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Articles 1 - 19 of 19
Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Ecology And Conservation Of Shrubland Bird Communities In The Eastern Ghats Of Indi, Anant Deshwal
Ecology And Conservation Of Shrubland Bird Communities In The Eastern Ghats Of Indi, Anant Deshwal
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
Anthropogenic disturbance, in its multiple facets represents a major threat to biodiversity and habitat quality. Consequently, extensive research is guided towards understanding anthropogenic disturbance and their effects on wildlife for development of wildlife management plans. However, for development of effective wildlife management plans it is imperative that we understand the habitat use and preference by local fauna along with effects of anthropogenic presence. In this dissertation, I studied the habitat usage and preferences of Shrubland birds in the Eastern Ghats of India during the pre-monsoon and post monsoon seasons. Eastern Ghats show a marked difference from pre-monsoon season to post-monsoon …
Effects Of Water Table Depth And Edaphic Characteristics On Plant Diversity In A Southern Mississippi Pitcher Plant Bog, Patrick Kirby
Effects Of Water Table Depth And Edaphic Characteristics On Plant Diversity In A Southern Mississippi Pitcher Plant Bog, Patrick Kirby
Master's Theses
This study examined the effects that water table depth and soil characteristics have on plant species richness and species composition within pitcher plant bogs across seasons. Eight piezometers were installed at random distances to monitor long-term water table depth and pressure fluctuations along a ~710-meter line transect traversing upland and bog habitats. Vegetation sampling quadrats (n=128) were set up near each piezometer. Cover data and water table depths were collected in spring and late summer. Soil samples collected from each treatment group were used to obtain soil texture and nutrient data. The summer collection period yielded a total gdiversity of …
Mammal Species Inventory Using Various Trapping Methods In Zone 4 Of Billy Barquedier National Park, Belize During Rainy Season, Mersady Redding
Mammal Species Inventory Using Various Trapping Methods In Zone 4 Of Billy Barquedier National Park, Belize During Rainy Season, Mersady Redding
Animal Science Undergraduate Honors Theses
Belize is a small country, but it is extremely ecologically diverse. Based on the few studies conducted in Belize, the abundance of mammals is low but diversity is high. Particular findings note the number and identity of species differed between four sites in the Maya Mountains of Belize, indicating that a data set from a single site is not representative of the Neotropical region. Insufficient data is available to estimate current species richness of many areas in Belize, including Billy Barquedier National Park (BBNP). The objective of this study was to explore trapping and documentation methods of terrestrial mammals in …
Patterns Of Morphological Plasticity In Metriaclima Zebra And Danio Rerio Suggest Differently Canalized Phenotypes Due To Form-Function Relationships, Dylan Jockel
Masters Theses
In order to ascertain the degree of compatibility in developmental restructuring and behavioral plasticity between two fish species frequently made subject of laboratory research (Metriaclima zebra & Danio rerio), alternative trophic niche exposure experiments utilizing novel three-prong feeding treatments were conducted to obtain morphometric data, which demonstrated both species do bear some degree of plasticity. The results are somewhat complicated by differences in locality of detectable restructuring, which may be due to disparity in the form-function relationship for each species’ lineage. Each is notable in the manner of respective species’ jaw protrusion, as it is driven by anterior …
The Distribution And Demography Of The Invasive Pacific Oyster, Crassostrea Gigas, And Native Olympia Oyster, Ostrea Lurida, In The San Diego River, Jason Langevin
Theses
Even though the introduction of the Pacific Oyster, Crassostrea gigas, to the west coast of North America, happened roughly a century ago, it has only been in the past 15 to 20 years that C. gigas has started to become an established and conspicuous species along Southern California’s coast. The establishment of C. gigas in Southern California has the potential to heavily influence many native species, as it has done globally. In Southern California, this invasion is particularly relevant for the native Olympia Oyster, Ostrea lurida. The Olympia oyster has both historical and present-day threats to its population, …
Enclosures And Dichotomies: Coexistence Vs. Distance In The Poems Of John Clare, Jordan P. Finn
Enclosures And Dichotomies: Coexistence Vs. Distance In The Poems Of John Clare, Jordan P. Finn
Theses and Dissertations
John Clare’s poetry emphasizes an affinity with environment by suspending the distinction between the inside (subject) and the outside (object). Clare’s identification with objects and perception rather than subjects and aesthetics renders his work as a prescient and radical example of ecological poetry in the Romantic period. Raymond Williams’ “green language” and Timothy Morton’s ambient poetics both cite Clare as an ideal figure for their above theories and evoke Clare as a writer who positions the environment as governing thought rather than thought governing the environment. This thesis especially relates Clare to Morton’s Ecology without Nature, a study of …
Examining Genetic And Ecological Differentiation Of An Endemic Plant Species Found Across The Hawaiian Archipelago, Psychotria Mariniana, Tiffany L. Kho
Examining Genetic And Ecological Differentiation Of An Endemic Plant Species Found Across The Hawaiian Archipelago, Psychotria Mariniana, Tiffany L. Kho
Master's Theses
