Digital Commons Network^™

The Effect Of Grazing By Geese, Goats, And Fallow Deer On Soil Mites (Acari), Sylwiusz Pacek, Anna Seniczak, Radomir Graczyk, Boguslaw Chachaj, Barbara Waldon-Rudzionek

Turkish Journal of Zoology

The study investigated the effects of grazing by geese, goats, and fallow deer on soil mites. It included a total of 360 samples collected in the spring, summer, and autumn of 2016 and 2017 in north-central Poland. Study plots were situated in three pastures grazed by geese, goats, and fallow deer, and three meadows near the pastures served as controls. All study plots were fenced. In total 22,561 mites (Acari) were obtained, including 15,641 Oribatida (69.3%), 4926 Mesostigmata (21.8%), and 1994 other mites (8.9%). Only the abundance of Oribatida (therefore, also total Acari) differed significantly in pastures grazed by different …

Functional Ecology And Ecosystem Services Of Urban Trees, Milos Simovic

ETD Archive

Compared to their natural counterparts, trees in urban ecosystems experience distinctive environmental conditions which can be both beneficial and harmful to tree functions and fitness. Thus, the morphological, phenological, and physiological functions of trees in urban ecosystems can be unique and might not be predictable from patterns identified in natural forests where most research on tree ecology has occurred. To better understand how different tree species contribute to ecosystem services in urban environments, we estimated a number of key performance metrics and functional traits for species commonly planted in urban areas. Between April of 2017 and December of 2019, we …

Authentic Perspectives On Autistic Resilience: Implications For Schools And Society, Andrew Nelson

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This study explored resilience factors as identified by autistic adults with authentic lived experience. Historically, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has been diagnosed using deficit models and criteria designed by outsiders with little input from the autism community. While risk of adversity is often high for those with ASD, scant research exists looking at the strengths, adaptive skills, and environmental factors contributing to the resilience of people with ASD. Autistic adults were interviewed (N = 10) to assess which internal and external risks and protections participants deemed important to their resilience. Responses were coded, analyzed, and compared to existing resilience data …

Sub-Lethal Predatory Shell Damage Does Not Affect Physiology Under High Co2 In The Intertidal Gastropod Tritia Reticulata, Leonardo Querobim Yokoyama, Alexander Turra, Coleen Suckling, Gabriela Torres, Andrew Davies, Ian Mccarthy

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Ocean acidification (OA) poses a major threat to marine animals, especially marine shelled invertebrates such as molluscs. Although many organisms are capable of compensating for the effects of OA, this can impose physiological costs and impact performance (e.g. through increased metabolism and decreased growth). Sublethal injuries on shells may provoke changes in energy allocation. Under acidified conditions, organisms would spend less energy on reproduction and somatic growth to repair the damage. Therefore, we analysed the physiological responses of the intertidal gastropod Tritia reticulata during shell regeneration under OA conditions. We simulated a sub-lethal predation event (a notch in the outer …

Mitochondrial Dna Analysis Of Critically Endangered Chinese Pangolins (Manis Pentadactyla) From Nepal, Sandeep Shrestha, Ashish Bashyal, Ashna Dhaka, Thomas J. Mcgreevy Jr., Bill Buffum, Jyoti Joshi, Hemanta Kumari Chaudhary, Sanjay Nath Khanal

Natural Resources Science Faculty Publications

Chinese Pangolins (Manis pentadactyla) are Critically Endangered and one of the most illegally traded mammals globally. We generated first COI sequences from five individuals of this species from Nepal. BLASTn search of our 600bp sequences at GenBank showed pair-wise identity between 99.17% and 100% to M. pentadactyla. There were three haplotypes and a total of five variable sites among five M. pentadactyla sequences. Neighbor-joining tree revealed that all M. pentadactyla from Nepal clustered into same group further splitting into two sub-groups albeit with low bootstrap value, suggesting potential multiple geographic origins. The K2P distance was 0.3% within …

