather conditions (barometric pressure, wind speed, precipitation, and temperature) and coyote (Canis latrans) detection probability. Using binomial …

Focus, 2020, Winter, Andrews University

Focus

FOCUS (ISSN 1077-9345) is published quarterly, free of charge, for alumni and friends of Andrews University, an institution owned and operated by the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

"It Does N'T Seem Like A Big Deal": A Media Ecology Analysis Of Digital Teen Sexuality And Sexting Education, Allison Marie Metz

Theses and Dissertations

In the state of Illinois, any person in possession of sexually explicit photos of a minor, even if the subject is oneself, can be prosecuted as a felon for possession of child pornography and be required to registered as a sex-offender (705 ILCS § 405). Concurrently, the recent trend of ‘send nudes’ depicts humorous ways to request the transmission of sexually explicit photos, increasing this act as a normative practice for young people (Bradford, 2018; Thomas, 2017). This trend is incongruent with Illinois statue (705 ILCS § 405) and school administrative policy about transmitting sexually explicit photos of a minor. …

Taxonomy And Systematics Of The New Zealand Pselaphini (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Pselaphinae), Brittany Elin Owens

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The New Zealand (NZ) Pselaphini was revised at the species level, a phylogenetic analysis was performed using morphological data, and first steps were taken towards the construction of a molecular analysis of the tribe. Eight new genera and 33 new species were discovered from specimens collected from the NZ mainland, offshore islands, Chatham Islands and the Subantarctic Islands. Of the 13 species originally described in the genus Pselaphus by Thomas Broun during the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, all were either reassigned to the genera Pselaphaulax and Pselaphogenius, or were placed into new genera. Three names …

Improving Grassland Quality In Communal Arable Lands In The Eastern Cape Province, South Africa, Theunis L. Morgenthal, Pieter W. Conradie, Gideon Jordaan, Unathi Gulwa, Neil Ballard, John Howieson

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Overgrazing and shifting cultivation practise have severely degraded communal lands in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. Methods need to be developed to improve forage quality of grazing land, especially previously cultivated lands. The aim of the study was to investigate legume species to rehabilitate arable lands abandoned from cropping, to enhance their forage quality, productivity and ecological integrity. The study was conducted in seven communities within the Eastern Cape Province. This study showed that within the communal lands studied extensive areas have been cultivated and the majority of this land is now poorly utilised. Natural grasslands ploughed for cropping …

Modelling The Effects Of Climatic Factors On The Biomass And Rodent Distribution In A Tibetan Grassland Region In China, Quanzhen Wang, Maolin Xia, Bai-Song, Xi-Rao-Zhuo-Ma, Ba-Sang, Jiang- Cuo, Zha-Dui, Jin-Mei, Ze-Duo, Surong Li, Zha-Xi, Yang-Ba, Jia-Yang, Dan-Pei, Jian Cui, Jimin Cheng

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

To identify the main climatic factors from 2007 to 2009 that influence biomass and rodent distribution, 576 fixed sample plots within 81 million km² of different climatic grassland in Tibet were monitored. The aboveground biomass, the total burrows, the active burrows, the burrow index, and the rodent density in the plots were measured yearly in October. The monthly precipitation and the average temperatures from April to November were obtained for four successive years (2006-2009). Correlative and modelling analyses between the aboveground biomass, the rodent density, and the climatic factors were performed. The results showed that biomass and rodent density …

Cats And Conservationists: The Debate Over Who Owns The Outdoors, Dara M. Wald, Anna L. Peterson

New Directions in the Human-Animal Bond

Cats and Conservationists is the first multidisciplinary analysis of the heated debate about free-roaming cats. The debate pits conservationists against cat lovers, who disagree both on the ecological damage caused by the cats and the best way to manage them. An impassioned and spirited conflict, it also sheds light on larger questions about how we interpret science, incorporate diverse perspectives, and balance competing values in order to encourage constructive dialogue on contentious social and environmental issues.