Speciation is a fundamental evolutionary process that remains poorly understood. Speciation ultimately begins with population divergence, so we can elucidate the complexities of speciation by first understanding the process and drivers of population divergence. To conduct population-level analyses, ecologists and evolutionary biologists have turned to island systems, primarily for their geographic orientation and high endemism. The Hawaiian archipelago is home to over 8,700 endemic species making it a great natural laboratory to study species diversification at the population level. The Hawaiian Psychotria (kōpiko, or wild coffee) make up 11 of these species and have been used to understand colonization and …
Assessing Populations Of Eastern Brook Trout (Salvelinus Fontinalis) Above And Below Waterfalls In Mountain Streams Of Virginia, Hannah Eisemann Macmillan
Assessing Populations Of Eastern Brook Trout (Salvelinus Fontinalis) Above And Below Waterfalls In Mountain Streams Of Virginia, Hannah Eisemann Macmillan
Masters Theses, 2010-2019
Anthropogenically driven factors, such as increasing temperature and sediment in valley streams, acidification of mountain streams, and the introduction of non-native trout, are restricting habitat suitable for healthy populations of eastern brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) throughout their native Appalachian range. Brook trout are important as predators of insects in mountain streams and as a favorite of anglers. It is crucial that remaining populations in sustainable habitats be identified and preserved. Waterfalls are geologic knickpoints preventing base-level lowering that create unique, stable landscapes above them, which may alleviate the temperature-productivity/acidity “habitat squeeze” for populations of brook trout and could …
Insect Populations Across An Urban-To-Suburban Land Use Gradient., Jacob T. Lawson
Insect Populations Across An Urban-To-Suburban Land Use Gradient., Jacob T. Lawson
College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses
Insect populations, especially those of pollinators, have been steadily declining across the globe in recent decades, a trend that is intensified in cities. Since the conservation of pollinators is crucial for maintaining ecosystems and ecological processes, new approaches are being promoted beyond those of conserving large natural areas. Urban native plant gardens could potentially offset some of these losses locally. This research attempts to set a local baseline for the insect diversity in urban gardens in Louisville and determine whether differences exist in garden insects in cities versus suburbs in Jefferson County, Kentucky. To address the land-use question we established …
Management Recommendations For Ecological Restoration On The Little River Parcel, Maya Sady Partain, Garitt Mathews
Management Recommendations For Ecological Restoration On The Little River Parcel, Maya Sady Partain, Garitt Mathews
Environmental Science & Management Senior Capstones
Ecological restoration is an important aspect of land management. Data collection and ongoing monitoring help inform restoration decisions and determine their effectiveness. In this project, we followed a monitoring protocol provided by the Trinidad Coastal Land Trust to assess the 2019 status of their Little River parcel, a fifteen-acre area near the mouth of Little River in Trinidad, California. We performed a site analysis of invasive plant species and recorded their extent and location, as well as noting other observations of the ecology, topography, and biology of the site. After making our observations, we recommended land management methods woven together …
Ecology, Monogamy, And The Evolution Of Animal Families, Jacqueline Rae Dillard
Ecology, Monogamy, And The Evolution Of Animal Families, Jacqueline Rae Dillard
Theses and Dissertations--Biology
Family-living has been recognized as a necessary prerequisite for the evolution of advanced cooperative societies, yet the evolutionary and ecological processes that drive the coupling of different forms of cooperation in family-based societies are still poorly understood. In my dissertation, I investigate the correlated evolution of parental care, monogamy, and cooperative breeding in a variety of family-based taxa. I explore the mating and social behavior of family-living beetles with incipient cooperation to better understand the factors driving these social traits. Specifically, I evaluate different causes of extra-pair mating in socially monogamous beetles, the potential benefits that young adult offspring may …
Role Of Managed Marine Areas On The Diversity And Individual Responses Of Rocky Intertidal Shore Grazers In Central Chile, Kathy Liu
Scripps Senior Theses
Many different types of marine benthic herbivores or “grazers” inhabit coastal intertidal zones and play a crucial role in inter- and shallow subtidal ecosystems. Chile has one of the most diverse intertidal zones, but many intertidal grazers are exploited for human consumption. Marine protected areas (MPAs) and marine management and exploitation areas (MEAs) are promising tools for Chile to combat over exploitation of these grazer and other marine resources. This study surveyed the impact of sites with contrasting management on the diversity and abundance of all intertidal grazers and their impact on the size frequency and shell length-body weight allometry …
Bacterioplankton Biogeography Of The Mississippi River Basin, Jason Taylor Payne
Bacterioplankton Biogeography Of The Mississippi River Basin, Jason Taylor Payne
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Bacterioplankton are important structural and functional components of river networks yet their biogeographical patterns in these systems are largely unknown. Using Illumina sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene we characterized variation in bacterioplankton community alpha diversity (within-sample richness of operational taxonomic units OTUs) and beta diversity (between-sample differences in composition) (1) along a 1 300-km downstream reach of the Mississippi River (2) over a range of temporal scales in the Lower Mississippi River (LMR) and (3) along cross-sectional transects repeated monthly for six months across the LMR floodplain. Particle-associated assemblages were richer in bacterial OTUs and more productive than free-living …