The Birds And The Trees, Branden Lawson

McNair Scholars

Modification of natural habitats used by native organisms is occurring more rapidly due to the increasing human population. American Robins (Turdus migratorius) are common in urban and non-urban areas and can serve as useful indicators of human activities' effects on wildlife. To create an urban environment, the removal of trees from non-urban habitats is necessary but causes radical alteration of the presence of native avifauna. This study, therefore, examined the influence of tree cover within urban and non-urban sites and how trees' characteristics affected the survival rate of American Robin chicks. Data collection occurred during the 2019 breeding …

Seasonal Changes In Eastern Hemlock (Tsuga Canadensis) Foliar Chemistry, Ian G. Kinahan, Chad M. Rigsby, Suzanne K. Savage, Nick L. Houseman, Andrew S. Marsella, Anita Oppong, Brenton L. Deboef, Colin M. Orians, Evan L. Preisser

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis (L.) Carriére; hemlock) is an eastern North American conifer threatened by the invasive hemlock woolly adelgid (Adelges tsugae Annand). Changes in foliar terpenes and phenolics were evaluated in new (current year growth) and mature (1-year old growth) hemlock needles during the growing season and into plant dormancy. From April through September, foliar concentrations of non-volatile soluble phenolics, condensed tannins, lignin, mono- and sesquiterpenes α-pinene, camphene, isobornyl acetate, and diterpene resin were quantified. After September, additional analyses of metabolites that continued to differ significantly in new versus mature foliage were carried out. Total soluble phenolic …

Land Use Influences Along Elevation Gradient On Macroinvertebrate Communities, Brittany Sprout

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Land use activities have caused disturbances that affect the quality of freshwater ecosystems worldwide. How the influences of land use along an environmental gradient and the associated environmental variables that may influence stream diversity and function is unclear. We address these issues by studying biodiversity, abundance, and functional diversity of macroinvertebrates across different land types along a gradient in Colorado, USA. We also address how diversity may change along an elevation gradient by analyzing previously published macroinvertebrate research. We found evidence that land use and disturbance are stronger explanations of changes in macroinvertebrate communities, rather than elevation. Functional trait patterns …

University Of Texas At Tyler Course Catalog, 2020 - 2021, University Of Texas At Tyler

Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Comparison Of Seldm Simulated Total-Phosphorus Concentrations With Ecological Impervious-Area Criteria, Lillian C. Jeznach, Gregory E. Granato

Engineering, Computing & Construction Management Faculty Publications

Ecological studies indicate that impervious cover (IC) greater than approximately 5%–20% may have adverse effects on receiving-stream ecology. It is difficult to separate the effects of runoff quality from other effects of urbanization on receiving streams. This study presents the results of a numerical experiment to assess the effects of increasing IC on water quality using the Stochastic Empirical Loading and Dilution Model (SELDM). Hydrologic and physiographic variables representative of southern New England were used to simulate receiving water quality in a basin with IC ranging from 0.1% to 30%. Simulation results mirror the results of ecological studies; event mean …

A Spatiotemporal Assessment Of Dietary Partitioning Between Color Morphs Of A Terrestrial Salamander, Maggie M. Hantak, Kyle M. Brooks, Cari-Ann M. Hickerson, Carl D. Anthony, Shawn R. Kuchta

2020 Faculty Bibliography

When color pattern variation is co-adapted with other biological features, distinct color morphs may be separated along divergent niche axes, and data on niche partitioning can provide insight into how distinct color morphs are maintained over spatiotemporal scales. The Eastern Red-backed Salamander, Plethodon cinereus, contains two common color morphs (striped and unstriped) that differ along several trait axes in addition to coloration. Previous studies from a single population have suggested that dietary composition represents an important axis of ecological differentiation between morphs of P. cinereus. To determine if morphs partition prey resources over space and time, we collected stomach contents …

Ms Environmental Biology Capstone Project, Alex Stacy

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

Chapter 1 - Literature Review: A More General World Under Climate Change

Chapter 2 - Grant Proposal: Determining the Effectiveness of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Versus Traditional Ground Surveys to Map the Distribution of Bell’s Twinpod (Physaria bellii) in Boulder County

Chapter 3 - Journal Manuscript: Macroinvertebrate Assemblages Indicate Declining Ecosystem Diversity for In-Stream Restoration Sites at Deer Creek, CO

Chapter 4: Stakeholder Analysis: Pebble Mine Proposal: A Stakeholder Tale of Two Industries

Is The World Converging To A ‘Western Diet’?, Azzeddine Azzam

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

Objective: To test the nutrition transition hypothesis of global dietary convergence to a ‘Western diet’.