On one side of the cat debate stand many environmentalists, especially birders and conservation organizations, who believe that outdoor cats seriously threaten native wildlife. …

Minority Stress Among Gay And Bisexual Men In Agricultural Occupations, Michael C. Parent, Garrett M. Steede

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Research integrating the minority stress model and vocational behavior has used broad samples of sexual minority persons. Specific work contexts, particularly traditionally masculine work contexts, may be relevant areas to the integration of minority stress theory and vocational well-being. This study examined the relationship between workplace heterosexism and job satisfaction, as moderated by identity management and person-organization fit, among a sample of 114 sexual minority men, employed in agriculture, recruited from an online social network group. Contrary to prior research, integrating identity management did not moderate the relationship between workplace heterosexism and job satisfaction. Person-organization fit did moderate this relationship, …

Sandhill Crane Abundance In Nebraska During Spring Migration: Making Sense Of Multiple Data Points, Andrew J. Caven, Dana M. Varner, Jeff Drahota

Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences and Affiliated Societies

The USFWS conducts an annual one-day aerial survey of the North and Central Platte River Valleys, generally on the fourth Tuesday in March, to estimate the abundance of the midcontinent Sandhill Crane population. However, these abundance indices demonstrate unrealistic inter-annual variation as a result of deviations in migration chronology and other factors. Additional research efforts have been undertaken within the region to estimate Sandhill Crane abundance over time and space but these projects generally seek to answer unique questions, employ differing survey methods, and cover overlapping yet distinct survey areas. Despite the wealth of information there remains significant uncertainty regarding …

Elemental Climate Disaster Texts And Queer Ecological Temporality, Laura Mattson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis approaches climate disaster texts as an opportunity to challenge constructions of the body, space, and time. Developed from embodied experiential knowledge about hurricanes, my work will explore how climate disasters can teach us to reimagine human-nature relationships. In my two analysis chapters, I use critical textual analysis and autoethnography to challenge particular representations of the human-nature relationship as a binary between nature and culture. By intervening in the nature-culture binary, I theorize queer ecological temporality as an opportunity to reveal and challenge constructions of nature and time. Working at the intersections of queer and ecocritical theory, this thesis …

Nutrient Composition And Flux In A Semi-Arid Grazing Land Of Southern India, K. Karunaichamy, K. Paliwal

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

The distribution and cycling of minerals in various compartments of the ecosystem form one of the important aspects of ecosystem study. The uptake of nutrients through the root system and their release via litter and root decomposition depends upon a number of factors including the species, growth and stage of maturity. The semi-arid grazing land ecosystem at Madurai has developed under short evolutionary grazing histories and low moisture regimes, in which grazing pressure has had dramatic effects on the plant community and biomass (Karunaichamy 1992). The biological cycle includes circulation of nutrients between soil and biotic communities by the phenomena …

Reproductive Ecology Of Dragonfishes (Stomiiformes: Stomiidae) In The Gulf Of Mexico, Alex Marks, David Kerstetter, David Wyanski, Tracey Sutton

Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles

The most abundant fishes on Earth live in the meso- and bathypelagic (deep-pelagic, collectively) zones of the open ocean, where they play a key role in deep-sea food webs by mediating energy flow from surface waters to great depth. Of these fishes, the most speciose taxon is the family Stomiidae (dragonfishes). Despite being the numerically dominant predators of the global mesopelagic zone, stomiid reproductive ecology is poorly known. Research surveys rarely catch larger adults, impeding reproductive ecology studies. Between 2010 and 2011, the Offshore Nekton Sampling and Analysis Program sampled the Gulf of Mexico using a research-sized, opening/closing trawl (10-m …

Evolutionary Traits That Enable Scleractinian Corals To Survive Mass Extinction Events, Gal Dishon, Michal Grossowicz, Michael Krom, Gilad Guy, David F. Gruber, Dan Tchernov

Publications and Research

Scleractinian “stony” corals are major habitat engineers, whose skeletons form the framework for the highly diverse, yet increasingly threatened, coral reef ecosystem. Fossil coral skeletons also present a rich record that enables paleontological analysis of coral origins, tracing them back to the Triassic (~241 Myr). While numerous invertebrate lineages were eradicated at the last major mass extinction boundary, the Cretaceous-Tertiary/K-T (66 Myr), a number of Scleractinian corals survived. We review this history and assess traits correlated with K-T mass extinction survival. Disaster-related “survival” traits that emerged from our analysis are: (1) deep water residing (>100 m); (2) cosmopolitan distributions, …

New Sorbents For Adsorption Cleaning Phenol-Containing Waste Water Refinery, Bahodir Bahramovich Kakharov, Uchqun Vafokulovich Umarov

Journal of Tashkent Institute of Railway Engineers

The article discusses some issues of creating new adsorbents based on local raw materials and waste for the purification of phenol-containing wastewater from refineries. Studied some sorption properties of new sorbents

Canceled Plant Biology Colloquium | Green Roofs As Ecosystems, March 20, Ohio University College Of Arts & Sciences

All Forum Articles

No abstract provided.