Defense Trade-Offs In The Evolution Of The Fruits And Flowers Of Genus Cornus, Danielle R. De La Pascua
Defense Trade-Offs In The Evolution Of The Fruits And Flowers Of Genus Cornus, Danielle R. De La Pascua
Honors Undergraduate Theses
The optimal defense hypothesis predicts that the allocation of plant defenses across plant organs is proportional to the importance of a given organ to plant fitness. Despite this, much less work has been devoted to the study of reproductive defenses in plants relative to vegetative structures like leaves. This study examines the apparancy hypothesis and the resource availability hypothesis using a phylogenetic comparative approach within the genus Cornus . During the 2016 growing season, plants of 25 species of Cornus were tracked for flower and fruit phenology as well as sampled for floral and fruit tissue in a common garden …
City Limits: Heat Tolerance Is Influenced By Body Size And Hydration State In An Urban Ant Community, Dustin Jerald Johnson
City Limits: Heat Tolerance Is Influenced By Body Size And Hydration State In An Urban Ant Community, Dustin Jerald Johnson
University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations
Cities are rapidly expanding, and global warming is intensified in urban environments due to the urban heat island effect. Therefore, urban animals may be particularly susceptible to warming associated with ongoing climate change. Thus, I used a comparative and manipulative approach to test three related hypotheses about the determinants of heat tolerance or critical thermal maximum (CTmax) in urban ants—specifically, that (1) body size, (2) hydration status, and (3) preferred micro-environments influence CTmax. I further tested a fourth hypothesis that native species are particularly physiologically vulnerable in urban environments. I manipulated water access and determined CTmax for 11 species common …
Adult Atlantic Sturgeon Population Dynamics In The York River, Virginia, Jason E. Kahn
Adult Atlantic Sturgeon Population Dynamics In The York River, Virginia, Jason E. Kahn
Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports
Sturgeon first appear in the fossil record in the Triassic Period just over 200 million years ago and are among the most primitive of the bony fishes. Despite their large size and historic presence along the East Coast, Atlantic sturgeon were not targeted for their meat and caviar as a commercial fishery until 1880. By 1905 they had declined to less than one percent of their pre-fishing abundance but the fishery continued. Prior to 1980, there had been very little research on Atlantic sturgeon, primarily limited to documenting landing location and poundage, maximum longevity, or weight of eggs per fish. …
Competition Or Facilitation: Examination Of Interactions Between Endangered Sida Hermaphrodita And Invasive Phragmites Australis, Samantha N. Mulholland
Competition Or Facilitation: Examination Of Interactions Between Endangered Sida Hermaphrodita And Invasive Phragmites Australis, Samantha N. Mulholland
Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)
Virginia Mallow (Sida hermaphrodita) is a perennial herb of the Malvaceae family that is native to riparian habitats in northeastern North America. Throughout most of its geographical distribution however, it is considered threatened and only two populations are known from Canada. The biology and ecology of S. hermaphrodita are still poorly understood and although few studies have been performed to determine the factors that contribute to the species rarity, it is considered threatened potentially due to the loss of habitat caused by exotic European Common reed (Phragmites australis subsp. australis) invasion. Allelopathic and phytotoxic conditioning of …
Where Birds Chill: An Assessment Of The Habitat Preferences Of Birds Overwintering In Hudson Valley Forests, Elizabeth Claire Axley
Where Birds Chill: An Assessment Of The Habitat Preferences Of Birds Overwintering In Hudson Valley Forests, Elizabeth Claire Axley
Senior Projects Spring 2019
Many avian species overwinter in eastern North America; however, studies on bird populations are rarely undertaken during this critical survival time, and little is known as to their habitat preferences and foraging behavior. In this observational study, we performed a survey of birds overwintering in the Hudson Valley’s temperate, primarily-deciduous forests, assessing avian populations’ habitat preferences through the vegetative structural variables surrounding overwintering birds as they forage. Our results suggest that high canopy cover is critically important to predicting overwintering bird occupancy on a microhabitat scale. Moreover, overwintering birds preferentially occupy forest plots not dominated by sugar maples, in spite …
Plant Community Response To Novel Silvicultural Treatments In Great Lakes Northern Hardwoods, Stefan F. Hupperts
Plant Community Response To Novel Silvicultural Treatments In Great Lakes Northern Hardwoods, Stefan F. Hupperts
Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports
The objective of this dissertation is to assess plant community response across a range of silvicultural disturbances and test ecological hypotheses to better inform ecologists and forest managers. To provide context for the utility of revising silvicultural systems, I review natural disturbance regimes and historical practices that have shaped contemporary Great Lakes northern hardwood forests (Chapter 2). Further, I identify important ways to expand the silvicultural toolbox and better emulate natural disturbance regimes. Building on this theoretical underpinning, I investigate the initial regeneration and plant community response to two novel silvicultural experiments: the Northern Hardwood Experiment for Enhancing Diversity (NHSEED) …