Design: Consumer-waste-adjusted FAO Food Balance Sheets are used to construct for each country a Western Diet Similarity Index (WSI), expressed as a ratio of calories from animal-sourced foods, oils, fats and sweeteners to total per capita calories. β-Convergence and associated speed are estimated by growth regressions using 1992–2013 panel data. Speed of convergence, a non-linear function of income per capita, globalisation and urbanisation, determines the steady-state or long-term global WSI. The long-term global WSI is compared with the WSI of the group of countries with …

A Preliminary Survey Of Macroinvertebrates Inhabiting Southwest Florida Storm Drain Inlets, Natali Shafer

Theses & ETDs

Storm drain ecosystems are under-studied sources of biodiversity in the urban environment. As sea levels rise, saltwater is predicted to infiltrate the stormwater removal pipelines, which will have unknown effects on the ecology of the drains. Using artificial substrate as a collection method, benthic macroinvertebrates from over ten different phylogenetic orders were found to inhabit storm drain inlets at New College of Florida. Although detailed speciation was not performed in this preliminary assessment, it seems that the macroinvertebrates found in the inlets were primarily freshwater organisms. Nevertheless, as we’ve seen with red tide and the Deepwater Horizon events, having a …

Put Your Strands In The Air: An Evaluation Of Environmental Dna As A Tool In Biodiversity Monitoring, Sarah Wilhide

Theses & ETDs

In this present time, most scientists agree that we are living through the sixth mass extinction and that this event is partly due to humans’ effect on the environment (Abatzoglou and Williams, 2016; Payne et al., 2016). Maintaining biodiversity is a key component in mitigating the many effects of anthropogenic climate change. Biodiversity must first be evaluated to determine if and what conservation steps should be taken. Monitoring biodiversity across the various scale of life is an undertaking and traditional monitoring practices are not always sufficient. The use of environmental DNA and subsequent analysis may aid in this endeavor. Environmental …

Plant-Pollinator Interactions And Climate Change: Do Shifting Seasonal Cues Affect Pollinator Visitation In The Subtropics?, Shannon Collins

Theses & ETDs

Plants and their pollinators present a particularly concerning case for potential mismatch due to potentially differing phenological responses. To test whether seasonal warming might affect subtropical flowering phenology and whether such effects might impact pollinator visitation, I conducted an experiment in which representatives of four different flowering plant species were either passively warmed in open-top chambers or left unwarmed in interspersed control plots. Over a period of seven weeks, phenological observations were collected in the form of bud, bloom, and seed counts while pollinator visitation was monitored. I hypothesized 1) that all species would significantly advance in response to the …

The Effects Of Increased Wildfires Due To Climate Change On The Respiratory Health Of New Mexicans, Satyam D. Patel

Climate Change and Public Health Preparedness

No abstract provided.

On Mutualism, Models, And Masting: The Effects Of Seed-Dispersing Animals On The Plants They Disperse, Christopher M. Moore, Jacob W. Dittel

Biology

Species interactions are context dependent, in that their direction and magnitude can vary across ecological conditions. For seed dispersal interactions—especially interactions between plants and seed-caching animals—the direction of the interactions is often obscured because of seed mortality inherent in seed handling and the delayed effects of fitness benefits received by plants. It is, therefore, an open question in ecology to understand the ecological contexts

The First Global Deep-Sea Stable Isotope Assessment Reveals The Unique Trophic Ecology Of Vampire Squid Vampyroteuthis Infernalis (Cephalopoda), A. V. Golikov, F. R. Ceia, R. M. Sabirov, J. D. Ablett, Ian G. Gleadall, Gudmundur Gudmundsson, Henk-Jan T. Hoving, Heather L. Judkins