March 2020 News Releases, University Of Montana--Missoula. Office Of University Relations

University of Montana News Releases, 1928, 1956-present

No abstract provided.

The Gut Microbiota Of A Wild American Black Bear (Ursus Americanus) Population, Sierra Gillman

All NMU Master's Theses

The gut microbiome (GMB), the mutualistic microbial communities located in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT), has co-evolved in vertebrates to perform micro-ecosystem services to facilitate physiological functions. Despite the key role of the GMB in host health, wildlife managers have been slow to consider the ramifications of anthropogenic pressures to wildlife-GMB diversity. For example, although diet is one of the most influential determinants of a host’s GMB, many wildlife agencies allow baiting with human-provisioned foods to facilitate the harvest of wildlife such as American black bear (Ursus americanus). Additionally, much of our knowledge of wildlife-GMB relationships is based on …

Cats And Conservationists: The Debate Over Who Owns The Outdoors, Dara M. Wald, Anna L. Peterson

Purdue University Press Book Previews

Cats and Conservationists is the first multidisciplinary analysis of the heated debate about free-roaming cats. The debate pits conservationists against cat lovers, who disagree both on the ecological damage caused by the cats and the best way to manage them. An impassioned and spirited conflict, it also sheds light on larger questions about how we interpret science, incorporate diverse perspectives, and balance competing values in order to encourage constructive dialogue on contentious social and environmental issues.

On one side of the cat debate stand many environmentalists, especially birders and conservation organizations, who believe that outdoor cats seriously threaten native wildlife. …

Characterization And Mapping Of Halophyte Vegetation Using Gis And Remote Sensing Technique In Kachchh Plane Of Gujarat, India, J. P. Singh, D. Deb, R. Srinivasan, R. S. Chaurasia, Archana Singh, Ashwini Kumar, M. Shamsudheen

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

One of the pressures of a burgeoning population is need to increase agricultural production through both irrigated agriculture and the development of land that was previously regarded as marginal. About 8.56 m ha land in India is affected by salt. Out of this, about 1.2 m ha land is in Gujarat which is next to Uttar Pradesh (1.295 m ha). Kachchh, the second largest district of the country, has more than 53% of the total geographical area under Ranns (salt-marshy lands). The soil salinity in this region ranges from 3.2 to 32 EC and sodicity from 8.0 to 10.0 pH. …

Assessing Boreal Peat Fire Severity And Vulnerability Of Peatlands To Early Season Wildland Fire, Laura Bourgeau-Chavez, Sarah L. Grelik, Michael Billmire, Liza K. Jenkins, Eric S. Kasischke, Merritt R. Turetsky

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Globally peatlands store large amounts of carbon belowground with 80% distributed in boreal regions of the northern hemisphere. Climate warming and drying of the boreal region has been documented as affecting fire regimes, with increased fire frequency, severity and extent. While much research is dedicated to assessing changes in boreal uplands, few research efforts are focused on the vulnerability of boreal peatlands to wildfire. In this case study, an integration of field data collection, land cover mapping of peatland types and Landsat-based fire severity mapping was conducted for four early season (May to mid-June) wildfires where peatlands are abundant in …

Surveillance Of Culex And Aedes Mosquitoes In Lincoln, Lancaster County, Nebraska, William Noundou

Department of Entomology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In 2018, West Nile virus (WNV) was identified as the leading cause of mosquito-borne disease in the continental United States. In response to this very serious problem, the Lincoln-Lancaster County Public Health Department (LLCHD) reinforced their mosquito surveillance program, which constitutes one of the best available tools to fight against this serious threat to human health. The objectives of this study were to 1) expand knowledge of the activity and relative abundance of mosquito communities in understudied areas and 2) evaluate differences in mosquito communities by urban and rural location, especially focusing on known vector species. A total of 6 …