USF St. Petersburg Campus Faculty Publications

Vampyroteuthis infernalis Chun, 1903, is a widely distributed deepwater cephalopod with unique morphology and phylogenetic position. We assessed its habitat and trophic ecology on a global scale via stable isotope analyses of a unique collection of beaks from 104 specimens from the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Cephalopods typically are active predators occupying a high trophic level (TL) and exhibit an ontogenetic increase in δ15N and TL. Our results, presenting the first global comparison for a deep-sea invertebrate, demonstrate that V. infernalis has an ontogenetic decrease in δ15N and TL, coupled with niche broadening. Juveniles are mobile zooplanktivores, while larger …

Does Psychosocial Functioning Improve With Prolonged Exposure In Veterans With Ptsd? Exploring Traditional And Home-Based Telehealth Delivery Methods, Kristina Reich

MUSC Theses and Dissertations

Purpose: This dissertation compendium includes an integrative literature review, an evolutionary concept analysis, and findings from a secondary data analysis. The literature review explores the effects of evidence-based interventions on psychosocial functioning in veterans with combat-related Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The concept analysis examines psychosocial functioning comprehensively to develop a clear understanding of this concept and its relationship to veterans with combat-related PTSD. The secondary analysis study compares the impact of Prolonged Exposure (PE) on psychosocial functioning outcomes in two groups: PTSD diagnosed, treatment seeking combat veterans who receive PE in-person compared to those receiving PE via homebased telehealth. …

The Frequent Flyer’S Guide To Migration: How Songbird Metabolism And Oxidative Status Respond To Endurance Flight And Diet Quality, Kristen J. Demoranville

Open Access Dissertations

Migratory songbirds are among the best high-performance endurance athletes on the planet and during their annual peregrinations they are particularly vulnerable to oxidative damage because they maintain relatively high metabolic rates at rest, they are able to fly for long durations while operating at 9 times their resting metabolic rate, and they rely on fats to fuel this exercise which increases reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation. The concept of evolutionary economic design of physiological systems considers such phenotypic flexibility in metabolic and antioxidant responses adaptive in that it allows birds to match the capacity of key physiological systems to prevailing …

Living With Killing: The Lived Experiences Of Young Black Men In South Chicago, Ponda Barnes

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Homicide is a serious public health crisis in the United States, and it has long-term health, psychological, economic, and social implications to society, including disproportionately impacting one group. Among young African American males between the ages 15–24, homicide is the leading cause of death,. Much has been written about this phenomenon, but the voices of the young men directly involved are rarely heard. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to investigate youth violence and homicide through the lens of male African Americans aged 18-24 living in one low-income community in Chicago, with the objective of understanding why Black …

First Genome Sequence Of The Gunnison’S Prairie Dog (Cynomys Gunnisoni), A Keystone Species And Player In The Transmission Of Sylvatic Plague, Mirian T. N. Tsuchiya, Rebecca B. Dikow, Loren Cassin-Sackett

Integrative Biology Faculty and Staff Publications

Prairie dogs (genus Cynomys) are a charismatic symbol of the American West. Their large social aggregations and complex vocalizations have been the subject of scientific and popular interest for decades. A large body of literature has documented their role as keystone species of western North America’s grasslands: They generate habitat for other vertebrates, increase nutrient availability for plants, and act as a food source for mammalian, squamate, and avian predators. An additional keystone role lies in their extreme susceptibility to sylvatic plague (caused by Yersinia pestis), which results in periodic population extinctions, thereby generating spatiotemporal heterogeneity in both …

Bark-Foragers May Use Artificially Created Holes In Trees As A Foraging Cue, Ruby L. Hammond, Yazhmin A. Dozal, Tad C. Theimer

Arizona Birds

Little is known about cues used by insectivorous bark-foraging birds to locate prey. Because vision is thought to be the primary sensory system used by many avifauna to perceive the environment, we conducted an experiment to assess if insectivorous bark-foragers in northern Arizona forests used holes in trees as foraging cues. We set up 20 experimental stations, each consisting of a pair of equally sized ponderosa pines (Pinus ponderosa) that had no previous holes created by foraging woodpeckers or emergent boring-beetles. For each pair of trees, we drilled holes into one of the trees (treatment tree) and did not drill …

Mechanistic Studies To Understand The Role Of Human Gut Microbiota In Colonization Resistance And Gut Health, Sudeep Ghimire

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Human gut microbiota is comprised of thousands of species which fall into two major categories or “enterotypes” based on dominating bacteria: “Bacteroides” and “Prevotella”. Bacteroides enterotype dominates the microbiota of the western population because of a high protein and fat diet, whereas Prevotella enterotype is dominate in the gut of the eastern population because of a high carbohydrate diet. While most of the microbiota studies focused on the Bacteroides enterotype using both metagenomics and culturomics, Prevotella enterotype is understudied, especially in the field of culturomics. The structure of the Prevotella dominated gut microbiome is revealed by …

The Implementation Of Mock Code Simulations Guided By Teamstepps® 2.0 Curriculum To Improve Nurses’ Attitudes Towards Teamwork And Team Performance During Cardiac Arrest: Literature Review, Janelle Kriz

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Practice Innovation Projects

Introduction: In order to provide competent care to patients in cardiac arrest, it is essential the team of health care professionals delivering care is highly proficient. Effective communication and interdisciplinary teamwork are also critical aspects of delivering care to patients in cardiac arrest.
Methods: A T-TAQ questionnaire was completed by willing nurses prior to the intervention. Pre-simulation education guided by TeamSTEPPS® 2.0 Curriculum was given to nurses prior to the first simulation. Nurses participated in two simulations held six weeks apart. Nurses completed the same T-TAQ questionnaire following the second simulation. The questionnaire results were then compared using the Wilcoxon …

Meat Processing Workers And The Covid-19 Pandemic: The Subrogation Of People, Public Health, And Ethics To Profits And A Path Forward, Kelly K. Dineen

Saint Louis University Journal of Health Law & Policy

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted and exacerbated existing health injustices. People who are Latino/Latinx, Black, Indigenous or members of other minority groups have disproportionately paid with their very lives. The pandemic has also exposed the complex interdependence of worker health and well-being, community health, and economic security. Industries like meat processing facilities—with congregate and high-density workplaces staffed by workers who are already disadvantaged by structural discrimination—must reckon with decades of subrogation and exploitation of workers. During this pandemic, the industry has pushed that exploitation to a point of no return. Policies to protect workers need a reset to an orientation …

Selection Of Forage And Avoidance Of Predation Risk By Partially Migratory Mule Deer, Collin Jeffrey Peterson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Migration by ungulates has traditionally been thought of as a strategy that increases access to forage quality or reduces exposure to risk of predation, but the benefits of migration may be waning globally. In partially migratory populations, the persistence of both migrant and resident strategies is an intriguing ecological phenomenon, because migrants and residents often face contrasting fitness consequences. Partial migration is common in mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), a species that has experienced widespread declines across the western United States during recent decades. Mule deer seldom switch between migratory strategies throughout their lifetime, which may make them less resilient to …

A Global Database Of Soil Nematode Abundance And Functional Group Composition, Johan Van Den Hoogen, Stefan Geisen, Thomas W. Crowther, Peter Mullin, Many Co-Authors

Department of Plant Pathology: Faculty Publications

As the most abundant animals on earth, nematodes are a dominant component of the soil community. They play critical roles in regulating biogeochemical cycles and vegetation dynamics within and across landscapes and are an indicator of soil biological activity. Here, we present a comprehensive global dataset of soil nematode abundance and functional group composition. This dataset includes 6,825 georeferenced soil samples from all continents and biomes. For geospatial mapping purposes these samples are aggregated into 1,933 unique 1-km pixels, each of which is linked to 73 global environmental covariate data layers. Altogether, this dataset can help to gain insight into …

Is Context Dependency Imperative To Understanding The Impacts Of Invasive Plants?, Brendan B. Haile

Masters Theses

Introduced exotic species have a tendency to become invasive and impact local biological communities. Invasions often impact community attributes such as cover and species richness, but these factors may also regulate patterns of invasion. In such cases, impacts may be dependent on the invasion context. We used data from the Buell-Small Succession Study, a long-term permanent plot study in the piedmont region of New Jersey, to document context dependency in invasion. To do this, we analyzed the factors that affected the colonization and growth of four invasive species, Alliaria petiolata, Lonicera japonica, Microstegium vimineum and Rosa multiflora, as well …